"Ohio, Florida tops among 8 critical swing states" by Joe Hallett

Good morning Ohioans, Floridans, and other states and countries within the world.  This morning, I read an article in The Columbus Dispatch, "Ohio, Florida tops amongs 8 critical swing states."  As an Ohioan, I was definitely interested in reading what the paper had to say, especially after watching the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.  The article in the dispatch outlined the swing states as: Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Virginia, and New Hampshire.  The paper also reported, "Some analyses also include North Carolina as a swing state, which Obama won by 14,000 votes to become the first Democrat to carry that state since 1976, but which polls now show leaning to Romney."  There is a race toward the presidency to win 270 Electoral College votes and neither candidate is backing down from the challenge.  The toss up states will definitely make history in helping either candidate win the race.

~Make your voice count!

All in Together Girls: Release Date

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Go Hard or Go Home!

 Picture found at RevGalBlogPals

 

Have you ever heard of the statement, “Go hard or go home?” The statement refers to giving something your all or going back to the starting point; home.  Home is where everything starts.  It is the foundation of success or the continuance of failure.  It is the place where people are well protected against harm, chaos, and sometimes growth. When I think of home, I think of a place where you can be open and honest, where mom or dad tends to the needs of their children, and where you still have a place to stay if you need the extra support. While that sounds like a great option if you need it, we all know that sometimes going home can be more of a hindrance than anything else. Home can protect you too much where your decisions are made by others or your regular duties or chores of done by others. This fact makes it harder to leave home again in pursuit for more than has already been established. Please know that this does not happen in all house settings; however there is a great possibility that your growth may become stagnant by returning home. Returning home temporarily is always ok.  It is the permanent visits that could be a make or break our dreams.

 

So, what options do we really have?  We have two options in life, as the title of this work suggests: Go hard or go home.  We can return to the place where it all started or we can continue to learn, continue to grow, and go for the goal.  Who really wants to go home?  I know I don’t.  I don’t want to return to a place that I spent so long trying to leave. Now, I don’t regret where I came from because I am actually glad that I grew up in the household that I did; I was taught to be respectful to others, do things for myself, be family oriented, and research information on my own.  Home laid the ground work for my beliefs, how I treat people, and how I respond to situations. Once the ground work was laid, I was at a standstill; I had learned everything that I needed to learn at home, now I was ready to be released out into the world and continue my journey toward life and growth. Home made me who I am today, but the world is helping to develop what I will be tomorrow.

 

I want to end by saying that many people are given the same opportunities in life: We are born, make life decisions, and live life based on our decisions.  The decisions we make as children have the ability in affecting the rest of our lives.  Start making your decisions count today by choosing to go hard.

Arts Impact Middle School Remembers 9/11

Picture found at Columbus.K12.OH.US

On September 11, 2012, I performed my poem, “This is Temporary” in front of the students at Arts Impact Middle School. The school’s music teacher had planned the event to remember the tragedy of September 11^th and to honor current and previous members of the military. With much enthusiam, the students openly applauded the speakers, performers, and all those taking part in the event.  It was amazing! I felt positive energy flowing through the audience as I looked at the young potential singers, dancers, poets, public speakers, and even lawyers. I looked in the audience and saw myself in them because I once sat where they sat, thought what they thought, and did what they did.  They were a reflection of my past; a reflection of what use to be.

Thank you Arts Impact Middle School (A.I.M.S) for making my day and being so ready to receive me!  You made my day.

"So Fly" by Elle Varner

 

“I can’t help bein’ depressed 
When I look down at my chest

Oh yes my chest it might as well be non-existent 

How can I ever compete

With 34 DDs

And I’m rolling my eyes

When I look down at my thighs

They might as well take everything that I eat

To my legs”

 

Elle Varner sings this catch tune about being insecure with her body type.  She even goes as far as saying that if she was minus the “cellulite with big breast and pockets full of money, she would be so fly.”  After those comments and looking at a few of Elle Varner’s pictures, you can’t help but wonder where all of this is coming from.  Well as teenagers and young adults, many of us have imagined the same thoughts, spoke the same words, and believed the same fallacies.  If only we could pick and choose our body type, hand select our facial features, and look in the mirror and see a beautiful young woman or man standing before us.

 

Elle continues the song by saying:

 

“Now listen

I got a beautiful soul

But only four people know

They’ve known me since I was ten

Beauty did not matter then

Now in my 20s

All that matters

Is sex, cars, and money

I ain’t got none of the three

So basically I’m invisible to all of the fellas”

 

I viewed the second portion of the song as Elle still being concerned with what others thought beauty should be and living by the defined standards of society.  The defined standards of society does not always lead to a continued path down the same road, sometimes people follow that road in order to define their own standards.  Elle shows exactly this in the next portion of the song, which states:

 

“So basically all I need

Is to be everything but me

Colored contacts

Liposuction

And some Implants

Somehow that don’t make much sense

I must be out of my head

If I think

That I am governed by material things”

 

In the last portion of the song, Elle defines her own definition of fly and states “don’t go believin’ the hype.  There’s no runway in the sky.  And no way you can be fly.  Not if it costs you a dime.”  I absolutely love this song.  I liked the way it transitioned to from I'm not fly to I'm going to create my own definition of fly. 

 

~Have you had your dose of "So Fly" today?

 

 

  

 
 
 
 

Funny Things People Say While on Vacation

So recently, my mother and I visited Montgomery, Alabama.  In traveling to Alabama and while there visiting, there were few funny comments made.  Below, you will find four comments made during the trip, which I found funny or cute:   

Mother to TSA Agent about security check: This is like a strip search.
TSA Agent's response:  You still have your clothes on don't you?

Little boy in airport to his mother: Why do I always have to go in the girls' restroom?

Cousin's response to friend fixing dinner upon her visit: I then struck gold

Cousin's comment to her father:  Dad, they have an accent.  I want one.

The first and the last comments were the ones that really had me going.  When people make these type of comments, you have to ask yourself, where do they come up with this stuff from?