Journal #1 Due-8/30

Like many college freshman starting their first years, I have had many thoughts racing

through my developing mind. One very prevalent thoughts amongst kids my age, especially with

things like the Amazon forest fires now going viral, is the increasingly dangerous threat of

climate change. Climate change has been, and will continue to be a problem for a very long time.

With the newly elected president, who doesn’t believe in climate change, making cuts on

restrictions of carbon emissions release put on by the Obama administration, it is a nearly

impossible mission to completely prevent carbon emissions.

Personally, I believe it is unfair to ask citizens to be perfect environmentalists at home,

but it isn’t outlandish at all to ask the government to apply regulations to cut down on carbon

emissions . In Cary, North Carolina, the wealthy suburb I grew up in, there seemed to be quite a

large amount of recycling being done by restaurants and citizens. Getting a job at the Panera

Bread five minutes away from me opened my eyes to how I had been alluded before. I found out

the biggest plaza in my town only recycles cardboard. We threw all plastic in the trash. This was

just one relatively small store in a small town in North Carolina. I could see how damaging the

fast food industry is to the cause of climate change.

Although it is easy for me to cut down on my carbon footprint, I cannot control every

single person. The government could not only cut down on carbon emissions, but they could also

create jobs. I know it is completely in our repituare to reduce carbon emissions, it is just not

reasonable to believe the citizens to act on their own.

9/13/2019
 The current political atmosphere in America is becoming more and more depressing for

me. It seems worthless sometimes to keep up with politics nowadays, because it just seems to be

democrats bashing republicans and vice versa. How can we progress if its always left vs right?

The worst thing about how divided this country is right now, is the fact that most people in the

world are more moderate than anything.

Another thing I am disliking about politics, which isn’t anything new, is how much of an

influence money plays. If we did not prioritize money the way we did, I could not imagine the

world we would live in. There would be no developing countries, because all the developed

countries would have already gotten actual aid from developed countries. Climate change? Well

let’s think about it this way: what is the only reason we haven’t seriously made drastic changes

to protect this earth? “It is too expensive” to invest in. The list goes on and on, and most of them

seem pretty self-explanatory

I, however, will not lose hope that one of these politicians I am voting for actually plan to

do the things they say. I will continue to try enlightening others who are unfortunately so

ignorant of their countries issues. I will try to do everything I can to not lose hope.

9/20/2019
 Although my past two journals have been political, that stuff can get pretty gloomy. I’ve

decided to lighten it up with some Buffalo Bills talk. If you aren’t aware of who/what the Buffalo

Bills are, they are a professional football team that represents a city in western New York. I am

crazy about the Bills, and I have no shame in it. I’m not gonna lie, the Bills are not a historically

reputable team. We are one of 12 (out of 32) to never win a Super Bowl, but we never came

short of trying. We set a record for making it to the Super Bowl four times in a row quite a while

ago, but they lost all four. We also set a record for the longest playoff drought of 17 years. It has

been far from a smooth ride, but the Bills finally have a bright future.

2017 gave the Buffalo Bills Brandon Beane (new General Manager) and Sean

McDermmot (new head coach). This began a total overhaul of personnel and players, which

scared a lot of Buffalo Bills fans. It turned out great, with the Bills ending their playoff drought

in year 1 of the McBeane era. They consistently bring in players with a “trust the process”

mindset. We drafted Josh Allen, a sensational quarterback, in 2018 and now it is all coming

together. Josh Allen seemed to tweak his problems and we finally gave him an Offensive Line

and options to throw to. We have started the new season 2-0 , and I can’t remember the last time

we had this much momentum going into week 3.

Many people don’t respect the Bills, because of the treatment by national media. You

might hear about the Bills in mainstream sports media every once in awhile, but they still don’t

get the respect they deserve. We have no prime time games, except thanksgiving. We will prove

the league wrong this year and I can guarantee it.

Gravy, “A Table for All?”

 I was already a huge fan of podcasts, and this podcast as not an exemption to that

fandom. It probably took me about two minutes to be hooked to this episode, though it may have

been due to some personal bias towards Boone. I didn’t even know “pay for what you can”

restaraunts existed, but I absolutley adore the idea. It makes complete sense, and one could

imagine how much of an impact this restaraunt style could have if they were more popular. The

only rebuttal I could see would be skepticism of the system being taken advantage of, but

according to the cafe in the podcast, it seems to be a sstainable business model. The vast majority

of customers there pay full price. Another great aspect about the cafe featured in the podcast is

how much better it is in comparison to soup kitchens. People who do not have money don’t have

to feel any different than anyone else. They have a choice as to what they eat, and they get

treated like a normal customer. I also really enjoyed the authenticity of the podcast, as it

captured moments with people from the community here in Boone. There is a lot of significance

in getting candid moments with people who truly represent the culture of the locals.

Unfortunately, mainstream media rarely includes stories like this due to its “lack of glamour”.

We learn a lot more from actually getting inside stories with real people rather than “specialists”

who are usually paid to say whatever it is that they say. It is unfortunate that podcasts like Gravy

are not more popular, because they have less money than mainstream media outlets.

10/4/19

I have decided to get back to a political journal, because how could I not address what is

going on in the White House right now. We are in the midst of one of, if not the most corrupt

administration in modern American history. President Trump, who just got out of the Russian

election scandal, got himself into another election-meddling controversy. It has now been
revealed to us that Trump withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine, in order to

pressure the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, the supposed leading 2020

presidential democratic candidate, and his son Hunter Biden. One crazy thing about all of this is

how quickly the story unraveled, as there seemed to be something crazy happening every day

after the news first broke. My favorite thing about all this has to be watching people’s attempts at

defending the president. He is literally confessing on live television, but it does not seem to

phase some defenders of Trump. There is now an impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, but

ultimately he does not seem to be in jeopardy of removal from office. I just hope this somehow

does not end up being an advantage for Trump in the 2020 election, because we all know he will

try to make the whole thing seem like a Democratic fail and a success for him. It is truly

unprecedented what is going on in the oval office right now. This will be in history books for

years, but it is so disappointing to see how many people do not even know what is going on right

now. At best, the majority of kids my age know the bare minimum of what is happening right

now if not nothing at all. Maybe we can just hope people will eventually take notice, and

continue to inform people ignorant to the subject.

Journal due 10/10/19

Fall break is finally upon us and I could not be more ecstatic about being home. I love

Boone 100 times more than Cary, my hometown, but my nostalgia is real right now. I have a lot

of my friends, two of which go to college thousands of miles away from here, coming back for

their fall breaks. I used to feel like there was nothing to do in Cary, but now I feel like I do not

have enough time this weekend. One thing I cannot wait for is sleeping in my bed back home.
Even if my friends were not in town this weekend, I think I would be content with being in my

bed 90% of the long weekend.

There is something weird that happens when you have been away from certain people or

things for a prologned amount of time. You seem to be only remember the good things about that

person or thing. For example, there are some people I was falling off with back home, but I am

excited to see them. Another example would be the town of Cary itself. I remember being so

ready to leave Cary, just because there isn’t very much to do that doesn’t require you to spend a

lot of money. Now that I am getting Cary in small doses, I feel like it will be amazing. I will

definitley miss Boone and it’s never ending opportunity for adventure, but Cary is gonna be a

great opportunity for reuniting with family and friends.

Journal due 10/18/19

My fantasy football team is finally beginning to come together. I started off as the hottest

team in the league, as I won my first 4 games of the year. This was mainly credited to good free

agent additions, and Austin Ekler. Ekler was on an unbelievable run in the beginning of the year,

but Melvin Gordon’s return silenced him. Along with the minimization of Ekler’s fantasy role,

Saquon Barkley, my best running back, was injured. I knew my 4 wins were based off of short

term success, and I had to make a move. I traded for AJ Green, who has not played a single game

due to injury. When healthy, Green is a top 5 receiver every week. This would leave me with two

top five running backs in Nick Chubb and Saquon Barkley, along with two top five/seven wide

receivers with Keenan Allen and AJ Green. These tandems at running back and wide receiver

paired with a plethora of flex options and a top three tight end proves to be a formula for success.

Courtland Sutton is most likely going to be my start at flex for now, but people need to stop
sleeping on Bill’s running back Devin Singletary. With Nick Chubb on a bye and AJ Green still

not 100 percent healthy, Devin Singletary is taking my flex position this weekend. I have Saquon

Barkley returning from injury and Carlos Hyde, who is coming off his best career game, at

running back. Keenan Allen and Courtland Sutton, who already had an acceptable 11 points in

last nights game. I have Devin Singletary, who is playing the league's worst team, at flex and

Mark Andrews as my tight end. Finally, I have Matt Prater as my kicker and the chargers

defense- my weakest position this week. Oh and you can’t forget about the menace I have at

quarter back: Captain Buffalo Bill’s Josh Allen. It should be a good week for the Long Beach

Lizards (my team).