"I Put In Work, Did More Than Called Upon..."

Its been a day of prepping a lot of good work, just to be told its worth and useless.


I stayed up til 3am last night working on a powerpoint for Honors Marine Biology for a presentation on the chapter we're supposed to read...only to get to class and have the professor go a completely different direction with something that wasn't on the syllabus

...with out telling anyone.
...less than a week off chiding the entire class for not being prepared to 'lecture' on the assigned content.

Then I find out just now, that the Harvard Model United Nations qualifying position paper I've been working on since July, wasn't even read because too few people submitted overall and the evaluations we're cancelled.

That's a double whammy, because I'm the marketing chair, and I was delegated the campaign for HNMUN.  Ugh.  Whatever.  Birthday's on Friday, second installment of year 25.
Work's below as samples feel free to read/peruse.

Click for HNMUN Position Paper

Click for Marine Bio In-class Presentation

A Note To My 16 Year Old Self

At 9:10am the 2nd horrific part of the most defining moment of your generation has just occurred 6 minutes ago. You know no one directly, but you'll cry. Your world will see big changes, past generations will have no advice for, and future generations will never know an America without. 

Your family will fly flags and in a year or two when you side with a couple of outspoken country singers, some of them will condemn you. You'll move on, just like everyone, 9/11 will become a cultural reference point and vernacular. At least 10 years on, you'll be ok, working towards amazing things like planning to make that city home because being there felt like home. 

All in all, you will feel a loss with out reason, like so many. However, you will also feel insurmountable hope for not just your own country, but after taking time to learn about their adversities, for those on the other side of the extremism. The ordinary Afghans, Iraqis, Saudis, and so many others simply wishing for peace and realize, they too are fighting and recovering after all these years

There will be uncertainty, yes, but so far you will have the luxury of never feeling directly threatened, and will be secure in the knowledge that thousands of men and women, some familiar faces, some family, are stepping up to protect and serve daily, the country that for all it's political squabbling has managed to be a persistent sentry in the matter of foreign attacks and uphill battle guardians for those wishing for peace.

 

  The sub-title of this blog was, for a while, "following logic instead of rules."  It's a standard that generally holds firm and usually is in line with how things are done in work settings, academic settings, socials interactions and the like.  I don't subscribe to the notion that what's good for the goose is good for the gander, neither do I adhere to any sort of one size fits all bureaucratic notions.  I feel while many processes can be streamlined and automated, other, more serious endeavors, such as issues with schools must be handled case by case. Just saying...