Making Writing Exciting!

Professor Jill Walker of the University of Bergen describes blogging as an excellent tool for using writing to reflect and learn. After creating my own blog and writing a few blog posts, I have found that I couldn’t agree more. The efforts that are required to create just one post are more involved than one might anticipate. Even choosing a topic and a stance is a reflective task in and of itself. Additionally, finding a way to present the subject matter in an appealing way to other bloggers requires the special attention and thoughtfulness of the writer.

I’ll admit that I was perplexed when my English Professor, Carolyn Channell, announced that our English class would be doing a fair amount of online blogging throughout the semester. For the past decade I had been taught to construct essays in the repetitive five paragraph format, and after perfecting my abilities to affectively write in this structure I found myself being told to forget it all! Although I loathed this standard essay format, I mastered it because I was taught that it would be essential for my success in college level writing courses. This didn’t happen to be the case, thus, my initial perplexity can be better understood.

While blogging has created an environment for quiet learning and reflection, it has also taught me to embrace my writing. I no longer feel bored or restrained by obsolete formatting requirements. In fact, I eagerly await each homework prompt that indicates it is time to add additional posts to our blogs. When it comes to writing you’ll want to make it exciting. So create a blog! The possibilities are limitless.

Mandatory Vaccinations? No way.

About two weeks ago I received an email from my thirty-eight year old sister. The subject-line read: “How’s this for an update?!” I was immediately drawn in. Although we email each other at least a couple times each month, it’s rare for either of us to give our emails a subject. – But her first sentence explained it all.

I'm pretty sure my house has burned down. I narrowly escaped and just ran through smoke and flames overtaking the mountain. When I left, the fire was probably one hundred feet wide, with strong winds blowing in the direction of my house. It spread that one hundred feet in the minutes from when I noticed the fire until I had thrown my belongings together, which literally took about 2 or 3 minutes. If you don't hear from me for a while, it’s because I forgot to snatch my computer cord. I'm now writing from an Internet cafe, still shaken, drenched in sweat, and smelling like a chimney. But at least I’m safe now!

I found myself staring wide-eyed at my computer screen at the conclusion of this email. First I was scared, but then I grew angry. None of this should have happened. My sister Kim decided to move to Ecuador around the same time that I departed for college. It was the middle of August 2009 and with the recent outbreak of the swine flu and mandatory swine flu vaccinations, she had finally decided that enough was enough. As a successful nutritionist who specializes in the holistic wonders of Colon cleansing and fasting, Kim simply grew disgusted by the ways of the United States’ medical establishments.

While more evidence grew for the flu shots doing harm and having inconclusive results, medical establishments secured the shot’s usage by making them mandatory. Kim kept reiterating that most viruses mutate quickly on their own, so getting antiviral shots will only lead to widespread resistance and create a loss of whatever benefit they are presumed to give. But of course when something is deemed mandatory, individuals are left without a choice. This scheme was making medical establishments billions of dollars in revenue. As a result of these measures, my sister simply refused to allow the U.S.’s medical facilities to take advantage of her. Her solution? Leaving the country.

While I understand that Kim takes health issues very seriously, it frustrated me to see a country practically forcing people to give in or get out. I told her it was a dangerous and extreme decision to depart to Ecuador, but she would counter that she was in fact escaping from what was really dangerous and extreme. After hearing about her house almost burning down, I was left to wonder what other freaky scenarios she was experiencing in a foreign country. Like I said, none of this should have ever happened.

It is my wish that someday health care decisions can be made on an individual basis by each citizen of the United States. Until then, I will continue to look down upon the uncanny ways of the United States’ field of medicine.