Do Too Many Kids Go To College?

My original thoughts about this topic were undecided.  I could see positive and negative aspects in each side of the argument.  After listening to the whole argument and everyone’s opinions, my view is now against the argument.  I believe there are not too many people that go to college.  I believe there are a lot of people that attend college, but most employers want higher educated employees.  Since most employers do look at education history, I believe everyone should go to college.  Some students will find out that it is not for them; therefore, they can drop out and live a different life without further education.  The ones who want to succeed and make more out of their lives than the ones who didn’t attend college now have a better chance to get into the career programs they want to be accepted into.  Even though most college students come out of school with a high amount of money to pay back, they can now start looking for jobs in their field of study.  After finding a job, it will be easy to pay off the debt and most, if not all, will make way more money in their life than the people who did not further their education.  One valid point that one of the speakers made was that people who do not attend college have a greater chance of being employed because they did not further their education or get a degree in a certain field of study.  He also said that society benefits from the more educated students.  I believe this because most college students who were motivated enough to get a degree and find a job are not the people doing drugs and stupid things in their future.  They were taught well and will make something of their lives.  As an argument/proposal, the thing that was effective was stating facts and what can happen if you obtain a degree or if you just drop out.  I also believed bringing a speaker not from this country into the discussion was very interesting.  He showed his opinions on the matter and what he thought of our education.  One thing I felt that was ineffective included the part where the speakers were arguing and you couldn’t tell who was who when they were speaking.  This confused me and I didn’t know who was on which side of the debate.  Overall, I disagree with the argument and I believe too many kids do not attend college.  I think more need to because you never know where it will lead you to.  This was a great topic to debate about because everyone has their own opinion and some people really get into the argument.

The Pavilion's Positive Potential

Stanford University classmates Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, founders of HP, followed a demanding path to fame.

                In 1939, the two founded the HP Company.  Their first product was an audio oscillator.  Walt Disney Studios, one of the company’s first customers, bought eight of these oscillators.  The inventions soon turned into high performance machines which now include the HP Pavilion.  This laptop computer offers a loaded, easy-to-use machine that is perfect for college students.

                Since the oscillator stage of development, the rest of the computer industry has tried to keep up with this company.  The industry trend has been toward computers that are smaller, lighter, and faster.  The HP Pavilion g6 offers a 15.6 inch screen, an average-sized screen compared to most desktops and netbooks.  It allows most to see the picture or Word document easily, even from a distance.  Crisp, clear picture quality is a must, especially when the college student looks at pictures on Facebook or watches YouTube videos.  Grandparents enjoy seeing photographs of their grandkids via e-mail or watching videos of them as they grow up.  No one wants dull, life-less images on their computer.  The color remains vivid no matter how many pictures you load each day.  It includes a BrightView LED display with Intel HD graphics with up to 1696 MB of total graphics memory.  Along with the picture quality, the sound quality of the computer is exceptional.  The loud, non-muffled sound coming out of this small computer makes one want to play songs over and over again.  Some computers’ speakers make songs sound horrible because of the quality of speakers the manufacturer puts in the laptop.  Equipped with SRS premium sound speakers, this Pavilion does not disappoint any music lovers.  Whether it’s listening to a new song by Taylor Swift or playing a computer game such as Grand Theft Auto, these speakers will please just about any age category.

                The amount of memory and speed also play a key factor in how well a computer will sell.  The HP Pavilion has an Intel Pentium P6200 processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a five hundred GB SATA hard drive.  Storing 333,000 photos, 142,000 songs or 263 hours of HD video and more seems easy on this laptop.  The SuperMulti DVD Burner allows users to watch movies, and read and write CDs and DVDs in multiple formats.  The system memory is 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM and is expandable to 8GB.  This allows the consumer to easily load as many pictures or videos as possible without worrying about lagging videos or blurry photos.  A fast computer that loads pictures and videos lightning fast is what every computer owner wants.   No one wants a slow, lagging computer that would be in the trash a week from now.  Saving college papers to a flash drive is a great idea, though, just to make sure you save enough memory for other things in the future.  This computer comes equipped with certain programs and software which need some of the memory space.

                Included in this packaged deal from the Wal-Mart website is the sleek HP Pavilion g6 series laptop, power cord, lithium-ion battery, and a Quick Start Guide.  The computer comes already installed with the most basic necessities in a laptop.  The cheap software includes Microsoft Office Starter 2010—a must for most college students.  This program, however, has limited capabilities.  Although it’s possible to type papers and save them, the restricted functionality does not allow the user to use some of the key buttons and gimmicks the actual program has.  When opening a new Word document, the HP Company has annoying advertisements at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.  They ask if the user would like to purchase the newest version of Microsoft, which includes updated versions of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and a few other programs.  They want the user to click the “Buy Now” button so they won’t miss out on the reduced price, created just for the buyer of the computer.  Surely, the owner of the new HP won’t overlook the “bargain” price.  The Wal-Mart website also tries to get the buyer to spend more money by showing additional things the new computer owner absolutely has to have when purchasing their HP Pavilion.  The Microsoft Word Starter is good enough for a college student or business person on the run needing to type a few papers occasionally.  The included PowerPoint Viewer, however, only lets computer consumers look at a PowerPoint presentation instead of creating one with the software.  This is a downfall when students need to make one for class and have to go buy the Microsoft Office package or use a friend’s computer.  The HP Pavilion also comes with a sixty-day trial of the 2011 Norton Internet Security, which runs out faster than one might think.  This puts the customer in a situation where they are practically forced to buy another year of protection or their computer will not function correctly.  Putting just the starter versions of the software on the computers allows the HP companies to advertise and get more money out of the buyer.  Once the purchaser sees there is more to it than just the computer, they begin to buy more stuff to put on their laptop.  The money-hungry companies such as HP begin their search for more things they can get the user to buy.  They begin thinking like the customer.  Options such as colorful cases and extra batteries come into play when thinking about the customer.

                The included 6-cell lithium-ion battery could perform better.  Every time the computer user turns around, the battery needs to be charged or replaced with a fully charged one.  This gets old when college students need to continuously charge the battery because it has to be plugged in all the time.  Getting an extra back-up battery could solve this problem.  If you are willing to pay between sixty-eight dollars to over one hundred dollars, then purchasing one should be a must.  If not, you will only be able to move within the distance of the cord when the battery is dead or almost dead.  The new battery lasts about three hours before needing charged again.  The upside about the battery portion of the laptop is that the charging does not take as long as other computers or devices.  Other than extra battery packs, there are a lot more choices of accessories and features to pick from when purchasing a new HP Pavilion laptop.

 From new programs and software to sleek hues and colorful designs, there is a computer out there to please almost everyone.  A big decision maker of what type of laptop to get for most is what the computer looks like on the outside and when opened.  The color of the laptop is like sprinkles on top of a cupcake.  Some college students are drawn to the bright colored laptops and beg their parents to buy them.  This particular laptop comes in an array of bright and vibrant colors.  The consumer can pick from the original black and silver, or the amazing blue, red, or purple.  The perfect shade of each color is portrayed in these shiny, light-weight computers.  Another positive aspect about this is that the laptop is pretty cheap for the high quality of the computer.  Some computer companies make colorfully designed ones, but the quality is very poor.  A consumer can expect to pay around four hundred dollars for this piece of equipment.  This is an average-priced laptop compared to the netbooks and heavy duty computers that business users purchase.  This is just another reason to love and purchase an HP Pavilion g6 laptop.

Overall, this HP Pavilion laptop is a bargain.  The consumer gets a lot of bang for their buck.  Great sound and video quality, amount of memory, included software, and choice of color all for a low price is what consumers want and expect.  Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard did not know what they were getting themselves into when they invented those audio oscillators many years ago.  That invention led to the wonderful creation of the HP Pavilion laptop, a perfect compute for any age.

Graduation Day

This photo was taken on May 28, 2011 at my graduation party.  I graduated from Forest Park High School in Ferdinand, IN earlier in the day.  I graduated with an academic honors diploma and I am very proud of this.  The graduation ceremony was great and the hat throwing part was amazing.  It was short and sweet and we were all out of there within an hour and a half even though my class had thirteen valedectorians.  This was how the principal wanted it to be since most graduations are over two hours long. After throwing our hats and standing for pictures, we walked briskly out the doors.  We had all made it!  I was looking forward to my graduation party which would start in a few hours after the ceremony. Since I had gone to a friend's party first, some of the guests beat me to my own party. Once I arrived there though, people started showing up and it was time to eat.  This picture was taken before we ate when my cousin, grandma, and aunt arrived.  The other person with me in this picture is my younger cousin, Taylor.  She is a few months younger than me and we are very close.  We hang out a lot on the weekends.  Since she doesn't have any other siblings, she enjoys my company.  This day was one of the best days of my life because I had finally graduated high school along with the rest of my class.  This day brought my whole family together when my party began.  I got to see my whole family and all of my friends. Since I was the first child graduating from high school, this made the day even more special. I will never forget this day.

Red Mango Visit

My partner and I visited Red Mango on USI's campus.  In my opinion, Red Mango is closer to heaven on the continuum.  Most things about this place are positive and our visit showed me what could be changed and what is better than a lot of places.  The smell of the place is very inviting and the colors and pictures everywhere make it a place where friends can hang out.  Seeing all of the fresh fruit toppings and candy made it fun to be able to pick what I wanted.  I believe this place is in a good location and the bright red signs pointing to the building stand out against the green grass and concrete.  After stepping outside, we sat on the chairs under the umbrellas.  Sitting outside was better than inside because there was more happening and more things to be able to watch.  There were birds flying around, people walking to class, and acorns being dropped from the trees.  Although I wasn't quite sure of what to think about my frozen yogurt flavor, the Reece's pieces made up for that.  This place wasn't the "ghetto" because I know there are worse places out there that sell the same things.  It was closer to the "heaven" side because most things met my expectations and I wasn't let down much.  We were served rather quickly and it's nice to know just about everything is healthy for you.  Overall, I believe this place is a wonderful location to sit and relax and enjoy smoothies and frozen yogurt.

Literacy Memoir

              Throughout my life, I have read many textbook and novel assignments and wrote required essays for English classes.  Usually I see my writings as the same every time.  Once finished, they all seem to blend together.  It seems as if I am writing about the same old topics over and over again.  The assignments we just finished, however, made me think about what we are really writing.  Each exercise seemed to “pop out” in its own way.  While reading them, I noticed I used different words and phrases in each one.  This helped me realize that no matter what you are writing or reading, each person sees it from a unique perspective.

Almost every evening while lying in bed as a kid, my mom used to read “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” to me.  I would intently listen as I began to fall asleep.  Once asleep, she had to quietly close the book, kiss me goodnight, and leave the bed without waking me up.  It was these nights that I fell asleep thinking about Peter Rabbit and what happened at the end of the story.  I still wonder if I even lasted one night to hear how the book actually ended.

While in Kindergarten, the teacher made us put phonics books together that had small pictures you could color.  I always wanted to color them perfectly instead of reading the actual book.  When we started reading them, I saw how easy, and yet challenging they were to read.  I remember when the books were to be read aloud in class and the teacher had to help pronounce some of the bigger words for us.  This experience helped me realize everyone reads and writes in different ways.

Even though I do not know all the “rules” about reading and writing, I have come to figure out that it does not matter how much or little you have composed for each class.  It is the quality of the work that has been completed.  A writer improves their work by writing more papers that build on what they have learned from other mistakes in the past.  A “good” reader becomes a better reader by reading more books and by taking notes.  I believe the more you read, the better your reading and writing skills will be.

Looking back on these experiences and what I have come to find true, I realized the more experience you have with reading and writing papers, the better you will become.  Reading novels for fun increases your reading vocabulary and allows you to see how authors use certain writing techniques.  You can then build off these ideas in your own writing to become a better reader and writer.  Each reading and writing experience, gives one the opportunity to better themselves in every way possible.

A Roomful of Details

Thinking back to the bedroom I grew up in as a child, I notice many details that bring back stories and memories.  One detail that catches my attention the most is my stuffed teddy bear.  This pink teddy bear makes me think of the day I was born.  It was given to me by my parents when I came into the world.  I slept with it every night since receiving the bear; however, I do not sleep with it anymore.  It is now in a drawer in my closet.  This stuffed animal has light pink fur that reminds me of the color salmon.  It feels very soft and it has dark-colored eyes.  The bear also has a wind-up tool on its back that plays music when twisted.  When sleeping with this bear, I felt safe and protected lying right beside it.  This object will always leave a memory in my heart, even if I am not sleeping next to it anymore. 

Practice Makes Perfect

One belief I agree with most strongly is that practice is the key to a writer's development.  The more a writer composes, the more he or she will improve.  The more essays and papers I wrote senior year of high school, the better my grades became on them.  As I learned the "rules" of writing, I was able to combine what I learned to make the most of my last writing.  While writing this twelve page paper, I applied what I learned in class and from making mistakes on other papers, to the final and most important paper.  Turning papers in to be graded helped me tremendously because I was able to see what I needed to improve or do different.  The one belief I am convinced is not true is that people are born writers.  Either you can do it or you cannot is not an option.  This statement is false because anyone can write; Some just need more practice and encouragement than others.  Papers that are graded by a teacher and returned to the student show what needs to be worked on.  This helps students correct their mistakes and reminds them what not to do on the next writing.  As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.  Students need to keep writing not only to get their point across, but to also learn and discover new things in the writing world.