Interview Questions

1. Do you think you lived a good and meaningful life?
2. Is there one particular moment that made your life seem more meaningful?
3. Is there any moment you experienced that made you feel your life was meaningless?
4. Do you CURRENTLY feel you are living a good and meaningful life?
5. What do you percieve a good and meaningful life to be and what would others think of your life?

Barack Obama's Inauguration

Obviously, yesterday was Barack Obama's inauguration. I was very happy about that because it was a very historic moment for America to have the first African-American president and it was great to live through a historic time. Mostly, I here about world-changing experiences my parents and much older people went through and it is cool to experience something like this. I will definetly be telling my kids and grandkids about this. I also was very happy about this because Obama is such a smart guy and he is an amazing public speaker and I think he could put America back on the right track after the big mess that Bush made. I was also happy that Bush isn't president anymore because he was very uneducated. Obama does have a lot to clean up from Bush's mess such as the economic crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For the first time in a very long time I actually felt proud to be an American and to be able to have the common feelings with many other Americans, also. While watching his inauguration on TV and seeing about 2 million people in Washington D.C. and seeing how many people all over the world were celebrating, it really shows how important it is to everybody even people who live in different countries. I think that Bush made so many people all around the world (Americans included), Anti-American and most people hated us but now that Obama is president, that will change drastically and we will have more allies and more help in times of need. For example, my friend who now lives in London and my family in Serbia were also watching this monumental day. Everyone cares about this. I noticed that practically every TV channel was playing the inauguration and that also proves how special it is-if god forbid it was a Republican president, it would get hardly any coverage mostly because people are sick of them.

Easter

Easter is all about pure innocent things such as bunnies and baby chicks and flowers. This is because it is two days after Jesus' crucifixaction, so the people must esentially honor him and be good. Most Christians go to church on this day and the children do things such as scavenger hunts. Kids also get a lot of candy such as Peeps and chocolate covered eggs. The customary colors for Easter are light pastel colors. Another thing the corporate culture tells us about Easter is that little kids are supposed to dye the eggs into coloring. That is one of Easter's traditions. Like most holidays, the corporate culture tells us that Easter is the time to be with your family and eat a big, hearty meal. Also, stores sell a lot of plastic eggs, Easter-themed chocolates in the shape of eggs, bunnies, and baby chicks, little baskets with the little ribbons in them, and egg-dyeing kits. I think the reason why eggs are so huge in this holiday is because eggs represent something new and after Jesus died, the people were celebrating a "new", resurrected Jesus. But I feel that if you don't celebrate this holiday, other people might not be as shocked and ask "Why?" Whereas, if you don't celebrate Mother's day or Christmas, for example, people would be surprised. My family and I don't really celebrate Easter but when my sister and I were little, we would celebrate it so that we would fit in with all the little kids. But as we grew older, we unerstood that this is a more religious holiday, so we dont celebrate it.

Christmas

Christmas was fine this year except for the fact that I was sick. I went to Westchester to see my dad's friend and his family. Again, we talked about school and SATS, which shows that school means a good and meaningful life. We also talked about people but we hardly brought up corporate culture, which is something that hardly ever happens and as we were talking about that, I was observing this fact. Also, we got presents which is also defeating Jesus' meaning of Christmas, which is to not get presents but to give presents to people worse off than you. My family and I talked about it but we still didn't "follow" the rule; we are not religious people. My dad did say that by us giving presents, we are doing that to make our loved ones happy and to celebrate spending time with our family. More religious people believe giving presents is to honor Jesus and all of the good things that he did. A majority of people give presents for the reason my family does. I also believe that this is what corporate culture told us to believe and that some folk cultures tell us to give presents instead of recieving presents. The resents during Christmas time was definitely shown to us by the corporate culture because presents are materials and we live in a very materialistic society.

Walmart Incident

I think that what happened at Walmart on Black Friday to that temporary security guard, Jdimytai Damour, is horrible. I think it is even worse that shoppers saw someone on the floor and did not even stop to help him and continued trampling him and other people. Even when the EMS workers came, people still kept rushing into the store and started trampling the EMS workers also. This fact shows so much about this society's priorities and their opinions for other people's lives. It shows that even when theres a person dead on the floor, people won't care about them and will only focus on getting to their "goal" (in this case, getting items on sale). It really shows how selfish and materialistic people are in this world. And then to push the EMS workers when they are trying to help the man is even lower. According to witnesses, when people started hearing that Damour was killed and they had to leave, people started complaining and saying "I've been in line since Friday morning." This really shows people's true colors and how much they really care about other people, even if they don't know them. Then there is the other story about the 28-year-old, 8 months pregnant woman who went to shop at Walmart and got injured and miscarried her baby. I feel terrible for her but she made a stupid decision and did not use common sense. She was 8 months preganant and she knew there'd be a huge crowd and she should't have been shopping.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

This Thanksgiving, I went to my dad's friends house and He has two daughters and there two cousins who come over. When we sit down to eat, the adults are in one room and the teenagers and kids are in the other. We were not talking about what the meaning of Thanksgiving is but we were talking about the differences between our schools because they live in Westchester and the schools there are very different from schools in the city. We also talked about drama that goes on in our lives and what we do in our free time. Even though we were not talking about celebrities or things such as brands, we still were subconsciously talking about things that corporate culture influences us to believe such as school. Corporate culture said that it is very important to go to school and get an education and that was one of the things we were talking about and that everyone at the table had in common. Corporate culture also said that it is important to have various extracurriculars and have fun with your life. But one thing I noticed was that we kept going on Facebook which shows how corporate culture stresses how important it is to have friends and keep in contact with friends.
I did not go shopping on Black Friday. I never do and that is because I hate crowds and I become mean in crowds and I do not want that to happen. I also do not want to get trampled in a crowd. I do go shopping the day after Black Friday, though, amd I had to go this year anyway to buy a friend a gift. I heard from certain friends who went shopping on Black Friday that the stores were crazy and some of them said that it got so bad that they just left the store. I understand why people do Black Friday-to get very good sales for christmas presents or just items for themselves and everyone loves sales; but some people just go overboard and get so caught up into it and that is unnecessary in my opinion. I also think that stores need to try and figure out some way to be more organized for this day. It will be very hard to do but they should at least try. Personally, I am very into shopping but I would never go this overboard and fight with other people for an item unless it was something really huge. I would rather get something for a little more money on regular shopping days than go into packed stores and risk injury. I believe that people need to really calm down over this because after the end of the day, they are still only items.

Elections

I am very happy that Obama was elected president. I think America needs a change from having a Republican in office for 8 years and they did no good to the country. They made it worse such as starting the war and messing up the economy, putting us in a very bad recession. In addition, the Republicans made practically the whole world hate us and i believe that with Obama, that will change. It will take time, though, but it will happen. It didn't surprise me that Obama won. Everyone, even Republicans, were saying how they thought Obama will win and the polls were also showing Obama ahead. Also, I followed this election a lot and just by reading what people were saying about the Republicans, Obama was doing way better and he had a better VP pick.
The whole night, from 6-12, I stayed glued to the TV watching results. I panicked at the beginning when McCain was winning but then when things picked up and Obama was in the lead, I felt better and then when Obama won Ohio, I knew the Republicans were done. I was extremely happy when they announced Obama won. This was a historical moment and I actually got to experience it. We really needed this and I still can't believe that he will be our new president. President Barack Obama sounds strange to say but it's great. OBAMA!!!!!!