Graduation

Graduation season is upon us. I graduate in two week in two days. The rich kids over at Bishop Verot graduated last Saturday (congrats to them, especially Justin & Britt.) This leads me to ask (and answer) the often asked question; how important is a high school graduation?

The answer really depends on your personal background. If you're the first person to graduate from high school in your family I'm sure you've overcome a lot of adversity, had to turn the other way when faced with drugs and violence and you should feel proud about this accomplishment, as anyone should. But in reality graduating from high school is one of the easiest things you will do in your life. If you head into the "real world" thinking that you're set after you graduate high school you are just delusional. Best case scenario, you get a job waiting tables at TGI Fridays. Worst case (and more likely) scenario, you can't get a job anywhere and you live off unemployment checks and food stamps in your apartment. In most cases (especially these days in this economy) you are going to have trouble finding a job even with a bachelors degree from a university. The best thing that you can do is stay in school as long as you can earn as many scholarships as you can and make it impossible for a future employer to turn you down. But even then your education is only half the battle. One thing that (i think) could help you as much or even more then a degree is the people you know. Networking has become a major part of everyones life, especially with the rise of the social networking sites (facebook, myspace etc.) If you can build relationships with people in high places that is another edge that you will have over other people going for the same job as you. If I'm faced between choosing my buddy, someone that I know and trust or some guy that I have never met with the same qualifications I'm going to obviously choose the guy I know.

But in the end it feels nice to have a celebration every couple years in your life because there are many kids that don't live to see 18. And there are also kids that completely f**k up in high school and have to bus tables there whole life. So just enjoy these couple weeks, enjoy the graduation ceremony, have fun with your friends and then move on. Thats what I'm going to do.

-Joey

http://twitter.com/joeyearle

Time for a talk

"Are you talking to her?"

We've all heard this phrase at some point in our lives. We've heard it, let it run through our brains, and  we kept on with our day without questioning anything. But what does it really mean?

In case you don't this phrase will come up when someone is talking about boy/girl that they might possibly go out with in the future but aren't quite at that level yet. The phase of the relationship when they are "feeling each other out."

So why do like to refer to this in such a vague way?

We do it because we are afraid of failing in anything that has to do with the opposite sex. There will always be that cop out when you fail and you say, "we weren't TALKING we were just talking." What other reason is there for a saying that has two very distinct meanings but no way at all to differentiate one meaning from the other?

So, if this isn't the write word to describe this situation what is the right way? I say that we quit beating around the bush and just tell people, "I'm trying to get with (insert name) and we are in the phase before that happens and I'm just trying not to screw it up." There are so many things that are not said when dealing with the opposite sex but are intended (I know there's a better word to use hear) and no one knows for sure what any one means. I think eventually the dating scenes will just be a bunch of people looking at each other really confused while saying very ambiguous things like, "we're just talking."

In conclusion my idea of people being up front with each other and just telling the girl/boy they like that they actually like them and are interested in a relationship will never happen, so the least I can do is come up with a new term for talking..... A "pre-lationship." 

Nice talking to ya.

-Joey

Running Diary 4/22 CANCELED

So, I was gonna write a running diary of a day in the life of me. I know. Exciting. But somehow at sometime throughout the day everything I had written disappeared. So I guess I'll try another one on Friday when I go to the regional track meet.

I got a busy weekend coming up.
-Track Meet
-Prom
-After Prom ;)


http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090422
^^^^^If you want something good to read^^^^^

Running Diary 4/22/09

So here is that running diary that disappeared then reappeared. It's from a random school day a month ago. Enjoy. 

7:35 AM
I'm currently driving on the beautiful Sanibel causeway on my way to school. Once again I put off any homework that I had. I have a serious senoritis problem.

8:45 AM
Sitting in math class, just finished TWO worksheets! I have two distractions in this class.

9:20 AM
Leo Hellman, Chad Vanderbosch and I are working on a commercial that was due in English class two days ago. However, through a series of fortunate events we are able to present it today. In the video Leo (a very short, unathletic kid) takes a drink of our sports drink All In and he turns into me (someone tall and athletic.) The best part of this video... dunking on Warren Krupp.

10:33 AM
I just talked to Jon Pratico, he's a good guy. I'm sitting in lunch at the desk Bill Blakemore sits at because I don't like anyone in this lunch. We got an 86 on our video, that probly brought my grade up 5468 points. Big Desa just touched me... it was kinds weird.

11:13 AM
Kim Verblau (sp?) just talked to me and Leo about having affairs. Not somthing I was expecting to do today.

12:09 PM
Talked to patrick about doing a running blog, he thought it was actually about running

1:41 PM
Track practice is about to start. I actually got a decent amount of work done today. I've had "Best I Ever Had" by Drake stuck in my head all day. Every day the last song I hear before school will be in my head all day.

Thats was fun. I'm going to do another one within a couple weeks.

First Blog

A couple things...

I am a huge basketball fan. I play or watch basketball as often as possible. Wheather this is good or bad is it's own question. I like to think it's good because it's something I really enjoy. Could I be doing more productive things with my time? Possibly. I'm sure if I didn't play as much basketball I would have higher grades, more money from being able to work extra shifts, I definantly would get more sleep at night.

That's another important thing about me... I can't remember the last time I got more then 6 hours of sleep on a school night. I would really like to see how much better I could function if I had a normal sleeping pattern. I'm sure this is a problem that plagues most highschool and definantly college students. I'm not even doing anything that important to be staying up this late in the first place. Most of the time I'm just messing around on facebook, watching sportscenter for the third time or just playing some stupid game on my iPhone. One good thing that comes out of this is the fantastic naps in the late afternoon.

I live on tiny Sanibel island off the west coast of Florida. I've had the second best high school athletic career of any sanibellian (my term for people from Sanibel.) First is John Tolisano who was drafted in the second round of the MLB draft and is currently in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system. He was a prodigy that was in a leauge of his own on the field since he was about 11 years old. As for the normal kids my athletic resume is at the top of the list. I feel like this is an underrated achievment because most of the time once a Sanibel kid makes it to high school they get into partying and drugs and forget about things that they were involved in when they were younger. That's one thing I like about sports; the innocence. When it comes right down to it a six year old playing his first year of rec leauge basketball and Paul Pierce are essentially doing the same thing.

...well I'm rambling

In conclusion...
-I like basketball
-I don't sleep
-I'm not the typical Sanibel kid

Peace