Have you ever had to make a difficult decision in life, not knowing if it would be beneficial?  This has happened to me many times, but the most memorable was when I had the choice to learn piano.  This was a monumental turning point for me because it was the first time that I had the choice to be open minded about something new in my life.  Ever since then, I have tried my best to keep an open mind to new experiences no matter what. So what exactly does it mean to be open minded?

Being open minded means that you are willing to consider new ideas or other people’s ideas and suggestions. Being open minded can range from playing the piano to wanting to hear what other people have to say. Being open minded is an important character trait to have throughout your life. Being open minded is important because it can lead you to be curious about new things.

“Who knows, maybe you will like playing piano,” my mom said.

 “I doubt that, but I will try it anyways,” I responded, rolling my eyes. I opened my car door, not very enthusiastically, but in my head, I kept telling myself, who knows, maybe you truly will like it and you're wrong.

I opened the door to my first piano lesson and a door to a whole new world. A cold rush of air flooded my body, making the hair on my neck prick up. I walked on unsteady feet to my new teacher and piano. Sitting down on the piano bench, I felt a sense of relief and comfort suddenly come over me.

My piano teacher started the lesson right away, explaining all the different parts and keys of the piano. At first, it was very confusing. It felt like a twelve-foot wave had just come crashing down on me, but my teacher took her time to make sure I understood everything. After a couple of minutes, I started to get the hang of it. The notes calmed the strong waves into peaceful oceans, seeming to make everything so much better. Before I knew it, I had learned three songs. I fell in love with the piano because the song sounded like it was telling a story, and every time I played another note, another part was added.

“Time to go,” my mom said. I could not believe it; no, I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to keep playing and learning forever. Maybe my mom was right; maybe I do like playing the piano. My teacher was very shocked about how good I was at playing the piano for never playing before and how well I understood everything, which brought me back to reality. I practiced hard and improved, kept going to lessons, and practiced, even more, every night up to this very day.

Today I am playing songs like Fur Elise and songs at my church that I enjoy playing. This all happened just because I kept an open mind to a new experience.  Maybe you should try to be more open minded, or maybe if you already are, try harder, because having an open mind can lead to opportunities or talents you never knew or thought you could ever have.  Who knows, maybe you will find something you love to do if you keep an open mind to it.

 

 

 

 

-Josh G.

 

 

You are an actor writing a script, 25 dollars in your pocket and $100 in your bank account. That's it. Three days prior to eviction. But you still have many more problems. You need to open the throttle and work like crazy. Finally the grand reveal; you smash it, and now your name is still talked about in Hollywood 45 years later.

What is it called when you come back when all odds are against you? When you want to just give up, but you have got to search within you, and just pull it all out of you. To get that motivation to not give up and not be a quitter and just fall flat on your face. You have to persevere. To get up after taking a blow. Put forth effort when you are fatigued. You must persevere!

Plenty of prosperous people use perseverance. For instance, Sylvester Stallone was so poor that he was evicted from his apartment and lived on the streets with his dog. He wrote a script named Rocky. Everyone loved it. He was even offered to sell the script for $265,000, but instead he took a much more hazardous and expensive route where he was only guaranteed to make $10,000. It was a much lower amount than originally intended because the person who offered to buy the script wanted to star a popular actor; Stallone wanted to play Rocky himself, so he did not sell the script and starred as Rocky Balboa himself.  During production he had to sell his beloved dog Butkus in order to pay for food, but it all played out after countless hours of backbreaking labor, like working out two times a day six days a week, or when he recorded 63 hours of film in only 28 days.

Rocky was a hit, and Stallone grossed over 2.5million dollars. After that he bought his beloved pet Butkus back, and he even made an appearance in Rocky II. Stallone has been in 92 movies since and has 3 more coming in 2023. And now Stallone is worth over 400 million dollars.

Many lucrative people use perseverance to power through tough times. Perseverance is something that not just successful people need, but everyday normal people need too. Next time you are mad, sad, angry, annoyed, or find yourself in a rough spot, you should think outside of the box and go at it again.

 

 

 

 

-Jake A.

 

 

 

“Do it with passion or not at all.” - Anonymous

 

If someone told you that you could never participate in your favorite activities ever again for the rest of your life, or someone took everything you loved away from you, you would be devastated, right? I know I would be. It would be like life went from bright and vivid to dull and muted in a snap. Why? Because they took away everything you were extremely passionate about. Without passion, the world would turn drab and dreary for everyone, and no one would care enough to stop it. Passion is what keeps us alive.

The dictionary definition of passion is, “a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything.” To me, it simply means to care deeply. Passion makes you want to achieve something, and it’s what makes you care. Passion is the driving force for anything with cognitive thought.
          Passionate people make a difference. Activists supporting LGBTQ+, ALM, and other causes they believe in all do it because they are so passionate about it. There are doctors, nurses, teachers, firefighters, and police officers, all doing their best because they are passionate about helping people. Celebrities didn’t get to the top just by sitting on their couch, wishing they could be famous. No, they went out and made it happen. Black people can be treated like actual human beings because of passion. Women can be treated as well as men because of passion. The world is a better place because people were passionate enough to make it.

One person I think shows a lot of passion is my amazing Taekwondo instructor, Master Mihee. She shows passion because she chose this job. She loves Taekwondo and wants us to be the best we can be. She deals with maddening children who won't listen to directions and make her want to rip out her hair because she loves Taekwondo. She co-organizes events, drills us tirelessly, and makes things fun because she loves Taekwondo. She stayed at the dojang with me until 9:00 PM on multiple occasions because I had to rush to finish my black belt physical requirements. She is passionate enough to create and direct performances (we call them demos) where we break boards and stuff and contact places for us to do them. She cares about us, and she cares about Taekwondo.

One thing she is passionate about is how we can do and look our best in demos. For my friend, TJ, who’s really limber and can jump high, she would tell him to practice his backflip and experiment with different jumps and flips so he can look amazing in our demos. For my friend, Mia, she tells her to practice her cartwheels so she can do an aerial and wow the crowd. For my friend, Nandi, and I, Master Mihee is very passionate about our kicks, specifically how high they can go. She stretches us so hard that our legs feel like jello afterwards. But it helps, and even though my legs are shivering and my muscles are screaming, I kick the highest I’ve ever kicked after those stretching sessions. She will continue to make all of us on the demo team feel jello-legged and exhausted until we are the absolute best ever!

Passion is what makes the world go round. From activists, to farmers, to the teachers teaching us how to write essays, all of us are passionate about something. What are you passionate about?

 

 

 

-Jackie E.

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever succeeded? Maybe in a tough competition? What did you use to succeed? Well, there can be many traits that lead to success, but one is perseverance. This is how I use perseverance and how you can use it to succeed for yourself.         

Perseverance has helped me in many different challenges. For example, one unforgettable moment when I used perseverance was during a BMX race. I went up against a girl, and she was nice but also fast. We were about the same speed and strength, which means it was going to be an intense battle to qualify for the main on the first race. It’s helpful to qualify since you can skip the second race and rest before the main. While I was at the starting gate, it was a beautiful and clear summer night, but there was no time to think about that.

I was at the gate. The gate was gray with these little grippy strips. It was ready for the race to go down. Then I heard the voice of the gate start, “Okay riders, random start, riders ready watch the gate.” Then there was a series of beeps; down went the gate. It was on. We were going around the track, and we were on the last straight away. It was then when I used my perseverance. She was right in front of me, but I thrusted through all the tiredness and pedaled as fast as a golden eagle. Thankfully, I flew right by her at the last second. I made it to the main on the first round, so I didn’t have to do the second qualifier. That is how I used perseverance in my own life.

I use perseverance because it can make me overcome challenges, and it makes me power through until the end, even if it is very difficult, or easy. Perseverance works to be able to succeed and can make you succeed more.

Perseverance is a trait that can help you go through tough challenges while still making you succeed. Perseverance can be used in hard or easy challenges but will never let you down. I feel like perseverance is a big deal in my life and is very important to have to be able to succeed. I feel as though perseverance is one of my most admirable traits. Perseverance is a character trait that you can use in your life to succeed.

 

 

 

 

-Isla B.

 

You sit in your room, one hand scrunched up in a fist filled with misery, the other one rubbing your forehead. All your ideas, your planning, your thoughts lay crumpled next to you. Previously, they were torn apart in a very vicious manner as you had simply given up. All hope is lost after your very own mom shuts down what you thought was a brilliant idea. What could it even take to be successful? What you’re missing is optimism. Optimism is a mindset that allows you to see and expect the good in things and is the key to success. Thomas Edison used optimism to help him be successful with his lightbulb.

Optimism focuses on positivity. Many people associate happiness with optimism, and although optimistic people do tend to be very happy, there is a misconception that optimistic people see life as always joyous, flawless and perfect and are ignorant of their problems. That’s called toxic positivity, not optimism. Optimistic people hold a conviction that they can make things better, not that it is or will be better. Optimistic people are still aware of reality. It’s known to help you become more successful and content and is generally a healthy way to perceive the world.

Thomas Edison was one of these optimistic people. His optimism helped him reach success, and today he is known by many as an inventor of the incandescent lightbulb, created through multiple failed attempts and difficult challenges. At his first attempts, the lightbulbs had an extremely short life and required a lot of energy. So, he decided to use a cardboard filament. With this, the lightbulb flickered out much too fast. Edison was not discouraged by this and believed he could make the lightbulb work by testing with grasses of different kinds for filament. He used many different kinds of grasses and in the end found that bamboo worked best. Later, carbonized bamboo was found, and it was able to last for an extremely long time, much over one thousand hours, so it was very beneficial. Edison and his team had at last completed their original incandescent lightbulb.

But there was much more behind getting the light to fully function to receive success for his invention. Edison made many achievements from his success at his first fully functioning light but also faced his own challenges in getting it approved. Edison worked hard on improving it and eventually got granted a patent. He started his own company called the Edison Electric Light Company. He presented a public demonstration on his lightbulb, and he got his first commercial application. Not long after that, the U.S. patent office deemed Edison’s patent as invalid, due to it being based on William E. Sawyer’s work. Edison remained hopeful, and over the course of almost six years litigation carried on, until one judge, at last, deemed Edison’s patent valid. Soon after Edison and Joseph Swan formed a combined company to avoid any more issues with patents since Swan’s patent was, after all, given a year before Edison’s. Edison’s lightbulb became more and more popular and widely used. Edison’s lightbulb was a success. Edison had trust in himself that he would reach such a success one day, and his hopes had come true with the very magic of optimism.

Optimism is a way of thinking that focuses on believing in the future and seeing the light in situations. Thomas Edison became successful with his lightbulb using optimism. Throughout the challenges, Edison showed that he was optimistic by believing in himself and staying hopeful. This helped him persevere, and without that mindset, he may just have decided to give up after his patent was invalidated by the U.S. patent office or when his second attempt at the lightbulb failed. But he continued to believe he could make things better, improving and keeping a positive attitude throughout the process. Optimism is a key part in success. It helps you stay motivated, prepared, determined, passionate, and most of all, overcome challenges. You may just be able to be successful from your ideas from cultivating an optimistic mindset. Believe that when faced with something ugly, it can be made beautiful.

 

 

 

 

-Ella S.

 

 

Do you ever feel hopeless? Like you can’t overcome a problem? Feeling like you should just give up? Well, a great way to overcome those challenges and obstacles is to think of positive things. I like to think of positive traits, especially the character trait perseverance. I love to think of perseverance because of how my friend Patty used it.

The character trait perseverance is the determination to do something in spite of it being tough or difficult. That is exactly how my friend, Patty, used and still uses that trait.

Last year for Patty was rough. A lot happened to her, including two of her family members passing away and her dog dying. Because of all of that and more, Patty was never in school. She missed over half of the school year last year, leading to her awful grades and her failing.  As things started to get worse, she took out her emotions in negative ways, resulting in self-harm, self-hate, and suicidal thoughts. She became depressed.

Seeing this happen, Patty’s family decided to put her in a mental hospital; she was there for three weeks. The mental hospital allowed her to use chromebooks, and while she was in the mental hospital she managed to do all her missing work with her chromebook. She also took the time to really focus on her mental health. She got lots of sleep, made sure she ate enough everyday, and she went to therapy twice a day. She also met with her medical doctor weekly and got put on medication. She eventually stopped having those negative thoughts that she had before. She was passing all of her classes now, and when she came back she was so much happier.

Patty is now living a great life because she persevered through her family members passing away, her dog dying, failing school, and, at first, coping in negative ways to help her through her challenges. That is why perseverance is a great trait that anyone can use to help them through something with which they struggle.

 

 

 

 

-Eliana M.

 

 

 

Evading and maneuvering through obstacles, your feet pound rhythmically on the ground as you dash forward. Bolting hurriedly down the endless corridors lined with lockers, you spot a clock on the wall changing from 1:29 to 1:30. You begin to lose hope, and your mind starts to slip, becoming distraught by terrible thoughts that spiral and flit through your head: thoughts of detentions and attendance, thoughts of your parents punishing you for being tardy to a class. You hear a mighty, magnificent, metallic thunk as all of a sudden your head begins to throb. A gleaming and brilliantly painted surface fills your vision, seeming to laugh at you assertively. The delicate case of writing supplies you had been clutching to your side escapes your trembling grasp, slips to the ground, and opens, the contents from within spilling out onto the hard surface. You drop to your knees, rapidly shoving all the scattered utensils into the case from whence they came.

Another student runs by, examines the scene you have created, and shifts their attention back to the classroom door to their left. Rushing and fumbling, they attempt to open the door and succeed with the door creaking painfully and them rushing inside. Your worry increases, knowing that undoubtedly you will be marked tardy, and growing angry that you were ignored. But your troubles don’t last long, for yet another late student comes by, spots you, and comes to help you out. That person had the selflessness to give up their own time and help you, knowing well that they would likely go unthanked, possibly even to a certain extent penalized due to this selfless act of kindness. Yet, they still did it, and, at least to themselves and you, they chose the correct option. Selflessness has helped many people to be successful, myself being one of them. So, what is selflessness?

Selflessness is a character trait that encompasses the idea of making a sacrifice of something like time or energy to help others. This could be anything from helping someone clean something up to giving someone who is struggling with studying or homework some help. Selflessness is a very important character trait, too, for a multitude of reasons. One of these reasons is that selflessness has very close ties with kindness and is a form of kindness, so the world would be much more unkind and thus a worse place without selflessness.

How can selflessness be used for success and personal benefit? Selflessness can be used for success and personal benefit in many different ways. One way it can be used for success and personal benefit is by helping others, because, if you help others, others are more likely to help you. For example, one day, you help someone with his math homework. And then the next day, you are struggling with your social studies homework, and the person you helped the previous day with math homework helps you today with your social studies homework. It lightens the load for both sides.

Another way that selflessness can be used for success and personal benefit is if you are kind to everyone and make sacrifices for others, you will be less ridiculed and shamed for just being you because people will know that you are a good person. An example of this could be, say, you go to work. On your way inside, you see a young volunteer trying to lift a heavy crate inside. You see the time, and you’ve arrived late. Traffic was rough, and you’re still tired. Yet, you still take the time to help them lift the crate and place it in its respective area. The next day, you see a mailman struggling to make it up the stairs with his heavy bag of papers. You help him, of course, but this time someone sees you. Now, every day for the next week something along these lines occurs. Eventually, you become known as a great person; a hero. Once, you were a nobody who was shamed and ridiculed for holding such a disrespected position, and now you are loved. This great status was achieved by selflessness granting you it's a blessing.

For another example, myself. Selflessness is important for me to have because there are lots of situations in school where people make mistakes, especially when you take into consideration that kids are immature and make mistakes often and can be very clumsy - more clumsy than adults, usually. And mistakes can lead to slips and falls, and slips and falls lead to dropping held items. Thus, I have the opportunity to give my time and effort to help others when I am in school.

One specific way I have used and still use selflessness today to succeed in life is when I am alongside an acquaintance. One bright, vibrant Autumn afternoon, my friend, Josh, and I were thoughtfully working on an assignment in science class. This assignment showcased the effect video games have on the brain. Hands throbbing, arms stiffening, we had nearly reached the end of the assignment. I was farther behind in my work than Josh (we had started at different times), yet I still stopped when he asked for help. He wanted help starting a short answer paragraph, and though I hadn’t arrived at that part of the work yet, fatigued and tired as I was, I read the instructions aloud to help him out. I came up with a basic start for a sentence and talked it over with him for a spell.

Finally, once Josh understood, we both went back to work and finished that part. Next, we had to fill in a graph - a graph that I knew nothing about. But Josh did know how to work with a graph, so I inquired to him for help. He accepted and discussed the work with me, helping me to fill in answers along the way until I finally understood. We both gave our time to help each other, and we are still friends to this day. This is only one of the many ways I have used selflessness, but it is a good example.

Selflessness is an important characteristic to have. Selflessness will let you live life to the fullest. If we use selflessness in our daily lives, then we will live even better lives, and other people will have better lives too. Maybe the next time that you see someone struggling, try to help them out; you never know who might help you in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

-Caleb S.

 

 

 

Kidnapped as a child, taken from his homeland, and raised by them to go to war for them, the enemy. The Ottoman Empire… Gjergj Kastrioti or Skanderbeg, an Albanian hero, is a person all Albanians admire for his strength and bravery.

Bravery means one thing; you know what you stand for and you won’t back down, even if the odds are against you, even if it means death. Stand for what you believe in because you never know if you’ll win the war.

Skanderbeg was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman court. He grew up in the Ottoman’s empire with their education and religion. He soon started to take part in serving the Ottoman’s Sultan for the next 20 years. Over the course of time, he quickly rose through the ranks and gained the loyalty and trust of the Ottoman. He became the governor of the Sanjak of Dibra.

Skanderbeg was soon called to fight in a war and lead some of the Ottoman’s troops, but during this war in 1443, he left the Ottoman along with other Albanian men and his troops. After he went back to Albania, with the help of the church, he converted to Christianity and told all the people who followed him to do the same. With the help of local nobles, the council, and the church, he became the leader of Albania. The people loved him and still do today.

When the Ottoman Sultan heard of this he was extremely outraged. The Ottoman Sultan called Skanderbeg a traitor and sent troops to go to war with him. Skanderbeg had only 10,000 men while the Ottoman had much larger forces and had better-supplied men. But Skanderbeg knew how the Sultan’s men fought; after all, he was one of them. He knew their weaknesses, and he used that to his advantage, as well as the mountainous geography and isolated space(s); these were perfect for defeating the Ottoman army.

To the surprise of the Ottomans, Skanderbeg won! After this, they knew that Skanderbeg's military expertise presented a major obstacle to the Ottoman’s extension. And for the next 25 years, he and his 10,000 men marched through the Ottoman territory, winning battles against larger and better-supplied forces consistently. But before Skanderbeg abandoned the Ottoman, Albania already had a rebellion for years against the Ottoman. They wanted to have more freedom, such as the right to religious freedom, and the right to keep their land without being forced to pay taxes to the Ottoman Sultan, but the Ottoman expansion was combating this. After Skanderbeg won the battle of Albulena, the morale of the Albanians strengthened, and it was marked as a high point of the Albanian resistance. From then on all of Skanderbeg's victories became more and more enjoyable each time.

Skanderbeg had a huge impact on the Albanian people's lives. The quality of life had skyrocketed. People were living in peace; they knew they were finally safe. They were still wary of trusting their government because of the suppression and massacres the Ottomans committed. But they had a little more money in their pockets and a little more cattle than before.

Skanderbeg nearly did the impossible; he believed in himself, and he won all of those battles. His bravery did not let him down, and he helped millions of people in his lifetime. We may not help millions of people like Skanderbeg did, but each little time we are brave could make a huge difference in someone’s life.

 

 

 

 

-Alba H.

 

 

 

 

You lay there in the operating room, tense. As your sister mumbles words of comfort to you, your eyes start to swell up like sponges. You cherish what might be your last moments on earth with your sister just before you go into surgery. Finally she gets up and says her goodbyes to you and wishes you good luck. You say your thank yous and goodbyes as she’s escorted from the room. Soon after that, the nurses hook you up with anesthesia, and as they’re talking to you the world starts spinning around you, but you feel a sense of confidence both in your medical team and how your surgery will turn out.

But what is confidence? And how can you use it to be successful in life?  The meaning of confidence is to have full trust in something or somebody’s abilities. It can accomplish a lot more than you would probably think at a first glance.

In addition, confidence can be used to become more successful in life. My father exemplifies this pretty well after his recent heart surgery in July. During this surgery he had his chest opened and multiple arteries replaced, one of the riskiest surgeries somebody could have.

But even with all of the risks that the surgery offered, my father still managed to power through it. So how did he manage to do so? My dad, before he even went into surgery, was confident. He was confident because everybody, including his surgeon himself, told my father that he was in great hands, and that the chances of something going wrong were slim to none.

Furthermore, my father’s surgeon told my father that if he were to enter surgery stressed, it would actually decrease his chances of the surgery going as planned, which became a coping method of some sorts for my dad, relieving his anxiety and helping him maintain a sense of tranquility.  Due to all of these factors boosting my father’s confidence, he was able to have a successful surgery.

In conclusion, confidence is a great character trait that can help you succeed in life, as my father has displayed all throughout his open heart surgery, and the recovery after it so far. At the end of the day, even when you may be at your lowest, having confidence in yourself might just be the thing that could possibly save your life.

 

 

 

 

-Aiden P.

 

 

Have you ever had to get through a bad situation? If so, then you probably had to use perseverance to help you. Perseverance is the skill that lets you see anything and everything as a problem that you can overcome. Everyone has some degree of perseverance, but when I think of perseverance and people with perseverance, I imagine one person, in particular, the man who is trying to have us travel space as we would travel around the world. Yes, that is Elon Musk.

Perseverance is arguably the most important skill a person can have. If you don’t even have a small sliver of perseverance you would stop as soon as you find the smallest problem. For example, if your pencil broke or the tip fell out you would have no idea what to do next even though it is as simple as getting up and using a sharpener.

So look at Elon. If he didn't have or use perseverance we wouldn’t have many companies like SpaceX, Tesla or, even PayPal, along with some smaller companies like the boring company, Neuro Vergil, Deep mind, Open AI, or Zip2. Elon was born into a very wealthy family, and he showed a high interest in technology for the first ten years of his young life. By the age of 12, he was writing code and publishing his first video games. This might be because of the fact that his father was an engineer.

In his early days, Elon lived in Pretoria, South Africa. He spent most of his school years in South Africa, but when he turned 17 he moved to Canada where his mother is from. He studied at the University of Canada during his college days. While he was in college he pursued a double major in physics and in business. Although he was excelling in both, he definitely preferred physics. He studied at the University of Pretoria, and at age 17 he moved to Canada after he had acquired his Canadian citizenship through his Canadian mother and studied at Queen's University for the rest of his undergrad years. He also studied for his bachelor's degree in science of physics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Elon’s first big struggle was when he created PayPal; he worked tirelessly on it. Even with all of that work PayPal was voted as the worst tech idea of the year by Forbes. This sent him many setbacks, like when he applied for a job at the popular Tech company Netscape; not only did his application go unanswered, but he was completely ignored during his in-person visit to the company. This setback might have changed his life if he got accepted. He might have been working a desk job for the rest of his life and not become the entrepreneur he is today. Although this wouldn't have stopped him from becoming successful, it just might have given him a feeling of accomplishment enough to the point that he  might have not made some of his most successful tech companies.

In the early 2000s, Elon sold PayPal to eBay after it took off. In 2002, he founded SpaceX. He is now its CEO and chief. But SpaceX has to get its funding from somewhere since it is a private exploration company.

And this is where Tesla comes in, easily Musk´s biggest and most profitable company. In 2022, Tesla was valued at over one trillion dollars. But a lesser-known fact about Tesla is that it wasn’t actually Elon that founded it. It was actually Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning; Musk actually only bought it in February of 2004. But before Tesla became profitable, it was falling hard, and that was the initial reason for the original owners to sell it.

Musk found a way to make Tesla profitable. It took lots of hard work, even resorting to putting in several shifts averaging about 15-16 hours a day. Sometimes they even had to sleep on the hard factory floor for days at a time. But in the end, it was all worth it because now it is a multi-trillion dollar company. This is arguably one of his most successful companies ever and to come.

No matter how you look at it, perseverance is a great skill to have; the more you have the more you can achieve. It can shape your life to be like the person you aspire to be; no matter where you are in life or how old you are, you can use perseverance. In bad times or good times there is always a place where you can persevere, and with perseverance, you can achieve great things.

 

 

 

 

-Aditshiva Y.

 

 

Preserve Wildlife With Preserved Parks

By Cassie W.

 

National parks are parts of land or bodies of water that are protected and preserved by the government. They are places where plants and animals can live freely without humans always trashing their homes or causing disruption. These places are vastly crucial in many ways, the salvation of some endangered animal species and ecosystems being just two.

Cecil was a black-maned lion and a leader of a pride. Black-maned lions are very rare. One day, Cecil was in a protected park where hunters could not hurt him.  An American trophy hunter lured him with an elephant carcass out of a park’s protected area and then shot him with an arrow. Cecil then suffered for hours before his murderers trailed him down to blow the gunshot that ended his life.

That sorrowful story about Cecil is dismally a very common event all over the globe and is an example of what is called trophy hunting. Trophy hunters are hunters who kill animals, not for food, but to display parts of the animals for pride and bragging rights. This is one event out of many that other organizations like the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife allow if they get their hands on land before it can become a protected or national park. Additionally, these organizations also allow harmful activities such as logging, livestock grazing, oil and gas drilling, and growing crops with GMOs* and pesticides. The events listed can all also be attributed to the increasing rate of animal species extinction. These organizations are grabbing more of our land before the government can protect them, therefore making them an environment pointed in the wrong direction for the sake of our animals living nearby.

On average, American trophy hunters import around 126,000+ animal parts, or wildlife trophies, per year; that is equal to 345 imports a day! Although trophy hunting is not the only reason for animal species extinction, it sure does make a huge impact. According to the Sierra Club, more national parks could decrease the animal species extinction rate to half of what it is now. If you are wondering how more protected parks could slash that animal extinction rate in half, well, the answer is quite simple; more national, or protected parks, makes less places where events that some organizations allow can exist, therefore a more secure place for animals that is out of harm’s way.

          Besides the fact that these parks can save the lives of thousands of animals, they can also do their part to withdraw the ongoing extremity of climate change from Earth. “In addition, more protected forests, grasslands, and waters would fight climate change by sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide. They would also safeguard the full range of native plant and wildlife diversity,” says Michael Kellet, the executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods, a wildlife conservation group. National parks can do three things at once to fight climate change: store carbon, keep ecosystems intact, and provide healthy spaces for humans and animals. There are other ways to try to prevent the everlasting issue of climate change and others involving the environment’s well-being or human health and elation, but most cannot achieve all three listed previously at once.

People. People love going to national parks, especially since the most recent pandemic has occurred. “Our national parks are breathing spaces in a society increasingly holding its breath,” states Terry Tempest Williams. Because of the pandemic, the amount of people going to these parks has aggrandized. Unsurprisingly, many of those people would support more national parks so that the size of crowds decreases. Some people think that national parks are not ideal because all of the visitors may sometimes create trampling vegetation, but the notion is that if more protected parks are created, less people would be at each of the parks, therefore decreasing the severity of that problem. One source states that a plentiful chunk of people feel it necessary to save up to 50% of the Earth for wildlife. Ask yourself, do you feel it necessary to save more land for wildlife? Visitor spending to national parks has contributed around $28.6 million to the U.S. economy. That has aided 234,000 various jobs across the country that regards professions in recreation, transportation, and hospitality.

If you haven’t been convinced yet that the lack of protected parks is a relentless and severe problem, then think back to Cecil. He had a son, Xanda,  who died from a very similar situation a couple of years later. The amount of places in this world where wild animals are put at a perilous risk is exceedingly high. We do not need more places where these terrible events keep occurring over and over again; our Earth needs many additional places where every species is protected and the environment is healthy.

 

 

 

*GMOs=Genetically Modified Organisms

 

 

Say No to Free School Lunches for All

By Ava V.

 

Do you like free lunch? In the U.S, lunches are being served free to everyone this year, no matter their socioeconomic status. Although this might be wonderful news, you are probably not seeing the full picture.

       School lunches should not be free for everyone. You might be thinking,  people in poverty need free school lunch; some might not be able to afford or make lunch with low salaries. It’s not that poverty doesn’t need school lunches, it’s that everyone does not need them.  According to Feeding America, the National School Lunch Program provides free school lunches to families who are 130 percent below the poverty line. If not free, there is a reduced-price lunch with a cost of 40 cents.

Like all programs, the NSLP sought to have improper payments by distressing financial burdens. The Heritage Foundation states, “According to the Office of Management and Budget, the National School Lunch Program lost nearly $800 million, owing to improper payments in fiscal year 2018, while the School Breakfast Program lost $300 million. The Office of Management and Budget calls these programs ‘high-priority’ programs because of the misspending.” Compared to the amount of money Congress gives the NSLP annually (13.8 billion,) that is a small amount if you divide it up evenly with every school participating; more than a hundred thousand schools participate in the program.

Although schools in the U.S. are required by Michelle Obama’s Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, this doesn’t mean dietary restrictions have changed. According to a 2021 NIH article, “On average, school lunches provided 75 calories from added sugars, which accounted for 11% of calories in school lunches. This average was close to the DGA limit; however, more than two-thirds of schools (69%) prepared lunches that exceeded the DGA limit.”

School lunches will keep being brought up in today’s society. It would be best to address and not push it under the rug. Ask yourself, would school lunches be best if they were free for everyone?

 

 

 

Plastic Pollution is Piling Up with Detrimental Side Effects

By Kevin R.

 

In the last 15 years, out of the near-century of plastic production and usage, one-half of all plastic generation has occurred. While plastics may be convenient, highly versatile, and cheap, the waste they produce is growing exponentially and is becoming an increasingly large threat to the environment and Earth itself. It’s nearly impossible to not run into plastic throughout a normal day. Could you even list how many plastic items you run into daily?

          Plastics have been mass-produced because of their ability to replace more expensive materials efficiently with low production costs. The amount of plastic generation occurring per year consistently increases, creating larger and larger piles of slowly decomposing plastics in landfills. This especially happens in areas where there are low recycling rates. Without reusing and recycling, plastics end up in said landfills, water streams, ecosystems, and more places where plastics should not be, taking upwards of 50 years to go through the entire photodegradation process. Plastics do not biodegrade; they instead photodegrade, becoming easier to break into ever diminishing pieces. Because it is synthetic and unable to biodegrade and instead only becomes smaller and smaller, plastic never goes away.

The production of plastics is also increasing greatly, without showing signs of stopping soon. According to Laura Parker, a National Geographic article author, “[plastic] production increased exponentially, from 2.3 million tons in 1950 to 448 million tons by 2015. Production is expected to double by 2050.” By those statistics, the cumulative amount of plastic produced by 2050 will add up to 179,000,000,000 (179 billion) pounds. That is roughly the same weight as 20 million elephants or eight thousand Eiffel Towers.

It can be hard to comprehend those numbers; what might be easier to understand is the effects they have on the environment, animals, and even humans. An estimated 700 species, including those that are endangered, have been and are being affected by plastic pollutants, including humans, writes Parker. Plastic poses a threat to so many species due to its tendency to end up finding ways to threaten the survival of animals.

Humans and the environment also face the effects of the plastic lifecycle, including production, buildup, and incineration. A Ciel.Org author states, “in 2019, the production and incineration of plastic will add more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere — equal to the emissions from 189 five-hundred-megawatt coal power plants.” Greenhouse gases are known to harm the environment immensely, such as by crumbling the ozone layer of the atmosphere, causing more exposure to UVB rays, which have a plethora of harmful effects on humans. Additionally, nearly all plastics begin with fossil fuels, which are neither sustainable, renewable, nor safe.

Virtually every part of the Earth is covered with microplastics, a form plastics take on when broken down by wind abrasion, wave action, or ultraviolet light radiation. In humans, inhalation of microplastics can cause multiple adverse health effects, including lung damage, asthma attacks, and potentially — although not directly  — cancer. Scientists believe that each human ingests over 70,000 microplastic particles a year, some even being a result of shedding synthetic fibers in our clothing, and potentially many, up to an additional 90,000 particles yearly, from drinking out of plastic water bottles. Studies have shown that microplastics may serve as irritants, much like fibers of asbestos, a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral that can inflame the lungs and lead to cancer. Microplastics are also thought to assist in exposing the human body to toxic chemicals and microorganisms.

Many ways to combat this plastic pollution predicament have been invented, such as edible cutlery and packaging, an ocean clean-up system, and even pills containing toothpaste to get rid of the need for plastic toothpaste tubing. There are many ways in which we as humans, both individually and collectively, can help.  Recycling is crucial in solving the current plastic problem, as it prevents pollution, saves energy and money, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and allows for plastics to be utilized to the fullest extent. Although most understand that many plastics are meant to be recycled, humans have never even come close to properly disposing of all plastics. On average, only 14% of all “recyclable” plastic packaging is properly recycled.

Noticing and understanding the chasing arrows symbol commonly located on the bottom of plastic containers helps tremendously with recycling endeavors. Nearly all roadside recycling companies accept number one plastics, also known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Number two (HDPE) and five (PP) plastics are also typically recyclable, although it is best to check with your local recycling company to verify. Number seven plastic can be tricky because it is the “other” category, however, the most common plastic type used in this category is polycarbonate. Luckily, polycarbonate usage has decreased due to its relations with bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical shown to be carcinogenic and potentially able to expose the human body to other negative health effects, including high blood pressure and effects on the brain.

Plastic pollution is an issue that needs to be stopped; as it continues to pile up, the consequences will only be felt more intensely by humans, ecosystems, the environment, and the Earth altogether. Being more aware and mindful of your contact with and disposal of plastics is a sure way to at least contribute to the solution of this ever-growing epidemic.

 

Schools Should Have Better School Lunches

By Tommy O. 

What do you think of school lunches ? School lunches have been an issue for years. Have you ever gone to your school cafeteria and were so hungry your stomach was growling, and  none of the choices there appealed to you?  This is why there needs to be better choices for school lunches. 

According to a Dobie News Survey, "People say that students are tossing out their lunches a lot more these days because the healthier they get, the more kids don't want to eat their lunch. Students throw away the vegetables, fruit, and anything else that doesn't look appealing to them." 

A staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal  mentions a High school in Arlington Texas, James Martin High School,  that has fast food places in the school.  The students enjoy having these options; there is a Pizza Hut, a Subway Sandwiches and Salads Kiosk, a Taco Bell burrito station, a Chick-fil -A and an Arby's. "The American School Food Service Association estimates that about 13% of the nation's 86,000 public schools now sell fast food, up from just 2% in 1991,” Louise Lee, Staff Reporter for The Wall Street Journal, states. 

The percentage of students who eat lunch at public schools is 35% to 50% of five million teens, getting 1/3 of their daily calories from school lunches. 16% of 9 to 13 year olds and 17% of 14 to 18 year  olds skip school lunches and are more likely to eat empty calories. 

Changing the menu often would give students more options and expose them to new foods. Creative lunch choices might be more appealing for students,  choices like farm to table foods, salad bars, taco bars, and sandwich or pizza stations. You could work together with the school food service staff and your school to improve school lunches. A few ideas could introduce new foods once or twice a month. Have a garden club that works helping with fresh vegetable options. Vending machines could offer a better selection of drinks, snacks that you could access when you are hungry and just need something quick to snack on.  Some of these options might encourage students to eat better and enjoy their school lunches more. 

These improvements to school lunches would make more students eat lunch at school because it gives them more choices. There needs to be more choices like this.  Let's make lunch an opportunity for students to get food they actually like! 

 

Space Debris 

By David M.

 

          Have you looked at space before? Did you know there are millions of pieces of space debris around Earth? Space debris is random junk like rocket fuel, paint flecks, and loads of other items all floating around Earth.

There are various causes to so much space debris such as governments and space companies. China made a major contribution to adding to space debris. One occasion being when China launched a missile at an old weather satellite; this in turn sent thousands of hunks of satellite around Earth. This may not sound like much, but these were adequately big pieces of debris, which means they can do catastrophic damage to any active satellite or space station.

Space debris duplicates in a sense. This is because when space debris collides with others it bursts into more pieces. The cycle of course continues. Another name for this is called “ Kessler Syndrome.” Kessler Syndrome is basically when there is an exceedingly vast amount of space debris because they keep colliding and producing more space debris at an exponential rate that we can’t go into space anymore, and major satellites become more space debris; every rocket, missile, or paint fleck we send in space gets hit by space debris, becoming more space debris. According to space.com, Donald Kessler says, “The 'Kessler Syndrome' was meant to describe the phenomenon that random collisions between objects large enough to catalogue would produce a hazard to spacecraft from small debris that is greater than the natural meteoroid environment."  This would imply that spacecrafts like satellites and such could be pelted with loads of space debris and therefore be futile to use.

You might be wondering, why are smaller pieces of space debris alarming? In space there is no gravity or any forces to slow it down, so it in turn rapidly accelerates. This leads to space debris usually getting to about 10 kilometers per second. You may also be wondering how humongous space debris is to be a critical size: around one centimeter. Of course, this is because of the acceleration of the debris. Space companies like NASA are keeping track of where the larger pieces of debris are in space, but they only have 22,000 pieces tracked. There are more 1 centimeter in diameter pieces than this. NASA tracks pieces of debris that are two inches in diameter and above.

Another question you may be asking is, why don’t we just get it all out of space? Scientists and engineers have tried making solutions for this; for example, there is Space Claw, also known as ClearSpace-1, which will capture and get rid of the Space Debris; it’ll be released in a couple of years. A couple more examples are Elsa-D and lasers. Elsa-D is meant for docking and taking inactive satellites back down. Lasers like the Laser-Orbital-Debris-Removal increase atmospheric drag, which means it slows space debris and makes space debris drop into the atmosphere to burn up.

Amazon and SpaceX announced that they would make and launch  thousands of satellites for communication like the internet and radio broadcasts. In the end, they’ll have put out tens of thousands of satellites; this will very much impinge on satellites in orbit. Satellites and space stations will most likely have to dodge satellites and random pieces of other junk once they do that. There are now megaconstellations going into orbit now too. A megaconstellation is basically just a bunch of satellites connected together. Donald Kessler and Burton Cour-palais said, "Satellite collisions would produce orbiting fragments, each of which would increase the probability of further collisions, leading to the growth of a belt of debris around the Earth." Now this means if satellites accidentally crash into each other once because of how many there are, it’d make more space debris, meaning it’d be a higher chance to hit another satellite, and so on, until we have a belt around Earth.

          Now you might ask why we just don’t wait for it all to crash down out of orbit and be diminished. This is because space debris can last many decades in space. By then it’d be too much to handle all the new space debris. People have come up with some sort of solution to it ,though, at least for trying to prevent space debris from becoming too much to handle for a while. If we launch satellite or rocket boosters early then we could prevent fuel and paint specks from getting into space. If we also get a handful of space debris out of space every year, that’d be a good way to stay out of the clear for a while more.

Space debris debris isn’t an entire danger to us really at all right now, but it is a threat to us advancing in space technology. Space exploration is good and all, but we need satellites, which are in orbit and can be hit by space debris, to use GPS, weather, television, radio, internet, and more. All these items are important for all sorts of uses. Science would be restricted in so many ways, and the world would be in chaos without satellites, but it would be in even more chaos without all the other space crafts that we use a bunch as well. Space debris isn’t just a threat to satellites. It’s a threat to all of our technology we’ve accomplished so far and can become a major problem if we don’t start fixing it.