Last Blog

Over the past 8 weeks, I have grown more in this class than any other. I believe that one of the reasons why I was able to grow and learn is because of the way it was taught. No ones opinion was forced on any one else, and I was taught to look at perspectives from different points of view. I enjoyed learning about the levels of dating as long with who was going to become the next Pope. I also enjoyed how what we were learning is incorporated with college and where we are going in the future.
I also enjoyed the Busted Halo articles every morning as long with The Way, which was a great movie. My final favorite an most memorable part of this class was doing the love stories. I thought it was very interesting to see that even in the world of divorce, which most families deal with, many peoples love stories have happy endings.

IVF

There are many pros and cons to IVF. Several pros may consist of basically knowing that you will have your own biological child, people who were told will never be able to carry their own child are given another chance, and more. There are also several cons, its is not technically guarenteed to work every time, and it costs a lot of money. The Catholic Church is very against IVF. They do not believe in it at all because they want the child to be fertalized in the woman not outside of the woman. I personally believe in IVF, because you are still pro-creating which is what God wants you to do when you get married.

Marriage

This information is actually scary. I know I am going to try and achieve my masters degree, and certainly my bachelors' but the divorce rate is so high presently that I fear the odds still may not be in my favor. I do not believe you should marry someone that you are not postive you are able to spend your entire life with them. I personally know what divorce has on a family, and as it is not easy for the parents, it is not easier for the children. When I do eventually get married I do plan to raise my children in the Catholic Church and hopefully teach them the importance of marriage. Changing the face of marriage will not be easy. It is heading in a better direction than several years ago, people are starting to marry later and stay together longer, which decreases the rate of divorce. Also, changing the face of marriage, has women and men being both equal in being called the "breadwinners", which helps their financial situation, which can be less stress in a marriage. I am going to raise my children in the domestic church and hope that they take marriage as seriously as I do.

Abortion

I think that the trail against Gosnell is an unbelieveable situation. I still can not fathom that he killed so many babies, that are almost fully formed. He was killing babies, after they were delievered if his orginial methods for abortion did not work. I am do not believe in killing an almost completely formed human being. I did not hear about this case before this class, which is actually terribly sad. What Gosnell did was murdered 7 babies after they were born. This is not getting the publicity that it desereves because it is such a taboo subject that nobody wants to converse about. Another interesting part of this case is that Gosnell let a 16 year old girl administer anesthesia to every race except the white patients. People have conclueded that racism could be in effect in this case. If a white patient came in Gosnell personally distributed the anesthetics, but with other races, he relied on the 16 year old to give them the proper amount. This case also took part in a city that is considered a lower economic status, so many critics state that this may also be a reason why this case has not gone nationwide. If this situation were to occur on the main line, I believe that the news coverage would increase greatly.

Dating, Whats The Point?

I believe that dating is essential to a relationship. I do not agree with the anti-daters when they say that it is an "essential context for divorce". I believe that when dating you can form an attachment and truly discover each other over a period of time. Through dating it also gives you some time to either discover that this is your true love or to discover the traits that your true love should possess. When I say dating, I do not mean hooking-up. Now of days, many people use these words interchangeably, which should not be done. They do not mean the same thing. Presently, when people say hooking- up they mean having sex, but when people say dating it means actually looking for a commitment with another person. Dating also means that you know a person and you want to continue to spend time with him/her for a long time. Hooking-up does not mean that. Sometimes when a person is “hooking-up” they may not even know each other’s names. Hooking-up as become more normal in society than dating is because with hooking-up you do not need to put in any commitment or effort. Many teenagers experience hooking-up more frequently than dating, and if I had a voice in the way people did things, I would chose for more dates than hook-up sessions.

 

Chruch Blog

Topics that I believe that should be addressed in the Church with the new Pope is gay rights, birth control, women’s roles in the Church, and divorce. I believe that the Church needs to review their stance on these issues listed above because many Catholics do not have the same view as them. When people feel as though they are being judged because they have a different opinion many people leave the Church and then inevitably leave God.  I know that is not what the Church wants as an outcome and I firmly believe that not only will more people stay committed to the Church, but will also bring in more people to this faith. To be a woman in the Church has never really affected me. To me I am just there with no more rights than men have. I know that it is a hot button issue about women not being able to become priests, and I believe that they should be allowed to. Jesus did not only call men to be followers and women to just be there. He called all genders to be followers, and I believe that women should be able to give a mass, just as men do. I would change divorce because I believe that people should not be excommunicated or not allowed to receive communion because they made a mistake. No there is no democracy inn the Church’s current position, in my opinion. I believe that the Holy Spirit works because yes the Church does not have the view point of the current times, but I know that the Holy Spirit is guiding the religious in their higher positions to try and make the right decision.

Becoming who I am

In Parker's article, he discussed about success and how that applies to us. As I have stated in previous blogs, success is defined, to me, as a life filled with happiness. Happiness is me waking up everyday and enjoying what I will do, and not living with regrets. I would love to be a millionare, and not struggle financially, but I would take struggling financially, if I love what I do. Many people ask me, "What do you want to do when you graduate college?" When they hear my response they automatically put me into a category in their head, and they believe that I am going to be just like every other lawyer, or doctor. It is not true though. I do not need to fix myself to fit a job, but find a job that fits my personality.
The first thing I need to do before I get a job, is figure out who I am. I can never be successful if I never take the time to actually look at myself, and discover what will truly make me happy. I agree with Parker, that I should be finding who I am rather than who i am suppose to be. He makes several valid points throughout the reading, and his understanding of vocation and success are similar to mine. As I have stated above, before I worry about finding my true vocation and being successful, I need to indentify who I am first.

When I was younger, people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I automatically responded a teacher, than a couple years later I responded a baker, and than after that a dancer, and the list continued to grow on. When my goal was to become a world wide Irish Dancer, I realized that it could become possible, because that was one of the many talents I had growing up, but eventually that idea faded into the background and I was stuck with nothing. One talent that I realized throughout all of these phases was that no matter what i chose to do, I threw myself into it, and realized that I am going to end up with a profession that I love and that I am good at. Recently, my potential occupation is becoming a baker. Several years ago, I was experimenting with fondont, and I realized how hard it is actually to use it, but it didnt stop me. It took me hours but I realized once I finished, and it looked good, I felt on top of the world! This was the time that I discovered that I can truly be a successful baker, if I wanted to be. Ever since then, in my spare time I bake and will spend hours on learning and reading about different tricks to enhance my skills. If I could open my own bakery knowing it would not fail, than I would open it. That is truly my dream job and is my goal is to open a bakery and be successful with it. When  I say succcessful I define it as my own happiness. I am not saying that I need the bakery to make a surplus of money ( which would be nice), but I need to be able to want to go to work each morning. I do not want to go to work every morning hating my job. In order for me to be successful, I need to be happy with my work and my life. Becoming a baker is in my reach, and I will not stop until I reach my goal.

I do not know where I would be without my family. We are not perfect, but no matter what I know they are there for me. They have helped me throught so much. When I was younger I was told that I had seizures. The type I had was not physically shown, so many did not realize when they were occuring. I struggled with my education because during class, I was present physically, but not mentally. As I stuggled, my family helped me and was supportive of my average grades, which I worked so hard to achieve. As I grew up, they taught me how to be patient, when patience seemed out of reach. They taught me to be kind, even to those who were not kind to me, and they taught me to be myself even when people wanted me to be just like them. Without my family and everyone in it, I do not think I would be as whole as I am now.

 

As I stated that I do not know where I would be without my family, I have no idea who or where I would be without my friends. They have proved that no matter what they care about me and that they will always be there for me. I did not realize the true definition of friendship until I came to Mount. My huge group of friends have supported me through so much, but the two most prominent are my best friends Claudia and Alexis. They became friends with me when I had nothing to offer them other than being myself, and they will do anything for me just as I will do anything for them. They helped bring me to my true self and I will never be able to repay them and hope that I have done the same for them. Yes, we are all leaving for college next year (hopefully), but I know that they we will be friends for a long time and that not just them, but my group of friends will stay in touch for a long time.

 

The last thing that has shaped me into who I am today, is my dancing. I am an irish dancer and have been one for 9 years. I am so proud of the fact that I am given the chance to be able to dance. I may go through phases occasionally, when I just want to give up, but when I stick with it, I soon enough discover why it means so much to me. I love to dance in general and being able to win competitions and show people my talent is a great feeling. Danc has taught me determination, perseverance, and dicsipline. Dance has helped shape me into who I am today.