Lots of stuff needs to be discussed more. I could take this time to rant about the stupidity of capitalism or the necessity of illegalizing firearms in the United States or the unfairness of people blaming Israel for the problems of the Middle East when it's actually 90% the fault of the Arabs surrounding, but instead I will talk about the environment.

I do not understand why anyone worries at all about the economy or international politics or safety or ANYTHING AT ALL before we solve the problem that is the environment. Whether or not people are employed, if humanity continues on this trajectory we will all be dead in 2 centuries, tops. Who cares about little unimportant things like civil rights if in a couple generations we will all be dead anyways?

And it isn't like the problem would be particularly hard to fix, especially compared to problems like social equality, which involves taking money from some people and giving it to others. All the rich people aren't interested in social equality, but who is the opposition to saving the environment? NO ONE! The only people against environmental regulation are big businesses who stand to lose money if the environment is regulated. What are the desires of a few thousand businessmen who want to earn an extra few million dollars compared to the survival of the human race? Several years ago, a statistic came out that if solar panels were built to cover 1/4 of Kansas, it could power the entire planet's electricity. And solar panel technology and efficiency has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years; by now we probably only need 1/8 of Kansas to power humanity's needs! A simple law to require recycling nationwide would save millions of trees each year!

I am confused by anyone who is against environmental regulation. They are basically saying that they don't care about the future, as long as they can drive everywhere in an SUV. As it stands, humanity will be the only race to cause itself to go extinct. When aliens land on the planet X years from now and unearth our remains, they will laugh about how shortsighted and greedy humans were, unable to control themselves for their children and grandchildren. My grandparents' generation at least have the excuse of ignorance; they had no idea that dumping garbage into the environment was bad (duh). My parents' generation have no excuse, but they at least are attempting to publicize the fact that the environment is being destroyed. Our children, if we don't do something now, will look back at our generation as the generation responsible for the extinction of the human race.

An Inconvenient Truth
http://vimeo.com/16335777

Growing up is a weird topic to discuss. I'm not really sure how to choose a moment where I became an adult, mostly because I'm pretty sure I'm not an adult yet. I've had a couple of coming-of-age moments, like my bar mitzvah, but I can't really think of a particular time when I've grown up.

Considering I don't have a particular moment, I will just write about something that changed my life and made me more responsible. My first real job was (and is) as a lifeguard at Moriello Pool in town. Lifeguarding has got to be one of the best possible jobs for a teenager; spending time in the sun, hanging out with nice people, lots of breaks, and good pay (for a teenager at least). But lifeguarding also has some very serious downsides with it. Working at McDonalds, if you screw up, somebody gets a large fries instead of a medium. But when lifeguarding, if you screw up, people can die. I remember that sinking in, realizing that lives depended on my vigilance and training as a guard, and it scared the living crap out of me. For the first few weeks of last summer, when I started working at the pool, I was nervous every time I worked because I didn't have confidence that I could save a life.

That all changed one day in July. I was at the standing guard position, which involves me standing near the pool (duh). It was a blistering, sunny day and the pool was overrun. I was occupied by a large group of middle schoolers who thought they were cool and were jumping over each other and doing other stupid things, which caused me to reprimand them with my whistle. After returning to my post, I noticed a young boy who was flailing around on the surface of the water. This happens all the time, kids fooling around and splashing, even sometimes kids who shout 'help, I'm drowning' and pretend to drown. We usually have a little chat with their parents if this happens, or if they're older we throw them out of the pool. Thus, I observed the kid for a little bit to see if he was fooling or if he was serious.

After a few seconds, I could tell he was actually struggling to stay above water. He wasn't very far from the wall, so I threw him my rescue tube and pulled him to the wall, then told him not to enter water above his chest again. It was an easy save; I barely even needed to move, and I didn't need to activate the Emergency Action Plan. But I reacted quickly and efficiently, and I know that I can do it again, even in a more serious and life-threatening situation. That simple save helped me gather my confidence, even though hardly anyone around me noticed.

This year I am a full-time lifeguard at Moriello, and I feel confident in my skills as a lifeguard. I review rescue skills at the pool and I can relax and enjoy my job a lot more than before, but I also feel a lot more ready and attentive than before.

I am proud to be proud. I can honestly say that I am very content to be the person I am today, and I cannot think of anyone who I'd want to trade lives with. Not that I don't respect other people's abilities and accomplishments; I know lots of people that can do things that I never will be able to, no matter how hard I try. But in a mathematical representation of all my abilities, I think mine add up to a high number and I'm happy with that.

However, I can, on occasion, really mess up. Most of the time it's in a setting that I don't really care about, and so I don't mind. This story is an example of a time when I blew it, and I know that I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life.

I've been playing trumpet since 5th grade in the school band. Also, I took private lessons for several years (from 5th to 8th grade). Not to toot my own horn, but I'm a talented trumpeter, and especially in the last year I've discovered how much trumpet and music as a whole really mean to me.

While athletics all have their championships and meets and stuff (which I do take part in), band only has All-County Band, and then in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades Area All-State Band and All-State Band are added in. Each of these band require a tryout to get into. All-County is the easiest to attend, then Area All-State, then All-State, as each draws from a larger pool of applicants and still only takes the same number of students. The tryout which you perform to attend these bands is called NYSSMA, which occurs in late April of every year. NYSSMA scores from one year count towards the next year's attendance, so my audition sophomore year, for example, counted towards whether or not I would attend the three bands this year (my junior year). Scores are out of 100%, and typically you need about a 94% to go to All-County, a 96% to go to Area All-State, and a 100% to go to All-State. This year was my last chance to try out for All-State because I'm a junior now.

An audition consists of playing a chosen piece that you prepare, performing a sight reading (playing music you've never seen before), and playing 3 scales. The scales are easy if you prepare, the piece is difficult because it needs to be almost perfect to get a top score, and the sight reading is the wild card-you never know how tough it's going to be.

This past year, I played Mozart's Concerto in B flat, 1st and 2nd movements, for my chosen piece. In the audition I nailed it, and I remember being very happy with my performance when I left. The sight reading was fairly difficult, but I was confident after my prepared piece, and that also went very well. The problem was the scales.

For you non-musicians out there, the scale is incredibly simple, just going up and down 8 notes. And I messed the second scale up by missing one note. Just one note, because I wasn't perfectly focused on what my fingers were doing. That mess-up cost me dearly; instead of a 100%, I lost a point. Further, the judge (the same judge that I had last year) took off appoint for vibrato, which is a very difficult musical technique that doesn't really have a place in my chosen piece. So I got a 98% instead of the 100% I needed to attend All-State next year.

When I received my score, I remember my heart plummeting. I know that I will never go to All-State, and that is almost a physical wound to me. All my hard work on the trumpet has amounted to nothing. Not truly nothing, because I will still get to go to Area All-State and All-County, but it feels like nothing. I feel like I've failed. I know that I'm good enough to go to All-State. But I didn't prove it when it counted.

My place where I seek solace isn't exactly a location in the normal sense of the word. I have found that I am 'at peace' when I'm swimming. Not like that slow, long distance stuff in still, beautiful lakes early in the morning that you always see in movies; I do best when at swim practice and I'm in the middle of a difficult swimming set. The combination of the complete physical exertion and the repetitive motion is like a lullaby putting my brain to sleep. I am most content when I am not using my mind. I think that's because I use my brain so much in regular life, with challenging courses and keeping up to date on news and stuff like that. Thus being able to exercise my body and completely blank my mind is a wonderful experience, and even with my body being exerted at 100% my mind is at peace.

It isn't just the location; I can do this at any lap pool as long as I have a workout to do. And swimming under different circumstances than at practice doing a workout just doesn't have the same effect. For example, during swim races I am under too much pressure and in too much pain to enjoy a relaxed mental state. And I tend to get bored just 'hanging out' at a pool or messing around in a lake or the ocean. It really must be a workout, and the problem with this is that swimming is really exhausting and often I just don't have the time or the energy to make it to swim practice. That means I can't go to my state of mental relaxation, which takes its toll on my mental state of being. I think that if other people could find peace while doing exercise, the world would be a better place, especially because lots of people nowadays ironically find 'peace' playing videogames or watching movies. I find peace in the water, and I can't think of anything more peaceful than that.

Early Memory

My first memory of reading a book occurred when I was about eight years old. The book was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; the fourth book in the series. I'm pretty sure I read the earlier Harry Potter books before moving on to the fourth but I have no strong memories of reading them.

Anyway, my cousins were visiting up from Alabama, a rare event that was the cause of some celebration at my house. My entire family and cousins were all in the kitchen eating bagels and lox, but I was curled up in the living room reading on my favorite armchair. It was  the scene where Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire even though he never entered it for the Triwizard Tournament, and I was completely engrossed in the book. My parents kept calling me in to spend some time with my cousins, who never visited, but I kept ignoring them because I couldn't put the book down. Eventually my mom came into the living room and took the book away, placing it high on a shelf where I couldn't reach it until after my cousins had returned to Alabama, some three days later. The entire visit all I could think about was how Harry's name ended up in the Goblet, and I was excited to see my cousins leaving for that same reason. Just to make it clear, these cousins are cousins that I like, not the annoying kind, but I still wanted them to leave so I could continue with my book.

I haven't changed much since then. Certainly, I don't always have time for reading, but when I do, woe betide anyone who tries to take my book away from me. And I'm taller than my mother now, and recently I surpassed my father, so that problem is solved.