Prairie State Testing

Last week, Freshmen, Sophomores, and Seniors enjoyed their day off on Wednesday and a well needed late arrival on Thursday. The juniors, however, were not so lucky. I had to wake up at the usual 6AM to get ready for a day full of bubble filling and question answering.
Day one was the ACT. The ACT is a stressful process, but to know that this one would be sent to four schools of your choice, was terrifying. I have been really busy the last couple of weeks and months, and I had no time to put aside to study and prepare for this ACT. Most people were hoping this would be their last ACT because this was known to be the easiest. I might not be that lucky, and I am unsure if I will take it again in June and actually study for that one.
The worst part of these two days was day two, the actual Prairie State Achievement Exam. I am not saying it was difficult, at all, I just felt like it was a waste of time. We just spent the day before testing harder material, and this days test was asking simple math problems, and science questions that we could have figured out in middle school. On top of that, the last section was all about business and job positions. I felt no need to connect with the readings we had to answer questions to. I had no intrest in them, and I don't think I need any of the information about construction companies and banana sales.
I understand that this is the state wide test that is required for all public schools in the state, but I don't think this is helping the cause. GBN has a wonderful acedemic record and does well overall, but other schools, in the city, will not compare to our test scores. Those schools actually might have trouble on some problems that students at GBN thought to be easy and not needed. I was thinking to myself after the test was over, that some of the reading sections on business actually might come in handy for students in underprivledged areas and it made me think further. This ACT is paid for my the state, and is free for all students. ACTs are not terribly expensive, but for some students, this ACT is the only one they can take because it is free. I feel priviledged that I am able to take the test over and over again if I want to, even if I don't actually want to take the boring test.

Turmoil in the Middle East

(The Dome of the Rock and a overview of the Western Wall -A picture I took during a trip to Israel)

In the news lately, we have been hearing a lot about the Israeli - Palestinian conflict going on right now in the Middle East. But it seems that we have been seeing only snippets of the stories emerging from Israel and Gaza. It is obviously sad to see the pictures and videos of the many wounded and killed, but the stories that come along with it or some times hard to believe. I am a proud supporter of Israel, and when these reports come out saying that Israel is the only one at fault, and they are the only bad guys, it really makes me blood boil. I am not one to accuse the Palestinians of being killers and missile launchers , but sometimes the stories are exaggerated to a whole different level. While few stories are very biased, most of them are true, but they are interrupted differently by everyone. Some news stations are to blame, like CNN, because they only show one side of the story, but other stations are pretty accurate.

Recently, a ceasefire was agreed upon from both sides of the border, but even more recently, it despite the ceasefire, Palestinians fired a rocket from northern Gaza at the western Negev (south) last week. The projectile landed in an open area in the western Negev's Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported. The Color Red alert (the alarm to let residents know that a rocket is coming) sounded throughout the area ahead of the landing. Click here to read more.

This on going conflict has truly effected me and my Jewish community. Everyday, I think about my friends who are living in Israel right for the year, and worry constantly about their safety and well being. Israel is a second home for me and I have visited there many times. I also plan on living in Israel for a year between senior year and freshmen year of college. I hope and pray everyday that Israel will still be around for many many many more years, and when I plan on living there, it will also be safe. This summer, I am spending 8 weeks traveling to every part of Israel, and still, through all of the bombs and terror threats, my desire to be there right now, and to spend my summer there, has not weakened. I want to get the message out there to everyone that through this turmoil, Israel is still a wonderful place. In a heart beat, of someone where to ask if they should go, I would say yes. It may seem like a scary place, but in fact, when you are actually there, it is peaceful, and holy and serene. I don't want to sound like Miss American right now, but I really do hope for peace in the world, and that can only happen if we all try to achieve it right here and now.


( A picture of me in front of the Western Wall during a trip in the winter of 2006)



(This is a video I took while climbing up Masada- a historical and biblical mountain in southern Israel, that overlooks the Dead Sea and is very high up. This is a video I took while in Israel in 8th grade with my class from Schechter. It is 4AM when we started climbing the mountain, and it was very cold, and it is not an easy climb up. The whole climb takes close to 2 hours, and you wake up early enough to climb the mountain so you can see the sunrise from the top.)

New Cold Comes New Problems

We all know that when winter approaches, new cold comes along with it. Six months ago, I got my driver’s licenses, and when I was a new driver, it was spring time, and the roads were still dry and smooth. Now, the winter is approaching, and I don’t have that great of a feel for slick, icy roads. So my concern this coming winter is staying safe with the cold weather. I am a pretty confidant driver, and so far, I have not been in any accidents. But I’ve been told by numerous people that every new driver at some point will get into an accident. But my major concern right now is making sure I am able to get to school every day in a non frozen car. In the past years, I have been able to jump into my mom’s car, already warm, and head off to school. But now, I am the one who has to wake up those 15 minutes earlier to make sure my car is defrosted and drivable. I am concerned for the future when it is much colder than it has been, and my car will not be able to start. My car is the unfortunate one that has to park in the drive way while my mom and dad’s cars park comfortably in the garage. Then have been mornings already when after turning the car on and letting it warm up for a good ten minutes was not enough for the frozen over windshield wiper to melt. I hope that there will not be mornings when my car is dead, or is piled up and imprisoned between blocks of snow. I guess that this new kind of responsibility for owning your own car, and being a new driver comes with a lot more problems than imagined.

Don't Try This at Home

As we all know, technology completely controls our lives. I can pretty much promise that most teenagers and young adults now a days have a facebook, myspace or some sort of blog. I can also say that it is now so much easier to share pictures, music and videos on the internet with the blink of the eye. So it is not surprising that youtube is doing so well. Just last week, my little brother was searching youtube for fun and I ended up joining him and watching stupid, dont try these at home, videos. By why this sudden obsession with making fools of ourselves? Why risk your life jumping off the roof of a house just to put it up on the internet? It is quite boggling. I can't truly understand what a person would get out of that. They don't make money from doing it, and they usually end up hurt as a result of it. I know that the occassional blooper video is funny, and who doesn't love America's Funniest Home Videos, but has it gone too far? This situation does sort of scare me. There are plenty of those videos that the people don't get hurt and make it seem possible for others to try it too with out any concequences. My brother is eleven years old, and I don't want to see him trying any of those tricks, and end up getting hurt. He is a little dare devil, and does understand that he can get hurt, but who knows, he is consumed by those videos, and laughs hysterically at the site of those videos. I know I can't stop this from happening, and that the internet can be a scary place, but before it gets too far, something will have the change. But I have to admit, I do like to watch gymnastics bloopers. They're pretty funny.

Does Age Really Matter?

While watching the summer Olympics this year, I think we were all wondering the same thing, "Who's going to take home the gold?" My favorite part of the games are the gymnastics competitions. I love gymnastics and I am even on the high school team. I made sure that I did not miss one moment of gymnastics. But one thing really shocked. I think that everyone was noticing how young the Chinese gymnasts looked. It is a fact that most competitive gymnasts are rather petite, look at Shawn Johnson, but these gymnasts looked a little too young. The rules of the gymnastics portion of the Olympics states that you have to be sixteen or older. At this point, the world became suspicious. Most Chinese gymnasts are brought out of their homes at a very young age to be raised at Olympians. Something did not seem right with the whole situation. It really took the turn for the worst when one particular Chinese gymnast who looked about twelve, tied with Nastia Liukin, and ended up winning gold on bars. I don't think that that was fair. If in fact that gymnast was lying about her ages, Nastia should be awarded the gold for bars. How bad does it look when coaches have to lie to win the Olympics? It takes away the integrity of the games, and the sport. Something should be done to fix, whether it is doing some further investigation of the ages of those gymnasts or for future games, make sure that the games will be fair, and maybe do a little more research on the ages of the gymnasts competing for the gold.

New Construction Equals New Problems

Recently, my family drove up to the Wisconsin Dells for the weekend. The ride seemed to be smooth until we approached I90. Near Rockford, IL, the highway became two lanes and there was no shoulder available, so the lanes were very narrow. My car was in the left lane and right next to a concrete wall. So the layout was, concrete wall, my lane, then the right lane, then another concrete wall. As we were moving along, a semi (a huge truck) merged into the right lane besides us. All of a sudden the semi became awfully close and came to a point where it was uncomfortably close. Then, the semi began to merge into our lane, right were my car was. The semi was unaware of our presence in the lane and without hesitation began to come into our lane, not in front of us or behind us, but right next to us in our narrow left lane. My mom sensed the danger and has two choices; get hit my the semi, get hit by the concrete wall or get hit my the car right behind us when we were to come to a sudden stop. My mom began to slow down and thought that was the right decision. As we slowed down, the semi still not unaware of our car, hit our car, and scratched and dented the right side of our car, completely knocking off the side view mirror. The semi, if my mom did not slow down or act according, would have completely totalled our car, and possibly putting my brothers and I in very great danger because we were on the right side of car. My mom, enraged, merged to the right side of the semi, who was now in the left lane, honked vigorously at the truck until she had his attention. In the end, my mom chased down the semi that hit us, made him pull over, and cops gave the guy many tickets, and all was taken care of with nobody injured except for the car.
So I bring this up to show the dangers of the highway construction. With the increase of constructions and decrease of lane space, the accidents will go way up. I understand that the roads need repairing but the measures that the state takes to fix them puts everyone in danger. What if the semi did hit us harder, we could have crashed into a concrete wall or crushed by the semi. My family could have been seriously hurt, but luckily we didn't. I think that the state should do something to fix this problem, and increase the safety of travelers on the road. I don't know how they can do that, but long story short, the roads are not safe, and to know that Chicago only has two seasons, winter and construction, this will be a problem and an issue for a long time to come.

Heath Care

With everything going on with the presidential elections, I often find my self confused and un-sure of where I stand on the political spectrum. A huge factor of where I find my self is when it comes to the candidate’s view on health care. Obviously, it is very important that people stay healthy and that if someone does get sick or need the medical care, they are able to have it. All of that sounds great, but I am torn between two ideas; Obama's idea of "Universal Health Care" and McCain's ideas of helping out the small, private practice. So there are many pro's and cons to both ideas, and I was doing some research and found information on the pro's and cons. You are now probably wondering, what is so controversial? Well, I do believe that everyone should be provided the appropriate care for if god for bid they got sick, had surgery, etc. But, I do have to look at it in a different way. My dad is a doctor for a private practice. If, Obama was indeed elected, Universal Health Care would come into effect, which would effect my dad's job. Universal Health Care does not help out the private run offices of doctors and small practice, it helps out the big crowd, everyone. Part of being a democrat is looking out for all people, the big picture. The republican idea is to help the smaller businesses, like my dad. So what do I do? Do I want to support the idea of helping a lot of people, or look out for my dad, his career, and how this could potentially effect my family negatively. I really am torn. I guess only time will tell.