Tag: values

This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

I’ve had my new-to-me car for less than a month and it’s already been been violated in a most horrific way. 
The other morning, after a stress-filled drive to school, whereby I agonized over where best to park, I sat trying to calm my nerves. Actually every morning that I get to school, I just sit for awhile, pondering life (ie: checking all of my social media, promising myself I’ll get out after just one more song, and savoring my coffee-my life blood). 
I feel, before I go on, I should explain why I spent my entire drive agonizing over where to park. Simply put, I work in da hood. It’s not all bad. Just like nice neighborhoods aren’t all good. However, I’ve heard one too many stories about teacher’s cars being keyed, shootings, and our school has already been vandalized and broken into-numerous times. 
I love my school, my students, and our community, but it’s not exactly Mayberry. Not even close. 
Well, there I sat, watching a video on how to make hash brown egg cups on Facebook, and my car starts shaking. Like serious, “don’t come a’knocking shaking”. It’s not every day that you get your own personal earthquake or theme park ride, so it took a minute to get my bearings. When I realize my new car, with me in it, isn’t about to be swallowed by a sink hole, I look into my rearview mirror to see a head-barely visible over my back end. 
I get out and see some kid shaking my car. He’s literally bumping up against it like a remote control car stuck in a corner. I’m so pissed, all I say is, “GET OUTTA HERE” *insert Brooklyn accent*. This hoodlum didn’t realize the car was inhabited, so I’m sure he was shitting his pants as he ran out of sight. 
After telling this story to numerous people-fellow colleagues, my boyfriend, my family-they all had the same questions for me, “Why didn’t you question him, demand his name, drag him to the office?”
Let me just list the reasons why: 

  1. It was 7:00 AM-our office was empty
  2. He was a middle school kid-not under my/our particular authority
  3. I am scared of retaliation 

This misguided young man was likely trying to make my car alarm go off, to what end-it could be various reasons. Maybe he just thought it would be fun. Maybe he looks for cars that aren’t alarmed for someone who steals them. Maybe he simply has no regard or respect for others and their belongings. Actually, that last hypothesis would apply to all possible reasons he felt the need to molest my car. 
I would be laughing about this (the look on his face was pretty awesome), but I’m actually fearful that my new car will be damaged while parked at my place of employment. That’s a pretty shitty feeling.
In fact, everyday I notice possible new scratches and dings. I can’t blame them all on immoral creeps, as its definitely possible they were there before I bought the car. I didn’t inspect every inch of it with a magnifying glass, but I did look for noticeable imperfections. I’m 99% sure this was not present upon buying my car 
  
We live in a world where so few people have respect for others. It’s my fear that good, moral, thoughtful people will soon be extinct. 
Kids can be shits, I get it. I once stuck a thumbtack in my preschool teacher’s bum, simply because it was right in my face as she bent over, I was rolling a tack between my thumb and pointer finger, and I was a scientist-I wanted to know what would happen (BIG trouble, is what happened). 
While I’ve been guilty of my fair share of wrong-doing, I can confidently say I’ve never had the urge to damage someone else’s property. Never. Not once. 
Instead of be pissed/upset/stressed about this disgusting lack of regard for MY property, I am going to simply regard my car as a useful mode of transportation that gets me from point A to point B. Instead of daydreaming about how pretty she is, I’ll instead remember what is really important in life: my family, my friends, my health, and my strong morals and values. Also, a car is simply a material object that I am lucky to have. Some people don’t even own shoes. First world problems, and all that. 
While I suffer the results of lack of guidance and respect, I will continue to guide and teach respect to my students, because what else can I do? I am honored to be in the position where I have the possibility to change someone’s life for the better, every single day. Key my car, go for it. I’ll just be over here continuing to teach your children to do better, be better. Win. 

Genius Theory

I don’t usually write about serious topics, but this has to be said written or I’ll burst. I think I’ve come across a genius theory. Let me first state my opinions about a few, somewhat, controversial subjects. I’ll just come out and be blunt about it. In fact, I’ll share my opinion on these myriad topics in a very easy to read, list format. 

  • I don’t want to see your boobies, even when you’re breast feeding
  • I don’t care what your political affiliation is
  • I don’t care if you’re gay, straight, or you make love to balloons 
  • I don’t enjoy seeing your vagina hanging out of your jean shorts, and frankly, I feel sorry for you, because you either need a mama, Jesus, or both
  • If 90% of your Instagram are selfies, you need to reevaluate your life
  • No one wants to read your blog/Facebook posts/Tweets because you don’t know the difference between to, too, and two 
  • It infuriates me that people like Kylie Jenner, Miley Cyrus, and Riff Raff are people our future looks up to
  • Your divorce, family drama, and fights with your friends don’t belong on social media 
  • It used to be rude to talk about your salary, it still should be
  • Public shaming used to be a way to deter people from being stupid, now whenever someone doesn’t like someone’s response to their behavior, they can just cry ‘shaming’ and it makes their stupidity OK

We have become a society of over-sharing, defensive pussies. Here comes my genius theory. Are you ready for it? Drum roll please…maybe, just maybe people wouldn’t be so apt to be offended by every little thing out there, if more people in our society had values, decorum, and half a brain to know when, where, and how certain topics should be shared. 
People complain all the time about others being too offended by things, but maybe saying that is just an excuse to be an asshole. 
Just the other day I witnessed an older lady being attacked on a news story’s comment section because she didn’t understand how to click the link to read the story. Some cretin actually cussed her out and told her to get off social media. I was offended by that because it used to be rude to treat your elders, anyone, like that. We have become complacent when it comes to being decent human beings to others, because it takes zero thought to send a “meaningless” message from your phone, while you sit in your parents’ basement, sitting on your non-existent high horse. 
Decent people are offended by offensive things. That doesn’t make us losers or wimps. It makes us human. 
As for the pussification of America-we are being offended by the wrong things. Someone called you fat? Boo hoo. Just the other day some elderly, foreign woman rubbed her belly, pointed to mine and asked, “Bebe?” Yeah, that sucked, but I got over it. Mean, obtuse, and/or clueless people are never going to go away, so instead of overemphasizing bullying, we need to teach our youth how to let things go, how to care more about how they feel about themselves, and how to just move on after someone’s been mean to them.
Instead of giving everyone an award just for participating, or accepting the outcries of “shaming”, when maybe we need to consider if the action deems being shamed, we should be offended by what really matters. 
These are things we should be offended by: 

  • Racism 
  • The trend that appearance is more valuable than character
  • Blatant ignorance 
  • Adults not being able to string a legible sentence together 
  • Sexism 
  • The lack of family values running rampant and how that correlates to almost everything wrong in our world 
  • Gory, disturbing, indecent images not suitable for young eyes and minds 
  • Wearing slippers in Walmart 

This is an abridged version, as I think these few points serves my theory well. Stop being an asshole, think before you hit ‘send’, and consider having more respect for yourself by not posting your bottom butt on social media. 
Good day.