A Completely Different Light

brownsn1:

To follow up on my post on Kim Jong-il’s death, this shows the impact of a reunified Korea:

“Beck estimates that bringing North Korea up to just 80 percent of South Korean standards could cost $2 trillion to $5 trillion over 30 years — to put that in perspective, South Korea’s entire economy comes to about $1 trillion.”

Although South Korea has taken great strides in their economy, they are still couldn’t contain the chaos that would ensue if they unified.

(via brownsn1-deactivated20120229)

yoursororitysister:

Allison is a Senior at Appalachian State University. She is majoring in Theatre Education K-12. She is a member of Alpha Omicron Pi and was one of the founders of her chapter on campus. She has served as Philanthropy Chair and Vice President of Education. In her free time Allison volunteers…

I waited.
Smoked, drank, counted
the minutes away,
drew shapes in the air with my finger
bled lines of poetry into my moleskin.
I dreamt the hours by,
counted all the stars in the sky,
twice. 

I smashed the clocks on the floor
bent the arms to watch
the days flash by.
My breath was heat on the glass,
that’s when I knew I was still alive.

I waited.
Until I forgot what I was waiting for. 

This isn’t happiness.

This looks just like the cherry blossom tree that was in my front yard growing up. I only wish I could go back to those days when I could be found reading in the branches. 

(Source: Flickr / photographicsesp, via thefunniestpost)

The only worthwhile performance at the VMA’s this year. 

(Source: jmonsterbby, via allisonshaw3)

(via allisonshaw3)

(Source: forhelovesme, via allisonshaw3)

afternoonsnoozebutton:

Yo dawg, I heard you like libraries

quote-book:

Maya Angelou // submitted via rinnyy.

I think everyone can agree that the future scares them, for me I’m terrified. My parents have always said that whatever I want to do that I will have their complete support. My best friend, of whom I look up to very much, was talking to me last week about how she’s going to go straight through and get her MBA. I started thinking, what the hell am I going to do? It’s one of those things that I shrugged off my shoulders after I declared my major (Political Science Teaching) but now with a year and a half left of school, I am now looking at three options. 

1. Teaching high school in a larger city

2. Moving to DC and getting a job in a Representative or Senators office working my way up for at least 3 years and then getting my masters. Just the experience of actually taking part in government on a larger scale. 

3. Going ahead and getting my Masters, possibly an MPA (Masters in Public Administration) 

I just don’t want to be scared anymore of the future. When I do my student teaching it will more than likely be in Asheville just because eventually I want to live there again in the future. Yes, I’ll be living with my parents but at least I’ll be finishing up my degree. My parents throughout the past couple months have become my best friends and my mom always tries to come up with an excuse for me to come home just so she’ll have someone to ‘keep her life entertaining’. ANYWAYS, I saw a statistic in TIME Magazine last time I was home that was talking about the success of people who fail out of college and therefore have to live at home. The people that were polled blamed their lack of motivation but they did say that more than 50% of their close friends went away to college. Isn’t that weird that someone doesn’t have motivation even though they’re watching close friends go away. It just struck a chord with me and helped me to realize why I need to be a teacher, to inspire people that they can do whatever they can dream if they’re willing to put effort into it.

My sophomore year of high school I started messing up, a lot, and making bad decisions, though I do not regret any of them because they make me who I am today. I didn’t make the best grades and then my parents had a ‘come to Jesus’ talk with me and it all turned around (grade-wise). My senior year before the college application process started we had to talk to our counselors about where we wanted to apply and then compare those schools with our grades, outside involvement and volunteer work. I was very involved and at that point I had a 3.6 unweighed GPA so I thought that I would apply to schools that at one point only seemed like a dream. I was told that I would never get into those schools by my counselor because of my year mess-up that included me having to go to summer school to pull up one of my grades. I walked back to my english class and sulked. My teacher at the time, Mrs. McB, was amazing and a huge Appalachian fan and knew about my brother going there and always talked to me about how good of a football team they had, and blah, blah blah. After that class I talked to her about how I wasn’t going to be able to get into the schools I wanted to get into but she was the one that gave me the kick in the butt and said to never listen to anyone when they tell you that you can’t do something until you try. She inspired me and helped me edit my essays and I know this sounds crazy but I applied to 10 schools and got in to 8. All of those schools were ones that I was told I would be put on the wait list for or I just wouldn’t get in.

I want to be that teacher like Mrs. McB that helps students realize that if they want to do something all they have to do is put in some effort then everything will fall into place. She didn’t do it just for me, she also helped students with not so great GPA’s that wanted to go to college not only get in but get scholarships through editing their essays and helping fill out forms. She wanted what was best for people and took the time for anyone who asked. I keep in touch with her to this day and I see her tailgating at football games. I’ll never forget the impact that she had. This explanation doesn’t give justice as to why I truly want to be a teacher but at some point  I’ll have all my ducks in a row and I’ll write another one. 

Excuse my all over the place post, it’s the summer.