Journey

I have learned a lot of the past 8 weeks of my life, but in VHS specifically I also learned a lot. Some concrete examples, we learned about how the Pope was chosen, that was some information I did not know before this class. We learned about what the church says about cohabitation, contraceptives, and people using a 3rd party to get pregnant. Some abstract examples, this class taught me I had my own opinions on things I never really thought about before. Like cohabitation, I never thought about cohabitation enough to develop my own opinion, but our class discussions about it showed me I do have an opinion. Moving forward from this class, I will take the opinions I have developed with me for the rest of my life.

IVF

PROS: gives the ability to have children to infertile couples. CONS: cost, internal struggle (if religious). The church teaches IVF is immoral because it involves a third party. I completely disagree with the church because: If God made everyone. Therefore God made some people infertile. And the purpose of marriage is to procreate. Should the infertile people that God made not get married because they can not procreate? God put someone on this earth that came up with a way for infertile couples to procreate. What's wrong with it? Granted, it is VERY expensive. But if you want children but cant have them, I say go for it. You would be spending your money wisely.

Abortion

I have heard about the case on the radio for a split seconds before our class discussion. My opinion on the trial with Dr. Gosnell is frankly disgusting. And it blows my mind that he is trying to plead innocent. I certainly think the factors of race and economic class as deciding whether or not you get the main story. For example, if the women attending the clinic were white, upper class women, this story would be heard around the world. Im not sure why, but thats how it works.

The Changing Face of Marriage

I grew up in a Catholic family going to church every sunday and attending catholic school my entire life. It has been a pretty normal, stereotypical life.I am personally indifferent about the changing life of marriage and family in the church. Granted, there are pros and cons like with anything. People with college degrees are less likely to get divorced. I guess this means I have less of a chance to get divorced because of my degree. Although, I am pretty agreeable to begin with. I plan to baptize my kids and go to church every once in a while. But I also want them to develop their own opinions like I did.

Papal Conclave

- The next pope should address: same sex marriage, abortions, and contraceptives - The church needs to take a more modern stance. With the changes in society and the social norms the church needs and update. But the new pope might face serious opposition from the old conservative Catholics. - Im not a woman in the church, i am physically there but thats all. Women should be allowed to be priests. especially due to the lack of priests in this day in age. - The church should change how they view sex because of modern society. They need to face the facts and change their views based on those facts because frankly their views are outdated and nearly impossible to follow due to all the contradictions. - I think there is totally room for democracy in the Church, then again i think there is room for democracy everywhere. Some how the holy spirit finds its way, I'm not sure how it just does.

Dating: What's the Point

The hook up culture makes it nearly impossible to get to know someone. It is fast paced and there is no effort being made to get to know someone. When people actually have a stable relationship with someone in this culture, others are genuinely surprised you are making an effort to get to know someone and maintain a relationship. Also, the title of boyfriend has changed to the underlying meaning of someone you are hooking up with regularly, same thing with the title girlfriend. The title doesn't represent an exclusive relationship its more like a this is my hook up buddy, but there are relationships out there where the title still means what it used to. The hook up culture is terrible and I think we all need to go back to basics with relationships and dating.

Becoming Who You Are

Becoming who you are is truly a journey into the darkness, in my opinion; because you dont know who you are supposed to be, what your purpose is or where you are going. I use the analogy: you are standing in a dark maze, and a light wont turn on until you take a step. You take a step and a light turns on and you can see a little more of where your going in the process of finding who you are. The steps you take are events in your life that provide direction in your life, much like the light in the maze providing more pieces of your identity. But its not providing per say, its more like revealing the pieces of your identity that are already inside of you, the pieces were just hidden. And those pieces of who you are wont reveal themselves until you deal with situations and events, take a step. Now there is no step in the wrong direction, because at the end of the maze is who you are. It is not like Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, where you can actually take a step in the wrong direction away from the Tri-wizard cup. See, everyone is their own individual person, everyone has their own maze to light up, their own steps to take. There is no win or lose. People might discover their identity faster than someone else but at the end of that maze you discover who you are, and in my mind that is a win. Everyone wins eventually. And success, in my mind, is becoming who you are and fulfilling your dreams and goals. Success for me is not letting someone make you take steps backwards, not letting someone question your identity, because what do they know? They are not you.

Mission Statement

Stereotypically an artist is looked at as someone with boundless creativity and an engineer is looked at as someone with bound logic. However, I am an artist with an engineer's mind, a happy medium between creativity and logic. I believe there is a method to everyone's madness, and everyone's madness has a method. Example, every artist has a logic and every engineer has creativity. My beliefs can be black, white, and anywhere in the middle; but somehow they all have logic with a creative twist. And by creative twist I mean a view point that differs from the majority. I see things in color when everyone else is colorblind

Sources Of My Identity

Being a part of Mount Saint Joseph Academy has certainly became a major source of my identity through my years here. I knew the second I walked through the doors that I belonged here. I received a warm welcome from everyone when I shadowed, opposed to Gwynedd Mercy where I felt exactly like someone's shadow, ignored. From that day I shadowed forward I knew I wanted to go to the mount, and the rest just fell into place. My years at the mount helped shape me into who I am today. Who I am. My family, as dysfunctional as we maybe, we are a team. Team in the sense that, there is no "I". We all hold each other up in times of crisis. And times of crisis seem to plague my family. But somehow we always make it through the hardship together. My family has taught me life long lessons that I will never forget. My grandfather told me, "if you want to reach your dreams, get up and work them yourself because nobody is going to hand them to you." I truly live my life by that statement. I am a daddy's girl for sure. I grew up in a swing my dad hung from the rafters of our garage while my dad worked. As i grew up, "garage talks" were our version of heart to hearts. During our "garage talks", my dad gave me advice, and told me stories that made me who I am today. We still have those talks, and my dad is my best friend.