Designated Doodler

This summer I have spent my time working with students to improve their SAT scores, specifically, their essay scores. We read source texts, articles written by scientists, activists, visionaries, historians and just typical writers. Some of the most interesting source texts to analyze are those speeches or addresses given to our nation in times of crisis. Speakers we've focused on include Lyndon B. Johnson, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X and William Faulkner. Each of their speeches is different, each of their topics is different, each of their time periods contains different difficulties - but each speech is meant to inspire. These days, I feel like our country desperately needs that inspiration and those words of wisdom, because nothing is more dangerous than slipping into the depths of chaos, anger and violence. It's hard to believe that these recent violent atrocities are taking place in 2016, a year that more closely resembles 1964. Has our so...

Growing up with a Dad who has cancer, I think I've always been hyper aware of how precious life is. And it concerns me, how in this day and age, it seems like everyone is just out for themselves. Or just out for themselves and their family…when there are people all around us who are struggling, who are hungry, who are lonely. Having experienced anxiety in my life, I try my best to tune in to those around me, even if I barely know them. You'd be surprised how many people are out there…just longing for a friend, just longing for a shoulder, for a truthful, reliable, beautiful soul to care about theirs. At one point in college I was so lonely that I'd get out of the apartment and hang out at Starbucks, just so that I could be around other people. I had plenty of friends, but that doesn't mean that you can't still be lonely. I have no idea where this post is coming from. I didn't necessarily set out to write what I've written… I just feel that it...