On SCOTUS, Obamacare, and Perspective

Let's get a perspective check, shall we?

While we've been squabbling over whether a government should provide health care to its citizens (heads up, America: the rest of the first world has already made a decision on this issue and, even today, we're still way behind the trend...so, awesome).

In the 12 hours since the SCOTUS decision about Obamacare

• Roughly 15,000 people died from malnutrition and starvation.  What did you throw away today?
• 820,000,000 people struggled to find safe, clean drinking water (Meanwhile, I have gone to the Brita in my fridge today three times to fill up my water bottle, and can't even begin to comprehend what it would be like to not have access to drinkable water)
• Roughly 3600 people have contracted HIV (for which we have yet to develop an affordable, accessible cure), in spite of worldwide programs designed to increase awareness and stop the spread of the disease
• 360 people were raped or sexually assaulted in the United States alone

I'm not saying there aren't things worth fighting about.  There absolutely are.  I think affordable access to medical care, education, and housing is the right of all people.  But there are bigger issues, within our borders and outside our reach to keep in mind.  We forget that the world has ACTUAL problems, problems with some obvious and not-so-obvious solutions that we can't seem to fix.  And when we get so wrapped-up in what side of the aisle we fall on or whether the wealthiest taxpayers should be taxed 34 or 35 percent, we lose sight of these real, tangible, terrifying problems and we forget to fix them.

If all this can happen in 12 hours, what could we do with a week?  A month?  A decade?  What could the world look like if we didn't get so off track?

Sorry that got so serious.  I promise, the next post will involve a picture of a kitten.

Seriously yours,
Rachel Leigh

Sources:

• Worldometers.info (http://www.worldometers.info/)
• The United Nations AIDS Clock (http://www.unfpa.org/aids_clock/)
• The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network [RAINN] (http://www.rainn.org/statistics/)
• Basic math skills on the calculator on my laptop

I just watched "The Newsroom."  Watch it.

It was seriously responsible for what I think may have been the most startlingly-honest expressions of American society and America as a nation that I have ever heard.  So, yeah.  Go Aaron Sorkin; I was impressed.  And YOU.  You go watch it now.  Get an HBO subscription, and forget about the girls with dragon powers and the crazy vampire sex for an hour and go watch The Newsroom.

That is all.

On "High School Never Ends"

Has anyone considered what high school reunions are going to be like for our generation?  Like, "Hey, uh, sorry I deleted you on Facebook" or "Yeah, I already knew you took that job in Boston because it showed up on my News Feed" or "I can't look at you the same way since you tweet constantly about your bowel movements."

The whole point of a high school reunion is to catch up with the people you cared about in high school, but thanks to our massively inter-connected world on the internet, there's really no "catching up" to do.  Anyone I still even slightly care about from high school is still my Facebook friend, probably also a connection on LinkedIn (because I am professional when it comes to my talent for doing nothing productive), on my Skype contact list, and potentially someone I follow on Twitter.  And everyone else, I really don't care about enough to want to reunite with them.

There's no room for some "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" stunt, because everyone already knows who you've become in the last *insert number of* years.



What are you talking about?
Of course I invented post-it notes and married a billionaire!

In all seriousness, though -- I can't even imagine what I would talk to people about at a high school reunion at this point.  Even with my friends, there's this sort of comfortable silence sometimes because we already know what's going on in everyone's lives.  And if that's the case, then what's the point?

Thankfully no longer in high school,
Rachel Leigh

On Denmark/An Update

So, as I've mentioned before, in two months, I will be studying in Copenhagen.  What I have neglected to mention is that, from research that I've done and people I've talked to, I've come to the conclusion that Copenhagen is some perpetually-dark-and-overcast place where everybody is absurdly quiet and people leave their babies on sidewalks (no kidding, like, people have made a point to tell me this).

Also, that it's cold.  Have I neglected to mention that I'm not a big fan of the cold?  I really like sundresses and shorts and sunglasses...cold weather isn't really conducive to that kind of lifestyle.  Instead, I've been freaking out about needing boots and a winter coat and about 34809384083 more sweaters than I currently own.  Even though I'm pretty sure I can bring exactly 3 articles of clothing with me on the plane to Denmark.  (Whaaaat? I don't exaggerate ever, where would you get that idea from?)

In all seriousness, though, we're getting down-to-the-wire when it comes to preparing for Denmark.  I even got my housing invoice email the other day (talk about things getting real).  I'm excited, and nervous (see: dark, overcast, quiet, cold city), about the whole thing and it's kind of weird that it's actually becoming a reality.

Kobnhavn, here I come,
Rachel Leigh

On the Best Advice I've Ever Gotten

On of the best pieces of life advice I've ever gotten was delivered to be as part of a speech the summer when I was 13 years old.  It was my first summer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth at their site at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.  Our then site director, Bret, was discussing the CTY Honor Code.

The Honor Code was kind of all-encompassing -- be tolerant, do your work, go to class, don't lie, don't break stuff, don't have sex anywhere at any time because you're all 16 or younger and we don't want to explain that to your parents, etc.

But the good advice that I got came when Bret said he wasn't going to read us the whole Honor Code because it boiled down to one thing: "Don't. Be. A. Jerk."  Before you do something, think about if it's something a jerk would do, and if it is, don't do it.  All the other rules, he felt, naturally followed from this one.  Making trouble for the RAs meant being a jerk to the RAs.  Not respecting someone's religion, sexuality, etc, meant you were being a jerk to them.  Not going to class made you a jerk to your instructor.

And it makes sense.  This rule is kind of fundamental -- just don't be a jerk.  We usually know what makes us a jerk to somebody, and it's a good, simple rule to follow.

I'm reminded of this because of a struggle my friends who are still at CTY are going through, trying to hold on to some traditions that the administration is trying to ban.  My heart goes out to them.

Wishing you a three-tiered layer cake of Safety, Learning, and Fun
Rachel Leigh

100!

Darlings, I do believe I promised you a 100th post extravaganza!

Well...I don't really have anything extravaganza-worthy to say.

So, we got our crack team of graphic designers to whip up a celebratory graphic for the occasion.

I'm thinking maybe we should fire our so-called "crack team of graphic designers."  That is an infuriating gif.  Off with their heads!

I came up with an awesome idea for a post today at work, and then I totally forgot to write it down and now I have no idea what I had intended to say in the first place.

Anyway, I never thought, two and a half years ago, that I would still be blogging today, let alone at the 100 post mark (and most of them actually quality posts and not just crap!  I know, I'm just as surprised as you are!)

Here's to many more years and many more posts to come.

Here's a better gif for you.

Yours, most sincerely and forever,
Rachel Leigh

On Internships

Do you know why they have interns in movies and television shows constantly running for coffee? Because I do. They’re attempting to demonstrate the menial and occasionally demeaning work that interns have to do for little or no pay. But the funny thing is, if they actually accurately depicted what an intern does most days, they would have no viewership.


I WISH my day involved going on coffee runs, sometimes. Want to know what I did today? Hand to heaven, I spent Four. Hours. stamping papers and then moving those papers to the bottom of a stack of papers.

Getting coffee is glamorous compared to what I’ve done as an intern. Which is, in all honesty, literally anything. Licking envelopes, checking information, lugging boxes up and down from the attic, making databases, using databases, crying in a corner intermittently, and other various bizarre and not-at-all glamorous tasks.

This would all be slightly better if a) I didn’t have to get up at 6:40 every morning and b) didn’t have to dress for the off chance that I run into someone important every day. YOU try doing manual labor in dress shoes, tell me how you like it.

And the best part is, I get to do it all again tomorrow.

In all honesty, though, I think I’ve lucked out. I’ve never had a job that I absolutely hated, and the bizarre internships I’ve had are certainly included. Sure, I’m not doing the most exciting work, but I have always loved the people I’ve worked with and, hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

Complainingly yours,

Rachel Leigh

On The Internet

So. Hey. I'm 20. They don't warn you that birthdays kind of suck in the years between 16 and 20 (I mean, I kind of liked 18 but that's just because I wanted to vote). They're a lovely reminder that you have (insert multiple of 365) days until something important happens. Namely, turning 21. And then after that, more of the pointless birthdays.


But that is not the point of this post. I just thought I'd share that with you guys, my darling, darling readers.

My question for today is why various internet outlets (particularly social media outlets) want me to sync up all of my accounts. No, I don't want to follow the people that I'm friends with on facebook on Twitter...unless, that is, I know them well enough to know I actually have an interest in what they have to say. I do not WANT my internet persona to become some massively-integrated single entity. I mean, a younger me (okay, a current me) was (is) an obsessive user of Harry Potter fansites. I don't WANT that to become a part of what my facebook friends or my blog readers see of me.

Yes, I understand that the whole point is so they can get a better profile of the sites you use, the things you like, and the people you know, so that, ultimately, they can better market to you. But I don't want that. I just want to use every major social media site WITHOUT converging them all together. Is that so much to ask?

When that "Would you like to link this account to Facebook?" option comes up...burn it. Kill it with fire.

Yours in internet anonymity (ha),
Rachel Leigh

On Global News and International Security

I don't mean to sound unpatriotic.  I mean, I make a lot of comments about dumb Americans, but really, I just find most people to be dumb.  I am, in fact, quite proud of the country I live in.  But the people who are surprised that Shakeel Afridi, the doctor who helped the United States track Bin Laden to the compound in Pakistan where he was later killed (Hey, good job, Seal Team 6...no really, though, that was bad-ass) was tried and convicted of treason are....kind of naive, really.

I'm all for what he did, but just because he did the right thing doesn't mean there aren't legal consequences.  He reported internal affairs to an outside intelligence source.  That's treason.  And the 33 years in prison he would serve as a result?  Pretty light compared to the punishment for treason in most countries, which is death.

Doing the right thing in spite of its legality is something you still have to consider.  Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail focuses on the idea that we have a moral obligation to break immoral laws.  But we also have a responsibility to accept the punishment that comes with it.  That punishment is what makes civil disobedience different from outright criminal behavior.

I think Dr. Afridi did exactly the right thing -- he helped us catch and eliminate a dangerous criminal and a threat to international security.  But what he did was still a crime against his country, and they have a right to prosecute him for that.  If the same thing happened in the U.S., they'd have just as much a right to do the same thing.  I'd like to think we'd have the fairness and good judgment to overlook or downgrade the crime in the face of what was accomplished as a result, but when a country's security and sovereignty within their borders is threatened, they have the right to try the people responsible for treason and to go after them as they see fit.

Just my two cents on a big global news story.

Tiredly yours,
Rachel Leigh

On Facebook, Nerdfighteria, and Being The Product

John Green's video for the week this week on the vlogbrothers' channel on YouTube (Do I have to explain this?  Really?*) was called "You ARE The Product."  Once again, he made me smile by making more sense than you.  It was in response to the Facebook IPO, which is a topic far too complicated for me to try and flesh out right now and is not really the point of this post.

A lot of people have been wondering how Facebook's IPO could have estimated the company's worth at $100 billion.  That's enough money for me to pay off my student debt, make some significant head-way into the national deficit, buy each of my immediate family members a home, invest in MULTIPLE pools filled with jello or other delicious edible food-type products, and still have some to spare.  And it seems like a lot of money for a company that seems to have a business model that shouldn't be capable of generating a profit.  I, and most people I know, would never pay money for Facebook, which makes it seem kind of absurd that a company with no tangible product can be worth so much.

But that's the point John raised -- it's not that Facebook has no product, it's that we, as the users, are the product.  Our use of the site has commodified us and made us a product worth a multi-million dollar advertising market.  But, I mean, John really only focused on one aspect of how Facebook commodifies its users -- it's not only that we are exposed to the ads that Facebook gets paid to show us.  It seems naive to ignore or forget the fact that Facebook has been blasted several times for selling user information to companies and ad agencies, so those same companies get both the ad space they pay for and the added benefits of a helpful profile that makes sure they're not wasting their advertising dollars on people outside their target market.  Both literally and figuratively, your online personality has been turned into a product to be bought and sold, and THAT's what makes Facebook billions.

I guess the bigger question is -- does it matter?  Does the fact that the information I post and view on Facebook can be sold to an ad company so they better know how to market to me make me want to stop using Facebook?  Not really.  While the idea of treating human life as a commodity to be bought and sold is grotesque, in all honesty, the way Facebook does it doesn't leave me feeling that squicky, exploited feeling that I would have thought it would.

Just my two sense.  I miss you, darling readers!

Productively Yours,
Rachel Leigh

* John Green is one of the YouTube-famous "VlogBrothers," the famous and wonderful real-life brothers, John and Hank Green.  John Green is also a New York Times best-selling author and his videos (as well as Hank's) are alternately hilarious, breathtakingly brilliant, and, occasionally, both.  These two are also the co-creators of an online community known as Nerdfighteria (home of the Nerdfighters) whose home base used to be In Your Pants, but since Your Pants has been faulty for a while now, they've transitioned back to controlling the world through YouTube.  Just, like, go check them out.  I'm tired of trying to explain this.  DFTBA.

On Looking for Trouble

So the other day, a few of my friends were arguing on a post on my Facebook page about a movie poster for The Avengers (Joss Whedon, if you're reading this, I love you).*  It had to do with the posing of the characters on the movie poster and their costumes.  At first, I didn't really respond, because, honestly, while I could see both sides to the points they were making, I really didn't take it seriously.  I saw no need to.  It's a movie poster.

And that got me thinking.  People get so riled up about things and, in all honesty, I think sometimes it clouds the bigger issue.  The world has enough REAL issues worth fighting about -- war, torture, famine, violence, marginalization -- that I don't entirely understand the point of starting arguments or looking for problems in places where, honestly, it doesn't matter.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good rant as much as the next person.  And when I find something to rail about, I will in a heartbeat.  I just honestly don't see the point in looking for arguments in places where there really aren't any...the world has enough things to fight about.

I've got shit to Avenge,
Rachel Leigh

* No seriously.  Joss Whedon, and fellow Whedon fans, understand my love here.  I was already psyched for The Avengers because, honestly, I'm a hardcore Marvel dork, but then JOSS friggin WHEDON.  Writing amazing characters and then breaking my heart with them** for years and hopefully for years to come.


** "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"

What is up, my darling readers?  After Hell Week, Finals, and then Beach Week in the sunny, sweaty haven that is Myrtle Beach, SC, I am officially exhausted.  And sunburnt in some awkward and uncomfortable places.  Don't judge me.

If you have the unfortunate lot in life of being one of my facebook friends, then you know me as one of two people:

1. That awesome girl who posts quality material, has FANTASTIC album names, and keeps your News Feed awesome.
2. That annoying bitch who won't stop posting and really needs to develop a social life off the internet.

I see nothing wrong with Facebook stalking, and I am absolutely tuned in to pretty much every social media outlet in some context (and have actually been working on/managing the social media aspect of a project at work), but I'm beginning to think I have a problem.

No lie, 11:30 last night I was ghetto-rigging internet on my laptop through the data and bluetooth on my phone so that I could upload pictures from Beach Week.  #firstworldproblems

I don't know why this turned into a random ramble.  Keep an eye out for more things.

On The Things I Assume About You Based on Where You Study

You know that scene in Mean Girls when Janice and Damien are explaining the layout of the cafeteria to Cady, going around and pointing out all of the stereotypes and social groups?  Of course you do, because it's one of the greatest scenes in a movie that will define our generation.  My school is kind of like that.  And while I could go on for days about the stereotypes about the layout of our dining hall, I have something else to vent about.

With finals right around the corner and the entire population of the school (except the seniors who are so close to graduating that you can physically feel the number of f*cks they do not give) is going to start marking territory around Boatwright like some possessive, tiny-bladdered puppy, it seemed like the right time to do this.  I give you: "Partially-Unfounded Assumptions I Make About You Based on Where You Study"

• Boatwright (the Library): As a general rule, you're checking Facebook more than your textbook and probably using 8:15 and potty breaks as just another excuse to procrastinate.  Then again, so are the rest of us.  But there's more to it than that.
• B2: Aww...the group study area.  Couples that want to be obnoxiously coupley in the not-so-private privacy of the bottom level, a couple awkward study rooms, and the bathroom that people use when they really need to poop and don't want to be around other people.
• B1: Fratstars and the sorority biddies who love them (also known as the B-school in exile).  Also, the socially awkward people who actually WANT to sit and study on the silent floor.  I assume you have no social skills, no friends, and a generally sad future ahead of you.
• First Floor
• Open Area: I get it.  You're here with your sorority fam and you'll get on each other's cases to get work done after you finish catching up on the gossip you couldn't catch up on at chapter, fam dinner, and that time you got lunch like two hours ago.
• Quiet Section: Also known as the "We came here to get shit done" section of the library.
• Second Floor 
• Open Area: Frat guys and loud Internationals.  It's funny that you expected to get work done.
• Quiet Section: No really, who ARE you people?  I'm pretty sure I've never seen you in my life, probably because you never leave this room, and PLEASE stop glaring at me for slamming the bathroom door.  I can't help it that it's so dead silent in here that you could hear a fly land on a table.
• MRC: Don't even pretend you're doing anything other than checking Facebook and watching movies.  I can see your computer screen.
• Gottwald (Science Building): I assume your life is sad, you probably haven't slept in anything other than that chair in the lobby in about a week, and I'm sincerely concerned about the last time you showered.
• The B-School: You couldn't even detach yourself from outside Dean's office door and dress like a college student rather than my 40 year old math professor long enough to leave the B-School to study somewhere else.  You worry me.
• Your Dorm Room: You say "studying," I say "watching Netflix and ordering Jimmy Johns"

So, there you have it.  My in-depth explanations of the extent to which I judge you, based solely on where you could find a place to sit.  See you all in Boatwright, complaining about the temperature as always and sobbing uncontrollably over my Statistics study guide, in a few days.

Finally,
Rachel Leigh  

Darling readers, I am physically and mentally EXHAUSTED.  Thank goodness it's Thursday (no classes Friday, ftw).

Short term goals for the blog --

•  MOAR non-serious posts -- Suggestions welcome.  The world can only handle so much of my angry ranting.
• SUPER WONDERFUL 100TH POST EXTRAVAGANZA?!
• ????
• Profit

Love you, mean it.

So I may have just left this discussion called "The Faces of Feminism," which was this talk about the definition of feminism and people's experiences with feminism in their everyday lives.  And by "may have," I definitely mean "did."  I almost feel like I need to be apologetic when I get serious on this blog, because it seems like most of my darling readers prefer when I'm just talking about something completely ridiculous.  Honestly, those are more fun to write.

But anyway, I think what stood out to me the most was this idea that there are so many different personal definitions of feminism (and, as a result, so many different kinds of feminists), and that this really stems from the fact that the ways people come to identify as feminist are all actually pretty personal and unique journeys.

If you remember (which I wouldn't blame you if you didn't...some days I don't remember what I ate for breakfast (spoiler alert: I usually sleep through it)), I did a post way back when I started this blog about why I self-identify as a Democrat.  I guess this is kind of my reasons for identifying as a feminist?  We'll see.

I'm sure my story begins somewhere along the lines with my beliefs about sexual and domestic violence.  The two for me are completely inseparable, and I think, to a large extent, that's really what shapes my personal views of feminism.  It also doesn't help that I'm a philosophy minor and an absolute freak about ethical philosophy.  I think my views on pretty much everything are inextricably tied to this idea that people are autonomous, unique, and incomprehensible, and that these characteristics alone make you deserving of being treated like a human being and no less than anyone else.  I'm a feminist, honestly, because I think no one has a right to make anyone an object, for any reason.

I'm not even sure how to feel about the idea of the word "feminism."  I think maybe it scares people off?  Honestly, I would never deny being a feminist, but I more often identify as an ethicist than a feminist because, for me, it's not about gender, or race, or sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status, because those are all just (to some extent) arbitrary and artificial categories that are super-imposed over the larger issue and, honestly, cloud it a lot of the time.  You have a right to your body, to your opinion, to earn fair compensation for your work, to speak and act freely, to love and be loved as you see fit not in virtue of how you identify but merely on the grounds that you're human, and that being human means that there are things about you which no one else can ever fully understand, control, or consume.  It's not about being different...or even the same...it's about not attempting to categorize the things you can't ever fully understand, and not being able to give or deny rights to someone on the grounds of the things you don't understand.

adjfkldjfkljdklfj,
Rachel Leigh

On Politics and Philosophy and Why My Brain Hurts for Three Hours Twice a Week

I don't really understand why people seem so quick to distinguish politics and philosophy.  This might be because one is my major and one is my minor (and every Tuesday and Thursday, I have two back to back classes in those disciplines), but bear with me for a moment.  While I'm hesitant to draw distinct lines between any two disciplines, I feel like this instance in particular is a mistake.  To make a political decision is to make an inherently moral judgement (I use moral here to mean "related to morality" rather than "good") about the relative worth of the individual or the collective and how we ought to behave with respect to them.

I know some people want to respond that they can come to their decisions about politics or how to act without doing something as "lofty" or "useless" as philosophizing, but that's really not entirely true.  You may not throw around heavy philosophical terms like "utilitarianism," "egoism," "deontology," or "Capital T Truths," but you're unknowingly following them in some capacity.  If you're weighing the relative harms and benefits of a solution with respect to others, you're thinking like a utilitarian.  If you're acting in accordance with the ethical rules you were taught/absorbed from your parents and mentors, you're a virtue ethicist.  All philosophy asks of you is to really consider the implications of how you make those choices -- which is exactly what you have to do in politics.  Different ethical systems of views of human nature lend themselves to different ideas on laws, the structure of government, and the rights of individuals.  The sheer concept of "human rights" is a philosophical speculation.

I think I admire the classical thinkers (and even many moderns) for the fact that they really didn't differentiate the importance of disciplines -- being a philosopher meant living a life where you really thought about things, ranging from who we are and how we should live to physics, math, how we communicate, languages, and yes, even politics.

There's a reason that Plato and Aristotle and Locke and Hobbes and Kant can be applied to ethics and metaphysics and politics as well, and it's because trying to distinguish their ethical ideas from their ideas about those implications for politics and how we should view people would be a mistake.  And one I think it's a shame to make.

Thinking,
Rachel Leigh

On Holding it Together...and Faking it When You Can't

Do you ever have one of those days?  One of those days where literally nothing from the moment you wake up goes right and you're pretty sure that if someone looks at you the wrong way, you'll probably either scream, cry, vomit, or potentially all three at once?

This is not to say that today was one of those days, but god, do I have those days.  Waking up feeling like there are small jackhammers taking turns at the inside of your skull and knowing that no amount of sleep will ever make this better.  Going to class and getting an assignment back only to realize you completely bombed it.  The dining hall's bad and it's raining and if you had the opportunity to just fast-forward through this day to the next one, you would take it in an instant.

Well, thankfully, I've developed some coping mechanisms for days like these...as well as some ways to at least appear like you're coping.

1. Comfort Food:  This is no new discovery, but there are very few things in the world that comfort food can't at least make infinitesimally better.  I'm a big fan of soup and grilled cheese.
2. Caffeine: I may hate today.  I may want to punch the sun for being out when I'm in a bad mood.  But a little caffeine kind of forcibly perks you up.  It's hard to stay angry when there's liquid chemical happiness energy coursing through your bloodstream at roughly twice your normal heart rate.  It kind of makes me want to go run a mile or six.  Haha, I lied, nothing makes me want to run six miles.
3. Dress Up: No really.  This is my go-to way to push through when I feel like absolute crap.  At the very least, other people will THINK you feel awesome, and the positive energy that you get back from that will help.  Plus, inside tip -- dresses are the best thing ever.  They always look put-together and all you have to do is take them off the hanger and put them on. Also, sunglasses.  Learn it.  Love it.

So that's how I survive.

Holding it together,
Rachel Leigh

On My Psychotic Resume

If, in addition to being one of my darling readers, you happen to be friends with me on Facebook, then you probably know that two weeks ago, I was obsessing over my resume and the fact that my job history makes NO sense.

Honestly, I blame that mostly on necessity -- I took the jobs that were available because I needed them, and I took the opportunities that were there because they were there.  So much of what they teach us in school/college these days revolves around preparing for your future: you need work experience in high school because it looks good on your college applications, then you need internships and good grades in college because they look good for graduate school.  And god forbid, you don't get that summer internship in DC because then how will you ever rise to the top of the Democratic Party and then become the youngest President in U.S. history?  And they drill this into us.  Even today, at the orientation I had to attend to study abroad in the fall, they stressed thinking about how this experience will relate to your future career plans.

Which is why I say my resume makes no sense.  There is literally NO cohesion between one entry and the next.  I've gone through 9 different jobs and internships, some paid, some unpaid.  Mostly paid.  I took a minimum wage job because I needed the money.  I took an internship for a science museum because it was offered to me.  I've been a camp counselor and an office monkey, a research intern and a writing consultant.  And I don't want to hide any of it.  Those weird jobs and internships made me who I am.  Thanks to that weird resume, I have worked alongside dinosaurs, improved my communication skills (and to some degree, my patience), learned how to decorate cakes, learned way more about the human spine than I think I ever needed to know, gotten passionate about how terrible mental health care is at highly competitive universities, learned to mine a client database, and been background checked more times than most kids my age.  I wouldn't be the potential employee I am, or the blogger I am, or the person I am if I hadn't had so many odd experiences that weren't supposed to relate to my future plans.

And so I think it's kind of messed up that there's this drive to already know what you want to do with your life and have it all figured out.  I think it's crazy that you're expected to already be set on this path and ready to go from before you even go to college.  I still have no idea what I want or how any of the crazy jobs or hobbies I've had in the past will relate to what I decide to do.  But I want to do them.  All of them.  Just because there's no way to know how they might shape who I turn out to be.

Wandering, but not lost,
Rachel Leigh

Okay, so it's that time again where I give a nod to an awesome blog that I've been reading excessively recently.  I am ABSOLUTELY obsessed with The Ticking Time-Bombshell, also known as Janaiah, also known as BerkeleyBabe for anyone who reads articles on The College Town Life.  She's hilarious, swears like a sailor, and is probably one of the most honest bloggers I've read in a while.  Legitimately obsessed.  I'm pretty sure I fell in love with "How to Disappoint Your Parents," "Revenge 101," and "Santa's Hit List."  So yeah, seriously, go read that blog.

On a completely unrelated note, while I am neither the first nor the only person to say this, is there ANYTHING duct tape can't do?  I'm starting to believe the answer to that question is no.  Well, actually, I know from personal experience that it can't make a good/usable cup, and said cup would probably kill you if you used it more than once.  But in all seriousness, after about 10,000,000 failed attempts to hang my posters with sticky tack or poster strips like we're supposed to and having them fall down every. single. time., I sucked it up and used duct tape, and now everything is better.  Take that, people who called me out on buying $20 worth of duct tape.  Perfectly reasonable investment.

In other news, my trip to Copenhagen is officially booked, and as such "WCS Goes to Europe" is set to launch August 18.  Be prepared.

Well, this was just a little news update for all you, my darling readers.  Be good.

MY BLOG IS BEING DUMB AND ONLY SHOWING ONE POST ON MY MAIN PAGE.

It's supposed to show 15.  It's not working and I've been trying but I can't fix it.

There are more posts from the last several days (varying from highly political rants about Rush Limbaugh and the Kony 2012 campaign to me complaining about people on public transportation) available if you clicked "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page.

I apologize for the dumbness.