Fast Food

Fast food was a major part of my childhood; in fact, my family and I would eat it at least five times a week. My mother has never been fond of cooking every single day, and the access we had to fast food was ridiculous. The routine was simple; Mondays through Fridays we would eat McDonalds, or any restaurant alike, and weekends my mom would cook whatever was fast and delicious. Although we ate McDonalds constantly, what we ordered were the healthiest options: two McChickens and medium fries. In reality, the healthiest option was probably one McChicken and small fries, but that wouldn't fill up anybody. We stuck with our usual order of fast food every week for about five years or so; then, we started to notice our state of health. My brother and sister were just out of high school at the time, and they gained around forty pounds within six months. The rest of us were either overweight or just never felt good, so it was time to make a change. We had to start somewhere, so we decided to eradicate any sugar filled drinks, and expand from there. The shift from unhealthy to healthy was easier than we all thought, and it only took about three months to get accustomed to the new life we were living.

Today, fast food still has a place in our lives; however, we consume it only every Sunday of the week. My mom works on Sundays, so she gets home too exhausted to cook something for all of us. My dad absolutely hates cooking, so he’d much rather buy food for all of us; therefore, we head to the fast food restaurants. The options this time around are almost the same, burgers are still an option, but now we decided to add pizza to the equation. I realize how unhealthy that might sound, but it's not really bad. We still order the healthiest options in McDonalds, and we only eat about two maybe three slices of pizza each; In addition, we sometimes decide to purchase subway which is considered one of the most delicious yet healthy foods. The rest of the week consists of a ton of fruits and vegetables, so in terms of eating, we are pretty healthy. In terms of exercise, we are also really good; in fact, we all put in at least thirty minutes of exercise a day. Compared to other family's, we are extremely fit, at least in my opinion. To go from fast food six days a week, to fast food once a week was a lot easier than we originally thought, and I'm sure the same would be the same for others.

Essay #1

Essay #1

High School has a variety of sports to choose from, starting with the favorites such as football, soccer, baseball and the "other" sports like tennis, golf, and/or handball. From the beginning I wanted to join a sport that was different than the rest, yet the choices I had just weren't doing it for me. Until a good friend of mine mentioned he was in mountain bike, at that moment I noticed how perfect that sport would be. Soon after joining I found out how intense and terrifying it could be riding a bike on a mountain, but fear kept me coming back. Fear isn't something I feel often, and as crazy as I might sound I kind of like it. Over time the fear was replaced with excitement, and I grew to love every aspect of the sport. Riding through trails at great speeds was too much fun and, believe it or not, even falling gave an adrenaline rush that actually made me feel good, until the pain set in later of course. Practice days were Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and our coach Mr. Salcido had us doing difficult trails in order to prepare us for our first mtn. bike race. After practice on a picture perfect Tuesday afternoon I was packing my gear, exhausted, wanting to go home and stuff my face with food, when my coach had to make an announcement. "This Saturday we are going to ride with three other teams and its going to be long, so make sure you bring lots of water!", "something different" I thought to myself.

The week flew by and Saturday came, everything the same. The only difference was that there were a hell of a lot more riders this time around, and the sun felt like it was only a couple miles away. Our practice started with a long windy pavement road going downhill named The Big Bitch, the name coming from how much of a bitch it was to climb it, it was nothing new.  We headed down gaining a ton of speed, but it wasn't enough for me. I was being held back by a friend of mine and I wanted to pass him, so I moved to his left and planned a course; However, just as I moved to the left he also moved in that direction. "Okay" I thought, " I'll just go to the right", but as soon as a clear view of what was ahead was in my sight, I knew why he moved. Up ahead was a huge pile of rocks that had fallen off the cliff, and I was going way to fast to even try to avoid them: I braced myself for the collision. The rocks made me flip along with the bike, making me land on my left knee and arm. I lay on the pavement a bit pissed off because of how I fell, but soon got over it and continued down the hill. It wasn't till I was in front of the next trail that I realized that my arm was dripping blood and my sock was no longer white but a dark red. Blood wasn't a rare sight so I switched my attention to what mattered, the trail. This was a new trail for me named Backbone, so I was a bit nervous, naturally I asked questions. "How is this hill?" I asked my coach, "It's a bit technical, but just take it slow and you'll be fine", "OK" I replied, "how long is it?" "not long, two maybe three miles long". I finished with the classic "Alright". I looked over my right and my friend was smiling at me the kind of smile that makes you uncomfortable and said, "you're gonna die", "thanks" I replied sarcastically. We headed down the hill in single file, due to the fact that its a narrow trail, and not ten seconds into it I fell: stopping everyone behind me. Enraged I got up and continued, only to fall again. Embarrassed I got up, apologized for stopping everyone, and continued. I fell once again for the third, fourth, and fifth time. The level of embarrassment and rage was at an all time high, but eventually I got to the bottom of the hill.

At the bottom one of the other coaches asked, "what's your name?" "I suck I know" I thought, but then he put his hand out to be shaken. Shocked I shook his hand and couldn't hold back a confused face that I'm sure he noticed. As I shook his hand he said " you got up every time and controlled your emotions, that's impressive", "Thank you" were the only words that came up to mind. The rest of the ride is a blur. As I drove back home I felt a change in me, almost as if the events that occurred gave me wisdom. I realized that what happened to me while mtn. biking also happens in life. Life's a bitch, it'll knock you down and keep knocking you down till you give up. The key is to never give up. Besides the fact that I was told I might need stitches, I felt happiness with what happened that day. I sat and watched TV with a smile while I put an ice pack on my throbbing knee.

Marriage

In my opinion, marriage is very much still alive in America but it has changed and morphed into something different. In the past it was used for "the wrong reasons" because it was often more of a financial decision. That still exists today, but what we perceive as "love" does make a lot of these marriages happen. What keeps marriages alive in America is all of the benefits that it gives the couple, if it didn't give any do you seriously think the same amount of people would still marry? I somehow doubt it, but hey I could be wrong. It’s because of these benefits that marriage will always be part of the social fabric, it doesn't only benefit the couple but also its family. If you think about it, if it only benefits the couple and its family the government wouldn't support it as much, so if you would take a wild guess whether it benefits the government or not; you should guess yes and you'll be right. Should it be this way? Should marriage only be a display of love and commitment and nothing else? That sounds great but sounds a bit funny when I read it, that wouldn't work. Marriage should be a part of the social fabric, not only because for most people it is in fact a symbol of love and commitment, but because it just generally helps.

Rivera’s essay talks about temporary marriages, and whether they would reduce divorce rates or not and she says things I completely agree with. Some things would be, " Allowing couples to choose how long they should be married defeats the purpose of getting married at all." and "'temporary marriage' should not have been considered as a marriage in the first place." Although I agree with what she said I still think temporary marriages would reduce divorce rates. It doesn't matter what it should or shouldn't be called, or whether it defeats the purpose or not. I'm sure people would much rather wait for their marriage to expire than to go through all of the paperwork that comes with divorce. If they don't like each other, all they have to do is avoid each other and never renew their marriage: resulting in divorce rates dropping. I think creating temporary marriages would a good idea, I’m sure for some it would insulting to their religion even degrading and that’s fine. All they would do is ignore it and stick with their normal marriage. To those who aren't religious or just don't care, it would be helpful for them to at least have the option of a temporary marriage. This is only my opinion, I could be on target or way off the mark, but either way; I truly believe temporary marriages can drop divorce rates dramatically.