Assisted Suicide

Although assisted suicide is illegal in some states, it should be illegal in all states for the simple reason that everyone, even professionals, make mistakes.  Just because a doctor tells a patient who is very ill that they only have a few months to live does not mean that the patient cannot live longer.  A doctor does not have the ability to see the future; he may be able to make an educated guess on how a patient's condition can progress but he absolutely can not be certain of how long a person has to live.  It would be awful if a person was told he/she had only six months to live, went under assisted suicide, but actually could have ended up living another two years.  Think about all the things you can do in two whole years and about how many memories you can make in that time with your friends and family that you would not have experienced had you taken the drugs.  Also, you have to put yourself in the shoes of a doctor.  Doctors themselves know that they can be wrong and I'm sure that at least some of them would feel awful giving someone the means to die knowing that they could in fact live longer.  It is also unclear as to whether or not assisted suicide is even allowed by hippocratic oath, under which all doctors swear that they will not intentionally harm a patient.  You are harming an individual if you are giving them the means to kill themselves.

A Difficult Conversation

Every day in math class, Sasha and Tasha gossip about any events that have recently occurred in school.  Hannah, who is somewhat acquainted with Sasha and Tasha, sits in front of them and hears every word of their conversations.  What the other girls say about other students bothers Hannah, especially when she hears them talking about someone sitting in that very classroom.

It was when Sasha and Tasha started talking about the new kid from Wisconsin that Hanna decided to butt in; "James just moved here from a different state that is very far from here.  He doesn't know anyone at all here, so you should invite him to sit with you at lunch if you see him sitting alone, instead of scoffing at him for it."  At this, Sasha and Tasha's eyes widened out of astonishment that their friend Hannah had just told them not to do something.  "James is so weird; no one would want to sit with him anyway,"Sasha retorted.  Hannah sighed with frustration.  They were missing her point.  After a few seconds of time to regain her courage, Hannah said, "I don't care if you have already met him and happen to think he is weird.  What I'm trying to say is, I don't think either of you should talk about another person in a bad way, whether they are new or not new.  It's disrespectful and hurtful."  Both of the other girls rolled their eyes in exasperation.  "We'll keep that in mind," Tasha remarked sarcastically.  "I'll make sure you do," Hannah thought to herself with determination.

From the Perspective of a Kitchen Table

Food.  It is a love shared by everyone.  I love food, however, for a different reason than most.  Food is the reason I am who I am, in fact it is the reason I have come into existence.  It is what gives me my work and what provides me with the company that I love so much.

I am a kitchen table.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner is what I am made for.  I live in the kitchen and never venture out of it.  My job is important, and requires me to be on duty twenty-four hours a day.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner supplies me with all I will ever need: a sense of purpose and a sense of feeling loved and needed.  My work is simple, yet satisfying.  With every day that goes by comes a stronger sense of unity between me and my family.

A typical day starts with breakfast.  Usually the mother will enter the kitchen first clank a set of six bowls down on me along with two boxes of cereal.  "Ouch," I think to myself.  Even though I don't particularly hate it, even I can be a bit cranky in the morning at times.  A few minutes later the father will enter along with the brothers and the sisters, wary from it being morning.  In an instant it becomes hectic.  Parents reminding the younger siblings to remember their lunches, older siblings thinking about a test happening that day, and finally sitting down around me and quickly eating their breakfast.  It is in these hectic morning hours that I get to be of comfort by always being in the kitchen for breakfast to provide at least some consistency in a very rushed, hectic morning.  I think this to myself and smile.

Most days my work does not include lunch, and instead picks up after school when the first of the siblings come home.  Noise erupts in the house as they come through the door and thump their heavy bags on top of me.  They talk about various aspects of their day before congregating all around me to do their homework.  "Homework time" is very fun for me because I am tickled by the feeling of pencils and pens writing on paper.  I think to myself and laugh.  How could they be working and not be distracted that someone so very near them is having so much fun?

My typical day of work ends with dinner.  Once again, the family congregates around me because of food, but I know I serve a larger purpose.  Dinner is my favorite time of day, because it is when I see growth in the members of the family that I love.  I see them miserable in the morning, and focused in the afternoon, but in the evening I see them enjoying one another's company while also growing closer to one another and also as individuals.  Even though my job is to hold the food and the dishes, I take the most pleasure in doing my job while also witnessing what goes on during dinner: the family members really talking.  They do not just talk about the events of their day; they discuss significant topics such as politics or serious issues seen in the news, laugh together, and reminisce together.  Thinking about family dinners makes me proud that my job serves a purpose larger than serving food.

It brings me great joy to think that I am more than an individual; I am a member of a family and at the center of much of their bonding.  I enjoy the homework time and laugh at the chaos of breakfast, but that is not where most of my pleasure comes from.  My pleasure comes from providing a place and a reason for my family to be together every day, which adds value to each of their lives that would not be able to be achieved elsewhere.

I bring love to a family that is deeper and more profound than the love they have for the food I serve.  I am a kitchen table.

Get Well Soon, Mr. Sheehan!

Courage

Courage is the ability to do something that frightens you.  Doing something frightening requires a person to leave his/her comfort zone.  Every person has different fears, so what each person considers to be courageous can also be different.  A recent experience with courage I had was through the screen of a computer.  My grandfather, whom I live with, likes to show me and my family interesting things he finds or learns from, whether it be something from a book, a conversation he had, or anything else.  In this case it was a Ted talk online; a Ted talk about introverts, done by an introvert.

The fact that the speaker, a woman named Susan Cain, was speaking in front of a large crowd struck me as courageous, because I am an introvert also and can never see myself doing such a thing.  She was talking about the subject matter of her book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.  Because of her introversion, Cain had to step out of her comfort zone and out of her "natural environment" to promote her book and get her ideas out.  Her passion for her subject was strong enough for her to overlook her fears.

During her speech, Cain discussed how she had tried to hide her introversion and fake extraversion earlier in her life.  She became a lawyer originally, but then became a writer because she had always wanted to be and felt it was a more natural fit for her personality.  I see Cain as displaying true courage for leaving a job as a lawyer, where the pay is usually very reliable, and becoming a writer.  Writers are not guaranteed to be successful and have a reliable source of income, so entering the profession was likely frightening at first.

Introversion is something I struggle with on a day-to-day basis because it is a huge part of who I am and forces me out of my comfort zone everyday in talking to people I do not know well.  Seeing Susan, someone I identify with, display such courage in the Ted Talk showed me how stepping out of your comfort zone can be a good thing.  Even though I hear people say all the time that "blank" showed them that they can "do anything," I am going to say the same thing about seeing Cain's speech.  I want to step out of my comfort zone and do something courageous on day just like Susan Cain.  I just have to figure out what that is.

Click here to see the Ted Talk by Susan Cain

“Figure out what you are meant to contribute to the world and make sure you contribute it. If this requires public speaking or networking or other activities that make you uncomfortable, do them anyway. But accept that they're difficult, get the training you need to make them easier, and reward yourself when you're done.” 
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking