The Boom in Bloom

When it comes to mentors, I would say that three in my life stick out to me, and they might not even know that they are mentors to me. A mentor can be a lot of different things, but to me, it is someone who motivates you to be a better version of yourself, helps lead you down the right path, and holds you accountable. One mentor that I have in my life is my friend, Matt. I have been friends with his younger brother, Mike, my entire life as we grew up together. I was always friendly with Matt, but we were never close until a couple of years ago. We got close when I was going through a little bit of a rough patch and he started sending me different workout programs to try out and encouraged me to get out of my funk. Whenever I wanted to complain, he’d shut me down and tell me to focus on what really mattered and to keep pushing, and it worked. Fast forward and we still hold each other accountable, we worked two jobs together, and we both pushed each other to be better every day. To me, t...

  In the other Wes Moore’s life, hip-hop played a special role. The other Wes Moore had a dream of becoming a rapper because he felt like music gave him a sense of purpose and direction. He did not want to be like his brother and become a drug dealer. His brother Tony was a drug dealer, and he always encouraged the other Wes Moore to go down a different path, but he based a lot of what he did off of his brother because he saw him succeeding. While hip-hop played a crucial role in the other Wes’s life, it also resonated with the author Wes. Hip-hop sort of served as a bridge between the two with how they resonated with the emotions of the music even though they took very different paths.  Music historically has had a way of bringing people together. Look at the present day, there are music festivals all over the world like Rolling Loud, Boiler Room, Coachella, etc. Everyone from all over the world comes to gather at these events and all bond over the same thing. Like Wes Moore ...

  When it comes to making decisions that I believe could have altered my life path, there have been numerous decisions where I felt as if I made a certain choice that could have led me down a different path. Everyone who is alive probably feels this way, we wish we could go back and make a different decision, make a certain sacrifice, and say the right thing this time, but we can’t. A lot of people, including myself at times struggle with this kind of living in the past sometimes and we are unable to let go of past decisions we might have made dwelling on if things would be any different now if we did things any differently. While they do not have to be as drastic as the Other Wes Moore making a decision that would lead him to be in prison for the rest of his life, certain decisions can haunt us if we are unable to let go.   I’ll talk about one of my decisions that haunts me to this day. My freshman year in 2020 I was at Montclair State University. I was majoring in sport...

Our environment is what surrounds us externally, while our expectations are what we expect of ourselves internally. Many people believe that we are a product of our environment, but does that have to be the case? If LeBron James was a product of his environment growing up, he would not have grown up to be the greatest basketball player to ever live. Instead, he overcame his environment and lived up to the expectations he and everyone else had for him. Environments are a driving force in our lives, good or bad and they can shape us as individuals. Cultural influences, social structures, economic factors, educational institutions, etc, are all things that shape the people we become, but do they necessarily mean we become everything that we are around and what everyone else tells us? I believe that is probably one of the hardest questions to answer because only we can decide what and who we want to become.  In my personal experience, I have grown up in a pretty supportive environment ...

  The average cost of a public, out-of-state college was approximately $23,630 in 2023. Over the course of four years, that would come out to $94,520. Now to pay for college many things go into it such as financial aid, grants, scholarships, etc. Even with those things that could help pay for school, paying nearly $100,000 is extremely expensive for most people in this country. Even after going through the process of getting a college degree, some people might go on to not use their degrees in their future jobs/careers, bringing up the conversation and asking if higher education is worth the price.  Don't get it twisted, college is an extremely valuable place and a degree is an amazing accomplishment, but is the cost worth it for everyone? In universities, there are a multitude of different students, and we have to face the fact that some students do not want to be there at all and lack motivation, but they are still capable of finishing school and capturing that degree but at...

  When tobacco goes into your body, you are putting in toxic cancer-causing chemicals such as heavy metals, carbon monoxide, tar, nicotine, etc. It is hard to think that something worse than that could be put into your body, but could fast food cause just as much harm? At first glance, no one would think that fast food could be remotely close to being as harmful as tobacco, but that is the discussion we are looking at. Most fast food is filled with trans fats, seed oils, artificial additives, added sugar, etc. Overconsumption of fast food can lead to health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc. The topic of obesity was discussed in the article "What You Eat Is Your Business" by Radley Balko which looked into whether obesity should be more of a public issue or a personal problem. Obesity is a global health issue that has had even more attention drawn towards it over the last few years because of how high the numbers are surging. Most recent data according to ...

 Pop Culture has been around forever, but it is something that is constantly changing. Over the years, with more technology and the rise of social media, it is more prevalent now more than ever. We are given news, updates, and the newest trend in a matter of minutes.  From the assignment that we did, we had to choose a word, phrase, and sentence from how we identified the meaning of the article that we read. From what I wrote, what I feel most strongly about is the sentence that I came up with which was "People in today's day in age want to feel like they are a part of something instead of actually being a part of something." That in my opinion, is the worst part about pop culture, social media is accessible to pretty much anyone with a working smartphone, and with that can come with people who are looking to find like-minded individuals that they are able to connect with. But, with that people can find these things but they don't need to leave their couches to do it ...