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Friendship.

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When I was younger, the number of friends that I had mattered because we needed to have enough of us to play a football game or shoot hoops. We typically hung out in groups of 10-12 of us. These friends were friends for the time and I always seemed to gage my self-worth based on the number of friends that I had. Different experiences through the years showed me that some of the people who I thought were my friends may not have always considered me the same.  My mom has 3-4 friends, but she is friendly with everyone she encounters. My brothers, sister and I used to kind of make fun of her for not having any friends. She would always tell me that she would rather have friends that she could count on one hand who she knew would be there for her not matter what instead of having countless friends who would show up only if it was convenient for them.  As I started college, I worried that I may not have enough friends. What I found was that I can have many acquaintances while only h...
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Distracted driving...

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  Distracted driving has become a major issue over the past 15 years. Since the introduction of cell phones and interactive touchscreens our roads have never been more occupied with distracted drivers.   Taking your focus off of the road for that long is dangerous. Any type of commotion that deters the driver or gets their temper soaring may result in an accident. People rely heavily on their phone or navigation system to tell them how to get from one location to another. This often requires the drivers’ eyes to focus on the navigation screen to ‘follow” the line shown on the screen. Obviously, if their eyes are looking at their phone or navigation screen, they are not looking at the road. Not only for the use of directions, phones can distract drivers by way of alerting them to a text or a posting while they are driving. The human mind is programmed to want to immediately read and respond to texts. When doing so, the driver is not focused on driving or their surroundings. The...
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Immunity down

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  Attempting to protect ourselves from Covid 19 by wearing masks seems to have negatively affected our immune systems. Daily contact with viruses and bacteria help build our immune system and help our bodies defend sickness. Our bodies build immunity from exposure. Children are exposed to many bacteria and viruses when surrounded by peers or touching stuff in the community. Contact with many of these germs does not always result in sickness, rather it helps the body recognize them as invaders to assist with protecting against them in the future.  Masking and social distancing for an extended period of time did not do anyone any favors. The news is reporting daily that cases of RSV, strep A and the Flu are on the rise. Studies have shown that from wearing masks and keeping our distance in 2020, the result is weaker immune systems. Experts are not sure if it is the lack of exposure or the inherent stress caused by being isolated that is the root cause of the increase in sickness...
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Social Media Mania

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  Social media was intended as a means to share information. It has evolved into a means of portraying oneself exactly as they want others to see them. The reality does not necessarily match the portrayal. Postings on social media often include only the favorable parts of people’s lives. I believe it is human nature to compare yourself to others. Social media allows people to offer up their best self, or even their best idea of themselves and share it with whoever will listen or watch.  I have some close friends who struggle in their relationships. They often come to me for consolation or for advice. The oddity is that they are often coming to me in pain or conflicted about how to handle situations while these same situations are portrayed much differently in a social media post. For example, my friend comes to me upset about his girlfriend. He is frustrated with her and wants to break up with her. I later view a post on his social media platform regarding the very same person...
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Death of first pet 😢

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  During the 2021 holiday season, our dog Angus passed away. We adopted him in 2011 from a family that needed to get rid of him. At first, we were not sure if we would be able to keep him because my brother, Vinny is allergic to some animals. It turned out that Vinny could tolerate Angus and we were able to keep him. Angus was our first family pet and we were very excited to have a new member in our family. For years, Angus went on family trips with us. We would go camping and hiking and he always enjoyed being alongside of us. Angus loved to play in our backyard and go on long walks with me. Angus did not like to play in the water or ride on our boat. He was much more content to just lay on the patio instead of getting in the pool.  In June of 2020, Angus became sick with dementia. As the months passed, our family made adjustments  to our daily schedules in order to have someone available to tend to him when he needed. I remember having to stay awake with him at night be...
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The Icebox

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 Back in my favorite year 2020 (that's sarcasm) one of my best friends had gotten a job in the summer at this ice factory called 'Home City Ice'. He had worked there for 2 weeks and kept telling me how fun it is and how the pay was pretty good at the time. I didn't have a job then and I wanted some money for the summer, so then he convinced me to apply. While this wasn't my first job, I still didn't have much "work experience". My first job was working as a "lifeguard" at a trampoline park in Downers Grove. I was only there for 2 months before the COVID-19 pandemic took over and I couldn't work. I had a few months off from working and then on July 14th I went in for an interview at Home City Ice and they hired me on the spot.  Working this job was a completely different environment than what I was used to. I was working in a factory where things could go very wrong very quickly. When they hired me, I had to go through extensive training t...
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My pup, Vito

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     Earlier this year back at the beginning of summer, my aunt got a dog. The dog was named Bruno and she would bring him everywhere with her. My parents saw how good of a dog paired with his temperment and it got them thinking about getting a little pup for ourselves. My mom brought up her idea to my aunt and they both thought it would be great. For context, my aunt lives down in Tennessee and that's where she got her dog from. She still was in contact with the lady that she bought Bruno from. My aunt then got a hold of the lady and asked if she had any other dogs that she was looking to sell. Luckily for my family, she did. It turned out that Bruno had a brother! My family was eager to find out this news. We planned out a trip to go visit my aunt and go pick up the dog. At this point it was the middle of July and we all wanted a dog. We made the trip down to Tennessee. When we arrived at the lady's house we were greeted by a bunch of other dogs that she had and of cour...
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