Me At The End

I had meant to write this blog on time for symbolic purposes, but that didn't work. I am happy I waited. The wait allowed me to be more thoughtful about the topic. I am a good thinker, but not a good writer. I will not be able to fully express my feelings in the way that I had hoped, but I am quite excited to write this  blog.  This topic  is the best thing that I could write about at this time in my life. I am leaving Whitney Young High School and headed to the Ohio State University. It is an end of an era, but also a beginning. It is a bittersweet feeling. I love Whitney Young for everything that it has given me and would not trade my experiences for anything on Earth.

The best way for me to think about me at the end is the thing about how I was at the beginning. I have never been one to completely put my feelings out there, and that will not change now. I would like to keep the past in the past and continue to look forward as I go on in my life. I can say though that Whitney Young taught me a great deal about people. I think that the thing that I will value the most is the diversity. I met some of the coolest, most driven, beautiful people over the course of my four years. Words can not begin to express what I feel when I think about my last four years. I am grateful that I made the choice to come here, and even more grateful for those of whom that made my stay what it was.

In case you read this, Mr. McCarthy, I want to thank you for a GREAT year. I was not the best student in your class, but I hope that you enjoyed my stay in your class as much as I did. I learned a great deal about philosophy and enjoyed the conversations that we had while in class.

I like the idea of keeping a blog, but I doubt that I will ever write in this one again. If all goes as expected, this will be my last post. For anyone who reads my blog (I'm guessing only Mr. McCarthy) Thanks for the support, and I hope the best for you.

Until whenever, goodbye. It's been god

Sam Thompson

Letter to the Prospective Philosophy Student

Dear Prospective Philosophy Student,

Take this class. Chances are, you will never read this. Theoretically it wouldn't matter because you have already programmed, but still, take this class. Mr. McCarthy's philosophy class is by far the best class that I have ever taken. To me, it was the perfect mix of a cool fun atmosphere with a serious workload.

I admit that I wasn't the best student all the time in this class, but I still feel that I took a lot from this class. Mr. McCarthy is one of the coolest teachers that you will ever have and the conversations that you will have in the classroom will influence the way you think about a lot of things for a long time. My year and high school career at Whitney Young is coming to a bittersweet end, but I can honestly say that this philosophy class has been a steady bright spot in my senior year.

I am going to fall short of my required word count in this blog entry because I feel that I have told you everything that I need to. I can not make the decision for you to take this class, but I can say that you will not be disappointed if you make the choice to do so. It will be an experience that you won't soon forget.

Sincerely,

Sam Thompson
Philosophy - 5th Period
2010-2011

Thoughts about Earlier Thinking

Whenever I think about my thoughts earlier in the year, I immediately think about basketball and the way that I approached this season. Last January, I injured my ankle. I came back against the doctor's orders to play in the state tournament and then was forced to sit out for another two months. I came back towards the end of May and played about one month before injuring that side again. That  injury sidelined me virtually the entire summer. By the time I came back in September, I had virtually been injured for nine months straight. I was physically ready, but I was not mentally ready. For no fathomable reason, I did not come back and work on my game in the way that I had before the injury. Subsequently, my stock fell dramatically and I did not have a good season.

I do not know exactly what I was thinking with this whole situation, but I feel that the most valuable thing that I have learned over the course of the year is the value and need for hard work - both on and off the basketball court. I did not work particularly hard in school or on the court this year, and as a result the results were not good. The one thing that I know I HAVE to do next year in Ohio is work as hard as I possibly can on everything that I do. If I am able to do that, I will go a long way.

The blog, “Surrounded by Cuckoos, but I was the Crazy One” is in response to the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Personally, I felt that this was one of the better books that we read this year. It was more of an enjoyable read that the other books that we read. Malcolm X and the Invisible Man were outstanding  books, but they had more of a serious undertone than One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. If I were to be reading for pleasure, I would likely choose One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

That being said, the title of the blog can be an interesting topic. It essentially brings up the argument of normal vs. abnormal. I think most would agree that McMurphy was not insane in the way that many of the other patients were. He was dangerous and a loose cannon to say the least, but he did not have the personality disorders that plagued the other patients. However, the person that steps in the other direction is generally referred to as the crazy one. The same can be said about society. If someone genuinely believes something that is not popularly accepted in society, they will likely be labeled as crazy. 


Most of this is just fear by those who doing the labeling. I am not one that is against conformity per se, but I do think that you will miss out on a great deal in life going with the grain. The safe and logical thinking is to do what has been laid out for you, but a lot is to be said for those of whom do things their own way.

Together

I am all about togetherness. Together is always better than alone. Being happy with someone else is always better than being happy alone, being sad together is always better being sad by your self and almost anything else that you can think of.

I think that I feel so strongly about the sense of togetherness because of my feelings on how a team should be and my feelings about my family. I have been on some for of team for virtually my entire life. As I've grown older, I've been able to understand more and more about what that means. My teammates at Whitney Young will be some of my best friends for the rest of my life. Your teammates are people that should always have your back. No matter what. That is what I have been taught - that you are going to war with your teammates and the only way to have the best possible outcome is to be as close knit a group as possible. The same is to be said about family. There is nothing on the planet that I would not do to preserve the well being of my family. In my eyes, my family are the people that will always love me no matter what happens on this Earth.

If I consider you to be a good friend of mine, a teammate or if you are a close family member, I will do anything in my power to help you in any way that I can. I find myself to be a very loyal person in that sense.

Alone

Again, this blog is likely related to the Invisible Man. I am going to take this chance to talk about myself.

I often times feel like I am alone. Not physically, but in a deeper sense. I have a great support system with my family and friends, but I often times feel like I do not have people that I can talk to about certain things. One of my best friends (who will remain unnamed) has become that person in the past months that I open up to about certain things, but there is still a limit to what I can tell her. She does a good job of listening and I feel comfortable telling her things, but the fact is that she and I are different people, and she can not truly relate to what I am saying.

I am an introverted person, so I am comfortable with not telling people things. However, that does not break the feeling of loneliness that comes about ever so often. Overall though, I am not alone. I am very close to my family and a select group of people that I call my good friends.


I'm also weird and feeling pretty down right now, so I could just be talking out my ass.

Save the Earth, Do This!

Happy Earth Day blog readers. (Mr. McCarthy)

If there one thing that I would suggest for earth day, it would be water conservation. Often times, people waste water in a number of ways and do not realize the effects that they are having on the outer world. Our water supply will be a bigger and bigger topic as we continue to get older. Soon enough we will fight wars over water and all that good stuff.

Small things like keeping the water off when you brush your teeth, watering your plants at night, turning the water off when you are washing dishes etc... can go a long way when conserving water. Water is our planets most important and valuable resource, so it would serve us well to help save it.