My boyfriend and I just celebrated Valentine’s day together and ate at a Pappasito’s Tex-Mex restaurant. Before this, we debated on celebrating Valentine’s day or not because we both know that this holiday is extremely manufactured and is the main cause of why people are broke at the end of the month because people want to impress their significant other. But we decided to do it anyway cause we thought it would be fun. I was able to get a day off from work by paying one of my coworkers $40 to take my shift so I can see my boyfriend, which is a factor in itself on how much money this holiday consumes. Alejandro (My boyfriend) was so sweet and got me a balloon, a stuffed puppy, and a heart full of starburst candy, which was $15. Then we went to Pappasito’s and spent around $58 on dinner, and finally, we drove to midtown and went biking, which was around $6.

With the money that we spent on the whole holiday and the gas that was consumed, we spent about $137 on Valentine’s Day. What makes this even more maddening is that if we decided to spend time with each other on our anniversary (5 days after Valentine’s Day) we would’ve spent at least half of what we consumed on Valentine’s day just for dinner. This goes to show that holidays like Valentine’s Day have imbued the majority of peoples’ minds that Valentine’s Day is such an important holiday when, in all reality, it’s a hoax to consume your hard earned money.

Valentine’s Day isn’t the most important day of the year. Yet, society still succumbs to buying superfluous things like chocolate hearts, flowers, and balloons to satisfy their significant other. Along with that, single individuals spend the day in despair because there’s love in the air and they’re not getting any of it. Now if propaganda wasn’t the main issue on why this holiday is so manufactured, then people would be focusing on the main theme of Valentine’s Day; Love.

Love confuses people to be drawn to Valentine’s Day because they think buying someone gifts will help them find love. However, it brings a strong message and brings the world together. Now that love has a more vibrant and diverse meaning to society, it has a bigger influence on individuals, such as hope, purpose, and conviction. Love is no longer selective or specific to one thing and disregarding another. Love is just “Love”.

“IT’S A GREAT DAY TO BE AN AMERICAN”. Sure; if you’re okay with living in a country that has everything from racism, homophobic prejudice, hate crimes, mass incarceration, and a President that has no earthly clue on how to run a country. In the past couple of years, Since Donald Trump has been President, hate, extremism, and nationalism (the negative kind) have been spreading rapidly and putting a divide in our country. This has caused me to have second thoughts on being a proud American; so much that I wish I wasn’t joking about moving to Canada when Trump became President.

Politically and Socially, it has been dissatisfying to be an American. For me, it started with the “I can’t Breathe Movement”; When a group of police officers harassed a black man, threw him on the ground, and put him in a chokehold while the black man was screaming “I can’t breathe”. And it doesn’t stop there folks. In 2016, a white supremacist shoots and kills 9 African Americans in a Charleston Church. In 2017, a clinically dysfunctional white man runs over a group of black counter-protesters, Which Trumps addresses the situation by saying “You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides,”. In 2016, a man kills 49 people in a gay club in Orlando, making this hate-crime one of the worst acts of violence in history. Even the topic of immigrants has racist motives behind it. The list of hate-crimes goes on and on and it’s making people of color fear for their lives because it seems that every white man is out to get them.

This is why I don’t have any sense of morality for my country because of how divided it is; and has been for a very long time. Our history of repression on minorities speaks more loudly than any other part of American history because unironically, minorities have always had a hard time in American history. It seems even after having our first Black President, America still can’t be united as one people. Instead, we have to face the irony of being called the United States of America, but not really “united” at all. As much as we like to call it that, our government operates as divided parties and they are in a war all by themselves. And Trump is too busy shutting down the government and leaving over 800,000 people unemployed and having to scrap for food just he can get money for a wall that no one wants.

As much as I want to have a love for the country that I was born in, there’s so much more improvement needed for this country to be “my” country (for one, a better president). During this delicate time of year, this is the perfect opportunity for reconciliation because the 2020 election is just around the corner. There are a vast amount of promising candidates like Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, and Kamala Harris that could bring plausible change to our country. My only plea for this country is for the hope that we start making an actual change instead of focusing on hate and deciphering on who is our enemy.

My motives for writing this was in response to Jussie Smollet’s attack in Chicago for just being gay and Black. This is the type of hate crime that makes America stand out the most and causes me to be terrified of what the future has for black people and the LGBT Community alike. I hope for the best on Jussie Smollet’s recovery and that this attack is just a bump on the street on the fight for gay rights and acceptance of being who we are.

Highly acclaimed Netflix series, Bojack Horseman, is about an anthropomorphic celebrity that goes through a very depressing life as an actor who tries to cope with life by participating in drugs, alcohol, sexual intercourse and binge-watching his own sitcom show, Horsin’ Around. This is by far one of the most unique characters that I have ever enjoyed watching through the current 5 seasons of Bojack Horseman. This show excellently portrays what it’s like to have everything you want, yet not feel complete inside, which is extremely relating to audiences that go through depression, anxiety, and addiction. I didn’t think I would like this show at first because I am not a depressed person in general, so I thought that I wouldn’t relate to it as much but it’s not just Bojack that stands out. The supporting characters play a huge role in this series and also show great relatability to the viewers.

There are four supporting characters(Mr. Peanutbutter, Todd Chavez, Diane Nguyen, and Princess Carolyn) that all have great moments of character development and each represents a different personality that various individuals can relate too. For me, it was Mr. Peanutbutter, a very generous, jittery, clueless, inattentive, and a loveable dog. Throughout the series, his most noticeable struggle is holding a marriage with Diane Nguyen, who loves him very much but gets very annoyed by him most of the time because when he plans something, it’s mostly for his benefit, which comes across as selfish to Diane, despite Mr. Peanutbutter having the best intentions. A good example is when Mr. Peanutbutter takes Diane out for dinner for her Birthday and she has a great time, but then Mr. Peanutbutter goes over the top and throws a House-Party for her when she didn’t want one because she doesn’t like parties. I was in the same situation when I took my boyfriend to my best friend’s birthday house party to celebrate his 21st birthday and while I was having a great time, Alejandro wasn’t having as much fun because he didn’t know anybody and was just to himself while I was either hanging with my best friends or catching up with old friends from high school that I haven’t seen in years.

What really makes this show so popular is its realism and effortless representation of how far long-term depression goes for one person after dealing with it for so long. Bojack goes through many adventures to find himself or make him feel like he’s worth something but nothing has helped him. He has done so much from excluding his friends, consecutively running away from Los Angeles, to going on a binge-drinking spree, to even settling in a beat up house in Michigan, Bojack has done everything on the list to find happiness but the Journey still goes on and you can’t help but feel for Bojack despite all of the things he has done to himself and his loved ones. But what really makes Bojack the way he is is because of his troubling past and how his parents mistreated and shamed him for being alive. When he was a kid, his idol was Secretariat, a famous racing horse that Bojack would later play as in the movie adaptation of “Secretariat”. In one of the episodes, there was a flashback scene where young Bojack was watching Secretariat in an interview while smoking a cigarette. Because Bojack wanted to be cool like him, he took a cigarette from his mom’s purse and tried smoking it. When his mom caught him, she made him smoke the whole cigarette after she caught him, despite Bojack not liking it.

This year The Netflix series has won the Best Animated Series Award from the Critics Choice Television Awards and it most certainly deserves it because of how much the show itself has grown throughout its 5 seasons. No wonder the show has been approved for another season. I believe this show will be a way for teens and young adults to see how depression works in the mind and for the people with depression to feel like they are not the only one dealing with depression. As someone that has friends and family that currently have depression, I’ve witnessed the toll it takes on individuals and it’s not pretty, but seeing it be adapted in a dark comedy show like this makes me think that it will enlighten all people that are dealing with depression that you have worth in this world and you might not know it yet, but everybody you know loves you.

Ever since the 1970s, Marijuana has been a mainstream gateway drug for the majority of the population. It has many names from dope to weed to Mary Jane and has made a name for itself for the past 40 years it’s been around. It has become a theme among hippies for peace on earth during the Vietnam War and even has its own national weed day on April 20 every year. However, Marijuana is still considered a Grade 1 illegal drug that incarcerated 8.2 million people from 2001 to 2010.

Despite the strong evidence that Marijuana has more medical purposes, approved by the FDA for medical purposes, and is legal recreationally in California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and North Dakota. Yet people are still being incarcerated in all other states, along with black people being 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana. Many of my friends smoke weed and I worry for them because of how tough police is on marijuana, arresting and unjustifiably sentencing them to years in prison for having less than a gram of marijuana in possession. Not only that, people that are living in poverty are having to sell drugs because the government is too ignorant to give basic, beneficial needs other than food stamps to keep them stable.

There has been a lot of groups on YouTube who are able to survey people to smoke weed and ask them if they think that marijuana should be legal. What’s not surprising is the majority of the people in America are in full support for legalizing marijuana. In fact, 62% of the Americans are in favor of legalizing marijuana, which was twice as much as the percentage back in early 2000 (31%) and universities have predicted that Marijuana will be legal all over the country in 2021.

I truly believe that legalizing marijuana will be very beneficial for the U.S. because the states that have legalized marijuana are doing great economically because of the price of recreational and medical marijuana has improved their revenue. And when marijuana is legal, all of the innocent men and women who were incarcerated for possession and there will be fewer people in jail and maybe America won’t be infamous for having the highest rate of incarceration in the world.

There’s a lot of important things in this world that an individual needs to continue through life. But nothing is more important in this world than Parents. Parents are the backbone to every kids’ source of influence during every part of their life from baby to toddler to teen to adulthood. They are something that we shouldn’t take for granted and instead embrace with all of our hearts. I know that I wouldn’t be where I am now without the comfort and love from my Mom (Jacqueline Wade) and the constructive criticism, tough love from my Dad (Kevin Wade). As much as we hate to admit it… we need our parents.

I know a lot of people that have had troubling families and not so good parents either, but parents can be the most encouraging and helpful beings on this earth if you have trust. To every parent, trust is the most important thing to have in order to keep their kids safe. I love my parents to death even though they can give me a hassle sometimes, but I know deep down that their heart is always in the right place. My mom and dad always express how much they love me all the time and it’s because they want to convey that no one else will love me more than them. Sometimes, I am reminded how blessed I am to have such an awesome family, but I also realize that not everybody has the same luxury of love and affection that I get from my parents.

I have friends that have crazy moms and dads that take their hard earned money or kick them out for loving the same gender or just simply neglected them. I wish I could relate to what they go through but I can’t; I can only listen, feel sorry for them, and I feel shallow because of that. When kids have a traumatizing experience, it takes a toll on their ongoing lives and causes them to make the wrong choices when really all they need is love.

So if you are currently having arguments with your parents and feel like you’re going to hate them for the rest of your life, just take into account what parents go through on a daily basis with their children and all the sacrifices they give for the sake of their children. I know I will always love my parents because as my mom always says, “I will never stop loving you… unless you shoot me”.

Relationships are not easy at all. If you know someone that thinks relationships are easy, whack’em with a bat for me, please. But on a serious note, I know a lot of friends, including myself, that are in pretty serious relationships and have no idea on what their future will be together. I know a little something about that myself, and it’s scary but thrilling at the same time. Relationships are unpredictable and risky, but that’s the best part about it: they test your best attributes while also giving clarity about what you want and what you don’t want in a relationship.`But that’s what love is all about, right.

My boyfriend, Alejandro, and I have been together for six and a half months, and they have been the best six months of my life. We’re starting 2019 together by saving a budget so that we can have enough money to have an apartment together in Hempstead, TX so that we can be nearby when I transfer to Prairie and when he starts his education at Lone Star. While I’m excited to have an apartment with my boyfriend, I’m also terrified for when the time comes. One of the reasons why I’m scared is because this is a big step into this relationship and knowing myself, I’m not that reliable when it comes to important things like saving money. Although I try, I feel like I’ll relapse and go back to ignoring the important things, and overall, completely shut off my boyfriend. I already scared him with the messages of me being a bit too flirtatious with other guys on Instagram, which is to be expected cause I did do it behind his back. That was the last time that I would ever upset him ever again. But even he admits that he hasn’t fully forgiven me for the mishap. I haven’t forgiven myself either for doing something so stupid and almost losing. Sometimes I feel like breaking it off here and now just to save him the burden from dealing with my bad habits.

But then I realize that there’s a reason why he has stuck with me in these past six months. Relationships will inevitably have their ups and downs, but the fact that we can bounce back from our comeuppances is why we are making this relationship work. Because there is a light in the depths are the darkness and as long as we journey ourselves to the light of our love for each other, we will get through anything. Alejandro has opened my eyes and helped me believe that he and I can make it through the year, despite my actions, and that’s what I love about him. From what he and I have gone through, there’s no turning back now.

In conclusion, if you are afraid of what your future with your significant other will look like in the future, there’s no telling. But that doesn’t mean you should run away from it. Instead, you should embrace the unknown and let faith in you and your lover guide you to the possibility that you guys will grow, settle, and have a family. The point is that you can’t close off your heart out of fear that you’ll be disappointed with the outcome. You have to take a leap of faith.

P.S. If you didn’t know I’m bisexual. SURPRISE!!!

Well, it’s finally here. 2019 is finally upon us and I’m sure everybody is going to have a resolution or a “new you” kind of attitude for the first couple of months. Normally I don’t take much thought about how I’m going to plan my New Year, but this time I’ve had a lot of time to think about what my time during 2019 should be spent on. Everyone is going to have changes and new paths to take this year, like trying to lose weight, cut down on drinking or smoking, or try saving money. Mine will only be one of those three (saving money), but my most imperative resolution for this year is to thrive in my college academics and transfer to Prairie View A&M.

I have a feeling that this year will be the redemption year for 2018, considering how rough 2018 was for the most part. I’m sure the majority of the people, including me, want to get a break from all the madness of 2018, considering that most of it was spent shooting up schools, building the wall, Republican extremist, child molesting rappers, and so on. And really, I don’t think that 2018 has never been more divided than it is now. But that’s why I have confidence that all of that can slowly change in the years to come, including 2019.

In conclusion, I’ll only say this. Don’t worry about having a resolution for the new year, just be sure you have plan in your life for the years to come and you won’t ever have to think up a resolution ever again.