OUR COUNTRY, OUR LANGUAGE. no. get over yourselves.

 

I don’t claim to know much about politics. But if I believed every thing I saw shared on facebook I would think:

• Obama is the antichrist
• Republicans are all greedy dirtbags
• Marco Rubio is dumb, because he is thirsty.
• Michelle Obama is an idiot, because GMA cares about her clothes.
• That the president and congress should be put on minimum wage. (okay, I get your point, people, but that is one of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard.  are they overpaid? Probably. but I don’t think paying them 7.25 an hour would fix our country’s problems.)
• Obama singlehandedly, flew over to the Middle East and with his own hands shot Bin Laden.
• Obama had nothing at all to do with ending Bin Laden.
• Mitt Romney is the devil because his dog rode on top of his car.

So I guess point number one is, facebook is not the best place to get your news from..

But another thing I see a lot of, is: “if they are going to come to our country, they need to learn our language.”

And somehow people think as soon as a (legal) immigrant steps onto American soil they should immediately be fluent in English. and be well versed in everything American.

Guys, I have some news for you, learning a language is hard. It’s not like you can take an English 101 class or use Rosetta Stone for 6 months and be ready to take on the world. No. I’ve studied Spanish off and on for 4-5 years and I couldn’t go down to Honduras and say anything I felt like. It’s hard.

I understand why people don’t appreciate illegal immigrants, I totally get that, but you’re forgetting there are people who are legally here too. People who came to what is supposedly the best nation.

We’re not very hospitable are we? Our country, our language, we say. Learn our ways or get out.

I’m not saying that people should not make an earnest effort to learn English, absolutely they should. But let’s try to show  a little grace and kindness here people. Before you judge others for not knowing your language immediately, why don’t you try to learn a language? See how difficult that is. So let’s not jump to conclusions and believe everyone who is not completely fluent in English is here illegally.

When I was in Guatemala, I attempted to speak some Spanish, and you know what, there are times I know for a fact I was wrong, I would think about the conversations later that day and think, “ah man. Should’ve used esta not es. Shoot.” but the thing is, they didn’t stop and give me some judgemental “idiota” face. No. They just kept talking to me like nothing ever happened.

We like to pretend we are Jesus’ favorite nation. GOD BLESS AMERICA. say all the bumper stickers.

How do you think Jesus would have treated the family who had just (legally) immigrated from Chile?

Yeah, you’re right, He probably would have said something like, “Get out of our country. Learn our language,” or, “Get out, you don’t belong here.”

Actually, the Jesus I know probably would have stopped and gone out of his way to help that family. Helped teach them English, or at least made them feel welcome in this strange, new place.

I have a newsflash, y’all. You don’t own America.

Let’s say in a strange turn of events, Nicaragua really got itself together and turned out awesome, and the United States  crumbled, so some Americans immigrated down there. You’ve made a real effort to learn Spanish, but you’ve only had a year to prepare, so you can order at restaurants, and make it through a grocery store, but many things are still difficult for you. Think about how nice it would be to get people’s judgmental glares. Think about how great it would be to hear people say to each other under their breath, “si ellos estan en nuestro pais, ellos necesitan aprender nuestro idioma. ahora.”

Ah. Sweet hospitality.

Try stepping into someone else’s shoes. And another shocking fact: sharing the snarky photos on facebook does absolutely nothing to help get these people learning English. nothing. Actually if I was them, and I continually saw stuff like that, because I’m ornery, I would probably try to hold off learning.

Instead of being so harsh and rude, why can’t we just help? Why don’t we try to be a little more understanding. Let’s remember that while English is the most used language in the States, we have no official language. Let’s remember that at one time (unless you are 100% Native American), our ancestors were all immigrants.

 

And in the words of my favorite motivational speaker, Kid President, “If it doesn’t make the world better, don’t do it.”

Self-Portrait Project…(hey I’ll finish this one!)

 

I’ve tried to do those photo challenge things a few times now, and I always fail. I usually make it about halfway through and then I’m like, “meh.” And I always end up with “eh, okay” photos because I am taking the picture just for the sake of checking it off my list.

The thing is, I like to take pictures of what I want to take photos of. Not of what some random person on the internet created. And one a day was just too much for me, I mean one picture is nothing, but when you’re being told what to photograph, it’s a lot, because just because it’s day 17 and the list says “clouds” doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to find some awesome clouds or a landscape to take a picture. I feel pressured by some stupid file I’ve made my laptop background to remind me.

YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, YOU STUPID LIST.

So I made my own, but instead of 1 photo everyday for a month, it’s 1 photo, every month, for a year. Oh, and they’re all supposed to be self portraits, because I will do whatever I tell myself to do, and I won’t look at myself like I’m a freak for some weird idea (actually, okay, I totally will, but I won’t judge myself, not forever).

I think this way will be more conducive to good pictures. And I like it more. because I wrote it myself. So if I don’t like it, I can blame myself.

And yeah…I guess I should’ve started this in January…but I am not one for conforming to societal standards. That or I didn’t think of it until the end of February.

Anywho, here is March, Study:

kind of ironic, since I should have been studying when I took and edited this.

So I like to complain..

 

So a couple of months ago I wrote this post about complaining, and I mentioned the idea of a “complaining closest” with pictures of real suffering, that when you complain, you have to write it on the wall of the closet.

Well.

I don’t have a closet in my room. So I couldn’t exactly do that.

But today I finally got around to making a more portable complaining closet. err. poster.

I ended up taping all of the pictures to a hallmark bag I cut up…because it was in my room…and I mean…it worked.

I used pictures of people or places I had been to or met, just to make it more personal. Like, “oh hey, Bekah, remember that?”

 

You know, complaining about the slow internet I dealt with while sipping a $5 drink looks pretty pathetic when it’s written above a girl who had a baby at 14 and lives in a house smaller than my room, with 6 other people.

Starbucks, Tacos, Tebow

 

Starbucks. Where Mac users congregate, but do not speak to each other. Although I am not the owner of a Mac, I do love some Starbucks. It’s where I do all of my best people watching.

One day I was sitting in there, and I had headphones in, but I could still semi-hear these two women talking about the one woman’s horrible relationship she was in. It was starting to get good, so I discreetly slipped out the earbuds to take a listen. It was pretty long and intense, and this woman had some strong feelings about this dirtbag she was dating, but the problems all boiled down to this, “Well, NO, she’d just rather sit and watch that BOY throw a fit on the TACO BELL FLOOR because of some STUPID advertisement on the cup at El Puerto’s. I just I’m over it, done with it.”

And that my friend leads me to this undeniable truth: Mexican food is the root of all heartache.

But that wasn’t the original point of this post. (albeit a good one)

Yesterday I decided to go to Starbucks to study. So I walk in order a venti vanilla latte, whip out my (while hoping the herd of apple users doesn’t attack me) Toshiba laptop, and open up my course.

But you know, I’m kind of distractible. So after rolling my eyes over things on facebook for a few minutes I actually start working. And I worked for probably a solid 20 minutes without even opening another tab, which might be a record for me, because 3 days ago, I was attempting to learn about something mathy and  I ended up watching a video of a baby elephant stuck in a pool, and then a baby elephant sneezing, which somehow led me to an elephant giving birth, which let me tell you, is a disgusting thing to watch. I don’t even know why I watched that, there was so much blood and then she was kicking the baby to make it breathe, and well, you get the point, it was awful.

BUT ANYWAY, these two women at the table next to mine started talking about the “Tebow Bill” (which I think is an awful name for that, but whatever, no one asked me what to call it) that if passed, would have allowed homeschoolers to play for public schools’ sports teams. I thought it was an okay idea I guess, like homeschoolers still pay taxes for schools so why shouldn’t they be able to participate in the sports? I don’t know, I mean it doesn’t really affect me, being one of the least athletic people ever, but….

But these women were talking about it, and the one woman went on to state how it was ridiculous because then the homeschoolers might actually make the team (uhh…thank you, captain obvious). Then she went on to describe how TERRIBLE Waynesboro High School’s football team is, like “it’s just awful.” She came back to her original point, explaining that if the bill had passed then homeschooled kids probably would have beaten out most of the kids from Waynesboro, and that just wasn’t fair, because just because they were bad doesn’t mean they shouldn’t get to play. They should be able to play even if they are terrible.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Land of opportunities so equal, that they are unequal.