Reasons Why I Don't Go To Church

Well in all honesty i  don't really have good reasons for not going to church. If my mother knew i hardly ever went she'd be mad at me. But my dad is atheist and being that i only live with him he's not exactly jumping up and down to take me much less go with me. Even though he promised to keep me going we did for a couple of years after my mom moved but slowly but surely I stopped going.
It's kind of sad when i think about it, I used to be so strongly rooted in my church Harvest Christian Center, I was practically born there. When i was younger I'd be there up to for times a week for choir and services and small groups and all the functions we did, my childhood life revolved around church. I only hung out with church kids and even all the way up till 6th grade the kids i grew up with at church were the ones i was closest to.
In part I have to admit I'm not completely sure where my faith stands but without my mom being involved in the church and having her drag me there there was less and less incentive to go. With my friends drifting apart as we all went to middle school I stopped going to youth and small group and I would only go to a few Sunday services a year. I only go to the church camp they have every summer. Especially with me always being so busy with school or soccer and other things it's hard to make time to even go sometimes. Besides that I'm not really apart of that "church family" anymore so I feel left out even when i do go. For awhile I even started going to my best friends church instead, but i haven't even been there in awhile.  I'm not sure if i can really even call my self a Christian. Mostly i just try not to think about it anymore, My conscience will sort it out later I guess.

10 things I am thankfull for.

I'm thankful that I was born in America.
I'm thankful i have a roof over my head and food on the table.
I'm thankful for the friends I have.
I'm thankful for my imidiate family and even extended family.
I'm thankful that i have the freedom to think say and do what i want.
I'm thankful i get to go to school and learn new things every day.
I'm thankful for all the opportunity i have and possibilities in life.
I'm thankful for everything that has ever been given to me in my life.
I'm thankful for the life i have.
I'm thankful for my dad and all he does for me and tries to teach me every single day.

If i could live anywhere in the world it would be....

I've lived in El Paso all my life. Although spending half my time living in California with my mother i still chose to live in El Paso. It's stable here, i have friends, things I'm involved in here and family so I chose El Paso over living in California permanently. That definitely does not mean I'm going to stay in El Paso all my life. For starter, I'm definitely moving away for college. I'd like to live on the east coast because I have never been there but Location is not going to be the main factor in my decision, rather it be the college that suits me best. Another thing i want to do right after college is travel the world with my sister.

Once I'm older out of college and looking to settle down somewhere I would love to live in a city much like El Paso, reasonable climate, big enough for shopping and attractions but not necessarily all the things that come with big cities like crime and inequality of living. Heck, I may even move back to El Paso to have my own family cause i love the climate, and the safety. But at the same time I'd like to live in a new place too, Like maybe four corner's area or southern California, or if i find an area on the east coast that i like.

Occupy Wall Street!

This is a actually a topic that has come to the attention of many people not just people who watch the news but everyone. One of my teachers was aguing that they want to redisttrbute the wealth and she compared it to givning up GPA point to people who are failing an need some. It's Completely not the same thing! I've been thinking about this a lot because It's nice to see so many people joining together standing up to the slanted weath. Fighting corperate greed is important and it's really not right that most of our wealth is in 1% of the population.

Although I must admit i don't understand everything about what they are protesting and what is going on in the corporate world, i do believe that the system he have today is not very efficient. There is not enough jobs and the fact still remains that 99% of the population doesn't have most of the country's wealth, you can't possibly say its fair totax the middle class more when the wealthy have more money to be taxed. 

If I Were Rich...

First thing i would do i save money. Cause If I'm that rich i plan to stay that way. I would spread out my money in different banks and stocks to prevent from one catastrophic thing happening i would still be able to support my self as well as having a safe with cash and gold. Besides that I would save money for my children in and put away trust for my family and/or children. I would Build an beautiful house in my favorite city and a couple more houses in different places that I would like to live so i could travel there all the time.

Besides my investments and multiple houses i would still want to live a very simplistic lifestyle. I've always thought if i was well off I would find a way to not let anyone know. I wouldn't want my kids to be spoiled and selfish. I want them to understand the value of a dollar and how not as many people are as lucky. So most likely i would raise them thinking they weren't that rich just that they have enough money for vacations and college. Then when they are adults I'd explain how much money we really had and if they were mad all well but hopefully they'd be grateful.

Columbus day: Celebrating historical inaccuracy since 1937.

Columbus day, too me is truly a pointless holiday. We celebrate  Columbus Day and the discovery of america and we are always told that Christopher Columbus discovered america and all these great things about him, but more of the stuff we here is completely historically inaccurate. So it's slightly baffling to me why we have a holiday for him considering he didn't do much..

Columbus was trying to find a path the the West Indies for trading that would make him rich. He wasn't trying to find the new world, they didn't even realize how big the world was. Funny thing is when he went back he was still trying to prove his calculations and he said the world was shaped like a pear. Besides him being stubborn the fact that every one says he discovered america's is completely wrong.  One: he landed in the Caribbean, not actually America.; Two: The Asiatic Peoples that who we call Native Americans had already been living there for some time. Just cause They didn't know people lived in the other hemisphere of the world should not mean that when we found out about it that it was the "discovery of the new world" when it was already there with people happily living there. Needless to say the historical and political incorrectness of this holiday just adds to the 'stupid american' stigma that we already have.

The scariest thing that's ever happened to me...

The thing about fear is it's different for each person so what one person may consider scary may not be frightening to another. And honestly I can't think of anything truly scary because as we get older i suppose we don't get scared in the same way as we do as kids. For example when i was a kid the two scariest things to me where haunted houses and roller coasters, now i love both because they really aren't scary and there exciting. Besides scary dreams which isn't even technically something that happens to you i don't get scared anymore unless it deals with punishment for a mistake i made. But even that is a completely different type of fear more out of worry rather then just being scared.
With all that being said i honestly can't think of "the scariest" thing that has ever happened to me because i become afraid for different reasons now. But in the spirit of  Halloween I remember when i was a little kid after we were done trick-or-treating we would drive around to find haunted houses cause that was the most entertaining thing for my parents besides steeling my candy. Most weren't that bad just with trash bag maze with people in masks popping out, but one stick in my head to this day. It was in a garage and the people said it was a mystery and you had to find where the grandma's glasses where hidden. There where all these old looking things and baby cribs in one corner and a bed in the far end of the room a bed and other furniture. A guy in a mask was leading my mom and my sister and i close behind her through the 'house' and about half way through when i realized there was a person or two in the far end of the room it freaked me out and i wouldn't move forward. the guy lead us back out and i'll always remember how that haunted house looked but i can't quiet remember why i thought it was 10x as scary as any other haunted house.

so that's my scary story. :)

Should Higher Education be paid for?

Well I think so, but only partially. I personally would find it very very beatifically if college was paid for by the government because like many other students who aren't as fortunate to have a college fund we have to rely on scholarships and student loans. There are lots of bright kids that just accept the fact that they don't have money for college anyways and decide not to even try. As for me I just know i have to work ten times as hard so i can get scholarships because being in debt from student loans doesn't sound like to much fun. I would be ecstatic if someone told me my college would be completely paid for because then i could just focus on the school and work it self not if i can afford it.
The only problem is that there is a couple of down sides to "free college". Some people will take advantage of it like they already do with our lower level school systems. It's great for those who want to succeed but those that are just there because they have to be would be wasting the time and resources of the colleges. Another problem is with our financial system can barely support the school system we have much less pay for college for a bunch of kids. But the problem also lies with the colleges continually raising their prices. So this makes it much harder for people to go to college considering that college and other forms of higher education are currently not free or paid for.

Changes at Coronado

          This year we had many changes at school and some people like them and some really don't. One being we have to wear our ID cards. It is a little frustrating having to wear them sometimes because I'm a forgetful person and I have already lost one and had to replace it. So being charged and being in trouble for forgetting it or losing it is a major concern of mine. Besides that It's not to much of a hassle, because lanyards aren't so bad to wear and there are many cool designs.
          One of the biggest and probably the change that has greatly affected us all is the addition of a class period.  The addition of a class means more work and for someone who barely had enough time last year it's defiantly harder. The thing that frustrates me the most is that in adding a class they didn't think to make the day longer, now we have a short lunch and shorter classes. With shorter classes i kind of feel a little bit cheated on my education because there is less class and lecture time and usually more homework. With the Shorter Lunch it's hard to even get a meal on campus with the lines and it's hard to get a meal off campus and still make it back on time. They really should have thought of all the repercussions before they made this change and honestly i would have been a lot happier with the block schedule like all of the other EPISD schools.

U.S Economy Recovery

           This economic recession that we faced directly affected me as people close to me lost jobs and I was affected by this recession.  And Personally Even though these people have gotten jobs again I still don't think our country is any better of. Just cause some people have gotten back on their feet there are still thousands of people who don't know how they're going to get the next meal on the table or how they are going to pay the bills. The way we tried to fix the problem was by stimulation and bail outs for companies "to big to fail." The problem with this is it was just temporary solutions to a long term problem.
           This is going to take a long time to fix especially if we want to do it right. We need to do a bigger changes to our system of creating jobs. We have to stop making it so easy for companies to go over sea's. We also desperately need to fix our budget so we don't keep getting more and more in debt. But to change these things we need to change the mindsets of not just Americans but our politicians. The new bill the president is trying to pass is a start  but many people aren't going to agree with it because it seems almost as if its partially campaigning for him to be president again. With other presidential candidates this could be a very big influence on if they have a chance is how there going to deal with our current economic situation.

A little bit about me

So my name is Leslie. My middle name is Saree. I don't really like my last name and actually half the people I know that didn't know me from middle school think my last name is Saree. But for the record My last name is Abraham. Born and raised here in El Paso Texas. I live with my dad here and my mom lives in California with my sister, my two step siblings and my step dad. I chose to live here with my dad and I'm glad I did because he is practically my best friend; we always do things together. I like a lot of different things and I hardly ever have to far any of them. I'm in all advanced classes and I played on the Coronado Soccer team last year and i hope to make the team again this year. My Favorite Subjects in school or areas that I might want to pursue as an adult are, in no particular order, Psychology, History, Architecture, and Graphic Design. When I'm not doing school work I like to do things with my friends. I have a lot of really good friends, Some of my best friends are Zoe, Cierra, Kat, Alexandra, Pamela, Daniella, Karina, Nina. Zoe I've been best friends with since the 5th grade and I'll always love her even though were in completely different groups. Cierra and Kat I am really close with they used to hang out in the same group as the rest of my friends but not anymore, but I'm really close to them still. And Alexandra, Pamela, Daniella, Karina, and is my main group i guess you would say I love hanging out with them & I've known them since middle school and we always have crazy adventures.  I have many other friends from other groups that I like to hang out with too. When I'm not hanging out with my friends I'm usually doing one of my many many hobbies. I've never thought of my self as a very creative person but I still do so many 'crafty' projects in my free time. Some of my favorite are my altered journal or a mixed media art journal it combines many different forms of art. Another one of my favorite things to do is do my nails. I've been doing designs on my nails of an on since the second grade and I try to do a new design every week. I have to admit I've gotten pretty good at it and I have a blog where I post my nails and I post it to an album on Facebook too. I like to to lots of other crafts like making collages, painting with acrylic and  water paint, making jewelry  with my beads, making mosaics, sewing and cutting clothes. sketching and drawing typography. Some more creative  interests of mine is on the computer. I have a personal blog on Tumblr which i spend a lot of time on, not just to write or post photography but when i used to have a Myspace I would always mess with the HTML codes and create new layouts and I began to have an interest on designing things on the computer. I made a website in the eighth grade and went to a state competition for it. I like to design not just html things but graphics like typography and art combined in my sketches and on the computer. Besides crafty things and doing things with my friends one of my real passions is music.I'm never with out music, I always have my Ipod and I'm constantly listening and searching for new and old music. Probably unlike most kids my age who only like one or two types of music, I like pretty much every type of music you can think of. This year I want to learn how to play the guitar because i used to play instruments and i want to start again. I consider myself a musical entrepreneur  and I'm just  happy when music is apart of my life. But besides all of this I'm just another teenager with dreams and passions and I'll get there some day :)