Social Change using Ethos

                Social anxiety is not new.  Academic pressure is definitely not new.  But freshman are new.  New to the environment.  New to the expectations.  And despite that, they are expected to cope with it all and still be mentally stable.

                I entered high school with PTSD, Anxiety Disorder, and Clinical Depression.  Within the first five months of freshman year, I was pulled out of school and admitted into a psychiatric hospital, Silverhill.  I was there twice and at a partial day center twice, St. Vincent's for 3 months all together.  Once I was discharged, I completed my requirements for school from a community center that was my temporary "school".  I was put on hundreds of anti-depressants and met with a therapist every Wednesday (and still currently do).  I switched schools my sophomore year, making a fresh start.  However, I was sadly faced with the reality of social anxiety and academic pressure all over again.  Now as a junior, taking Honors and AP classes, I still have not learned how to manage my mental health.  I'm just surviving.

                As a current high school student with similar issues, I know what it feels like to take one step forward and ten steps back.  I know what it feels like to not be able to speak up in class.  I know what it feels like to be misunderstood and rejected.  But I also know people who have hit rock bottom and come back up, higher than ever.  And that is why I have hope for change in future years.

                So here are my motives.  I want to start a half year course for freshman that is directed explicitly to ways of coping with high school stress.  It should be a requirement for all freshman and is offered by teachers fresh out of college who have experienced high school recently.  It should be offered either first semester or second semester and taught by multiple teachers.  If they take this class in their first year, they will be prepared for coming years in their high school career.  This course should offer study skills, test taking skills, what requirements they need to fulfill in order to achieve a specific goal.  They also be exposed to CAPT/SAT examination practice.  I know, from personal experience, that if I knew how to prepare for it earlier, I would have been a lot less stressed out.  In addition, this course should teach kids how to be confident, how to face your fears, how to talk to people without stuttering.  This can make students a lot more secure about their personalities and their intelligence.

                Think about the rewards from this.  We will have a more inviting school community.  Students will be able to get along with each other because they know that they are all in the same boat.  Bullying and suicide will be cut down because students will stick together, knowing that they are all going through the same process of anxiety and stress.  Students will be more confident about themselves and be able to present themselves with pride. 

                I may not be a professional but I am a high school student who deals with stress every day.  Students of future generations should not have to deal with that either.        

Social Change using Pathos

I grew up, sheltered and protected, for most of my life.  So naturally, when I entered high school, I was a nervous wreck.  I circled the school at least 5 times, trying to find my Biology class and found myself eating lunch in the bathroom multiple times.  In addition, I would come home to piles of textbooks and notebooks, waiting to be filled with homework due the next day.  Also, I had to juggle my intense dance classes and helping around the house as well.  I didn't know what to do!  As a result, in my freshman year, I became stressed out and anxious about everything in my life including school, dance, family, and my social life.  This was not helpful at all because not only did my grades go down, but my mental health was jeopardized, too.   Not every high school is like Rye Dell High (for my Grease lovers).  Now, as a junior, I have begun to realize how beneficial it would be to have a special class offered to all students that encourages ways to cope with school and social interaction with peers.  This class would offer useful study habits, techniques to control anxiety and stress, and help students gain more confidence around other students.  If I was a freshman, I would have loved to be able to take a class like this.  I believe it would have given me skills that would help me later on in my high school career.  

I had a friend who I used to go to middle school with.  Smart kid, athletic, good looking, basic definition of popular.  However, he had underlying issues that seemed to never be resolved.  When he entered high school, he was met with the harsh reality of high school life.  He wasn't prepared or guided by anyone on the basics of High School 101.  As a result, he started beating himself up over low grades and sacrificed his social life by having little confidence.  He started having serious mental issues and became immensely depressed because of the lack of support.  If he had had this class, he may have been more aware of the expectations of high school and may have been able to reach out to someone who was an expert at high school life for help. 

                Think about the future of our generation.  If we were to not support our young adults through a crucial, developing time in their life, how do we expect them to create an advanced, modern world in 20 years?  Let's give our kids hope for the future, make them see a light by making them feel comfortable on home ground.       

Sentence Imitation

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich-Pg. 151

Room 133 contains a bed, a chair, a chest of drawers, and a TV fastened to the wall.  I plead for and get a lamp to supplement the single overhead bulb.  Instead of the mold smell, I  now breath a mixture of fresh paint and what eventually identify as mouse droppings.  But the real problems are all window and door related; the single small window has no screen and the room has no AC or fan.  The curtain is transparently thin; the door has no bolt.

High schools have math and science, social studies, history and English, and a short period of lunch.  But they don't offer classes on how to be a teenager or yourself.  Instead of being guided, students are required to know how to handle tons of homework and social interaction between peers.  Students should be given more opportunities to reach out for help; classes centered around social acceptance and support groups on handling school work or making friends.  Students would be more successful; in their career or social life.  

STUFF THAT KIND OF SUCKS.

• Paul Karmiryan and Alexis Juliano didn't win Season 10 of So You Think You Can Dance
• Contemporary, jazz, and ballet are pushed more than ballroom, hip hop, and tap in modern society
• Losing an hour during daylight savings
• Jet lag
• Over-excessive propaganda on make-up and clothes
• Stressing test-taking more than learning
• Mass production of skimpy clothing in America
• Starting school before Labor Day
• Shorter Christmas and Summer vacation
• 2 years of Gym
• Sterotypical relationships 
• Lack of response and action against bullying and suicide
• Unrealistic movies about high school
• "Happily ever afters"
• "My printer broke"
• Hazing 
• Cliques
• Screen protectors not made for older iPods
• Wastage of resources in the states
• Wars
• Music on the radio nowadays
• Loss of the disco
• George Zimmerman being a free man and having a right to own a gun!
• Lack of public transportation 
• Mid-season breaks in shows (Pretty Little Liars!)
• being too feministic and hypocritical 
• Airport security and getting body checked for looking Muslim
• Stereotypical view on Muslims
• Not considering Indian holidays in America
• Over-craze on Bollywood dancing and losing touch from Indian classical dancing
• Corruption of Disney Channel and former Disney actors (MILEY CYRUS)
• Lack of self-respect in women
• Instagram
• Romeo and Juliet
• low budget schools
• comparing One Direction to The Beatles
• Justin Bieber
• Not enough tabla players in America

Perverts, Pandas, and more...

"Pervy Panda".  "Uhh..um..here."  That was my constant battle on the first day of school every year for 12 years.  It all started in Kindergarten.  My teacher, Mrs. Cutter, was calling my classmates names out and when she came to me, it took her an unusual 13 seconds to figure out my name.  "Pervy Panda?"  My mom was quick to correct her, "It is pronounced POOrvi PUndYa" (uppercase letters for emphasis).  My teacher had such a problem with it that she basically just changed my name to "Pervy".  Every year since then, that became my name.  Now, as a junior, I am finally realizing how stupid is really sounds.  I am basically an open book of sexual thinking.  Might as well just call me Perverted Panda (but please don't).
"Purvi" comes from the Sanskrit word, purva, which means "the East".  Hence, "Purvi" means "girl from the East" (not because I live in Northeastern America but because I'm from the eastern part of the world, India). Whenever I explain what my name means to friends or teachers, they seem to always be disappointed, expecting something like "strength" or "God's gift".  Sorry to upset you, take it up with my parents.
Also, in Indian culture, the child always take their father's name as their middle name.  Since my brother, Ruchir, already had my dad's name as his middle name, my mother decided to put her name as my middle name, Kalindi.  She chose Purvi because it had almost all the letters of my dad's name, Pravir (minus the "a") and wanted to make sure that I have a little of my mom and dad in my name.
In addition, in Indian classical music, we have 108 ragas, or melodic modes or tunes.  Two specific ragas relate to my name, Purvi raga and Purvi Kalyan raga.  My mom's side of the family were huge music fans and ended up wanting to name me something musical.  Since we believe that ragas are a gift from God, my mom thought it would be like a blessing from God, whoever that may be.  
I'm glad that they gave me the name Purvi comparing to the alternate choice, Panchali.  It just sounds so, uncanny.
My middle name, as I mentioned before, is my mother's.  "Kalindi" is the name of a holy river in India.  Most people usually seem to like that part of my name the most.
My last name, however, is a doozy.  The Pandyan dynasty was an Ancient Tamil dynasty in Pandya Nadu (now called Tamil Nadu in South India) around 600 BCE. However, I am not Tamil.  I am from Gujarat and I'm assuming that generations after, they must have immigrated to Gujarat for business or better living.
Nowadays, however, whenever someone sees my last name, they instinctively ignore the "y" to make the name easier to say.  I don't see why, though.  When spelling my name to others, I usually just say "Panda with a y between d and a".
My grandfather, Dr. S. P. Pandya, linked our last name with science.  In 1956, he published his work on calculating how to extend nucleus shell models (how many protons and neutrons go into the nucleus).  It is called the Pandya Theorem or Pandya Transformation.

I don't hate my name.  I appreciate that it isn't something generic like Betty or Emily (not to say they are bad names).  Having an authentic Indian name brings me closer to my culture and religion.
Every name is going to have their pros and cons.  There is no perfect name so might as well be happy with what you have.