The Boston Scene

Between the tremendous amount of history and the more modern attractions, Boston is a great place for everyone.

If you are interested in the historical sights be sure to check out Boston Common, the oldest park in the country, and the Freedom Trail. The Freedom Trail is a collection of sixteen historical sites along a 2.5-mile walking trail. The official sites on the trail are Boston Common, the MA State House, Park Street Church, Granary Burying Ground, King’s Chapel, King’s Chapel Burying Ground, Benjamin Franklin Statue and Boston Latin School, Old Corner Book Store, Old South Meeting House, Old State House, Site of Boston Massacre, Faneuil Hall, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, Bunker Hill Monument, and USS Constitution. Last summer I took a tour on the Freedom Trail and it was very interesting. The tour guides dress up in the traditional clothing of a colonial person and for the most part they stay in character which is really entertaining.

Traveling in the summer can be really hot and traveling in the winter can be very cold so if you’re going at either of those times, be sure to have some of the indoor attractions on your list. For kids, the Boston Children’s Museum is a great place. It has many exhibits including but not limited to: Arthur and Friends, Construction Zone, Japanese House, and Peep’s World. As a child I went to the Boston Children’s Museum quite regularly. I used to really enjoy it and it’s definitely an educational, while still fun, experience.

The New England Aquarium, though a bit pricier than the Children’s Museum, is a great option for a family with older and younger kids. Everyone will be sure to enjoy it! Some of the exhibits are the Amazon Rainforest, Hands-On Areas, Penguins, Shark and Ray Touch Tank, and Pacific Reef Community.

In the winter, one of the hands-down best places to go is Frog Pond in Boston Common. Whether you love to skate or just sit down with a good cup of hot chocolate, it’s the place for you. Skating at Frog Pond is very cheap and incredibly beautiful. There are twinkle lights on many of the trees in the Common and tons people. One of my friends has a birthday two days after Christmas and we went skating at Frog Bond for her birthday last year. It was a lot of fun, especially in the time around the holidays. There are so many people with all different skill levels - even the very beginners! 

If you’re visiting with anyone that loves to shop, there are some fabulous places in Boston. Newbury Street and Harvard Square both have lots of shops and eateries. You could hit both in one day by starting in Harvard Square, in Cambridge, and when you’re done there you can take a bus straight down Massachusetts Ave to Newbury Street. Some stores in Harvard Square are the Gap, Urban Outfitters, the Curious George Store (the only one in the world!), Newbury Comics, and the Tannery. In terms of food, Boloco, a local burrito chain, and Pinkberry, a frozen yogurt chain, are two of the most popular. Newbury Street has both of these food places as well. For shopping, Newbury Street has Brandy Melville, LF, So Good, Madewell, American Apparel, Lululemon Athletica, Rag & Bone, H & M, Forever 21, Marc Jacobs, and much more.

Harvard Square has a lot of Boston locals wandering around and of course tons of college students. In the summer, it’s so lively! Sometimes my friends and I will just grab some ice cream cones from Lizzy’s and walk over to the grass in front of Peet’s Coffee and Tea. There are benches there and generally a street musician playing interesting music. Newbury Street is much more high-end and doesn’t have the same vibe as Harvard Square but it’s the place to go if you’re looking to put a dent in your wallet.

Boston is a beautiful city filled to the brim with exciting places to go. Be sure to hit every place, as you’ll never find another city like Boston!

The Debate on Same-Sex Marriage

    Recently the Supreme Court has been spending a lot of time on the case of same-sex marriage. LGBTQ members of the United States are battling for their rights to marry, while some conservatives are fighting to keep it the way it is. As of March 2013, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Maine, Maryland, and Washington have legalized same-sex marriage. So why is the rest of the country still debating?

    Sarah Rahim, a sophomore at Watertown High School, argues that being gay “is by choice” and that same-sex marriage makes people uncomfortable, so it shouldn’t be legalized. She’s not the only person with this opinion. In fact, there are many people with stronger opinions than hers. There’s a Facebook page called “I bet we can get 10 million or more people AGAINST gay marriage” which currently has 5,554 likes. Among others, Jimmie Walker, Chris Brown, 50 Cent, and, of course, Sarah Palin, have expressed being against same-sex marriage. Some of the arguments against same-sex marriage include the fact that having it legalized would raise taxes (Gay Marriage ProCon.org), and that it makes “traditional” marriage less meaningful.

    But don’t be discouraged, there are even more people for same-sex marriage! In May 2012, 53% of Americans said that they thought it should be legalized. Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Pink, Lady Gaga, Anne Hathaway, and Hillary Clinton are all in support of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights. Beyonce has posted lots of supporting images on her social media sites including one on Facebook saying, “If you like it, you should be able to put a ring on it.” Four out of the five people I interviewed were for same-sex marriage, with the main reason being that the legalization would make LGBTQ people more comfortable with coming out and being themselves.

    The debate for same-sex marriage is ongoing and no one knows when it will end, but hopefully when it does, we will have the right solution - and one that provides support for everyone. 

Andrea Barbato - Figure Skater

As you enter the rink you hear the scraping of skates against the ice, coaches instructing their students, and the background chattering of nervous skaters about to compete.
         Andrea Barbato, a fifteen year old figure skater, is just one of the many students that competes. She skates at The Skating Club of Boston and in the twelve years that Andrea has been skating, she has been in five competitions. 
         “[For competitions], a skater and their coach arrive at the rink an hour before they are scheduled to skate. Stretching, running, and other off-ice warm ups are done while other skaters do their programs on ice,” Andrea shares the run through of a normal competition, “Once that group of skaters is done, the next group has a warm up session. After, each skater skates his or her program in front of judges. After that, each skater’s scores are posted.”
         Besides competitions, Andrea also teaches skating lessons during the winter season. She instructs a group of around five to ten children that are between the ages of three and ten. Andrea also mentions that she occasionally teaches a private lesson. She used to want to compete in the Olympics, but now she would like to become a skating teacher, which she already getting plenty of practice in.
         Andrea considers skating her passion and says that it makes her happy. She also says, “I wish I devoted more time to skating because… it feels great to improve.”
         Certainly not all of her life is devoted to skating, but she does skate at least once a week, stretches once or twice a day, and does off-ice training twice a week.                                                                                                      
         “My favorite part about skating is probably the rush I get when I make an accomplishment, and the excitement to get back up whenever I fall. I love skating because I know it’ll always be there for me,” Andrea talks about her love of skating, “[My passion for skating has] increased [since I started]. It’s become a big part of my life, and the more I improve as a skater, the more I want to continue improving.”

Watertown High School's GSA

       Most public high schools have a Gay-Straight Alliance group, but not all are active. Meghan Riling and one other advisor run the GSA at Watertown High School. Ms. Riling, who has been advising the GSA for two years, said, “the main goal of the GSA is to make the school more comfortable for all people…” even those who don’t identify as being LGBTQ. 

       Before Ms. Riling was a part of the GSA, it was more of a social thing: kids would gather together to watch movies after school and eat snacks. Since Ms. Riling has joined the group, there are lots of new members. A lot of the 2012-2013 freshmen became part of the GSA, which has certainly impacted the GSA’s presence in the school. Before these freshmen came, the GSA was mostly juniors and mostly girls; now it’s a fairly even mix of genders, and mainly freshmen. None of the members of the GSA are “out” to the group as being LGBTQ, but all of them identify as being supporters and allies.
       The GSA does lots of activities to get the word out and keep it fun. Bring a Friend Day is a main one. Each member of the GSA brings a friend to their meeting to spread information about the GSA and show people what it’s really about. They have food and fun, informative games. Other activities include bake sales and weekly meetings.
       Ms. Riling says that the best part of being in a GSA is “talking about these subjects in supportive and constructive ways,” rather than the negative conversations that float around in our society. Check our your local GSA today and you might be surprised with the amount of fun you have!

Anxiety and Depression in Teens

Anxiety and depression has significantly increased in the past few years. As the Nuffield Foundation says, the proportion of 15/16 year olds reporting that they frequently feel anxious or depressed has doubled in the last 30 years, from 1 in 30 to 2 in 30 for boys and 1 in 10 to 2 in ten for girls. This could be due to any number of things: stress in school, family issues, substance abuse, etc, but the thing that’s so confusing is that all of these things existed all those years ago. Thirty years ago school was still stressful, families were still messed up, and kids still used drugs to get their minds of things. It’s got to be more complicated than that.

   

(Source: http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/increased-levels-anxiety-and-depression-teenage-experience-changes-over-time)

The Work that Goes into Getting into College

For all students, but especially high school students, there is so much stress and college is one of the biggest stressors. Getting into a good college is not an easy task but what comes before that is even harder. Students must have their grades up, be involved in tons of extracurricular activities, have a good application essay, and so much more to even be considered by college admissions offices. And it’s not just juniors and seniors that have to be thinking about this; college stress starts as early as middle school!

The biggest thing that colleges look for is a challenging high school curriculum. If a student has B average because they are taking honors and AP classes, they are more likely to be accepted than a student with straight A’s in regular classes. That being said, grades still matter. Colleges aren’t necessarily looking to see that you’ve had perfect grades since day one of freshman year, they just want to see that you’ve improved over the course of your time in high school. If your grades in freshman year are not so good, there's still plenty of time to catch up.

In the past, admissions officers have been known to count up your extracurricular activities – the more the better – but it’s different now. Lots of people are saying that colleges would prefer the student to be fully immersed in one thing than having ten on their application that they don’t actually know much about. This is a positive thing for a lot of students to hear. Most people have a passion, and it’s easy to do things that involve that passion, but it’s harder and less exciting to be a part of clubs or take part in activities that don’t actually interest the person.

Colleges are looking for a lot these days, and it’s getting more and more stressful for high school students to think about. It’s good to keep an idea of what’s to come, even if you’re only in seventh grade. The earlier you start, the better.

Acceptances at Columbia.png

(this can be found here)

Acceptances at Emmanuel.png

(this can be found here)

2012 Admission Decisions

Sources:

• http://www.ecampustours.com/collegeplanning/applyingforcollege/whatcollegeslookfor
• http://inlikeme.com/getting-accepted-what-colleges-look-for-in-applicants/

Uprising in Syria

         After the Egypt uprising of 2011, many Middle Eastern countries became inspired to fight for their rights and their freedom – Syria was one of those countries. Bashar Al-Assad is Syria’s dictator but the people didn’t vote for him. He became president because his father, who ruled for 30 years, was president before him.
         Sarah Rahim, a Syrian student at Watertown High School, feels very closely connected to Syria. This is because both of her parents were born and raised there, and she visited Syria a lot as a child, usually every other summer. All of her extended family still lives in Syria, except for one of her aunts. “I feel that I can say it’s my country,” says Sarah.
         When asked how the uprising started, Sarah says that children wrote the word “freedom” on the walls of their school and the Syrian government blew up. Government officials physically tore out the nails of these small, innocent children - and this isn’t the worst thing that’s happened. Soldiers will steal girls and young women and call the father saying that if they want their daughters back they have to pay a massive amount of money.
         Sarah retells a story of a family friend in Syria: “there were seven people in the house and soldiers came in and stabbed them, killing them, while they were sleeping.” When Sarah talks to her family, they’ll say things like “another bomb just went off and ground shook – we felt it.”
         What’s happening in Syria is a tragedy, and it needs to be stopped. Sarah says that every morning she wakes up and hopes that it was all just some terrible nightmare, but every day she has to face the fact that it’s reality. Sarah says that because of everything that’s happened in Syria, she looks at the word differently and she feels more thankful for what she has. “I feel the need to help people because I realize that people have it so much worse than I do… It made me wake up to reality. It’s gotten me more depressed; I don’t show it at school.”
         Sarah stays on Face Book constantly, watching the little green dots next to her family members’ names. If the green shows up, her family is safe and alive. Then, the Syrian government shut down the Internet and Sarah felt her world come crashing down. “I couldn’t handle it,” she says, “I live in [the] fear that I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. Looking back, I walked the streets; I’ve gone to the stores that they’re bombing. It’s my country and I can’t go back there anymore. It’s not going to be the same – not now and now when [Bashar Al-Assad] is gone – and that scares me so much.”
         Sarah says that when she told her cousin, who lives in Syria, about the recent shooting in Connecticut, her cousin wondered why that was getting more publicity than Syria. “The blood in Syria is as common as water [and] it’s like no one even cares,” Sarah says, almost in tears.
         Sarah’s eyes light up when she talks about the old Syria, the one that she loves to remember, and the United States needs to wake up and bring that Syria back – for Sarah and all of the citizens of Syria. American reporters aren’t allowed in Syria, so the U.S. can’t spread the word through the media, but the people of our country can talk about it. Fundraisers are happening everywhere, you just have to open your eyes to it – food drives, coat drives, and raising money all help more than we might think. There are insane amounts of protests in Washington D.C., Boston, and other big cities around the country. It’s time to wake up and get to work.

Click here to view a slideshow about Syria from NBC.

           
                      Map of Syria and bordering countries.


Click here to view a video of children in Syria telling "horror stories" of what's happening to them and their families.