%20, Not 20 Cents

     Always tip your server. If you do not have money to tip, then why are you going out to eat? Fix a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for yourself next time you hear your tummy growl. If there is anything that deserves to be on the inside of a fortune cookie, it is the life lesson to over tip a waitress, delivery driver, or bartender.

     It frustrates me more than anything when customers tell me to “keep the change” after handing me a 20 dollar bill on a $19.53 check. You are so sweet to provide me with 47 cents tonight following me waiting on your every hand and foot to assure that you don’t run out of ketchup for your five dollar burger. I understand totally that being a waitress does not necessarily require anything other than people skills and about a week of training, but if you feel that you can do the job better, I suggest you go to McDonald’s and grab your own ketchup packets, because there, tipping isn’t the norm.

     I think that the majority of individuals think that servers, delivery drivers, and bartenders receive an hourly wage, providing them with the guilt free walk out of the restaurant after leaving the 47 cents. However, I do not think that individuals realize that that hourly wage is $2.35. When I look in your direction and glare after you pay your bill, I hope you realize it’s because you wasted my life. I would have rather not been beyond nice to you the entire time, got you whatever you desired, and cleaned up after you and your girlfriend’s saliva infested silverware and half eaten wings that you rudely left all over the table. I am not your mother. I am your waitress. Pay me.

     I do not adopt the occupation because it was my dream job. Who would ever want to smile all day long and run around with a chicken like their head cut off when beer is half off in the restaurant for the fun of it? I do this because I have to, not because I want to. Next time someone hands me a 75 cent tip and tells me to “keep the change,” my response will be to slap it back on the table and declare, “no you keep it. You obviously need it more than I do.” 

Remember the Moment, Don't Live in It

     Wake up at 9am. Shower. Out of toothpaste. Miss the bus. Run to class. Walk in the lecture hall ten minutes late while everyone stares in your direction. Forgot the assignment was due today. Spill your coffee all over your white t-shirt. Oversleep for class number two. Stay up until 4am to write a seven page paper.

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     God, life can suck. As people age it seems like the bad days continuously outnumber the good days, and even the good days are only good, not great. It’s hard to live in the moment if the moment is awful. The moment makes you dread the next moment because from these moment’s past record, the next one is no better than the last.

     How can a person embrace each minute of each day if all that the seconds bring are stress? Countless amounts of peers tell me to be thankful I am a freshman, that if they could they would rewind their years and do it over again. And I’m positive I’ll say the same come my senior graduation. However, as of now, I do not want to live in the moment, I want to fast forward the moment, or at least all the tribulations that come with the moment.

     Rather than living in the moment, we should merely remember the moment. That way, the next moment will be ten times as sweet compared to the seconds before. Living in the moment will only discourage you to not want to live for the next moment. 

    Sure, now that we look back on it, yesterday was great. But that’s only because we are living in today.  

Actually BE Proud

     Our heritage makes us who we are without even realizing it. Many people, including myself, have no clue about the true history of their ancestors, or where exactly they originate from. We are told we are one quarter this, and two thirds that, but have never really, truly practiced the beliefs, traditions, and customs of our elders.

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     Sure I’m Italian so I eat spaghetti and baked ziti every Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthday celebration, Easter, or basically any time my family congregates, but this does not mean I know what it is really like to be Italian. And of course I drink like a pirate because I’m Irish, but I have never been to Ireland or even met anyone who has an Irish accent. Many of us pretend to be certain people because we are told to embrace cultures that we do not necessarily understand. Can you imagine how livid the Italian community is at Jersey Shore for portraying Italians as drunken fools?

     But to say you are American does not give person diversity unless that person also says I am Asian, black, and Native American. We all try to be different because in today’s society, individuality is valued. However, we are not necessarily being true to ourselves if we are constantly mimicking other cultures in which we have no right to do so.

     The United States is the greatest country and continues to be so. Why don’t we all simply say we are American, instead of three other ethnicities that we think make us look cooler. Let’s face it; we are all probably 50 different cultures due to how much interracial marriage occurs. I know we are all patriotic and proud to be from America, but we turn right back around and make sure we clarify what individual background we are made of without remembering that none of us have earned that right to say we are anything but American.  

Money Money Money

      Why do I need two microwaves in my room? Why do we need mini lights above the pictures in the commons to illuminate the poster of things we do not even care about? Why are there TVs every ten feet in every building on campus? But yet, I still pay 250 dollars to obtain season tickets and I am a student at Penn State. This tuition is beyond ridiculous for the unnecessary things this school provides its students. Instead of me paying 43,000 dollars a year to attend this school, I should be paying a reasonable amount. I’m getting an education, not a mansion.

      Society stresses that after high school, in order to be successful, you must attend college. And whats better than having the grades to attend a top school like Penn State, where after I graduate I am guaranteed a job. But once I get to college, it’s like I am being punished for being an intelligent student. The only reason why I decided to attend Penn State (when It comes to the tuition issue) is because I don’t have 10,000 to go to a school in Delaware either, so if I’m going to be in debt, I might as well just go big and pay the 43,000 a year.

     However, more and more as I stroll around this massive campus, I observe the luxuries that we have that make no sense. These lights that are constantly on? I just want to call the maintenance department and let them know that I am paying this electric bill, so please shut off these lights. I understand the safety issue, making some things necessary like call boxes to the University Police, or lights outside. But when a building is lit up at 2am that no one is in, that strains my wallet with each minute.

     All this money that this school obtains is split up in places that hinder my growth as a student.  When I graduate my first worry is to get a decent job. My second worry, is to pay off my debt from a place that should have been helping me, not hurting me financially. You cannot stress education as a community and then turn around to make it impossible to get one. 

Think Before You Point

     It’s a shame that we live in a world where everything we do is judged. We are afraid to make one move because it could possibly offend our neighbors. But doesn’t it seem like more and more today, everything that someone does is taken offensively?

    

 My sister recently texted me this poem with the following text saying, “too offensive for Facebook?”

Twas the night before Patty's and all through Yunk
All the peoples preparing to get themselves drunk
Barrels of Jameson and Guinness all snug in their places
To be guzzled down throats of smiling green faces 
A weekend full of cheer as anyone will say
Where even a black can b Irish for one day. 
So don't lose your shamrocks and wrap your fiddles up tight
Happy Patty's day to all and to all a good night.

     

     My older sister was planning on posting this as a status to entice people to come to Kildare’s and drink at her bar on St. Patrick’s Day, but of course she needed my permission before she clicked the post button. The only reason why she felt it might be offensive is because of one simple line, “where even a black can b Irish for one day.” Now, my older sister is the farthest thing from racist. She has dated black men and accepts all walks of life every single day being not only a resident of Philadelphia, but an artist as well.

     That statement above is not racist. However, in today’s society, the consequences of that reference of a black person could be crippling to the author. These consequences are petty and ridiculous. But these consequences go both ways. All individuals, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity point the finger of discrimination without processing how minute the issue is. Not everything a person who bares different skin from you is racist. Get over yourself.

Procrastinate Like There's No Tomorrow, Literally.

     I procrastinate so much that it landed me in supplemental housing this freshman year at Penn State. I procrastinate so much that I’m writing this blog instead of writing my seven page research paper due Thursday. I procrastinate so much that I do not even know how I am going to get back to school prior to the last day of spring break. But that’s okay. Because without procrastination, my life would not be half as interested, near as suspenseful, and one fourth as successful.

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     All that nonsense about doing your best work not the night before is all hoopla. We need a little worry and anxiety in our lives or the ending result of the majority of our endeavors would not be as influential. I love my ability to hand in a piece of work two hours after I complete it and still manage to receive an A grade. It just makes those previous hours even sweeter. And the sigh of relief after releasing that paper from the clammy hands of procrastination is way more effective than if it were to be after four days of typing/putting off, typing/putting off, and typing/putting off.

     Being a procrastinator should be listed on your resume, applications, and eHarmony profile. People should embrace this trait because it adds a little more spice to a relationship or work ethic. Things will and always do get done, but the fact that I’ll keep you on your toes is more desirable than the dull fellow next to me who hands his paper in the week before it’s due. Sure you look organized and studious and all that crap, but to me you just look like a donkey’s backside for attempting to make me look ill prepared. Real cool guy, real cool.

     So don’t despise your inability to do assignments on time. Praise it because it’s stimulating, exhilarating, and awe-inspiring. Words from the procrastinator herself.

You Are Not A Good Person

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     We are all selfish people. No you are not any different. Sometimes I think that I have some sort of good in me, but once I analyze it, just like if I were to analyze all of your intentions, they really are solely for the good of me in the long run. It may be minutely to please or help an individual at that time, but eventually, the act or thought was selfish.

     When you get up for an elderly person on the bus in order for them to have a seat in close proximity to the door. When you hold the door open behind you for the person trailing three steps in the distance.  When you loan your friend a dollar at McDonald’s because they forgot their wallet. All these things may seem selfless, but under the microscope you only do them because you don’t want the repercussions of others whispering about you behind your back calling you a jerk for not being a good Samaritan.

     I came to college for myself. I plan to graduate and obtain a decent paying job for myself. I work for myself. I drink this cherry Pepsi because I want to. I may do things that seem unselfish, such as dream to buy my mother a mansion at wherever beach her little heart desires, but the amount of unselfish things that I do in my life cannot even begin to add up to this purchase.

     Even those who appear to be the most considerate people are subconsciously performing these acts because of the way it makes them feel inside and how they will be remembered and thought of as to their peers. I’m not suggesting we are all internally evil, but we are most certainly not saints. I guess we just aren’t as noble as our obituaries make us out to be.