Problems of the Past that have Led Me Here…

            The moment I graduated and would move away for a four-year college was always a dream of mine, who’s isn’t?  However, upon my senior year, plans were changed.  I graduated high school with honors, and decided to attend NVCC in the upcoming fall.  Although it was never my goal to attend community college, due to the negative connotations it can carry, it became a much better plan. 

             I was quite hesitant upon attending NVCC, perhaps because of pride.  As the time drew closer for application deadlines, NVCC seemed economically ideal.  Why go off to a four-year school and pay almost three times the amount in tuition than I would at a community college.  The only troubles that I faced were that I still had the fantasy that I could always receive assistance, especially with the grades I had sustained all throughout school.  Should I leave, against my family’s wishes, and go off to a four-year university; or stay at home and attend community college, all the while still dealing with the stresses of family matters?

             An article from CBS News reported that the amount of young adults that return home after graduating from a university has steadily increased since 2007.  They termed this increasingly large group from the new generation “boomerang kids,” meaning just that.  “‘I want a job that I can show that I am talented, that my talent isn't going to waste and I want to be able to support myself and be able to support my family down the line,’ Young says.”(6M, Russ Mitchell)  A thought that I too share, and so do many other young adults that find themselves in this sort of situation. 

            The problem within myself started with the weighing of my two options.  I could go away and most likely end up becoming a “boomerang kid” or I could simply stay home and drudge through the all-too normal butting of the heads between my parents and I. 

            Obviously I stayed home and have become a student of NVCC.  This is my second semester, and after completing the first- I have made the right choice.  I made the Dean’s List, but some of peers that went off to school did not do so well.  I am taking the same classes that my friends are taking; only I am paying less than half than they are in tuition alone, and performing academically better than they are.  I have to give credit to my mother for advising me into the right direction.  I am happy at this point in my life, but still suffer through parental issues.  To be continued in a later Blog-Post.

6M young U.S. adults live with their parents. (2011, December 4). Retrieved January 30, 2012, from www.cbs.news.com

The Lighter Side to the Heavy Me

A rising pandemic in our nation is Obesity.  Several campaigns for over-weight awareness and childhood obesity have filtered their ways into every form of media.  With healthier choices in public school cafeterias and encouraging children to get active should end the problem quite soon right?  What about those that were apart of the childhood obesity statistics and now belong to the obese adults community?  With the rise of technology, the necessity of a “fast-lane” life, and the perennial recession, fast food chains become the go to places for lunch, dinner and even breakfast.  Here is a link to an interesting fact about a global fast-food chain: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.aec4920fe8094fdd0baaeab2ed126bf1.741 How does this affect a college student particularly?  College life is expensive, from tuition to materials, and does not seem to be getting any cheaper.  A college student is then going to stop by a fast-food chain to get quick food that is cheap and tastes good.  The downfall of this are the harmful affects this food can have on a college student’s physical and mental health.  Here is a link to an interesting website that offers a more professional and in depth discussion of obesity and its affects on health: http://l-pawlik-kienlen.suite101.com/mental-health-effects-of-obesity-a27133 “Obese young women are half as likely to attend college as slim girls.  Obese young women are also more likely to use drugs and alcohol than their slimmer peers.”(Pawlik-Kienlen)  My perspective of it all, as a person who has dieted many times and had several weight-fluctuations all by the age of eighteen, is that it is almost a “catch twenty-two.”  If I live my life and not worry about my weight than I am unhappy with myself and thus send myself into a depression, however if I try to better my health and appearance then I am falling to what society expects me to look like and not being my own person.  My friends and I used to joke around about the over-weight topic, but I am done joking and ready to get serious with myself.  I am currently on a diet and this time I really want to do it again-lose the weight and keep it off.  I may post on the blogs to come a little excerpt about my weight-loss progress.  So far it has been a week and I have lost three pounds, I still have a ways to go before I hit my goal weight. 

Pawlik-Kienlen, Laurie. "How Obesity Affects Mental and Emotional Health: The Social and Psychological Consequences of Being Overweight | Suite101.com." Psychology Suite101.com. 25 July 2007. Web. 23 Jan. 2012. <http://l-pawlik-kienlen.suite101.com/mental-health-effects-of-obesity-a27133>.

Insight into My Chaotic Imbroglio

The minds of young adults are one big mystery.  The transition between childhood and adulthood is a mental burden in itself.  I am one, and even I find it hard at times to fully understand why I do things the way I do, or even what makes me do them or think that way.  Through psychology we can all learn that one single brain is not identical to another.  With that being said my blog posts will be mostly based on my own personal experiences and others [young adults] that too find themselves in similar predicaments.  Not to say that any or all of my topics will be topics that only adolescents can face, there could be a forty year old that experiences similar dilemmas and that is unfortunately perfect!  I will discuss various topics such as: anxiety and its relation to school, work and other stress-related issues; sexuality; relationships-friend and family; and various other topics as such and all having the focal theme of young-adult impasses.  *Hence the title.  A little introduction of myself, would be I am an eighteen year old male, currently living at home, studying at a local community college, and sustaining a part-time job.  Don’t get me wrong there is not anything wrong with a community college, but graduating high school with over a 4.0 GPA and staying home mainly for the family’s sake, can cause a little bit of imbroglio in my head.  I am very much overweight and have family member(s) of who are sick- I will address more in detail, the topics I just mentioned in the very near future.  I am extraverted and musically oriented in a sense that I love music-but what person of the new generation doesn’t?  From a first glance, I am quite normal, lost in the crowd.  After a few moments however, it can easily be identified that I am far from that.  What is normal anymore, anyways?  Is anyone truly normal?  These things complicate my life even further, especially when I see that I do not fit the criteria of a normal eighteen year old male.