A gendered space

   To be quite honest, I have never heard of such thing as a gendered space, so I was a little confused about what I should be writing about this week in my blog. However, Friday afternoon when my little sister came home from school, she told me about her day at kindergarten.
   She told me about a boy, tommy, that is lots of fun to play with, but during recess she can never play with him on the playground. "Because he's a boy!" My sister explained, and boys and girls do not play together at recess.
   Although they are only a couple of five year olds, this made me realize that from a young age, people are defined by their genders. Who taught these little boys and girls that boys should only play with boys at recess and girls should only play with girls? At age 5, why should they have to be classified into categories according to gender?
   If even the kindergarten playground is genders, then what space isn't? In reality, our society as a whole is extremely gender classified, people always think that certain places are "manly" while others are "girly", but these labels are unnecessary and do not really contribute to a greater good. For me to hear my five year old sister say that she can't play with tommy during recess because he is a boy, was shocking. I had never thought of it this way, even the most innocent place, a playground, is gender classified.

Vegetarianism

   It's been two years since the last time I ate any meat. The reason I became a vegetarian started off as being for ethical purposes revolving around animal cruelty. I am so glad that "Consider the Lobster" was published in a magazine for so many people to see. Oftentimes, people do not make a connection between the food on their plate and the fact that the food used to be a living animal. I'm not saying that you are ignorant if you eat meat, I feel that this is a personal choice. However, I do think it is important for people to understand why there are many people that choose not to eat meat, and some may not consume any animal products at all (eggs, dairy, fish...etc.). Although the vegetarian, pescatarian, and vegan population has been growing recently, it is still very controversial and I don't understand why. I feel that what someone chooses to eat is a personal choice, and nobody should be shamed for choosing not to eat certain things. Unfortunately, this is the case with almost everything, if you make a personal choice that is different than what most people do, it is likely that you will be made fun of.
   I think that this is an important topic to bring to light because of how relevant it is. I particularly enjoyed reading "Consider the Lobster" because of its relevance to my life, as someone who has chosen not to consume meat.

My Mother

   My mother is the most loving person I know. Truthfully, I've never met someone who wants me to succeed as much as she does. When I have to pull an all-nighter studying for a test or finishing an assignment, she is always right there with me. I have the mom that I would always think is embarrassing in middle school. She puts sticky notes with words of encouragement on my lunch box almost every time I have a big test, what middle schooler wouldn't find that embarrassing?
   My mother is probably the most important person in my entire life. As a teenager, I definitely do a fair share of screwing up. Time and time again, she forgives me and will give me another chance. I cannot imagine my life without her, and every time I let her down it almost feels like my heart is literally breaking, I can feel a pain deep in my chest. I love my mom more than anyone in the world and there isn't a thing I would do to intentionally hurt her. After all, seeing her hurt hurts me too.
   I recently realized how easily I can hurt my mother and manipulate her feelings. This has made me think about all of my choices before acting upon them. My relationship with my mother definitely is not perfect but that's my fault and I'm trying to fix it. I hope that one day I will be able to.