Every year that I have had the opportunity to visit my grandparents in Texas (this year we went to Las Vegas for a week as well), there has always been one particular thing that hits me really hard.
It is often joked about that Muncie is a horrible place to live. If you move to Muncie you will inevitably get asked “why on earth would you move here?” The city is nicknamed by the locals as “Methcie” because of the large drug problem in our city. Is Muncie really that bad comparatively though? In the United States there is a reported population of 327,874,612 people as of July 8, 2018 (www.census.gov/popclock/). There is an estimate of 553,742 people in the United States who are experiencing homelessnes (endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness-report/). Those numbers put together makes it not seem so bad right? Out of 327,874,612 people in the country, only 553,742 are without a home. That’s only 17% of the country. There are definitely countries with much worse off rates than 17%. When I have visited El Paso, Texas and now Las Vegas, Nevada, the thought of homelessness is next to impossible to escape my mind. There are people begging on almost every street that you go on in Las Vegas and there are people begging on almost every stop light corner in El Paso. You don’t see that in Muncie, it’s honestly pretty rare to visually see the homeless in Muncie unless you are actively seeking them out to volunteer at a local shelter or on the South end of town. Why is it though that the 12th richest country according to Fortune (fortune.com/2017/11/17/richest-country-in-the-world/) out of 195 countries in the world has over half a million homeless people? There are many people who will claim the homeless are just lazy. How are they any lazier than a person hanging out lounging on their couches watching tv for hours on end? Have you ever actually seen the homeless? They spend the better half of their day searching for ways to earn money while you play on your fancy phones reading this blog post. How can they get a job when they don’t have the resources to feel presentable enough for an interview to get a job? Maybe you’re someone who just claims that the homeless are just addicts. Can you go a year without touching your electronics? How about caffeine like pop or coffee? Caffeine isn’t a narcotic, but it is a drug. Why are we not doing everything we can to help solve this issue in our country? Everyone has a different path that they take in life, can you think of even one person who purposely chooses to ruin their life with the intent of ruining their life? Why are they punished from basic human needs of food, water, and shelter just for the mistakes they made in life or the mistakes that someone else forced into their life? You might bring up the argument of, “why we do provide options! We have homeless shelters, and charities!” Those are great, but obviously they aren’t completely working yet, so why don’t we do more? We have flashy cities full of expensive items, money being thrown all around in the gambling slots, money being thrown around on so much more stuff than we actually need to live with. Why aren’t we using that money to actually do something good in life? ----- This is a little off the topic of homelessness, but I wanted to let you all know that I wrote this piece while still in Las Vegas, before we even arrived in El Paso so what all I said of El Paso was based on memory of previous years. I’ve been in El Paso for about a month now and I have not seen one single obvious homeless person. I would normally see them begging on the streets, but this year? I have yet to see any anywhere. It begs the question, is this because of the current deportation situation happening? Were they taken to facilities or are they hiding in fear? If you are unaware, if you look up on Google Maps how close El Paso is to the border of Mexico, it will tell you that it’s only about an 11 minute drive. My heart is deeply concerned for the lives of strangers and I find it terrifying to watch how many connections are made with this current situation to the Holocaust The Holocaust has always been an event that lives deeply in my heart. I visit the museums when I can, I attend events about it when it’s nearby and Eva Kor, a Holocaust survivor who forgave the Nazi’s is a very big inspiration in my life. Why? Because I have a big heart. Because I’ve had horrible things (nowhere near the Holocaust level, but still horrible things) happen to me that I have been attempting to forgive over the years. Because I don’t want such a horrifying thing to happen again. History has a pattern of repeating itself and I have been curious on deciphering the pattern to know what I personally can do to either stop it, or the minimize the effects. That sounds ridiculous because not one person can stop something so big, but if you’ve been paying attention to social media and the news, you’ll see that there is a rising of strong individuals who know what they want to change and they are actively working on changing it whether it be with their words or actions. So, what are you doing to make the world better? Even if it’s small actions, those small actions grow big with impact.
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I was accepted to Ball State University, attended my first Winter Jam, had a wonderful Valentine’s day, and started a young adults group with 2 of my best friends! Part one dives into Ball State and Winter Jam, then Part Two (will be posted on March 19th) will be about Valentine’s Day and the young adults group, enjoy!
The idea of Aureate Marketing was sparked on January 29, 2017 and as soon as I had the idea, I knew I was going to stick with it, so I created accounts for it on several different social media platforms! Aureate Marketing has grown so much and I’m excited about everything that the future holds for it! Check out what Aureate Marketing has already accomplished in their first year!
Hey guys! So, as I mentioned in my New Years post, I have trouble writing stuff down on paper, but one of my goals for this year is to write on paper more! I've tried using planners before, but I never really could get quite into it because: 1) I dread writing on paper & 2) No planner ever had the things I wanted in them! Well, I found a solution! I made my own personalized planner! It's still vague enough for others to use it though so I thought, why not share it with you all? (Click the "Read more" button to view the rest of this post)
Hey everyone it’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day! Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a day of service. It is a chance for all to honor Dr. King’s legacy through service and volunteerism. Pledge to serve on MLK Day and share how you are committed to service. Post your pictures and stories using Ivy Tech's hashtag. #MLKServiceYourWay
This blog post is different as I didn't particularly write much as I provided some awesome facts, links, and places to volunteer, but I hope you still enjoy! Today I'll be spending the day finding donations for PhyXTGears Robotics' Quartermania Event which you can find more information at: https://www.facebook.com/events/145679829479094/ Happy New Year!! This special post doesn’t have a timestamp so I just have to tell you that it was posted at midnight (Eastern Standard Time)! This year New Years Eve fell on a Sunday and if you know me personally, you know that every Sunday I go over to my Great-Grandma’s house for dinner and family fun (and also to catch up on homework). So of course, my family and I spent New Year’s at my Great-Grandma’s house! I think it’s such a wonderful way to ring in the new year surrounded by my family with an addition of my boyfriend (who has become an addition to our family). (Click the “Read More” button to read the rest of this blog post!)
This post is a personal essay titled "Just Be." I wrote this personal essay as a Creative Writing project. It was inspired by several spoken word poems. It's about love, patience, forgiveness, kindness, breathing, learning, and acknowledgement. I hope you enjoy it, please leave comments below either adding onto this piece or just leaving your own opinion!
Hey everyone! Today I decided to make a Facebook page for my Bound To Fly Higher Blog! I've been trying to work out a way to best let all of my readers be able to receive up to date blog post notifications through several different methods and finally decided that this would be the best method for me. I hope you all enjoy! This Facebook Page will be used to post blog posts as well as occasionally share with you all some cool posts from others that I enjoy and would like to share with you all! You can make sure that you won't miss a post by clicking the "follow" button on the Facebook page and then clicking the "see first" option!
This post is 20 different lessons that I've learned over my 20 years of life, hence the title of this post. A majority of these lessons were brought to my attention through hard situations. It was a rough road to lead up to these lessons, but now that I know them, I plan to share them with all that I can. Maybe by age 30, I'll have learned 10 more to share with you all. I want to apologize for missing my preferred deadline for this post, I’ve received a lot more homework within these past few weeks than what had been normal and of course, homework comes before this blog.
You may have noticed that I didn't post at all in October and I still haven't gotten a blog post out... To sum up a long story, life has been pretty busy lately. When my new 8 week courses began, they came with more homework than I had the previous 8 weeks. I'm focusing on my schoolwork and the occasional mental health days currently, but plan to write again and let you all know when I start creating blog posts again.
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AuthorsAshley Martin started this blog as an English assignment and has since kept it as a place to voice her opinion about different topics and share her life events with others. Ashley has her boyfriend, Asher Cougill, help write and edit every post. Until my next blog post, follow me on social media!
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