The Stress Myth?

Today, as I was quickly clicking through the top stories on AOL's homepage, I noticed that two out of the forty "top news stories" had to do with stress. I found this really interesting because, as I write my junior theme about stress, I am beginning to notice articles, news stories, and personal stories about stress everywhere. The first article,  Change to Make You More Positive, talks about the idea that stress characterizes our lives. It certainly isn't an uplifting article, but instead makes you think about why people whine about being stressed so often. Then, a few links later, you come across an article titled,  Reduce Stress in Just Six Seconds. I don't know if the editors of the AOL homepage did this on purpose, but it seems like they linked to the original article about stress and then felt guilty for being negative, so they added a link to this article to help people calm down. Overall, I just thought it was interesting that people in America are so focused on stress. Do you think stress could be considered a "Super-replicator"?

American Idol: Making it Big

While discussing The Great Gatsby in class, one of the main ideas we have talked about is the "American Dream". Jay Gatsby is a perfect example of a person who started off as the son of unsuccessful farmers and, through years of hard work, ended up becoming an extremely wealthy man. One term that came up in this discussion was "making it big". It seems that "making it big" is closely linked with the term "American". For example, the TV show, American Idol, is all about making it big and singers fulfilling their life-long dream of becoming a superstar. The fact that the producers chose to have the word "American" in the title of the show seems to be an attempt to link their show to the idea of the American dream. Do you think American Idol actually represents the American Dream? Or do you think the producers are just trying to link them to make people have positive thoughts about the show?

Adapting to Happiness

One topic that briefly came up in class a few days ago was the concept of "adapting to happiness". The concept is basically that, even if a person thinks they wouldn't be able to be happy in a certain situation, they would ultimately adapt to find happiness even in the worst situation possible. This idea made me think of a blog I have read a few times by a woman named Kelle Hampton. Her blog, "Enjoying the Small Things" talks about her life as a mother and her emotional journey learning about and coming to terms with the fact that the youngest of her two daughters, Nella, has Downs Syndrome. Kelle admits that when she found out the news about Nella, "My world was rocked to the core, and I was sure life as I knew it was over". However, after she had time to adapt to her new situation, she realized what a true blessing it was. On her blog, she wrote, "How wrong I was.  Between the outpouring of love and support we received, some hardcore life analysis and therapeutic insights I made on this blog through it all, I have arrived at the very beautiful place of Life is hard.  But it's also amazing, and I will rock the hell out of it." I think Kelle's story is a real inspiration, and is a perfect piece of evidence to show that no matter how difficult a situation may seem, people are designed to adapt and return to happiness.