Black And White

Debate has never really been one of my strong points. I personally find it difficult to argue with someone in an organized, serious way. But we did this today anyway; however it went pretty well.

In class, all of us got into groups and debated over seriously controversial issues in science today. All of the issues were extremely difficult to place since neither one was completely black or completely white. In my opinion, most are pretty much gray since there is no solid approval or denial for it.  There were different choices like: abortion, genetic engineering, marijuana, and Physician-Assisted Suicide. Our group, which consisted of my classmates, Paula, Hunter, and David, chose the suicide one. A Physician-Assisted Suicide is a suicide by a terminally-ill patient who has anywhere from a couple months to a year to live. If two doctors approve of the suicide of the patient, then the patient goes through a process to be euthanized. As I started on my case against this issue with Paula, I found out how difficult this issue is on both sides.  Personally, I am mostly against this issue; I strongly believe that killing yourself in almost any circumstance is wrong; I believe that God has a plan for everyone, and he wants everyone to learn from the life that they have. After all, life is a learning experience, no matter how someone looks at it. However, debating like this requires strong points, and this reason alone isn’t sufficient enough. So, we also made other points, like hasty decisions made by the patients during this stressful time and changes in the patients’ health, which can also make a huge impact in this decision.

The whole debate situation was overall a great experience. Everyone was completely involved in the discussions, argued, and asked a lot of questions, which is definitely a sign that everyone is listening. I love a classroom environment like this and I wish there were more of these types of surroundings back in high school.

After the debates, we got started on an AIDS movie called “And the Band Plays On.” We only got through a little bit (we will continue tomorrow), but so far, it is about the AIDS epidemic, how it started, and what people were doing about it back then. It is really interesting to see people so involved while others could care less. It really shows two opposing sides, also arguing against a controversial issue at the time.

On my way to my Arête class, I finally noticed how nice the weather was the whole day. I mean, it was raining, but the temperature never exceeded anything above 80 degrees. This is such a relief from the 100 degree weather I experienced last week. I swear, I’d choose this weather over a blazing hot day any time.

Anyway, fencing was such a blast today. We got into two teams and played this game called ‘Castle’ where two sides fought each other like a real, medieval war. By the end of it, I was pretty sweaty in that asphyxiating helmet but glad that we won. I really hope we play that tomorrow!

YUM.

For dinner, I had the most delicious and cheesy penne ever. I also had seasoned potatoes and strawberry shortcake for dessert – which was sweet and creamy. The dinner was so good, I just had to take a picture of it.

After such a quick day, I am really excited about the action-packed day tomorrow. We will be giving everyone a taste of all our Arête classes and showcasing our new skills in the activities. Also, there is a dance tomorrow; apparently some sort of glow-in-the-dark theme. Well, I guess I’ll see what this dance is all about tomorrow!