Do You Really Need College?

     This blog post was inspired by a post written by Sarah, a fellow American Studies classmate. Her post, "The Price of Quality Education" was about Harvard University's new plan to bring education to those who can't afford it. This post got me thinking about how expensive college is these days for students. Many students can't attend college because of the price and some others who do end up attending are left with a large amount of debt. With all these students worrying about money I was wondering, is college really worth it?
     I have heard about a couple of very successful people who didn't go to college, but I always thought those were very special cases. When researching for this blog post I came across an article written by a mom with three kids. Two of her children both went to college and graduated while her third child had dropped out. In her eyes, all of her kids had become successful in the path they had chosen. This was just an ordinary family. So, if a regular joe can be successful without a degree, do students need college to be successful? In my opinion, I think it depends on the student and how that student defines success. For some, looking out the window of their large office at a law firm means they have found success. And for some others, success is found in things like getting married or successfully climbing Mt. Everest. College is not necessary for everyone.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (two college drop-outs
 that have found a lot of success)

     What are your thoughts on not going to college? Who has to go to college in order to be successful? If you could be successful without a degree would you still go to college?

Do People Know That There Are Still 43 Days Till Christmas?

     While scanning the blogosphere i came across a fellow classmates post. Hannah W discussed her thoughts on Christmas advertising in her post "Christmas in October". I decided to write this post to show Hannah my thoughts on the subject. Christmas is without a doubt my favorite holiday. I love the food, the family, the christmas spirit and the sweaters. However, I am also a fan of Thanksgiving. This year, I have noticed how companies are already advertising for christmas even 43 days in advance. Because of this Christmas has been overshadowing Thanksgiving.
     ABC Family has started a countdown to there annual countdown called, "25 Days of Christmas" and the radio station 93.9 FM is now playing Christmas music around the clock. Personally I agree with Hannah that starting these yearly events before December even begins is annoying. If they start playing Christmas music and movies over a month in advance then by the end things get so repetitive that you have a personal vendetta on "The Jingle Bell Rock" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". However this may just be a problem for Hannah and I because the companies obviously have people ready for Christmas who are already watching and listening.
     I can see why stores would start advertising. They want people to start buying earlier and purchasing more. So the stores have all those extra commercials to get the idea into people's heads that Christmas is right around the corner when, in reality they still have months.
     Are you already in the Christmas spirit? Why do you think the music and movies are playing?

Hurricane Sandy Votes For Obama

     For the last two weeks Hurricane Sandy has been the star of a lot of news. For those who don't know, Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record and effected 24 states in the U.S.. Particularly Sandy caused a lot of damage in New York and New Jersey. Anyways I bring up Sandy because I think that this hurricane contributed to Obama's win in the presidential election. I know what you're think "what? No!" but come on I'll show you. 

     Mitt Romney, who was running on the Republican ticket for president, may have shot himself in the foot when he mentioned he planned to eliminate FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).  FEMA is a group from the government who responds to national diasters to help victims in the affected areas. So, when Sandy hit, thousands of affected people felt the relief efforts of FEMA. Since the victims had been through a situation where FEMA was of help, they probably started questioning Romney. People who really did not like Romney's idea of getting rid of FEMA, probably voted for Obama. In the map below you can see that Obama won a lot of the states that were mainly affected by the hurricane. This a link to an article talking about what I just discussed.

     

Election Map 2012 from politico.com

     Is it a coincidence that Obama won those affected states? Would the election have changed if Sandy hadn't happened? Do you think FEMA should be kept?