For every college student...

The accomplishment of a goal is the result of a dream that has been realized. The question that many are asking in their youth is how do I make my dreams come true? It is a fair question, but many do not have the answer. In this entry, I will attempt to give all the readers steps that I have used to make my dreams come true. A dream, in order to become reality, has to be something you really desire to have in life or it will remain just a dream. In high school I didn’t know who I was, and I had no passion to attend school. I didn’t want much for myself but now I want to achieve a lot, and that I can achieve anything and everything I want. To make dreams a reality you need to do the following: Decide what it is you really want to do. This sounds so simple, but when you are making this decision you must determine if you will do this, even if you don't get paid. If the answer is yes, then you need to pursue this dream as a career choice, because it will never feel like work but you will always give 110%, because it is what you love doing. Find ways to get further training on what you have decided to do. The more you learn the more you will be able to produce in the area of the thing you love doing.--If you are a college student get involved in your school; I’m sure there is a group on campus that focuses on something you are passionate about.-- Write out a personal life plan outlining every step you must take to achieve your dream. 
A personal plan is an excellent way to chart your progress towards your goal, as it helps you to keep focused on your dreams, as well as allowing you to learn the necessary skill-set you will need to further realize your dream. Organize your personal plan into goals, actions, and results. When you do this you will see what it is you said you were going to do to achieve your goal, in a step-by-step format. Next you will list what actions you will have to take step by step under each goal to accomplish the results you desire. Then look at the results you are getting from the steps you took under the action phase. If these actions are moving you closer to your goal then you are on the right path, but if your actions are not helping you to get closer to your goal then you must change that action for another action and monitor the new results. This sounds so simple but without discipline it will not happen. That's why you must love what it is you want to do. It will take great desire to achieve your dream before you will take the necessary actions to make it come true. Dreams and goals are something everyone has but few actually achieve it. So it will take desire, determination, action, and perseverance to realize the desired outcome for your dreams and goals.There you have it; my plan for achieving your dreams and goals. It is possible for anyone to use this method and achieve their desires. The only person who can stop you from realizing your dream or goal is you. You must believe in yourself and you must believe in your dream. Never give up on your dreams or on yourself. Strive to start everything you dream about, and strive to complete everything you start.

FACEBOOK!

Facebook, the popular social media networking website, is filled with groups and fan pages that promote violence against women. Groups like "Let's kill all crazy women" and pages such as "Hitting Women" not only are offensive, but they clearly violate several points in Facebook's own terms of use. Yet, despite these clear violations, these groups continue to pop up. Simply shutting down the groups in question is not enough. The users themselves who create and/or join these groups need to have their Facebook privileges suspended.Please tell Facebook that they need to be more aggressive in enforcing their own policies against these groups.

Women's History Month Celebration

So, I planned a four day celebration for Women's History Month at Saddleback College. Honestly, I thought event planning was a lot easier then what I later found it out to be... It was very hard trying to juggle both my classes and planning such a long event. At times I felt like ripping my hair out!!! Even though I struggled at times--and honestly at one point I thought everything that could be going wrong was going wrong-- I realize now that I have learned so much from the experience. I learned to pay more attention to detail, I learned that it's not always easy to communicate with everyone and actually learned a lot about the women's movement. I learned not to be scared of being a feminist.. and became an activist! The two weeks that I was going crazy was totally worth the amazing people I met along the way and the amazing opportunities that I received from planning this event. (and I'd like to thank everyone for presenting me with these opportunities and believing in someone who's as young as I am) I would like to express the importance of being an activist for something you believe in... You don't have to be an activist for every cause, but even if you were to pick one, YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE and people WILL hear your voice. The most important lesson I learned from planning this event was that if you are loud enough, someone will hear you!

PS: I'd like to thank everyone who helped me with the event.. There were sooooo many of you who helped me and even did manual labor lol. Molly Grant, Marissa Geer and Lauren Notle: Thank you for all the hard work you put into the history walk. Jessica Ochoa: Thank you for being so attentive. Delainey Taylor: Thank you for dealing with me when I was going crazy over the missing packages.. you really calmed me down.

I know there is wayyyyy more of you who helped.. so thank you too.

Cheers,

Mel

http://www.lariatnews.com/women-s-history-month-celebrated-1.2187216

Gender roles

Gender role stereotyping and gender bias permeate everyday life. Children learn about gender roles very early in their lives, probably before they are 18 months old, certainly long before they enter school. The behaviors that form these gender roles often go unnoticed but their effect is immeasurable. Simple behaviors like: the color coding of infants (blue & pink), the toys children are given, the adjectives used to describe infants (boys: handsome, big, strong and girls: sweet, pretty, precious), and the way we speak to and hold them are but a few of the ways the gender roles are introduced. These behaviors provide the basis for the gender roles and future encouragement from parents and teachers only reinforce the gender roles. 

Toys, literature, media, and films also encourage gender roles. Males are depicted as "doing", while females are always "receiving." When girls act too aggressively they lose acceptance from their peers. Also, her peers also hold a strong impact on her actions. Studies show that men and women excel in certain subject areas, causing them to perform differently on tests. Men are shown to have better math skills while women are better with communication skills and orally expressing themselves. Even though some believe gender roles are a direct result of the human brain, there is insufficient evidence to prove it. So, it is through our culture that we learn these gender roles. Our culture has drilled an image into the minds of people of how the role of each gender should be played out. These gender roles are detrimental to young girls and young boys and there are consequences for girls and boys who don’t fit these roles. So what do you think after hearing the harmful side of gender roles? Gender roles, good or bad?

Conflict in romance...

As long as people have gotten romantically involved with one another, there has been conflict within those relationships. Some people argue that conflict is bad for the relationship and will ultimately lead to the demise of that relationship. Others argue that the conflict is good for the relationship and will help it to flourish. Conflict can be both positive and negative for a relationship. It can both help and hinder the relationship. No matter what stage the relationship is in and whether or not the relationship is being helped or hurt, conflict is always happening in different contexts. Conflict is also caused by numerous reasons. These reasons include a lack of interpersonal communication skills, low levels of trust, physical abuse, an individual's past history in relationships, and many others. Today I want to discuss three issues-- domestic abuse, controlling partners and insecurity leading to dependency.

Unfortunately, thousands of women are abused everyday in the United States. This abuse can be physical, verbal, or psychological. Women, by nature, seem to hold a higher sense of personal worth when involved in a relationship. From birth, women are taught by society to conform to certain expectations and definitions of what it means to be a female. Growing up, women always here phrases such as "That's not lady like" or "You should be treated like a lady". What does it mean to be a lady? According to most societies, it means that women are the weaker sex and are always in need of a man to take care of them. Men are taught, from birth, what it means to be a man. This definition is usually one of dominance and control. This is shown in phrases such as "I am the man of the house".

In many romantic relationships, one of the partners feels the need to be controlling. Men, by nature, have the need to feel that they are always in control. This is especially evident in romantic relationships. Some men however take it to the extreme. They feel the need to watch and control their partners every move. Sometimes this controlling behavior can turn into violent behavior. If a man, who is controlling, feels like he is losing that control, he will many times move to more extreme measures to gain that control back. A survey done on battered women showed that most women reported their partner to be controlling and restrictive before the physical abuse began.

Dependency is defined as the reliance of an individual on another person for the satisfaction of his/her needs. In this case, insecurity can be defined as relational meaning a person will have doubts and uncertainties about the relationship that he/she is in. Insecurity is a sign that a person is lacking a perceived need in their life. Insecurity would then be the counterpart of dependency as a person would be lacking something therefore depending on something else. When a person believes both that a relationship fills specific needs and that there are a lack of alternatives to fulfilling those needs a greater level of dependence is going to occur. Different factors that may lead to insecurity include the appearance of another person that the partner appears to have an attraction to, or a perceived lack of interest from the partner. Whatever the cause for the insecurity, it seems to always lead to a further dependence on that relationship. The reason for this is a fear of losing the relationship, therefore resulting in a further need for the counterpart to preserve the relationship.