Missing Home

This weekend I started to really miss home.  I'm so used to having my family around me to help me out when I encounter a problem.  It got pretty boring because I spent most of my time in my room because I felt sick.  I probably called my mom ten times just to check in with her.  I really miss having someone to take care of me and be in charge.  I like that my mom always knows whats best for me and what I should do.  If I were at home, my mom would have just helped me.  But here, I'm limited in the ways I can fend for myself.  I don't have access to a car and money like my mom always does at home.  I think I've became dangerously used to being babied by my mom.  I really enjoy breaks because I get that feeling that someone is there always keeping an eye on me and making sure I'm doing alright.
I've been homesick for my house, too.  I miss having a bedroom and a living room that are separate.  I hated being stuck in my room all weekend.  Overall, I guess I've been unhappy with having to take care of myself when I'm sick.  My mom always used to give me extra blankets and bring me water to drink.  But here, that isn't happening.  I'm definitely ready for Thanksgiving break so that I can go home and spend time with my family.  I definitely do enjoy myself at Wartburg, but I'm really looking forward to spending time in my most familiar and comfortable environment. 
Lately, I keep daydreaming about home and things I'll want to do when I'm home for this upcoming break.  I'm looking forward to curling up in bed with my cat and getting a good nights sleep (free of yelling and the rushing of the water pipes in my dorm room).  I'm anticipating a fun day together on Thanksgiving with my family watching football downstairs, our bellies full of delicious food.  I'm dying to hop back into my car and drive around visiting some of my neighbors and friends. 
Some of the little details of home just can't transfer into Wartburg no matter how hard I try.  My favorite pillow doesn't make my bed any more comfortable.  The pictures from home of my family don't make me miss them any less.  The magazines, books, movies and distractions haven't taken away from how much I want to be back at home.

World Population

In my environmental biology class, we are discussing world population and it's affects on the environment.  First of all, the are over 6 billion people in the world.  When I really stop and think about just how many people that is, I feel extremely insignificant.  It's kind of depressing to think that there are so many other people in this world and I am such a small part of it I probably don't even matter.  I hope that even though there are so many in our world, I can still make a large impact.  I don't necessarily want to be famous or anything like that, I guess I just don't want to be a nobody.  I'd like to be someone that is respected and important and I'd like to play a part in our world that makes me feel that way.  But then I think that it is probably going to be impossible, because really, I am not the smartest person by any means and there are a lot of other people with a lot more drive than I have.  I wonder if I'll ever reach a point where I feel satisfied and like I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing.  Because, really, how is anyone even supposed to know what they should be doing?  I guess I just want my life to have a point...
Then I think about the future and how much it is going to suck for the people that live here after I'm gone.  It's kind of unfair to them to have to deal with all these problems we've created, but I guess that's just how life works.  The future looks kind of dim because we are destroying everything that we have.  There's too many people and it's hard to know how much longer our planet can sustain them.  We did an activity that measured how many planet Earths we would need if everyone lived the exact same lifestyle as I do.  My number of planets was 5.9.  I kind of felt embarrassed because that's a huge number.  I guess I'm living beyond my means and could cut back on how much I waste and how I use my resources.  It's depressing to think that I am adding to the problem and making things harder on our planet.  But, it's nearly impossible to come up with a solution for these problems.  I can do my little part and cut back and be aware of what I'm doing in my life that's going to affect the future of our planet, but what more can I really do?  The way I've been raised has been comfortable, and I enjoy a lot of the privileges that I have as an American, and all of that would be so hard to give up.   I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I just don't know any other way to look at it.  I mean, humans have pretty much started to destroy the one place we have to live and we just keep doing so because our lifestyles demand it. 

Sorry to be so depressing.  I just even feel guilty using the electricity to run this laptop....

Global Climate Change

The more I read in State of Fear, the more I start to change my mind about global warming.  When I came into the class I thought that global warming was for sure happening because of humans and the differences were dramatic.  I certainly wouldn't consider myself an expert on the topic, but my opinion of global warming was that it was definitely true and happening.  I believed much of what was told me from news sources and internet sources because I saw many convincing pictures.  What hits me the hardest when it comes to global warming are the pictures of glaciers and their changes.  I have seen several examples of photos taken of glaciers 60 or 70 years ago compared to pictures taken in the exact same location currently.  In some cases, the glaciers are completely gone.  The pictures were so dramatic and showed that of course something was happening.  If global warming wasn't causing the glaciers to melt, then what was?  But after reading the information presented in Chrichton's book, I was very surprised to see that not all glaciers are changing, and in many cases, places are actually getting colder and glaciers are growing.  I have started to wonder if maybe the glaciers melting in some areas are just natural occurrences that are supposed to happen, and there is not any actual harm.   I wonder if global warming is as serious of an issue as it is being presented as.  Crichton's book relates so well to the way global warming has been presented to the United States.  To me, the idea of global warming kind of came out of no where and became very serious.  It started showing up in news stories and more research started being done when I was growing up.  Most importantly, Al Gore's documentary illustrated what global warming was, which kind of sent our country into a global warming frenzy.  Al Gore's documentary reminds me of Henesey's plan to make global warming a serious issue.  Although the book is a much more extreme version, both cases show that the media has what it takes to convince people.  If global warming starts showing up regularly on the news and there is a popular documentary about it, it must be an important topic and very serious. 

So, I don't really know what to think about global warming anymore.  I'd have to do more research on it to firmly decide what side I stand on.