As I said in my last post there is a lot of misunderstanding around the genre of rap. The biggest issue that people have with it is that it degrades women and objectifies them. True, there are artists that talk about that non stop, but what the people don’t understand is that more often than not it’s figurative language, or to put it simply the rappers are just flexing the amount of girls, or money, or what kind of drugs they do. Again not all rappers do this. You have people like Logic, or NF who talk about their own lives and about some social issues with the occasional flex here and there. Thats not saying Logic and NF are better than anyone, it’s just their style; and to even label a rapper as the best is kind of subjective because there are so many different styles and subgenres of rap that it’s insane. Rap being the most popular type of music in the US at least according to USA Today and it shouldn’t be a surprise just look at spotify’s top artists and albums for the year and most of them are Hip Hop.

There are many different types of music and even subgenres of all the main types. Some of the big name music genres include rock, pop, country, and hip hop. I want to talk mainly about hip hop and the fact that it is misunderstood by quite a few people. Some of my friends don’t even consider it music because there isn’t talent being used to just say the words to a rap song. While I see where they’re coming from, to say rap isn’t music is quite honestly a lie and completely false. Music is defined as having a rhythm and conveying emotion. I’ll be the first to admit that some rap songs don’t really convey any emotion if they sound flat and monotone and even less so when all the artist does is talk about sex, drugs and money. But even those song that do talk about the typical rap stuff can be good. Some songs you listen more to the flow of the music and instruments rather than the actual words and some people don’t do that with rap, they listen to the words and take them literally, then those same people want to paint the picture that ALL rap no matter what, is all about sex, drugs and money. There are plenty of artists out there that talk about real issues, or they rap about their lives. That takes some thought and I daresay even courage to get up on stage during a performance and talk about controversial issues.

Recently I have been taking many college visits and talking to advisors at colleges about my education plan and it is all starting to seem very real and, if I am being honest, it’s a little nerve racking. With everything going on in my life it seems like i have no free time of my own at all, I have a job, I am finishing my Eagle Scout project, I’m in high school currently, and I have to worry about college which I’ll be starting the day after our graduation ceremony. I’m worried about how I’m going to pay at least fifty grand for six years of college and not to mention how long it will take to find a job afterwards. These are some of the things I’m stressing about, but in reality I can only handle one thing at a time so there is no reason to be worried about things that are far off down the road.

Being in the dead of winter, it’s only natural that it snows, and that makes snow days much more likely. Many school systems have came up with an idea, that even though we don’t have school, we can still make kids learn as if they were there. I see no problem with wanting kids to still learn at home, so that way the last school day and everything else is set in stone. The problem, however, is that the people who came up with the idea glorify technology to an outrageous degree.

What I mean by that is they think that if the teachers post a short video outlining what their students have to do and giving them an assignment or two that take maybe fifteen minutes, that we can still get basically a full day’s worth of school. I am definitely not suggesting that the teachers increase the size of the assignments, in fact that might be in the opposite direction and have a negative impact. The bottom line is, there is no replacement for student teacher interaction in a classroom.

The solution to this I do not yet know. If the administrators were in the students shoes, then I think they would understand. The core idea of E-Learning isn’t a bad one though; having a set date to end school without having to go into June sounds nice, and with E-Learning it keeps students in the mindset of school if there are multiple days missed in a row. I don’t think E-Learning is a stand if for a school day, more of an outline of what would have been done if there was school. There are definitely pros and cons but we shouldn’t rely on E-Learning days to teach us anything new.

We all know that high schoolers can be wack sometimes, but the worst out of all the grades is easily the freshman. I say this not to be entirely mean however, there are some things freshmen can do to not be so annoying.

The first thing that they can do is to not act like they own the entire school. I can understand that it’s cool being in high school for the first time, but you don’t have to act like you’re Steve Jobs and try (and fail) to flex on all your upper class men who have been there at least a year before you. Another thing they can do is not be as loud. Personally, when I walked in on the first day of my junior year, i saw two freshman get in a fight before the bell had even rang to start school, they were yelling and cussing each other. Don’t get me wrong it was very entertaining, but quite annoying.

Now for some real advice. When i started high school, I had no idea about college or my career, and now as a senior, it’s all i think about. I originally had no idea about dual credit classes, AP classes, and how to do half days at school. I think the one thing I wish i would’ve done differently from the start, was to try harder my freshman and sophomore years. I’m kicking myself now because of the opportunity I lost. You might think you don’t want to do any more than you have to during high school, but the truth is, after you graduate, the real world doesn’t really care if you want to be lazy and not do anything. The military is always an option, college and going straight to the workforce are there as well. I understand college isn’t for everyone, but at least make the effort to try because all throughout my time in high school, I changed my mind about what I wanted to do more times than I can count, and besides, a little challenge never hurt anyone and at the same time, pushing yourself makes you a better person.

Hello. My name is Ben, I’m almost 18 years old and I am currently going to Huntington North High School, and plan on going to college to study Psychology at Purdue. I currently have a job at a local meat market but am about to loose that job because the owners are retiring. The reason I named this Big Chungus’s Blog, is because I greatly enjoy memes. To me, Memes are a way of life. If you couldn’t tell my favorite meme is of 2018 was Big Chungus. I enjoy doing a lot of other things as well such as gaming, some sports, almost anything outdoors, and I like to listen to politics though I don’t consider myself a fanatic about them and I’m not a keyboard warrior. I like to think I am a laid back person, I’ve never blogged before so i hope i enjoy it.