It is not more than what you want it to be

Do you really think success is what you need? Do you actually make yourself believe that you will be happy by being successful? Are you ready to waste time of your life probably not to get what you want? These questions might be quite pessimistic. I make myself think that anyone clear enough with what he or she wants has what it takes to answer these questions. We all know how successful Bill Gates—creator of Microsoft—is successful and has enough money to be happy for this life and probably ten more. But, what is success? Success may be like the cure for cancer, some say they have found it, others do not even know about it; while some die looking for it. Whenever I’m looking for the definition of success, I agree with Will Smith who said “Money and success don't change people; they merely amplify what is already there.”

Talking about success is sometimes an undesirable experience for some. There are many who say they know what it is. Others claim they possess it. I really do not look for how others find their way up the success scale. Success is merely a personalized experience. You make your own success. Sometimes you have to shape yourself to what society accepts as normal, but the bottom line is that what makes you successful is good enough to be success. So why would you want to waste your time reading what I think success if I just stated that success is personal? Because my success is only mine and I am the one who achieves it. But it might help others find theirs as others’ success have helped me find mine.

Success is all about taking risks. It is doing what you would not do on a normal day because it would just keep your life: normal. It is in that moment that you decide to drastically change your life and move one that you find who you really want to be and what completes you. Nobody is hit by success. Success comes whenever you look for it. Even if you are not doing something to find whatever success you may find, you are still doing something for success. This stated, people who wonder all their lives looking for success and never find it can clearly have this for an answer: you are doing nothing to find it. I have great respect for those who have success. For example, Steve Jobs—creator of the well-known Apple—is a tremendously successful man that has all the money someone can ask. Clearly this is how everybody wants to be. Nobody, and I mean nobody wants to be miserable. Even though if your success is miserable to someone else, achieving it makes YOU successful.

With all that has been said, still nothing is close to the solution to find success. And let us be honest. Who knows how to be successful? If someone does, please let me be the first one to know. If I knew how to be successful in life, I would not be in college or writing this paper. I would clearly be on an island—owned by me—having a real life: one without preoccupations or responsibilities. Instead I am a college student preparing myself to the next step in life: slavery (more commonly known as work).

I have a dream. It is to play baseball for the New York Mets. I have been told that with much effort, I would be able to reach my so longed dream. People find the Major Leagues as impossible. To me, impossible is nothing. I see “impossible” as a synonym for challenge. There is no challenge big enough for a person with hope and the desire to be more than they could ever dream. Still, the world is a pessimistic place where envy often becomes the obstacle many impose on themselves between miserableness and success. So sometimes you might be near to achieve your goals, but somebody shows up who has your same dream. And that is not a problem. Sharing dreams. It is actually something very common and totally normal.

When two persons share a dream, it should be an impulse not to make the other person fail, but for yourself as an individual to make it to the top. Challenges make people take themselves to the next level. Whenever we are looking to be successful at something only ourselves are trying to achieve, we do not have pressure and, therefore, we take our time. But whenever we are under the pressure of someone actually threatening our dreams, we put extra effort in it and simply develop skills not possible under any circumstance. To me, reaching success this way is a milestone. In today’s world, everyone wants to be that person everybody wants to be. I personally want to be someone others use as a role model. That is what makes my quest for success so interesting. Not only proving I’m successful to myself but to others as well.

I recently read an article from a Puerto Rican newspaper that has deeply touched me. This girl, Emily Villanueva (17), was going home after school with four of her friends on her SUV. She was a star student, great friend, loyal, and a great example for anyone. Then, all of a sudden, two men on a hijacked vehicle hit the van the girls were traveling, killing young Emily and all of the dreams she might have had for the future. Her funeral was one all Puerto Rico watched. She was graduated from high school instantly and will be remembered by many—friends and not friends. I set this as an example not to what success is but how can one be pushed to succeed. I did not know Emily; I wish I had. She might have had a really short life and probably never got the chance to be the great human being she was destined to be.

This is a sad example, I know. But it shows us that after terrible events like this one, people see what terrible things life might have awaiting for one. It is in these moments that people put themselves to the challenge of overcoming all of their fears, all of those obstacles that make the human being incapable of achieving what one saw one day as impossible. When effort is put, one can overcome any obstacle, inconvenience, or wall. Nothing can stop a motivated human being and after seeing what happened to Emily, one can only think that it is better to thrive to accomplish those goals before it is too late.

Why would this isolated incident be related to success? Why bring up the death of an innocent young girl to make a point? Today, people only respond to drastic events. It seems like nobody puts the necessary effort but the one necessary to be average. Whenever they see that death is on everyone’s doorstep, desperation comes and suddenly goals to be successful in life appear. This is what really sets out truly successful persons. Those who do not need to be impacted to realize that they want to be happy, they want more, they want to be that dream that kept them awake for long nights. Whenever one can proceed in that quest not for what happened to others and might happen to me, but for what they want to be part of whenever they quench their goals, people will start to find success more often and more easily.

Now, what is success? It is nothing more that what you want to be. Like Will Smith said, it is not money what makes a person successful, but success enhances what already is inside a person. So now, success is not a necessity but a commodity. It is not wrong to be successful. There is nothing bad in wanting more and better that what you already posses. But you will never be successful if you do not first realize that what really counts is not what you might have, but what you have in the present and can work with to become a better, successful person. Be happy with yourself; realize what you are and what makes you… Only then you will be successful to your own self, which is the ultimate success in life: Be true to thyself.

Is There a Problem with Students Today?

Is there really a problem with today’s education? Are students to be blamed for what they do or do not do on the classroom? Do people really learn what is essential in life when they spend two hours in a classroom? These questions reflect what students and teachers are addressing as a problem with education. Education has been and is defined by Dictionary.com as the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life. There is no problem with education because those that are looking for solutions are the ones that teach and not those who are being taught.

Nowadays students have developed a mechanism where they seem to have an exit to a “boring class”. Whenever they feel as if they are forced to learn something that simply does not catch their attention or challenge their minds, they find something more “entertaining” to do. Although it is not correct to pay money to receive an education and waste it, some believe that there are classes that simply were made to make students crazy. These kinds of classes do not benefit the student or the teacher. In order to be in a good learning environment, the instructors as well as the student must be in a harmony that will make class successful.

Given the fact that I am a student, I feel more than acquainted with the worries that students brought into Dr. Wesch’s video. Whenever you arrive into a classroom, it should be a thrilling experience. Although it is a right, I see it more as a powerful tool that can give you access to many wonderful things like books that give doctors their M.D.. In a classroom, this opportunity to have an education should not be a burden for the student to learn. Professors are sometimes underestimated. It is because of them that people become well-known businesspersons and achieve goals seen as impossible by some. Teachers have a beautiful profession that is sometimes misjudged with unfairness and injustice.

With this being said, this profession should not be causing students to dislike classrooms. As Dr. Wesch said in his essay, “many hate school but nobody hated learning.” It is a mistake for education to be lost because of the mere fact that school is not a favorite on student’s list. Most people do not like to be seated for more than an hour everyday hearing someone talking about things that can be read in the commodity of one’s house. Many do not like to go to school to be flooded with information and be expected to remember all of it. Learning this large amount of information and getting education is something everybody should do. You are nobody in today’s society if you do not have an education. However, getting to be “someone” is a tedious process that many tend to avoid.

One reason for this is, like Dr. Wesch said, that students are given problems to solve, problems that they are not responsible for creating but are responsible for solving. It would be a bit more interesting if students were to come with their own problems to solve. Applying the problems to the material, obviously, would give students the ultimate learning experience where they could learn what they need to know for their profession and do what they like to do. One of the biggest problems is that students are learning in ways they find boring, tiresome, and archaic. To try and teach something to someone, you must first meet their needs before you try to invade them with new information. In other words, a sad student is not a student but one more body in the classroom. On the other hand, a happy and content student is one who will give everything he or she has. Being happy will also allow him or her to complete and fulfill the requirements for the class and perhaps surpass a teacher’s expectative.

One must also be fair with the teacher as well. It is a lack of respect for the teacher and for those who want to learn to “get by” in class by logging in to Facebook or using ones IPod. It is even worse when one is texting or studying for another class. There are some things in life that one does not like but nevertheless one has to do what one has to do if a goal is to be reached. The classes that give you more trouble are the ones that you must put the most effort in so one can finish them and learn the most from them. When you do not like a class, one has the choice to drop it or simply stop attending. One should never stay in a class if one does not agree with the course’s requirements or rules. If one decides to stay, it means one agrees and will do the best possible to complete the course. This means one does not engage in activities that mean a lack of respect for oneself and the teacher.

Today’s student does not have a problem. The system of education does not have a problem either. It is the simple fact that each is on its own path and neither of the two is trying to make that path similar. The student should try to adapt to the system that is inculcating in them the tools they need to be successful in the future. Moreover, the system needs to understand that students are overall humans and have interests that affect their actions. Whenever the two parties agree and reach harmony, a safe and important bond is created where the student is eager to learn and the system is satisfied with the students’ progress. Whenever there is a problem, sides should not be taken, each side must work together to see whatever each side need so that they can work a happy medium and both parts benefit.

This is the simple solution. Work together and there should not be a problem with education. Students do not have a problem and they are not bad students for using their IPods and laptops. They are just using whatever they can in order to find information faster and in a fun way. Teachers should not get angry when they find out that students are using their own means to study. Contrary to this, they should adapt to today’s technology and use the tools students love to their advantage. Watching videos online during class, listening to music, and letting students research on their laptops do not take away a teacher’s ability to help their students learn. On the other hand, it gives teachers a world of possibilities on how to manage and help their classrooms to become a learning environment, instead of a prison.

There is no real problem with today’s classrooms. There is no problem with education or educators. The only thing that has been addressed as a problem is the ways that students are trying to learn by themselves. This result is from the fact that they find the ways they are being taught are uninteresting. Whenever there is a solution, there is no problem. Just an event or experience for one to take something out of it, whether it is for one’s own benefit or for someone else’s benefit. Education was made to make us more rational and better human beings. Let us not see it as a burden but as a gift, which we must value and give all of our efforts to acquire it and help the world become a better place to live.

Depleted Uranium

Depleted uranium (DU) is mostly composed of a radioisotope of the element uranium. It has commercial or civilian uses such as counterweights in aircrafts, medical equipment, and containers to transport radioactive materials. It also has military uses such as defensive armor plating and armor piercing projectiles. On its ammunition uses there is controversy for it is believed to have potential long-term health effects due to its toxicity. (Wikipedia, Depleted Uranium; Introduction) When a nation goes to war to protect its welfare and that of their population, they go and destroy whatever threats their security. We all know the United States went to war with Iraq because the Iraqi government had possession of “nuclear weapons”. They went to war with a large amount of troops and even more ammunition. The question to ask is if the ammunition shot only kills the desired target.

There is not a number for the amount of bullets that will be fired in a war. No nation goes to a war knowing that the only casualties will be any threat into the security of the armed forces. Whenever there is a conflict that involves weapons, there is a risk for the civilian population to get caught by the live fire that does not ceases in the sought for victory. Troops advance through towns, airplanes bomb near hospitals, tanks firing at schools, or ships leveling an entire living complex. These are not examples to exaggerate. They are the sole reality whenever we turn on the television to see the events that are happening in the campaign on Iraq.

But if in top of these threats that already exist, you add the danger of ammunition and military equipment containing DU, what is the logic way to win a war without affecting the innocent. If a substance is radioactive and toxic, it is not meant to be used in the outside world or to be controlled by soldiers. It belongs in the laboratory where scientists can explore the whole properties of uranium, which for itself it is a very complex element.

DU is considered a radioactive and toxic hazard and when the ammunition penetrates armor or burns, it creates uranium oxides that can be inhaled or contaminate wounds. The toxicity of DU is greater when in an organism than its radiological hazard. Health effects depend on the extent of exposure and whether it was internal or external. Studies show that uranium accumulates in organs such as the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys. (Wikipedia, Depleted Uranium; Health considerations) This gives it access to the human body essential parts easily.

External exposure to radiation from pure depleted uranium is less of a concern because the alpha particle emitted by its isotopes travel only a few centimeters in air or can be stopped by a sheet of paper. The radiological dangers of pure depleted uranium are lower (60%) than those of naturally occurring uranium due to the removal of the more radioactive isotopes, as well as due to its long half-life (4.46 billion years). Depleted uranium differs from natural uranium in its isotopic composition, but its biochemistry is for the most part the same. (Wikipedia, Depleted Uranium; Radiological Hazards)

In 1996, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) gave an advisory opinion on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons. They stated that “The terms have been selected and understood, in the practice of the States, in their ordinary sense as covering weapons whose prime, or even exclusive, effect is to poison or asphyxiate.” This gave DU ammunition and weaponry coverage from all treaties that made illegal nuclear weapons and tactics whose prime effect were to poison or asphyxiate. The ICJ made it legal to use DU for they determined that its purpose in war was to destroy material and kill soldiers through kinetic energy. (Wikipedia, Depleted Uranium; Legal status in weapons)

It is a mistake to lave a toxic material to be used for ammunition and weapons. The International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons consists of more than 100 organizations that seek for a ban on the production and military use of DU weapons. As well, France, Britain, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution to hold a debate in 2009 about the effects of the use of armaments and ammunitions containing DU. This shows how organizations and governments are joining to remove DU from military inventory. It is only used only by 3 nations as of today. In December 2008, the UN General Assembly passed by 141 to four votes a resolution requesting to update the positions of organizations like the WHO, IAEA, and UNEP on the impact of DU weapons on human health and the environment. (Wikipedia, Depleted Uranium; Request for a moratorium on military use)

You do not have to be a soldier or be involved in a warlike conflict to be near DU. It has commercial uses that may expose consumers to this toxic material. It is used in the shielding from gamma radiation in industrial radiography cameras. It was also incorporated into dental porcelain (false teeth) to stimulate fluorescence of natural teeth. In 1999, concentrations of ten percent DU were being used in “jaune no. 17”, a yellow enamel powder being produced in France by an enamel pigment factory. This clearly shows how the consumer or industrial worker was exposed to a radioactive and toxic material through the products they may use on a daily basis. DU is also used in the trim weights of aircrafts. It is said that it does not possess any harm as long as the plating is intact. But in case of a crash, the DU is to be spread along the crash site and contain a harmful effect for the nature surrounding it. As well, in case of a fire in the airplane, the heat will cause the DU to oxidize to a fine and toxic powder that can be harmful for passengers and crew of the aircraft. (Wikipedia, Depleted Uranium; Civilian applications)

Studies on the airborne exposure to depleted uranium showed that uranium combustion product particles would quickly settle out of the air and thus could not affect populations more than a few kilometers from target areas, and that such particles, if inhaled, would remain undissolved in the lung for a great length of time and thus could be detected in urine. Burning uranium droplets violently produce a gaseous vapor comprising about half of the uranium in their original mass. Uranyl ion contamination in uranium oxides has been detected in the residue of DU munitions fires. (Wikipedia, Depleted Uranium; Chemical toxicity)

This is put in a way the military would like us to read it. This are pretty words hiding an ugly truth. DU has health concerning properties but not as much as you might think. The effects are only dangerous in a radius of some kilometers and if inhaled it can be detected in the urine. But the real problem is that when a ship is firing millions of rounds and all of those DU shells are put together, there is a larger radius than some kilometers big. And if it is toxic and radioactive, it is not meant for human beings to inhale it.

The Gulf War Syndrome is an illness reported to affect combat veterans from the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Its major symptoms include immune system disorders and birth defects. Other symptoms of this syndrome have been wide-ranging, including chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, headaches, dizziness and loss of balance, memory problems, muscle and joint pain, indigestion, skin problems, shortness of breath, and even insulin resistance. It has some probable causes like the anthrax vaccine, the use of chemical weapons, infectious diseases such as leishmaniasis, from sandfly bites, and fungal mycoplasma parasites. (Wikipedia, Gulf War Syndrome; Introduction)

But one of the main causes is the use of DU. DU was used in tank kinetic energy penetrator and autocannon rounds on a larger scale for the first time during the Gulf War. There have been many studies that show how harmful the depleted uranium was to the combatants and the civilians around the warzone. For example, a study showed that Gulf War veterans contained dangerous levels of DU in their urine. DU has recently been identified as a neurotoxin, meaning it contains poisonous components that damage the neurons and the nervous system of the body, which is the main controller of our body. A 2001 study showed that Gulf War veterans showed an increase by 1.8 (men) and 2.8 (women) times in the risk of having children with birth defects. (Wikipedia, Gulf War Syndrome; Possible Causes: Depleted Uranium)

It is no longer a question if DU is harmful to human beings. It should be removed from the inventory of bullets and other commercial products. It is a toxic element that can cause harm to the environment, but most important it can hurt human beings. Disasters strike without notice. If one is prepared the consequences may not be as lamentable as they can be. Having DU as part of the weapons a nation uses to invade another country is a risk they are taking. It affects their own soldiers for DU can be harmful if it is not managed with care or if it catches fire. Most important, the major threat is not to those who fight the war, but to those innocent lives that are put in play every time a bullet is fired. The true risk is for the people who have nothing to do with the decision of a nation going to war and still may get health problems or death in the worse case just for the sake of politician’s bad decisions.