Materialism

            In my family the holidays are for getting together, enjoying a feast and celebrating a couple days out of the year where we’re not poor or lacking. When I was growing up I was a Jehovah’s Witness, meaning I didn’t celebrate holidays. Every holiday I’d see everyone being excited around me, but never being able to participate in it. In my opinion, not being able to celebrate made me appreciate it when our family switched religions to Christianity and then finally got to celebrate.

            Not celebrating any holidays and then being able to embrace the holidays, made my family and I view them more as a family event. When I was younger my mom would give everyone in my family money, and then we’d buy each other gifts. It was never materialistic; the reason why my mom had us start to celebrate the holidays was to realize money is just a piece of paper. Celebrating was always something different to us and being a Jehovah Witness makes us view them as just a party, no religious story or meaning behind them. There are never any issues concerning expensive gifts, in my family, because we only buy and ask for what we know each other can afford. Fortunately, my siblings and I usually go halves on purchasing the gifts for each other so someone in the family will get what they have always wanted.

            So when it comes to holidays and which author explained it most closely to me and my family it would be Lauren Smith. The way she explains how it’s to show appreciation is most accurate. Giving gifts is to show appreciation and to thank the people for being in your life. No matter how expensive a gift is, a good person will always appreciate it. What she said came close to my home, and I hope it came close to others as well.

           

Personally, I hate reality shows

Reality shows are the garbage of all television broadcasts; they portray families and people that aren’t real! It’s been proven many and many times again that reality shows are scripted. To imagine people believe these shows devastates me. How can you believe that Snooki from Jersey Shores actually slept with all those guys while still with her boyfriend during the show? No, I don’t believe for one second that any of those reality show people are actually those people in real life. The shows are fake advertising and it sickens me!

For instance, let’s talk about Teen Moms these are girls are 16 and pregnant. Last time I checked, sixteen year olds are sophomores in high school. Not to mention, these girls in this “reality show” have cars and their one home; no sixteen years old can afford their very own home and car. Everything about reality shows are lies and scripted. The people starring in these shows are actors and actresses pretending to not have a script. As for me, I’d rather not support those shows by being a viewing audience. Instead, I watch scripted shows because I don’t like the false lies that “reality shows” give the world. I’d rather know people are acting. Also, I don’t feel comfortable watching other people’s problems. That’s pretty much what “reality shows” are; just people dealing with misery and problems. “Reality shows” are what I considered to be a new form of brainwashing and United States propaganda to control its citizens.

“Reality shows” are literally a waste of time and the government’s money. People who waste time watching “reality shows” are better off watching a documentary or Vice; Vice shows reality, but its real reality. When I say real reality, I mean the people in these videos are showing real-time events and misery happening around the world. It’s better to watch real than fake, and that’s what “reality shows” are, they’re fake! To clarify, the reason I know so much about these shows is because, I unfortunately have friends who feed these reality shows gossip down my throat. 

Homelessness

            It’s hard for some people to think that some homeless people aren’t druggies or felons and are literally just struggling to survive and can’t afford to live in today’s world. Nowadays it’s hard to live within luxury, everyone is struggling. Around the world people are without homes and often looked down on and treated horribly whether it is verbal or physical. In my home we struggle to survive, my family has gone homeless twice.

            Before my mom, little brother and I went homeless, I thought all homeless people were worthless because they were all on drugs. Never would I have thought that my family would be homeless twice. It never crossed my mind that some of those homeless people really just lost their home because they couldn’t afford to have one. That’s how my family lost our home, we just couldn’t afford it. As for my opinion on homelessness, it didn’t change from them being worthless until my family went homeless the second time. The second time we went homeless then I started to change my opinion. Every Sunday we would go to a church that would feed us lunch/breakfast and many other homeless people would go too. That is when I realized not everyone on the streets is a bad person; some homeless people are just struggling like my family was.

            Being homeless really changed my outlook on life, before I would judge a book by its cover, now I think twice before judging. You never know what that person has gone through or went through or how they got in that situation. Some homeless people are people who can’t afford to live and it’s saddening. A lot of my opinions on life has changed from being homeless, I can literally say “You never know what you have until it’s gone.”