Tag Archives: Danielle Sheally

Columns, Forum

#SPEAKOUT: Kum Ba Ya during the holidays

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By Danielle Sheally

Dec. 26th, the most unhappy day in the world.

During any big holiday, everybody help each other and it seems like all the people in the world turn into one big family.  We ask about your family, ask how we are doing in school, etc.  We take extra time out of our schedules to help the homeless, feed the hungry, and collect money for the sick. Maybe because we feel like if we do a couple good deeds during the holidays that we are good for the rest of the year?

If we’re being honest with ourselves no one volunteers as much as they should. I think volunteering isn’t really part of our nature so when the holidays come around we automatically think “Oh my gosh have I given enough of my spare time.” When that answer is no, we automatically go into the state of thinking that we need to volunteer 50 billion hours in one day. Personally, I believe volunteering is built on the basis of when we feel it in our heart, do it. Don’t do it just because a holiday rolled around.

Volunteering truly is fun. When we give a helping hand you get to see the gratitude spread across the faces of the people we’re helping. They could be totally down in the dumps but, when we help them it could turn their day sunny side up. Lending a hand doesn’t have to be manual, it can be as easy as just spending some time with an elderly person talking or picking a handful of trash so the custodians don’t have to clean so much.

I’m passionate about this because what if we actually did pay it forward. Imagine how much kinder people would be. Instead of being envious of others we could actually be happy for them when they achieve their goals. What if schools around the country had a National Volunteering Day and we cleaned the school in teams. We may miss a day of academics, but imagine the lessons of paying it forward we would learn.

What are you going to do when your hand is needed?

 

Columns, Forum

#SPEAKOUT: The great candy collision

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By Danielle Sheally

There are tons of different textures of candy crunchy, smooth, sticky, hard, and gooey.

I think the two best candies on the face of the Earth are Heath Bar and Hershey milk chocolate bar. These are such classic candies that you can’t go wrong. These bring so much comfort when a bad break-up happens or when the most tragic loss in your life comes around. In addition, these candies are easier to fit in your purse or backpack, so they are easily accessible whenever cravings strike.

Heath bars hold so much history that one can almost taste history in the making.  From 1914 until today, the Hershey company has been making smiles run across children’s with their Heath bar. The thing that is most appealing about Heath bars is that they melt in your mouth, but they are also have crunchy toffee on the inside.

Predating the Heath bar is the Hershey Plain Milk Chocolate Bar.  Manufactured since 1900, this chocolate bar has been a symbol for America.  Though, on the outside, it looks and is called plain, it has an explosion of flavor when savored. The Hershey Bar has an amazing amount of sauciness sewn together with smooth decadence.

We ponder, as individuals, what the most frequently chosen candy is when the goblins and ghosts come out to play. Maybe I am right or maybe I am wrong; we’ll let the ghosts decide.

Columns, Forum

#SPEAKOUT: To Be or Not To Be

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By Danielle Sheally

Breaking away from something that we are a part of or a certain group of friends that we talk with and hang around is hard to do.  It’s almost like we are attached to them like a lock to a locker.

Do not do something just because your friends are doing it.  Do it because you absolutely breathe it and love it.  For example, I know a lot of girls in high school participate in dance, but they get so attached to their dance team that they are apprehensive to have their own dreams and goals.

In this world right now, so many people are not happy.  So many people focus on the negative. We become so consumed with everyday life that we become who people want us to be and we go through some days miserable because we are not being our own role model.

My goal in life is to start my own modeling agency for girls and boys with disabilities.  I want them to be able to break their mold  of looking at themselves with their disability.  Instead, I want them to look at themselves as fierce and fabulous individuals.  I want them to be able to look at their pictures with them out of their chairs or contraptions and be able to say, “This disability does not and will not define me.”

Though that is my goal, I want other individuals to be able to say to themselves,”Just because I am in this job or I am in this position does not mean I have to do this for the rest of my life.”  I want people to be happy when they wake up every day ready to go to their job.

Columns, Forum

#SPEAKOUT: Check yes or no

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By Danielle Sheally

Let’s take a hypothetical situation with Tom and Suzie.  Tom likes Suzie, so Tom asks her out.  The thing about Suzie is that she doesn’t have a wheelchair stuck to her butt.

I think that it’s hard for a guy to be comfortable with physically moving me or transferring me from place to place if they needed to. The guys are scared to move me from the car to a wheelchair if we go out on a date to the movies or even from my chair to the couch to watch t.v.  I think they are scared of hurting me, but I don’t think they realize just how strong my body is physically and that they won’t break me.

Dating is difficult for me.  The guys that I get close to, get attached to me personally and emotionally, but the part that’s also difficult is the physical part of the equation.  Honestly, they are scared of physically hurting me when I come out of my chair so I think that’s where they become standoffish.  For example, say we get very close, and we go on several dates, after spending so much time together, I proceed to take it one step further.  But, as always, there’s the common rejection statement, “you are a nice girl, but I just see us as just friends”.

I always tend to be the first one to fall for guys but they don’t want to let themselves fall with me.  I believe just because I don’t wear tons of makeup and wear vintage clothes they don’t see me as being attractive.  In country songs they always talk about the girl with no makeup on or in a simple outfit being the one they fall for.

When you truly love someone, it doesn’t matter what she looks like, what she sounds like or if  she has expensive clothes or not, you should fall for the person that she is.  We know when we fall for someone because, we see that one person and it’s like they have a special glow around them.

So, maybe I just need someone that sees that special glow around me?

 
Columns, Forum

#SPEAKOUT: Looking at both sides of the mirror

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By Danielle Sheally

Why as a society do we judge people?  Maybe we judge because we’re so insecure. Think about it for a minute. Maybe we won’t wear a certain shirt that we love because we’ll get made fun of. Or possibly, we won’t hang out with a group of people because staring eyes know what that group’s values are. Better yet, the insecurity takes such a hold on the way we act we won’t stand up for what is right. We don’t want to stand alone against millions with a different view from ours.

I believe that judging others is at its worst point among high school students. We think this because when we are walking down the hallway and we see someone with really expensive clothes or inexpensive clothes, we either think that they’re either really wealthy or a very frugal person. The same can also be said about someone who is very good academically and someone who struggles in school. We assume that one is very knowledgeable while the other person is not.

It’s evident that we all judge, but what are we going to do to change it?