Tag Archives: Speak out

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.