#ARMYMustServeProject

"BTS debuted on June 13, 2013, which means that they will be celebrating their 5th year anniversary as a Korean Boy Group. Since 2015, they have been a big part of my life through their music and their social media platforms. Throughout my life, volunteering and charity have also been major parts of my life, because I like the feeling of making an impact in both my community and the world.

#ARMYMustServe is a project created by /u/BTSProjects on the Bangtan Sub-Reddit for all of BTS ARMYs globally to help out their own communities. I chose to help raise money for BTS's campaign "Love Myself". This project will last from May 13, 2018-June 13, 2018

Love Myself is a partnership between BTS/Big Hit Entertainment & Unicef's #endviolence campaign. BTS formed "Love Myself" on November 1, 2017. This is a program that will last at least 2 years. #endviolence is Unicef's campaign aimed at ensuring a safe & healthy life free from violence for young children and teens. Here are some facts involving violence perpetrated on the youth of our world (according to unicef.or.kr):

Every 5 minutes, 1 child dies of violence.

10% of girls experience sexual violence by the time they become adults.

30% of youth experience bullying in their academic careers.

Love Myself is seeking to end violence that our youth experiences. Please help me raise money to donate for Love Myself and to complete my #ARMYMustServe project. Any and all donations will be greatly appreciated.

I will be finishing my fundraiser on June 3, 2018 so I can have my proceeds process onto my card so I can donate to Love Myself by June 13, 2018. On top of raising money for Love Myself, I will be participating with websites that also do good for our community (ie FreeRice) weekly. I will be sure to post updates about those weekly projects."

PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO DONATE

https://www.gofundme.com/armymustserve-2018-project

My Sentiments About Bullying (TRIGGER WARNING: CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT BULLYING AND SUICIDE

Right now where I am at, it is 4:03 AM and I typically cannot fall asleep until 5 AM. During my sophomore and senior year of high school, I read this book called "13 Reasons Why" by Jay Asher. The summary of this book is about a teenager named Hannah Baker who committed suicide because of the bullying that happened to her. However, before she committed suicide, she made several tapes, with 13 sides total. Each side of the tape told a reason about a specific person that contributed to her choice to commit suicide. Each person would get the tapes, they would have to listen to all 13, and then pass the tapes onto the next person. In the book, it was Clay Jensen's turn to listen to the tape.

Book Cover of "13 Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

Over the weekend, I watched the Netflix Original series that was based on the book. The Executive Producers for this series were Brian Yorkey, Diana Son, Tom McCarthy, Steve Golin, Michael Sugar, Selena Gomez, Mandy Teefey, and Kristel Laiblin. Like every movie or TV series that are based on a book, there are a few changes in details that happen so it does not copy the book completely. In the book, Clay listens to every tape within the course of a night, but in the TV series, it takes him several days to complete all the tapes. This was an important change so that way it could make it the length of a mini-series.

Poster for the Netflix Original series version of "13 Reasons Why"

I find with a lot of things that talk about bullying, they don't really go into detail about bullying so the media does not really help with the issue of bullying. Having said that, "13 Reasons Why" (both the book and the movie), go into great detail about how bullying can affect the life of the victim, especially to the point where they commit suicide. There a few types of bullying according to bullyingstatistics.org, which are physical bullying, emotional bullying, and sexting. The book and TV series does a great deal at showing how each type of bullying can cause someone to go to the point of suicide. A lot of times, the global society does not talk about bullying and suicide because of how uncomfortable it is to talk about. But if we want to progress (and we need to progress),  we need to talk to each other about important issues.

According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, about 20.8% of students have reported bullying and that only 36% report the bullying. This means that 64% of students that are being bullied are not reporting, and this number is too high. There are a variety of reasons why students don't report being bullied, and I was one of those that didn't report the bullying that happened to me. My anecdotal reason as to why some students don't report bullying is that the administration does not do anything and that the bullies act worse when they are found out to have been reported on. Another reason as to why someone might not report being bullied is that the adult that is supposed to be trustworthy is a bully as well. As adults, we need to be able to listen to the youth and our peers that go through bullying and we need to stand up for them so they do not go through bullying anymore, or the side effects of bullying. In fact, some signs that someone is being bullied, according to stopbullying.gov, are unexplainable injuries, property that is lost or destroyed, frequent headaches or stomach aches/feeling sick/faking illness, changes in eating habits, having difficulty sleeping, declining grades/skipping class/not wanting to go to school, sudden loss of friends or avoiding social situations (especially when they are normally extroverted), lower self-esteem or feeling helpless, and self-destructive behavior like talking about suicide/self-harm/running away from home.

According to the CDC, about 4,400 young people die per year because of suicide and for every suicide that happens there are about 100 people that attempt suicide (making the number of suicide attempts 440,000 attempts per year). A study made by Yale University reports that bully victims are 2-9 times more likely to commit suicide. There was a study that was made in Britain that reports that half of all suicides are caused by bullying and that the largest group of people that commit suicide are 10-14 year old girls.

If you find that your peer, friend, child, loved one (depending on the type of your relationship with the bully victim) is being bullied, there are a few things you can do. Please stand up for them. Help them get help. Even being a good shoulder to cry on and to help them can help. If they are showing signs of self-harm, please get them medical attention. Do not demean them in any sort of way.

If you or someone you know is feeling hopeless/helpless/thinking of suicide please contact your National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.



Resources: http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html
http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/stats.asp
https://www.stopbullying.gov/at-risk/warning-signs/

Things About Life

It has been quite a long time since I have posted last. I have also noticed this blog slowly being turned into a personal blog rather than the original plan of just posting writing pieces. Maybe mine has fallen into the path of change just like a lot of blogs, websites, facebook pages, YouTube channels, etc have.

Basically I have been debating about closing my blog to start a new one, having friends help with posting writings, or running two blogs at once to prevent an infestation of personal blog posts on what should be a writing blog. I have decided for the time being to go with Option C with the potential chance for Option B to happen.

In order to read my personal blog, where I post stories about my life and feelings about different things go to:

immeasurable-sentiments.blogspot.com

Every now and then, when I'm not busy with different things in my life, I will post to here. It will be hopefully be better updated than it was in the past.

In other news, I have finally made it to over 1000 views here. I would like to thank everyone for taking your time out to read different pieces that I have wrote, whether it was one time, or multiple times. I thoroughly appreciate it. Please come back and read some more and/or check out my new blog site.

Good News Moment

Usually I post a writing but this time I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to post a life update.

I applied to the University of Iowa, and I'm proud to announce that I will be a Hawkeye! I got a few things to do before I can start but I will be a Japanese major.

Dairy-Free Coffee Creamer Recipe

Do you ever wake up and feel very tired? Are you not a morning person and need a caffeine boost? Are you a vegan or even lactose intolerant? Or maybe you don't have creamer in your pantry and didn't realize it until after you made your coffee. For whatever reason that you don't drink milk, it's hard to find a healthier alternative to dairy-free coffee creamer. In one of my previous articles, I wrote about the history of coffee and some of the health benefits that it provides. This article will provide you a recipe for coffee creamer that uses full-fat coconut milk, maple syrup, and vanilla extract.

To make the creamer, you will need:

• 1 can of Full-Fat Coconut Milk
• 4 Tbsp of Maple Syrup (or whatever natural sweetener you use, I prefer a syrup of some sort though)
• 1 Tbsp of Vanilla Extract

The instructions for preparing the creamer are as follows:

1. Pour the coconut milk into a bigger mason jar. Add the syrup and the vanilla extract
2. Mix all ingredients well
3. Pour into your cup of coffee and enjoy

That's it! Only three steps to make a healthier alternative to dairy creamer. To store the creamer, make sure to place a lid on your mason jar and place in the fridge. When you need to use the creamer again, make sure to shake it because the ingredients will separate.

A Few Things I Learned at College

Hey guys! In December, I finished my last classes for college. Since then, I have been filling my time paying off my balance, learning Japanese, watching YouTube videos, trying to find work, and watching Korean Dramas. A few days ago, I payed off the last dollars that were needed to be paid in order to receive my transcripts and to actually receive my diploma, so I will be walking the commencement ceremony in May for an AS in Information Technology. I would like to share with you guys my new-found knowledge that I received while going to college. NOTE: My experiences aren't like most everyone's experiences, with me being Autistic and have gone to a Tribal College.

1) Diversity.
Because the college I went to was a tribal college, I got to meet cool new people who come from a very different background than me. Most everyone that went to the same college as me was Native American (there were even diversity among the different tribal backgrounds others had) and there were more backgrounds that others had. The least amount of students were Caucasion, like me. Because of the diversity that the college had, I learned a lot about different cultures. For example, I learned about different Lakota/Dakota foods, different slang that was used (the most common one I heard was chun), and words from the Lakota/Dakota language. In the end, a few best friends I gained was from a very different background than me.

2) Confidence and How to Make Friends
If you knew me in elementary, middle school/junior high, high school/senior high, and beauty school, you would know that I wasn't very confident and had a very tough time making friends. I was considered weird by most people that I knew. Being part of Upward Bound helped a little bit with gaining confidence and I made some friends there, but a lot of my new confidence that I gained was from when I went to college. During my time at college, I formed an Anime Club with one of my best friends I made while there, met a lot of people through Anime Club, joined other school clubs, hung out a lot in the student lounge with my friends, and hanging out with my roommates I had the one term I lived in the dorms. I even talk to a lot of the friends that I made still, and try to visit the college to keep up to date with them. The me in high school would hopefully be admired by the me in college.

3) Everyone Evolves
This one has been pretty interesting for me. The me before college was Mormon, shy, depressed, conservative in views about social things. The me post-college left the Mormon church, became confident, started managing my depression. Everyone evolves, especially during when they go to college if they do. Going into college, I wanted to be an art therapist (a therapy style that involves art as a means of coping). Graduating college, I wanted to run my own PC Repair company. Today, I want to teach English in Japan, so I'll be going through more college. When you go through college, you go through a lot of moments that forever change who you are as a person. Hopefully the changes in your personality become good changes and make you a better person than you were before.

4) Different Skills
When I went to college, I learned a lot of new skills that I did not learn in classes. I learned proper time management, how to manage a busy work load, how to be better organized, and a few other skills. It took me three years to complete community college, which isn't too bad (in fact it usually takes a few years to complete community college if you change your major). Through those three years, I learned a lot of  these skills with a gradually bigger work load.

In conclusion, there are a lot of things you learn when going through college. You hopefully learn new things that help out who you are as a person and enjoy the moments you have and look back happily on those moments.

Where Are You? (A poem)

What happened to my friend?
The one so sensible and smart.
Why did greed get to you
and blind your view?
Where did you go?
When will you come back?

My soul aches for the friend
I once knew...
I fear the old you died
and someone bad took your spot.
When the old you comes back
Please let me know.
I want to save what we had.
I want to save who we are in this world.

Don't forget the love I had for you
and the love I still have for you
You're more than just my friend,
You're my sister, the anchor that kept me down.