Rant of the Month

Leila Clark

English 12

Mr. Terris

Sep.-29-11

“There's two kinds of people in this world, there's winners and there's losers. Okay, you know what the difference is? Winners don't give up.” – Richard Hoover (Little Miss Sunshine, 2006)

           

            The above quote may seem like words of wisdom to someone who has not seen Little Miss Sunshine, but let me assure you, if you have not seen it, that this was not the movie’s intention. Richard, the father of a rather dysfunctional family, is desperately trying to push his “Nine Steps” motivational program, only to fail again and again. The character’s constant stream of inspirational blathering became annoying, and that is exactly what I am here to talk to you about today.

            It seems that dreams and goals are becoming something that the entire teen world is meant to obsess over. I’m not saying that it’s bad to have dreams, as we certainly would all be pretty lost in life if we didn’t have some sort of direction that we want our lives to go in, but this idea has been pushed so far recently, that I am sick of it. Every little thing these days seems to be broken down into tiny baby steps that we must achieve, and we must always be having more and more goals to accomplish. Now, I want to be clear, I have my dreams. In life, I want to be a mother, a childcare worker, see Metro Station perform live, and so on. I’ll attain this by working hard, and be dedicated, and that’s it. It seems that when I used to read novels about struggling people, they simply worked hard. I don’t recall there being a step-by-step process, lots of kitschy quotes, or a thousand acronyms and acrostics for them to remember. I remember stories of people ploughing their field from dawn to dusk with the dream that this would make their lives better, to push themselves forward a little harder each day to make so they could one day make it in this world the way they want. Perhaps this is harsh, but this is actually an opinion I’ve held for a very long time, and a chance to write about it has kind of let out some fury in me about the incessant goal programs we have. This has been a highly pessimistic topic for me though, so I will try and relax throughout the rest of it.

            When I was very small, I always knew that at some point in my life, I was going to be a mother. My sister and I would play games of house, and I would be the loving and patient mother who had a large brood of children, while my sister would play the teenage daughter or the kooky and fun aunt. It only got worse with age, particularly when I got to high school and had the opportunity to take home the robotic baby in Family Studies class. I think that, honestly, it would break my heart to never bear children. If I never accomplish that goal, I would actually be pretty lost. I have chosen a career that enables me to work with children, but if I don’t have children myself, I think there will be a large void in my life. It almost makes me sound like a housewife from the fifties to speak like this. Most girls my age want a career first, and intend to have babies later, as they don’t want to be trapped in the kitchen all their lives. Believe me; I will do anything in my power to make my dream happen, because I do possess the patience and the determination to get there. I just won’t be following Richard’s sage advice.

Some people like to whine and dine.

Leila Clark

English 12

Sept. 7^th, 2011

Mr. Terris

For essentially all the summers of my life, I have been content to sit at home, peacefully spending each morning and evening on the computer, occasionally venturing out into the heat for a walk downtown in the afternoon. Usually, my family would then journey to Victoria to visit my aunt and uncle for a week, and then I would return back to my dozy monotony. However, this summer, my father decided that he didn’t like to see me bored and lazy, and decided that I was to look for a job. The idea of actually making my own money didn’t actually seem like such a bad thing, and if I found a place that I actually liked, it didn’t seem like such a terrible idea, but I figured, I’d look around to keep dad happy and then just drop it and enjoy my indolent summer. But as it turns out, life doesn’t work that way, and a fateful phone call from my sister’s boss ended up keeping me busy all summer.

My sister, who was home for the summer working to help pay for her next year of university, had gotten a job at the newly opening Dairy Queen. Her boss had asked if she knew of anyone else who wanted to work there, quite some time ago, and she said she couldn’t think of anyone. However, he called her and asked again if she knew of anyone, and my father and grandma were in the room, both who immediately volunteered me. So, down to the interview I went, and walked out shortly after, with the news that I was starting work the very next day. Now essentially, this is where my fun ended. Yes, of course it was nice to get a paycheck deposited in my account every two weeks, but I have to say, suddenly giving up so much of my time was awfully difficult. I also asked to be given very few shifts, and for the first few weeks, I had so many that I could barely stand it. Sometimes, the customers are also appalling, and it can’t help but make me think “why are so many people so stressed and angry that they have to take it out on the cashier at a fast food joint?” As well, it seems that the days they did schedule me to work, I actually was doing something important, like my grandma’s seventy-fifth birthday party, while I had nothing planned during my free days. But I’ve been sounding pretty negative, so I will say there are indeed a few perks to working at DQ. For one, it is an absolute joy to use the headsets in the Drive-Thru lane, as they make me feel like a pilot, or something of the like that uses headsets. Secondly, I’ve actually been eating a little healthier, as I can hardly stand the thought of eating there, or other fast food places, for that matter. Thirdly, the people working there are actually pleasant, and it’s nice to get to know all the people from my school that I didn’t know before but now work with. I’ve also always been a people person, so they put me on till a lot, so I suppose I’m also strengthening my people skills as well.

Admittedly, whenever I was home, I was either lolling about on the computer, or taking a quick jaunt downtown, just like usual, and I refuse to give my father the satisfaction of saying I’m not bored anymore. I don’t know how long I’ll stay at Dairy Queen (and hey, maybe I will stay), but it has definitely been a mixed bag, working there. I don’t know if I can totally realize what sort of life lesson this has given me, at my tender age, but I can say, I now know and understand why everyone complains about work.