Faking it...

Do you ever hear a song come on the radio that you can relate to? Most everyone's favorite songs are songs that they can relate to. If you ask girls at high schools most of them will say they can or have been able to relate to the song "Tied Together With a Smile" by Taylor Swift at one point of their life. Most of Taylor's songs are songs that teenage girls can relate to because Taylor writes her songs based on things that have happened to her as a teenage girl.

In the very beginning of this song it goes "seems the only one who doesn't see your beauty, Is the face in the mirror looking back at you, you walk around here thinking you're not pretty, But that's not true, cause I know you.." This part of the song is meaning that when you look in the mirror you don't see a pretty face or pretty person but when everyone else looks at you they see a pretty face and a pretty person. Most teenage girls are very hard on themselves about how they look and sometimes it can keep them from being happy. When in reality they are pretty they just don't see it, therefore "tied together with a smile" and faking happiness. 

The Chorus has a good meaning as well "Hold on baby, you're losing it, The waters high, you're jumping into it, And letting go... and no one knows, That you cry, but you don't tell anyone, That you might not be the golden one, And you're tied together with a smile, But you're coming undone." I take the meaning of the Chorus that you’re getting so unhappy with yourself that you may be doing things like self harm or getting depression. Also that you're unhappy and you cry when your alone in your bedroom but when you're around everyone you fake it and put on a smile. Most teenagers have had depression at some point of their lives or will have it so they can relate to that part.

Small town song

Most songs are songs you can make a connection to. Some people can make a connection to it right off the bat and they can find a connection in almost any song. There are also those people that can only find connections in few songs and its hard for them to find one. The song "Small Town Girl" by Kellie Pickler is a song that I can make like a 100% connection to. "Small Town Girl" is a song that really any small town country girl could make a connection to not just myself.
"Dirt roads and old clothes lines, Familiar faces and dandelion bracelets, You never meet a stranger, And everybody helps out, Soft green grass, Sunday school and wild flowers"  this part of the song just describes every small town that a small town girl lives in. Small towns are: always full of dirt roads that us kids love to drive on weekend nights, most the time you see clothes outside hanging up to dry because it gives them that fresh smell, in a small town everyone is a familiar face because everyone knows everyone, when we were little we always would make dandelion bracelets or you didn't grow up right, in a small town everyone helps because everyone is like family, and then Church Sunday school is not something you miss.
"I'd rather ride in a Chevy truck than a Ferrari, Give me a cheeseburger, I ain't eating no calamari"  any small town girl would much rather have a Chevy truck over a Ferrari because you cant take a Ferrari muddin, and most small town girls would never even look twice at calamari...just give us a cheeseburger.
"That's where I'm from and there ain't no changing me, I'm just a small town girl, And that's all I'll ever be, I'm just a small town girl" this just pretty much mean a small town girls not gonna change, we like being from a small town and we'd never change it.

What do you think should be forgiven?

Do you ever think about forgiveness? What is able to be forgiven and what is not? Lets go back to World War II. If you were in a concentration camp and you seen another inmate helping your captors by beating fellow inmates to make them work harder, would you be able to forgive them?

I believe that you should forgive them. You never know if your captors threatened your fellow inmate or not. Your captors could have told the inmate that they would kill them and/or their family if they didn't do as told. Almost anyone will do anything to keep their family out of harm’s way so you can’t not forgive the person for protecting their family.
I also believe you should forgive them because to be able to be forgiven you must know how to forgive. If the person asks for forgiveness they should receive it. Everyone should be forgiven if they ask for it.
Now think back to my question. If you seen a fellow inmate beating other inmates or yourself could you forgive them?

songs have meanings

Most the time when a person listens to a song they never really truly listen to the words. Most songs have a meaning, a point to them, but we just never listen close enough to find it. The song "Saving Amy" by Brantley Gilbert is one of those songs that has a very good meaning to it. If we would just take the time to listen to it we would see it. When most people listen to this song they are just think ''good song'' and ''aw thats sad'' but this song has much meaning to it.  In the song Brantley sings "She still wearin' my ring, It hasn't left her finger since the night that I proposed, When I promised her forever before I took her home, But I never made it home that night" when he sings this his talking about one of his friends that had proposed to his girlfriend Amy then had a car wreck on his way home that night and passed away. I have a text to self connection to this but in a different way. Not that long ago I lost my boyfriend and this song makes perfect since to me now. Later in the song he says ''Part of her died too I've watched her losin' her mind And there's nothin' I can do, oh Sometimes she goes crazy screamin' out my name Saying "baby please come save me" I wish she knew I'd do anything'' and I dont know how to explain it but it makes perfect since to me . 

Monument Bankruptcy

       Harmon’s Monuments in Possum Grape, AR was a well-known and trusted business to use when people needed monuments made. The Harmon’s had been in business for eighteen years, but in early February this year the company filed bankruptcy. The articles referring to the bankruptcy said, “Possum Grape’s population at least doubled” on the day that the story was released. Over two-hundred families were having headstones made for loved ones. Payments had already been made for the headstones, and some were only waiting to be delivered to the cemeteries.  Lawyers working in the bankruptcy case have set a meeting date in mid-March for the families to ask questions, but the lawyers have also said that people will not get their money back or the headstones. The bankruptcy hearing is not scheduled until March 4^th.

   The company was still taking payments on the headstones as of December, but after that none of the family members were able to get ahold of the company. The families said that nobody would ever answer the phone, and that eventually the line had gotten disconnected. None of the families mentioned any type of notification about the bankruptcy until after the fact, so this has naturally left over two-hundred people very hurt and angry. It is not really the money that the families are so upset about; it is the fact that their family members have to continue to lie in unmarked graves because this business could not have been more professional about all of this. One woman had even seen her parents’ finished headstones and was just waiting for them to be delivered, but now that will not happen. When asked how she felt she said, “"Well the money plays a part but I guess more than anything else is just getting this close, and I want it so bad. And it's done. And I just want to be able to take it…and get it set." Even if this woman can get her parents’ headstone after the bankruptcy has been settled she could still be waiting months or even years. Being one of the families affected by this I know how frustrating it has been to have thousands of dollars just thrown down the drain, and to have the emotional wounds from the death of a loved one ripped open again. That is all that really matters in this case; the pain of knowing a loved one is laying in an unmarked grave all because of other peoples’ sheer ignorance. This story is a very unhappy one, but unfortunately instances like this happen all of the time. Surely the company knew that the business was going under, so the least the owners could have done would be let the families know something. The owners could have told the families that were paying right before this happened to save their money because they were filing for bankruptcy. The families that had completed headstones could have arranged for some other way of transporting the monument to the cemetery. There are plenty of explanations that the company could have given to keep this from being such a huge, painful ordeal. 

is Obama taking our guns or just making them harder to get?

In 1689 the United States passed the right to keep and bear arms. Since its a Amendment you would think it would stand but Obama has other plans. Since the Sandy Hook shooting Obama is more careful about guns. At a recent meeting Obama said "This is our first task as a society: keeping our children safe. This is how we will be judged," “We can’t put this off any longer." many people think that when he says stuff like this he means to just take all our guns away. Obama does not have the power to do that. At the recent meeting "the president recommended requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales; reinstating the assault weapons ban; restoring a 10-round limit on ammunition magazines; eliminating armor-piercing bullets; providing mental health services in schools; allocating funds to hire more police officers; and instituting a federal gun trafficking statute, among other policies. The cost of the package, senior officials estimated, would be roughly $500 million, some of which could come from already budgeted funds". I believe some of that is for the best and will help the United States but he better never try to take our guns.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/obama-gun-control-proposals_n_2486919.html

Obama Gun Control Proposals Unveiled, Marking Biggest Legislative Effort In A Generation