Winter Poem

Winter is here, there's a new feeling, a new spirit, the days are short, feels like life is short, cold yet warm, family's together, makes you feel grateful, family's gone, quiet, time to reflect, more cold, snowy days, making igloos, dark days, thinking, what's next, laughter, winds, ice, songs, fire, hope, despair, life, winter.

Globalization

Globalization is an economic, social, and political phenomena that has taken place during the last fifty years. Economically, it is the interdependence of the economies of various nations. It is the United States exporting things like food products to all parts of the world as well as importing things from China. A corporation in the United States now can communicate ideas to Chinese factories, have Chinese labor manufacture a product, and ship/distribute the products to markets across the world. Economic globalization can sometimes be seen as an inevitable manifestation because of how economics has evolved throughout the years. If we were to go back to colonial America, most everyone was a farmer, self-sufficient, making everything they needed. During the Industrial Revolution, it was more efficient to allow a factory manufacture a specific type of product than farmers making everything themselves. The United States soon became a market economy in which people could buy what they needed. Globalization could be seen as the next extension of the market economy; since China can manufacture goods more efficiently and cheaper than the United States, it would make sense for the United States not to compete with China in this field. Countries have become dependent on one another to supply them with goods in the same way how the American farmer had become dependent on stores to supply them.

We can now communicate and transport ideas and goods faster and to more places than ever. Western popular culture is being diffused throughout the world. The attraction of the mainstream culture often times weakens local cultures. The domination of Western culture throughout the world has disturbed the cultural diversity of the world as more and more people are becoming westernized. Some people whose local culture is being destroyed rebel against the strong pull from popular culture.

From an American standpoint, globalization has been great. Americans are the ones who are dominating the word culturally and benefiting much from it economically. With globalization, I can buy things relatively cheap. I can call my grandmother in India and can even visit her several times, but I do not know if others in other countries would have the same luxuries as I. While I benefited, others may be suffering from globalization.

Sports in My Life

Sports have played a big role in my life. Ever since I was little I played sports, I watched sports on TV... pretty much anything related to sports. My first and best sport that I have ever played was basketball. I was in an organized league when I was 3 years old at a YMCA. Ever since, I have been playing basketball. During my elementary school days, I was in my park district's b-ball league, and the summers were frequented with pick up games from the park across the street. As a spectator, I watched many differnet kinds of sports--football, bastketball, a little bit of baseball, even some golf-- both on the professional and collegiate levels. Pretty much I was a sports nut. I loved to talk about sports-related topic, showing everyone my incredible sports IQ. My infatuation with sports was influenced by my family. I have two brothers about the same age as me and many cousins (only 2 girls), and we just all naturally gravitated toward sports. In our family gatherings, all the kids would go out and play something. We basically encouraged each others interests. For me, back then, sports were kind of like my escape. The excitement for a big game would always get my adrenaline rushing. I would make sure that I did all my work so I could watch some national championship game. I have watched some amazing games, plays, moments in sports. These moments now seen nostalgic. Also, too many times the team that I intensly desired to win fell short. An example is the 2004-2005 Fighting Illini basketball team. I was madly in love with that team. I watched as we did not lose a game...until the last game of the regular season, and later in the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!! For a fan so invested in the success of the Illini, I was devastated....

However, when I grew older, I noticed that my interest in sports was at times unhealthy and that sports weren't really important. I needed to prioritize my life according to what was actually important, so I tried to be less involved in sports. I tried to step away even though it was painful. Sometimes when I told my friends that I had decided not to hoop one day, they said I had "retired." Essentially, I was asking the question "Why should I devote my time and energy to follow something that won't benefit me?" As time went on I developed a more balanced approach toward sports, somewhere in the middle of fanatic and ascetic. I came to believe that sports were healthy and can benefit me. I am more likely to play a sport than to watch it on TV. I try not to get overwhelmed  by what some basketball player did in the NBA, but its hard because I had idolized these people during  my childhood.