There was a clear strain on the family when my brother came back after spending his freshman year of college in another city. I could tell my mother had gotten used to not having him there and not having to worry about cleaning up after him. And now that he was older, they had a completely different relationship than when he was in high school. The longer he was there, the more issues people had with him came up. Soon, I began to notice that with every little thing he did wrong, like leaving a dirty dish in the sink or not taking his clothes out of the laundry room, he was being yelled at by my mom. At the same time, I began to realize that I was doing the exact same thing to him too. And as I found more and more things about him that annoyed me, I realized how alienated from everyone he must have felt.

My brother was always a sort of buffer zone between me and other members of our family. He helped me keep my cool when my cousins were driving me crazy. And he was someone who could relate to how I was feeling, when I was around family who pretended to know me when I had not seem them in years. I had often felt like I never had anything in common with some of my family except for a bloodline. I have felt uncomfortable around some of them and have sometimes felt alienated when I was around a lot of them. And it upset me to think that I was doing the same thing to my brother, the one who always protected me against such things.

Still, I’m not sure if he has meshed back into the family like he once did. I know my mom doesn’t make the comments she makes to make him feel bad or because she is a mean person. I understand her frustration, but I still find myself defending him at times. I think all families go through their periods of stress and eventually find their way at a peaceful place, and I hope that we get there soon. I love my brother, and I love my mom. And I hope that they realize that even after all the criticism and fights, that they remember that they love each other too.

Over two years of commitment, I have been given a great deal of criticism. Honestly, giving up meat was a small sacrifice I chose to make; it’s nothing compared to an animal’s life. Sometimes I wish people would switch places with the animals, because maybe then they would finally understand. What would happen if every person came face to face with his or her own dinner, to stare into the eyes of the defenseless and the voiceless? I choose not to eat anything that moves, nothing that owns a pair of eyes, ears, arms, legs, or even fins for that matter.

Slaughterhouse sounds like something from a horror movie, but that’s only an understatement. There is nothing humane about taking a life away. The big companies are completely erasing the source of the food you’re eating. The label on the packaging says Happy Farms but in reality, if people really knew, it would read Trapped. Sadly, over 500,000 animals are slaughtered every hour in the United States alone. There are approximately 6.7 billion people in the world; however, approximately 10 billion animals are killed just in the US. That’s more than the human population. The words like “suffocation, collapse, suffer, restrained, and abuse” are too powerful to ignore. But only 3 percent of Americans practice vegetarianism. That’s devastating.

If people choose to eat meat and live that lifestyle then they better be covered with some kind of health care. Heart disease and obesity are major concerns that follow. Also, you better have a taste for ammonia because, meat is pumped with this harmful chemical. It is used to sanitize the meat from E. Coli and Salmonella. Studies from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy found that “all fast food chicken and more than half of the store-bought chicken tested contained elevated levels of arsenic. High arsenic levels have also been linked to certain cancers as well as immune system, endocrine, and neurological problems.” Meat is unhealthy to consume, on some levels, but people should become aware with what they are putting into their bodies.

I am not having sex. I do not plan on having sex anytime soon. However, that does not mean that I cannot benefit from birth control. I do not want you to think that this will cause me to make bad decisions or change my morals. I need you to trust that you raised me correctly. I understand that this is a big step for you, but it is also a big step for me. And I would rather talk about this with you than going out to get the birth control by myself. I want you to know I will always be your little girl.

 Many young women are prescribed contraceptives for the health benefits that are not necessarily for prevention of pregnancy. Birth control suppresses androgens and testosterone, both male hormones, which is found to cause dark facial hair that might be embarrassing to some girls. Heavy menstruation is improved as well as the relief of cramping and other abdominal and pelvic pain. Premenstrual Syndrome side-effects, such as mood swings, irritability, acne break outs, and other symptoms are also lightened with the use of birth control.

 As the blood thickens with the help of birth control the risk of anemia declines. Birth control also prevents ovulation; the risk for an ovarian cancer can also be prevented with this contraceptive. Therefore, it is nearly cut by 30 percent and the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease is deducted as well. In 2007 the number of women affected by endometrial cancer, cancer of the uterus, was 575,000. Birth control can reduce this number by 80 percent, saving many lives. Later in life the chances of ectopic pregnancies, when the fetus forms in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus are additionally reduced. Ectopic pregnancies can be dangerous to the mother and result in a loss of the fetus.

 Mom, I am asking you this respectfully and I hope that you can take these facts into consideration. The internet can help you understand more on this subject as it did for me and many other teen girls. Including you in this topic can show you that I am responsible and mature. These decisions reflect who I am and you should know that I won’t go off and make stupid mistakes.

 Love,

Your daughter

Though I had breezed through the bottom few pegs, I suddenly froze as I got to the protruding section of the wall. The second that I stopped my momentum, thousand thoughts filled my head. I was so hesitant to move forward, so I just fell back. I wasn’t even scared to come down, I was perfectly fine to practically plunge to my death, but terrified to move forward on the wall.

Moving on has never been a strong suit of mine. I constantly keep grudges that inhibit me from truly forgiving people. As many attempts as I try to make to reconcile my feelings, I always revert back to my old ways. It just seems impossible to forgive some people even when they try to make amends. I guess this feeling stems from my father and his empty efforts to try and make up his lack of being there for me. This leads me to believe people never really change after they’ve said they have.

My arms are still sore, my hands are still blistered. I keep replaying my struggles to climb the wall over and over in my head. I tried two different walls, two different times and still couldn’t make it to the top. I just gave up too easily.

I’m not sure I’m willing forgive my father just yet. I guess these things become easier as people grow up. You learn to let go of the little things and accept people for who they are. I’m not sure how I will get to that place; but for now, I think the first step is to join a rock-climbing gym.

It’s not that I don’t get that you want to walk to class with your friends, because I do. But, do you really have to take up all the space in the hallway so that no one else can get by? Also, please don’t give me a dirty look after my backpack bumps your shoulder as I maneuver my way around you, because that’s really the only option you left me. Now it wouldn’t be very nice of me to just leave you hanging without giving you some pointers.

Here are a few helpful hints to help you speed it up when walking down the hallway. Instead of saying hi to every single person you know, maybe just pick one or two people so you don’t have to keep stopping and causing great annoyance to the people staring at your back. Also, for all you guys that think it’s cute for your underwear to be on display, it’s not. And maybe if you actually wore a belt you could walk a little faster because now you don’t have to hold your crotch to keep your pants from falling.

Now, the point of this whole thing is not to anger anyone, but rather to start a mass movement of awareness. So, to all you slow walkers pick up the pace and keep it moving.