KayzCorner

It's the holidays, that means beautiful Christmas lights everywhere, slightly annoying Christmas music, tasty food, a higher degree of human interaction, and memories. Now, I may sound like a bit of a Scrooge at points there, but I really do like the holiday, I just tend not to feel exceptionally happy around the holidays. I am a huge believer in the duality of human emotions, mental framing, and that in general one can feel both sad and happy at the same time at points without either emotion ruining the other; but during the holidays, while I feel happy, most of the time it feels dull and I find myself realizing at points when I should be really happy that I am really not.    These feelings of sadness can be attributed to a number of things: First of all,  I have social anxiety and during the holidays I have to interact with more people and stores are generally more crowded. Also, I live in a state that seems to be under a perpetual gray blanket during the winter, this leads

For most of my life, I’ve felt like a robot. I don’t mean one of those robots that seem to be practically human from television shows and movies, with amazing human-like features which allow them to almost blend in with human life. What I mean, is one of those robots that you get out of the toy aisle and when you take it out of its box turns out it’s dysfunctional. It moves loudly, slowly, wobbly and the voice is distorted. The kind you usually put right back in the package and return to the store for a refund because it doesn’t have any use. Growing up, emotionally I was rather robotic, never excited when I should be, sad when I should be, never expressive enough. My family used to tease me, claiming I was autistic and this was something that made me angry for a number of years. I felt like everyone could see as I fumbled along the bumpy terrain of human expression and interaction, coming to jarring halts and falling when it should have been smooth. Beyond this, I struggled with dep

I want to talk about something that is often perceived as a somewhat divisive and controversial topic. So, here we go, I want to talk about race. I don’t believe that race is a real thing. Okay, okay, just hear me out. Blood types are real, they are scientific tangible things. Climate change is real— I’m sorry to those who disagree, but it is a scientific fact—it is something that can be easily measured and is agreed upon across borders within the scientific community; race, however, is not real. How race is perceived in one country does not necessarily translate over to another, there are countries that include many race types and there are countries that have only a few and in some countries, groups that have historically been perceived to be of one race can change if it benefits the group in power. Race is not a biological reality, it is rather a culturally constructed form of categorization. Unfortunately, that is not where it ends, one would think that a made-up construct wouldn

I am of the opinion that dogs are a gift that humanity simply does not deserve. While there are some dog breeds I have mixed feelings about, I’ve come to accept that you can’t judge an entire breed based on one bad experience with a dog—Wow, kind of like people that way! Sorry, I just had to—Almost everyone gushes over puppies, but I want to give tribute to the seniors in our lives. I have two dogs, a Boxer and a Shih-Tzu, Leyna and Lilly—and no, I’m not sure what our obsession with names beginning in L is—. I’m not going to lie, they are really old; Leyna is the ripe old age of 11 ½ while Lilly is quickly approaching 17.  They have been a part of my life and my family for almost as long as I can remember. They don’t play much anymore and they don’t get around as well as they used to. They have the typical health problems that come with old age and then some. Almost two years ago Leyna, the Boxer, was diagnosed with cancer and we had to get her leg amputated to stop it from spread

I’ve always prided myself on being at least somewhat intelligent. I was the annoying kid in elementary and middle school who rarely ever studied and still walked away with nearly perfect grades in all subjects. Being homeschooled from Kindergarten to 7 th grade meant that I could learn at a variety of grade levels, being taught a grade above my age level in all subjects except math, which I was taught at grade level, and reading, which I was at an advanced level so my parents had me reading adult and teen level books and writing book reports by the age of 8. The only area I didn’t seem to excel was math and so I avoided it like the plague. While I did alright in school, I didn’t really begin to care about grades until around my senior year of high school, worried about getting into a college. I didn’t really have to worry, I was accepted into every school I applied to and I was offered some small scholarships to all of them. My plans changed drastically when my sister died and though

Many people will be starting or have already started school for this year. This will be the first year since the age of five I won’t be going to school this fall. It is so strange to think that that part of my life is behind me. While I still plan on pursuing a master’s degree, the fact that I am not starting school this week is a stark reminder of the fact that my life has irrevocably changed. However, this post is not about my nostalgia for academia; rather, I figured given my experience with school and the fact that I did quite well in school, that I could give some advice for getting through the school year. Start studying for tests early. I know, a lot of people say this and it is easy to absently not your head and proceed to ignore them, but honestly it is great advice. If you take detailed notes and study them frequently you will remember the information a lot better than if you cram the night before or even heaven forbid the day of an exam.   Don’t just read and re-r