Speaking Out

The world is becoming a scarier place every day. Tune into your local TV news station right now and I’m sure you will see a report about another fatal incident.

That’s why I never enjoy watching the news. I prefer being ignorant to the harsh realities of this world.

Journalism is of great importance to the world, and for a student like me, it may be my future. Since Grade 11, I’ve known that journalism was the path I wanted to pursue as a career.

My passion for writing began in elementary school. Where others found it to be work, I always had a desire to write creative stories. But it wasn’t until high school that I finally set my mind on a writing career.

{mosimage}Living out a vocation does not mean settling. It is far from it — but some people mistakenly think otherwise.

I came across someone who thought entering the priesthood late in life was just something to settle for because he did not get married, did not have children and so the next best thing was to enter the seminary. Did he ever approach that the wrong way.

Life is a storybook. God is the author and man is His character. I realized this as I read my Writer’s Workshop book for creative writing class.

A few weeks ago, I had to read a chapter on time which spoke about how the author of a story controls the pace of time. The author transcends time. I kept pondering this element until it made me think about God, the author of life.

If I were to tell you that dust from the moon could cure the common cold, you might laugh or tell me I was crazy. But what if I said that scientists had tested the healing capabilities of moon dust and found their human subjects showed improvement in a matter of hours? Better yet, what if I showed you the article in a science magazine?

No such article exists, by the way. However, as soon as I placed the word “scientists” in front of my moon dust tale, I don’t doubt that some discerning minds said “I still don’t believe it.” But more often than not, if someone makes a claim in the name of science, we, as a culture, are more apt to give it at least some merit.

I often find myself explaining to people why I’m a vegetarian. I used to be pretty defensive about it, but now I realize I only want to educate others.

The drive behind my vegetarianism is certainly not limited to my compassionate and “tree-hugging” nature, though this is one of the reasons I chose to adopt my leafy lifestyle. Health benefits, economic efficiency and conscious consumption are all contributing factors, but people need to understand that my faith plays a role in this too.

{mosimage}Recently in one of my classes, I was forced to use my rusty senses to study and observe the common strawberry. Sounds pretty simple right? However, the catch was that I could not use my “taste” senses until last — pretty hard to do when I was participating on an empty stomach.

I must admit I never truly appreciated a strawberry until that moment. By taking the time to observe my “subject,” as we were required to write about it afterwards, I was able to feel the bumpy texture and the fragility of the strawberry’s “skin.” I was able to imagine the delectable flavour by its smell — something a hundred times better than any strawberry flavoured lip-gloss or perfume.

Perhaps one of the most common questions I hear every time I tell someone I study theology is “So WHAT are you going to do with THAT?”

This is surely an all too familiar question asked of fellow English, history and philosophy majors, to name a few. It’s interesting how many people believe the misconception that those who study theology possess no marketable skills for making a contribution to an organization.

Why can’t Canadians, especially new voters like myself, be as passionate for politics as our counterparts to the south?

For weeks now, my spare time has been consumed with watching CNN and other American news sources and I have been fixated on Barack Obama and his  inspirational quest for the United States presidency.

Bioethics. What does it matter? What does it mean to live in a generation where people are born through assisted reproductive technologies, where the sperm and the egg are artificially fused instead of being joined through the natural union of a man and a woman?