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And Everyone Else Along the Way

We take a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo with a few friends. Our iPhones are secured in our hands, at the ready. We take a Snapchat of the monkeys, the hippos, the sea otters, and the penguins. We rotate our phones between ourselves to ensure everyone has a selfie with the giraffes. We stroll through the Zoo, squinting at our screens to find the best Instagram filter for our photos. 

It’s about that time. The senior class is beginning to finish up their last few papers and are starting to study for their finals. They’re picking up their cap and gowns. They’re starting to get anxious and emotional. 

It was just like any other normal day, I guess. I woke up to the sound of my mother getting ready to take me to school. But this time, she was moving so fast, I was getting dizzy spinning around the room watching her.  She kept talking to herself about “special people” that were coming to visit the school. In the midst of the madness, I had noticed, whether it was last night or some time ago, she had lost the last tooth in her mouth.

“I’m gay.” These two tiny words, whether spoken out loud or simply thought, possess the power to dramatically change a person’s life forever. For 21-year-old Melissa Rance, they meant losing her home, but finding herself.

One can say many things about today’s society and how we live, but no one can say we aren’t entertained. Between smartphones, tablets, and being able to access almost any TV show, movie, or song with a few clicks of a mouse, many things have been made easier for humans, and a lot more interesting. But, we haven’t slowed down; in fact, we’ve officially broken new ground. 

In the past, curse words were used after stubbing a toe or during private conversations, but somehow they have slowly started to make their way into pop culture. Now you can find curse words in almost every song, in television show titles, book titles, and even in a few company names. The question is, have curse words become so popular that they have lost their shock value?

It is a cloudy and cold morning in March. A gentle breeze rolls in offshore. Even though the water is unbearably frigid, local surfers still find themselves chasing swell. One by one, surfers clothed head to toe in thick neoprene wetsuits become immersed in the bitter Atlantic. They begin to paddle on their surfboards against the current in order to get to an area in which most surfers are in good position to catch a wave, known as the “line-up.” As the waves begin to roll in, each surfer is taken on a wild ride towards the shore. Not only are the surfers excited about this surge, but certain people onshore also prove to be elated.