Making sure

options gone

Ensures goal met

Everything you wanted

Except as I have been told

I will never ever

Be with even

An acquaintance again

Everyone will remain strangers

The sad life I am told

To accept

-Jennie Nawrocki

In today’s world of virtual reality a person who has never been to the beach (hard to imagine for some but seriously their are people who haven’t) can go. I smelled a candle the other day that does exactly smell like the beach (Kramer they made it possible to smell good) and combined with a virtual reality video minus the burning sun with a possible suntan you are at the beach.

This may seem weird but for some stupid reason I am able now more than ever to imagine myself anywhere anytime without virtual reality. I have had so many experiences that if someone describes something I can put myself in a similar situation and very vividly at that. So much so my body starts reacting like it is there and I didn’t even get out of my seat. However now there is a down side to it. In my old age they are getting jumbled and mixed up and becoming several screens playing simultaneously. Frankly it freaks me out because my language processing doesn’t work as fast. So words don’t match the screen in my mind at that second. It is like my brain has a seven second delay audio track.

Let me give you an example, someone asks me about first dates. Immediately, I think of a couple not just one including the movie 100 Dates or first dates within movies. I think of the time I sat and ate at Olive Garden which makes me think of pasta, then it makes me think of my pasta, and at the same time I think of Glee and their pasta restaurant Breadsticks and a first dates Glee people had there than I think of the only time one of my co workers watched Glee with me and my friend, then I think how you shouldn’t order pasta because it can be messy, and I think of the time in camp I had two campers and they would grab at my shirt sleeve with their messy pasta hands, but wait pasta can’t be all bad think of the time of Lady and the Tramp, and then you start to think of first kisses…….. see how fast these screens can combine and soon your trying to sort out which screen is what and did the dog end up with messy pasta paws and what song did they sing again? It is a mess and it has gotten worse with age. If you know me you have seen it increase in intensity. Now I can imagine dog breath and my pasta sauce simmering at the same time but I can’t pin down the table or chair because they are all morphed into one. The more it occurs when I actually can separate scenarios I get more detailed and am starting to recount everything to the point I don’t even need to step foot there or have a similar smell to remind me I can place myself there. My mind has screwed me up it can take me places I have never been and it feels like I have been there. I am serious, I have never been in a space suit or a rocket ship but I can imagine what that would feel like so vividly down to the helmet because have you ever been to a playground and seen those plastic semi circle spots wondering what in the heck they are there for now I know pretending you are on mars, combine that with a trip to the aviation museum, add a little bit of hospital surgery room, the smell of my brothers machine shop. I think I have the imaginary down. Granted I have never been in space but I can let my imagination run wild. For this reason my mother stopped having me watch scary movies because I would have nightmares of these things but these days I don’t need to be asleep these images just pop into my mind. Some you want to stay forever and some you want to separate and be very clear about what happened, how it happened and when. I don’t know what to say but I apologize for mixed up thoughts and images along with missed matched words. Sometimes poo gets everywhere. Unfortunately you can’t wipe your butt or your mind of nasty things without touching the top edge of your poo hole with toilet paper. So make sure the information you gain is worth keeping forever.

So where am I going with this I think virtual reality is great but really there is nothing like personal experience. It gives you fulfillment and you can stop imagining and be in the moment. I can imagine space travel all I want but still I can’t say I went to mars.

-Jennie Nawrocki

Make miracles of empathy and trust.

Happy Easter and Passover.

-Jennie Nawrocki

When Columbus discovered America he didn’t expect to conquer a whole civilization. They destroyed the Native American culture to the point it was even mandated that they change their hair, wear certain clothes and not speak their language. The same was true for Africans taken from their home and broken into submission to the point they were not considered people. It happens in the Middle East too, one culture dictates what a person should do. Even the Dali Llama had to leave Tibet because of his religion and relationship of not becoming the complete Chinese way. Let’s not forget the Yanomamo in Rain Forests forced out do to deforestation. These cultures were thriving societies and in encountering development they were squeezed out of knowledge of their cultural heritage because it was condemned. Much of their world destroyed except for things kept secret or remembered. I see that occurring now and I am despondent and freaking out over it. I love culture, all cultures, different cultures, and many ideas. I will say that not every culture is perfect but we can learn and incorporate, celebrate, even understand we are different but the same. We all have families and want to live decently and for the future generations to live even more perfect then this generation. We want the best but it doesn’t mean putting certain cultural ideals aside. It means to allow people to encourage everyone to live beside each other in harmony. Yes that sounds gooey, idealistic but does it really? Everybody has the ability to love thy neighbor. Which is what the pilgrims should have done after the Native Americans taught them how to get through the winter.

-Jennie Nawrocki

An Addendum:

If you choose to flatter those around you by being one of them is the whole point of accepting a culture without pressure.

I tell my opinion quite often whether people want to hear it or not. That is probably not the best idea nor would I tell others to try it. Much thought goes into to whom, about what, why and when I give my opinion. I also get yelled at a lot for giving my opinion. On the other hand I do get a lot of other people’s opinion about me. There are times I disagree with their opinion as their are times the disagree with mine. However what is most important I take time to hear and fully understand it. Questions are not optional when you are wanting to completely know what is being talked about. Furthermore, compassion, empathy and caring are essential, know your audience and your opinion will be well regarded.

-Jennie Nawrocki

Night after night we refresh ourselves through sleep. We give ourselves energy through eating and exercise. We enhance our brains through work and education. This is the only way to live. Just choose the healthy diet.

-Jennie Nawrocki

History tells a story of what went wrong and what went right. The butterfly effect doesn’t always occur quickly but when it does your realization is memorable. You personality, true character is formed from these conscious and unconscious acknowledgements. To capture this takes abilities unimaginable and to portray it takes a team and individual fortitude. However to do the same by telling the future fortune of the world takes bravery and strength. All of you at the Oscars have achieved this and I am proud of you regardless of who you are.

-Jennie Nawrocki

Once the Olympics are missing I feel a little empty until the next Olympics. I know this year I may not have been as into it as in past Olympics but goodness gracious they are the number 1 sport in my mind and I have no problems telling people, sorry but I am busy watching the Olympics. To all the athletes and supporters you are everything I admire and my heroes.

-Jennie Nawrocki

It has been suggested and hinted that there are several things I would like to do, maybe the same goes for you too. However some of them are just downright disgusting illegal or plain and simple not within my moral and ethical boundaries. It could be as simple as smoking a cigarette which I tried and got real sick from, disgusting, then years later I smoked a cigar with friends and it went better because you don’t inhale just kinda suck with a whole bunch a smoke filling the room but still I look back and found that one experience to be more enjoyable with the company I kept rather than the cigar I smoked because I still have not smoked one since. The peer pressure made me try but yet come to find out it really was not my thing or desire to smoke. These things are ok maybe to try but like I said earlier they are really cancer sticks.

There are other things that may look like you are going here or doing this and friends supposedly tease you or tell you to get a rise or all worked up for lack of a better term. We were just teasing it’s all in jest he knows we really don’t mean anything by it. Well we all have been on the receiving end of this banter and well frankly it can be devastating. Maybe someone doesn’t understand it is a joke. I remember once in honors history class one of the popular kids (in my school they were the school government, jocks and smartest kids in school taking all honors classes but yet I was still not apart of that group, school sports were not my thing, I had a performance in the Little Mermaid to worry about) that is besides the point but really it was one of them and the told me we were going to have a quiz that day. I told the people around me and soon the whole entire class thought we were going to have a quiz. People started taking out their books and the worried look on people’s faces somebody even looked like they were going to vomit. We took our grades very serious and in that class quizzes counted as a huge part of the grade. Well the few students in the class that started it were laughing at first very softly and then went outside for while. When the majority of us were inside frantically looking at our notes. Thankfully our school wasn’t like certain cultures that families put a heavy emphasis on academics, could you even attempt to imagine the amount of anxiety the children might be feeling in some other situations. Just as the bell rang the teacher came in followed by them a few seconds later and already the amount of questions about having a quiz filled the room. We didn’t have a quiz and the relief was very apparent on most of the students faces while those few people who started the rumor were in a state of shock, they couldn’t understand how people could believe them. At least that what it seemed they were feeling. See this would be something I categorize as not within my moral or ethical boundaries.

Though it was the impression the thought, the possibility that got people real riled up. Sometimes in school you used to hear the kissing in a tree song (yes I am that old) though schools now I hear kids tease “what are you gay?” I have to interject and say “so what?” Still they would conjure up this image of a person liking another person of the same sex sexually. This gets to be bullying and harassment after awhile. Especially if they start putting up pictures or spreading rumors or make hand gestures or all of the above, while the person saying no is just trying to make them stop and go away. Can you imagine the mental effect of this on a kid after awhile. The student inundated with it day after day. It is completely inappropriate to tease to a point that it is detrimental to someone’s emotional health. Let’s face it kids can be mean, we have all heard of school bullies and most us us have experienced it but for some the culture now is to just hurt those bullying you, you have to fight back even harm them before they can harm you (sounds like that one Tom Cruise movie being wrongly accused of a crime before he possibly even committed it).

I had a conversation with a group of people and they talked like they would prefer to get rid of the weak rather than the bad. The guy seemingly said he would rather have the someone strong who is willing to fight back rather than someone who is weak and not willing to fight. Personally I would take an elderly grandparent who can’t remember a thing but has the most calming generous personality versus someone who is willing to fight all the time. I am not saying standing up for yourself isn’t a bad thing but there are ways to do it with respect and without harming people.

Which is why I don’t trust or want people to have guns no matter who they are or how strong or weak they are. Most scwabbles happen because of words that hurt especially in school shootings. The old saying, words can never hurt is bull honkey. We know words can sting and have a lasting effect so why do we need actual guns, livid words, teasing and harassment is already hurting people especially in a school environments.

Stop guns, stop bullying.

-Jennie Nawrocki

It is the way things are, only if you think it another way might benefit a larger amount of people.

-Jennie Nawrocki