A Second Glance

superfluity [sü-pər-flü-ə-tē]

(n.): immoderate and especially luxurious living, habits, or desires

When was the last time you said, “I want this,” rather than “I need this?” The slight difference between the two phrases makes all the difference. Technically, we don’t need much of anything, the majority of the things we admire are wants.

“Everything in moderation”: a common statement that we nowadays tend to ignore. I mean, we live in a country with an extremely high population of middle to upper class citizens, and yet we also have a high population living in poverty.

Yes, there are relief programs, but why do we still have people buying private islands? Money does not buy happiness, so why do we still believe that it does when we know better?

To bring it back home, just go and look in our parking lot. In a school of over 2000 students, half of the kids drive to school. If you’re telling me that everyone driving is not superfluous, then what is? Carpooling is an amazing way to work around that. Find a friend and switch driving them every other week. (It’s also a great way to save gas!)

We’re so focused on ourselves that it is hard to tell when our lifestyle has gotten out of hand. Sometimes you need to just step back and take a day to think of others; maybe just take a friend out on a great day for them, not you.

When I first wrote about the word lackadaisical, I realized I fit into the category of lazy teenagers. It was not until now, at the end of my senior year that I realized how deeply I have fallen into the lazy pool.

Obviously, word of the weeks did not return as I had promised in September, I just could not find the motivation to look for a word and brainstorm some obnoxious rant.

Senior year, for me, has taken place completely under the haze of senioritis: full of day dreams, naps, and procrastination: the epitome of laziness in other words.

So hello 2010, there are two more months until graduation. Let’s see if I have eight more words under my belt.

With only three days left in my Junior year, I feel like my motivation is gone.

Therefore, “Word of the Week’s” will not continue throughout the summer, unless I become utterly and completely bored.

Check back the week of Sept. 8, 2009–the first week of school–for the beginning of a fresh round of “Word of the Week’s”

For now, this is Viola Blackwood, signing out.

debacle [dey-bah-kuhl]
(n.): a great disaster; complete failure

Okay, I am sick of drama. I mean, I try to keep myself away from people who are constantly having people issues, but occasionally I get dragged into these “issues.”
Nothing is more frustrating to me than the over exaggeration people put on petty issues, I get that they are important, but the whole world doesn’t need to know about everything in your life.
Not only that, but people need to communicate better. That’s why we can talk, so that we can share our feelings with people-I mean drama starts because people don’t communicate well enough. If you tell the whole story in the first place, people won’t fill in the blanks with lies.
When news comes around, people blow it way out of proportion. It is best to make your way to the center of the story in search of truth instead of just passing along maybe/maybe not true information. It’s like a giant game of telephone, as the story gets passes along, it gets morphed into something way different from the truth. In response, people start gossips and bam, there’s the drama.
This is disastrous to the people involved because no one know what the truth is, and no one wants to go and just have at it with the person they’re mad at. You really should just talk because most dramatic situations are just little things blown way out of proportion.

Ennui [ahn-wee, ahn-wee]
(n.): a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom.

With three weeks to go for those of us who are not lucky enough to be graduating at the start of June, feelings of boredom and discontent are brewing among the underclassmen and juniors. The teachers, on the other hand, are only tightening their grip.
Students are checking out left and right as the weather warms up enough to make sunburns possible. No one wants to sit inside of the freezing school when they could be outside catching some rays.
These last weeks however, are going to be the longest. What with projects, speeches, essays, and homework galore-all in preparation of those three days of final exams. Understandably, the teachers want us to be prepared for next year, but there is only so much our distracted brains can focus on at one time.
Every teacher thinks that his or her class is the most important. I wonder if they realize that many of their pupils are staying up until the crack of dawn in order to be prepared for the next onslaught of homework.
Now let’s look at the facts. With only 11 days left of school until finals, that is approximately 66 hours of preparation until we have ended this school year with passing grades. I guess I can see why the teachers are freaking out, but still, it’s getting harder and harder to concentrate. Personally, I am ready for those giant review packets-let’s just get it over with already.

lackadaisical [la-kə-‘dā-zi-kəl]
(adj.): lacking life, spirit, or zest

I thought this word works well for the teenagers of the 21st century.
Teenagers are quite a lazy chunk of the population. But then again, we work harder than you would think. High school is not an easy four years of life. I mean, you can make it easier by utilizing extra time in school to get your homework done, but there is also homework, jobs, and extracurricular activities. You can’t blame us for wanting some down time.
Then again, there are the few who just stay home, and don’t occupy a social life. However, is that even considered lazy? Maybe they don’t want to be social…
Laziness is more when people hang around the house and don’t do anything productive-even though they know they really should. I tend to procrastinate when I should be doing the laundry or emptying the dishwasher, and my mom considers that lazy.
Or maybe it is when you only do something halfway. I think that is the laziest thing that someone can do. Why should you do something only halfway when you know you’ll just have to go back and finish it completely? Okay, I admit I do this sometimes too. But hey, no one is perfect.
Truth is, laziness is becoming more and more prominent in today’s society. What with all this extra technology we have access to, who needs to do things all by themselves? We can text people now, rather than call them or meet them face to face. We can communicate with “old pals” on facebook or other social networks. Some places can even program robots to do their work for them.
Sure, we’re a learning society, but when does all of our learning and technology get out of hand? When can we quit having everything automated? Some things just need to be done the old fashioned way.

Seeing as Mother’s Day is a day to celebrate all that our mothers have done thus far in our lives, why do the seating arrangements stay the same as during other holiday dinners (with me a room away from my mother)? When my entire extended family congregated for the “special day,” I found myself not sitting with my mom, but rather at the “kid’s table.”
How is it possible that at 17 years of age I am still considered to be a kid? Not that I chose to sit at the “kid’s table,” but once I took my seat, the others just flocked to me out of habit. None of us are exactly kids anymore: we all range from 17 to 21. My 21-year-old cousin actually stopped at the table before sitting. You could see the thought process run through his head, wait, am I actually going to sit at this table still, I am a legal adult now!
It must be something from habit, but when does that table become an adult table, when do we get to join in on intellectual and stimulating conversation? Perhaps the parents are simply trying to keep us from growing up-but I think it is past that point of turning back. We’re near adults now, if not already adults. Treat us like it.

gauche [gohsh]
(adj.): lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless

Okay, everyone thinks they are the clumsiest person in the world. Yeah, you trip up stairs, you trip down stairs, and you even trip on cracks in the ground, but I don’t quite understand how you can determine that you are actually the clumsiest person out there.
For one, I’m a dancer, so does that mean I should have perfect balance-because I most definitely don’t. I trip over my own two feet, run into walls, and I hurt myself accidentally so many times, I should be in a bubble.
On the other hand, my friend is a gymnast, and she just laughs at me when I almost fall into a stampede of people in the hallway. She, of course, easily makes her way through with no bruising or no falling.
It must be something with each individual. Everyone says they’re clumsy, but how many people would actually be considered so?
There are also the socially clumsy few. Some people just don’t know when to stop; others don’t know when to intervene. I guess in their own way, everyone is clumsy or awkward. After all, no one is perfect.
I find is quite common that I say things that I most definitely don’t mean to say. Either they come out totally wrong, or I spoke what I was thinking-bad idea.
As I lay in bed at night, analyzing my day, those things that went wrong stick out the best, and unfortunately stay there.
The world is such an awkward place when you think about it. How can you escape that dreadful, belly-dropping feeling when you mess up in front of your peers? I don’t think you can make the situation better, perhaps we all should just move on, and try to improve in the future.
I’ll just keep tripping over my feet and words then…

ameliorate (uh-meel-yuh-reyt)
(v): to make better, to improve

My dad always tells me that anyone can do this, or anyone can do that, but not everyone can rise above their imperfections. Basically, he is telling me that I am better than that.

I have found that even though I know that something is wrong, it is hard to overcome that obstacle. It is like walking under a ladder to get somewhere, rather than climbing over it. Yeah, obviously walking under ladders is bad luck, and that is the wrong way to go, but it is so much harder to climb up and over that ladder.

Everyone has something about them they want to improve. However, most people focus on their bodies, oh I am so fat, or I wish my face wasn’t this shape! Shallow thoughts in other words. Sure, you can improve your body image by exercising or plastic surgery, but that isn’t the kind of improvement one should focus on.

Think about how you act. Are you happy with what your actions say about you? No? Well that’s where you need to start in order to improve yourself. It is easy to change the way you look, but our actions are cemented in our subconscious. I’ve always been told that 30 days makes a habit. Try something this month: try to improve something about the actions you make daily in order to make yourself better.

Think you’re perfect? Try again. Humans are naturally flawed. You are just overlooking your flaw. Stop shoveling dirt over your mistakes, open up your closet and choose a skeleton to tackle. Right a wrong, stop a bad habit, apologize: there are so many ways to improve yourself.

ex. The editor of the paper ameliorated the article by correcting the grammar.

rigmarole (rig′mə rōl′)
(n.): a complicated, petty set of procedures

Everywhere one goes there are procedures to be followed, not to mention the obvious repetitive patterns found in daily life.

However all may not be complicated, but everyone seems to have a certain path they take each and every day. I for one am a creature of habit-getting ready each morning in the exact same way and walking the school in the usual paths. I am surprised I have not worn a rut through the school. Maybe that rut is just in my imagination. No matter, when I try to switch up this habit, I always seem to fall back to the old ways.

Everything in my life has to be planned out, and I tend to plan in the same manner: for packing I make a checklist, for homework I start with the easiest and work my way up, even for going to bed, I have to be in my bed before I turn out the light.

People are creatures of habit, and we all find some path that is comfortable and stick to it. Throw someone into a new situation and all comes crumbling down. People feel nervous, and they can’t think straight, for they are simply trying to keep their head about the change up in actions.

Not to say that we are all crazy, and that we can’t handle new things. Change is something that keeps life interesting, and without it we truly would have ruts worn in the earth. We embrace change in order to define ourselves, but we overlook the tiny things we take for granted. Those too define your persona.

ex. The rigamarole of my morning is so hectic, i wake up at 5:30 AM just so I can be ready in time for school.