The last week of class was not my best week when considering my goals. My goal this week was to try and have more healthy dinners after becoming quite successful with my goal of eating healthy snacks. I was unable to achieve the goal this week for most of the week, but it was also only my first week trying it so I believe that I can still get it done within the next couple of weeks.
I believe that there really aren’t any excuses as to why I couldn’t do better on my goal this week, but it is in the past and I need to do better in the upcoming weeks. I should be eating healthier foods that are homemade rather than going out and buying food with my friends, which would also save me money in the long run by quite the amount.
My plan now that this class is over is to most certainly still try and continue with my goals of eating healthier foods and I want to basically just live a healthier life food wise and this class was the perfect start for me in doing that for this school year. I talked earlier in a different post about how I think it will be difficult to eat healthy at school but I am also going to try my hardest with doing that. One way that I am thinking about eating healthier would be buying things that are healthy at the store like snacks so I don’t end up at crimson eating chicken tenders for a snack after lacrosse.
Chapter 13
The first thing that I would like to talk about in chapter 13 is the hearing loss section. This is because I was looking at the information and answering the questions, and I realized that you can very simply damage your ears just going to sporting events or concerts. I noticed that it said if you can not hear the person next to you, then you should wear ear plugs. I have been to hundreds of professional sporting events in my life, some of them some very big ones, and there have been several times where if the person next to me tried talking I would have no idea what they are saying. I think that people are unaware of how common hearing injury’s can happen. I personally do not like wearing ear plugs because they take away from the excitement of the game, and you can not hear everything. The louder it gets, the more fun you are having, I did not realize how dangerous that could actually be.
Another thing that stuck out to me was how many safety precautions people have to take when they go out drinking just to be safe at the party. It is insane to me that we can not trust anybody because some people in this world have the mindset that having sexual intercourse with someone who can not even speak to say no is completely okay. It is so wrong that people go about their everyday lives thinking like that. Girls are told that if they go to the bathroom without their drink, they should get a new one because someone could have stuck something in there to try and rape them off of a drug. This is something that has become so common that girls are being taught to buy a new drink after going to the bathroom. It is crazy to think that these people who are actually raping woman are out there and you have no idea what they look like or who they are. Woman are also taught that they should never stay at a party when all of their friends leave, because once again you never know what kind of people could try and rape you. Rape could even occur between two best friends because someone is too drunk to say no to the other person.
Finally, I am going to bring up the dozing and driving section because it is something that happens far too often. I have actually caught myself nodding my head back and forth while driving home from work. When working a shift everyday from 8 AM to 4PM and having to drive an hour home at 4 PM, there are times when you can catch yourself dozing off while driving. One solution to this would be to go to the nearest rest area and just close your eyes and sleep for an hour. Would you rather be home an hour later, or not make it home at all because you fell asleep and got into a car accident. Something that I find myself doing a lot is drinking a coffee right before I leave and it will always have me wide awake throughout the whole drive home. I do not find myself dozing off at all while I am driving because I am very cautious about it, and want to stay safe.
Chapter 14
This chapter went into detail about a lot of different things with our environment and our living conditions. One thing that I found very interesting was when it was talking about how you could actually have unhealthy living conditions in your own home and really not even know that it is happening. One thing that must be watched out for when moving into an old home according to the chapter is asbestos. This is something that could be inside the fabrics of your home, and it is very unhealthy for you. It can cause cancers and diseases like mesothelioma. We always have to watch out around us, even in our own homes if we want to be healthy. Upgrading our living conditions is something that is very important, and start upgrading by looking out for several things like asbestos in your own home.
One thing that was truly mesmerizing to me in this chapter was the amount of fresh water that we have in the world. We only have 1-2 percent of all our water that is actually considered fresh water. If I was to not read this chapter and take a guess, I would have guessed around 25-30 percent of the water in this world being considered “fresh water.” It is quite scary when you think that the percentage is that low because it makes you think, are we drinking clean water at this point? If we have such little fresh water then how are we finding water that is considered to be clean and fresh. Water is something that is truly important to us all if we want to live a long and happy life, so we need to make sure that we are not polluting in our water so we can keep that number at 1-2 percent, or even better we can try and raise that number and help us all.
Finally, chapter 14 talked about is trash, how much of it we generate, and how much of it we recycle. One stat is that Americans generate 4.5 pounds per day of trash EACH per day. Let that sink in for a second, each one of us generates 4.5 pounds per day of trash. Now, I am not too good at math, but that is a lot of trash that this country does not need. A lot of that trash also is not ending up in the proper place because a lot of people will just throw it on the ground wherever they are because they do not care about the environment. Something that is not surprising to me is that food scraps generate the most amount of trash. This is not surprising because each person eats about 3 meals a day on average, and I can guarantee that most people do not finish their meals all three of those meals, causing all of the food scraps to end up in the trash.
Chapter 15
A very important piece to chapter 15 was deciding when to contact a physician. This is important because it is something that we all come across, “can I treat this myself, or should I be going to the doctor at some point in the near future?” I feel like with cuts it is mostly clear, if it is just a scab or a scrape you’re fine, but if you think you might need stitches definitely go to the doctor and let them figure that out. There are other times where it can be very hard, if you are sick and getting a cold when should you go to the doctor? When is that sickness lasting too long where it may not be a cold anymore. There are a lot of illnesses that start off with the same symptoms as a cold, which is why we should always be watching out for wether or not the “cold” is lasting too long and we should see our physician about what it could be. They can also always give you medicine that would work better if it is just a cold.
A second thing that this chapter talked about was Medicaid and what that actually is. I truly did not know much about Medicaid at all, but I now know a lot more than I did. It is basically something that is funded by the government for low income families that can not afford health insurance for themselves or their kids. There are some things that are not as good as regular health care obviously, including who you can see and when you are going to be able to see them. I think that Medicaid is very important because it is helping these families get something that they would otherwise not be able to have in their life. Obviously there are drawbacks to it, but I think that it is a lot better than them having no medical care at all and being in some serious trouble.
Finally, the chapter talked about was Medicare. Yes, there is big differences between Medicare and Medicare. Medicare is something that you are basically funding while you are working throughout your whole life, and then you are given it when you retire and are over the age of 65. There are currently around 55 million people in the USA that are reviewing Medicare. So, the big difference is that Medicaid is something that is not payed for, while Medicare is something that you are paying for throughout your whole entire working career. Medicare is important because it basically is there to help you through retirement and the rest of your life after you retire.
Thank you to everyone for a great summer course, I wish all of you the best in the rest of your endeavors at Bridgewater State University, have a great rest of your summer and good luck!
