NFL Draft

Over the past couple of the day the NFL draft has been going on and many college players have been drafted. The one player that has the most hype is the former LSU player, Tyrann Mathieu. After he had struggled with the addiction to the drug marijuana and the many arrests, he finally got to live the dream of playing in the NFL. In the most recent issue of ESPN magazine, there is a whole article detailing everything that Tyrann Mathieu had to do to become sober. Reading this article was very interesting to read because it talked about how he had to leave all the friends he had behind because they were all terrible influence on him. That is probably one of the hardest thing that anyone would have to do in their life. After reading the article it showed me that even though he had dealt with everything in his life, he was still working as hard as he could to reach his dream of being in the NFL draft. It's really inspiring to me that he would still work as hard as he does even though he had a hard couple of months in the fall. He trains with professional athletes to understand how hard NFL workouts and being with a team actually will be. Reading this story really made realize how even though rough things in your life can happen, you can overcome anything and work as hard as possible to achieve your dreams.

Unity

With the tragedies in Boston that have happened in the past week, there has been a sense of community in the whole United States. As sad as it is that something this horrible has to happen in order for everyone to get along, it has strengthen the United States as a country. Over the week there have been many games in Boston that were postponed but when they were scheduled for a later date an amazing thing happened. When the announcer stood up to sing the national anthem, he sang a little bit then got the whole crowd to sing the national anthem. It showed a sense of unity in Boston and throughout the United States when teams like, the Chicago Blackhawks, had a moment of silence for everyone in Boston. Another thing that shows the support of America is when they caught the second suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in the boat of David Henneberry. After Henneberry realized that Tsarnaev was in the boat, he called the police and there was a shootout on the boat to get the attention of Tsarnaev and make the arrest on him. In the article, http://gma.yahoo.com/support-replace-boat-ruined-bomber-standoff-165345489--abc-news-topstories.html, it says that Henneberry treated that boat like a child and was very important in his life. There have been plenty people emailing the Watertown Police to help get Henneberry a new boat. Many people have sent him money in the mail towards getting a new boat because they believe that he did a very heroic thing by coming out of his home during the lockdown. With people trying to support Henneberry in trying to get a boat, it shows how through this rough time everyone is trying to help out anyone they can during this tough times. Things like these are what make me proud to be an American. 

Basketball Injuries

As an avid NBA fan all of the injuries recently have been really devastating to see so many players go down. Around this time last year, Derrick Rose tore his ACL and then New York Knicks rookie Iman Shumpert tore his ACL not even an hour later. Then in January of 2013 Boston Celtics point guard, Rajon Rondo, tore his ACL and a couple weeks ago Denver Nuggets, Danilo Gallinari, tore his ACL too. What shocks me the most is how long it has taken Derrick Rose to come back to the team. I understand it is hard to gain the confidence to come back after such a terrible injury but Rajon Rondo has already been going to shootarounds with the team after two months from the injury and Iman Shumpert has been playing games since early February. The most frustrating part about this situation with Derrick Rose is that he did not start traveling with the team until January. As much as I don't want him to come back and get hurt again, I just feel like at this point he's letting the team down by making all these baby steps but still not doing anything about coming to play for the team. I think that Derrick Rose just needs to accept that he is okay and that the injury is past him and that even coming back for a little bit at a time, he'll gain the confidence he needs. Kobe Bryant ruptured his left Achilles tendon and he has already taken a positive outlook on the situation and decided that he'll do whatever it takes to come back and help his teammates get better. As the NBA playoffs come around I just hope that the Chicago Bulls can make a good playoff run and maybe Derrick Rose will be joining them in the playoff run.

Hidden Bias

This IAT test was actually very interesting to me. As I was not in the proper environment to actually take the test and get the results that I would be pleased with. There were many times that I made mistakes because I got confused due to the races switching sides on the screen. Anything that has to deal with categorizing things by pressing buttons I'm not that good at, but still believe that my results are not that different to what I actually believe. This test made me realize that there really is no way around the hidden biases we have. There are always those stereotypes and prejudices that we have and like it says on the homepage, http://www.tolerance.org/activity/test-yourself-hidden-bias, we learn them at a young age and they're very hard to get rid of. I think that it is bad to have these certain stereotypes and prejudices but according to the tests we all have hidden biases whether we like it or not. Most people I know around the area would double-check to make sure their car doors were locked in an area they don't know anything about, and I'm not saying that I wouldn't either because I even lock my car when I come into my house to grab something quickly and then leave again. I think that this test makes me realize that during the movie "I Sit Where I Want" many people were scared to sit with different people because it makes them go outside their comfort zone. I do believe that the documentary was really interesting and had a very good point behind it all, but I also think that it's very hard to try and get everyone to change their beliefs so quickly. I think that the group of students should have eased the students into becoming friends with everyone and then they could have sit with different people at lunch on their own. I think that by easing the students into becoming friends with each other first would've been more effective than just trying to jump right into sitting at the same lunch table with people that you don't know.