Krop’s Nonrequired Reading

With tests, friends and the not-so occasional party, reading is hardly at the top of any high-schooler’s to do list. Flipping through a couple hundred pages of some dead guy’s archaic prose, after all, isn’t necessarily what most of us want to do after a long day at school. This blog is dedicated to finding those great (and short) pearls of wisdom buried in all those pages. Literature is composed of philosophies and ideas we can all use to get through our day-to-day lives. For the first entry, we look to Rudyard Kipling. Born in 1865 and winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature, Kipling offers inspirational “instructions” in the following poem, entitled “If.” Call me crazy, but when I read this, I printed it out and stuck it in my binder. Here it is:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Accesing my car-a matter of national security

The 11:04 lunch bell rings and my stomach growls for food. I open my turquoise Jansport in search of my beige plastic Publix bag only to find it’s not there. Then I realize I have left my lunch in my car. I start to walk to my parking spot when I am stopped by a security guard. “What are you doing?” he asks. I explain that I just need to go to my car for two minutes to grab my lunch. This is unacceptable. To get my lunch from my car, which is about 30 feet away, I have to travel to the front office, ask an administrator to radio the security guard at the back gate and then travel back to my car to get my food.
So I enter the attendance office and ask the aid for an administrator. She directs me to Cheryl Daniels, clerical, who then directs me to the main office. Once in the main office there is not an administrator in sight. It is now ten minutes until the end of lunch and I am still hungry without a way to get my food.
I have to ask, why do I need an official letter from President Barack Obama to access my car during school hours? Whether it’s getting my lunch, or my forgotten ID card, there is no way to cross the gates of hell to retrieve my belongings. Why is school security so strict that I am not allowed access my car even if I am in the guard’s line of vision? I am not going to leave school, I am just trying to calm my belly and continue my day full of energy. Security should not be so strict. I pose no threat by getting my lunch from my car. If anything, I am much more dangerous on an empty stomach.