Greek

For the past year I've been a dedicated watcher of a TV show called Greek. This show has been almost therapeutic for me. I watch it to raise my mood, to pass the time, and to get ideas for how I want to think about certain situations. It's kind of a ridiculous TV show and I understand that there may be a lot of people who think I'm crazy for loving it so much, but now more than ever, I enjoy this show.
I recently joined a sorority, Delta Delta Delta, to help myself become involved in CSU Long Beach and the community around this school. I moved down here from Northern California and knew only one other person who attends this school. I basically had no friends and no connections.
On move in day a few girls from TriDelta helped me move into my dorm room. They were so friendly and wonderful I decided to look into rushing, just rushing. I told myself it probably wasn't for me, and that rush could just be a good way to meet people.
In the four days that I rushed, I met more people than I had in the whole 3 weeks I'd been in Long Beach. I'd met more people that I liked, and I fell in love with a house.
The girls are nothing of the stereotype of a "normal sorority girl." So many of the girls that I've met are becoming fast friends of mine. They all have different personalities and hold a different position in the sorority, but because they are all together they make a wonderful group, or a family.
It isn't all about the social aspect though. I'm learning about the philanthropy that we will be doing for St. Jude's Children Hospital. I've never been involved in community service, I've sang at a church, but never really set out to do something beneficial. In this way my sorority is helping me give back to the community and know that I am making a difference.
There is one last benefit that I find in the sorority, and that is tradition. I love that I am part of something that is old enough to have a sense of tradition. I love that we have rituals that I know women have performed for years, and will be performed for years to come.

Nip/Tuck

So I've been watching a show called Nip/Tuck for the past month or so and have become quite enthralled in it. It's about two men who perform plastic surgery and how their lives form around their practice, and the hardships that are dramatized about their lives.
Most of what happens in the show is rather ridiculous and is only thrown in for shock value, but some of the show is actually fascinating and thought provoking.
I find it amazing how present day people seem to have it ingrained in their thoughts that they are inadequate. That to be better in life, one has to make oneself look better artificially. Humans are constantly trying new ways to improve themselves, but plastic surgery may be taking it a step too far.
People start losing who they really are when they start changing their outside image permanently. Liposuction may be a necessity for some people, as might a nose job for someone with the unfortunate problem of having his or her nose broken. It's the breast augmentations, altered cheek bones, and face lifts that strike me as being an excessive beauty treatment that might cause more harm in the long run then good.
People should try to embrace their self image. If we raise our children in a society where they instantly are taught that hating oneself is perfectly normal and a quick fix is all that is needed, then we are raising a population of self mutilating depressed people.
I myself have caught myself looking in the mirror trying to imagine what I would have done to my face or body. I would have my chin reformed, remove the "extra" that I inherited from my father. That in itself is a problem though. My chin is what makes me look like my father. My cheek bones come from my mother. If I change my face I am losing my family appearance, my connection to the my ancestors.
I believe plastic surgery should be taken into consideration only if your body has been seriously altered by some outside force, or if you have some sort of life changing part of your body that needs to be removed.
Overall I find it a little sad that so many people in today's world find it necessary to change themselves to be accepted and found more beautiful. Diversity should be thought of as beautiful.