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The end

I am going to miss this class a lot, it was my favorite of the semester for sure. I learned a lot about life in this class and that is why I enjoyed it so much. The guest speakers were all so informative in different ways and it helped me understand which direction to go in major wise. I have decided to major in Individual Studies with a Concentration in Nonprofit Development and Administration. I want to use this to help organizations like Greenpeace and help with animal right organizations. I have always been very passionate about animals and am excited about this path. I have grown a lot this semester and realized a lot about myself and I cannot believe that I will be 21 in less than a year time goes by so fast. This semester just flew by I will miss this class a lot and will always have great memories of it. Jessica Swan you are a great teacher and it is obvious how much you love teaching because of how much you try to connect with each of us individually. I will also continue this blog even after this class ends.

Smoker

I started smoking cigarettes when I was around 15, I am now 20 and my face has aged accordingly. I regret starting every day first of all it is such a waste of money. Every time I have tried quit I cannot deal with it and I end up smoking a pack a day again a day later. I remember that when I started I was adamant about not letting anyone stop me. I smoke like three cigarettes on the way to school and that is not even counting before I leave my apartment, which is only like five minutes from campus. I am super addicted and was thinking about it earlier in my second class that I would ask you guys if you have ever stopped smoking and if so how did you make it stick. I really want to quit this ugly ass habit before I am too old. Help Please? :)

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Halloween

Whenever October rolls around I always get really excited, first because of my birthday and also because Halloween is my favorite holiday. When I was a kid my parents always would deck out the house in so much Halloween decoration and I loved it. I have taken that same spirit and used it to deck out my apartment, since this is my first year living out of my parents house. Tonight I finished decorating and my apartment has been transformed with four new carved pumpkins. I went trick or treating until I was seventeen because I have friends who are just as lame as I am. I do not like to party on Halloween I feel as if it devalues the true origins of Halloween. The tradition dates back 2,000 years by Celtics who celebrated their new year on November 1st. I will most likely go camping like I do every year now using the holiday to appreciate nature.

Paul's Greatest Hits

Since my birthday is on the eighth and I will be twenty which means no longer a teenager I have decided to make this blog a "greatest hits" of my life thus far. On a side note I am sad to be twenty because I will no longer be eligible to be a power ranger :(.

5) Coming out is scary for any gay person. I came out at 15 to my mother, I wrote her a note it was about two pages long explaining to her how I felt and told her to talk to me when she was ready. She read the letter and came right up to my room and told me how much she will always love me no matter what and being gay changes nothing. It was amazing to hear her say that and know that she meant it. I came out to my father the same way but about a month later, I gave him a note on the way to my bus stop and when I got home he told me how much he loved me. My entire family is supportive of the fact that I am gay and that means a lot to me. This is such an important point from my life to me because I am so happy that my dad knew who I was before his death and he accepted me one hundred percent. 

4) At sixteen I went on a trip to Chicago with my friends Princeton and Emily to go to Lollapalooza. On this trip so many things happened and it was honestly one of the best times of my life. We stayed on Michigan Avenue at the Essex Inn right across the street from the music festival. We shopped a lot and had no parental supervision, well my friends mom was there but believe me we did anything we wanted. We got to party so much in such a cool town and I had never been before. I also bonded a lot with both of my best friends. I was young and I did some crazy stuff but it was all worth it because looking back on that trip I smile. I got to go to my first gay club at sixteen, meet so many people from so many different countries, and had so much fun. 

3) Graduating high school with a 3.9 GPA was amazing I was so proud of myself. I slacked off early on in high school but pulled it around. I graduated from Gateway but I was still fifth in my class and got an award. 

2) In elementary school when I still lived in Texas my mom started reading me the first Harry Potter book everyday before school while I ate breakfast and when she finished the first one I really started to love reading. I read all seven books and still to this day believe the special time I spent with my mom has a lot to do with why I love to read so much.

1) My greatest memory from the last twenty years of my life would have to be family dinners. We had family dinners always they were mandatory. I absolutely despised them at the time but looking back I realize how much I appreciate the time spent. I have so many great memories of so many different things from my family's dinner table.

Beauty

Something that is a huge issue to me is the social pressure girls are exposed to at such young ages. Our society makes girls strive to be as thin and beautiful as possible. It is so sad to me that girls feel the need to put makeup on and dye their hair in elementary school. One of my best friends one said to me "When I am getting ready I am more focused on making sure I look better than the other girls rather than impressing guys." So many girls strive for the perfect look and it saddens me. When I get ready I take a shower and I am done. Girls are pushed by society to be create an entire package every day. I couldn't imagine getting ready for an hour every morning. I hope one day our society will change this and inner beauty will shine brighter than appearance. Girls are in a constant competition with other girls and I believe the way media and cosmetic industries advertise beauty is psychological torture. I also believe most males need to make more of an effort to help with this issue but most guys buy into this because of their own selfish needs. I believe women to be the stronger of the two, women could rule the world without men if they wanted to. Females create life and in nature most of the time the female is bigger and stronger than the male. With humans we push women to be smaller and more delicate and I think it has a lot to do with religion. Religion has held women back forever as well as countless other groups except powerful men.

Imagine

 

  Having never been raised in a religious home, though I did go to church a few times and went to church camp once, my parents wanted me to make my own choice on the matter. I feel very privileged to have had a blank canvas that I could fill with what I wanted rather than have been born into it. Religion to me is the worlds greatest fairytale. Our planet is so beautiful life itself is beautiful, its the most beautiful gift ever. We should all be so thankful for our time here on Earth. To believe that there is another life after we die devalues this one. There is absolutely no factual evidence to prove religion to be real. There are so many religions out there and usually the religion you choose has a lot to do with where you live. What if religion is not real and all of the knowledge you gained was for nothing. Humans have been on this planet for thirty thousand years and the planet is 4.5 billion years old. Science is fact religion is blind faith. Religion in my opinion holds our society back, it has held back many groups of people as well. I wonder what you guys think? If you are religious tell me why you believe in your religion and why it is positive.

New Silly Aardvark Show!

Born this way?

I always listen to music when I write so I will continue to post music before my blog entries. Listen to it while you read.

 I am a homosexual and I have known this since I was at least in preschool. I remember knowing I was different growing up and I know I never made a choice on whether to like guys or girls. When I hear people say that being gay is a choice it aggravates me to no end, why would anyone choose to be hated by the majority of the population? In nature most animals will engage in a sexual activity with another member of the same sex, research has been done and it is natural. The reason many people believe it not to be is because of religion, the elephant that is always in the room. I know from first hand experience that I never chose this lifestyle though I am not unhappy for being this way. I just wish people would realize this is our only life and to hate others for something they have no control over is disgusting. It is also sad to me that from my experiences in life I have seen more homophobia coming from the African American community. I do not see the thought process of an African American who is homophobic in my mind the two groups should be on the same side of this issue. People say gay is the new black and it is. I could go more into this subject but I wonder what you all think? Do not hate anyone we are all human and we need to stop the hate and learn to coexist without it.

Across the Universe

On November 10, 2009 I awoke to my mother screaming for help. I ran out of my room as did my sister immediately upon getting downstairs I see my father laying on the floor struggling to breathe. After calling 911 all I remember is saying "I love you" over and over again as he was taking his last breaths. He died at fifty three and we still do not know the cause of death because of how messed up this city is, though we are pretty sure it was a heart attack. On that day my life changed forever losing my father has affected me every single day and it will for the rest of my life.  Before my father's death I was a spoiled brat and almost never talked to my parents, granted I was a teenager, but my relationship with my father was not great when he died. My father was a very accomplished man, he was a special needs dentist and held the titles: DDS, FADPD, FACD, FICD, FPFA. As well as being on the American Board of Special Care Dentistry and a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry. After my father's death my relationship with my family changed drastically, my two older sisters Natalie (25) and Jennifer (27) and I stopped talking basically and I lived with my mother until January of 2011. When my dad died I was forced to grow up a lot and I have learned so many things from the loss. I had never had someone close to me die and now I see life much differently. Life happens so fast and it happens when you least expect it. I miss talking to my dad about science and religion, he was so smart he knew everything. He is my hero and if I can be half the man he was I will be happy. Death is a natural process we will all die one day and this traumatic experience made me realize how lucky we all are to be alive. I got eighteen great years with my father some people have never even met theirs. I am so lucky to have had the father I did. Do me a favor and do not make the same mistake that I did, give your dad a big hug for me because I would do anything for just one more.

My mother and father were married 33 and a half years.

(Left to right) Jennifer (27) Natalie (25) my older sisters and I in Texas.

Recent picture

The importance of sharks

When you hear the word shark you most likely think of the movie Jaws or an image similar to the one above.

 In all actuality you have more of a chance of being attacked by a chance then being killed by a vending machine.

Sharks have been on our planet 450 million years, 150 million years before the dinosaurs. Every species on the planet come from a common ancestor. Sharks have shaped our ecosystem more than I can express in words. Humans on the other hand have been here thirty thousand years and have hurt the planet and we have only been on this planet thirty thousand years. Sharks are in danger of becoming extinct because of something known as shark finning. Its a process in which sharks are caught  over one hundred million shraks are killed on average a year. One reason sharks are so important to our planet is that they provide us with a majority of the world's oxygen by protecting a species called Phytoplankton. You would think the majority of oxygen comes from the rain forest but in reality all trees on the entire planet provide just fifteen percent.Phytoplankton produce over fifty percent. Sharks protect the phytoplankton by keeping their predator level lower. When sharks go extinct the aquatic ecosystem would change drastically. The reason most sharks are killed is because of finning, which is where fishermen will use long lines up to 80 miles long and catch thousands of aquatic animals. When they fin a shark they cut off the fin and throw the body into the ocean to bleed to death. This subject is very important to me and I wanted to spread the knowledge with all of you. I hope one of you will read this and try to get involved.

A very good documentary on the subject if you have time watch it!

First Post!

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My name is Paul Horbelt, I am 19 and currently in my second year at the University of Memphis.

I really love being in nature, I mountain bike and camp on a regular basis.

My first job at 16 was hosting parties for children at Chuck E Cheese.

My best friend Princeton.

My two best friends Drew and Princeton.

Kate my cat.

LOST is my favorite TV show of all time.

I have watched Survivor since the first season when I was in the first grade. I have applied for the show twice.

I am not a religious person. I choose fact over fiction. The book The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins is one of my favorite books. There is also a documentary on youtube by Richard Dawkins, the link to part one is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVr9bJ8Sctk.

I was born in Houston, Texas and moved to Tennessee around the age of 11. I plan on returning to live there after college.

I want to dedicate my life to saving animals from extinction and major in Marine Biology.

   I like to make videos of the memories I make to show the transition in my life as I grow older