My Advice to America

When I am asked what I would change about America my answer is simple, I would change so many things that America would resemble something of a monarchy. If you haven’t read my previous essays, you might not know that I feel very strongly about certain things in America. Point is that I don’t like how things are going in our country and our world as a whole. I always complain and give criticisms on how America and the world can improve. It’s more like angry ranting, but it’s feedback you can’t ask for the world, you can only hope for the world when it comes to feedback. Although I often complain and vent in my essays, I never give advice as to how we as a whole can improve the environment, nation, state, province, city, and world that we all live in. That is what I’m doing today.

I’ve found that many people have complained that they don’t like the way the world is going. I don’t blame them, as I’ve stated before, I’m disgusted with the way the world is going. The first thing I want to address is the people running the world. I have found that many people have lost ambition to lead a country solemnly because they love the country and want to improve it and make the citizens better off and better people. Especially in America, there are many people who are in politics and government just for the money aspect. People can simply fix this by not losing sight of what our founding fathers fought for. When our founding fathers were fighting for our country, they didn’t do it for money. When George Washington was first told he was going to lead the continental army, he said he would not take a paycheck. He only wished that the debts of the war would be fully paid for after the war ended. He said it was his duty to his country to lead, and he led the army because he loved his country and wanted to be able to make a better world for future generations. George Washington then after he was out of office, he left some of his wealth to an orphanage for children after he died. He wanted those orphans to succeed as he had, and that money would help them do that.

Another thing I find displeasing to my brain is the political parties. Everywhere people put labels on themselves. Democrat, Whig, Constitutionalist, Republican, Libritarian, Green, whatever it may be, it shouldn’t be happening. When our country was first being formed, there were none of these political parties. When George Washington was elected president he didn’t have a political party. It was Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, and Alexander Hamilton that started the whole political party trend. Just goes to show you that people didn’t vote back then for the political party if our first president didn’t have a party until we in present day assigned one to him. People back in the day used to vote for policies and what the person promised to do. They wanted what was best for their country and what was going to be best for them. People did that research in order to pick the best candidate for them. Nowadays, I find that there are a lot of citizens that vote for only a certain party, or they don’t vote for someone because they don’t like them as a person. Whatever it may be, there’s a simple fix to that problem. People just need to look at policies when they vote. Who is going to give you the most bang for your buck, who is going to help you the most. You might not care for the person, but they are going to potentially help you in the long run. Now a lot of people say they watch the news for their research. That’s all fine and dandy, but I would recommend getting a “3rd opinion” as I call it. Get another opinion from someone else besides the news. I find that in today’s world, the news is very biased. I 99% of the time go to another source, such as a podcast on Spotify run by a conservative who is not slanted towards one side, in order to fact check my information that I am receiving from the news. It would amaze people how much a little research would do for them. It is an old saying that the more you know, the more you grow. People have forgotten this saying to the point where it is now a forgotten part of history.

Another point that I feel I need to make is that people need to make better decisions when it comes to school. Your education that you receive is going to be the building blocks that set you up for your life when you are grown. I find that many people don’t take their education seriously. Even though I am only in 8th grade, I know that a lot of my peers and acquaintances are not doing very well in school. Some of them it’s because they genuinely need help in certain subjects, but others it’s because they just don’t care. They don’t have any ambition or drive to do well in school. For what I want to do when I am older, I take every advantage that my education is going to give me. My dad always preached to me that my sister and I need to do well in school. My dad didn’t have the home structure that my sister and I were gifted with and he didn’t do well in school. He didn’t make wise choices when it came to his education and today he is working as a truck driver for UPS. Now don’t get me wrong, he isn’t doing bad for himself. He’s doing something he likes doing, my dad likes trucking and being able to drive and see the sights, but he didn’t aspire to be a truck driver. He wanted to be an engineer and he would have killed it as an engineer. He slacked off in school though, and he wasn’t able to do what he really wanted.

That is a prime example of someone not taking advantage of their education and ending up somewhere they didn’t really want to be in the first place. That’s why I will strive to do better with my education than my father and my mother because I want to succeed in life and do a million times better than they are doing right now. My advice to everyone who is in school currently is to not give up. Everyone is made for a reason, if you are in school take advantage of it. School is not only for you to learn and get credits to graduate high school. It’s also a place where you can make lifelong friends. I’m still friends with people I’ve known since preschool and all of my friends I have now, I will still be friends with 10 years down the road. Schools open up people to friends and bonds that will last a lifetime. That’s why my advice is to make sure you do well in school. That way you can be more than someone flipping burgers at a McDonalds the rest of their lives. No one wants to do that, unless you like flipping burgers at a fast food chain. My point is, do well in school. It seems like a lot of busy work and pointless lectures now, but trust me. I’m only in 8th grade and I can already see my education paying off for me. All of those lectures and hard work is going to pay off one day. When you are doing something you love doing and you get to go to work every morning instead of just you have to go to work in the morning.

Another thing that I find interesting is that I find people nowadays are more impulsive than they would have been 100 years ago. Of course money was worth a lot more back 100 years ago, but today money is still money, it has just devalued quite a bit. But when people would think of making a purchase 100 years ago, they would really make sure that they wanted that item or needed that service. They would make sure that it was going to get them the most for their money. People back then knew that they didn’t have a lot of money, or knew that they weren’t making as much as they would like, and would make sure they could afford what they need and maybe some of what they wanted. I have found that people today are more impulsive with their money. For example, one of our family friends went out and bought a Dobermann. If you are not familiar with Dobermanns, they are a type of dog breed and they are among the more vicious dog breeds if you don’t train them the right way. Anyways, he went out and bought the dog and didn’t even research what dog would be a best fit for his family. He wanted a Dobermann and that was the bottom line. That was a very impulsive decision and he might find later down the road that buying that dog wasn’t the best use of his money. My point is that people are not very conscious about their money anymore. There are more of the people that will spend the money as it comes into their wallet. I’ve always been one to research my purchases and make sure I’m getting the best for my money. I’ve also been one more to save my money, but I was raised that way to be very conservative with money. My advice for this one would be to just watch your money and don’t make stupid purchases with your moeny. You WILL pay for it in the end. When you spend $60,000 on a car and put a down payment of $10,000 and have a $500 a month car payment, you’ll be in debt very quickly if you don’t make the money in order to pay for it every month.

For cars and spending money, I will always say, buy used cars. You don’t have to have the newest or nicest car. You just need something that will get you from point A to point B. That’s why when it comes time for me to drive, I will ride my mom’s old car until the wheels start falling off. I don’t care what it looks like, as long as I can safely get from one place to another it doesn’t matter. Hoses are a little different. You want to have a nicer house. I mean no one wants a shack as a house, but houses can be a little more showy in themselves than a car. Houses are things you are going to live in for years and years and years. It’s probably where you are going to spend most of your time outside work and family and friends houses. You want to be happy with the house and how it looks. You just need to make sure it looks nice, you can make remodels or replacements if needed, it’s in your budget, and that you are happy with the neighborhood it’s in. When it comes to those two things, it’s really important not to be impulsive. Unless you really get a strong vibe from a house or you instantly fall in love with it, I would do more research rather than not enough because those two things can put you in debt quicker than anything, besides college tuition, that’s a different story. I’m not even going to get into that. But the central idea here is just to make sure you know what you are getting into when you make purchases. Save as much as you can in case something happens, and only spend as much as necessary with little spending sprees occasionally. Now when I say spending sprees, I mean getting a tub of cool whip, or getting that 48 pack of beer, things that you don’t need but are good, or that you like, and nice to have but you don’t need. Basically just a little something to treat yourself for doing a good job at life or who knows what. I don’t mean going out and buying 8 MacBooks, 3 IPhones, and 4 pairs of shoes. No, just little things like buying things to fulfill those guilty pleasures that we all have.

My next tidbit of advice that I feel I need to put out there is to not follow to try and be exactly like someone else. What I mean by this is don’t be a rubber stamp human being. If someone has some cool converse at school that you think are ugly but you buy them just to be cool, then that’s trying to be like someone else. Be an individual, it’s not criminal, you won’t go to jail for being yourself. Say if you’re a Baby Yoda lover, such as myself, don’t let people tell you that he is dumb or ugly or anything like that. You do you and keep loving Baby Yoda. There are going to be people that are here just to put others down. There are going to people in this world that are put here just to be mean and nasty. Rise above them and show them who’s the bigger man.

My overall lesson in this essay is to just do research. Americans and people around the world would benefit greatly if they researched just one thing. You would be amazed at the things you can do with a little research. Research is also like an addiction. Once you start researching something you get intrigued, you ask more questions, you get curious, you want to know more, then you find yourself websites later knowing everything on the topic. That alone astounds me that you can go from asking a simple question to being able to know everything about something. That’s the power of research though. It’s something that will never go out of style and will always work for you, never against you. So whether you are voting, making a big purchase, signing up for something such as a sport or instrument, make sure you research and get to know that thing a little better. Make sure it’s something you really want to do. Because if it’s not something you want to do, then why would you do it?

Only do things if you are truly enthusiastic about the subject. If you don’t like what you are doing then you are going to be taking steps backwards, not steps forward. Don’t let people get inside your head, they just want to bring you down because they are jealous of you and what you have. Don’t let the decisions of life weigh on your shoulders too much, you’ll make the right decision when it comes time. Make sure you know what you are talking about before you open your mouth. I’ve been burned by that too many times not to bring that up. Just be yourself and trust that in the end you’ll make all the right decisions and lead yourself to a successful future.

Thank you for listening to helpful, but not really, writing time with Phoebe Matthews and I will see you next time!