What is Tara thinking…

As a 17 year old girl who prioritizes health by staying active, I dread the time I get old. I don’t want to feel quarantined in my home, like my grandma and the other elderly people in her apartment. The only time they get up is when they have to go to the bathroom — and even then, some old people can't get up to go. I value the time I get to go and shower and feel relaxed, but most old people need someone to do it for them, which is nothing close to the comforting and soothing experience they once felt. I fear losing the feeling of being alive through exercise, which, until recently, felt inevitable.  Over winter break this year, my friend and I went to Ann Arbor to run a 5 mile race for the winter Trail fest run event. To our surprise, it started to blizzard the day of the run, but we still decided to go because we expected a lighthearted event with fellow teenage runners. Oh, we were so wrong. I looked left, an old fella. Took a gander to my right, there was a friend of my gran...

Creativity is the involvement of original ideas to make or do something new. It’s not easy to be creative, but sometimes the most unique ideas can be thought of on the most random days. For me, it was a snowy day.  My dad was out of town, so the house was left with four girls who, for the most part, relied on my dad to take care of “boy” stuff. If there was a 2nd man in the household, it would be me, which should be a concern if you know me on a personal level because I am a tiny girl who cannot hold a toolbox for more than five seconds. I know more than the others in my family because I have sudden concerns for my future independence, so my dad and I work on basic human survival skills like learning how to pump air into a tire or using a lawn mower. But a snow blower was not a concern of mine back then. This was all until me, my sisters, and mom, were stranded at home with a snowy driveway and no idea how to use a snowblower. Of course, my mom and sisters relied on me to figure i...

People do things that are redundant to their overall well being due to lack of better judgement and understanding due to distraction from environmental and psychological factors. Sometimes, the act of endlessly doing something sounds challenging and impossible. Think of a time where you wished you did not have the amount of work that you were tasked to do, like homework. You wished to instead do nothing at all and just chill. Ok. Wish granted. You are now doing nothing for hours, staring at a wall, and have no one to talk to. That   would feel impossible. The repetition of an action for too long eventually becomes exhausting, leading to unsatisfactory feelings. It gets boring because you are alone and not motivated by any external factors. However, humans surprise themselves in certain instances as they become attached to actions that do involve external factors, resulting in a pleasing effect on them. If someone was prompted to watch TikTok for 12 hours, they would not break a sw...