Boy Bullied to Death...

it was so sad and disturbing to hear about the boy who had committed suicide after being bullied repeatedly. I'm no expert on raising children, bullying or suicide but from experience, I believe that everything a child does relates back to something or someone at home.

Bullying never seems serious until someone gets seriously injured. People never know the extent of the bullying until someone ends up dead. This is not the first story like this. When will people learn?

I read that the mother of the boy went up to the boy's school a couple times to complain about the way her child was being treated. Nobody did anything to stop it though. Now there is a dead 11-year-old boy.

Parents, not just those of the bullied victims but those of the bullies themselves, need to look for signs. Parents and all adults must realize that the victims of bullying are not going to want to tell anybody

Twitter Taking Over

I have been hearing a lot about this Twitter website lately. I'm getting the vibe that this is the new fab.

For me, the webpage phase all began with a website called "Blackplanet". I may have been in middle school or just starting high school when I was using Blackplanet. I now have a facebook and a myspace account.

I've heard that Twitter is just like another facebook where you just write down what you are doing in the status. So i decided to check it out for myself.

To me, it did not seem as interestin gor fascinating as myspace or facebook. It looked plain and boring.

I do not believe that I will be joining the band waggon of Twitter. I will stick to facebook and myspace.

The End is Coming

I never really got back in the groove of things after returning from Christmas break and now the end of the semester has arrived. It truly snuck up on me.

This is the stressful part. This is the time of the year where three projects are due around the same time and you have to study for like five exams at once.

Oh, how I hate this part. Everything always seems so impossible, but somehow, I always make it through. I have one project down with one more to go. I have four exams to study for.

I am ready for the summer. I will be taking an online course in speech to keep myself ahead so that I can graduate early. I will also be working at a shoe store. Somewhere in between class and work, I will see about interning at ETV!

Wish me luck with projects, exams and the summer!

Start of a Bad Day Already...

I woke up and thought it was going to be a good day. I was thinking one more day until spring break. That is one more day until I am able to see my family whom I miss dearly and one day until me and my boyfriend go to Miami.

Well those happy thoughts got lost after I checked my e-mail.

As a class assignment, I was asked to pitch a story idea to my school's newspaper. They loved the idea. I was waiting for the "go-ahead" to do the story, but come to find out, they had given the story to someone else because they had forgotten my name.

After that confusion and mix up, I collaborated with a peer to work on the story. She had interviewed a few professors, then I interviewed a few professors and then I wrote the story. Monday afternoon I sent the story in. (Keep in mind that the new issue comes out every Thursday)

It is now Thursday and I just received an e-mail from one of the staff saying that she wrote the story and just gave me credit within the story. I was highly disappointed. I guess that it is just business. I doubt my professor will count this as getting published.

So now I have to scramble for another idea so that I can get published by the end of this month. Disappointment and stress are the stories of my life :(

I Just Watched the Best Movie Ever!!!!!

I just got finished watching "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". The movies was extremely long, but it was well worth the few hours.

Brad Pitt was amazing. The story line, amazing!

I got teary-eyed and choked up throughout the movie. It was very touching.

I don't want to give any parts away for those of you who have not yet seen it and want to see it so I will just say that I highly recommend this movie for any and everybody.

I loved it!!!

Ready for Spring Break!!!

I have been in need of a break ever since this semester first started. I have been so stressed out and overwhelmed with school work. I just want to be able to be happy and stress free.

My boyfriend and I are going to Miami for spring break. I am so excited. This will be our first time out of state together.

I want this to be a trip with no arguing. I want me and him to enjoy each other, the warm weather, and the beautiful surroundings of Miami.

I am so excited and I cannot wait! I am going to take plenty of pictures!

Chris Brown and Rhianna

I am baffled when I heard that Chris Brown turned himself into police after beating on Rhianna. I was hoping that it was just a silly rumor. Once it started running on the news and TMZ had a picture to prove it I felt so let down. I was a big fan of Chris Brown's music and his acting wasn't bad either. The feeling I felt after finding out that it was not a rumor but indeed true what he did to her was the equivalent of the feeling I had when I found out Santa was not real. I was so let down that he was not the nice guy he portrayed himself to be.I feel sorry for the both of them.

Of course I feel sorry for Rhianna because the picture of her battered face shows that she was badly beaten. No woman deserves that. I do not think this will ruin her career. If anything, she may get more supporters after this. I know she must be a little embarrassed after the picture got out. It looked horrible. I wouldn't want anybody to see me like that.

In a way, I also feel sorry for Chris Brown because he is my age, which is young, and has ruined his name and his career. On television I heard Chris Brown talking about how his mother used to get abused by her boyfriend. I would think he learned from hat and would never treat another woman that way, but I guess not. He's just so young. Oh well... he will get what he deserves. They are talking about giving him three to four years.

Science...I Hate It!!!!

For as long as I can remember, I have never been any good at Science. It is so hard for me to understand and I just can not grasp the concept of it. I had to take biology twice. Obviously the first time I did not do so well, but the second time I only passed with a "C". Its better than an "F" and I do not have to take it over.


This semester I had to take chemistry. Oh my gosh...It was like a whole other language. I was so lost. So today I have decided to drop it.

I often find myself asking why do I have to study science to report news. I wish there were some way around studying science.

I plan on taking chemistry over the summer so that I can give the course all of my attention and focus instead of sharing it with other courses at the same time. This way I will be able to devote all of my attention to chemistry and hopefully do better.

I will resume working over the summer and will hopefully get an internship at ETV!!!

This is going to be one heck of a summer!!!!!!!

Why Such Negativity?

I often find myself wondering if other people are like me, if they think like me. I wonder if there are other people who wish they could change a certain quality about themselves.

I know there are many people that say they would not change one single thing about themselves because it makes them who they are or something along those lines. I understand what they are saying and to an extent, I agree. But there is one thing that I wish I could change about me.

When something negative happens it always ruins my whole day. 1,000 positive things could happen to me in one day but if one bad thing happens or goes wrong, it ruins my whole day. People will say just focus on the positive. Well to me, that is easier said than done. All I ever seem to think about is the negative things.

The weird thing is that I know I am blessed in so many ways. I have many things to be grateful for. I am a grateful person. And I know my life can be way worse than it really is. I also am aware that there are many people out there with issues way larger than mine.

But when one thing goes wrong in my life, I get so stressed and depressed by just focusing in on the negative and not acknowledging and appreciating all the positive things in my life.

That is the one quality of my personality I wish I could change.

Mama's Girl

Today I was having a pretty rough day, wondering if anything could go right and then I checked my received an e-mail from my mom. She was basically telling me that every time she hears my voice and gets to talk to me she gets so tickled. She told me that I was a wonderful daughter and that she always tries to do whatever she can for me. She said she appreciates all that I have done and all that I am trying to accomplish. Then she told me to stay true to myself, stay focused, and wished me God's blessings. By that point I had tears in my eyes.

Her e-mail came just in time and brightened my day and gave me my hope and strength back again!

Let me start by saying that I just love my mom to death. She is truly my best friend. I can talk to her about any and everything. Not many mothers and daughters have a relationship like we do. I am very fortunate to have her as my mother and grateful for the kind of relationship we have. I pray to God that I can be as good a mother as she was to me. And I pray to God that me and my future daughter have the same relationship me and my mother have. And if my future daughter ever feels that she can not talk to me I know she will be able to talk to my mother and everything would be okay because she is so caring and loving.

I will continue to do my best to make my mama proud!

A Love Story

It was the spring of 2007, my senior year of high school, when I met the love of my life.

We had seen each other around school and around town before but never said anything to each other. We laid eyes on each other at a gas station. The next day I got online to check my Myspace messages and there was a message from him. We exchanged messages for a while then ended up exchanging numbers. From that moment on we talked on the phone everyday. After a couple months of talking on the phone, summertime rolled around and we finally began to hang out everyday. The end of the summer came quick and we went to our separate colleges. I thought we would lose interest in one another but we did not. We continued to talk everyday. He would even come up to visit me! I began falling deeply for him.

Summertime came around again, but this summer could not be like the last because he had to go to basic training. So before he left, we had spent every single day together. When the day came that it was time for him to leave for eight weeks, I cried like a baby. That’s when I knew that there was truly something real between the two of us.

I did not have to wait long to receive a letter from him. We wrote each other everyday. I was the one he used his first phone call on. I only missed one call of his the whole eight weeks he was gone. I went to his graduation with his family.

When he got back home, we made it official. He made me his girlfriend. I was the happiest person ever!

And the rest is still unwritten...

Gotta Get Back in The Groove

I don't know what it is about this semester but for some unknown reason I just can't seem to get back in the groove of things. Last semester I was very focused. I finished assignments way before they were do. This semester I wait until the last minute, more specifically, the day before the assignment is due to begin working on it. I am already feeling like I am off to a bad start.

Before classes began I told myself that I would pay attention to every one of my professors’ words, take good notes, and read over them throughout the week regardless of whether or not there was an upcoming quiz or test. I have not been doing that at all. I still feel as though it is still winter break. I still feel like I should be on vacation. I truly do not know why I have yet to get back in the swing of things but I hope I figure it our soon and get over this spell. I have to do well this semester!!!

Make 'Em Proud

With the Martin Luther King holiday coming up, I have been doing a lot of thinking. It has got me thinking about where I am at in life and where I plan on going in life. This Holiday is also making me very aware of how thankful I am of all the opportunities I have been blessed with.

My name is RaShaun Jasmine Downs. I am an African American female born in Baltimore, Maryland but raised in Sumter, South Carolina. I am 19 years old and a junior at Winthrop University. I am majoring in mass communications, specializing in broadcasting. My dream is to become a news reporter.

I am so grateful for my mother, my father, and my older brother. Whenever school has me feeling down and out and just ready to give up, I just think about them and how proud I want to make them by finishing college and achieving my goals. They were not as fortunate as me to have this opportunity and college experience. Seeing the smiles on their faces when they see my grades and just how hard I am truly trying is just a joy to me.

I am not only doing this (college) to make my family proud but I also feel like I owe it to all of the people, like Martin Luther King Jr., who fought and shed blood, sweat, and tears for a united nation and equality. I owe it to them to show them that they did not go through all of that for nothing. I want to make a difference in this world somehow just like the great others before me.
Of course I am doing this for me as well, to make myself proud, but when I think about it, it is really for my future family. I want my future family to live a prosperous, secure life. With me getting a higher education, it puts me one step closer.

I don't know. I guess a long story short, my family, the great ones who came before me and fought for the many rights I have today, and my future family of my own is what gives me the drive to make them proud and finish college, go back for my masters, then even go back for my doctorate and hopefully get my dream job being a news reporter. Whenever I begin to feel like giving up, I will just think about all of them.

I will make them proud!