Yes, I am wicked excited about spring break. I can't wait to go home and have a change of scenery. I'm leaving on Saturday morning with my roomie as we're on the same flight to Minneapolis. It was a little weird cause we didn't know we were on the same flight and then I told her I was leaving Saturday morning and she's like "what flight are you on?" So we'll be able to hang out for a little while together at both airports and then I'm off to NH and she's off to sunny Florida...not quite the same I know, but I wouldn't trade with her. NH is where I want to be when I think of home, when I need to be somewhere else. It's not even just the fact that my family is there, that's a major plus, but I love New England...it's part of me. I can't explain it, but it's what feels like home to me and so I'm really anxious to be there as you can tell:) I'll have some reading to do over break for class, but other than that, I don't have much planned to do. Maybe a trip to RI, but mainly hanging out with my family. But that's not the main point of this post. I just wanted to give you the 411 on my life for the week:)
I guess the main reason I wanted to post was cause I've been thinking lately about second chances and how we're very slow to give them to people. We've been talking about probation in my Alternatives class and how most people don't feel like it's harsh enough punishment as the person isn't going to prison. But the fact remains that actually putting lots of people in prison doesn't deter crime as much as people think it does. But while many people feel that prison is what most people deserve, they don't think the system is harsh enough on crime. I find it slightly amusing, but the reason apparently is that cause we don't see what goes on in prison everyday so we forget what they're going through. I guess I just feel like people should be allowed a second chance for some things. Why should we ostrasize people who made one slip up? I don't think we should cause who says that they are really going to do it again? As much as we try to predict crime, we're horrible at it, so I don't really trust that their findings would be correct. Maybe I'm being optimistic and trusting in society and wanting to believe the best about people again, but why not give them a chance to make up for what they did? It's not just in the CJ system either. With people in general, we don't want to trust people after they've hurt us in some way..whatever it may be. Somethings are hard to forget and forgive, I know. I don't always want to forget things people have done to either me or my family, but it's not healthy and it's not fair, in all honesty. Sometimes when I get mad...it happens as a result of many things culminating. People who know me can tell you it takes a while to get mad and it doesn't happen very often that I get really mad, but they also could tell you that it's not pretty and it means that I'm upset. There was an incident a month ago and I wasn't so much mad as baffled and extremely disapointed. There maybe one or two people who would disagree with this statement, but it's true. I was really disapointed in a friend of mine and it caused me to question what I was doing and a few other things. We talked about it and everything's fine...so why shouldn't I trust that and give it another go? They may disappoint me again or they may not, but I want to find that out. I'm not willing to give up that friendship. So maybe that makes me stupid or maybe that makes me dissillusioned for whatever reason, but I want it to work. I can't give up on friends easily, I don't...it's not me. If you're a friend of mine, it's for the duration basically:) I just want to really challenge you guys to give people second chances or at least think about it. It's hard, I know..but I think it's really worth it.
