The award-winning column offers sometimes humorous, often relevant and
always entertaining opinions or experiences of columnist Amanda Irwin.
Early last week, my family faced difficult news: Uncle Doug has cancer.
It seems surreal, even now as we wait to learn how advanced or in what stage his cancer is, making it impossible to plan a course of action or form future expectations.
Last September, on my 26th birthday I distinctly remember being anxious as another year passed and my life wasn’t figured out. In many ways I felt left behind because I didn’t have it figured out.
Consider if someone stood in front of you and said your child deserved to die. How would that feel? Similar comments like that can be found on local news stories sitting on the Internet right now. The Internet has made it too easy to say things we wouldn’t say in-person.
There’s nothing like moving to make you realize how much you don’t need. Yet again, I’ve packed up my life into two car-fulls (excluding furniture).
Like Pavlov’s dog, as children, we are taught how to behave through reinforcement of good behavior. Do something good; get a cookie or gold star. Earn high marks in school; receive an award. Score the most points in a game; named MVP.
I’ve lived in apartments for most of my adult life, so it’s rare that I ever know my neighbors. Recently though, I’ve been thinking maybe it’s time to break the ice for several reasons: neighbor advocacy, neighbor awareness and a cup of sugar.
I’ve never taken a strong stance regarding small versus large government, instead taking a case-by-case stance. While I agree there are times when large government must intervene to guide small government because sometimes small governments and its residents are simply too close to the issue to see the larger picture.
The Freedom of Information Act isn’t simply words written on paper to appease the public and fool them into believing that transparency exists. The act is a promise that transparency between government and the public they serve is protected and information pertaining to the public is freely accessible to ALL. Notice the FREE.
Nothing is black and white; don’t judge a book by its cover; These sayings, while cliché, are repeated time and again because, unfortunately, they still need to be heard and their relevance hasn’t been lost. This weekend, I got engaged to a wonderful man who respects, supports and loves me.
I spent last week in Kazakhstan because an exchange student, Zhanna, who my family hosted when we were both in school, got married.
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