Women's sexuality

Religion or Science? A insider look on how I see both and is natural birth the best option for U.S women?

Religion or Science?

I was on YouTube like always, watching a video on natural birth in the United States. The video asked these three pivotal questions: Why is natural birth in the United States so low? Why does more babies die every year in the United States than in any other developed country in the West? And what can we do to increase natural birth and decrease caesarean sections, force labor and the use of medication to ease pain during child birth? Want to watch the video about natural childbirth in the United States? Here's the link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9F7BMoI3bE

In this post I will like to focus on two main topics. Natural childbirth vs conventional childbirth and religious views vs science beliefs. Down in the comment section I saw this guy/lady post a sentiment very near to mine. It was like the golden light amidst anarchy. People was discrediting the documentary and the film makers left to right. These people didn't believe in natural birth and thought nothing was wrong with artificial, useless procedures where a woman opt for a caesarean even when she didn't need it or when a doctor or nurses stock a woman up with horrid drugs to “ease pain”.

You can quite clearly see where I stand in the debate. The heaven sent commentator wasn't speaking about childbirth directly but more so from the angle of religion. A lot of people were discussing God vs Science down in the comment section. The insufferable bible thumpers were saying how God wouldn't want this or that or that or this. And the Science freaks were saying how God didn't exist and that science was the only god.

This is when the “angel” commentator swoop down to say the day. At least in my opinion. He/she said, “The problem with people, is this foolish idea that one must choose between God and science. Guess what? You don't.” Yea! What a “saint” isn't he? Here was my response to his genius words of wisdom.

“I agree, I look around and see the beautiful trees, flowers and animals and say to myself, wow it's a beautiful day. I believe some God made this or that. I believe a lot of what science says. I do not have to choose between science and God, subtract organized religion all I need is those two.”

Now this was a prolific time for me since I had never utter those kind of words before in my life. Sure I thought it but the thought had never left my mouth. The way I am connected to writing allows me to say things even when I haven't said them literally. So there they were, my words I had truly began to believe since I've taken this self-reflection journey. I use to be so cynical of religion that I was afraid I just might be turning into an atheist.

So being a good Christian girl I decided to put those thoughts quietly away in a neat little corner. Now that I am a bit more liberated I can say. Hey, religion sucks I do not like it, it’s just not for me! But at least I still believe in God! Haha. No, but really. I am so critical of religious practices that I have all but completely shun religion altogether.

As I said before I believe in God(s) and science not religion. I have seen how people bastardised religion to the point where I want no part of it. I know some of the religious and holy hell science nerds will decry my opinion and try to force me to pick a side but I won't. I believe what I believe.

Now let's go back to childbirth in the United States, as you can see in the video with the link provided above, childbirth in the United States is a dire situation. Much like it is for health care, education and civil liberties. What we must understand is that the United States of America is a really young country. Us living in the U.S still have a long ways to go in building a stable society that sustain all members. We shouldn't be so cocky to declare that the good ole U. S of A is the best nation on Earth with the best civil liberties when we have a failing school system, citizens not getting adequate healthcare coverage and our rights are deemed retractable.

That's not an almighty society exempt from all wrong doing that is a country in need of huge social reform changes. What I gathered up in my young life is that what worked in the past might not work in the future. We need fresher ideas and newer, more efficient methods if we're going to be able to give greater benefits to citizens. I hold the belief that natural birth is ninety nine percent better than other methods of birth dearly. What is natural birth?

According to Merriam Webster, natural birth is a system of managing childbirth in which the mother receives preparatory education in order to remain conscious during and assist in the delivery with minimal or no use of drugs or anesthetics. This form of childbirth is what I advocate for fully. With all the extended amount of research I've done for this very subject I can confidently say natural birth is better. There are too many less than ideal factors that come up when a mother uses drugs during the labor and delivery process.

All in all the video was a good eye opener to these very important social issues, yes even the off base, out of no where God vs Science spiel down in the comments section. I hope more women become more educated on the many options they have when choosing safe birthing procedures for themselves, but more importantly for their little ones.   _KM

My trip to Tampa, Florida! Part two

The next morning we continued our trip by heading over to UT, University of Tampa. What can I say other than UT is old, beautiful and historical. It's rustic beauty was clearly breath taking for everyone on the trip. We kept gasping at the marvel that UT offered. Everything looked so official and well... private. This university was a great educational contrast showing what an older, more established private university looked and felt like to a more modern and liberal educational institution.

 What UT showed in great beauty it severely lacked in friendly warmth and personality. The people were cold and no one asked us for a tour of their campus or gave us any good insight. The few good samaritans were the museum coordinator who let us in -when we gave our little donation despite that amount not adding up even close to what we had to pay originally-. Another was a guy one of my club mates stopped to chat with; who was friendly but also seemed weird because he was responding as if he was being very forceful and fake in his interactions. When my club mate tried to peer into one of the buildings people inside stared at him strangely.

When he was waiting to be buzzed into the building no one came to open the door. The guy that my club mate stopped immediately had the door open for him. I won't say UT is prejudice, we hadn't spend much time there to give a true assessment, but I will say they aren't as friendly as USF students which was one of the stark difference from both campus. Another difference was that the campus students weren't diverse. That was an aspect I did not like at all. Almost every student we saw were white, no Asians, no Africans, no Middle Easterners, just European white. Not my taste at all.

My final opinion of the University of Tampa wasn't much since I came to the conclusion that UT is beautiful and people should come to see the lovely architecture both inside and outside the buildings, the interesting paintings and furnishings and the historical hotel that was turned into a museum in the same building as admissions. But come for sight seeing, nothing else. The students are a turn off so much so that I could never see myself living on campus much less going to classes there. The guys seem like a bunch of juice heads with a huge amount of testosterone and probably was in some stuck up rich little society or fraternity. I must include that the women there was a lot more nicer and relaxed with our presence, so I do not want to down cast such a side eye at them as I do the guys. Overall the interesting building design and the museum was a highlight of the campus, as sad as it is to say. Everything was closed, from the admission office to financial aid, so there were no one there to ask any questions about the campus.

We headed back into the van, people slept while our adviser drove around. We headed to a skating ring, where our adviser told us we could skate, rock climb, play laser tag etc. There was all types of activities she said. We were ready for some more fun activities so we was all for it. I wanted to skate, play laser and rock climb, heck I would probably do everything they had. We all was pumped.

We got there and our hopes fell as quickly as they came. This place was in a weird seedy neighborhood and it was already packed in the parking lot. Still intent on having fun we trail our way to the doors as our adviser rummaged around in the van. I came in and was blown away and not in a good way. The place was rancid and run down. Eww. I can only imagine the amount of vermin they had crawling around if we would have stayed longer.

 I was not the least bit impressed. There, was everything laid out in front of us. The majority of us stayed by the door gaping for our breath. Seriously, is this the type of place we will be spending our evening? I gazed around looking from the games tuck in the corners to the dilapidated skating ring to the ringy dink wall climbing station to my right. The place was off kilter and everything felt wrong. There were no one at the front desk but there was an overweight lady squawking commands in a mike on the skating ring. Everything looked busy in a not so nice nauseating way.

I headed back to the van since the building was fairly warm so I did not need my sweater any more, nor my purse. I knew I wasn't going to buy any food there anyway. Soon after everyone came piling back to the van. Someone finally came up to them to tell them that the place was closing at three thirty and the skating ring will be open back at seven. We shudder in horror at what this place might look like while at night. Our adviser told us to get back in the van because we weren't coming back in this crummy place late at night.

I was a little disappointed, despite the creepy atmosphere I did want to rock climb and fall on my butt skating. We continue on our way through Tampa. Our Adviser and our club president tried diligently to find a place for us to hang out and have fun. Earlier in the day, before we had set off, our adviser asked us if we wanted to race drive. We excitingly screamed yes in unison, so after the big fail going skating was we headed to the race car driving destination. After a few miles driving we decided to just see how race driving would be and go from there.

We found this jewel among us in Tampa. I do not recall the name of this place but I do remember it was a fun two building arcade palace. We headed into the first building closest to us. Bingo we hit the lottery because one of the race car operators gave us a delicious deal we couldn't refuse. We all scrambled in line at our discounted price. I paid nothing since another club mate had change and paid for the rest of us.

Can I just say that race car driving is so for me!!! Okay maybe that wasn't correct English but I had to say it. The rush of driving down the bends and curves of the track was way better than I expected. I was even better at driving than I expected. Our discount man had us go around the track five times, even though on the sign we were only suppose to go around two times. When we were headed to leave we even got three free turns back on the track. Thank you discount man!! Maybe he thought one of the girls in our group was cute. Wink, wink.

I will note that the arcades were noticeably built for small kids in mind. Aside from the car racing, and batting cage unless someone in our group was a fanatic arcade game player, there wasn't much for a group of nineteen to thirty two year old to do. I wanted to go on the bungee cord. But to my amazement you have to be under a hundred and twenty five pounds. I am currently a hundred and fifty pounds, let's just say you can honestly assume that my hopes were dashed. While outside waiting for the other club members as they waited for their turn on the bungee I came to a conclusion.

The only people lined up for bungee jumping was little kids. From ages as low as two and as old as ten, oh and my group who are nineteen and twenty year old women but could pass for fourteen year olds. Haha. My adviser were going to go on the bungee but last minute decided to skip it, she, herself looked about fifteen or sixteen at most. Ha. I didn't feel so frustrated after all, the bungee was created for little kids. In fact the whole park seem to be a kid's one big paradise of fun and games. Cool for them.

While returning from a bathroom break, I had one of my roommates quit on the tedious long line and ask for me to go into the arcade with her. I accepted the offer and turned to head into the aracade. We played games for fifteen minutes until some of our group members came in and got us. This is when I was told that we could go back to the race driving track and get a couple free turns. I was all for it!!! We headed back and everything proved the race driving was the best for us to spend our time. I'm a freak for speed!!

My trip to Tampa, Florida!

From March 21, 2014 to March 23, 2014 my club, the F.A.C.E club at Miami Dade College went on a college tour and retreat trip. It was so fun and I experienced new things. Our three days in Tampa at the Hilton was interesting for me since I had to share a room with not only one roommate like the rest of the girls but two. I had never shared this experience before until now. It gave me a particular insight to having a dorm mate when I transfer to the university of my choice. One roommate was cool while the other one was neurotic and stubborn, totally not what I anticipated.

 I knew if we were to spend any more time together I would have exploded. She was pure frustration at it's best. I definitely was set up and was burn because of it. I hope I never get a room mate such as this ever again in life. But aside from that, the rest of the trip went on without a hitch. We had a nice pool and Jacuzzi at the Hilton so we was in there every chance we could get.

The Jacuzzi was super warm and relaxing, I've only been in two or three Jacuzzi in my lifetime, including this one so the moment was special for me. I love hotels!!! The atmosphere, the room service (which we did not get), the maids coming to turn down the bed, the amenities, the free breakfast, the gracious wait staff were all what I expected when coming to the Hilton. Granted the hotel itself was a lot smaller than I would have preferred. But we were only there for two and a half days so it didn't bother me much.

We were in Tampa, Florida!! The weather was nice. Almost identical to Miami's weather. If I had visited Tampa, Florida before, it had to have been when I was younger because I do not remember. As far as I know this was my first trip to Tampa and it was a delightful one at that. Our first destination when we reached Tampa was visiting USF, University of South Florida.

 USF is a nice enough university. It was huge if you compared it to Miami Dade. We really felt how it was to be a school of little fishes swimming with the big sharks. We spent probably two hours and thirty minutes at USF walking around and speaking to administration and the likes. The campus is big and airy and had that university feel I was looking forward to. The people at USF and Tampa actually are generally nice and welcoming. Another plus is that USF have a bunch of food courts all over campus. I ate nuggets at some food place I never heard of and with it spaghetti and some chicken scrimp meat from Panda Express. A minus was that the food was nasty at best, awful at worst. Yuck!!!

Unfortunately we didn't get to see the rest of the campus because we had to continue our trip with no time to spare. After seeing USF we went straight to Bushe Gardens. Literally my first trip to Bushe Gardens, the food was tasty, the rides were fun and the lines efficient. I mean it's a park filled to the brim with hundreds of people- the line was efficient enough but man did we wait!!! I love the water rides, they were the most fun. One ride actually had an bridge where you could stand right above the water where the boat filled with passengers will swoop down sending a massive tirade of water your way!!!

 My club mates and I stood in the right spot towards the oncoming water splash two times. Now I know I will love to go to a water park, since I found water makes rides that much more scary, risky and fun!! I forgot to mention but our first roller coaster was when we dragged our club adviser along. The ride was exhilarating and we all had a smashing time. I bought some souvenirs, including a cute little super woman caricature of me, shared some pastry cake with my club mates ( I wasn't hungry much- too much energy) got on the zip line to view the park from up top and soon departed. Not in that order, haha.

We finally arrived at the Hilton hotel, we checked in to wine down for the night. My roommates and I had it easy since our room was on the first floor so it was pretty much easy access to everything, the pool, the gym, the party we later crashed our last night there and to the breakfast buffet. Did I say before that the whole entire time it took us to get to and back from Tampa was roughly five hours. If you do the math that's ten hours total, with one restroom stop to and from where we took advantage to stretch our legs, get some fresh air and as a snack break. Our adviser did not want to waste any time. Talk about exhausting!! Sheesh. We were so tired from a day of exporation and fun. I got situated, went into the pool and then the Jacuzzi, took a nice long hot shower, packed away my stuff and I went to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Okay I'm embellishing. I wish!! The "stubborn" roommate wanted to study by reading her books well into the night!! I had to tell her to take off the main lights and leave on the desk light for her little late night study. Oy vay. Either way I turned my head towards the wall close to my bed and went to sleep soundly. The two girls had to share a bed because there were only two, I had already stake my claim as soon as we entered the room, and the other girl was passive after "stubborn" girl took over the other bed. It worked out quite nicely for me. I had my OWN bed. If I had to share a room with these two girls I might as well have my own bed, right? Right.

Women of Distinction Series: Carmen Chacón Piqueras

    First up for my very own women of distinction series is Carmen Chacón Piqueras. She was an influential speaker at my campus at Miami Dade College. I was pleasantly surprise at this distinguish woman's resume when she came on March 20, 2014. She is a Lawyer, Professor, mother and wife. She is from Barcelona Spain and have served as a member of the Spanish parliament. She is one of the few women in politics in Spain, in fact she was Spain's first woman prime minister of defense. The main points that Carmen covered in her speech was the importance of education. She noted that without education she wouldn't have gotten to where she is now and have all that she's achieved but with education she have excelled within her career fields. A funny little note is that Carmen absolutely loves basketball.