Chapel Hill, NC

I woke up, went running for a half hour by myself and went running for another half hour with my Toller, Reese. He managed to do very well, especially on inclines!

After taking a long, relaxing, hot bath, I decided to challenge myself. I wanted to do something new to my usual lunch salad. I had to do a bit of improvisation.

I made my mom's mustard dressing in the bottom of my salad bowl, which is a spoonful of Dijon mustard, a dash of salt, 2 pinches of Penzey's Spices Country French (optional), 3 spoonfuls of extra virgin olive oil (I used Spanish olive oil, but it really doesn't matter what type of olive oil you use!), and a spoonful of red wine vinegar (white wine vinegar works just as well). I then mixed the ingredients. I grabbed three handfuls of arugula, baby spinach, Green Oak Leaf Lettuce, and Red Leaf lettuce. The lettuce comes in a mix. I mixed the lettuce and the dressing together. I then chopped up a red apple and adorned the top of my salad with them. I grated Asiago cheese on top of the apple slice (I aimed more towards the center). I finished the presentation by sprinkling some of the Penzey's Spices rosemary on top, and if you may have noticed, I did so after I took a picture of my salad.

After eating my lunch while watching the first episode of season 4 of Pretty Little Liars, I got all of my practicing done. I feel a bit more confident about the Saint Saëns Organ Symphony and about my wrist position.

At 4:35, I cycled over to UNC to listen to a lecture given by Fareed Zakaria, a CNN host. The topic was "In Defense of a Liberal Education". 

Zakaria opened his lecture by talking about his past. Being that he was born in a poor part of India, like most citizens of India, he thought that the U.S. sounded like a dream. He could only obtain tiny fragments of the American Dream, which usually came in pirated American TV series. 

Zakaria recieved his BM at Yale, and after that, recieved his Master's at Harvard. He is now a CNN host, and lives in New York City with his family, so he is an excellent example of someone who went straight from poverty to prosperity. Zakaria continuously reminded us (us being the audience) that he has always been grateful for these opportunities.

However, despite the fact that Zakaria has recieved such an excellent education, the congenial talk show host has always been confused about why the American citizens believe that the U.S. is in disrepair. Why do these people, who are given all of these chances to succeed in life, believe that the American Dream is actually the American Nightmare? Instead of pondering on this question, Zakaria started searching for answers. 

Through many interviews and examinations of statistics, Zakaria discovered that most people believed that higher education in the U.S. is a scam. These people believed that students were not being taught the necessary skills to become employed, and would only end up unemployed and buried in student debt. As a result of this belief, more college programs are being cut in funding and are being shut down. We want to believe this is a complete misunderstanding, and luckily, Zakaria has some great arguments for why this belief is false. 

Zakaria took us back in time to the time of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Men such as Benjamin Franklin (one of the founders of Upenn!) believed that the U.S. should have a distinct educational system from that of Europe. That's where the idea of a liberal arts education came in. It was believed that this type of education would teach pupils how to think critically, which is a staple for success. A liberal arts education emphasizes creativity, problem solving, and confidence (more on that).  John Adams agreed with Franklin and also brought up the point that the educational system should revolve around a meritocracy and not a natural aristocracy. In other words, people should not be successful based on an accident of birth. This point remains true today, some of the smartest people in our society started out from nothing. 

Zakaria transitioned to how the U.S. does on the PISA tests. I was very surprised to hear that the U.S. has always done poorly on these tests. In contrast, our confidence level before and after taking the PISA is higher than most countries. A good country to compare the U.S.'s PISA scores to would be China, whose scores are high, but their confidence levels are rock bottom. But we shouldn't lose all of our hope just yet, because Zakaria has noticed a trend. Countries such as the U.S., Sweden, and Isreal, have done terrible on the test, but have high confidence levels. Why is this?

Zakaria argued that a huge reason for this is because the U.S. economy is one of the only economies that encourages entrepreneurships. Success isn't related to which country has the best technology, success is related to how people use that technology. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. And there are so many entrepreneuship success stories, Steve Jobs and the founders of Starbucks. 

Zakaria closed his lecture by advising us to stop comparing the U.S. government to our own, idealized form of government, and to start comparing our government to other governments in other countries instead. If we do so, we will realize how far ahead our government is from the majority of other governments.

Zakaria closed with this excellent statement:

"Confidence matters."

Which was basically Zakaria's entire lecture summed up in two words.

I found this speech to be very interesting, I didn't zone out at all, which is a huge feat for me. 

But I don't think that the U.S. college system is all that great.

It's sad but true, you don't start complaining about a problem until it affects you. The schools that I want to go to have sky high tuitions. I can't get excited about being accepted into a school, it is only when I get a huge amount of scholarship from that school when I can truly be happy. Twenty years ago, you could open an envelope, read the words "...We are pleased to inform you", and know that that school was a possible path for you. 

But Zakaria was right about how the cuts in funding are affecting most aspects of higher education, and my problem is a prime example of this. Over the years, tuition has increased to unrealistic prices. All I'm thinking is, is this really the American Dream? Is this really worth it? How do you call this an equal education for all? Because honestly, I'm thinking about getting a free education in Europe right now. Plus, I would be getting an education in a beautiful city.

Tomorrow, I am planning on going on a huge hike with Reese and I will take lots of photos of the rock climbing that will ensue.