Beautiful Yellowstone

This summer I took a road trip with my boyfriend to Wyoming to see Yellowstone National Park for the first time. It is one of the most beautiful and untouched places in the country, and every year millions of people travel from all over the world to see it. Wildlife such as: bison, elk, moose, and bears thrive in Yellowstone, and some are found almost nowhere else in the wild. The natural beauty of the thermal geysers and hot springs are amazing and colorful.

During the drive, my stomach and nerves did not like the windy roads and constant elevation changes. The first thing I noticed when we pulled into the first rest area was the plethora of RV’s with a number of different license plates from all over the country. We were not the only ones who had driven thousands of miles to see this national and world treasure.

We stopped at a tourist spot on the side of the road overseeing a huge, lush green field scattered with little ponds, and bison in small herds. The bison were grazing and drinking from the ponds and some were just enjoying the beautiful day, as was I. While watching the bison, the birds flying in flocks overhead, and eating lunch in the car, I had one of those “I can’t believe how spectacular and beautiful this world can be” moments. One of the younger bison slowly came closer and closer to the car while we ate. It was amazing to see such a large and misunderstood animal only a few feet away. These deceptive creatures eat grass and normally lounge around, but if frightened, can trample a person to death. He stood about five feet tall and looked to weighed about 700 pounds. He was a dark brown and had tuffs of loose fur from his winter coat still peeling from his back. His horns were not as large as the others, but still intimidating. I could see a mix of curiosity and caution in his huge black eyes. Periodically, he would swat at flies on his lower back with his tale. A man in the car behind us got out and crouched behind our van, taking pictures. The bison seemed to be slightly taken aback by this intrusion and started walking away from his spectators. Yellowstone is one of the few places left where bison can run free in the wild, along with many other species like moose, bears, and elk.

Whenever you hear about Yellowstone National Park, you always hear about Old Faithful. It is amazing that they can predict when the geyser will go off within 20 minutes. Personally, I do not think that Old Faithful is the best part of this national wonder. There are hundreds of other thermal geysers and hot springs with the most amazing colors. Bright clear blue ponds that you can see 15 feet down and bright yellows around the edges are a common occurrence. Also, there are other geysers that go off every 30 seconds or so that shoot up about 20 feet every time. Sometimes the geysers will change and evolve from shooting geysers to deep blue pools, all depending on the thermodynamics underneath the surface.

I plan to take my future children to Yellowstone National Park to show them some of the amazing things the world has. I think that it is a national and world treasure that everyone should see at least once in their life, and everyone should appreciate its natural beauty that has been unchanged for thousands of years. Despite my weak stomach and the long drive, I would go back in an instant.

The Graduate

I think Rockwell chose to place the "graduate" in front of a newspaper, because he wanted to show the problems the country was going though at that time and how scary the world must be for this graduate. The headlines reveal conflict with Russia during the Cold War, and the unease in the country at that time. With the graduate's posture and attitude, Rockwell is suggesting that he is scared, and unsure about his future. I feel sorry for the young man because you can tell he doesn't feel ready to be out in the "real world," and scared like most of the world about their future.

Public Education

One thing that we could all agree on is that there is no easy solution for this problem that has been going on forever. It is human nature to have a class system. I do not like it but it is a fact of life. It does not matter what kind of government we have because there will always be people that are poor and people that are wealthy. However, I really feel that if we, as a country, put more of our federal funds into our public education system we would greatly reduce this divide. When this years democratic candidates were asked if any of them had their own children in public schools, almost all said no. The ones that answered yes had their children in a public university or a public school in an economically advantaged area. I do not think we should make all the schools get the same amount of money no matter what their tax bracket is, but they all should get additional funding. Also, teachers should be getting payed at least $50,000 a year or more. Teaching isn't like any other job, when they have a weekend it is like ours where it really means do homework all weekend. For the amount of education they have to get, the least we could do as a society is say thanks by paying them better than a manager at McDonalds.