Are our dreams worth pursuing?

After finding out this past week that UCAS applications are down by around 9-12% this year, me and my two good friends had a long and heated discussion about whether it was even worth going to University anymore, considering how hard is to even make anything of yourself nowadays. Now whilst I was very persistent about wanting to go to university and make something of myself, they were quite skeptical about it, and were insistent that it's just not worth it anymore. Now whilst I was shocked at hearing this, I can't help to agree that at the moment, it just seems as if any dreams we have simply turn to dust. So this begs the question..... Are our dreams worth pursuing?

Well I can only answer this from a personal view, and so my opinion might differ to yours, but this past week I've felt both ways about this. For half of the week I was as determined as ever to make something out of myself, and the other half I just simply couldn't be bothered anymore.



However, yesterday I had a epiphany listening to a song called 'Successful' by Drake and realized that we don't have to be a billionaire to be successful, we just simply have to be doing the thing that we love, with the people that we love. In the song the lyrics "I just wanna be successful" are repeated over and over again and whats so beautiful about those lyrics is that, that is exactly what we all just want... To be successful. We all wish to be successful in order to please our families, to please ourselves, and to feel that we have a legacy to leave behind when its time to leave this earth. So i actually disagree with this idea that reaching our dreams is rare nowadays, it is in fact the belief in ourselves that has become nonexistent.

Jazzy's Verdict: Of course our dreams are worth pursuing, and you shouldn't let anybody tell you differently. Things are much harder, especially for young people, but those of us that are brave enough to pursue our dreams, I believe will soon enough see the benefits of it. As the rapper Drake says, "I'll take the life of sleepless nights if we can all die happy" and I know i'm definitely planning on dying with a smile on my face.

Football and racism: will it ever stop?

Last week Saturday during the highly anticipated showdown between Manchester United and Liverpool, which ended in a 2-2 draw, a altercation happened on film between United'd Patrice Evra and Liverpool's Luis Suarez that has pretty much overshadowed a brilliant game. Evra, often regarded as the best left back in the world, has claimed that during the match the two had a disagreement in which Suarez responded by calling him a N***a, something Suarez has protested his innocence against and has claimed to be untrue. Now even though I am a big United fan and therefore hate Liverpool, I am not going to take sides in this debate and turn it into a who said what article, what I am most intrigued about though is the topic of racism in football in general, and whether we will ever see a stop to it.

Now in such a modern and equal society, racism is something in which many people naively think just doesn't exist anymore, and although i'll agree that there is a lot more racial tolerance in the world today, it still doesn't change the fact that racism is still live and kicking in today's society. I myself have even been subject to racist abuse before when I was on holiday, and from personal experience I can tell you it is not a nice feeling being marginalized because of where you're from, or because of the colour of your skin.



However in a sport like football, the worlds favorite sport, racism shouldn't at all be tolerated as I feel it sets a bad example for the younger generation. Look at it this way, if a child from a young age see's people of all races collectively playing a sport together they're much more likely to adopt the sort of mentality that supports and lives all races due to their love for football. From this we can then say that football doesn't only provide entertainment, it can also provide education due to its massive influence on the lives of so many people. Nevertheless, racism in football is kind of like a stubborn spot that just won't go away, which begs the question, will it ever?

I mean cast your minds back a few years ago when England came up against Spain in a friendly match, in which many of the black English players were subject to monkey whistles from the Spanish fans, I was only young at the time but was still very confused and sickened as to why people would act in such a manner. Another example of this can be seen through Italian bad boy Mario Balotelli, who until recently, was disliked by Italian fans not only because of his attitude, but also because of the fact he was a black Italian which for some reason shocked many Italians. Now whilst England is way more racially tolerant compared to places like Spain, Italy and Russia, we have to take it into consideration that football is a worldwide sport and so although racism doesn't affect the English game as much as it does other countries, we still need to realize that if it is affecting one league, then it is affecting all of them.



This is the reason why I was so happy to see the world cup in South Africa last year, I feel it represented what the majority of people want football to reflect now. That being racial tolerance, equality, unity and for us all to embrace our differences through the sport that we love, and damn do I love football.


Jazzy's Verdict: Will it ever stop? The simple answer to that is no because I don't believe racism can be eradicated from the minds of everyone, and for some people racial hate is rooted so deep inside of them that they find it difficult to ever change. However, I feel that whilst we as a society and football as a beautiful game moves on and improves, racial equality not only football but in society also will, and although their is still some ignorant enough to hate because of our differences, I know there are much more willing to love to embrace it, and all through the game I love called football.

Amanda Knox: The Big Confusion

Unless you've been living under a very large and round rock, you would've heard that American Amanda Knox has recently been released from prison and cleared of all murder charges after she was wrongly convicted of murdering roommate Meredith Kertcher in Italy a four years ago, and although i'm pleased for her and can't think to imagine how she must feel after being thought of as a murderer for all those years, i'm not only feeling very sorry for the family of Meredith Kertcher, I'm also very confused.

I mean I may be only 17 but I still remember first hearing about this and being shocked, and its been drilled into my head so much that Amanda Knox was guilty that its now hard for me to straight away believe that she's not, and if she really is innocent then we need to have a long look at the Italian authorities who wrongly convicted her and ruined not only one, but two families lives. Its actually situations like this which kind of makes me want to one day go into politics, I mean politicians and those in authority are suppose to be protecting the rights of the people and this highlights that there seems to be a lack of that in society. I mean not only was Amanda Knox wrongly accused, this also means that Meredith's real killer is still somewhere out there which means we're pretty much back to square one in this investigation which is most likely only going to bring along even more confusion and drama, when really we just all want this case to be resolved and justice to be served.

Jazzy's Verdict: I'm so confused about all of this that I don't think I actually have a clear verdict. All i'm going to say is that these so called authorities and people in higher power need to start getting better at their job, or just simply stop doing it.