Look Inside the Lab

I wanted to take a break from my broader, more philosophical posts to talk about a serious issue that I am looking to raise awareness about. For the past few months, I've been working on project that was assigned to me which essentially asked students to choose an issue and take an action to help solve it. Initially, I didn't think much of this project and didn't expect to become completely immersed into the issue. However, this changed upon my initial research, and I feel so strongly about this issue that I want to inform my readers.

It's an unfortunate reality that animals are being subjected to inhumane and unnecessary experimentation in research labs, universities and medical schools all around the world. For many taxpayers, their own money is even going to these universities and labs to support this process without them even knowing. Most of these institutions have chosen not to even create a specific policy to prevent cruel treatment of animals and the unnecessary practice of animal experimentation, which means that individuals are left in the dark about what they are doing inside the lab.

I personally believe that imprisoning animals and performing experiments on them is archaic for these well-established and modern universities and institutions. With the plethora of computer programs, modern techniques and advanced technologies available to us currently, it isn't necessary or even helpful for scientists to experiment on animals. Animal testing is not only inhumane, but also quite unreliable compared to advanced non-animal testing methods. Animal testing lacks scientific value and doesn't progress the knowledge of biology and medicine in a way that non-animal methods of experimentation cannot.

For this reason, I feel that we should all stand together and work to get institutions to develop a clear policy that prohibits severe animal suffering in the lab as well as promote non-animal methods of testing. There are a plethora of ways to get involved , whether it means simply signing a pledge to be cruelty-free, signing petitions, informing friends or family about this issue, raising money for a non-for-profit organization or sending letters to your local university or laboratory to express your discontent. The littlest action can make a huge difference and I believe that if we choose to look inside the lab and recognize the atrocities being committed, then we can tackle this problem and bring justice to animals.

Look Giving and You're Golden

From first grade to eighth grade, my life revolved around Girl Scouts. While the activities associated with Girl Scouts can include selling cookies to win prizes for yourself or taking trips with your troop to spend time with your friends, it wasn't what I spent the most time in Girl Scouts doing. I spent most of my weekends going to retirement homes, helping out at food drives, or raising money for charities. 

I may not be able to speak on behalf of all my fellow troop-members, but that was my favorite part of Girl Scouts. I'm not even kidding you! I sometimes chose not to go to the social events or partake in some of the purely fun activities because that wasn't what I had truly enjoyed as a kid. I actually loved going places and doing good. It was a value that was instilled very early on- clearly- and has surely been carried on into the future. Maybe I'm just naturally one of those people who loves community service, but I have a feeling that my exposure to it early on in life helped create this interest in doing good for others in my community. 

What is saddening to me, though, is the misconception many people have about service learning and volunteer work, especially at my age. For the past several years, it was almost social suicide to not be doing some sort of service project. That awkward silence would arise when someone mentioned their plethora of sports, clubs and leadership activities...but no community service. It just wasn't common. Typically, I would consider this an amazing thing, but I've come to believe that doing community service is common for all the wrong reasons. 

Obviously, merely doing service work, for whatever reason, will have its benefits. However, as someone who truly enjoys community service for what it should be, it's frustrating to see others tarnishing the deed. I don't know how many friends of mine, last year [college application season], involved themselves in regular volunteer work. It was surprisingly very many. While that was exciting to see, I soon realized that these individuals weren't doing this because they suddenly felt compelled to improve the living conditions of those around them. Because unfortunately, as those acceptance letters came pouring in, more and more of my classmates began dropping commitment after commitment. 

Yes, community service and volunteer work has become the classic resumé-builder. It's almost a staple. There's usually a box, on most applications, which request that one lists their community service activities and commitments. It also almost seems like if you aren't doing volunteer work, you're not a good person.

I understand that applications and resumés are important and that one must do what they need to do to get the job, however the obviously selfish utilization of volunteer work for purely personal gain has made all of us teens who actually like service look pretty bad. So maybe it's time to reconsider your run-of-the-mill volunteer work purely as a resumé-builder. In my opinion, everyone has a passion, and if we all took time to find a way to exercise that passion in a way that helps others, it would bring greater benefits than being a cookie-cutter volunteer worker just to look "good". 

Finale

As things come to a close, I remember back to a quote I brought up in one of my first posts:
"All that glitters, isn't gold". I remember sitting down at the computer, writing that and wondering what that actually means. I even considered...what if this premise, this idea that I've founded my whole blog upon, fails me?

Months later and now feeling that I've gotten a better understanding of what this quote means, I hope that I've offered you, the readers, some ideas to consider. I hope that you too have found an explanation for this quote...or at least reconsidered the implication of appearance in our lives. While I may not continue to post new ideas onto this blog, I think my mission has been complete if I've laid the foundation to consider the role of appearance and aesthetics. From politics, music, art, grocery shopping, and honestly, so much more.. the glitter seems to captivate people more often than not. But the fascination of aesthetics, the glitter in our lives, doesn't always have to influence our decisions. We just have to be conscious about it.

As a college-bound student, I'm thinking more and more about being a smart consumer. While it may not be an obvious part of being a smart consumer, I find that understanding how appearances and, in general, superficiality, affects me. For example, after reading an excerpt in English class of The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and studying the factors that affect what we buy at the supermarket, I began to go grocery shopping with a completely new outlook. I never realized how much the appearance of the food- the packaging- affecting my decisions on what to buy. For a college-bound student, this information was admittedly pertinent to me. I'm going to be shopping on my own in a couple months and will have to be "in tune" with what is going on in my head when I'm making decisions.

I understand that this example may not be pertinent to you, the reader, in particular, and I understand that some of my posts may not have been personally relevant, but I truly believe that the influence of appearance and aesthetics on our decision-making processes and thoughts in general is strong. So my parting words are these: I want this idea to stay in your mind. Whether you're a college-bound student, a job-seeker, a teacher...whatever it is that you are passionate about doing...make appearance/aesthetics another lens that you use to be a smart consumer or even just a more perceptive and curious human being.