Welcome to The Future

Well, I hope you all enjoyed your last month, I know I enjoyed mine! It was filled with procrastination, surprising grades and preparation for writing this very blog entry. This post, however, is about the future, not the past. In this post, the future generation of our family speaks their mind. From Josh to Lily, (sadly Max was sick so he wasn't available for comment), we have compiled interviews from all the young member's of our family, asking them each the same questions. Sometimes exceptions were made for questions that we deemed to be aimed at the older cousins (I didn't make exceptions, only Meirra and Josh did) When you are ready to vote on what you think the future of family members should look like, click here to take survey and cast that vote! 

Are you ready? I sure am. Note: This is a LOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooong post so you might want to divide it up and read it over a couple of lunch breaks. Remember that we have monthly Second Sunday postings and some will be more in depth than others but you have a whole month to read each one! In order to read the whole post, please click on the title at the top, or read more at the bottom!

Also each segment will have a title following this format --> Interviewee: (Interviewer)

Lily: (Meirra)

Currently, Lily is in Pre-Kindergarten and she loves everything she does there; especially learning letters. She apparently plays baseball, a very young age to start considering that I started baseball when I was in second or third grade. When Lily grows up, she wants to be a dancer, specifically a ballet dancer. (we have been informed that this decision is subject to change on an almost daily basis, another recent occupation: robot). Well I hope she has strong toes, because I've heard nasty stories about the stress doing ballet puts on one's feet. Now when Lily was asked where she wanted to go to college, she didn’t quite understand the question, but I’m sure her parents will tell us she wants to go to Ohio State. Lily considers painting to be her favorite gift. I chuckled when I saw this, its good to know that we will have a family member interested in the arts. I know someone else who wanted to be an artist when she grew up and now it seems she’s going into an equally questionable career; yep you guessed her: cousin Meirra. As Meirra's roommate doesn't cease to remind me when I am video chatting with Meirra, "don't hate on anthropology". Oh anthropology, I will spare you now, for later in this update I will ridicule you! Anyhow, Lily decided it was time to play instead of finish the interview, so that is all the information we have on Lily. Next up, Ravi.

Ravi: (Ben!)

I loved it when I got to conduct the interviews, they are always so full of surprises. Well in order to conduct this interview, I was forced to use the Barney Technique. The Barney Technique is a technique for getting young children to do what you want developed by American physicist Ben Grass in in the early 2010s. In this technique, a child is bribed with pictures of Barney and TV, and the result is that they then submit to participating in whatever activity is being imposed on them, in this case the questionnaire. And no, I do not want to be a physicist, what I want to do will be revealed later, so read on my friends! Anyway, Ravi responded to our first question, what is your favorite class, by saying that his favorite class was "eats", or what I interpret to be lunch. As an extracurricular, Ravi plays soccer. When we, myself and Jaya--who helped me out with this interview--asked Ravi what he wanted to be when he grew up he said "six!", then subsequently corrected himself saying "No! Seven!". We then asked him what Job he wanted to have when he grew up, and he responded by saying he wanted to own his own restaurant. I wish him luck. Next, we asked him where he wanted to go to college. He said that he wants to go to art college. Obviously, Ravi is a going to be a very ambitious man and is going to be busy in young adulthood. Again, I wish him luck. Apparently, Ravi is the best singer and dancer, which he listed as his greatest gifts, and I don't doubt him. The last time I watched him sing and dance he looked like a young Indian Michael Jackson! All he has to do is perfect his moon-walk. The next question Jaya and I asked Ravi was where he wants to live. After we named some places like New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, and Canada, he said that he wanted to live in Canada--which prompted Jaya and I to sing the Canadian national anthem. I guess all the citizenship test preparation that Josh, Shayla, and I did during the beach house vacation rubbed off on our little buddy Ravi. One of the more interesting answers Ravi gave was when he was asked about children. He told me that he wanted to have one hundred children. Don't worry family, he’s young yet. Ravi's favorite life experience was hide and seek, which is something that I'm proud he holds dear to him; I've taught him well. Apparently his role model is Barney. Barney Technique has been proven… 'nuff said.  This year, Ravi wants to be happy, but in his future Ravi wants to have a lot of TV's. Sounds excellent, and we thank Ravi for his participation, on to Maya.

Maya: (Meirra)

Maya happens to be another one of Meirra's interviews. In school, Maya is a fan of math because apparently that is the only thing they teach in her grade. This year she isn't doing as many extra curricular activities as last year , but she is doing some sort of Indian dance thing but I don't understand it quite so well so I am not going to try to explain it. Maya wants to be a pediatrician when she grows up. This decision was made the very morning of the day she was being interviewed. Maya had to go to the doctors to get a shot that morning. Apparently she found the taking apart of and putting together of a syringe and the cleaning of the skin for the shot to be a “cool” process. Right then and there she decided that she wanted that job. My lord what has the world come to, when cleaning an arm is "cool". Well, a pediatrician is a noble profession so good for her. I'm just waiting to see if that changes to by next time we do interviews. If we do, of course. That means you readers have to continue reading, a task of which I am sure you will. Apparently she is not looking at any colleges, which I don't know if this is due to lack of information (most likely), or lastly lack of desire to go to school in order to become a pediatrician. I can't wait to see what happens when someone tells Maya how long medical school takes. Good times there shall be, goooood times. Her best talent is drawing pictures of herself and landscapes. She wants to live in Italy when she grows up because she likes the food there best. Don't worry Grandparents, all of us cousins  love your Indian food, when we reach the right age. Italy won't take your granddaughter. Other given information is that Maya doesn't have a role model... yet. Next we have Deven, who was also interviewed by Meirra.

Deven: (Meirra)

Now Deven is very similar to Maya: his favorite subject is math but this time because he likes adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Yay Math! I am excited to see what happens when math takes the turn from predictable pre-pre-algebra to the problem solving algebra, geometry, and algebra 2, to the horrid sounding pre-calculus and beyond. It will be interesting indeed. He is involved in tennis, basketball, and baseball, his favorite sport, of which I approve. He will also be applying math in his future career choice of: "A scientist, because, I don’t really know, well, I like science." Guess his wish list for Santa will consist of a white lab coast and some test tubes. He doesn't know which college he wants to go to. He says he knows there is one in North Carolina, most likely UNC, and there's one that his dad went to, Cornell, yet he doesn't know much about them nor which he’d choose, respectable for a nine year-old. He says that his gift is that he is the best at math, which is a respectable belief, considering that there are a few million people his age that are all worse than him at math. Assuming there are at least 5,000,000 kids his age in the United States, this probability of that statement being true at around 2*10^-5% chance, let me repeat that, a 0.00002% chance, not taking into account the fact that in the world our education system is especially in math is not very good. Ahhh math, making all this reasoning possible. Theoretically it is still possible that Devan is indeed the best! He says he wants to live in Philly because it’s a big city, which he loves, yet is still close to his parents. Apparently he wants to be like Tom Brady. Now if you know anything about football, you know that he should be talking about Eli Manning, that little "squirt". Good luck being a football player, young one. Next we have Mr. Anand Wetzel, whose interview was done by none other than Mr. Benjamin Grass. Or will it be Dr. Benjamin Grass?

Anand: (Ben)

Now, as I remember, in this interview Anand came off very mature. His favorite class in school is Library class because he loves to read. He is involved in playing soccer and basketball as his sports. He is also going to start doing chess club soon. When he grows up, he says, he wants to be an engineer who builds computers and electronic devices, essentially a computer and electrical engineer. Such convenient naming, no? He says he is looking at University of Pennsylvania or Princeton University, two top tier Ivy League schools. He does not know what his greatest talent is, or where he wants to live when he grows up. He does say that he thinks that he'd like to live in a suburb. He says he doesn't plan on having kids. Well, don’t worry Monamasi and Davidmasa, Ravi will be sure to make up for grandkids, the Wetzel name shall live on. Also, these things change. His favorite life experience was going to India, for which he missed over a month of school for. He looks up to his father because he is older and has a job. He specifically stated that his role model is not Deven. Other than that, he said he wants to be the perfect person; we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out. Next we have his sister, Ms. Jaya.

Jaya: (Ben)

Jaya is in her first year of middle school, and has had a decent transition from elementary school. Her favorite class is art class because it is "fun, and she gets to draw stuff". She plays basketball and travel soccer, and is starting a "make your own web page club". She doesn't know what she wants to do when she grows up, yet she knows that she wants to go to a small college. Well, I wish her luck with finding a college that is truly small. In addition she wants it to be a good college. She says she wants to live in the suburbs of Pennsylvania because she did a report on Pennsylvania in fourth grade and she found out that Pennsylvania is pretty awesome. She says that her favorite life experience, now get this, is going to Six Flags: Hurricane Harbor. Now I understand that Hurricane Harbor is pretty awesome, it’s a water park, and I guess it’s a must see place if it makes the rankings as a “greatest life event”. Her role model is her third, fourth, and fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Chalela-Jacobs. This year Jaya says she wants to participate in class and not let her grades suffer from any lack of participation. I respect that goal, I've tried to improve my participation as well, guess the young can teach the old. Jaya wants to get a job and not be poor in life. She wants to have a job that she likes, and live an "average" life. Other than that, she says she just thinks about her next class, living day by day. Well, that concludes most of my interviews  with the exception of Josh, who comes up later. However, next we have the first of Josh's interviews: the one about my brother. Ohh, brother. Ha, see what I did there, I made a bad pun!

Joseph: (Josh) [Written by Meirra]

When Joseph was asked about his favorite class he responded by saying "I like computer science and engineering, and architecture, because they seem useful and they are fun and challenging”. Unfortunately in his middle school, they don't offer any specific classes on computer science, engineering, or architecture. He plays basketball, and runs cross country. When he grows up he wants to be an architect or he wants to go into business. Joseph says he may want to go to University of Toronto, Princeton University, or maybe MIT. He says for high school, he may want to apply to the Lawrenceville School, one of the best academic and athletic high schools in the country. Hopefully he gets in, because he will have an easier time getting into great colleges, and he won’t be succumbed to my torments at school when he's a Freshman. He doesn't know what his greatest gift or talent is, and he says he wants to live in Toronto because the Economist's Quality of Life survey said that Toronto was the Best City in the World. He doesn't know how many children he wants to have, but he knows that his role model is Steve Jobs, for his shrewd business practices, and ability to look good while doing nothing. Just kidding; he says its because he was a good business man and knew a lot about computers. Joseph wants to do good in life, which I think is impossible if you are a businessman, so I'm not quite sure where he plans on doing good, but good for him for his trying. This year he says he wants to get into advanced classes in high school, which is possible, but is going to be a challenge. Princeton High School requires a minimum of a “B” in prerequisites for any advanced class. Other than that, he has nothing else to say about his future, next we have Raena, an interview also conducted by Josh.

Raena: (Josh)

Raena’s interview was just an e-mail survey, so it will be relatively short. Raena says that her favorite class in school is US History. Her extracurricular activities are church youth group, volunteering, choir and baseball. I love how so many members of our family play baseball! Raena doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up, and she thinks that her gift is singing. She wants to live close to home when she grows up, in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Her favorite life experience was riding a gondola in Switzerland. I have no idea what that is, but I'll take it. Her role model is her history teacher, Ms. Chrissman, and the goal that she has set for herself this year is working hard in school. In life, she wants to spend a lot of time with her family, and besides that she says she has nothing more to say about her future. And now for our next interview....

Ben: (Josh, with corrections from Ben)

Now we arrive at the best interview of the lot. Mine. My favorite class this year according to the interview is Accelerated Java. Essentially it’s a computer science course in which we learn the programming language “Java”. I like this because I enjoy problem solving, in the sense that if there is something I need to accomplish I like trying to do this efficiently and mathematically. The extracurricular activities I participate in are baseball, and a club that raises money for schools in Peru. On the baseball team I pitch and play short stop. When I grow up I want to be a computer scientist of some sort, and maybe do some things with robotics because that is something I find fun. Yes, I want to try and get a Ph.D and not teach, but do some sort of research, maybe try and create a robot that can help seniors who cannot move well, or do other things that can help humans. Colleges I am looking at are Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University, University of Toronto, Cornell, etc. Places with good computer science programs. In the interview Josh asked if I had considered Georgia Tech, and I responded by saying, "Josh, computer science and engineering are two completely different things..." According to Josh's recordings, my gift is the ability to kick [butt] and my ability to problem solve. By problem solve, I mean the ability to be efficient and mathematical while trying to accomplish things. I am also pretty good at math. Not the best, good. Remember that now. When I grow up I wouldn't mind living in an urban area like Toronto, but I think that it might be nice to live in a suburb if I had a family. Also, it would depend on what I am doing as a job. When asked about how many children I wanted to have, I responded with saying that I'd like 2, and at most 3. It depends on what whoever I am having those children with wants, obviously. According to Josh, "Ben Grass' favorite life experience has been getting high on morphine" referring to the surgery I went through. Obviously, that is a bit of a misquotation. My favorite life experience was having my lung collapse because it made me appreciate a lot of things much more, and I thought the pain was interesting. To assuage your fears that I am a drug addict, I hated the morphine, it made me loopy when I woke up, just ask my mother. My role model in life is my cousin Josh, because I've been able to learn a lot from his mistakes. Also, a role model is my perception of myself in the future, because that is something that I want to work towards, something that motivates me. When Josh heard about his role as a role model, he said, "[Gosh darn] it...all right." I gave a “thumbs up” that made him shake his head in disgust. My goal this year is to do very well in school, maybe not be perfect, but do well enough to set me up for a better year next year. My goal in life is to leave a mark on technology and the way we do things, and yes, try not make consumers pay $1600 for something worth $750. Yes, Steve Jobs, I am pointing at you. That is if I have a choice of how to price things. Other things that I have to say are please, please don't listen to my mom because she makes things sound worse than they are. For example if you think I did badly in school last year you are wrong. I didn't do the best I could, but I didn't get anything in the C range. My grades ranged from As to Bs. That is all. You do not need to worry about me, you should probably be worry about other members of the family who may make poor decisions, for example she who is up next, Shayla Birath.

Shayla: (Josh)

Shayla is our only cousin applying to colleges this year. When asked about her favorite class she said, "kinda indifferent about them in relationship to each other". She is involved with "Varsity golf, debate, writing lab where I am a tutor, French club, interact, NHS, medical explorers, liberty foundation, tru club, and I am starting a best buddies chapter at our school. I am also volunteering at the animal shelter and doing therapeutic riding therapy with special needs kids and I am working at muddy creek farm teaching the 4h classes where I teach kids horse care and how to saddle them and stuff like that and on November after golf season I'll be working at the stables 3-4 times a week and riding 1-2 times a week". Basically she is doing so much stuff that it’s ridiculous. I'd say that colleges appreciate it, and its probably good for college applications, however knowing a Princeton Admissions officer, they don't look for quantity, they look for the level of quality and how much you care about that specific thing you do. As most of you know, Shayla wants to be either a doctor or a lawyer. Both are respectable professions, so the real question is where is she going to college. Before we start let me just tell you that my information about colleges comes from College Board, the Shanghai Ranking and QS Rankings, the top two renowned global ranking systems, and the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Sometimes I used Times World University Rankings, the 3rd most Reputable, as a tie breaker. Shayla says that she is doing an Early Decision to Brown, and then applying to Duke, Tufts, and her safety, UNC. She says that she isn't being recruited for Golf but if she goes to Brown, she will join their Division 1 Golf team. Now let me remind you all that even though all Ivy League schools have Division I sports, because they are all in the Ivy League which has just 1 sports league, all these schools have very bad athletics. So if you are going to be impressed that someone has a Division I team, it better not be any Ivy League school. In terms of rankings, Brown did not receive one vote for Women's Golf. And votes are not only for first place. To put this in perspective, even Josh's School, Cal Poly received a vote. Duke is ranked fifth. Basically, Ivy Leagues are bad for sports no matter what Division it says they are in. Obviously, you are all thinking, if I gave all those places I was getting information from, how am I going to use it? Or, Ben, you fountain of knowledge you, what do you think of Brown? Well thanks for asking! I think Brown is the rear end of the Ivy Leagues. It has a 10% acceptance rate yet it is actually rated on average worse than University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, which has a 30% acceptance rate by about 10 places on average. Now remember, this is my opinion, and I am not including important factors like location and how she likes the campus, only rankings of education. Now your thinking: if I have an opinion on where she should not go, I must have an opinion on where she should go. I think she should go to Columbia University. It is an Ivy League and therefore also has a Division I Golf Team, and it is located in one of the greatest cities in the world, New York City. At least three family members of hers have gone there, and I have a wonderful quote from the Fiske Guide to Colleges to support myself. "Columbia is an intellectual school, [...] 60% of the students aspire to law or medical school (they enjoy a 90% acceptance rate)" (Fiske Guide to Colleges, 161). Columbia is rated the 8th best college in the world by the Shanghai Ranking, and number 11 by QS Rankings. While Brown is ranked the 65th best by the Shanghai Ranking and 42nd best by QS Rankings. She says that she prefers Brown because they don't have any required courses, so she basically doesn't have to take English, which is normally required. Another interesting fact about Brown is that it is, "bashed by Conservatives as a hotbed of political correctness," (Fiske Guide to Colleges, 78). Have fun in liberal-land, Shayla! So that is today's edition of "Another Day, Another Mind-blowing Mistake". I'm just kidding, Brown is by no means bad, and she'd probably fit in there, I just personally don't believe it is the best, academically speaking, that she could get in to. Shayla says that after college, she would hope to stay in New England if she were there for college considering 2/4 of colleges she plans on applying to are in New England, and if she doesn't get into Brown, she probably won't get into Duke, but will get into Tufts, which is in New England. She says it depends on the job, and she is open to move back south when she gets older. When asked about how many kids she wanted she said, "no idea dude". It’s good to see her thinking about college rather than the familial future. Maybe she will take a look at my advice. Just kidding, I don't want to be that involved, I just hope she makes a good choice and is happy and successful down the line. She says that she can't pinpoint one thing as a best life experience, citing that high school was a great life experience, but there were others and she can't select just one. She says she hasn't thought about a role model. Her goal is to "Get into brown, go to a good grad school, end up with the right person whether I have already met them yet or not, be successful (be nice for money not to be an issue) eventually have a family and such. But right now my focus is GET ACCEPTED TO BROWN hopefully,". Again, its all good but personally I'm not such a fan of Brown, and I'm not being biased because my biases would lie with Princeton and I said Columbia, and the reason I said this was based upon research and statistics, with aid from the Fiske Guide to Colleges which I got a copy of free from my school library. That was the end of Shayla's Interview and my tirade on Columbia vs Brown, next up is Josh.

Meirra: (Ben)

As you know, Meirra is at her first year of college, a double major in Global Studies and Anthropology with a minor in Statistics, at University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. This college is one of the top colleges in the world, especially for the humanities. Meirra's favorite class is Spanish 260, a class which she is auditing, or taking, but not receiving credit for. She says this is her favorite class because it’s in-depth and analytical. Also that she enjoys learning for the love of learning and not for a grade. Lucky for her because my Spanish class is all about Peru, and quite honestly, I am not very interested in it. Meirra is doing some sort of competitive Indian dance (Dhandyia Raas), Ball Room dancing, MMA, Cross Fit, S4Si (Students for Students International) and more interestingly, Rifle Club. I would love a good rifle club! For when you need to blow off some steam on a Saturday, ‘n go to the 'ol shooting range, shoot some stuff. Think about shooting a tin can. Drink some Dr. Pepper. Shoot the tin can. Fun stuff I tell you, and I'm sure Meirra would agree. Meirra wants to travel the world when she grows up, and be an anthropologist. She says that as part of her travels she wants to do field research. Now lets talk about anthropology because I'm sure that all of you are afraid that Meirra will be broke when she grows up. Now according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Field Anthropologists make on average $57,230, which although it isn't a lot, is still livable. However, Meirra plans on getting a Ph.D, which if she wanted to could lead her to be a Professor of Anthropology who gets to do research. The average for professor varies with the type, and a tenured professor at a private institution can make well over $100,000 a year. Don't worry about Meirra financially, all you have to worry about is that she works hard and stays on top of her studies. Of course you won't have to worry about that either, because Meirra says her greatest gift is dedication, which will certainly get her through college and beyond. When she is grown up, Meirra wants to live in many places like New York City, and Brasil. Meirra doesn't know how many children she wants to have, but she says she will definitely want to adopt a child. Her greatest life experience is obviously her trip to Paraguay. In fact, when I interviewed her, I guessed it, and then we didn't discuss it that much, but she learned a lot, she made a lot of friends, and it was a life changing experience for her. Her role model is Nalin Patel, her grandfather because he has taught her how to be a hard worker. Meirra says that Mr. Patel is calm and patient. Traits that Meirra sometimes displays, however fighting with her sister is a cause that patience just does not fit in, does it Birath Sisters? This year, Meirra wants to "find communities within the UNC community that she can contribute to and become a part of,". She also wants to "wants to leave behind her mark through some sort of sustainable organization in a community that would help to better the community/world.". All good stuff, and I hope she can accomplish all this. While she does this, I'll be sitting at home tampering with a mechanical toy, hooray! Her other comments are that anthropology is a real occupation and she won't be a broke girl living in a trailer park. She just won't own 5 houses like Shayla might. My statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics supports this. I will not continue to comment in fear that I will spark sibling war part three thousand. Next, our last and final interview, Mr. Josh Porterfield.

Josh: (Ben)

Josh is the Political Science Major who was an Electrical and Computer Engineer, and who is now thinking about becoming an Air Traffic Controller. Well, obviously there will be interesting decisions to be made, but lets see what Josh's answers to these questions are. Josh says that his favorite class is a class about the US Congress in which the class is having a simulation of congress so that they can further understand it. Extracurricular activities that Josh is involved in include the Sailing Team. When Josh grows up, he either wants to do Political Science, but if his classes don't go well he says that he will go to ATC, Air Traffic Control. He says there is about a 60% chance that he stays with Political Science. There will be a survey at the end of this post that lets you vote on what you think the outcome of key situations, such as this one, will be—be sure to cast your vote and bet if you wish, our honorary bookie will be Max. Josh says that for graduate school he is looking at Princeton and secondarily Harvard; Princeton has the prestigious Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs—fun fact, I know the lady who runs it, her son is not a very smart young man. It's interesting how in Princeton there are smart parents with not so smart children. Josh's gifts are his love and knowledge of aviation, and his ability to theoretically fly with flight simulators. He also says that a gift is sailing, a thing that he says he isn't the best at, but he is above average at it and he enjoys it. Anybody who has seen him sail already knows this. After college, he wants to live somewhere on the west coast probably, but if his job is with the federal government it will most likely be somewhere on the east coast. He does say that if he receives a job, he'd move to the east coast. Hopefully he enjoys where he lives, and doesn't have that much trouble with it. Josh says he'd have at most two children. Josh's favorite life event has been the recurring beach vacation. He says that every year is equal, no year stands out, they are all equally great. He also says that the motel was good as well, and he sometimes feels nostalgic around Christmas without it. He says that he has multiple role models, all of which are successful businessmen. An example he cites is Warren Buffet, selecting him because he has a lot of money and he isn't necessarily snobby about it. As for Warren Buffet's liberal side, Josh says it has no effect on his choice of a role model. Josh's major goal for the year is to not screw up in school like he did last year, slipping in his Engineering classes, causing him to switch majors. He plans on working harder this year in order to get into a good graduate school such as Princeton. Josh wants to have a wonderful family when he grows up, and a good job. He says that he'd like to be rich, but he doesn't need that. Josh wants everybody to know that he thinks that Obama has done an awful job as president, and that he hasn't helped the economy the slightest bit. He believes that the views that got us into this mess can get us out of it. "Romney/Ryan 2012," he says. Now I know that many of you disagree with me, and feel free, but Josh's message to the family is that he is a conservative and he is voting for Romney whether he is being closed minded or not. Hooray for putting it upon the rich to let their small business hire more people rather than have the CEO keep the money and buy a second house. The question voters have to answer this November is which pass will small businessman take, unnecessary employees, or second house on the beach? Thus ends the interview of Josh.

And thus concludes this month’s post. Once again please cast your vote in the survey questions. Click here to take survey and cast your vote! They will be changed monthly and they are all VERY important! We will report on them on the next post. Thank you for reading, see you all next month!