#ThanksMichelleObama

Hey, a blog that isn't me bitching about my day. Neat.

So I just came across this article that details how teens all across the country are taking to Twitter with the hashtag "#ThanksMichelleObama" to voice their displeasure over the USDA's new guidelines for school lunches. Normally, I skip right over these things, but multiple college classes require me to keep up-to-date on the news, so here I am.

I came into this article on the side of the teens: in the end, we decide what we put into our bodies. Requirements aren't gonna do jack because, frankly, I'm going to eat what I want to eat and this stuff looks absolutely disgusting. Check out this tweet by student Hunter Whitney if you need proof.

Look, I'm all for promoting healthy eating. I think that everyone should have access to both healthy, filling meals and knowledge about what they are eating and how it will affect their bodies. Unfortunately, many Americans are lacking in one or another of those areas--especially the education part. But that isn't my fault, so...yeah.

Forcing people to eat what, to me, looks like something left in a toilet bowl, is ridiculous. I know that there are plenty of delicious healthy dishes, but those aren't always cheap or easy to make.

You know what is cheap and easy? Going outside and doing stuff.

This article reminded me of growing up with my sister. Our dad would often take us out to his friend's farm which doubled as a small junkyard. It wasn't the place that I would particularly enjoy living, but for visits it was a great thing. They had this awesome half-overgrown jungle gym (actually a set of fuel tanks), a shady where we battled vicious animals (actually one large tree with a tire swing and a bunch of hornets), a maze of metal (actually...yeah, a maze of piles of metal), and, if you went waaay far behind their property (half a mile), a secret forest with a nice clearing and a small creek with all manners of aquatic creatures to be caught and inspected.

I have many memories of this place. I remember finding an old baseball in the metal maze and imaging myself as the newest incarnation of Indiana Jones. I remember chasing water striders for hours in the creek and marveling at the nature around me. I remember my dad's longtime friend being cremated on the edge of the property. As I wrote this I remembered climbing on stacks of hay bales two and three stories tall with kids whose names and faces I couldn't begin to recall.

I have so many memories of that place. I have very few memories of sitting inside as a child, playing video games and watching television. And, if I were asked to give me top five memories, I can guarantee that none of them will involve me sitting on the couch with a bag of chips staring mindlessly at a television screen.

That is what I think is wrong with youth today, more so than an unhealthy diet: an unhealthy lifestyle. Between going and cutting their hands on rocks while climbing or staying inside with the new Call of Duty, I'm afraid to postulate that a majority of young people will choose the latter.

About two weeks ago, some of my roommates and I decided to go on a picnic to the Granite Dells across the street from our campus. The Dells normally aren't my cup of tea: there are big rocks and more rocks and some bushes and rocks and that's about it. Me? I'm used to trees many times taller than a person and bushes so thick you can't hope to see anything hiding in them. But I digress.

I decided to break off from the group (who was eating lunch on a flat bit of rock on the lakeside) to explore a bit. So I went up and down and up and down and skirted around some ledges and almost fell backwards off a small cliff and grabbed some sharp objects accidentally and got myself stuck a few times and it was awesome. I came back to the group sweaty, tired, sore, and in a few spots, bleeding.

And I felt fantastic.

Getting outside is the hard part. Once you're there, it is easy to feel far more alive than any game or movie can hope to do. Let the politicians like Michelle Obama worry themselves on making kids eat mush. Me? I'm gonna go cut my hands.

-Garrett