Growing up and living in Georgia, you see many families attend the typical Sunday and Wednesday services offered by local Christian churches, especially in my area, and the parking lots would be filled to the brim like a pitcher of sweet tea. As for my family, we did not grow up in the church. In this case we were outsiders, and I felt that way about my religious background growing up. My parents did not fail in providing me any spiritual feeling as I was taught to treat others equally, to not discriminate, and to “love thy neighbor as yourself.” 

I would attend church via friends as I grew. My childhood friend from elementary school introduced me to the church; where we would be taught the basics of Christianity in small groups. The basics were the essentials, and not much more was needed, in my opinion, to follow religion. 

Continue reading Get Back to the Basics- by Jacob Robinson →

Teenage smoking has been a problem for over a century. Smoking itself has existed for thousands of years, but it really took off when cigarettes were invented in the 1840’s. For a long time, smoking was the norm – everybody did it. In fact, in the early 20^th century, doctors even encouraged it. Because of this, teen smoking was a major problem for a long time. However, although it was encouraged in the first half of the 20^th century, people woke up in the latter half. They realized that smoking caused lung cancer, and from the 1960’s through the 1980’s, smoking became much less popular. In fact, a report published by the CDC in 1992 said that half of smokers quit in that timeframe.

Continue reading Ending Teenage Smoking – by Matthew Cook →