IMC Hawks Blog

Category: valentine’s day

  • What if they kill me and take my organs?

    Aside from February 14th being the cliché day for lovers and lovers of chocolate, it is also National Organ Donor Day. I wanted to write a blog of some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to registering as an organ donor.

    There are several explanations as to why some people are against being organ donors, including lack of knowledge, fear, or simply it just never crosses their mind. But if someone approaches you to ask you if you were willing to save someone’s life and leave a lasting legacy of yourself, would you feel differently about donating?

    By choosing organ donation you have the chance of saving eight lives and also having an effect on several others included their families. If you chose, you can donate your lungs, liver, pancreas, heart, intestines or kidneys; along with tissues such as your corneas, ligaments, veins, heart valves, bones and plenty more. It is also a possibility for a living donation and donates a kidney, part of a lung, pancreas, liver or intestine.

    As mentioned in the beginning, the first most common fear or myth associated with donating is that not all effort will be made to save your life if you’re a registered donor. I cannot emphasize this enough, this is not true. Organ donation cannot be considered until you’re pronounced dead. Extensive testing can determine brain death, which is made by a physician who’s not affiliated with donations. Secondly, some feel you cannot have an open casket funeral, which is also not true. There are absolutely no indications showing organ or tissue donation when one’s prepped for burial. An open casket, cremation, and burial are all still possible. Lastly, some worry they do not qualify because of health reasons, age, or even race. However, there is no medical, age, or race restrictions associated with organ donation.

    After reading my blog, I hope I have at least put a thought in your mind about possibly considering organ donation if you are not already. So how do you become an organ donor? Anyone is suitable to join the registry, despite any health habits or medical history. If you want to register there are two ways, at your local NC DMV, or online with Donate Life NC. Once registered, you will receive a red heart on your license. This is legally binding consent saying you are an organ and eye donor, and all your organs are available for transplant at your time of death. However, if at any point after this you change your mind, you can go to your Donor Profile page you can remove yourself from the donor registry and this, in fact, surpasses your DMV donor record removing you from the registry for organ donation.

    Give your heart in more than one way.

    Screen Shot 2019-02-13 at 2.56.38 PM

    Reference:

    https://bit.ly/2UNTVHP

    -Ashley Sinclair

  • Valentine’s Day Candy Sales

    Image result for valentine's day candyLet’s take a look at what made Valentine’s Day great in the world of sales. We know from the previous blog post that there are a variety of things that people bought for their loved ones on Valentine’s Day this year, but let’s take a look at the classic: candy!Image result for valentine's day candy sales statistics

    Candy is the most commonly purchased gift every year on Valentine’s Day, just barely beating out greeting cards this past year. It is estimated that in 2015, $1.7 billion was spent on candy and that number just keeps increasing each year. About 36 million worth of heart shaped chocolate boxes were purchased within that amount. In the same article, it also estimates that the amount of chocolate that the amount of spending equates to is about 58 million pounds! In 2015 as well the total amount to be spent on Valentine’s Day was $18.9 billion dollars, but that’s because of other big spenders like nice jewelry or expensive flowers.

    While were here, we might as well talk about the other type of sales. Candy sales! All across department stores and discount stores you can start finding candy already up to 50 or 70 percent off. Go out there and get yourself some candy!

    Image result for valentine's day candy sales memeImage result for valentine's day candy sale

    –Andrew Moody ’17

  • Valentine’s Day, Come and Gone

    When I think of Valentine’s Day, the first things that immediately come to mind are candy, flowers, and stuffed animals, but people get much more creative with their gifts on this special holiday, especially now in 2017.

    According to Readers Digest, these are some of the best gifts to buy your special someone on Valentine’s Day:

    1. Candles
    2. Puzzles
    3. Earrings
    4. Mittens or Gloves
    5. Bamboo hearts
    6. Couple’s Pillows
    7. Desserts
    8. Personalized Wallet Inserts
    9. Phone Cases
    10. Personalized Notes

    vday

    Even though these may be among some of the more creative gifts, heart-shaped candies and chocolates still saturate my hungry mind when I think of Valentine’s Day. Since Valentine’s Day disappears as quickly as it comes, the candy stores slash their prices overnight, and with Easter right around the corner, stores are eager to clear their shelves of Valentine’s candy and restock with Easter goodies.

    Not only can you get great deals on the Valentine’s Day candy, but you can also stock up and use your leftover candy for Easter and other holidays. Personally, the candy is the best part of any holiday, so I always take advantage of the sales.

    vday2vday3

    -Jennifer Howard

     

  • It’s a SAD Day

     

    blog1 Now that Valentine’s Day is over, we can get down to the real celebration of the season: Single Awareness Day, or SAD. A dedication to all the single people out there, sick of the holidays and searching for a break from the commercialism that is Valentine’s Day.

    With no evident background explaining why Valentine’s Day is the cheesy, romantic holiday we all know and endure, the media has flourished coming up with its own meaning and traditions. The day itself cannot be pinned down to a single event, all we know for sure is that it is a mix of Roman and Christian traditions. The Catholic Church recognizes three different St. Valentines, each carrying their own legend. It is a holiday with a mysterious history, yet it is deemed the day of love.

    Single Awareness Day has its own history, believed to be started by a college student at Mississippi State University. It became prominent on social media year after year on Valentine’s Day, but was recently changed to February 15th in order to give it its own celebration. Single Awareness Day is now officially a national holiday!blog2

    According to the website, singleawareness.com, suggested activities for this celebratory day include sending yourself flowers, partying with other singles, and exchanging gifts with single friends. And don’t forget to wear green, the complementary opposite of red, or black if you want to symbolize your absence of celebration.

     

    For all the single people out there, you made it through another over-sentimental Valentine’s Day. Now is the time to assemble with your single friends, and buy the discounted chocolate. Being single is not a curse, but a celebration of independence and empowerment. That is what Single Awareness Day represents.

    blog3

    -Eva Mewborn

  • “He got me yellow roses…?”

    Today is the one day of the year where LOVE IS IN THE AIR, and it’s totally socially acceptable:

    yvngswag love heart valentine valentines day

    love disney heart flowers valentine

    But before half of you start thinking already, “it’s just a Tuesday, the institution is a sham, love is dumb, I don’t care about Valentine’s Day”, this isn’t about the history of Valentine’s Day.

    It isn’t about what you should get your significant other,

    and it isn’t bashing the holiday either…

    It’s honestly about flowers.

    According to CNN, it is estimated that on Valentine’s Day, nearly 224 million roses are grown for the sole purpose of being cut into long stem bouquets for your honey-bunny. That’s not even including other popular Valentine’s Day gifting flowers like carnations, lilies, and tulips. Those poor angiosperms.

    flower

    But back to the roses, the cliché of them all.

    Our culture deems roses as the unofficial-official flower of February 14th. If any of you have talked to a florist or self-proclaimed flower expert, you know that there appears to be a cultural agreement that a color code system exists for what kind of roses you should get depending on the person or purpose they are for. I have put in some research, and this is the general internet consensus for which color roses mean what:

    Red roses: Love and romance, the perfect way to say “I love you” 

    White roses: New beginnings or purity

    Yellow roses: Friendship

    Pink roses: Admiration and appreciation, the red roses distant cousin

    Orange roses: Enthusiasm and passion

    If you’re reading this hoping to figure out what rose you should give your significant other because you waited until last minute, congratulations, I just did half the work for you. If you’re like me however, and wonder why flowers have meanings to begin with, keep reading.

    Flowers have been used to communicate human emotion and meaning for ages. There are stories dating back to ancient China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome that show flowers to be an integral part of social culture, such as gifting. Our society today identifies gift giving as a way to communicate and express something from gift giver to receiver. Even at less festive occasions like funerals, flowers are given as a way to communicate to the grieving family that you are sorry for their loss.

    Hate it or love it, but I personally think that the fact that we as a culture communicate with each other through flowers, like colored roses, is fascinating. Sure it might all be a sham, it might just be a way to boost rose sales.. but it is also important to think about the implications rose giving says about our culture. We communicate in more ways than verbally speaking, even if it is just giving a flower.

    Caro Martini halloween pink creepy flowers

    love girl kiss amor i love you

     

    So here is a toast to all of you, may the loves of your life get you red roses as an expression of their eternal love for you, and not yellow as a way to say “we need to be just friends”.

    crying emotional break up breaking up ugly crying

    –Kayla Millie

  • Deadpool, a Perfect Valentine’s Day Treat

    Deadpool romantic comedy

    Coming to theaters this Valentine’s Day, a former special forces operative, Wade Wilson, is faced with a new kind of battle when he is diagnosed with cancer. He and his heartbroken girlfriend, Vanessa, grapple with what could be his last few months on this world. In desperation, he finds a brief glimpse of shimmering hope in a dangerous experimental cure. With this new found chance to reclaim his future with Vanessa, the brave young fighter goes forth into the fight of his life. This all sounds like a nice heartwarming romantic movie for a Valentine’s Day date, right? Well, it may very well be a great date idea, however, this summary describes the beginning to the movie DeadPool, a movie that can’t be much further from a stereotypical Valentine’s Day movie.

    Featuring none other than Marvel’s now iconic “merc with a mouth”, Ryan Reynolds will star as Deadpool in his very own R rated antihero adventure full of ultra-violence, crude humor, course language, and saucy remarks. While some recent advertisements might suggest differently, by simply viewing the Deadpool trailer in the link above, any potential moviegoer would pick up on the offbeat sarcastic tone of the film. Deadpool is a character loved by fans for his ability to break the fourth wall and to satire the more stereotypical super hero movies.

    It is only fitting, therefor, that the movie’s advertisements are equally self aware. By jokingly advertising itself as a romance and by opening on Valentine’s Day, Deadpool is humorously showing the audience the style of comedy they are in for. The character, Deadpool, is notorious for breaking the fourth wall, thus he can directly address the movie going audience in his trailers, allowing for such commercials as this. Aired during The Bachelor, Deadpool appears holding a rose while talking seductively to the audience about how his story was actually, “a love story”. This satiric take on The Bachelor’s iconic rose is contrasted by the action scenes and comedic remarks that immediately follow, showing that while, yes, romance does play its role in the movie, romance definitely does not define the movie’s genre.

    deadpool bachelor     While it is certainly not a typical Valentine’s Day romance, but instead an action packed comedy of sorts, many couples will likely be including this interesting piece of cinema into their Valentine’s Day schedule. These ironic advertisements seem to be hitting their mark as Deadpool’s interesting “charm” appears to be making quite the impression.

    -Lane, Austin, and Allen