Daily Archives: April 12, 2023

Advice/How To

How dogs improve a person’s mental health

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By: Calla Fragassi

Being a pet owner comes with many benefits, including the fact that they can give their owners better mental and physical health. According to an article from AHA (American Heart Association), dogs can help improve someone’s mental and physical well-being. Dogs have been proven to help lower symptoms of anxiety, increase physical activity, and help with creating structures and routines in a person’s life.

Anxiety Decreases

In times of high stress, like the COVID-19 pandemic, people tend to get bad anxiety. The whole world was shut down, not knowing what was happening next. Millions of people were stuck in their homes for weeks at a time, with no one to go through it with. Many people adopted dogs or other pets during this time to try and get through the rough patches more easily.

“More than 23 million American households — nearly 1 in 5 nationwide — adopted a pet during the pandemic, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).”

Washington Post, January 7, 2022

Having a dog provided companionship for millions of people, which is just what was needed in times of uncertainty. Having someone/ something to ease anxiety is also beneficial for your heart. Having high stress and anxiety levels has been proven to increase risks of heart disease like high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Staying Active

Another way dogs are beneficial to a person’s well-being is by keeping them active. For a dog to live a long, healthy life, they need to get regular physical activity. This will help increase their owner to become more active by going on daily walks, or just walking around a dog park.

Staying active is also proven to help decrease symptoms of depression. Being able to go outside and get fresh air can lower levels of anxiety and improve the amount of sleep you get. Walking your dog outside also makes it more likely that you would interact with others in your community. This will also help with social anxiety or symptoms of depression.

Structure and Routine

More than any other pet, dogs need a routine to thrive. This includes getting up around the same time every day, walks every day, food, medication, and anything else that suits your dog’s needs. Following a certain routine every day with your dog will make it easier for you to create a routine of your own. As they do with dogs, people thrive when they have a structure in their lives or a daily routine. Having a routine can help lower stress and anxiety levels by being organized, and not disordered.

Dogs are more than just cute pets for many people; they are caring animals that can improve a person’s life. This is also why you see service dogs because they can help their owner when they can’t help themselves. Dogs help improve a person’s mental and physical well-being by being good companions.

Editorials/Student Voice, National

Tennessee passes bill that limits marriage equality

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B:y Mya Olson – Williams

In early March, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a new bill that allows a person to refuse to conduct a marriage based on their religious and personal beliefs. This bill was presented by Representative Monty Fritts (R – Kingston).

Many believe that this law will make things easier for officiants to discriminate against same-sex, interracial, LGBTQ+, and interfaith (people of different religions) couples.

According to theamm.org, these are the exact words written in House Bill 878:

“(m) A person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.”

There was already a law in place seeming pretty similar, but this one lets people refuse on any grounds.

Tennessee is not stopping here. They are moving to block online ordained ministers from conducting weddings. If that becomes the case, it would make it almost impossible for any interracial, same-sex, LGBTQ+, or interfaith couples to get married in the state of Tennessee.

Monty Fritts denied the fact that this bill would only allow refusal of solemnizing same-sex marriages. He believes that there’s a drive to attack “civil liberties and rights”.

There are other states going through very similar things as well. Currently there are laws in place in the states of Kansas, North Carolina, Mississippi, and there could be more coming in the near future.

Unfortunately, the Respect for Marriage Act, put in place in December of 2022, does not protect anyone in those few states. Same-sex couples (married or not) can still live in these places, but they can no longer get married there.

It’s commonly said that we are going backwards in time. There’s so much wrong with these laws, and many are convinced that this inequality will not stop here, but only get worse.

Travel/Food

The best chocolate chip cookie recipe

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By: Makenzie Malek

Chocolate chip cookies, my favorite, and it comes to no surprise that according to CBS news, it’s technically the U.S’s favorite cookie too.

There have become many variations of this one particular cookie, such as: adding oats and dried fruits, or filling the middle with brownie, and even adding fun candies like m&ms to the dough. Although those are fun and something different, today I’m going to share with you the best classic chocolate chip cookie recipe.

This recipe comes from: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/10813/best-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Total time: 30 mins

Servings: 48

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons hot water
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3-cups all purpose flour
  • 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Step 1: preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Step 2: beat softened butter, white sugar and brown sugar in an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth.

Step 3: beat in eggs one at a time, then add vanilla and beat until combined.

Step 4: dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt.

Step 5: stir in flour and chocolate chips.

Step 6: drop spoonfuls of dough on ungreased baking sheets.

Step 7: bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the edges are nicely browned.

Step 8: cool for at least 2 mins and enjoy!

These are great to share with friends and family, and you can freeze the dough and the baked cookies for up to two months.

Like I said earlier, people often add different ingredients to the cookie, feel free to add a twist to this classic recipe to make it your own. Some mix-ins that I have added in my cookies that I recommend are m&m’s, white chocolate chips, and if you like your cookies more sweet, add dried cranberries. Some I haven’t tried but I have seen are things like mini marshmallows, and more uniquely, people have added bacon or crushed up potato chips.

This simple yet delicious recipe will have you wishing you made more than the serving size, and I hope you decide to try this if you haven’t already.