The "Final" Post: A Blog Reflection

Photo

                The blog project, I didn’t get this one at all in the beginning. It was weird, and it was the most unorthodox project that I have been given so far! But, once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. It was like creating my own mini website and customizing it so that it fits how I want it to look like. After playing around with it for a while, I learned about all the customizations that the website provides for you, and there’s even an area in which, if you know how to code, you can add your own code to it and modify the code of your blog as well. The blog also allows you to add pictures to your post, which brakes the whole norm on writing papers since you can add multiple pictures related to the worded document, adding a sort of immersion or helping your reader get an idea on what the essay might be about.

            I found the blog to be a very helpful platform to express your righting. It gives you a certain creative liberty on how you write things and how you post them which is good. I found myself intrigued and a bit freighted that I will be posting my works online. Because it’s one thing posting your writings in a website where you need a password given by the teacher to access it than putting all those writing on a website where basically anyone can have access to.

            Overall, though I had a bit of a rough start, I ended up enjoying this project very much. I loved customizing my blog and adding the pictures to it as well. This project even inspired me to continue my writing and possibly even create my own personal blog where I can upload my own stuff.

Reflecting As A Whole: A Group Project Reflection

Photo

Group projects can sometimes be a hassle, especially if they’re chosen by a teacher, in this case, a professor. My experience with group projects in the past have been appalling, some members barely do their work or no work at all, some members would distract others and slow down the progress, it was usually up to me and a person who already did their work to pick up the scraps. When the day to submitting the project got near and everybody started to freak out, the other classmate and I would already have their part done and ready. Gladly, this didn’t happen in my group, everyone did their own part, they carried their own weight, and if they needed help we would help each other out since that would be detrimental to both the group grade as well as their individual grade. But besides work, it was nice to talk to my group members and hear their ideas and points on an essay or a topic in which we were debating.

During the project, I was tasked with being an administrator as well as the notetaker. Being an administrator was easy. All I had to do was collect the work from my classmates, organize the work, and then put it in order. Plus, I also had a classmate who shared the same responsibility as I did. Thus, if I didn’t pick up the work or I put it in the wrong order, he would notify me to fix it or even doing it himself. Now doing the part notetaker was a bit harder. First, the position fell on my hands, second, I didn’t know what to do and at first, it was sort of a hassle, especially when it came down to taking attendance and following the MLA format, so many trees died in vain. But nonetheless, I learned to do it properly and it just became a normal part of my routine. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with the group and I wouldn’t mind repeating the experience with them. 

An Educational Interview: Featuring Grandma

Photo

Interviewer: Jan C. Navarro (Grandson)

Interviewee: Bruni Borges (Grandmother)

Questions and Answer:

J: Were you required to go and study?

B: “If you didn’t want you didn’t have to. Some stayed back to find jobs and start families while others went to college and study. My parents did want me to go and study, and I did go to college, but I never finished.”

J: Did you enjoy studying at a young age?

B: “Yes I did. I had good grades throughout school. I just made stupid mistakes, like leaving college and getting married.”

J: You went to college but dropped out of college, did anyone else from your family go to college to get a higher education?

B: “My sister went to college and finished her bachelor. My brother, on the other hand, went to a technical college but dropped out.”

J: Was there access to a higher education back then?

B: “Yes there was. But it wasn’t needed as much as you need one today since there was a lot of blue collar work back then.”

J: If you would have stayed and finished your degree, what would your class have been?

B: “If I would have stayed in college and finish my degree, I would have studied law afterward.”

            I believe that one of the main differences between my elder’s education and my current education is that for most of them, education was optional. Since if their father had a small shop or a business the son would be taught from a young age to manage the business and once he reaches a certain age then he’ll inherit the shop. Now, in the present, even if the family owns a business or a shop, the parents will tell their children that they will need to go and study and once they’re done then, they can own the shop. Another key factor is that nowadays the more education you have, the more value you have as an individual. That’s why getting a bachelors doesn't cut it anymore and more people must strive to get a higher to secure a comfortable job in a field of their choice. 

A Compass of Emotions: A Life Compass Reflection

A Compass of Emotions: A Life Compass Reflection

Photo

During the time that we did this activity, I always wondered what its purpose really was. Well after doing twenty-four of those and then reading over them again, I can say that I’ve figured out the purpose of this activity. Obviously, it’s to know how you’re feeling at the day you do the compass. However, this exercise helps you be more connected with your emotions since you’re doing self-meditation analyzing how your day go, to help you fill out the compass. It also helps you understand the emotions you are feeling for the future purpose of asking yourself, “Oh, why am I feeling like this?” You’ll be able to tell yourself, “I’ve felt this way before and this is how I cope with it.” Even if I didn’t understand the purpose of this assignment I think I do now, it helped me understand more what I was feeling and coming to terms with it, something that’s easier said than done.

            A pattern I saw in these compasses is how close my overall score per area was from each other. A little bit odd if I might say so myself, regardless a bit happy since I am neither super low or super high any of the areas. I’m right there in the middle. Except in the Awareness, I guess I’m not as aware as I thought I was, or maybe I wasn’t as aware as I usually am since I this is my last class. Another interesting aspect that I saw was the connections between all the areas of the compass. Sometimes when my mental score was low my awareness or physical score was low as well. It was an experiment that a thoroughly learned from and will use in the future.  

Total Compasses: 24

Total Points: 202

Overall Score Per Area and Average Score Per Area:

Work Cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. “Compass Reflection Essay"

The Greatest Disaster In Puerto Rico: A Reflection On Maria

Reflection on Maria

Photo

It all happened with a bang. The power of my house went out, the windows began to shake, and the sound of the booming thunder and roaring winds filled every room of my apartment. From the rushing winds to the down pouring rain, all these beautiful and powerful sounds of nature, all of that coming to a rough stop as soon as it started.

Once the storm passed, it left behind a new and different Puerto Rico in its wake. But this new Puerto Rico wasn’t good, it wasn’t the beautiful island it once was, this new island was something perverse. Everything that the storm touched was destroyed leaving debris in its trails. I saw people doing lines for places with food, water, and ice that stretched for miles and lasted hours upon hours for them to not receive anything since they either closed shop or they ran out of stock. You could also see many others doing the same lines but this time for gasoline, or as I liked to call it, liquid gold, as the value of a gallon of gasoline could sometimes be compared to that of a bottled water in the hottest of days. I knew that this storm was going to test my will as well as my strength as a person, a son, a grandson, and as an individual.

With the passing of the storm many new problems aroused from it. One of them happened to me after the passing of the hurricane, one of the drain pipes that helps the water flow from the roof of the apartment to the ground got clogged and instead of the water flowing down the pipe it began to flow into our floor. For the next four hours my father and I had to grab mops and towels to try and control the overflow of water that was caused by both the damaged drain pipe and the downpour of water caused by the hurricane.

Photo

An important aspect that I learned about myself is that I am quite a capable caregiver. My grandmother has Alzheimer’s and she’s also bedridden. Since there was no electricity on the island her nursing home had to temporarily close. We had to take her in and take care of her since she’s bed ridden and all. So basically, until her nursing home gets power again, I’ll be a college student as well as a nurse. Working with a handicapped person is challenge, especially one who’s bedridden. They have to be fed, cleaned, and taken care of in every single way. That has been one of the hardest things that I’ve had to do. When I first started taking care of her I was surprised on how easy the nurses made it look. For instance, moving her from a bed to a chair was a two-person job. She would stiffen her body which made her weight of 80 pounds multiply by two.

During the storm one of my main concerns was the safety of my friends. I didn’t have any sort of communication with them. My mind would always wonder to the worst outcome possible, even though I know deep down that they are fine but still those always lingers in my mind. My best friend, who has a generator, main concern was getting gas, since he was part of those that had to do an hour-long line to get some gas, just to have a little a bit of power and normality again in his house. He was such a good friend that he let me charge my electronics in his house as well as giving me cold water. Even now that I have yet to get electricity in my house he offers me his house to sleep with air conditioner.

Works Cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Narrative essay on Hurricane Maria. Class assignment UPRRP. 28 Nov. 2017.

Looking Through My Notes: A Journal Reflection.

Looking Through My Notes: A Journal Reflection.

Photo

            When I first heard that I had to do a journal for English, I was surprised. I have never done a journal, not because I didn’t want to but because I usually forgot to do record an entry, I could also be considered a bit inarticulate at times, but now that we were going to start writing on a journal and I couldn’t wait to have the experience of writing and maintaining one.

Albeit as we were getting ready to begin writing our journals, the professor began to give some rules that we had to follow. Some were basic, such as using an ink pen for all entries, don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar, and keeping your hand moving. Those rules were easy to understand. Then there were some rules that I didn’t understand at the moment such as lose control, don't think, don't get logical, go for the jugular, and write your first thoughts, out of these the ones that I had a hard time following were the ones of not thinking, not being logical and, the one of writing your first thoughts like, how were we supposed to write a journal entry without thinking what to write about or the ideas that you write about in that paper not being coherent with each other. Yet, as the teacher explained it more it made more sense. This wasn’t going to be your typical journal where you start with “Dear journal…” or “Dear diary…” The purpose of this school journal, unlike a regular journal, was to do a sort of psychoanalysis on ourselves with the thoughts and ideas that you’ve had during the day. This is better shown when we begin to do the daily compass, as its purpose is for us to analyze how we’ve been feeling during the day. 

Before we started doing this project I would take my time writing and thinking of the correct way to put my ideas together, dropping the pen and thinking. But now that we were in a time limit, and we also had a rule to not stop moving your hands for the time limit helped me to think of words quicker and to memorize them. This also helped my grammar since if I would forget how to write specifics words I replaced it with a synonym.

Ever since starting this project, I believe that I have been writing more about how I’m feeling as well as the thoughts and ideas that I have during the day, something which I didn’t do much or at all. It’s something beautiful and yet so fragile seeing these entries filled with those raw emotions that someone can have and yet it kind of makes a person vulnerable, after all its all your emotions and thoughts that are trapped in that in that thin white paper, marked with the ink of a pen that helps you express what you’re feeling on that day. For me, just the thought of someone reading the notebook terrifies me, the fact that they can know who I am, the real me, what I feel and what I think makes me feel so vulnerable, I guess that’s why many people don’t write in journals and if they do they hide it, since they’re afraid to be known to the world but yet it’s nice to see who you are and all the stuff that you thought and you did when you look back and read through it.

Works Cited

Goldberg, Natalie. Writing down the bones. Shambhala, 2010.

Pittmann, Cynthia. Journal Reflection work. 2018.

Black Men and Public Space: An Essay Analyzing on How Actions Can Mold a Whole Race

Black Men and Public Space: An Essay Analyzing on How Actions Can Mold a Whole Race

Photo

            In the essay, Black Men and Public Space, by Brent Staples, he expresses his struggles of being a black man in a world where there’s a certain reputation that follows African Americans around. These struggles that he is self-aware of can be seen at the beginning of the essay with the following paragraph:

My first victim was a woman-white, well dressed, probably in her early twenties. I came upon her late one evening on a deserted street in Hyde Park, a relatively affluent neighborhood in an otherwise mean, impoverished section of Chicago. As I swung onto the avenue behind her, there seemed to be a discreet, inflammatory distance between us. Not so. She cast back a worried glance. To her, the youngish black man-a broad six feet two inches with a beard and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket-seemed menacingly close. After a few more quick glimpses, she picked up her pace and was soon running in earnest. Within seconds she disappeared into a cross street. (Pg. 419)

In the beginning sentence of his essay, you can see that there’s an ironic twist to it since the way he words it’s like he’s done some sort of crime, specifically a murder. But really, his “victim” was just someone that due to the place that she was and the time that it was, took the decision of running away from Mr. Staples, even if he didn’t pose an immediate threat, but because he looked like he could, after all, he was bigger than her, both in height and width and possibly stronger than her. But besides his size and his build, a factor that determined her to take that decision was because he was black. 

Photo

Yes, the action that the woman takes does injure Mr. Staples, as he posed no threat to the woman but because he was black and his physical characteristics of a mountain she mistook him for a mugger, rapist, or even a murderer, when he was just walking to try and kill his insomnia, this event is the first of many that makes Mr. Staples realize that he has an ability, like he says, “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways.” But this cursed ability that he has wasn’t because he wanted to have it, it’s actually because of the actions that other black people have taken that affect this view of themselves. According to US Census Bureau, “13.3 percent of Americans are Black or African American and 76.9 percent of Americans are White (this percent includes Hispanic and Latinos)” (Bureau) and according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “Black offenders committed 52 percent of homicides recorded in the data between 1980 and 2008. Only 45 percent of the offenders were white.” Now if you look at it, the numbers do look similar, there only being a difference of 7 percent. But what you must see is that the African American population is only a 13 percent and yet they have a higher homicide rate than whites, a population that is much higher than the black one. Because of the actions that a minority group inside of the African American community, the ones that do the crime, the rest of community suffers with them. Like the old saying goes, one bad apple spoils the whole bunch.

Works Cited

Jarmin, Ron. “Census”. Gov. 2017

-   https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045217

Cooper, Alexia and Smith, Erica L. “Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980-2008” 2011

-   https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htus8008.pdf

Staples, Brent. “Black Men and Public Space” 1986