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Friday, March 13, 2009
The Juicy Stuff Directory
Reflections...
The journey into my though process is a very hectic and scary place. I am a 24 year old, determined young woman. I work full time, with a little part time work on the side, I go to school almost full time, and I am a beyond full time single mother to a beautiful little 2 year old girl. My day to day life consists of working, wiping noses, homework, and cleaning messy hands. I try to keep my thoughts organized and on task, but my busy lifestyle usually requires a little more thinking outside the box and flexibility, aka I tend to be a little random. I am putting myself through all of this mayhem in hopes of being an Elementary teacher, preferably sooner rather than later. Hopefully this little bit about me gives you some insight as to how I process things.
I have learned a lot this quarter in English 101D online. I learned about identity, and what helps construct and develop our identities. Our identities are not only our heritage and culture; they can come from our communities as well. This led us into our next unit on community. Our study on communities taught me that there is such a diverse array of communities not just consisting of those directly around us. We can be part of blogging communities online, or a community of craigslist shoppers, or even just a group of comic book collectors can be considered a community. A community is loosely translated into any group with something in common. We then moved on to a unit on tradition. This unit taught me a lot because it made me question the origin of and meaning behind some traditions. It was interesting to find out that some traditions were started kind of randomly, or based on a need for capitalism. I also realized the importance traditions can play in some of our lives.
I have chosen four of my writings from this quarter to help showcase what I have learned. The first writing I have picked is a piece that I believe shows my critical thinking skills. We had to do a timed write based on a movie we watched and discussed, and the movie I chose was Fight Club. I feel that working under pressure is something I am good at, so thinking critically is a good skill for this. The next piece I picked was from our Community unit and titled Community of Single Parents. I seemed to have a hard time talking about the differences on the communities themselves, rather than the characteristics of those in the community. I have done a revision on a portion of this paper and hope it made it stronger.
When I am writing a piece for a diverse group of people to read, I always try to make sure it is something that I think people can relate to. I feel I showed this well in one of my blogs titled Did Someone Say Takeout? In this blog I sound like every other random person, which makes it appealing to the average person. This paper was my choice for illustrating my awareness of audience and voice. My final piece is a Writer’s choice, or a personal favorite. I wanted to include a piece that felt like me, so I choice discussion board post titled Uh-man-duh, which is just my real name Amanda, phonetically. If you know me, or knew me, you would know this paper sounds exactly like me. This is how all of my stories go. I can be a little quirky and I just try to entertain.
I hope my introduction here has showcased what I feel I have learned this quarter. My chosen writings are things that I worked very hard on and am very proud of. Following this letter will be my chosen pieces listed above. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
I have learned a lot this quarter in English 101D online. I learned about identity, and what helps construct and develop our identities. Our identities are not only our heritage and culture; they can come from our communities as well. This led us into our next unit on community. Our study on communities taught me that there is such a diverse array of communities not just consisting of those directly around us. We can be part of blogging communities online, or a community of craigslist shoppers, or even just a group of comic book collectors can be considered a community. A community is loosely translated into any group with something in common. We then moved on to a unit on tradition. This unit taught me a lot because it made me question the origin of and meaning behind some traditions. It was interesting to find out that some traditions were started kind of randomly, or based on a need for capitalism. I also realized the importance traditions can play in some of our lives.
I have chosen four of my writings from this quarter to help showcase what I have learned. The first writing I have picked is a piece that I believe shows my critical thinking skills. We had to do a timed write based on a movie we watched and discussed, and the movie I chose was Fight Club. I feel that working under pressure is something I am good at, so thinking critically is a good skill for this. The next piece I picked was from our Community unit and titled Community of Single Parents. I seemed to have a hard time talking about the differences on the communities themselves, rather than the characteristics of those in the community. I have done a revision on a portion of this paper and hope it made it stronger.
When I am writing a piece for a diverse group of people to read, I always try to make sure it is something that I think people can relate to. I feel I showed this well in one of my blogs titled Did Someone Say Takeout? In this blog I sound like every other random person, which makes it appealing to the average person. This paper was my choice for illustrating my awareness of audience and voice. My final piece is a Writer’s choice, or a personal favorite. I wanted to include a piece that felt like me, so I choice discussion board post titled Uh-man-duh, which is just my real name Amanda, phonetically. If you know me, or knew me, you would know this paper sounds exactly like me. This is how all of my stories go. I can be a little quirky and I just try to entertain.
I hope my introduction here has showcased what I feel I have learned this quarter. My chosen writings are things that I worked very hard on and am very proud of. Following this letter will be my chosen pieces listed above. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Critical Thinking
I don’t feel like critical thinking has ever really been an issue for me, but the piece that I feel best represents these skills is my timed write based on the movie Fight Club. The writing prompt that I was given was “Considering your own perceptions of non-conformity, how does the film and the group discussion that ensued challenge these perceptions.” I feel like my essay really dove into the underlying message of the movie, showing my critical thinking. In my essay I stated that “the whole point of the movie was to get out from under that societal control and pressure, obviously in an extremely unconventional way, but to break free none the less.” The point of the timed write, is writing under pressure so being able to critically think and analyze is a very helpful skill.
Fight Club
The movie Fight Club tested every cultural boundary between conformity and non-conformity and everything in between. It blurred the lines of social norms and drew us in with enticing non-conformist ways. I believe that Fight Club helped us believe that we need to break free from the social constraints that control our lives. Tyler Durden believed that in order to find yourself, you had to learn how to lose everything.
Project Mayhem was created for as its name implies, mayhem. The members of Project Mayhem set out to do the very things that society told them they could not do, or could not be. The people involved in the fight club and Project Mayhem were your normal, average, everyday men. They worked everywhere and controlled a little bit of everything. To try to stop them would shut down society as they knew it. The theme that was drilled into my head throughout this movie was that you have to stop letting others and material things control you. They wanted the government, “the man” to stop telling them what to wear, what to buy and really what they were and were not allowed to do. I believe that this is why Fight Club was started in the first place. They were told they can’t, so they did.
Although I think that this movie was based on extreme measures, I have to say that it made some very solid and valid points. I think that in society today, anyone that is seen as a non-conformist is ultimately tried to be “shut-down.” People don’t like non-conformists. People are not comfortable with things they don’t know or understand. Although I don’t agree with or condone a lot of their actions, the movie helped me understand the theories behind them.
The discussion board almost made me sympathize with the characters in the movie even more. Just talking with my classmates I almost felt like an outsider or non-conformist myself. I felt the pressure of conformity among my peers when expressing my own opinions. The whole point of the movie was to get out from under that societal control and pressure, obviously in an extremely unconventional way, but to break free none the less.
The Fight Club was a place for people that felt trapped in some aspect of their lives, to be open and free and do whatever they wanted. Tyler said that, “after fighting, everything else in your life got the volume turned down. You could deal with anything.” Fighting was their escape; their support group. Who is to say what is ok and not ok “therapy”? That was their point. When Tyler got beat up by the bar owner Lou, the age old phrase ran through my head: “Stand up for something, or you will fall for anything.” Tyler told the narrator that he was everything the narrator wanted to be, “but most importantly, he was free in all the ways the narrator was not”. I feel like the physical fighting in the movie was a symbol of fighting for some of your personal freedoms. Was it extreme and over the top? Of course! But ultimately did he make some great points about what it means to cross those cultural boundaries of conformity? Definitely!
Project Mayhem was created for as its name implies, mayhem. The members of Project Mayhem set out to do the very things that society told them they could not do, or could not be. The people involved in the fight club and Project Mayhem were your normal, average, everyday men. They worked everywhere and controlled a little bit of everything. To try to stop them would shut down society as they knew it. The theme that was drilled into my head throughout this movie was that you have to stop letting others and material things control you. They wanted the government, “the man” to stop telling them what to wear, what to buy and really what they were and were not allowed to do. I believe that this is why Fight Club was started in the first place. They were told they can’t, so they did.
Although I think that this movie was based on extreme measures, I have to say that it made some very solid and valid points. I think that in society today, anyone that is seen as a non-conformist is ultimately tried to be “shut-down.” People don’t like non-conformists. People are not comfortable with things they don’t know or understand. Although I don’t agree with or condone a lot of their actions, the movie helped me understand the theories behind them.
The discussion board almost made me sympathize with the characters in the movie even more. Just talking with my classmates I almost felt like an outsider or non-conformist myself. I felt the pressure of conformity among my peers when expressing my own opinions. The whole point of the movie was to get out from under that societal control and pressure, obviously in an extremely unconventional way, but to break free none the less.
The Fight Club was a place for people that felt trapped in some aspect of their lives, to be open and free and do whatever they wanted. Tyler said that, “after fighting, everything else in your life got the volume turned down. You could deal with anything.” Fighting was their escape; their support group. Who is to say what is ok and not ok “therapy”? That was their point. When Tyler got beat up by the bar owner Lou, the age old phrase ran through my head: “Stand up for something, or you will fall for anything.” Tyler told the narrator that he was everything the narrator wanted to be, “but most importantly, he was free in all the ways the narrator was not”. I feel like the physical fighting in the movie was a symbol of fighting for some of your personal freedoms. Was it extreme and over the top? Of course! But ultimately did he make some great points about what it means to cross those cultural boundaries of conformity? Definitely!
Revision
My second paper for the community unit, aptly titled Community of Single Parents, was not my best work, and felt it could benefit greatly from a revision. I seemed to struggle some with the writing prompts for our main papers, and this paper was no exception. My introduction and thesis were strong, but I missed some of the major points of the assignment and just feel it could have been better. I struggled with pronoun agreements and used the word “you” a lot. A lot of my sentences looked like this; “Being a part of a community has so many benefits.” Which are pretty vague and weakened my paper. I hope my revision makes my paper stronger and more convincing.
Original: Single Parent Community
The resources available to the single parent community have also changed and this has had a great impact on the community in general. The fact that 20 years ago there were not many classes or groups or events geared towards the single parent community really limited them in the contact they had with other single parent families; families of their own community. With the internet being so readily available now, this provides many opportunities for single parents to connect with others in their community. Websites like “Singlefamilyvoices.com” provide single parents an opportunity to meet, chat and find support within their community. There are also many dating websites for single parents like “Goodsingleparents.com or Iheartsingleparents.com.” All of these places provide networking within the single parent community, networking that was not readily available 20 years ago.
The major benefit to a community that shares in your family situation is above all, understanding. For someone to be able to understand your situation, and your struggles and your insecurities is invaluable. In the essay, “A Secret Society of the Starving” by Mim Udovitch, she states, “Pro-ana, the basic premise of which is that an eating disorder is not a disorder but a lifestyle choice…” (113). This is how a lot of people view the members of the single parent community. Many people naively believe that this is a choice someone makes; a choice to be a single parent. I won’t deny that some people do make that choice. Like the single mother in California that decided to go through in-vitro fertilization to have more children knowing that she would still be a single parent when she had those babies; that is obviously a choice she made. The majority of people don’t willingly become single parents, and for some people, they choose to become single parents for the better or for the safety of themselves and their children. Not everyone understands what single parents are going through 20 years ago or today, so being in a single parent community helps provide them with a sense of belonging and stability.
The major benefit to a community that shares in your family situation is above all, understanding. For someone to be able to understand your situation, and your struggles and your insecurities is invaluable. In the essay, “A Secret Society of the Starving” by Mim Udovitch, she states, “Pro-ana, the basic premise of which is that an eating disorder is not a disorder but a lifestyle choice…” (113). This is how a lot of people view the members of the single parent community. Many people naively believe that this is a choice someone makes; a choice to be a single parent. I won’t deny that some people do make that choice. Like the single mother in California that decided to go through in-vitro fertilization to have more children knowing that she would still be a single parent when she had those babies; that is obviously a choice she made. The majority of people don’t willingly become single parents, and for some people, they choose to become single parents for the better or for the safety of themselves and their children. Not everyone understands what single parents are going through 20 years ago or today, so being in a single parent community helps provide them with a sense of belonging and stability.
Revised: Single Parent Community
The resources available to the single parent community have also improved and this has had a great impact on the community in general. My interviewee Katrina said “there was not much help or outreaches geared towards single parents.” The fact that 20 years ago there were not many classes or groups or events geared towards the single parent community really limited them in the contact they had with other single parent families; families of their own community. With the internet being so readily available now, this provides many opportunities for single parents to connect with others in their community. Websites like “Singlefamilyvoices.com” provide single parents an opportunity to meet, chat and find support within their community. There are also many dating websites for single parents like “Goodsingleparents.com or Iheartsingleparents.com.” All of these places provide networking within the single parent community, networking that was not readily available 20 years ago.
Understanding is an important element within the single parent community and outsiders can have a hard time understanding why people put themselves in this situation or choose this lifestyle. In the essay, “A Secret Society of the Starving” by Mim Udovitch, she states, “Pro-ana, the basic premise of which is that an eating disorder is not a disorder but a lifestyle choice…” (113). Members of the single parent community can be viewed the same as those in the example of those with eating disorders, that it is a lifestyle choice. Many people naively believe that this is a choice someone makes, a choice to be a single parent. I won’t deny that some people do make that choice, like the single mother in California that decided to go through in-vitro fertilization to have more children knowing that she would still be a single parent when she had those babies; she obviously knowingly made that choice. The majority of people don’t willingly become single parents, and for some people, they choose to become single parents for the betterment of or for the safety of themselves and their children. The difference in understanding between the single parent community 20 years ago versus today is based on accessibility. When I interviewed Katrina about being a single parent 20 years ago she said that, “No one talked about being a single parent back then. We didn’t have the support of other single parents or groups or clubs like there are today.” Not everyone understands what single parents are going through 20 years ago or today, so being in a single parent community helps provide them with a sense of belonging and stability.
Understanding is an important element within the single parent community and outsiders can have a hard time understanding why people put themselves in this situation or choose this lifestyle. In the essay, “A Secret Society of the Starving” by Mim Udovitch, she states, “Pro-ana, the basic premise of which is that an eating disorder is not a disorder but a lifestyle choice…” (113). Members of the single parent community can be viewed the same as those in the example of those with eating disorders, that it is a lifestyle choice. Many people naively believe that this is a choice someone makes, a choice to be a single parent. I won’t deny that some people do make that choice, like the single mother in California that decided to go through in-vitro fertilization to have more children knowing that she would still be a single parent when she had those babies; she obviously knowingly made that choice. The majority of people don’t willingly become single parents, and for some people, they choose to become single parents for the betterment of or for the safety of themselves and their children. The difference in understanding between the single parent community 20 years ago versus today is based on accessibility. When I interviewed Katrina about being a single parent 20 years ago she said that, “No one talked about being a single parent back then. We didn’t have the support of other single parents or groups or clubs like there are today.” Not everyone understands what single parents are going through 20 years ago or today, so being in a single parent community helps provide them with a sense of belonging and stability.
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