Finals!!!!!

     Finals week is coming up and I can't even begin to express how stressed out I am.  I may only have 2 "finals" for classes but that doesn't change the fact that I still have exams and papers due for other classes all in the same week.  Studying is something that never came easy to me, I never had to study in the past and now in college its a whole different story.  I just really hope that this time around all the preparation I put into preparing for these exams will actually pay off.

Working During the Holidays

     I work at a retail store.  Everyone knows that the holiday season is crazy busy, stressful, and ridiculous.  This is my first year working retail during the holidays and I never realized how true that was until now.  There's people that come out to shop only during the holidays so they don't really know the employees and think they are just annoying them and bombarding them with questions.  Customers are often times rude and will verbally abuse the employees without real reason.  The holidays can be a rough time for people already, you never know what's going on in someones mind, and the last thing they need is a person who they don't even know yelling at them and calling them names.  In this post I wanted to reflect on stress and mental health of those who work during the holidays.  

    Some people truly are just mean and don't realize the consequences of their actions.  Every time I think I've seen it all, I get surprised with another comment or decision made.  Customers in and out all day are fighting to get through crowds and yelling with other people or become upset that what they want is sold out, but that is nothing associates can control.  This season seems to be worse than others due to COVID-19 and almost everything being sold out on top of having a shortage of workers.  Many people fail to realize that.  Over time it has become more and more mentally draining having to go to work only to get yelled at, pushed, or ignored for 8 hours a day.  What I really want to get at is, focus on yourself.  Focus on your mental health and put yourself first.  Even with everything going on, it's still a great reward just being able to get up everyday and go to work or school.  Always put yourself first and make sure that you are alright before you make sure that others are.

Picking Content

        Sometimes when writing papers we have no idea what to write about.  For example, this blog post.  I had absolutely no idea where to start and honestly I still don't really know where I'm going with it.  I just wanted to talk about the reality of writing.  The words and content don't always just come to you where you know everything you want to say.  Rather times the words seem to flow as you start writing.  When I started my paper, I knew nothing but a topic and a title.  I spent days just trying to figure out where to even start my introduction.  It didn't even come to me until maybe a week later when I sat down, found all three of my sources, knocked out my introduction and first body paragraph all in a matter of 30 minutes.  It's funny how the human brain works.  Sometimes the words are there and sometimes they aren't.  I guess a big takeaway from this post honestly is just the word "sometimes".  Sometimes you know every last details, sometimes you don't even know the general concept.  Sometimes you're prepared and sometimes you're the furthest thing from it.  All I can really say it to not rush things and worry about sticking to a strict schedule and plan.  Life doesn't always go according to plan.  Take things as the come to you and go from there.  You may be surprised where you end up. 

Writing a Rational Argument

 

Writing a rational argument seems a little repetitive, when I heard that was our next project I honestly was a little frustrated.  I feel like we've written so many of these over the course of our schooling.  I understand the purpose for it but just why do we need to keep doing it over and over.  I said all of this before I actually knew in detail what the rationale argument was.  I originally just thought it was another argumentative essay of picking one side and arguing your beliefs on it.  You could only image the relief on my face when I found out it was so much more than that.

    The rational argument dives deeper to actually explain your stance while still being open to other viewpoints and acknowledging those other viewpoints even if you don't believe in them.  I really think too that having this be our next assignment it can allow room for opinions without any being biased or feeling judged which is something that everyone needs and deserves to have.

Midterms

     Surprisingly enough I haven't had a single midterm for any of my courses.  None of my professors had any reviews about progress halfway through the semester or anything which I thought was a little strange being that there was all this talk of midterm stress and anxiety and I haven't even had one.  Maybe it was just the way that my schedule is set up and the specific classes I'm in but I had a HUGE relief when I found out I didn't have to worry about taking yet another exam.

    Midterms in my opinion are almost as stressful as finals if not more and here's why.  Midterms are supposed to mark your halfway point in the class  and finals mark the end.  If you take a midterm and perform poorly on it, you will likely be stressing about your grade for the rest of the semester and you will be realizing that you don't have much more you can even do to try and raise it.  Mid terms are given halfway through semester when you may still be adjusting to your classes and just beginning to feel comfortable with where you're at.  On top of that, many kids are not good test takers, myself being one, and the thought of having yet another big test with a large amount of information is super stressful and gives anxiety thinking about it.  Although I didn't have any this semester, I feel for the students that did.    

Experiential Learning Project

 

    In this weeks post I wanted to reflect on the group project we are currently working on.  As we near the end of the project and we jump into presentations, I wanted to discuss how much I enjoyed the project.  In the formatting of the project there is a lot of space left open to interpretation.  I really like that there wasn't a ton of restrictions on the project and we could choose any place we felt fitting.  While there are some guidelines to follow, it was nice that we didn't have a strict plan of what exactly we needed to do and what we had to use to do it.

    Doing this project also taught me a lot more about different non-profit organizations in the community.  Our organization was Gabriel's horn which is a homeless shelter for women and their children.  Had we never done this project I probably never would have known about this organization and I never would've been able to help spread information about them.  Gabriel's horn isn't a permanent home but rather something temporary just to help the women and families they house to get back up on their own to support themselves and their children.  I also wasn't aware of how desperately they are in need of physical and monetary donations to provide clothing and safety to their residents and to be able to expand their facilities in the near future.  I love what the organization stands for and my overall goal with completing this project is to be able to share their mission with others and bring more awareness to their cause and hopefully get others to feel the same way.  

10/19 Freewrite about Intertextuality

     

    There's many times where you'll hear something and you have to do a double take or go back and listen again just to be sure that you heard right.  Recently, I saw a video compilation of artists that have referenced Selena Gomez in their music.  Some examples included, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, and Charlie Puth.  Often times, we forget that celebrities have lives outside of their Hollywood world and they experience relationships and friendships the same way we do.  Some of the lyrics are so well hidden in the song and they blend in with the chorus that at first listen, you may not even catch it.  None of the lyrics in any of the songs were degrading her in any way but rather alluding to her or a situation she has experienced.  Many of these artists even admit in an interview that a specific moment in their song was about Selena, but others only refer to certain situations with a person without stating her name.  Even though they don't explicitly state it was Selena, it was quite clear who they were referencing. Sometimes it's funny when you think about how musicians can actually make more money just by singing about a person involved in their everyday life.  

    The main takeaway from this is that we experience these references all around us without even being aware of it.  In every movie, song, or TV show there always is a hidden message.  These intertextuality moments are very important to our understanding of the world and how we can relate to given situations.