Not far from Braintree, on the island of Nantucket, is where I grew up. Being a resident of a small island, there was only so much to do and see. Consequently, numbers of things like music, books, films, and television fostered a tremendous impact on my interests and activities. When it came time to begin our twelve year long journey through an educational system, my parents decided to move. We found ourselves in Braintree, a town much different from what my brother Jake and I had known all of our lives.
Each and every afternoon, my brother and I tuned in to Disney Channel at four o’clock to watch our favorite show, the Wiggles. The show featured four guitar playing hosts, each in a different colored t-shirt. The show always
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As island kids, we all grew up around the “earthy-crunchy” vibe that you would expect. My friends and I loved to ride our bikes to the beach, eat granola filled snacks, and bring our dogs on walks through the land reserves. As a result, I was never much of a girly-girl. There was a popular cartoon strip that all us kids would read, featuring a man and his dog who ventured through a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Each week we would talk about it during playdates, and reenact the hunter’s adventures. Our love and enjoyment of the outdoors sprouted further as a result of this form of media which we all enjoyed. It developed into a social norm, one that would cause a child to feel left out if they had not yet read this week’s strip. Another television show popular among children of my generation was Barney. The childish sing-along show featured a large purple and green dinosaur, often singing catchy songs which had educational message entailed. A particularly memorable song essentially advised children to shut the running water off while they brush their teeth, to conserve water. I did just that. Each morning and night I would hum to the tune of Barney’s advice, while brushing my teeth with the water off (my parents’ wallet really appreciated this). Since being taught by Barney’s television show to conserve water while scrubbing my teeth clean, I have always done so
In 2010, my parents decided to get divorced. I lived in the Fairless Hills/Levittown area and moved to many different condos, apartments, and houses. I did not move to Bethlehem until 2012, I would be in fifth grade attending Spring Garden Elementary School. I was new to the school and I had no friends at all. It was really hard for me get rid of all my friends just to start all over again. I did not fit in at first, but eventually I made friends that I still have today. From reading Persepolis: The Story Of A Childhood, it taught me lessons that I have not been reminded of for quite some time. Lessons that are deemed useful when living through my life. From Satrapi's memoir, I learned that I should be true to myself, I should never take life for granted, and my life is not as perfect as it seems to be.
Over the course of my lifetime, I've learned that life isn't fair. If you want something, you just don't get it for free; you have to work hard for it. Day and night you slave towards your goal and the results you gain from the experience might be worth it, or it might change your life forever. I'm not talking about positively, rather, the change will be so drastic that it might affect how you live your life.
Learning is a universal aspect of everyday life; a fundamental development that changes through an individual’s life span. However, every individual learns in different ways throughout their life. I believed learning was standardized, and if someone was not learning at the same pace, they were not trying hard enough or they had some sort of learning disability. I have gone through my life thinking I just did not learn fast enough and/or perhaps I had a learning disability. With that in mind, it is something that impeded me from growing intellectually for many, many years, and is still omnipresent. As I read through my results from the Solomon-Felder Index of Learning Styles questionnaire, I reflected to my early school years and how useful this information would have been.
Over the course of my life, I have had numerous people tell me that I am more than just a soccer player and that I can not always turn to soccer for the answer to my problems. Although soccer is just a sport and it will never be anything more than that, it has taught and shown me more about myself and my personality in my 16 years than most people would learn and experience in their lifetime. Through my experiences, I have crawled and survived through the deepest and darkest parts of the storms of life, but I have also been given the chance to grow and flourish through the stunning and glowing moments of sunshine and warmth. Without being given the opportunity to play soccer, I would not be the person I am today, let alone know the depths and sides of my personality that are buried deep within me. In looking back at my past, it is evident to see that if I had not been blessed with the opportunity to play soccer or been given such a stubborn personality, I would not be alive today.
One early morning I made my way to the kitchen to have a cup of tea, hoping that the caffeine would help me do my work. It was 5:33 in the morning and the sun began its ascent as as I sit here thinking about life. I am up because I couldn’t sleep at all. There are always those nights where I just think hard about everything in my life. I keep wondering if I did my part in this world. I am getting to an age where I am losing my ability to be an active member of society. I need to reflect on my life. Life takes so much determination, and it is hard to maintain that spirit.
At birth, everyone is given a tool box. As one grows, learns, and experiences situations in life, tools are added. In my lifetime, as short as it may be, my toolbox has grown tremendously. For example, socialization by my parents gave me the tools to be kind and respectful, religious mores that have been instilled in me so I know what is right and wrong, and devices that my resourceful therapist has provided me with. All these devices and mechanisms are essential in who I am today, and how I perceive the world through the lens that only fits my eyes. Yet these past few months, my vision has been altered, and not in a negative way. A sociological imagination filter on that lens has led me to contemplate certain aspects of my life that have been influential in my life. Socioeconomic status, the modernization theory, education differences, ethnicity and white privilege, along with gender theories and gender socialization have all impacted the present day Marinah.
I grew up in Flower Mound, Texas, an affluent town which does not have a large diverse population. As I entered high school in 2010, 2.2% of the town’s population was bi-racial, which meant Flower Mound High School’s bi-racial student population remained minuscule. Due to the small population of bi-racial teenagers, I constantly felt as if a magnifying glass was held above me. For example, in several Pre-AP classes, my work was never showcased, even if I received the same or higher grade than my fellow student—my work and my work ethic were ignored, which encouraged me to excel. With every project, assignment, or test, I would go above and beyond by completing extra credit, asking for unneeded guidance, and going into a teacher’s off-hours
When I started to imagine myself in before starting this class, currently, and in five years as a symbol I had a few different ideas. I first thought more metaphorically, but then decided that it was clearer if I drew myself in actual life situations. In all three drawings, I included a door. This door separates the counseling room from the outside. In the first drawing, I am about to enter my first session with my client. I have my fingers in my mouth, which is a reoccurring nerves tick. I also have sweat running down my face and big eyes. Personally, I was scared to enter the session. I feared being filmed as well as messing up. I have a thought bubble above my head to represent what was going through my head. In that moment, my thoughts were jumbled. Every technique we had learned thus far in class I seemed to have forgotten. I was worrying about making a mistake and I could not think clearly. I was overwhelmed both physically and mentally.
Complete anguish filled my husband 's face as he stuck his shovel into the orange brown clay scooping the freshly dug dirt and flinging it over the plain wooden box that held his brother 's ashes. I wiped my eyes, my heart breaking for not only my husband, but his dad and older brother
On September 10, 2011, my life drastically changed; I was involved in a horrific car accident. It was a normal night, my dad, my step-mom, and I were on our way home from dinner. As we were crossing the intersection, a car made an illegal left turn in front of us and we hit them straight on. I was sitting in the backseat on my phone and, for the only time in my life, my seatbelt was not on, therefore, I hit my head on the chair in front of me hard. There were minimal damages for them, however, for us, the damages were crucial. I remember running out of our totaled car into the street crying, panicking, and the next thing I know, I am in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. I sustained a mild concussion, memory loss, and a bruised knee.
As I descend the stairs from the stage, trepidation saturates my body. During my performance, I retained my focus on Angelo 's table to observe Patsy dancing in her seat, while Angelo sat back with his arm stretched along the back of the sofa, wearing a smile on his lips as he watched me. But John, his angry glare remained on his bottle of beer most of the time. When he did glance my way, the fury that spewed forth from his penetrating glare was terrifying.
I have not only learned things throughout the course of, “Christ, Culture, and the University,” but I have truly soaked up the lectures so that I can apply everything to my daily life. This course has been such an eye opener in my life, I remember coming into this course not knowing exactly what it was and being confused as to why I was even put into it. Over the weeks spent coming to class, I finally figured out what the course meant to me. This was a course that was devoted to me, to figure out who I am and what my beliefs are. I believe that this course was set in place to not only figure out what I truly believe, but it was to help me grow and learn more about my religion and others. Throughout this course, I was able to figure out my
I came back to find that my whole city was destroyed in a blink of an eye, after running for days to keep this from happening.
I 'll be honest, I 've had some trouble coming up with words for this one. Between the two saved drafts of my best attempt to scope a coherent thought - that sat open on my laptop screen for several days, available at any moment for my emotional outpouring - I started to feel balance again. In retrospect, like any proper moment of clarity I guess, I used those empty email boxes as a token of escape - a space to distance the thoughts swimming around my head into the somewhere else of Internet purgatory. I didn 't have trouble because I felt anger or rejection that your note didn 't align with my ask, but because I concluded I still want to keep the door open to you and I 'm hesitant, in my own way, about how to navigate those feelings and actions that have transpired in having you as the object of my affection but not.
It is a gloomy and stormy night I see myself sleeping in my bed. Suddenly I am awaken by the sound of footsteps coming towards my room. The door of my room is slammed open; I see a shadow approaching me. I know it is a man but I am not able to see his face clearly because the room is covered with fog. I then feel a force over power my body like if this person has fallen on me. I could feel that this person is hurting me because my body is in pain. I am afraid because I do not know who this person is and why he is hurting me. I am yelling but no one can hear me because there is no sound coming out of my mouth. I then begin to feel as if I am being suffocated the fear of losing conscious and not knowing what could happen to me forces me to immediately wake up hysterically crying.