"The Subtleties of Overt Racism" Event Analysis/Blog

     The event I attended was a seminar on Brandon Scott, President of the Baltimore City Council, and his achievements and accomplishments contributed to the Baltimore community. He discussed his upbringing and how he came to be in the position that he was in and what he has done and wants to continue to do for the community. He also brought a friend of his that was wrongly convicted and was done wrong by the criminal justice system to discuss his experiences with us as well. These gentlemen both highlighted how easy it is to get swept away by wrongdoings based on the circumstances you are and how to best avoid them entirely. They discussed how simply being outside in the wrong place at the wrong time was enough to have your entire life thrown away.

     When we are placed into a situation that we deem as terrifying or traumatic, we normally become anxious and agitated instead of calm, cool, and collected; a reaction that puts us as a community many steps further back than where we should be today. in Jill McDonough “Accident, Mass. Ave.”, we see two humans who have never had any kind of interaction whatsoever completely unhinge on one another over a minor fender bender where there were no serious injuries or damage from. Both the characters in this poem were thrown into this unforeseen situation and acted like humans beings normally do. They acted purely out of fear and anger and caused them to act in ways that would be considered stark comparisons to their true selves. The guest Mr. Scott discussed with us during the seminar that this same feeling in these moments is what causes people to do bad things that they do. The same feeling of fear and anger cause people to act in ways and commit acts they would not normally do and it has great and lasting effects on all of the communities. The same anger that caused these ladies to yell at each other is the same anger that fuels the crime that was done in these less fortunate areas of Baltimore. The anger is what needs to be controlled inside of us and that must be replaced with compassion in order to truly treat each other with dignity and respect and that is the first true step that needs to be taken to make real and lasting change within the community. 

     Someone's face can be truly deceiving if they are good at hiding their emotions and intentions. A face can smile and nod till the day gets dark but it will never show what the person behind it is truly thinking. We see this here when our friends Fortunato is deceived by his "friend" Montresor into his death. Fortunato thought that he was being brought to taste expensive wine with a fellow connoisseur, but his friends had other intentions for how the night was to go. Montresor laughed and smiled with Fortunato up until that last moment he spent with him, up until the end Fortunato was left without knowing the true nature of his friend's intentions. The guest brought by Mr. Scott discussed how he was wrongfully framed for being the mastermind of burglary by someone older than him and that he trusted. That person put all the blame on the speaker when he had nothing to do with any of the crimes. That person deceived our speaker and the criminal system into believing he was good and fine and had done nothing wrong while putting someone younger than him at complete risk. That person looked at our speaker and never let him know his true intention until he was already paying the price.  

     

IExamen 1

IExamen 1
This past weekend I was involved in a huge rivalry game against the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. To start the day, I began to snooze my alarm about five times as I was very sleepy. Due to the reasoning being that I didn’t have to be to Ridley until 1:30, gave me the opportunity to sleep in and relax in my bed giving me time to set goals for the day and a little time for myself. I started off missing my roommate off by having my ringer go off, as I sent him my sincerest remarks about it, and of course like always that issue was resolved, and we laughed about it. As I was one of five roommates in the room, I asked the others if they wanted to go down to Iggy’s before we left for the stadium around noon. As I rallied the troops, we all got ready in our team polos, khakis, dress shoes, and our sideline coats, and we were off into the distance of Newman tower. Everyone surrounding me was very attentive and paid me and my teammates respect due to the big game that day. I received a couple “Good lucks!” and other best wishes that were all positivity coming from my classmates. While obtaining my food, I said my “thank you” and “Have a nice day” to the workers as I felt good energy after doing that, it went on to brighten my day.
Thereafter eating breakfast, I had some conversations with my teammates about how we were going to dominate Hopkins that day, and from there we realized we needed a ride. We went outside and approached a shuttle and he then directed us toward a yellow bus that took us to Ridley in style. The bus driver had a big smile on his face and played old folk jazz music that reminded me of my times as a kid listening to my dad’s old CD’s he would play in the car that were filled with jazz musicians. As we arrived at Ridley me and my teammates said thank you to the bus driver and went on our way. While going into the locker room, it was rowdy and loud with pregame music. Went around dapping up my teammates and prepared for the game. I flipped on my pregame outfit and got in the mindset to win the game. My heart was pounding and told the guy next to me that plays a lot to “Leave it out on the field” and from there went through warmups prepping for war. Went back into the locker room and went to my locker room to get really suited up. We had a prayer of the “Our Father” which is tradition for our program. Then it was game time and we were out on the field with a sold-out crowd. We were ready, from the first face off that we lost and after the first goal by Hopkins, we turned things around and brought the energy and dominated the rest of the game. Fist were in the air, and I was bumping from teammate to teammate after every goal, as the excitement was surreal. We were loud rowdy and I will never forget my coach running down from the box to the end of our sideline saying “PYroooo” and our team getting the ball back. Man, I love that guy, and the brothers I went to war with that day. We won 10-7 in the Battle of Charles Street and I saw my friend at the end and dapped him up but was sad as we didn’t get a picture after the game. My observation is after a tough loss like that, not many people would be up for it, but it’s the character of that person to choose to do so. After that lovely we went back into that locker room with big smiles and an opportunity to be great this season.
Coach Toomey’s post game speech was very much needed as he said that it is one game out of many that we must win to get to where we want to in the future. After showers, I went to the tailgate to meet my parents and siblings as I received several hugs and love from them. I received many “Good jobs” and “Congrats” which made me happy inside. From there they dropped me off back at Campion and I said my saddest goodbyes until the morning. Went on upstairs and prepared for the exciting night. It was a fulfilled night full of adventures with my dearest teammates and alumni and will for sure be one to remember. I don’t remember being on my phone much, and due to this I was able to engage with my teammates a whole lot better. My adrenaline was off the roof and electronics were not on my mind. I had a great time during the game and was thankful to have the opportunity I did. GO HOUNDS!

Blog 3

Today I start my service learning at Tunbridge Charter School. I am writing this before I go, so again I am going to instead talk about my time in my field work at Baltimore Lab School. As I go week after week the students have become more and more comfortable with me. With all the stress of college it's nice to see their smiling faces once a week and remember that I can get through it and get it all done. They remind me how much easier and simpler things used to be. Today everything feels like a challenge, or at least we make it a challenge. The students that I work with teach me every time I go that all of the things that I am assigned I am able to get done, and that sometimes all you need is a little help.
I am writing this part after my first visit at Tunbridge. The school made me realize that these students are very similar to the ones I work with at the Lab School. I am in a Kindergarten classroom and when I walked in all of their little faces turned to me and they were so excited to see a new face in their classroom. The teacher was also extremely welcoming. This experience will definitely be mutually beneficial as I am able to help her and she answers my questions about being a teacher. I am extremely lucky that I will have so much exposure to classrooms before I become a teacher myself.
When I read the poem "My Father is a Simple Man" it made me think of the students that I work with. In the poem the authors father only has a sixth grade education yet he doesn't seem to have any worries. He says that his sone will be healthy as long as he eats oranges. He sees the world differently than most people these days. He believes that the key to being healthy is just eating oranges. he believes that just like the orange trees we too will come back time and time again.
The kids that I work with have the same innocence as the little boy from the poem "My Papa's Waltz".

Blog 3

This weeks readings was very interesting and thought provoking. The poem that I am presenting on in class is My Papa's Waltz. This was a very interesting piece with a double meaning behind a lot of the phrases. I found that the main theme of the poem was love. This connects to the real world because the only thing that a young child wants from a father is love and affection, and this is exactly what this boy was seeking out. Starting my service this week was an eye opener really. I found it extremely interesting, especially the fact that I had to go early for an orientation. I thought that all that I was going to do was sit there for an hour and a half but, I was delightfully surprised really. I was forced to look inside myself for this short time and find my inner peace. I really enjoyed this event because it was a fantastic stress reliever, just what I needed really. A designated time away from all of the stresses around me, somewhere where I don't need to think about anything else. I found that this experience connected with class because when we are in class and having a discussion about work, nothing else comes to mind beside the things right in front of me. Overall I really enjoyed the time I spent in meditation this week.

Blog 3

Last Monday, I had the privilege to attend my first service-learning day at Tunbridge Public Charter School. My assigned teacher, Mrs. Grant, teaches kindergarten and could not have been more welcoming and excited to have me as a teacher’s helper. She quickly expressed to me that Mondays are tough, especially for a large group of antsy five and six-year-olds. She gave me a few simple tasks to complete for her as she tried her best to control the class. Mondays are tough for everyone, but most importantly tough for kindergarten teachers at 11am. However, as I observed Mrs. Grant throughout my quick 2-hour day in her classroom, I admired her patience and ability to show her compassion for her students, despite their frustrating disobedience.

            When I read the poem “My Papa’s Walz”, I couldn’t help but compare Mrs. Grant’s unconditional love for her students to the love the son has for his father. Throughout the poem, the son mentions flaws about his father, such as the whiskey on his breath, his battered knuckle, and his violent nature. He implies but does not confirm that his father acted violently towards him, referring to it as a “waltz.” However, despite all this, the son still has a strong love for his father, as he continues to “cling onto his shirt.” Although the situations are different, both the poem and Monday with Mrs. Grant's kindergarten class showcase the power of love and how it perseveres even in the face of difficult times.

            In the poem “My Father is a Simple Man”, the author reflects on the kindness, patience, and simple nature of his father. After his father passes, he says “remember that here was a man who was a worker and a provider, who learned the simple facts in life and lived by them.” I personally love the way he acknowledges and appreciates the way his father lived by the simple facts of life, which I think everyone could benefit from doing. In kindergarten, all day is spent learning the “simple facts of life.” This is the age where you learn about being polite, having manners, and the difference between right and wrong. My hope for these children is that they learn to appreciate these simple facts and lead a life similar to the life of the father in the poem.

            In the poems “Tableau” and “Love After Love”, the major theme appears to be love and acceptance, specifically love and acceptance of others and yourself. “Tableau” tells the story of two boys, one black and one white, spending time together without paying attention to the discrimination and injustices around them that should keep them apart. At the end of the poem, the author refers to the boys as a “lightning brilliant”, implying that the boys’ relationship will make an impact on others to end the discrimination. “Love After Love” presents the idea of self-love as a legitimate relationship with one’s self and provides the perspective of going on a date with yourself. On this date, you realize everything you love about yourself and that you have failed to acknowledge your love for yourself.  Throughout my recent and past experiences at Tunbridge, it is clear that the entire school promotes these same ideas of acceptance of yourself and others. The school’s philosophy is to teach the students to take care of the health entire person: mind and body. Showing kindness to others and to yourself is a major aspect of this philosophy and directly relates to the messages the authors of these two poems are trying to communicate.

Event/Service Analysis

Cordy Albanese

Dr. Ellis

ENG-101

19 February 2020

Event/Service Analysis Blog

As I continue my service learning with the Bridges Tutoring Program, I learn more and more about myself and others each week. As I keep the Jesuit tradition in mind at my visits, I am finding the connections with others to be more enriching each session. I am finding the importance of my service-learning and how I am making a difference in these kids' lives. I look forward to my time spent with them and know that with each session our bond is growing stronger whether it is over learning new things about each other or them trusting me to help them or listen to what they have to say. I originally thought that the program would just be solely based on academics and that I would not gain any real relationships with the kids and staff of the program as well but in time I have realized that to be untrue. If anything the program is more about building relationships within the community while guiding the children academically towards a successful future. As I take our discussions from class into consideration, I begin to think more critically about my role in the Bridges Tutoring Program as well as the community. We have talked about how important it is to live life to the best extent possible while helping others do the same and I think my service-learning is granting me these opportunities. I can do my part in the world of offering up my knowledge and experience to younger generations so they will grow and do the same creating a cycle of service and kindness for the world. It is a good feeling to know at such a young age I am already doing something good for others and creating a positive environment for my younger peers. I hope to continue this service and grow even more throughout the rest of this semester.

 With my tutoring program in mind as well as the diverse kids I get to encounter I can relate this to the poem “Tableau” by Countee Cullen. This poem is about racial differences and how people view white and black people's relationships. As I think about the kids I tutor and the majority of them being African American this poem makes me think about past racial segregation and even racism that still exists today and how important it is that we can live freely and walk with one another now. I am so proud to be a part of a multi-cultural community and to be able to work with the community without it being frowned upon as it is in the poem. 

The poem “Love After Love” by Derek Walcott reminds me of how important self-love is and what it means to love yourself before you can love anybody else. It can be hard to create bonds with others when you are unable to have those bonds with yourself and have an understanding of what it means to care for yourself. As I think about my peers and how I can better my relationships with them and the community by first understanding what my role is to myself and how I can benefit from it while also benefitting them. The line “Sit. Feast on your life.” brings meaning into service-learning and what it means to have a purpose in your life by investing in yourself. If we can take a moment to reflect on our self-worth and what it means to love, then we will be able to share this with other people and grant ourselves the ultimate satisfaction of meaningful relationships. These poems spoke to me what it means to not just be human but a good one and recognizing the importance of our roles as good ones and how to encourage that amongst others which is what I hope to continue doing at Bridges and in the community.

Finding Home (Blog post 3)

It has now been about two weeks since my first time going to a meditation class. This means that I have just completed my third season. The funny thing is I feel like I have been doing it for months. I guess that’s because time just flies in college. As it was only my third time, I am still trying to get the hang of sitting still in silence for an hour and a half. However, I enjoy the commitment it requires of me one day reach that goal of being motionless. One thing in particular that I have been noticing in my experience is this weird warm feeling in my body. It almost feels as though I am sitting down with a warm heated blanket that makes me think comfortable. After my second session, this made me think about what it was that I was feeling and why I was feeling it. I later came to realize this feeling was the feeling of being home.

    Long before I was a student at Loyola University, I lived in a completely different world. This world was called Eugen Oregan. I lived there for 14 years of my life before my family moved to Pennsylvania. You might be wonder what does this have to do with me feeling at home while I was meditating. Well, it is because this meditating made me feel like I was back in Oregon. For the first time in five years, I felt a sense of belonging. I think I felt this way because the West Coats is very different from the East coast, yet that room of meditation captured the essence of the west for me.

    The west coast is filled with earthy crunch people who like to move through life slowly, always making sure to take time out of there days for themselves. The east coast I have found to be very fast-moving and competitive. Yet in the room, everything stopped for the first time in four years. That room of people meditating made everyone stop there fast-moving days and forced everyone to reconnect with themselves. It's strang, but that feeling made me feel like I was home. I didn’t even know I was missing this feeling until going to this meditation class.

    In Countee Cullens poem “Tableau”, it talks about sitting in front of a mirror and speak to the stranger in front of you. I relate to this idea because I feel like I had to sit in front of a metaphorical mirror and ask myself what that strange feeling was that I got during meditating. By doing this, I was able to like the poem said, “give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you,”. I did this by realizing that a calmness that was given to me from the west coast that the east cost took. However, with this meditation, I have been able to restore the serenity of my old home that was lost. This then allowed me to, like what the poem tries to get the reader to do, reconnect with myself.

    All in all, these experiences for me have deffenity been going well, and I am excited to see where it will lead me next.

Blog Post 3

As I’ve continued to work at my service learning site, Walter P Carter, my connection with the students has become stronger and stronger. Last week, I spent the majority of the time assisting the lead educator of the PIEL program in reevaluating the students to determine the level of support the students needed with their phonemic awareness. As we were reorganizing all of the documents, I took this opportunity to talk with the lead instructor. She explained to me about how influential the use of the Loyola volunteers is to their program, because without it there would simply not be enough time to support all the students who need support. She also explained to me many of the struggles the students at home face, which plays into why many of them are so behind in school. If they do not show up to school, they are not able to learn. However, many students have never even been enrolled in school before, therefore falling further behind then anyone in the age range. As we spent the day organizing all the various student groups, so many of the students walked in and out of the classroom to come and say hi or vent about their day. I heard one story that broke my heart, one little girl came in saying she felt “fat” because she ate cake for lunch instead of fruit, and her friends thought so too. It broke my heart to see such a little girl hate herself so much.

The poem, “Love After Love” by Derek Walcott talks how, for whatever reason, we dislike ourselves, but one day we will fall in love with who we are once again. In the poem he writes, “… sit here. Eat. / You will love again the stranger who was your self”. This line is emphasizing the idea that there will become a day that you will love yourself again, and you will love the person who you always knew to be a stranger. I can only hope that one day, the little girl from service learning will be able to eat foods she loves and still love herself for the wonderful person she is.

2/19 Blog Post

            Last week I was finally able to attend my first week of service at Tunbridge Charter school. I have to say, the experience was even better than I had hoped. I chose service for this semester because I had been looking for an opportunity to go out into the community and make an impact. Having service-learning offered this semester was a great chance for me to branch out and accomplish that goal. I chose Tunbridge School because I wanted to be able to work with kids. Many children are impressionable, and I love knowing that I have the ability to impact the way they see the world or how they are simply doing on a week to week basis. In my first session I was able to work one on one with many of the young students. The satisfaction of helping them to understand their work and seeing their faces light up when they do see it made the entire experience worthwhile. However, along with that joy, came some disappointment and frustration. When I was working with a student, she started to get worked up and emotional over the fact that she could not understand how to solve certain problems. At that moment, I felt lucky that I was someone who she was able to confide in and open up with about how she was feeling. It hurt me that she was so upset, and I wanted so badly to make her feel better. I now am looking forward to seeing her next week and working with her and also making sure she has a better, more happy day. The poems which I read reminded me of the experience which I had with these children on my first day. In the poems, each author reflects on a parent or experience which stood out to them and shaped who they are. For example, in “My Father is a Simple Man,” by Luis Omar Salinas, reflects on a fond moment that he shared with his father while at the grocery store. It is clear that the quality time which he spent with his dad impacted him so much that he was able to recall it all these years later. He talks about how his dad simply lived in his own way, despite the consistent struggles of life. He walked with his head on his shoulders and that forever inspires Salinas. Reading about the impact that Salinas’ dad had on him made me want to make an impact on the people around me. Obviously, I do not expect to make as great of an impact that a father would on his son, but I hope to impact them, in some way, for the better.

Event/Service Blog #3

The Jesuit principle that stresses us to unify the heart, mind, and soul was not inscribed for selfish use, but it is necessary for each individual’s personal reflection so that we can be our best possible selves and a blessing to others. We need to unify our heart, mind, and soul so that they are not dwelling in places where they become more vulnerable and tangible. If we allow our inner selves to become more tangible, then we will make ourselves vulnerable enough to be transformed by others and negative situations. For these reasons I decided to transform my weekly event/service from Bridges to meditation. 

Participating in the meditation group allowed me to incorporate an hour of uninterrupted silence and meditation into my week. During the meditation, I made my mind think about the things that I enjoy and the factors of my life that are going well so I can distract myself from the stressful weeks to come. I became in control of my feelings and emotions so that I can be less vulnerable to stress and anxiety. The practice gradually became more difficult to accomplish as pain in my legs began to develop as a result of sitting the wrong way. As my leg completely fell asleep, my focus had immediately shifted towards the pain in my leg rather than my emotions. This revealed to me that even though it can seem that we can protect our inner selves from being tangible, our exterior body is still vulnerable to change and pain. 

The next week was better and less painful as I corrected my sitting posture. I changed my reflection to my personal insecurities and anxieties that I dwell on daily. I struggle with social anxiety not because I am scared of other people, but I am more scared of the way I conduct conversations and the words I choose to utilize during communication. I had to come to terms with myself that I should not worry about the way that I communicate and that my social anxiety stems from comments made from others projecting their insecurities on the way I think and speak. It is pretty difficult to understand that I do stand out from others and that I should adhere to principle of unifying my heart mind and soul so that I can make my interior self intangible to the world and other’s feelings about me. 

If we allow our inner selves to become tangible to others and negative situations, then we can not flourish and we will dismember ourselves from our heart, mind, and soul.

"Love after Love"

My body and "Love after Love"

Since last semester I had begun working with accepting my body and myself. It is something that I have been struggled with since I was a child. I have hypothyroidism and polycystic ovaries. Because of that, I had developed a different aspect of what society wants. In general, I have become accustomed to seeing myself through what I think others think, judging me and belittling me without really knowing what they are thinking about me. When I see my body through the mirror, I can’t control the voices in my head. Those that only see the worst on me. When I see myself in the mirror, I only see a weak woman with the defects that come with being overweight. I can't see who I am because what I physically see prevents me from noticing everything I am and everything I must give to the world. Seeing myself as an object, as someone who does not know me, I see a shy and useless young woman, who can easily be put aside. I see a girl invisible to the world, and I can't understand how she got here, how she is doing all that someone tells her that she can’t. I see other Latina, who comes to drain “American” resources as if she were a parasite. I see a girl who just by looking at her size, I thought that inviting her to eat would be expensive.  

I star in the Zen Meditation without knowing what to expect, just as a requisite for another class. But now it had become something bigger and more important. It had become a way to learn to control my mind. To be able to just get my mind blank and quiet. Because if I get control over my thoughts, I can start getting control over those voices. Because just at that moment as in the poem “Love after Love” I will be able to walk to my mirror and sit in front of it and just enjoy my presence.  “Love again the stranger who was your self…” Loving myself maybe for the first time and love” the stranger who had loved me all my life, whom I had ignored…”. 

For now, I'm just “peeling my image from the mirror…” working with accepting a piece of me and my body every day. Until the time come and I could see that special being who has gone through many changes and many challenges to get where I am in front of this mirror. To see the road traveled by many tears and the hidden repressed desires that look at me through the mirror. To see a lot of plans and a lot of tiredness and get wonder for what I see can’t in the mirror because is uncertain. Be able to sit in front of the mirror and with bread and wine notice all my faults and my defects without pain because I will know that all my defects are not even close in proportion to what is shining inside me. Be able to watch every curve of my body and although I will know that isn’t the ideal body, I will be able to just say “I loved you” because of it mine. And although I will be surrounded by the voices and the thoughts that showed me my defects, I will have the tools to just stop them and just love the body that I have because this body is who made me who I am and is who protect myself. I will look at every scar I have and next to some photographs I will laugh with the memory of each experience.  

iExamen 1

  I chose to do my self observation on Friday 2/7. I don’t have class on Fridays until 12pm, so I set my alarm for 11:15. When I woke up my roommates were already gone because they have class earlier than I do, so there wasn’t anyone to talk to. The first thing I do when I wake up every morning is I check my phone, so naturally I checked my phone and looked through my notifications. I eventually had to get up and get ready for class, so I threw on a sweatshirt and leggings and put my hair in a ponytail because I didn’t feel like fixing it. It wasn’t until I got to my first class that I had my first conversation, which sounds really sad but made sense since I was alone all morning and there wasn’t much time between the time I had woken up and the time I had to be in class. I notice that most people are dressed very casually, as it is Friday and by the end of the week people have given up on trying to dress nicely for class. 

   By the time I get to my second class I see my friend and we talk about what happened the previous night and what they were going to do that night because I was going home after that class. In my second class, Spanish, we did mostly conversation activities, and the entire time the people in my group and I discussed how much we don’t like our Spanish class. I hadn’t realized until I had to observe my activity that we really only talk to each other about what we don’t like about our Spanish class.

   After this class I had to run to the train station to catch my train home for the weekend. When I got in my uber I didn’t talk to the driver and I put my airpods in instead and listened to music. The same thing happened in the train station. I was texting people or looking through my social media to keep myself occupied or avoid random people talking to me. On the train I stayed on my phone the whole two hours as well.

   It wasn’t until I got to my house that I decided to unplug myself from my electronics. I sat with my parents for an hour and we ate dinner and just caught up with each other. Surprisingly, the hour went by really fast. 

   I found that communicating with people without electronics was not hard and was very enjoyable. This could be because it was with my parents and usually our conversations just flow and are easy. I do think that if you get your mind off of thinking about the electronics or whatever is happening on the phone you can have a real conversation with other people.

Examen 1

Throughout the last couple of centuries, our means of communicating with each other have grown vastly. Where once it was only possible for speech to travel via word of mouth or letter pigeon, we can now communicate with practically anyone anywhere in the world or even just beyond it with just the click of a few buttons. With these new forms of communication methods, the way we interact with one another varies greatly. The first interaction of my day is generally a face to face one with my roommates but today it was with a phone call to my parents. My parents are currently visiting India, so this is the only method of communication that I have with them. Over the phone conversations, in my opinion, are not the ideal way to have an interaction with someone, they are merely for convenience purposes. Without the invention of this method, I would have had little to no commination with my parents for weeks or would have to wait for the pigeon to cross the world. This form gives us access to a person somewhere else but doesn’t give us full access. In my experience holding a conversation on the phone is much more difficult than a face to face one. When talking on the phone I felt that I only did it when I needed something specific from that person at that time, I never really called just to strike up a conversation. The face to face interactions I have with my roommates, on the other hand, are much different. In these cases, I talked to them not because I needed something from them, but rather I just wanted to converse. The conversations with them compared to my parents over the phone are much longer and I feel like I get more out of them.  When speaking to someone over the phone you feel as if you are not with them and that you cannot fully ask them what you want to say. Although you may be talking to that person then and there you aren’t truly with them and do not completely know what they are up to. When you are speaking with someone face to face the interaction is much more complete in that if the person you are conversing with is giving you their attention in its totality at that moment.

The hour that I turned of all my technology for the day actually happened on accident. I was just going about my day when a friend called me up and asked what’s up. My roommates and I weren’t doing anything important in particular, so we decided to head over to their place. After getting there we kind of just sat around and talked for a decent amount of time. I forgot my phone in my room entirely, so I really was really able to do this exercise properly.  In this period well over an hour, I noticed that when sitting in a group setting like the one we were in conversating is extremely easy. There is always someone adding something new or giving a new idea. I struggle to pay attention for a long period and through this exercise, I noticed that I can keep a much longer conversation with someone face to face because I can tell through their body language they are engaged while through the phone my attention goes to other places disengaging myself from the interaction. I also saw that in this setting others generally tend to use their devices less. Generally, someone is always doing something on their phone but when sitting and conversating as we were, I noticed that people only used their phones if someone had contacted them, not simply because they wanted to look at something or scroll through their social; media feeds. Once it became late, we headed back to our room and our own devices.  Once my roommates and I got back to our room I noticed that we all started to use our devices again and didn’t talk to each other as much. We would look up every once and a while and say something, but the continuous talk was not present. For most of my life, I have never been one to communicate in large amounts via cellphone, I would much rather just sit and talk to someone than hold a phone up to my ear or face. When speaking to someone directly I feel, and I can ask almost anything in the realm of conversation while on the phone I need something direct to discuss with them. Over the phone conversations, in my opinion, are meant to talk to someone a good distance away that is not as accessible, if you really want to sit and have a wholehearted conversation with someone, it must be a face to face interaction.

Examen AH

On Saturday, February eighth, I began and concluded my examen practice. This examen allowed me to become aware and vulnerable of my communication and relationship with others and the world. It allowed me to reconsider my actions and words. Because of the developing technological world, it is common that we ignore who and what is around us.        This Jesuit examine practice allows us to disconnect from the clamorous technological distractions that linger around daily.          

While communicating with my friends via social media, I noticed how many times our conversations were cut short or not finished at all. In person when I communicated with people; it was easier to complete a conversation, but they were more short-lived and less meaningful. The way that people today communicate on social media is far briefer than the way that people communicated via letters or even in emails. Humans are so quick to verbalize via Internet without giving much thought to our words, but we should consider what we say on the Internet more than we do in real life because social media is permanent. I have also noticed that I have begun to restrict myself more when it comes to communicating via social media and real life; it is restriction in a good way, but it doesn’t quite orchestrate how my brain truly considers certain situations or concepts. Communication nowadays has successfully made the majority of people with access to the Internet more careful with the fragility of their words. I was watching a video of an interview between the famous comedian and tonight show host, Jimmy Fallon and the famous “Queen of Drag”, RuPaul. Fallon had referred to RuPaul as a drag queen, which caused him to repeat “Drag Queen?” over and over dramatically, and her reaction incited fear in Fallon as presented on his face because he thought he had either got the term wrong or said something offensive. Fortunately, RuPaul was just joking with Fallon and corrected him, naming herself the Queen of Drag. This is a clear example of how we as a whole have restricted ourselves in our speech because of our fear of either being wrong, offending someone, or provoking anger. 

As I unplugged from social media and every other form of technology, I realized how vulnerable I was, and how bored I drew without technological accompaniment. The boredom ceased when my mind conceived the idea to make myself some tea and read out of my biology textbook because why should I not. As I was reading it was hard to scrutinize what my brain was trying to comprehend while glossing over organized drops of ink that were too abundant and clustered together, appearing to be more difficult to read than information presented on social media. After flipping through a few pages, my boredom returned from its short trip, so I went outside for a walk. As I walked, I noticed how many people I saw in groups; it reminded me of how in elementary school we are enforced to partake in the buddy system when we are outside. This idea presses the fact that nature is dangerous and so are the people in it, but I also thought about how I have ventured outside numerous times alone and returned to my final destination unharmed and untouched. Although there is a possibility that I could have been harmed, the possibility remains the same if I was indoors, with the group of people, or anywhere else. Shootings, bombing, a sudden ambush an many more threatening forces could pounce upon me in any situation. When people are in groups, they tend to notice less things than someone who is alone. When you isolate all other distractions, new beings invent themselves in your vision that you never noticed while distracted.

After unplugging and plugging myself back into the digital world, I realized how much I miss daily and how much we all miss daily of the beautiful and obvious but veiled beings around us. We are unified with nature and each other but are quick to point out our physical differences.

Date & Time #2

Blog #2

For this blog post, I went to the event downtown to watch the Measure by Measure play by William Shakespeare with my classmate Joey. During this play, it fantasized a time period decades ago from now where law was strict, and Dukes were present. The characters in this play were very different but started with a brother and sister named Claudio and Isabella who were ordinary citizens. They were interrupted by the absence of the Duke for which Angelo filled his role in vacancy. During this time, laws were strict, but Angelo made sure they were tightly managed and stricter. By doing things out of his power, he made sure that the people of the town would listen to him. There were shenanigans going on with Claudio as he was permitted to have sex with his engaged wife Juliet, but due to the absence of the Duke, Angelo took action and arrested him. While this was going on, Isabella was willing to do everything in her power to free her brother. For which Angelo tried seducing her into having sex with her, so that her brother would be freed. Even though the power-seeking leader at the time, Angelo was doing such wrong deeds currently and before in his life, he was not holding back any of his own sexual needs. Isabella declined this sexual intervention due to the fact of her own virtuous characteristics. While this was on the table, Angelo was still in the mix with his previous engagement with Mariana up until he abandoned her because of money. While lawful issues are going down there are ideas going around that Mariana will take Isabella’s place to have sex with Angelo as well as Claudio being granted pardon. This isn’t granted of course by Angelo, and instead he sends a fake dead head of Claudio to Isabella for which she thinks her brother is deceased. As the play goes on, the Duke finally returns and talks to Isabella as to what has been going on in the time of his absence for which he resolves many problems. He shows his true colors and the truth comes out from him and Angelo. Isabella and the Duke fall in love and get married, while her brother, Claudio is finally set free. Ultimately, this story had a happy ending where most characters were freed from sin and are in good conditions of survival.
While in this play, we have a happy ending, from our previous book we read Date and Time, most of the poems inside of it ended in sad and depressing closures. They had similar plots in a way where they both talked about relationships and how to make them survive. Where in Date & Time it mainly talked about maintaining contact with relationships and how it doesn’t matter the order of a story because it’ll still be a good story to tell. In contrast with Measure by Measure it mainly was the dishonesty of one character endangering the people of his town until the hero Duke returns to save the life of his future wife’s brother. Overall, our previous book had many sad endings, but still made it a good book to read as for the event we went to have a happy ending and was also a good story and plot well put together. To sum everything up from these past few weeks, all books are made to be great, but to the extent of whether it is a happy or sad ending varies.
My final reaction to the play made me realize that visualizing such emotion and actions in person is much more influential than reading words on a paperback. Even though authors can write strong words to portray strong emotions, it doesn’t hit the same as actually seeing someone in person go through the hardships or decisions in person. I look forward to doing more of these events as they have an impact on me and help me understand literature to a greater extent.

Examen 1

To be honest, going into this exercise I was skeptical and didn’t think that it would make any difference in the way that my day was going to go. Overall I was proven wrong, it did impact my day. My Friday was a great day, the things that I did may have played a part but overall this activity added to my happiness over the course of the day. My day started at 7am with a phone call from my mom, although a call this early isn’t the best, I ended up having a talk with my mom about the kids in her first grade class about the vulgar things that they would say to her, which gave me a good laugh to wake up to. Normally I would say that I would call her back later, but I figured that she took the time to call I should give it back. An hour later I got in an Uber who was very unhappy that it was pouring rain and there was traffic. After a small conversation he was no longer yelling at the cars “cutting him off”, possibly from the small interaction that we had. At the airport I talked to the people at the desk about the flight being delayed, they were clearly irritated about all the angry customers coming up and complaining to them about something they could not control. I went up and tried to be as polite as possible and asked if they thought it would be delayed any longer and they were nice right back. This interaction really had no effect on me, but it possibly gave the employees a break from all the rude people. When I got to Duke University and was meeting all of my friends, teammates I was trying to be as nice as possible, despite some of the things that I had heard from my friend. I had to hold back some of the preconceptions that I had on them, and although my view on them stayed the same in the end, I would like to think that they have a positive view on me. Overall communicating with people with this attitude definitely proved to be helpful and made me come off in a good way. I found that there weren’t any ways of communication that are not possible if you attempt with two people who are willing to communicate. 

Over the time that I unplugged from all my electronics, I found that there was not much to do so I decided to go on a walk across the Duke campus with my friend. This turned out much better than I  thought, for a couple of reasons. One was that I got to see how nice the campus was and got to see all of the legendary arena’s, specifically Cameron. Next I got to see all of the different things that they offered on the campus, and compare to what we have at Loyola. The other thing that I enjoyed was catching up with my friend. We talk on the phone and text but it really isn’t the same as having a face to face conversation. I ended up being two and a half hours unplugged, and I honestly enjoyed it. After going back to technology it didn’t feel any different, it was just nice to slow down and be away from it for a while. 

 I had a great day from the call at seven to the walk across campus and everything in between. I’m not sure that if I hadn’t done this activity it would’ve changed my day too much but it may have played some role. All in all I thought that this exercise had small impacts on my day and that it hopefully impacted someone else's day more than it did mine.

IExamen 1 

One thing I noticed while in Boulder was that people who were sitting together were still on their phones. These people were not taking the time to just sit and have a meal with each other, and just talk to each other. They were still had their phones in their hands and most times their phones would be open, and they would be continuously typing on them while people were sitting all around them. Though they're always seem to be one person in the group who wasn't. This one person would be sitting there without the phone in their hand just watching the others type on their phones. Sometimes these people would seem annoyed that their friends were not paying attention, but other times they just seemed content to just sit there and wait. Even just when having conversations with other people, something would come up and to either prove the point or just to go along with the story, the phone would be opened. The photos would be pulled up, to go along with a story that was being told. Or google would be opened to prove a point.  

Even though my phone was off I still felt a sort of pull towards it. As I was sitting there doing work that didn't involve technology, I still every so often when grab my phone as if to check my messages or check the notifications. Then I would realize that the screen was just completely black because it wasn't on. My parents say that I am addicted to my phone and I'm starting to think that they’re probably right.  

I noticed and I asked others and it seems that for most people their phone is the first thing they pick up in the morning and the last thing they do at night. Even when walking around campus, people are constantly on the phone talking to someone for are not even looking up because they are texting someone.