Blog #3

            For this analysis/blog post, I will be discussing the poem Chameleon by Kiran Waqar and Hawa Adam and my newfound experiences at my job during this current epidemic we are currently living through. With this new Corona Virus disease begging to take the streets of America, it has caused what some would say an unpleasant turn in society. People are stockpiling goods like there is no tomorrow, toilet paper, food, and especially alcohol. This panic has caused business to be almost as high as it would be during the Christmas and New Year’s, but the reason for their alcohol purchases now differ greatly. People walk to the store most of them now wearing masks, gloves and other basic protective gear to fulfill their drinking needs. On the other hand, there are people who buy like they won’t leave their homes for months, walking into the store with a. full makeshift hazmat suit comprised of garbage bags and tape, not the typical look you would expect from any straight-thinking person. My first reaction when seeing people like this is that all of this won’t help you fight what you are trying, it is only making you look like a fool. In the poem the two authors right about how Chameleons have to adapt to their situations and soundings and to do that they change their appearance in order to survive. These people who come to shop dressed like literal garbage are in their minds changing their appearance to survive, but their over-exaggerated protection is in my estimation completely useless compared to that of the chameleon. In a few stanzas down the authors discuss how the how though chameleons have this protective layer, they know “It cannot hide us, It cannot keep us safe”. Even the chameleons know that simply having this protective layering over them will not save them, unlike those who wonder shipping covered from head to toe in plastic bag. Practicing safe and healthy procedures is the best way to combat the enemies we are currently battling with in this world, not useless overprotection. In the next few stanzas they write, “So we develop thick skin so no one can ever see us, So no one can ever know us, Including ourselves”. The useless over protection some people enter with makes them look like they aren’t even a person, you don’t have any idea who they are when they enter only from the sound of their voice would you maybe be able to recognize them. I feel that when these type of people look in the mirror with their getup they themselves don’t even know who they are; they see what this panic has caused them to do and realize that they are so far from what they should be doing that they can’t even see themselves as a normal person in the mirror, that and maybe the fact that they are covered in garbage bags.

iExamen 2

                   In my culture, kindness is not always reflected from the parents to the children; African American and especially African parents raise their children way harsher than how other families may raise their children. I was not exposed to the power of kindness apart from behaving well in school so that I did not have to face severe consequences at home for unruly behavior. This verbal exercise is far different than how I am used to communicating with my family because non-sarcastic and kinder diction is a taboo communication concept in my family.

                    

                  This morning my older sister yelled at me for eating the last pack of gushers. In response, I apologized for doing so (I would NEVER do this) and told her if I had money I would get some more (which is kind of true and not completely a lie). She responded to me by calling me an idiot and if I were not doing the examen I would have said something in rude in return but I did not ( I will tomorrow though!). 

                     

                   I am usually much nicer with my younger sister so I just conducted conversation with her as I normally would while I assisted with her homework packet. I am the same with my mother as well but not so much with my dad because he gets on my last nerve, so I ignored him today. This exercise helped me consider my comments and feelings more towards my family members. It also caused me to reflect on the two sudden deaths of my uncle and aunt and that I should be kinder with my words towards my family because (God forbid) anything can happen and I do not want my last words to be hurtful nor false. 

                   With the virus pandemic lurking about in the states, we are forcing ourselves to come to a closure about what we purchase, what we will eat, how our future will pan out and so many other worries the we forget to appreciate who we have around us; and those with roofs over their heads and food in their house forget that they are far more privileged than those without. The pandemic has caused us to not consider the words nor actions that we use to treat others hence the reason why xenophobia and racism has erupted within our society. Thankfully, people have realized that we overreact to the smallest issues as a result of fear and quelled the confusion with kindness and compassion.

                     Kindness, usefulness, and truth are the remedies for fear and aggression. My older sister often refers to me as "the golden child" because I do not like to quarrel with my parents but I instead use kindness to respond to my parent's constant demands or confusion. It is not easy to be patient with my parents nor my siblings, especially when they are in a bad mood and I try my best not to be an addition to their anger. I feel like a lot of social issues that exist in our society today are fueled by fear and confusion and people just not considering how their words may or may not solve whatever issue they have. Especially on political terms, a lot of arguments erupt from the simplest misconduct of speech. We all need to reconsider our words everyday to quell confusion.

                     

                   

iExamen 2

Jaime Hynes

iExamen 2

Throughout the course of the day on March 17, 2020, also known as Saint Patrick’s Day, I tried to make sure that the messages I communicated were kind, useful, and true. At first, this seemed like a pretty simple task. When reflecting on how I communicate, I felt that the messages I speak or send are usually pretty kind, useful, and truthful. However, after spending six days in quarantine with my family, my words were not always super kind or useful. Considering I have two younger siblings, boy and girl, my patience was constantly being challenged resulting in maybe some not so kind messages being shared.

But on this day, I paid very close attention to the words I used and the messages I shared not only with my family but also with my friends over social media and text messaging. Since the coronavirus has been, of course, a very large discussion between everyone in the world, I tried to make sure every text I sent could be useful to my friends who were struggling in quarantine like I have been. I did this by sending new updates about the virus in our county and in our country but also fact-checking them before pressing send, to ensure my message was truthful. Along with true and factual information, I tried my best to share positivity to my friends who have been very upset with the news of not being able to return to school, vacations being canceled and overall becoming lonely due to social distancing. I did this by reminding them that when this pandemic begins to fade, life will return back to not only be back to normal, but we will be able to appreciate it even more than we did prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Things like traveling to see family and friends or sitting in your favorite restaurant for a meal will mean so much more.

This day, March 17^th, I also found out some extremely saddening news that greatly affected my day and how I communicated with those around me and my friends through social media. I found out that the day before Nick Myers, a boy in my class at Loyola, passed away. I had the pleasure of spending time with Nick a few times and from what I can remember, he was such a caring person with a lot of positive energy and the best smile. Although, my concern this day was not with my own grieving. I have a few friends who were very close to Nick, and this sudden loss was taking a huge toll on them. Specifically, my one very close friend and Nick hung out almost every day of the first semester and she has gone through other tragic deaths like this in her life. Because of this, reaching out to her and expressing my love for her was my main priority. I wanted her to know that she was in my thoughts and prayers and that I would always be there for her to talk to, even though I knew she was strong enough to get through it herself. This communication, while also useful, was my way of expressing a kind message to a friend in a time of need.

Throughout this day, I chose my words thoughtfully when interacting with my family. With the previously mentioned event in mind, I was feeling especially grateful for each person in my life and wanted to express that. I chose to be extra kind to my siblings and parents because life is short. Going forward with this crazy new life we are all living in, filled with hand sanitizer and keeping six feet apart from everyone we see, I think it is important that we stay positive and help each other through it. This iExamen helped me to realize that the words we use and the messages we communicate play a big role in this positivity and helpfulness and I hope to try and implement what I learned in my communicating going forward.  

iExamen 2

            Practicing self-reflection while home from college due to the coronavirus sparking a worldwide crisis is incredibly fitting. As my family and I quarantine ourselves and disconnect from the social world, observing my attitudes and actions has the potential to be most effective.  I think that by the end of the time I am quarantined with my family, I will have spent the most quality time with them than ever before. It is a good idea to challenge myself to live, at least for a day, with the mindset of only saying things that are kind, useful, and true. When I went into this day and observation, I had hoped to improve the time spent with my family members and to avoid any potential conflicts. It is a difficult adjustment coming home from school, unexpectedly, and living with family again, especially when we cannot leave the house. I started the day by going downstairs to make myself breakfast. I was trying to think of how I could apply to be kinder into my life, in any way, no matter how simple or extreme. I decided to make breakfast for my family and their response was well worth it. It took barely any extra effort or time to do something that would make others happy and that was a great feeling. I think it was especially important that I did something that would make my family happy as this is such a stressful and uncertain time. It made me want to continue to do something every day to make them happy and help to relieve the stress of everything going on.

 Throughout the rest of the day, I worked to make sure that anything I say or act upon is useful and positive intent. In order to accomplish this, I needed to make sure that I thought before I said anything and did not let my emotions get in the way. For example, I was initially disappointed with the fact that I could not see my friends from home and that I was losing the second semester of my freshman year at college. However, after more careful and thoughtful reflection, I realized how lucky I truly am. So many people are going through a much more difficult time than me right now. The only thing that I have control of in this situation is staying in my house and keeping those struggling in my thoughts. It would be useless and selfish to complain about something that does not impact me to the full extent as it does others.

This self-observation reminded me to reconnect with myself and who I truly want to be. I want to be kind and I want to make others feel good. Unfortunately, sometimes emotions get in the way of that goal. After completing this iExamen, I am going to consistently work on being more mindful of my actions and thoughts.

iExamen 2

IExamen 2

For this IExamen, I was told to caution my day using kind, useful, and true words. Although this was challenging considering my generation uses a lot of sarcasm and words they don’t mean, I was certainly up to the challenge. As I went on with my day, I received very different responses that I usually get whether that was people not taking me serious or just ignoring my comment completely. For which I come to understand that I joke around with my friends a lot. As for my family members they tended to smile more often with acceptance of my positivity which shifted my mood to a rather sincere, heartwarming feel. These emotions sometimes feel distant at times because of priorities set forth to ignore the simplistic pleasures of the world. Instead we tend to use ignorance and dishonesty to travel through our lives, but sometimes it’s the kindness out of our hearts that helps us do best. The best response I got was from my mom, when I said something relatively funny and all she had for me was a giggle and a simple “I love you Najee”. From getting through with this task, I felt as if by communicating this way, I gained a sort of acceptance from my peers or possibly them looking at me a different way than before. Its always a what if possibility that shows another side of someone for which positivity should be at the forefront of everyone’s conscious and comments. 

Before taking part of this project, I thought it would be silly to act out of character than I usually do, but since the task was to add positivity in my life turned out to be a good challenge. There are some people that would think it would be easy to do it, but for me staying true, kind, and useful can often go awry when talking to your friends and siblings. The change was much needed to see the response of my people around me. I didn’t think I would be able to do it for a full day, but with intentions and focus I was able to do so. My comments spoke outward to the point where people didn’t take my words serious initially, but with another listen they took note in my sincerety. Being useful and kind to people shouldn’t be hard, but the way I have come to live recently, I just haven’t really payed a lot of attention to detail. I have helped people in the passed like with homework among other things, and kindness just comes out of your heart which I have been raised to do. Before taking on this project, I just don’t quite recall always doing such with no negative vibes in my life. Finally, while doing this project, I had to pay attention to detail and try not to laugh while that would make it seem sarcastic or not genuine. Overall, that was the main thing I had to deal with and learn from every encounter where being genuine was hard to stay true to, but has taught me now that by telling the truth and being kind, there is a will and a way to keep positivity in your life to make sure everyone around you is happy and has a smile on their face.

iExamen 2

Joseph Kamish

Dr. Ellis

En-101-07

17 March 2020

iExamen 2

            After reading the directions for the second iExamen, I though quite a bit about how it so closely resembled the purpose of the first.  Both are strongly centered around self-observation and reflection.  The more I thought about these activities, the more I saw how helpful they could be.  Practicing different types of social interaction and personal behavior can help you find a thought process that really suits you in all situations.  The first iExamen focused purely on self-reflection, while the second iExamen hopes to build off what you learned previously and put it into practice by addressing people with purely kind, useful, and true responses.  Before starting this activity my first thought was that there was no possible way that I could tell everyone something that is true, and kind, in every situation.

            This exercise was very interesting to me because of how I speak to friends and family on a regular basis.  Normally when I’m around my friends, we freely criticize and make fun of each other, as it’s just part of our casual interactions.  So usually, when I’d find myself calling my brother or friend stupid or an idiot (but not actually meaning it), I had to quickly stop myself and just say nothing at all.  The reason I said nothing was because whenever I throw around insults like that, it’s honestly for no purpose at all rather than just to fill the conversations.  Nobody said anything to me but I’m positive that my friends were wondering why I was acting so weird.  This specific example was particularly funny internally to me, because I would constantly find myself in a situation where my brain couldn’t come up with anything in place of the insult to say, so I would just sit there quietly.  For the most part, communicating like these didn’t really help or hinder me in any way, besides the example that I previously gave.  I like to think that when I speak to people, I do my best to be conscious of their feelings and say something that might help them in some way.  Unfortunately, I don’t believe my friends cared enough to inquire about my random pauses in conversation (when I blocked an outgoing insult), so I never explained to my friends, or family, what I was working on that day.

            For the most part I worked extremely hard to follow the requested parameters of this exercise by speaking to people truthfully and kindly.  The only exception I can think of is when my friend, who had been sad lately, asked to hang out.  I really wasn’t in the mood to see him but telling him that would have just disappointed him more than he already was.  So, I ended up telling him that I was busy running errands with my Mom, which is always a golden excuse.  As well as some good laughs, this assignment helped me realize that your words to others can drastically change how they go about their days.  So when speaking with friends, family, or even strangers, don’t throw meaningless words their way in an effort to escape a social interaction.

iExamen 2

iExamen 2

                  

              Coming from a conservative American little island, the language we used was something important because it separated you from “uneducated” people vs “educate” people. My parents had made sure that I get three conditions in my communication kindness, usefully and the truth. If I look at my childhood, I can remember some slaps in the mouth and long punishments for saying some "white" lies or saying things that were not kind and even today at almost 20 years I still getting some small punishments and some serious faces. These conditions have become part of me and now there are no longer conditions, there are filters. Filters that I have been developed in a way that I can activate and deactivate them to improve my communication and change my behavior with different people. 

              On Saturday when I woke up in my home I was ready to analyze every word that left my mouth. Beside my days at the university where when I get up everyone still asleep and I have no one to talk to; at home, everyone was waiting for me in the kitchen ready to talk about their days. So, with a “Good morning!” I started this day. The conversations flowed non-stop. The themes changed both in subject and maturity. At one point we were talking about some documentaries that we had seen about Egypt and in the next second, we were talking about how sick my sister's doll was and how she had been cured by receiving the hair of a unicorn as medicine. The conversations remained as deep and as childish as you could imagine.

               Over the day I noticed that even if I used the filters in the same "way" I noticed some new filters as I spoke with my parents and my sisters. When I spoke to my sisters, filters were trying to simplify my thoughts, and blocking any word or sentence that can suggest that Santa Claus and unicorns not exist. While I was talking to my parents I was looking for more complex words and deleting every "misspelling words" because “misspelling words can’t be said under any circumstances”. For me was interesting, because I wasn’t conscious about how many filters I am able to use in a short period of time. They had become an automatic process. 

                Using and analyzing my filters before speaking wasn't really difficult or out of the norm for me. Actually, I enjoyed it, because being understood it’s something that although we do not give any value, now that I found myself in the situation of speaking a foreign language and not being understood as I wanted, it has taught me its importance. So talking in my native language and being able to be really understood without any type of misunderstood was as a weight took off my back and something that I learned to appreciated the most.