MY PROGRESSION

   This course is definitely something that helped me in school and life. Because colleges usually take advantage of the technologically advanced time we live in and use the internet as a source of education and input, the idea of blogposts is perfect and really helped me understand and reflect on my thoughts on whatever the topic was. It also gave us the freedom and opportunity for input. So this has prepared me for college.
   Throughout the year we read many books and had some socratic seminars, which I do think we should've done more of, and the class discussions really helped me learn and understand different point of views and also made me further realize how different we all are and how our opinions could change or be affected by one another, which is awesome. Life-wise, I do think that the themes behind the books we read and the characters in them made me more aware of my surrounding and more aware of the world I live in and could not have been done without class discussions and socratic seminars. Some of these books definitely include In Cold Blood and The Great Gatsby. These two came down to my 2 favorites. In Cold Blood I liked because it had this really ominous dark enigma behind it and how it was written which interested me and the way that the writer twisted the way the reader felt about a character that would normally be seen as evil but shines him in a light that forces the reader to sympathize. The Great Gatsby's commentary on society and the nation we live in and the type of people that we can be surrounded by that could affect everything that we do captivated my attention and I thought was a really cool addition to the reading list this year. To be honest, there was no novel that I did not like. 
   When it came to the essays, I wasn't the best writer, which I am completely aware of. But I'd say the strongest essay that I could write was the argumentation mainly because it was easy for me to pick a side and just go for it and stick to the layout and "convince" the reader to understand my side and pick it. Although some of the prompts for the argumentation were sometimes difficult to grasp, I could do it. The most difficult essay to write was the rhetorical. Finding 3 devices in the reading was challenging, but the planning and putting the whole essay together was the difficult part for me.

ME

   It takes a lot of thinking and digging inside to find the 5 things that I carry with me; one physical, a dream or goal, a relationship, my personality, and memories that define who I am.  

   Fashion. Clothing. My closet. I literally feel naked with these things. Sounds dramatic, but interests are interests and this is something I carry. It is important to me not for looks, but for visuals. And confidence. To add a dimension to myself just by adding an article of clothing and messing with colors, shapes, designs, etc. It may not be the most fashionable thing, but that isn't the point. The point in not to look good, but to feel good. To be whatever "character" or "person", visually, that you want. And, to be completely honest, my whole day revolves around my clothes. If I am wearing something that is physically uncomfortable, then for the rest of the day, I will feel on the edge and a bit cranky. If I am wearing something that doesn't look "good" to me or I don't "feel" the outfit, I will be on the edge and a bit cranky. It is odd, I know, but it is the thing I carry and without it, I am naked; physically and spiritually. 

   My dreams. Oh there is a lot of them but I will narrow them down to 3 things. My life goal is to learn, teach, and create. To be an ARTIST. I don't want to be a school teacher, but I want to teach everyone about the importance of the awareness of life. I don't just want people to know, or for people to understand, I want people to take the information life gives them, and apply it to their lives. You can know something, or understand something, but to fully grasp it and genuinely understand it is to take advantage of that knowledge and use it in your life. I want people to be aware of what is going on and to not view things in a single dimension and perspective because that limits your spectrum of knowledge. I want people to feel positivity and add this positive aura around themselves. Because usually, what you put into life, is what you are going to get. And people can learn from you and your life, so you will be helping others by simply being yourself. I want to teach people to be themselves. Sounds cliche, but really. Outside forces and the way you want people to perceive you gets in the way of finding yourself. That is what I want to teach. And much much much more of course, but there is only so much I can type. But before I do all of that. I want to learn. I want to learn from life, from people, from society, from my surroundings and become an expert at understanding my life and myself and the conflicts and situations that will occur and find the most efficient route to overcome them. I truly want to learn. I also want to create; to become an ARTIST. To not just tell people about these things, but to show them in visual, metaphorical, symbolic, artistic ways. Whether it be digital art, film, theatre, a painting or drawing, a collage, whatever art form there is, I want to get my hands on and use it to spread these messages to the best of my ability. But not yet. I must master the task of understanding before I dive into this world of ART. This is a very complicated task because you will learn until the day you die. If that is the case, then I will create and teach until I am dead. There is no stopping me. 

   A relationship that truly inspires me is my mother. There isn't much to say because there is too much to say. All that I can/will say is that the impact she has on me is not because of the things that she has done for me, but the pure joy and genuine willingness to continue to love me and strive to make me the happiest I can be. She really brings out the best in me, and she sees herself in me, while I see myself in her. 

   I am smart. I am beyond open minded. I am wise. I am everything because I allow myself to be everyone and open myself to whatever I can, whether it be insane or dull. I am not smart. I am not beyond open minded. I am not wise. Because I will be, but not yet. Maybe now I am those things, but I will be more those things as I grow. I truly just want to grow as a human being and continue to think and think and understand and learn and teach because without these things, I am nothing. I need these things to survive and become what I want to become and be everything. I am extremely passionate as you can tell, but that is my fuel and my food to satisfy my hunger for growth. 

   A memory I remember is a loss of a friend. Not a physical death, but a death from my life. A complete absence of them. This taught me to be alone, and to be truly alone. I hated it. I really hated it in the beginning and it really sucked. But without this period of loneliness, there would be no independence. And without independence,. you don't have confidence and true passion because you are relying not 100% on yourself. And that is what I had to do. Get on my OWN 2 feets and be my OWN person and I can't be happier because of that. Luckily, that person is in my life now and that is all that matters. Now we can share our independence and learn from one another and be the dream team. 

   I am glad we got this assignment, because it was exactly what I needed. A reflection and a reminder of why I am happy and who I am and what I want to be. Thank you. Hope people are inspired, I know I am. 

The Third Option is...

Compromise. Times change and people change very fast. Especially with us millenniums, the new generation where technology has given us the opportunity to learn about the cultures of the world through social media and Google within seconds. Now, we have these outlets, but we also have our parents and family. Our parents have their own culture and so do we. But how can the new generation compromise with the old? Do we feel as if our parents mentalities are stopping us from becoming our own culture? Is this the reason why we disrepsect and dishonor the ways of the past generations? The only way we can honor the culture of our parents yet break away and establish our own identity is compromise; becoming open minded to the point where we learn from the cultures of the past but also take on these exciting new ways of thinking. We can be critical, in an efficient way in which we learn from the past. We, as a generation must honor the the cultures of our parents because history repeats itself and the way we think could reoccur in new sense. On a personal note, having parents that are from the middle east and had strict parents, who may have loved them, but taught them to respect elders, can be difficult at times. The idea of "a new generation" did not exist 30/40 years ago in the middle east. The way things were, were the way things were. So trying to explain this idea is a complicated task, but with compromise, we were able to understand the importance of working hard and being humble. Because back then, that is all they had. My parents did not have a nice house or decent cars or "money", so they had to get to where they want by taking the time to work. Now, my parents will not beat me with a spoon if I bring a B, because they understand the difficulty of investing yourself in school. They didn't so well, so I take that and think "Hey, if they became successful and happy without getting straight A's, can't I?" So that idea of working hard and becoming successful isn't in school, I have learned from them, but in dedication. Now, this doesn't mean that I will drop out and work to get money, because I have a choice. I have the chance to go to college become educated and successful, and this is what I, and the new genertation of kids have in common. The chance to succeed and not struggle as much as our parents did. The only way to keep your identity but honor the mentality of your parents and their culture is so be critical, to be ambitious, but to also stick to your roots and be loyal to the roots of your parents and what they beleive. The 3rd option lies in the relationship between you and your parents. And the only way to find it is to communiate, listen, understand, teach and compromise.

ALIENS ARE REAL

   ALIENS FOUND 

   No I didn't hear about the weird things you saw in the sky last night while driving to McDonalds. Oh wait, I think I did, but I didn't tweet and hashtag about it and text my best friend. Actually, I think I did. But that isn't the point. The point is that we are obsessed with the idea of the unknown. You know "The Fourth Kind", "Paranormal Activity 1-5", "District 9. Those movies that we pay 8 bucks for and love. I just want to know why. 

   We, as a culture, love to learn. We feel proud of our knowledge and yearn to succeed. Most of the time. So when we aren't able to easily get the information we want, we turn to things like music, film, art to explain those things in different and exciting ways so we could at least understand it in one sense. Movies like "Paranormal Activity" feast our hunger for the other ghostly world that we don't know about and are afraid of. We know it isn't real. I mean, how do we really know? We don't and we are O.K. with that because those movies make us feel excited about those things and that is all we really need considering the fact that we may or may not have found evidence for these things. 

   2012. That was a huge deal in pop culture. The internet and film used this idea to their advantage to create entertaining things based on this "event". The film "2012" talked not only about the end of the world, but how the governments around the world created a ship that could withstand the floods and effects of this event. Is the government creating things that don't know about. Things that only they could use and are helpful. We not only are obsessed with the unknown, but are obsessed with revolution and the government turning against the people and being secretive. 

   Saturn Devouring His Son. A very popular art piece that was painted in the early 1800's. The artist, Francisco Goya was afraid he would be overthrown by his children. Again, the obsession with revolution and the turning against of. In American Culture, there is a theme on family. The teenagers are all want to revolt and are close minded and stupid. The parents are lost and don't know what to do with themselves and their kids. The parents are terrified something would happen to their children, but the "I HATE YOU MOM" hits it hard. The feeling of your own child telling you they resent you and wish you were never part of their lives. That is a real fear of parents. And this in society these roles are played because of this obsession with being part of culture and society, regardless the outcome.