Brooks and Barbara's connections

  Before coming in to class I was having difficulties finding the connections between the two articles. After I relooked at both articles over and over again I got a couple of connections of the two articles. Then when we went to class and everyone brought their own ideas about what connection these two articles had. When reading the two articles together in class I gained a lot of new information about how the articles connected because when people bring their ideas together it all start to make sense little by little. Talking about it in class was a good way to help me better understand the different ways they connected, everyone had little information and slowly it was like finding all the pieces and putting them together to find that connection. The two articles we were focusing on was the “It’s not About You” by David Brooks and “Confessions of a Quit Addict” by Barbara Graham. One of the connections were the variety of choices they both had and by having too many choices it made it hard for them to just stick to one. This connection was in my interest because this is true in real life, when we have too many options just to make one choice can be difficult. As compared to having just two options it makes it a little bit easier for us to choose because it narrows the options. Another connection these two articles had was they both talk about self-destructor. David brooks isn’t talking about himself directly of experiencing self-destructor but Barbara is, and somehow these two connect because they both talk about how it affects people. This class helped me understand abstract and concrete ideas because it something that always pops up and we end up talking about it. The more we talk about it in class the better understanding I get of these two terms. We discussed how Brooks article mainly is about abstract ideas like worry, anxiety, freedom, happiness, and purpose. Meanwhile Barbara’s article was more concrete and little abstract. Barbara gave specific, concrete examples in her article, she had loads of examples throughout her article.  For example, she talked about quitting which is abstract, but then later in the article she listed down what she quit throughout her life. Barbara quit multiple jobs, her marriage, and college. In conclusion, these two articles spoke about different topics but in a way had strong connections between the two.

The Two Flavors

David Brooks mentioned the two “flavors” of worry in America. The first one is election related anxiety, many people depend on this election because all candidates want to make drastic changes. An example why people in America are feeling anxiety about this election because of Donald Trump’s idea to build a wall that separates the United States and also try his best to kick out all the immigrants who live in the United States. This election has to be the most outrageous of them all not only because there are a lot of differences between the candidates but because this is the first time in history a woman is up for election to be the next president of the United States. The second flavor David Brooks mentions is the educated-class anxiety, and according to Brooks “can be characterized as a feeling overabundant of options without a convicting purpose.” There are studies shown that rich countries have more anxiety than poor countries. The World Health Organization states that 18.2 percent of Americans have constant anxiety,” while only 3.3 percent of Nigerians do.” Brooks also explains worry to have the “fear of missing out”, which does make sense. A lot of people do fear to be left out, I’m not really sure why people feel the need to receive attention all the time. Maybe they grew up having everyone’s attention that’s why it feels weird when other people are focused on something else and not on them. Also, many people feel the need to fit in, so maybe that’s another reason why David Brooks said that people fear to be left out or miss out. I see the second “flavor” playing in my friendships because sometimes I do fear of missing out on some of the things they do. For example, whenever they go out and they don’t tell me about it right away I feel like I’m missing out. Yes, I know I have been missing out on a lot of things but the main reason for that being is because either I have to go to work or I have to go to school and focus on turning in my assignments. Another fear of being left out with family is this year I’m not going to come home for the holidays due to my work schedule. I know I am going to miss out on a lot of things this year because of my priorities with school and work.

Sports Blog #7

Throughout my life I have always enjoyed participating in sports. My first sport I ever played was volleyball, then basketball and soccer. My parents made a rule that if I wanted to participate in sports I had to make at least an 80% in my classes in order to play. At first I ignored the fact that my parents made that rule until I received my first C. They made sure I didn’t go to practices or games. I was devastated because I could not play for the rest of the season. After that happened I made sure that I tried my best in school the same way I did for sports that way I could enjoy doing the things I love doing the most. I was the first child in my family to participate in sports, my parents didn’t understand the point of going to practice or coming home late from games. It took my parents a good while to understand how sports worked in high school. I explained to them how it had a lot of benefits not just only for my health but also for my education. Colleges like to see that students can do extracurricular activities and still earn good grades, that was a way of representing students could take care of their responsibilities. The main reason why I enjoyed participating in sports was because it really helped me clear things off my mind even if it was just for a small amount of time. When I got to high school my favorite sport to play was soccer. We would practice in the summer up until the season started which was in mid-October. Soccer is much more than just a game to me. It was pretty much the only sport that every time I stepped out on that field all my problems vanished. My first goal I ever made was in my senior year of high school, the feeling was unexplainable. I could hear the crowd cheering and saw the people who supported me the most which was my family. Playing this sport has taught me life lessons, for example, if you keep practicing eventually you’ll get better and better and things will be easier. This is a sport where it brings people together because there’s something to talk about at the end of the beautiful game. One of my main goals in life is to travel to Barcelona to see the FC Barcelona Stadium and get the privilege to watch one of their games.

Mike's Advice on Education and Goals

There are many things that Mike Rowe talked about in his video( Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe on the High Cost of College)from education, goals, life lessons, and experiences he had during his life. He also spoke about how technology now a days have become the less need we have for work force, and total efficiency is equal to total robots. What really stood out to me in the video was Rowe’s perspective about education and how everyone advises you on what your goals have to be like. He said that when everyone would tell him “follow your passion” he would think to himself that it was terrible advice because when he was on the show Dirty Jobs very few people followed their passion. One of his coworkers use to be a guidance counselor but got tired of dealing with people after a certain period of time. Rowe liked that he was honest about it because his friend became a guidance counselor for the reason that he always thought that what he wanted to do was the thing he was told to do. In other words, he was interested in psychology mainly because that what was expected from him. Also, he said that cost of a degree has increased 500 times the rate of inflation. Many students are in big debt due to wanting to peruse their education. There are many things he talks about when getting to the topics about education, goals, and jobs. His academic advisor always encouraged him to go to a four-year university because he had the potential. Rowe did not like the idea of attending these big universities because he saw no point of wasting money into these big schools rather than saving money and attending a smaller campus. Rowe is not against education he’s anti debt; he thinks there are many more options to do things in a smarter and for the less of the cost. His points are valid, I do think they are smarter ways to get the things you want. For example, a four-year university sounds great but I can go to a community college, finish my basics for half of what I’d be paying if I went to TAMU or any top university. Currently I am taking courses here at Blinn College and I am saving money, then I can transfer to TAMU after three more semesters. Everyone is different; not everyone is fitted for a university. I think what Rowe is trying to get people to understand is that people should do things because they want what is best for themselves, not because of what others tell them what’s best for them.

Social Media and Electronic Devices

                              

                Social media and electronic devices has been a big part of our lives ever since they were invented. Throughout our life we depended on these devices to communicate with others. In my childhood years I did not have a phone, but I did have a computer at home and the only social media I had at the time was Facebook. Reason why I had a Facebook was to communicate with my family and friends because I didn’t get to see often. I’m glad I didn’t have a phone during those times because I was more focused and more energized to do absolutely anything. I did not have a phone to contact my neighbor to see if she was home. I would walk to my neighbor’s house to see if she was there and if not I would come home, and that was that. When we would spend time together we would go swimming, skateboarding, or play soccer outside. It wasn’t till the summer of my junior year in high school when I got my first phone. When I got my phone a lot of things changed, I wasn’t paying attention to my friends as often and I would lose focus in school sometimes. In David Brook’s article it said,” we remove or drastically filter all the information we might get by being with another person.” Which is totally true now a day, people often forget they’re with their friends because they are more engaged on social media and worried about what others are doing. I have seen a lot of people go out and they’re constantly on their phones all the time. I feel like these devise have taken over our lives; we rather actually capture the moment other than to live in the moment. There are many reasons why these devices have there positive effects but there are also a lot of reasons why these devise have there negative outcomes. For example, a good outcome from these devices is that now everything can be done through the touch of a hand. The con of these devices is that it’s a distraction to what is really important, like school. Students make it seem that these devices are more important than to listen to their instructor give a lecture and then complain when they receive a bad score on their exam.

Blog #4; Free Write

I started working at the age of fifteen, my mom had this really great friend named Darlene, who was a real estate. She would travel constantly so she didn’t have much time to clean her house as often. She asked me and my sister Ayendili if we wanted to work a couple of hours in the morning, we agreed to this job because it was during the summer and we didn’t have anything else planned to do during the time. My next job was when I moved to Yoakum TX, in fast food restaurant called Rusty Rooster. I worked during the school year and throughout my time working there I gained a lot of experience. In the beginning I started taking orders and preparing them, and after that I moved up to register and opening the restaurant. You gain a lot of customer service experience when working in jobs like this; many employees will have questions to ask and it is your job to communicate the best you can to help them. There are all kinds of great people you can meet while at work. During the summer of my senior year I planned to keep that job but also wanted to find another job to help me save up for college. There is a company called Eddy Packing Co. that is just 5 minutes away from home. I decided to apply and thankfully they had an open position for a receptionist. They gave me an interview the following week and informed me what kind of qualifications they were looking for in person to become eligible for that position. The one thing they were desperately looking for was someone who was bilingual, they informed me that they had a lot of great interviews but none of them spoke Spanish fluently. The benefit of being bilingual is that it opens up many doors when it comes to jobs. Not everyone knows how to speak English so by having someone who speaks both languages is very beneficial. A couple of days went by and then I got a call stating that I was qualified for the position as a receptionist. My experience of working two jobs really helped me become more of a responsible and independent woman. Also working as a receptionist was a great experience to expand my knowledge. I was really blessed to have nice and supportive coworkers to help me through it all. As a receptionist you have to be very communicative with other employees and that was something I had a hard time before I got the job. After working there, I gained a lot of confidence when talking to people as well as bettering myself when it came to interviews.

My First Exam

My expectations for this exam was that I thought it was going to be a lot harder because during the past few weeks we have been learning a lot of new things. I was not sure I was going to remember it all for this exam. I did have what I needed to prepare myself, which was the study guide but I got test anxiety and my brain went blank during parts of the exam. How I prepared myself for this exam? I started by taking all the vocabulary words and writing them down on a separate sheet of paper. Reasons why I wrote them down was because when I write things it helps me remember better. Also I had made some index cards for the parts that were more difficult for me to remember all the information at once. Luckily my roommate had spare time to help me study for about an hour. After, I would study I would go to the gym for about an hour or so and come back to study again. I have had people advise me that exercising helps to keep things well kept in your memory. For the most part I did remember a lot of things I thought I was going to forget on the exam. On the exam there were a couple of things that probably were not difficult but I did have somewhat of a hard time understanding what was asked. I can’t quiet remember what specific question it was, but I do know I probably answered some of them wrong due to the fact that I was confused on how to answer the question. I probably should’ve asked but I wanted to see if I could try to remember during the exam and answer the question the best I could.