The Boy with the Lypse

Introduction: In the making of this essay, it was very new to me. It brung me out of my comfort zone. My goal was to show versatility in my writing and do something different. I hope the reader enjoy



Til this day, I can still  remember why my voice was a burden to literacy. Times where my classmates would giggle  when I was called on to read because they thought I sound like a girl. When I stuttered while speaking about something that  made me excited but would leave feeling sad because I overheard my friends mocking me. No one could understand what i was saying and that threw a lot of problems at me. Speaking is not a strength that I would put on a job application. Throughout my entire life, my different experiences with literacy would only be defined positive if I read it clearly. My words never mattered to people but if I could get them to fall in love with the way I said those words, I’d be a master at rocket science or at least got them to forget about my lypse. Literacy is not always what you write down but how you communicate it to the listener, something I learned the hard way.

Preschool was the first time I ever knew I had a problem talking. I remember saying the “A,B,C’s” over and over again because I talked different from the rest of the kids. Another kid and  I shared a voice tutor. A fragile blonde would come every week to pull us out of class and teach us how to read words on a card out loud. I couldn't stop looking at the other boy head because he had this nasty braid on the top of his neck. In fact, I was more interested in imagining getting a pair of scissors and cutting that thing off than learning how to talk properly. The lady would put a card in my face and made weird tongue gestures at me to help me pronounciat. With word combinations like “ dirty and thirty, king and cane, trousers and trials, I designed a world of mistakes. Saying them out loud sounded like my tongue was putting two different words in a blender and trying to communicate with one.  I could never say any of those words correctly or to the standards of dominant society. In this case, the classroom because my teachers believed I had a bad lypse, forgetting the fact that I can read  the entire Dr. Seuss series without any mistakes.

That preschool experience had me really thinking that maybe I shouldn't speak at all. I was scared of reading anything out loud, especially in front of grown ups because that they felt like I didn't know how to talk.

My speaking problems followed me all the way through elementary school as that would be my first experience with reading passages. It was fourth grade, Mr. Kris class. We were  face down in our text books. Mr. Kris was randomly choosing students to read. “What if people laugh? I don't know how to pronounce this word? I hope he doesnt call on me.”, is all I kept thinking while a student was being called on, one by one. Some were reading slow, fast, and even skipping words. I tend to notice that though they all had different styles of speech, their tones were acceptable. The girls sounded like girls and the guys sounded like guys, voices ranging from squeeky to creepy. Then the teacher called on me. My eyes locked  on the words as if they were trying to hold on to a boat that is slowly sinking into an ocean full of snakes.  My mouth begin to move as if it was being directed by my view. This is not how I imagine my voice sounding in my mind. It was fruity yet shrill and I stuttered  a lot on words that I knew how to say, at least in my mind. Every word pass through my teeth as sweat fall an inch closer down my face. When I finished the section, I looked up like I just ran a marathon. We had free time after we were finish the class work. Everyone was talking to each other and not about the reading. I tried to socialize with my classmates but was quickly shut down by them. A boy asked me why do I talk like I have spit in my mouth? Then another one told me I sound like I just got finished drinking a gallon of maple syrup with a follow up question, “Are you gay?”. From then on, I never volunteered to read in class ever again.


Never truly knowing exactly why a voice can invent so much harm, I grew into a man that was expected to be raised by an stereotyped environment that reflected the  color of my skin with no self confidence. Already dealing with identity problems, words were quickly taken away from my expression. A reality that will rip away a tongue that sounds different from what they know,I had to learn to just keep it to myself. What's the point in learning literature if the way someone sounds is the key to what defines them? That question rebirthed my way of thinking for all these years. It was my reason for not pursuing excellence or speaking up for myself. Missing out on so many opportunities, I knew I had to find an answer.


Growing up in the projects, I had to learn that certain tones of voice wasn't ok where I lived. Your voice had to be deep and sound like you highest education was a mcdonald's promotion to rapper. No matter what, a guy had to sound like a guy. Since I didn't, I was consider “soft” so everyone picked on me but this soft boy fought back. My mother always told me , “Never let another man run you into your own home.” In the environment I was raised in, I had to wear her words like they were tattooed on my forehead.  It brung me enough courage to make friends. All the boys would go and play football in this neighbor’s lawn. One day, I decided to go over there to play football with the guys. Looking at a group of pit bulls and one bone,  I knew I was getting myself into a deeper pool of uneasiness. I asked one of the guys if I could play and all he said in return was, “ You sound white. Why you always talking like a girl, you faggot?”. Standing in the corner with a group of eyes staring at me and mouths that produced only laughter, I couldn't help but have flashbacks of those words being thrown at me from different voices. I was fed up and just started fighting every boy that ever said that to me. That ever  made a joke about my speech.  

I thought being a fighter would work but quickly learned the other side of kids in middle school. Going to a strict private christian school, I quickly figured that some opinions of me just wasn't going to change. From the first day, my classmates had a problem with how I talk. They thought I sounded to ghetto and even mistaken my words for cuss words so they couldn't wait to tell a teacher. I never got snitched on so many times in my entire life. I felt to poor and ghetto to be in that school. I thought I would fit in because I was too white for the ghetto but now that I wasn't even welcome here, acceptance was my only option.


Letting my voice ring through the halls and streets, I try to let go of that hatred I had for my voice. I started writing again and made sure that english was always my favorite class.  Coming into high school with a different attitude, my voice was shot down again and this time by a teacher. It was my spanish teacher. We always had to speak in different languages during the course of his class. Since my grade was a struggling C in his class, there was no question that I was one of his worst students. I couldn't understand spanish if  it was to save my life. One day in class, I raised my hand to read out my sentences for that morning warm up. When finished, my eyes slowly looked over to my friend who was fluent in spanish. He gave me a thumb up so I thought I did a good job. Next thing to happen was a rain of laughter coming from the teacher. He stared at me and ask if I was from the south. I told him I have southern roots and he responded with “ I can tell. You remind me of when I used to teach in Alabama.  You need to learn how to pronounce your words correctly and speak clearly because I didn't understand anything you just said. I hope you're not dreaming of being a reporter with that voice.” His criticism was followed by a room with eyes that covered its walls, staring through my clothes like I was naked. The only thing that I heard at that point was giggling that turned into laughter. At that moment, I just wanted  to be lifted up and flown away from  the world.

Either I talk like a girl, sound like i'm white,  or  read like I was just finished drinking a bottle of syrup. People were never interested in what I would actually say, making my opinions and statements  irrelevant in society. I felt invisible to society even though I only aimed for average because average is cool, at least in yesterday society.  Today I am fed up of yesterday’s society. I was so worried on my voice that I never got to finish that Dr. Seuss book. I never got to understand exactly how to write or tell the difference between a pronoun, adjective, and conjunction. No, I was told to be more worried about how I sound to other people. How can I truly master  one of the beauties in literacy when i'm told that the only thing people care about is my voice? “ I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice. Just like Azadula said, in How To Tame a Wild Tongue, “ I will have my woman’s voice, my sexual voice, my poet’s voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence.” . I love everything about my cold broken voice. Through my voice is a literacy of itself  and unless you're  reading it, don't tell me how to express it.





Providing information and resources for youth

Teen pregnancy: not a popular situation in America today. in general, parents do not want their teens to become pregnant before being able to provide a life for their child or being able to give themselves the best life possible. But what can be done to avoid it? Many Americans believe that the best way to prevent teen girls from getting pregnant is to convince them to not have sex. The belief is that teen pregnancy rate has dropped significantly because more education and resources are being provided, as opposed to still promoting abstinence which  makes teen pregnancy rates increase.

Teen pregnancy is easily avoidable, and there are many accessible resources for families and young girls. A resource that serves 1 out of 5 women in their life is Planned Parenthood. PP has been providing STD screening services, general healthcare, and abortion services for 97 years. From 2013-2014 pregnancy rates dropped 9%, and from 1990 teen pregnancy rates have dropped 50%. Planned Parenthood was able to decrease pregnancy rates because they provide different forms of birth control. They provide the daily pill, implants, or abortion services. PP providing these services lets girls know that they are safe and have these preventative methods. Each year PP prevents 216,000 unwanted pregnancies each year.

Many states across the country provide their students with sex education, ranging from abstinence, sex ed, and HIV. Different states have different requirements to meet, such as that 28 states require courses on healthy sexual relationships. The University of Washington paired with the Center for Disease Control, conducted a study comparing young adults who received comprehensive to sex education to those who did not. The results concluded that educating kids in school greatly helps bring down teen pregnancy rates because knowledge is power. The young adults who had received proper education, had a 50% lower rate of teen pregnancy. Once these kids are given the proper knowledge, and taught that sex is not a taboo, they will stop feel like having sex proves them to be a rebellious teen.

The Federal Government conducted a research study on determining the effectiveness of teaching abstinence only programs. Abstinence only programs teach that students should not be having sex until marriage, and provide no information on Birth Control, STD’s, or HIV. Schools and programs believe that teaching abstinence will decrease the amount of sexual partners children chose to have and amount of sexually active teens. This study concluded that youth enrolled in these programs were no less likely to become sexually active, and it did not provide them the necessary resources to make informed decisions later on in life.

A resource like PP is necessary for young girls, and should be continued to receive funding because it clearly does an effective job.Knowing key statistics and the proper way to approach sexual education with young adults is essential to lowering teen pregnancy rates. This is significant because we need to be able to take care of our youth, including teens and newborns. Teens having newborns can cause many complications and hardships, to those surrounding them,and  those who take care of infants when situations are not ideal. Maintaining a persistent sexual education program has been proven to lower teen pregnancy rates, and is essential to maintain. Not every teen pregnancy can be avoided, sex is apart of life, but those who find themselves in situations of unwanted pregnancies should have the information and resources.


Works CIted

"Pregnancy and Childbearing." Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, July 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

"By the Numbers." Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

"Sexual Activity." Statistics. Resource Center for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, 2015. Web. 11 Oct. 2016.

"Support SIECUS!" SIECUS. Sexual Information and Education Council of the United States, Mar. 2008. Web. 14 Oct. 2016.


Advanced Essay #2

Introduction: I loved words for as long as I could remember. Since I could read at a young age, I started school with a pretty sturdy vocabulary. Using this to my advantage, I verbalized almost everything and I did so quite often. This created problems between me and my earliest teachers, which ultimately shaped my experience with school and with words as a whole. This essay shows my evolution with language, words, and even writing and how if affected me as a person and as a student. 

I always loved words. To look at them was to see a page with lovely little specks; a blank canvas peppered with distinct shapes. They played with my eyes. I can remember the first time I recognized my fondness of them. I was three years old and watching a TV show. Colorful words appeared upon the screen and at that moment I had deemed them the most attractive things I had ever seen. I wanted them. I just didn’t know what they were.

“Mommy, I want those blue things,” I said, pointing to the screen. A confused look grew upon her face.

“What blue things?”

I did my best to describe them, but the only thing I could decode was their color.

“Those blue things right there,” I insisted.

She stared hard at the TV for a few moments, then said, “Oh! Arielle, those ‘blue things’ are called words.”

They looked so incredible to me. Never before had I been intrigued by something so much and little did I know it, but this would be the start of my long relationship with words.

On the first day of Kindergarten, I packed my notebook, my pencils, my favorite eighteen-pack of crayons, and of course, my words. They were all tucked away inside

my head and ready to be said. I arranged them to greet people and to introduce my name, and I had also prepared them for my favorite books. Over the summer I read so many; some small some big, some which didn’t make sense, but still, all my favorites. I couldn’t wait to share my words with my new teachers. From the first day to the one-hundredth and so on, I made it a point to unravel all the words I knew. Then came first grade. At first my words would bring front-toothless laughs upon my classmates’ faces and make my teachers proud. Sometimes my words would take me to wonderful places, they opened me up to a new world that only I had the key to. Other times, they would take me to desolate and vacant places...like detention. My favorite things in the whole wide world began to fill my folders and flood my mind but this time they weren’t so sweet. Tiny scraps of neat paper would be crumbled like rubble in the bottom of my backpack. These weren’t the words I wanted; these were bitter ones that made my tongue curl and my eyebrows touch the bridge of my nose. Words like “self-control” and “distracting” covered the pages. I read each one. They didn’t think I could read them. They were the types of notes that were meant for ‘adults only’. My parents saw three of those papers. After that, I began to throw them away.

“Don’t be so talkative in class, Arielle.” I still couldn’t understand these words. I knew they made me feel bad and I knew I was in trouble because every time an adult used these words, they had their serious faces on. They sat me down in quiet rooms with dull, tan lights and humming air conditioning units. They were so loud, they were almost deafening amidst the silence. Then came “those words.” The words from every one of those ‘home notes’ were floating right out of my teacher’s mouth. I tried to drown them out, to keep them away. Her words felt like poison, choking me. They all clogged my throat. They shut off my windpipe and I couldn’t breathe. I gasped. I cried. The kind of cry that makes you breathe all weird and shake, you know? I did my best to cover it up by not speaking, I just shook my head. “Yes.” “No.” I remember how hard I worked that summer to write the word yes. My ‘y’ was always backwards and I could never seem to get the ‘s’ right. I wrote on every scrap of paper I could find to show my mom if I had done it right. “No,” she said. I tried again.

I couldn’t even say the glorious yellow word “yes” because it had left me. All my words had left me. The ones I had packed up so tightly and used each and everyday were gone. From then on I left words alone. For the next few days I looked at books and imagined their pages. I read street signs silently and didn’t raise my hand in class. My teachers knew I knew the answer. They didn’t realise they took my words. I still laughed with my friends; not too much though. I still sang to myself: not too loudly. I still read: not aloud though. Only at home when my homework was finished did I open my favorite book The Big Box by Toni Morrison. It was about three kids who when they didn’t follow the rules would be subject to a big “box.” I had read this book at least fifty times but I didn’t know what it was trying to say. Similarly to mine, Sherman Alexie recalls his childhood experience with reading in Superman & Me: “I read with equal parts joy and desperation.” This perfectly captures what reading meant to me at the time. It was an escape for me. At home I wasn’t in detention. At home I didn’t have to miss recess. At home I didn’t have to read tiny scraps of paper and act like I wasn’t suffering under their weight on my back. At home, I could read my favorite book ever.

“Mommy,” I asked one day. “What does this book mean?” I asked. It was obviously about a cool box but I didn’t get why the kids had to live away from their families.

“Well, it’s about how the kids aren’t able to express themselves. The adults around them are trying to just make them follow the rules and not be who they really are.”

For the first time, words made me anxious. I sat in my room and looked at the pretty pictures for awhile. Then I began to read: “Now Patty used to live with a two-way door, in a little white house quite near us. But she had too much fun in school all day and made the grown-ups nervous.” That line made me think. As I read, ‘Patty’ kept getting in trouble with adults because of the things she did. Why doesn’t she just stop talking in class or singing in school? I would think. What a bad girl.

It wasn’t until I was in third grade that a new idea popped into my head. Maybe it wasn’t about a cool, big box? Maybe it was the type of big box that I was always being kept in: one with windows and bright lights, and loud humming air conditioning units that were deafening in the silence. In Pablo Freire’s ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ he says: “The capability of banking education to minimize or annul the student's creative power and to stimulate their credulity serves the interests of the oppressors, who care neither to have the world revealed nor to see it transformed.” That was exactly what was happening to me. I would sit with my hands folded in that box all throughout lunch and the only thing that broke the screams of my silence were the screams of my friends having fun outside. I tried not to laugh at my friends’ jokes and not sing or talk or write...but there was always a laugh in me. There was always a song that needed to be sung and above all, there were always words. It was at that moment that I finally realized what the book meant. I was ‘Patty’. I was the splash of paint in a gray school. I wasn’t bad, I just couldn’t hide what made me different. I couldn’t ignore the words that I had always kept with me, and people just couldn’t understand it.

Ray Gwyn Smith once said: “Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war?”. I was constantly at war. My language was always threatened to be taken away, and the attempts made to silence me were like a thousand tiny spears penetrating my brain. I spoke to express the world around me. I used my words to breathe life into my imagination. Despite the constant attacks that faced me and my words, I never stopped using my voice. I will never stay silent.


Bibliography


Morrison, Toni, Slade Morrison, and Giselle Potter. The Big Box. New York: Hyperion for Children/Jump at the Sun, 1999. Print.


Anzaldua, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.


Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum, 2000. Print.


19, April. "Superman and Me." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 1998. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.


Advanced Essay #2 // Growing Up

Writing this essay wasn't easy because it was a bunch of ideas stuck in my head. Although, I was able to come up with the ideas and put them all together. This essay fits my development as a writer because it connects with who I am as well as having another side of the story having the same significance things as mine. My goals in this essay was to speak who I am, what I want to become, and how I became who I am, connecting with things that's outside of my own concept. I am proud of how I used significant words in my writing and how I can continue as a writer is keep reading and keep writing!


May 1st, 2000 8:31pm I was born. I don’t remember but I looked at my mother, father and sister. Crying was a sign to my family that I was alive and hungry, it was at that moment that I was added to the little family and my name was Nathaniel. To me, Sherman Alexie’s notations helps connects within literature and its deputy. It also connects with the views in my life: “I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph. I didn’t have the vocabulary to say “paragraph”.  This scene of memory is a point of view that changed my life forever. A bit complex, but a complete transformation. Remembering as if I was able to take my first steps. First taught my theoretical ideal of my religion, Christianity. It didn’t start off simple, very confused and concerned. But on the contrary, I’d worship it’s tenacity and beliefs as well it’s commandments. As the years go by, my intelligence increased, able to get a good sense of it’s diversity. What’s right and wrong, what to agree and disagree with, even even the repulsion and the temptation. But most importantly, to believe in my own potentials through the power of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless, learning multiple concepts of religions had me thinking, “What if my religion isn’t right? It may be false.”


My mother knows my trouble, telling her what was on my mind. The world was corrupting my mind, like grabbing a butterfly and picking it’s delicate wings. She told me to believe in what she taught, I asked her, how do I know if this religion is true? She told me “you don’t” you just have to have faith and believe. With the amount of questions that was going through my mind, I knew there was no use asking them. My mom somehow had an answer, she knew the very next thing I was going to say. So the trust in her was within me, from my first steps, to my first words. Trying to develop the words inside my mind but it’s not coming out right. “but I realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words. The words inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose.” She watched me grow up for 8 years. I relied on her very much. Of course, it was still tough for me, the work was stressing me a little bit, and the bullying wasn’t any help. You can say I was like a mime, my actions always spoke louder than my words. When the good things happen, the bad always seems to be on top every time. Told myself, nothing else to turn to but the Bible.


Sin. It’s one of the most brutal things that’s in this world. I also knew that sin started with Adam & Eve, the first 2 human beings that were put on earth created by God, and he told them they can go eat any tree, except for an specific one. The Snake had tempted Eve and she had gave the fruit to Adam. They were both naked, and God came, that moment is the reason where there is sin in the world, why there is temptation, lies, deceiving, hate, violence. All the negativity in the world exists because of it. Although, realizing the potentials in myself is indescribable. An African American kid who has christianity as its protection is nothing more than love and power. Realizing I am blessed. Even though I believe that God has my side, the sin will never stop in this world. It will develop inside of me, try to find ways to make me turn to who I am not, and reading the phenomena of Alexie’s piece shows me the difference between virtue and sin. “I refused to fail because I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky.” Finally realizing that this is who I would be and this is something I will soon have to accept.


What is Literacy? Literacy is the ability to read and write. But not just that, literacy develops the way you describe what your saying, even though our actions speak louder than our words, readers can’t see our actions, but they can always read our actions. Literacy matters most in my life because it shows dedication and an deep depth of knowledge. “The differences in reading ability between five-year olds and eight-year olds are caused primarily by the older children's possessing more knowledge, not by the differences in their memory capacities, reasoning abilities, or control of eye movements.” Ed Hirsch Jr.  There are many forms of literacy. There is knowledge, proficiency, cultivation, and education. But each one comes in different structures, from the tip of our hair to the bottom of our feet we are all created differently, but equally. No one is better than the other, we are all the same being. Whether we have different opinions, all of them matter, because one will be right. It’s not always by what we believe in either, but by what we choose to believe in. Because we all come in different shapes and sizes, and we all come in different race and ethnicity, you could even say we come with different emotions.


Overall, we are all one. Although, cultural literacy is incompatible today in society as there are racism still existing along with discrimination, harassment, prejudice, employment laws. Many of these that are killing our economy and our country. There is no stopping these causes but as one, we can try to prevent as much as we can. What’s that saying? “I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail, than to attempt to do nothing and succeed. Well to my conclusion, we are all created equal, created in our own images, and we have the ability to believe in what we want to believe in. We are good, but were not perfect, we all do sin, but we are also not imperfect. We are just small beings hoping to succeed in a world that criticizes our passions and tenacities. This is my story.    

Advanced Essay #2: Impact of Environment

This essay allowed me to realize how much language is important to your daily life and how much your surroundings can affect the fluency of how you speak. It developed me as a writer because I discovered new things about myself from this and that will lead to my writing to be stronger in the future. My goals for this essay was to address how important my language was to me and how much it impacts my life. I am proud of weaving my outside sources into my essay. I can use this essay to help me improve on my future essays. 

Language is an essential aspect of my life. It allows me to communicate and interact to others around me. It allows me to express my feelings, question and obtain knowledge, and evaluate our experiences everyday. Being bilingual is an asset in my life and will continue to be because it is dear to my heart. Ever since I was young, Bangla has been my first language and I was raised to understand Hindi and Urdu. I speak Bangla at home, to my relatives, and to the people in Philadelphia, who are apart of the Bengali community.

One of the things that affects one’s language and the way one speaks is the environment that they are in. The more time you spend in that area the more fluent you become in that language. In America, I have an American accent and I know how to speak English fluently and Bangla too, however, when speaking Bangla it is obvious to other Bengalis that I have an accent. In my case, it seems like I do not know Bangla fluently as much as I know English, but in reality it is my native language.

When my family and I would travel to Bangladesh, my cousins would think we didn’t know how to speak it well because our American accent was so thoroughly weaved into our words. Our Bangla sounded informal and weird compared to people who spoke Bangla in Bangladesh.

“Ahhh! Kemon aso thumra? Ki kobor?” (How are you guys?)

I squealed and threw my arms around my two cousins and squeezed the daylights out of them. It had been way too long. I felt their arms wrap around me and hug me back tightly. They laughed at me and pulled away.

“Oh Allah. Thur Bangla tho aro karap hoigese. Thuke abar thin mash er jonno shikabo,” one of my cousins, Lubna said. (Oh god, you're Bangla has gotten worse. We have to teach you again for the next three months.)

In How to Tame A Wild Tongue, Gloria Anzaldua is also bilingual and faces similar issues as I do. She quotes Irena Klepfisz, an author and activist, who states, “Our tongues have become dry, the wilderness has dried out our tongues and we have forgotten speech.” (Anzaldua, 54) When she is referring to this, I experience the same feeling when I travel to Bangladesh. It feels as if I completely forget my language and whenever I speak I fumble with my words and whatever leaves my tongue feels foreign. The environment of America seizes my language away from me and makes my mouth dry of the little I knew.

The minute I stepped off the plane my first trip to Bangladesh, I realized I was speaking Bangla wrong; people around me were speaking it so beautifully and when I spoke it sounded dull. It was the first time the people around me corrected me and it took a toll on me. I felt the same way as Sherman Alexie did when he taught himself how to write in his story, Superman & Me, and everything became so clear. He writes, “I still remember the exact moment when I first understood, with a sudden clarity.” (Alexie, 12) It was astonishing because when I was corrected it felt like everything clicked and the puzzle pieces of my mind were perfectly put into place. Back in America, my parents would not correct me, and I realized I was speaking multiple things wrong the majority of the time. Gradually, as time passed our American accents faded and we blended along with the people around us and it felt like we had been living there all of our lives. The longer you stay around the people who speak the same language as you, the better you get at it. When we went back to America, our Bangla would slowly go back to how it was before but our English was always the same. Unfortunately, it was like a cycle and so when we would go back to Bangladesh or Bangla would be poor once again.

I gained knowledge on the fact that there were different kinds of accents in Bangla too depending on which region of Bangladesh you lived in. In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, people spoke the very formal and professional kind of Bangla. Chittagong, the second largest city in Bangladesh and where my family was from, people spoke formal and the slang language which is Chitenge. In Sylhet, which is in the north east region of Bangladesh, people also speak in a different accents which is very thick compared to Chitenge and formal Bangla. Since, I have grown up in a family that speaks it around me so often, I understand it fully and I know bits and phrases but I do not know how to speak it properly.

Learning a new language is like having a different life in you. On one side of your life you are speaking the language the whole country you are living in knows. On the other side, you are at home, in an environment that is a completely different atmosphere with a different language. However, speaking Bangla and understanding different forms of Bangla along with Hindi and Urdu is my strength. It is an advantage for my communication abilities now and in the future; whether I am translating for someone, or for academic or job purposes. Even though I do not know every aspect of Bangla, I don’t feel discouraged and when someone corrects me because I am acquiring more knowledge. It may affect others negatively to change but to me I am able to discover new things from my mistakes and it is making me stronger to a place I could never imagine. As I am adapting to the environments, I feel like the people around me are literally putting their hands into my brain and placing information and in the long run it is benefiting me to a greater extent.

Language takes up a whole part of you and it’s something to keep with you and pass down from generation to generation. It’s something native that you must keep close since it is so special. Whatever environment you are in and however you are affected by it you still have a way to communicate and speak a language that you’re fluent in and that is something to take pride in. If we continue to build a positive environment around the children of our future, they will learn the complexities of language and communication and learn the importance of language as much as I do.

Works Cited

How to Tame A Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua

Anzaldua, Gloria. "Borderlands La Frontera." How to Tame a Wild Tongue. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999. 53-64. Print.


Superman & Me by Sherman Alexie

Alexie, Sherman. "Superman & Me." The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 1997. N. pag. Print.


Advanced Essay #2: My Real Language


INTRO



This essay allowed me to dive into a deeper part of writing. As I wrote this I had to challenge myself writing so that I could make my transition somewhat smoother and more understandable. Writing in English with a Portuguese mindset can be slightly difficult. My goal of this essay was to explain my experience trying to find my true language. I am proud to have properly finished this. I was hitting roadblock after roadblock, however, I was able to go around these roadblocks and continue on with the writing. This Essay has taught me that there are different ways to writing. I wish to learn ways to properly write more difficult things that are understandable.




ESSAY



There is no such thing as correct literacy. The correct literacy is the literacy that you are most comfortable with. This is something that I tell myself every time before I speak today, however, I wish I told myself this years ago. I remember sitting in the front of my class willing to learn every English word that I could. My mind was a black hole that devoured knowledge at every chance.  One way that I would try to expand my knowledge of the English language, would be by comparing the sounds of the English words to the Portuguese words, and seeing if it sounded the same. Of course, this didn't always work, however, it provided huge support to my younger self in lust for knowledge and improvement.

Thankfully, my hard work not only improved my English, but it also allowed my little brain to keep up with my Portuguese as well. However, not everyone was fond of my way of learning and my way of speaking.  As I would try to sound it out loud in class, the teacher would always lose her temper, “You are disrupting the class! Please speak English!” She would say with an annoyed look as she turned the question to someone else. I never understood how trying to learn was disrespectful, or why it was a bad thing. I was also powerless as I was just a student. In chapter two of Freire’s “Pedagogy of the oppressed”, he states, “The teacher disciplines and the students are disciplined” So many teachers let this get into their heads, which causes them to be ignorant to their student’s opinions as if they expect them to be stupid.

Maybe she felt threatened, that I went against her beliefs. She expected me to be like the other students in the classroom who answer questions like mindless zombies and were never willing to learn.


After diligently learning English, I was finally able to answer the questions without disrupting the class. As time went on, I spoke English full time and I began to neglect Portuguese as if it was something I no longer needed. The only other person who spoke Portuguese was my mother, however, she was always at work, therefore, I had no one to speak to in Portuguese adding salt to the wound. It almost felt like Portuguese was becoming my second language. All of my memories, dreams, and cultures, were quickly being dubbed to English like a foreign movie trying to appeal to the American audience.

That summer I visited my family members back in Brazil. Something strange happened. One of my cousins said something that I just couldn't understand. “Pivete” What is that? I asked myself. I felt lost and alienated as I was unable to understand what they were saying. The word, “Pivete” threw me off completely making me completely unable to understand anything else. In the book, How To Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua, at page 54 she says, “The first time I hear two Puerto Rican women and a Cuban say the word, “Nosotras” I was shocked. I did not know the word existed.” This relates perfectly to me. Neglecting Portuguese Caused me to completely forget the basics. It felt like I was pulling my own roots from the ground.


I was so focused on learning English that I forgot about my own language. Or was it my language? As I tried to continue speaking to my cousins, like deja vu something happened. My heart raced, “Did I just said an English word while speaking Portuguese?” I began to sweat profusely. My biggest fear was being labeled an “Americano” or a “Gringo.”  I was ashamed. I was so angry that I allowed myself to stray from my roots and focus on something else. Was this my own fault? This quote from How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua at page 56 perfectly answered my endless questions, “What recourse is left to them but to create their own language?” It wasn't my fault.

My language wasn't the same language that all of these people were speaking. Neither it was the language that my teacher spoke. It was the language I was comfortable with. The language I created. After a while, I began to care less and I began to embrace my new language. I was no longer looking for the language that fitted me best, I had it within me all along. Gloria Anzaldua perfectly touches upon this at page 54 oh How to Tame a Wild Tongue, “My home “tongue” are the languages I speak with my sister and brothers, and friends.” The shame was no longer there and my language became the one I understood and felt comfortable with them most. The language my friends and family are used to. My own language.

Advanced Essay #2: My perspective

Introduction:


Writing this essay was a major accomplishment for me as a writer. I am very confident with this essay. My goal for this essay was to explain how literary information was consumed by me. People often take the amount of accessibility to information we have for granted, I wanted to express how that can shape a person, also how it shaped me. Another goal I had for this essay was to mention the school system and how I perceive it. I am proud of my in-depth scenes of memory, I feel like they contain a good amount of detail. Something I can improve on as a writer are my transitions and staying on topic, I often mix a lot of unrelated ideas that don't necessarily need to be in the essay. In my future essays I want to state an idea and write only about that so things will be more neat.


Essay:


When I was in kindergarten, being special was one of my believed qualities. Not special in a bad way but special as in different. Reading was something that commonly occurred during my idle time. It wasn’t specifically books that I would enjoy reading it was everything I could comprehend. I remember reading a lot of labels, the thrill of reading at the time came from my ability to look at a word and correctly pronounce it aloud or in my head. So, when I was with my father he would point to objects with words on them and ask me “what does that say?” and I would look at it and say the words aloud. Sherman Alexie had a similar experience in The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me where he states “I read the backs of cereal boxes. I read the newspaper. I read the bulletins posted on the walls of the school, the clinic, the tribal offices, the post office. I read junk mail. I read auto-repair manuals. I read magazines. I read anything that had words and paragraphs.” I felt really good knowing that I could comprehend these words that were at the time new to me, I felt very intelligent for my age and I thought I was ahead of the class. Now,when I went to school I was never the super arrogant, smart guy who answers every question and corrects the teacher; I was a shy little dude and very observant. My mind was constantly racing. I remember sitting in class, my hands folded atop the desk, my back pressed against the chair, and my eyes glued to the front of the classroom where my teacher was. No matter how focused I was, my thoughts were in nonstop motion. I see this as a curse and a blessing; I get easily distracted but it’s by my own thoughts (which sounds strange out loud) but if my mind wasn’t as active as it is, would I be the person I am today?


Back then, information was consumed willingly, not that knowledge is getting shoved through my skull now but there was more of a longing for learning new things. Currently, I feel as if the only purpose of going to school is to get good grades so I can assumingly have a better future. The younger me didn’t know as much so the level of curiosity was combated against new information taught in school. That curiosity is long gone and now school feels like a chore instead of a resource. My argument is that if school was only about learning, grades wouldn’t exist.


New words became my favorite thing to learn about in the 3rd grade. We had a different set of vocabulary words every week. Throughout the week my classmates and I had homework with these vocabulary words such as definitions, sentences, and organizing. The way it was set up, the homework we had to do with the vocabulary words spread across three days. Eight year old me wanted to maximize my playing time so when we got the vocabulary words on Monday, I would do all the homework that same day so I would have two free days with no homework to do. That became my go-to strategy for completing homework and enjoying my youth. I was doing what I was supposed to do and what I wanted to do.


In 4th grade comic books and cartoons were my favorite. I felt so inspired at the time which lead me to begin making my own. Being only 9 years old with the limited knowledge about computer softwares, I hand-drew all my comics in a notebook I had for class. All the characters were developed by me and I was single handedly crafting scenes and plots. My creativity was fueled by comics and cartoons and I soaked up the interesting things and began doing my work using these things as tools of influence.


The amount of access a person has to information can affect a person negatively or positively. It’s pretty self-explanatory that the less access to information a person has the more negatively they will be impacted. Gloria Anzadula has a great example of this in How to Tame a Wild Tongue she claims “The first time I heard two women, a Puerto Rican and a Cuban say the word “nosotras,” I was shocked. I had not known the word existed.” As I embark on the years of collegiate scholar I also have realized the expense of higher learning. This goes with my previous statement, if school is for learning why do we have to pay for education.

19, April. "Superman and Me." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 1998. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.


Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands = La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999. Print.



Advanced Essay #2 (Three Codes)

Introduction: 
I really enjoyed writing this essay considering that it was about ourselves and our language. Language and literacy was something I struggled to understand and writing about it made me think about it even more.Im proud of my analysis and how I connected my evidence to my evidence. This is going to be essential to helping me be a better writer in my future writings by having my main idea make sense.

The Three Codes

“Just put some of this on it y el vas estar bien.” I Said


“What are you talking bout’ bro?” my friend said in a giggling voice.


“Oh shit, sorry. I meant to say he’ll be fine” I replied.


Literacy is a topic filled with hundreds of different meaning and versions. This is a nice example on how I forgot to switch my “Home Speaking” to “Friend Speaking”. This is known as code switching. As a bilingual individual I need to switch my way of speaking when speaking to people outside of my home. Although, being bilingual is not the only thing that affects the code switching. Growing up in certain environments affect whether you need to code switch because certain environments make you speak certain ways. There are tons of different way you could code switch but for me I only use three codes.  “Home Speaking”, “Friend Speaking” and “Public Speaking”



‘’What’s good Bro” I asked curiously


“The jawn I’m talking too is on some sh#t” Jack Replied in a upset tone


“What she do?”


“She ratted on me bro.” He said


When reading that short dialogue you probably didn't understand, that's why this language is exclusive to Friend Speaking. Reason being is that If I were to use this language at home, they would not comprehend what I will be trying to say to them. Same goes for Public Speaking. This language is considered improper english to most people. In this code things are more short and to the point. We using a lot of abbreviations and make up words to get right to the center of our message. There has been plenty of situations where I mistakenly talked to my friends in my “Home speaking” language and they would think I'm crazy. This code is affected mostly affected by the environment you were raised or grew up in.

Home speaking is slightly different but is under the same category. This type of language is used only at home when speaking to my parents, cousins and other family. This code can be different for all different types people. Culture also plays a big part in determining that. For example, in the passage “How to Tame A Wild Tongue”, the main character states “My home tongues are the languages I speak with my sister and brother, with my friends.”. In this sentence she explains what her “home tongues” are. In our case “home tongue” is considered “Home Speaking”. Although, the way I choose to speak at home with my family is slightly different than the way I communicate with my friends and the public, conversations in this code would look a little like this,


“Como que tu no tienes mi correa!” I yelled


“No lo tengo Alex, yo no uso las cosas tuyas.” He replied.


“Tu siempre me molesta” I said,


Spanish speaking is commonly used in my household which brings out my cultural background. This really brings out the culture and background that I am from. Trying this language with my friends or in public, people would look at me at strangely and would not comprehend what I am trying to get across. This brings us to the last code “Public Speaking”.

Public speaking in my case is considered to be standard english. Standard english is a language everyone who speaks english can understand. This code isn't exclusive to itself its is open to everyone. There are a great deal of literacies in the world, although there are also certain literacies that everyone can understand. In my case, “Public Speaking” is under that category of the language that everyone understand. For instance, if I were to go in public and enter a store to buy something and were to have a conversation with the cashier, I would code switch to Public Speaking because he would not understand me if I spoke in ”Home speaking” or “Friend Speaking” language he would have trouble understanding me that's why Public speaking is essential to my variety of codes. Public Speaking is the language everyone understands, no matter what code you are in or type of english you speak.

For different people, speaking and comprehending english will be different. There is not one correct literacy that everyone has to follow or that is proficient literacy. Although there is definitely a type of literacy everyone understands and use to communicate. This literacy or language is determined by noone but ourselves. We determine what is understood by everyone and what kind of language we need to speak in to communicate with people who are not familiar with your original language or literacy. There is not a wrong way of speaking english, we choose what literacy is proficient. There is not one type of literacy or language that is correct but there is a type of literacy or language that everyone understands.


Citations

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands = La Frontera. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1999. Print.


Advanced Essay #2: Tongues Can’t Be Tamed but Behaviors can be Trained

Introduction:

Writing this essay was a bit difficult for me at first because I couldn’t really get my larger idea to come together and connect to the topic literacy. In the process of writing and putting all my ideas together I think my writing skills improved. People often “code switch” depending on the environment their around and the people who they associate themselves with. I can improve on how I incorporate my quotes into my essay and punctuation.


Being literate today is a big thing.  It is the focus of most academic programs and in many homes. Some define literacy as one’s ability to read and write proficiently; while, others may say literacy is one’s ability to connect effectively with those around them. I often wonder if my peers would define literacy as a person’s ability to integrate themselves into different cultural and social environments as they grow and develop? While I am not certain how my peers would respond, I firmly believe that literacy is a combination of how well you read and write, while being able to effectively understand, communicate and socialize with people from various cultures, ethnicities and religions. I have been put in so many different situations and environments where my behavior changed based on the people I associated with and how they acted towards me, in other words, “code switching,” to show my friends that I was literate in the areas that were important so that I would be accepted into the group.

Entering high school as a freshman was one thing, but being surrounded by the wrong group of people was another. Freshman year I was in a semi - diverse school but the students were mostly African American and Hispanic. The people I hung out with at the time always got in trouble and I always seemed to be getting in the middle of everything. I was never the type of student to have any problems with others, but being in that school made me feel as if I had to be this “big and bad” person to fit in and felt I had to be someone who I’m not. I would talk a certain way, react to things differently than I usually would and that just wasn't me. No one truly knew the real me, the girl who just wanted to always have fun, laugh, sing and read. I always came off as a “mean” girl. At that time, I enjoyed when people thought I was mean. That was an indicator not to mess with me “or else”. Deep down I was dejected, I don’t know why I had to put on a front for people who were most likely doing the same thing that I was, just dealing with it a different way.

“Wild tongues can’t be tamed; they can only be cut out.” A quote from How to Tame a Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua, took me back to time in this school where my language and choice of words would always get me caught in sticky situations. I had never acted or talked that way. When I would be at home, or even in another place of learning I didn’t behave in such a foul way. Transitioning from one school to another helped me to realize the extent to which my behaviors were directly related to my environment. Sophomore year I entered a new school, surrounded myself with more positive people and enjoyed being the respectable, insightful and charismatic young lady who I was meant to be. Trouble no longer found me, but open hearts and new beginnings did. I started to realize that the more I surrounded myself with positive people and things, the more my behaviors reflected the positive influences.  My way of thinking and even my way of living was readjusted to incorporate the positive social literacy that I have been raised to embody.

Whether through pages of a book, or in reality, literacy can be interpreted in so many ways. Through daily experiences and interactions with others everyone has different perspectives on ways of life and how they define literacy. Reading and writing are simple aspects of knowledge that help with academic literacy, while interacting and socializing with other help you experience literacy. Literary assumptions are based on daily interactions, environmental factors, as well as cultural and ethnic experiences.


Child vs Adult

Michael Joseph Jackson was more than a child star; his music career carried into his adulthood. From his greatest hits with the Jackson Five like “ABC” and “I Want You Back” he left his legacy playing in many people’s heads. The story behind such great performances, remains a mystery to some, and surprise to others. Unfortunately, this success did not come without its sacrifices. Due to an overachieving father, isolation of a carefree childhood, Michael Jackson was forced to skip his own. As a result, his actions as an adult all reflect a deep desire to claim that childhood that was never his.


To begin with, Michael’s father had very high expectations of his kids in which he enforced very strongly. As manager and father, responsibility of being a manager often clashed with responsibility of being a father. In an interview by Martin Bashir titled, “Living with Michael Jackson,” Michael stated, “He didn’t allow us to call him daddy, and I wanted to call him daddy so bad. He said ‘I’m not daddy, I’m Joseph to you.’” (Michael Jackson) Due to the parenting, Michael grew up to slowly lose his relationship with his father. The relationship between Michael and his father was more on professional terms than personal. In the interview, Michael also went on to say how he was scared of his dad, and how he would faint or vomit due to his presence.In result of the constant beatings to discipline him, Michael suffered from anxiety.


Consequently, Michael Jackson did not have the time on his hands to do what the other children did at his age. Being in the studios all the time, he couldn't play with other kids. He was always in the spotlight, so he couldn't go anywhere that he wanted to due to the common issue of paparazzi. Girls fell over him, and the world slowly did too. In Michael’s words, "I wasn't aware that the world thought I was so weird and bizarre. But when you grow up, like I did, in front of 100 million people since the age of 5, you're automatically different." (Michael Jackson - Grammy Legend Award speech, 35th Annual Grammy Awards, 1993). He grew up as a hollywood pop star which prevented him from being a normal kid. His life was constantly publicized to the world in which he had zero privacy provided. As child music star, he was going on many tours, which resulted in cameras constantly on him and the world watching his every move.As he got older, papparrazi only increased more, putting Michael into the position to seek more privacy.

Furthermore, as his life went on the issues he dealt with not having a childhood began to come to light. He went on to buy 19.5 million dollars worth of land located in Santa Barbara County, California, and named it the “Neverland Ranch.” Neverland consisted of the same characteristics of an amusement park. It had a ferris wheel, merry go around, and other rides found in places like amusement parks.  After he built his dream home, his life began to derail. Neverland was Michael’s way of giving children the childhood experiences that he was prevented from having.

Above all, many factors including his father, Neverland Ranch, and life in front cameras shaped the man that Michael Jackson grew up to be.  His adulthood was an attempted reflection of how he wanted his childhood to look like. Failing to do so, resulted in many issues that led up to the death of the King of Pop.  As a pop star that made well over a million dollars in record sales, he was loved by many and hated by many. His legacy will continue to live on, and the issues he faced growing up as a kid will be forgotten.













Works CIted


Woods, Raven. "The Truth About What Michael Jackson Had (And Didn’t Have) In His Bedroom." The Huffington Post. N.p., 14 July 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/no-child-porn-found-at-neverland-thenor-now-the_us_577fdfbce4b0f06648f4a3f8>.


Michael Jackson Documentary "living with Michael Jackson" Dir. Padronlful. Perf. Michael Jackson and Martin Bashir. YouTube. YouTube, 27 May 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqqipytDeuM>.


"Michael Jackson Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.biography.com/people/michael-jackson-38211#early-life (Links to an external site.)>.


"Childhood." :: True Michael Jackson. N.p., 2012. Web. 17 Oct. 2016. <http://www.truemichaeljackson.com/childhood/>.


Speaking Up

This essay fits into my development as a writer because I have grown as a writer. I achieved my goals that I had set for this essay. My goals were to complete my essay on time, revise properly, be more descriptive and support the main idea. I am proud that I accomplished my goals, worked hard, and asked for help even when I didn't want to. As I continue writing essays I can improve as a writer by reading more to see other writers ideas and just by working on my grammar. 

The bell quickly shakes, and classes change. I drag my feet as I quickly shift my head over to the front of the classroom I see that my teacher is still absent. Before she turned her head to the classroom, chalk screeched across the board as she wrote out Ms.E. When I was in middle school, my teachers were often out of school so we had a lot of substitute teachers. The substitute teachers were often rude or they thought they knew everything. I often spoke up telling what we were supposed to be doing and they wouldn’t listen to me. Or I was sent to the office for being rude when I was only voicing both my opinion and saying what we did normally.

The teacher starts off by greeting the class and then she tells everyone  “sit down, remain quiet”, and demands that we ask her nothing. Meaning she didn’t want us to ask to go to the bathroom, to go get water, or even ask for help. We were expected to be silent. As she spoke aloud to the class she rolled her eyes, claps her hands and raised her voice. Everyone is in complete shock and can’t believe that she has talked to us so rudely. One of the students quickly stood up and responded “ You're only a sub, so don’t tell us what to do, were allowed to talk in this class. Also the project we are working on is a group project so you should shut up.” Then another student spoke aloud saying “We didn’t ask you to be here.” Shortly after that the room was surrounded in laughter. The sub was now furious.

The substitute stood in front of the class responding “I don’t care about your project or you as a whole. Everyone is expected to be quiet this period and that's that.” She had then wrote on the board “Principal offices” in big letters as if it was supposed to shake the classroom but it had only made it worse. After she had said her briefing speech , I turned back around and continued my conversation. I was talking to my group about the project that we had due tomorrow. The sub had ran toward my desk and thrown her hands on the desk quickly. She then scowled “Whats going on? Who's talking and why are they talking?” So I quickly had responded “We are doing what we are supposed to do , and getting work done.” The teacher had been annoyed with how I responded so she quickly wrote my name in big letters on the board.

I figured regardless of who was in front of the class, if an assignment is given you should do that assignment during that class period. Before I could argue my point I had been sent to the principal's office once again for “talking back” when in reality I was doing what I believed was the right thing to do. However the principal wasn’t trying to hear my side of the story and he was upset that I had been sent to his office.

He asked me to go apologize, and I simply refused. When you are being perceived as rude and you don’t think you’re being rude it can be very frustrating because maybe that’s just how you talk or react to things. If you're accused of being rude when you were trying to speak up it seems like someone is trying to shut you out or shut your voice out of the loop. In this situation I felt like the narrator in the story being stripped of the first amendment just as she was or at least how she had felt. Gloria Anzaldua states “Attacks one’s form of expression with the intent to censor are a violation of the First Amendment” , I felt like I was being censored and couldn't voice my opinion. If I wasn’t censored I would be able to speak on things and not get attacked for it.

However sometimes even if you’re right , you will still be accused of being wrong. It’s all about people  misunderstanding people verbally, physically and mentally. When people don’t understand you they will accuse you of trying to be negative , when in reality you may be trying to be positive and things just come out wrong. People often misunderstand people because they might not know them well enough so they judge or quickly assume based off of body language or tone in someone's voice.  That can make someone who is trying to do good , want to do bad cause they will think since people accuse me I might as well act or do what they expect of me or accuse me of doing anyways. For example it states in the text “How To Tame A Wild Tongue” on page 53, “ I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for “talking back” to the Anglo teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her to pronounce my name.” She had been accused of talking back when she just wanted the respect of having her name being pronounced properly. Since she spoke up she was in trouble and I believe situations like this make you want to be negative when you tried being positive.

Before you accuse, judge, or react be sure to remember that there is always two sides of the story. Hearing the other side of the story would change the situation in a more negative way or positive way depending on the situation.

Advanced Essay #2: Mixed in Math

Introduction

Completing this essay was a leap in the right direction for me. During this process, I learned more about my own literacy as well as discovering how to improve those literacies. People think just because math is numbers, it is not a literacy but it is. Math needs to practice and read daily to become one of your strengths. I think the thing I’m most proud of is my reflections in this essay. They are very in depth and go into intense detail about how it affected me. Something I could approve on is the way I structure my ideas. A lot of the times I just string them together without thought. In my peer reviews, my rough draft was often called “confusing” because I knew what I was trying to say but everyone else was confused. Next time I want to work on communicating my ideas better.


Forgetting how to read like I used to and being open minded about a new literacy is a struggle for me. This kind of reading was different. It was difficult and it had become something that I couldn’t understand but was a necessity for me almost everyday. This was a shot to my intelligence. This bullet was math. Math was the most painful thing in my life.

‘Every time I see numbers my mind trips up,’

I write on my paper over and over again. I just can’t understand why math is such a difficult task for me. I didn’t let anyone know for a while. Whenever I ask for help, I just want to give up. I was reading and writing something I didn’t know about. Zoe Heller emphasizes that you write to know more: ”The other is born of what writers wish to experience, of the impulse to write in order to know.” But, I just didn’t know where to start, where to draft, or where to revise. Never do I get the chance to write to know more I just hope I acquire and understand the information before the next quiz. Math isn’t a common everyday literacy that is practiced as much as other literacies which makes it even harder to perfect.

“I’m just such an idiot!”

I say way too often.

“Des, you're not an idiot,” says my mom, and anyone else I gripe about math to.

Talking bad about my math skills is something I do very often; I just don’t grasp the concepts. When I look at math it is like I go cross eyed. Once, I looked at a composition of functions problem and immediately had a headache. My brows furrowed and I closed my math binder. All my homework grades are satisfactory but, that is only after I take an extra week to learn the skills but, by then we’ve already started a new unit, took the standards quiz, and this concept won’t be brought up ever again.

Just like a wave it came over me. I couldn’t read. At least not like I used to. Reading of all types is all about comprehension; even reading math. You see the piece of literature and then you use your brain to understand it and keep it. Often, I collected information into my brain involving numbers but, very little was understood. Composing and combining functions put me in a funk. Systems of equations with greater than signs instead of equal signs criss crossed my brain entirely. My mind tried to use the skills it knew but it was like a bad radio connection, you could hear some stuff, but the rest was static.

As a young child I always questioned things. I didn’t find it as rude or mean I just saw it as being curious. As you can imagine, it got me into a bit of hot water. Even as recently as freshman year I questioned just about everything. From science to math, I was pretty ruthless too. Gathering the courage

“Ms. Dunda,”

I started calling her over to my desk.

“No offence but, why are we learning this?”

I asked still looking down at my computer until I saw her next to me.

“Well Destiny it is good to know this because--well you might need this if you become a doctor or scientist or, if you just want to have this knowledge for later!”

She responded a little bit shaken up that I would ask such a blunt question.

“Oh, okay,” I said in a tone which clearly showed me not believing it one bit.

The day continued and the room was just as chattery as when I called her over. I went back to my glossy text book and just skimmed and skimmed to answer some of the questions before the Canvas assignment was due. Looking back that wasn’t the nicest way to ask but, I have gotten better at being curious about what I’m learning.

In BioChem, you can question things. There are always multiple right answers that kind of mean the same thing or challenge the other. In English, it is more about what you think and how you can use that to analyze text or write papers. History class is based on learning about the past and seeing how it affects us now. The answers can be long or short and vary. Math on the other hand, is an entirely different set of skills. You have to do all the work for the problem then check it to see if it’s right. There is only one correct answer and if you get it wrong, you have to start all over again. In the back of my mind I always think of how can I improve my math literacy. In the essay, How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Change Your Health,  Michael Grothaus emphasizes the importance of reading everyday: “Yet despite all the benefits to mind, body, and society, plenty of people find it hard to sit down and start reading. It seems like we just don’t have the time to read more.” Maybe the problem is that I’m not expanding my mind enough and reading. If I get more comfortable with reading math and just studying it on my down time, it will have good effects on my brain.

I’ve noticed, the only time I really look at math is in math class or when I’m doing homework. My literacy in math is not as strong as my reading literacy. The realization hit me that math is a type of literacy. You need to study it and review it daily. Never do I go out of my way to study what the new numbers, symbols, and skills mean. Time is something that is always snatched from me. From other school work to homework and everything in between, the only thing I want to even look at is the back of my eyelids. Sleep takes over reading any day. But, to strengthen my math literacy, I must read math daily.


Heller, Zoe, and Mohsin Hamid. "‘Write What You Know’ — Helpful Advice or Idle Cliché?"The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Mar. 2014. Web. 3 Nov. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/write-what-you-know-helpful-advice-or-idle-cliche.html?ref=review>.


Grothaus, Michael. "How Changing Your Reading Habits Can Transform Your Health." Fast Company. Fast Company, 27 July 2015. Web. 03 Nov. 2016. <https://www.fastcompany.com/3048913/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/how-changing-your-reading-habits-can-transform-your-health?utm_campaign>.


Advanced Essay #2: Literacy in Church

Introduction: 
Writing this essay for me was a step up as a writer because I was able to dig into a personal place in my life and make some what of a joke and lesson out of it. Majority of the issues I face within my life I kind of take it serious, but I was truly happy that I could express myself. I think I can improve on descriptive scenes in this essay since there were some that could've been a lot more in depth. 

Essay: 

“Καλημέρα Angeliki? Kala esai?” I stared at the pale women with the crisp blue eyes, that stared at me waiting for me to muster up an answer to her foreign question. The four words she just summoned into a question completely went over my head and instead of me trying to figure out the meaning, I was stuck trying to figure out if she knew that silk and wool just wasn’t a good combination. Those 4 years in the back of that Greek class were terrible and I was always found myself being the “...sullen and already defeated Indian kids who sit in the back rows and ignore me with the theatrical precision.” trying to force myself into another culture when I barely understood my own. I had always remembered the biggest lesson I took away from the book “I Just Want to be Average” by Mike Rose which was “.. act stoned when you’re not, or act more stoned than when you are.” Half the time I wonder, “How did I get here in the first place?”



The 29th day of October in 2010 is still such a vivid day. Icons stained the bluish green walls covered in pastel colors of red, gold and blue displaying faithful pictures of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus, John the Baptist and the honorary Annunciation depiction. Iconography of the 12 disciples and 4 apostles laid against the dome of the church, while two fairy like angels (the cherubim and the seraphim)  hovered over the magnificent and eye catching Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Straight above I stared at the dome, while my head and face was immersed into the warm water which smelled of olive oil and myrrh, I felt my body engulfed by the faith. I felt my priest make a sign of the cross on my head before pulling me up, I wiped my eyes as a piece of hair was clipped from my ends with scissors. I was an Orthodox Christian now, completely consoled under the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit but, what exactly did this mean? Did I now have to face off and be alike a bunch of lemon squeezing, garlic eating, loud mouth Greeks or could I still be myself and fit in with the crowd?



Being the only black person in a church like this, you are always on the front line. Whether it was  dancing at the church's huge summer food festival, reading poems in Greek for Oxi day or simply saying good morning in the narthex, you’d never be ignored. It’s not bad thing, being the odd ball in a group of evens makes it really effortless to get along with everyone. Everyone wants to know who you are. Every time you meet someone new they always ask,  “What made you come to the church?” or “Are you adopted?”. I’ve never had so many people attempt to get to know me at once and I can truly say  because of that, I have become a fan favorite in their eyes.



But sadly, that fame didn’t follow through into that Greek class. Sitting in the back of that Greek class with glazed over eyes while the teacher spat out an “ I have a “zero tolerance approach” to grammar mistakes that make people look stupid.”,I began to get cold feet. Was this faith really worth all of this stress to understand one language or, should I just give up? But, then I realized, it was worth it. If my faith meant educating myself and digging deeper into my own personal definition of literacy, stepping outside the box and exploring, then sure I was up for the challenge. I learned that being small minded and closing out every piece of education offered can never be a good thing. Also, I learned how to treat others who may have a different definition of what being literate or educated means. Before I looked at people and thought “Are they dumb?” or “Why don’t you get it?” but I realized I do not know how to hold an entire conversation in greek and I do not know how to say “goodnight” or “what’s your name?” But, I know every major prayer from my service in Greek. I know their culture and I also know that literacy doesn’t just mean knowing how to read and write and education doesn’t just mean systemic instruction. They both mean the extent of knowledge you have for something big or small, whether it was taught in school, or at home or in my case, the church.


Citations:


1.

Rose, Mike. "I Just Want to Be Average." Lives on the Boundary: The Struggles and Achievements of America's Underprepared. New York: Free Press, 1989. 162-67. Print.

2. Wiens, Kyle. "I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here's Why."Harvard Business

Review. Harvard Business Publishing, 20 July 2012. Web. date accessed*.

3. 19, April. "Superman and Me." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 1998. Web. 03 Nov. 2016.

Advanced Essay 2 -Cultural Literacy

Introduction- I reached my goal while writing my essay.While writing I put all of my feelings into this paper to show the readers my experiences with code switching , judgement and different versions of english. I never experienced cultural literacy until I transition to high school where my school was very diverse. I always been categorize in a group based on my skin color and the way I talk. Writing about this topic was very emotional to me because it was something that always apart of my life

It was the first day of school. I got dressed in the tacky uniform we bought at Cramers. I went downstairs to get breakfast and waited for my mom to shower and get ready. I waited patiently for my mom and after 30 mins she finally came downstairs. We left the house and got in the car. I was so nervous all I can do was shake the whole time.

¨Fatima why are you shaking?

To go to a new school where you will be judge is such a nightmare. I hate being judged because i'm always categorize in a group. Why can't we just be categorized in the same group?

I got adjusted to the ghetto language. What is ghetto? What is proper? I never understood the both of them because it sounds dumb. I believe we all have different versions of english because we all come from different backgrounds so everyone english is different. Ẅas it there purpose to change our accents? Everybody comes from different backgrounds , culture and customs but we always get judge because we're different. Different is great its unique.

¨Fatima why are you shaking?¨

¨Just scared never been to a school with white people. I'm going to turn white that's what my friends say.¨

She looked at me and didn't say a word so I didn't either. It was silent the whole way to school. We finally arrived to school. Finally I said in my head I just wanted to get out the car.

¨Here’s your lunch money¨

¨Thanks mommy¨

    I closed the door and wait for my mom to pull off. Before I could turn around towards the school a group of white girls stares at me.

¨Can I help you ? I replied

¨Why are you here you're not even white.

 I stared for a while. I don't even know why I am here My dad can't pay the tuition , I live far away and I'm not even white I'm black . I didn't bother to respond so I walked away from the them and went towards the building. My eyes shifted to the groups of white people I saw I never saw that much of white people in my life before. This wasn't the school for me because I didn't fit in at all. I got attention more than I ever did. My cocoa brown skin is what got the attention  because I didn't look vanilla.

¨What's your name?

¨Fatoumata”

¨Why are you here you're black¨

¨And you're white why can't we both be here¨

I could feel my blood boiling. I went to go sit down with the rest of the class.The teacher walked in her tunic with her black vail. Her skin was very wrinkly like my shirts at home. She noticed me quickly and told me to stand up. I stood up and watched the whole class eyes stare at me.

¨What's your name?¨

¨My name is but lemme tell you how it's like this but people pronounce like this lol

The whole class froze even the teacher. We had the same uniform , same tie and vest just different type of ice cream colors.

¨She speaking ghetto she doesn't belong here

Did I just code switch I asked myself. I thought everyone talked like that or was it just me and my friends. Whenever me and my friends talked it made us feel closer because we understood what one another was talking about. I sat down and never repeated my name again.

¨So tell me black girl do all black people talk like this?

¨Do all white people stink?

¨ So if you want to hurt me talk badly about my language.

¨Why you talk so ghetto?¨

¨Ghetto makes me closer to my friends.¨

To white people ghetto is the black people ¨languages¨.

Me and my friends code switch all of the time because speaking ghetto to someone who speaks the same way makes me feel more closer to them because they understand me.

¨Young lady get out of my classroom the teacher said

¨Me what about him ! He started it

From the look I saw in her eyes I knew she was a racist women. I walked out of the class with my anger at 100%. It was the first day and I got kicked out of class. Nobody wanted to help me find the office so I had to find it myself. I hated it here I just wanted to leave and go far away.

I finally got to the office and waited for the nuns to come and talk to me.

Time past it was about 12 clock. I realized that nobody was in the office so I got up and walked out. I was so hungry that I could eat a pig. The whole school was at the lunch line waiting to get baked mac and cheese with a parfait. Trying to buss in the the lunch line was ridiculous , nobody wanted me to get in so me and the other students waited at the back of the line. After lunch was over school was out. It was only 12:30. I couldn't wait to get out of this place and run to my friend house and tell her about my day while watching Pretty Little Liars. She opened the door and went inside. I sat in my favorite chair with the white fur. We both sat down and told her about everything.

¨Girl all this happen we strolling on them tomorrow¨

I giggled .

¨Do you think we speak ghetto?

¨Śhe looked at me with a stare

¨Its our home it's where we connect.

¨ My mom once said ¨flies don't enter a close mouth. ¨

Never be afraid to show who you really are. Love your skin and the background you come from because that is what makes you as a person. Judging someone only makes you jealous don't judge a book by its cover.


Advanced Essay #2 by Gavin Lane

How Literacy Has Affected me Over the Years



Literacy is defined as “the ability to read and write.” A literate person is someone who “possesses the ability to read and write fluently.” As for me, I would define literacy as an infinite series of word-doors leading outward to the world around you--and an infinite series of word-doors leading inward to yourself.


Literacy has always had a great effect on my life--it is my life. In fact, one could even say I was born to be literate. My brain was born to decode language. I was able to read when I was just 18 months old (or thereabouts), three or four years before most children begin to read. As a toddler in a stroller, I read the signs I passed on the street and shouted out their meanings. “Parking” and “Exit” were favorites.  I read newspaper headlines and memorized children’s poems without trying. These acts came naturally, like breathing.


As a person with Asperger’s, I believe this was a blessing. I have depended on written words to tell me how people think and function socially, because I can’t always make sense of this with my own eyes and ears. How do people know when and what to say to one another (unless they obviously need to speak up to accomplish something immediate)? Social communication, apparently so easy for others, is a mystery to me. Luckily, books and articles on social behavior have helped me learn some of the answers to these questions.


Also, the written and spoken word have communicated to me other rules for functioning that I can’t sense otherwise--wonderful rules about everything from the workings of the universe to how to organize time. This in turn has imposed a certain structure on a world that can seem chaotic at times, too rich in sensory input for me to organize, and this has given me peace of mind. Beyond that, though, literacy has given me ideas to guide my thinking and learning. Knowing how to read has helped me develop a political philosophy, a good sense of humor, and inspiration for my future. From sections of The Communist Manifesto to sections of The Art of the Deal, reading and grasping literary passages has influenced the creation of my own political philosophy, or political system, if you will, which I like to call State National Socialism. Through reading, primarily of documented traditionalist works discovered online, I have pieced together a philosophy that states that nature has a long-standing, ordained, and traditional order that must be preserved. Tradition, Biology, and Environmental health are crucial. My philosophy also states that capitalism is unhealthy because it causes people to turn from compassion for the environment and for one another to the false idol of profit at all costs.


Without the ability to read, not only would I not have crafted my philosophy, I would not have built my sense of humor, which is mostly based around pictorial memes now, but got its start in reading. This sense of humor, which deals with things from politics all the way to lewd humor nowadays, goes as far back as fourth or even third grade, when we had to write funny stories for class, and sometimes even draw pictures for them. I loved how laughter made me feel, and how a simple story with a silly and unexpected twist or ending could bring about a giddy feeling--and totally improve a so-so or even dismal day. This precious sense of humor found expression in memes as I got older, but is fundamentally based in words and is the joyful result of being able to read and write.


And speaking of writing, this aspect of literacy is equally crucial for exploring and defining yourself. You don’t know what you know until you try to write about it. Somebody once observed, “writing is thinking,” and this is true. Sit down to write anything, from an email to a research project, and when you try to explain what you know, you realize you actually have more questions than knowledge. I remember reading an article by the NY Times that said “Writers, especially younger writers, often hear the exhortation ‘write what you know’. This is understandable. Some of the best fiction ever written seems to have followed that advice.” The act of putting thoughts into the structure of words forces you to make sure you really, totally understand those thoughts. This reminds me of another quote I read in that same article. It says “You should write what you really know instead of a slick, bowdlerized version of what you know.” This is how you really take advantage of the situation, so you can really put that knowledge into writing. This is important because writing is a bootcamp for thoughts, forcing them to shape up, and forcing you to deepen and strengthen your grasp of a subject.


So, without literacy I would be a very different person. Certainly I would be very diminished without it. I would not have the knowledge that I possess now about the world around me and how things work, but much more importantly, I would not know what I believe, and love, and value. Ironically, it is literacy, with its window into the the thoughts and beliefs and ideas of others, that somehow opens a door to your own thoughts and beliefs. It shows you what you identify with, from politics, to religion, to personality, to whatever provides a good laugh. Without the written words of others to lend structure, your own personal beliefs would be an unarticulated mass within yourself, an unexplored and poorly defined forest of impulses and seemingly random thoughts. This is why I say literacy has a way of shaping one’s knowledge into a state where it is intellectually beneficiary. So, yes, words can be definite, bossy, and demanding, but ultimately literacy is a kind of magic that conjures up your path and your life.


Life decisions about having a High School Dipoloma


Kawthar Hasan

Ms. Pahomov

English 3

26 September 2016

People have to make difficult decisions to help them get through their life, especially with education. For example, getting a high school education is extremely hard for many people because of stress like life’s certain events such as finance, lack of interest in school, and failing to succeed school. Those are some of the reasons why it is causing some to drop out. Many adults strongly cast down students from doing this, going off  to the long-term issues of not having a high school diploma to have more open doors opportunities in the workforce. Regardless of the individual struggles and tribulations, those who drop out of high school do it with their best interest in mind. For teens who do drop out, their action is justifiable because they are doing what is best for them in that moment of time to work on themselves. That way these people can find a positive path to make the right decisions without any stress of school work being put on them.

According to the Colorado Department of Education, There are three main factors of why these teens drop out of high school: school related, family related, and employment related reasons, for many high school dropouts. The article also stated that, “Students who fail to succeed in school and attend schools that fail to provide them with the environments and supports they need to succeed.” In other words, the majority of the people who drop out had trouble with others helping them in and out of school to allow them to stay at their school. When there is no moral support, a student gets tired and believes that leaving would be best. Relating to the argument about the moment in time, teens need some support at times with their education before having them making the decision of dropping out.Therefore, it is not necessarily the kids fault if an adult does not try to help out avoiding them from dropping out, it should always be a place where these people can reach out and get support.

On the ‘National Dropout Prevention Center/Network’ website it shows many percentages such as, missed school days, overall the percentages for males are at “44.1” and females are at “42.7”. These percentages are high for the school related issues for teens to drop out. It could be possible that teens missed so many school days to deal with personal issues like financial or family problems that they have to face at home. Therefore, they must do what is best for them to take care of themselves so that education will not be in the way. There are times when adults are not in the picture to help support these kids to assist them with their personal needs to do better in high school to get their diploma. To be their in there true time of need of help.

Another reason dropping out can make sense is that it doesn’t actually cut a person off from education in the long run. A man named Kenny Buchanan who is in his late 40’s was a high school dropout. In ninth grade at the age of 18, he flunked twice and chose to give up, and decided to work at Burger King full time. He mentioned in an interview, "Back then, I could get a job anywhere," he says. "I could work at Burger King, quit that job and have a job the next day without an education." However, now he feels that it is hard to get a job because the job applications require a high school diploma. From the author Claudio Sanchez in the NPR article quoted, “Buchanan is one of 40 million Americans who never graduated from high school. Most of these people, about 60 percent, are between 40 and 70 years old, according to the ‘American Council on Education.’ About 9 in 10 have never earned more than $40,000. Buchanan falls into that majority.” Therefore, he decided to go to a place called Career Link, which is a place for job training and education for unemployed adults like Buchanan. There, then he realized the closest requirement that he needed was, a GED. GED stands for General Education Diploma, to get this a person must pass a test to earn a certificate. The certificate is proof of getting some sort of education. A person can take it at any place to get hired by their employer if there is no diploma with the job application. "When you get that GED book and you see the math that's required — algebra, trig — I think that scares a lot of people. Especially if they haven't been in school for 30 years," Career Link Director Sharon Angle says. Nonetheless, it is worth getting a job since nowaday many career places are accepting them with the applications. Which is great for others to get a job without a diploma and still be financially stable for themselves and their family.

People are going to make the best or the worst choice at certain points in life, but no matter what happens they will learn from their actions. Life is not all about making the perfect decision for a person and it will always indicate on someone whatever or wherever especially with education. If a person decides to put a hold on getting a diploma and need to get themselves together first, why not give them a chance? If high schoolers stopped to think about it, they would realize that their diploma is not just about graduation, it's about their long-term job prospects as well. Leaving school will allow them to be independent and get a view of what the future may hold. While getting an education is quite important in life, that one piece of paper known as a high school diploma can change so much in a person’s future life. Getting that job or raise that was wanted. While life can make getting a high school diploma hard for a good amount of people with personal issues. All of that has to be understandable, because sometimes life puts a person in a spot where one does not always wish for but that person has to find a way to fix it.






Works CIted (MLA format):


"A High School Dropout's Midlife Hardships." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.



"Why Do Students Drop Out of School?" Colorado Department of Education Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2016.




By Far, the National Longitudinal Study That Offered the Most Comprehensive Analysis of Dropout Causes and Received Well-diversified Scholarship Was the NELS:88. Conducted on a Representative Panel of 24,599 Eighth Graders, the NELS:88 Study Lasted 12 Yea. "Understanding Why Students Drop Out of High School, According to Their Own Reports."Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.




"What Is GED/High School Equivalency Certificate?" What Is GED/High School Equivalency Certificate? N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.



"Why Students Drop Out." National Dropout Prevention Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.






The Lore-Based Revolution.

Alexander Khan

English 3

10/17/16

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines folklore as “ideas or stories that are not true but that many people have heard or read,” while lore on its own is defined as “knowledge gained through study or experience; a particular body of knowledge or tradition.” In the modern day, lore appears most commonly throughout digital universes crafted by video game designers. Video games have very open ended stories, which gives people room to make their own conclusions. These video games begin conjuring followers, and eventually a community of people begin to piece together stories, essentially creating modern day folklore overtime.

The past two years have introduced the internet gaming communities to many new gaming phenomena, such as the indie horror series Five Nights at Freddy’s by Scott Cawthon, and Overwatch by the Blizzard franchise. Both of these games have amassed large followings, not only for their gameplay and overall story, but for the lore behind the game.

Five Nights at Freddy’s lore follows a story of multiple restaurant locations, different animatronic robots, and a series of injured children. Many followers of the game series spend days, even weeks, trying to piece together the six game long series of mixed up stories. Players are never told anything that’s really going on within the game, just given hints that there are dangerous things happening around the player. This makes it nearly impossible to really figure out the game’s true story, and therefore sends its fans into a frenzy of decoding and detective work. This game, having been highly anticipated by its Steam Greenlight page months before its release, brought in record high views for certain gaming youtubers who made videos on the game. One youtuber, Markiplier, had his first video on the game reach over 53 million views. Another youtuber, under the channel The Game Theorists, dedicated his time to figuring out the lore behind Five Nights at Freddy’s. As the newest game in the series was released, Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location, countless blogs and forums dedicated to piecing together the lore of this single game have sprouted in addition to the remaining active forums for the previous five games. All of this devoted energy shows that people are looking for more information to this ever growing story; they’re dedicated to this game franchise and the story behind it.

Many people have tried to explain the phenomena that is the FNAF series. One article at Kotaku starts with; “It has racked up millions and millions of views (and screams) on YouTube. It has hundreds of earnest fan games, and dozens of rabid fan theories. The Five Nights at Freddy's hype train is incredible.” However, many games have seen the same lore hype like this series, such as Dishonored or even the Pokémon games at times, so why do people keep talking about FNAF? The lore is so quickly produced and twisted, each game being released only months after the other, that people keep bringing it back up, trying to understand it, much like old folklore. The game, while called overhyped by many, is still drawing attention to itself with how many people have gathered to discuss the lore behind it.

In the Overwatch side of things, fans of the game have been watching a webpage for the last two months, lying in wait for a counter to reach 100% and trigger the release of a mysterious character. A website called amomentincrime has been counting up from zero since late August after a few fans dug into an alternate game reality of Overwatch, which showed a shadowy ghost figure that resembled what they’d seen of this new character. Blogs have been dedicated to watching the percentage, and the source code of the website, for hints as to when it’ll reach 100%. The only real hint given is the text on the website that says “Initiating protocol Sombra” in Spanish, which leads every fan in radius of the website to believe 100% means the ultimate release of Sombra, a character known for her association with the games “bad guys.” Blizzard has said very little about the game’s origin itself, but through the brief descriptions of the 22 playable characters’ backstories, fans have built up their own versions of the origin story.  No story is ever the same, much like the way folklore stories are passed down through generations and changed to fit individual morals. People are creating individual versions of video game lore to fit the things they seek out in a good lore-based game.

Unlike FNAF, Overwatch has used the characters they have to make real world connections, such as the animated short The Last Bastion showing a robot with signs of PTSD from the war he fought in, or the short Dragons showing family problems in a different light than usually seen. This lore being canon ties back strongly to the notion that video game lore is becoming the modern day folklore; real world problems being shown in a light where things can get better, stories told in ways meant to be relatable to anyone who reads them. In the words of Blizzard; “We poured a lot of effort into creating a game—and a new universe—that anyone could enjoy.”

Video games with lore like these two have hit the internet gaming communities by storm; millions of players have taken to forums and blogs to figuring out detailed stories worked within the games they’ve come to know and love. These stories have begun to spread, and be passed around different groups of people, essentially creating a system of modern day folklore. Although many gaming communities outside of these two might not fully see the impact of modern folklore, overtime it will begin influencing other game developers. When these new developers see the success of lore-based games like Five Night’s At Freddy’s and Overwatch, they’ll be more likely to follow that format, eventually creating a completely new genre of folklore games.


Works CIted


@GeekAnthro. "Contemporary Folklore in the Digital Age." The Geek Anthropologist. N.p., 21 Oct. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

https://thegeekanthropologist.com/2014/10/03/contemporary-folklore-in-the-digital-age/


By Lola at Monday, June 06, 2016 12:10:00 PM. "A Few Important Words from Blizzard about the Overwatch Phenomenon." Gamezone. N.p., 06 June 2016. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

http://www.mweb.co.za/games/view/tabid/4210/Article/26067/A-few-important-words-from-Blizzard-about-the-Overwatch-phenomenon.aspx

Hernandez, Patricia. "Why Five Nights at Freddy's Is So Popular." Kotaku. N.p., 06 Feb. 2015. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

http://kotaku.com/why-five-nights-at-freddys-is-so-popular-explained-1684275687


Advanced Essay #2: Black Barbie

Introduction:

Writing this essay really helped me explore what I went through in my years before high school and how I experienced literacy. It helped open my eyes to things I never actually thought about until now. How in schools they try to limit your reading and your literacy to one thing or one culture and same with home. People often look over it without actually realizing what they are doing. I am very proud of how I incorporated my scene of memory into my actual piece and larger idea. Something I can improve on as writer is trying to make connections within my writing and also my use of commas. Both my peers saw that there were times when there could’ve been more of a connection in my writing and where a comma or two could be added. In the future I want to improve on my use of commas and trying to make connection within my writing.

The smell of hot chocolate tiptoed it’s way up the steps and slowly into my room. It wrapped itself around my nose as it pulled me from my sleep. As I woke up all I could think about was that it was Christmas and that thought flooded my five-year-old mind. I jumped out of bed and raced down the steps as if someone was chasing me. The only thing that was chasing me was my excitement. Nothing made me happier than Christmas, the warm clothes, the sweet smell of hot chocolate, oh and of course the presents. How could I forget about the presents? That year the only thing I asked Santa for was a Barbie. Everyone in my school had a Barbie so I knew I just had to have one. When I finally got downstairs all I could see was the huge Christmas tree it was covered in the brightest lights you could ever imagine and the ornaments almost looked like they were made specifically for that tree. The one thing that topped it all off was the tree topper. I’ll never forget it, it was the most radiant star I had ever seen. My grandpa always told me that he pulled it straight from the night sky just for our tree and I believed every word he said.

As I stood there gazing at the beautiful tree my mom yelled at me and said

“Girl, if you don’t come here and open these presents before I have to open them for you.” So I rushed over there and she handed me a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and my first present to open. I don’t know what was more exciting ripping the wrapping paper off or trying to figure out what was inside. When I finally opened the gift I noticed that it was a white box and the only thing that comes in a white box is clothes. Oh, how I hated getting clothes as gifts, it was like eating spaghetti for breakfast, it just wasn’t right. I continued to unwrap my presents scavenging for the only thing I wanted, that Barbie. I finally got to my last present by then I was getting a little anxious. I was praying this last present was my Malibu Barbie I rushed to open it and when I saw that Barbie logo I couldn’t believe it. I took the entire wrapping paper off and when I finally saw her face, she was white. My five-year-old mind thought nothing of it but years and years of getting the same white barbie I started to question “Why don’t they look anything like me?”

   That same question stuck with me throughout my years of elementary school but my love of Barbies turned into my love of books. Same as Barbies, books gave me a separation from reality, they gave me a new world to look into rather than my own. My favorite genre was fiction it opened my eyes to all the different things people could do. I read about people flying in magic school buses, the adventures that the brother and sister went on in their tree house and one of my all time favorites the stories of Junie B. Jones. I couldn’t help but notice that all the books I read none of the characters were anything like me. Sure, it was fun to read about all these different adventures they went on but I didn’t really have a character I connected with. All the books I did read that had some form of a black person in it were limited to minor characters or books about the civil rights movement. In The Apartheid of Children’s Literature Christopher Meyers emphasizes how people of color are used in literature: “characters of color are limited to the townships of occasional historical books that concern themselves with the legacies of civil rights and slavery but are never given a pass card to traverse the lands of adventure, curiosity, imagination or personal growth” Within in all the fiction novels I read about people traveling through time and helping to save the princess there was never one black character or any person of color for that matter. This, of course, gave me a fixed mindset as a child. I knew there were certain things that children of color couldn’t do. Those things being traveling through time, in a magic school bus and going on adventures in treehouses with their siblings.

   This thought transferred itself into my writing as well. As much I loved reading fiction I loved writing it too. Sometimes I found it difficult to try to incorporate myself within my writing. A lot of the things I wanted to talk about I had no idea to, well at least I thought I didn’t. In Write What You Know Heller illustrates how writers shelter themselves without even knowing “— unconsciously censored themselves and thrown out the wheat, mistaking it for nonliterary chaff. In this sense, the reminder to write what you know” Many of the things I tried to write about I believed I had no business writing because I didn’t know anything about it. It wasn’t until high school I actually read books about black people. I finally learned that I don’t have to limit myself or color myself in between the lines. Just because I only read about white people traveling through time fighting dinosaurs doesn’t mean that people of color can’t do the same. Just because I only had white Barbie dolls doesn’t mean the black Barbie wasn’t any prettier. I learned that Literacy doesn’t mean writing about what you know and limiting yourself. It means both writing about what you know and what you don’t know. Extending your knowledge to all regions and opening your mind to the new things in the world.


Works cited: 

Heller, Zoe, and Mohsin Hamid. "‘Write What You Know’ — Helpful Advice or Idle Cliché?" The

New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Mar. 2014. Web.

Meyers, Christopher. "The Apartheid of Children’s Literature."

The Limiting Experience

I.


I was in the third grade, and Christmas was rapidly approaching. My class had gathered in the school library where a special treat was awaiting us. Clad in polo shirts and jumpers, we plopped down upon the old grey carpet and awaited our treat from our librarian.

The librarian wheeled in a metal cart of books. It was maybe three shelves high, and was absolutely jam-packed with a variety of books celebrating the Christmas season. Because this was a Catholic school, they could give us books which were explicitly Christmas-themed and not really allow other holidays in. There was great jubilation as a sea of small children rushed forward to nab books from the shelf.

I looked at the choices in front of me with some distaste. They were primarily oversized pictures books with maybe a few short children’s novels thrown in-all things that I felt I had mostly outgrown by that point. I had known for a long time that I was an advanced reader, and had even been in a gifted reading group at school in kindergarten. I was completely bored with the choices arrayed before me.

Scanning the shelves, my eyes finally alighted on a book on the bottom shelf, shoved unceremoniously among a group of cutesy stories about Santa and elves and the baby Jesus. It was A Christmas Carol, the evergreen classic by Charles Dickens. I was already familiar with the story, as many people are-the tale of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge who is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve who force him to alter his cold-hearted ways-but I wanted to see the original book myself, to see how Dickens wove this story that nearly everyone seems to know.

I was only a few pages into the book before the librarian came over and snatched Dickens’s novel right out of my hands. “You’re too young to read that”, she intoned angrily, “Pick another book”. I was absolutely livid with anger. She was a bat-like retired nun, with a scrunchy, wrinkled face and a bad attitude, especially when it came to kids who seemed to be just a little bit too bright. Looking much like Scrooge himself, she glowered down at me over a pair of glasses. After this, I only remember crying and my parents being upset at the librarian’s behaviour.


II.


There is a tremendous hatred towards gifted and talented students in the United States school system. Compared to other nations, we tend to want to cut down the best and the brightest-something known as “Tall Poppy Syndrome”, which is also prevalent in other Anglophone nations like Australia and Canada, but might just reach its apogee in the USA.

We feel, being a nation founded on the ideals of equality, that those who are smarter or more talented or more inquisitive than us are simply “spoiled”, “privileged”, or “unfairly ahead”. After all, they didn’t “have to work” to be smart, they were just intelligent already, from the day they crawled out of the womb. Clearly, they have to be discouraged because their ideas are a threat not just to classroom stability, but to society at large! If one child knows more about a topic than the teacher does, then we are on the road to anarchy! Or, conversely, they are undermining our pre-determined script and cannot be allowed to have their ideas flourish! So goes the thinking of many an American.

This can be seen in my own career. In kindergarten, I was a part of a small group for “advanced readers” that read more challenging texts while the other students did their typical “ABCs”-level work. I do not recall much of it, but I do remember it being more rewarding and interesting than what I typically worked on. Then, suddenly, it was yanked away from me for no apparent reason, especially as we entered the lower grades. I would never have a real advanced/gifted programme after that for the rest of my schooling career, which frustrates me to no end. There were so many hours wasted in the classroom with kids who read aloud at a snail’s pace, or who stumbled over basic facts about geography, or who didn’t know who so-and-so was, or teachers who bungled simple things and hated to be corrected, that I felt like I was going insane. Sure, I could do the work. Sure, I suppose I liked it on some level. But year after year, I always had some teacher who despised me and didn’t appreciate or understand my intelligence or the intelligence of others, who instead taught towards the middle and ignored those who might have wanted to stride above and beyond the pablum vomited at us by the mandated curriculum.

And, controversially, this has not improved now that I have arrived at SLA. I still feel like teachers are teaching towards the middle, that students make stupid mistakes, or that they feed us stupid stuff (like Terence from Housman’s famous poem). We are trapped in limiting streams that force us to work with people who may or may not care about the fate of our projects. Our assignments, projects, and benchmarks themselves seem to have descended into frustrating busy-work that only serve to bore and anger the inquisitive.


III.


One of the great quests of Civilization is to preserve what has come before it. The great corpus of works that has defined the history of literature stands as a testament to humanity’s collective glory and wisdom. Without its light to shepherd us along the path of life, we would be lost, adrift without any signals as to how the human person works, lives, loves, and suffers.

We cannot allow it to be subsumed by the foolishness and myopia of a series of present-day bureaucrats. We cannot allow the Beacon of Civilization to be snuffed out, and for the heritage of the world to be destroyed.

But presently, it is under grave attack. It is being subsumed by a series of cheap, small-minded quasi-reptiles who cannot see the necessity of our traditions and our lifeblood.

That is why our gifted and talented children are central to the preservation of our heritage. They can understand our fallen nature as imperfect beings and how that even includes our highest authority figures-even our teachers. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel, much like the monks scratching away in the monasteries and chapels of Ionia over a thousand years ago. They can see that, though there is much darkness, there is also greatness and light. They shall persevere. They shall preserve.


Is Netflix The Best Streaming Service?

Cable began entering the home in the 1960’s, and since it has become one of the most popular ways to spend one’s time. With the invention of the internet, television has also moved to streaming online. There are many options nowadays to choose from when it comes to streaming television shows online. One such option is Netflix, one of the most popular online streaming websites in most households in America and around the world.  Netflix is better than cable television for the user because of its accessibility around the world and the cheaper prices. 

Cable television around the world is expensive. Not all countries share the same television programming meaning  others may not be able to watch certain tv shows that they want to watch. Netflix is different from cable television. Netflix is global. “The key is Netflix's global expansion , which exploded in January when the company added 130 new countries in a single day, bringing the total to over 190.” (The Business Insider Other streaming websites don’t even compare when it comes to the globalization that the networks have. For example, Hulu is only available in the United States and Japan as of today. The expansion of Netflix around the world is what allows the company to dominate over its competitors, including cable and other online streaming options. While cable television can be found around the world, Netflix is cheaper and a more accessible source of watching everyone’s favorite shows. 

The model of cable television has been sleeping for a long time. When it comes to choosing a network to watch a favorite show the decision can be irritatingly difficult because of the few, forced cable networks that are offered in the United States. Whether it is Xfinity, Verizon Fios, or DirectTV, no one gets the best value for their money. The high prices for these networks can be outrageous most of the time. “Consider the case of Netflix, whose streaming service blends original programing with feature films and documentaries, much like HBO.  However, although Netflix charges less, the company earns roughly the same per subscriber because it does not have to pay fees to cable providers.” (Forbes) Netflix is doing something right when it doesn’t have the forced deals and random spikes in monthly cost on a cable bill. Netflix is only charging its users typically $9.99 a month for a wide blend of movies, tv, and documentaries right at everyone’s fingertips. Every month, Netflix adds new movies and slowly get rids of the movies and tv that have been on the streaming site for a long period of time. It keeps itself current with all of the best shows and movies. Netflix even offers exclusive content that is owned by Netflix itself. Also Netflix keeps updating its shows and other shows in a season worth so anyone can enjoy their shows right away. If someone’s show season isn’t updated, then start a new one! 

Netflix is one of the most popular way of streaming movies and television shows directly online for its users to watch. It is also one of the biggest companies in the world with growth and expansion with online streaming. “Netflix had announced that it had thirty-one million subscribers in the United States… Netflix accounts for more than thirty per cent of all Internet down-streaming traffic in North America… The Netflix Web site describes the company as “the world’s leading Internet television network.” (The New Yorker) Netflix over the years has become one of the biggest ways of watching television shows. Online streaming is also becoming the newest “21st century” way of living nowadays so it got its hit from that. Having many shows that people love and ones that have been critical hits over the years. It is earning so much money because of the way it is creating a fan base. . Netflix is one its game and it is definitely better than cable television. 

When asked, everyone who watches television shows might say that cable television is better, But on closer inspection, Netflix is the better choice for watching favorite tv shows. Cable television has been slowly decreasing in its users in recent years and while on the other hand the internet has been exploding uses. Netflix is global with so many subscribers compared to other streaming networks and cabhat is one tenth of money someone is spending. As a result, it will keep growing from here because it represents the future of television. 


Works Cited

Source #1: http://www.businessinsider.com/why-netflix-is-the-leading-model-for-the-future-of-television-2016-2
McAlone, Nathan. "Here's Why Some Wall Street Analysts Think Netflix Is the 'leading Model for the Future of TV'" Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.




Source #2: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2015/06/06/the-future-of-tv-is-here-can-cable-survive/#33cabf1c428b 
 Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.




Source #3:
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/060815/how-netflix-changing-tv-industry.asp
Investopedia. "Netflix May Produce Bollywood-Style Original Shows, Says CEO." Investopedia. N.p., 03 Nov. 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.




Source #4: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/03/outside-the-box-2 
Auletta, Ken. "Outside the Box." The New Yorker. N.p., 26 Jan. 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.




2Fer - Sydney M.

INEQUALITY IN THE FILM INDUSTRY

There are many talented women in the film-making industry, but not as many as men. Even with this being, why aren’t the women mentioned as often? There has always been an inequality in the work area when it comes to men and women. Women have come so far from the past but still aren’t treated with the same respect and fairness as men. Women get paid less and don’t have as many opportunities overall. This goes for every work field that isn’t specifically a “woman’s” job, but why film? A lot of what happens in the film business is behind the scenes and is mostly on the computer, so why do people think that it still isn’t fit for women to handle? The Huffington Post and even the New York Film Academy have taken notice to the issue of gender inequality in the business because it is a rising issue. The problems range from how many lines female actresses get in movies to the 284 million dollar pay gap between them and the highest ranked male actors.  Ultimately, the state of women both behind and in front of the camera reflects that women are still expected to stay in their place. To basically just leave the hard work to the men.

A study that was done by Stephen Follows talks about gender split within film crews from between 1994 and 2013. People might think that with almost 20 years passed that things would have drastically changed. From 1994, the average amount of women on the film crew were 22.6% while the amount of men was 77.4%. When the numbers were recalculated in 2013 the percentage had actually decreased with only 21.8% of film crews being women. This percentage might as well be 0 when looked into deeper, because Women tend to have the less important jobs. Not that costumes and makeup don’t matter, it’s just not what makes the movie completely. When the percentages are broken down into specific categories such as wardrobe, casting, and makeup, otherwise know as the “easier” and more “girly” things, the numbers are high. 68.8% of the crew for makeup is female while only 31.2% percent is male. 66.5% of the casting department is female with males at only 33.5%. As the jobs on the list get harder or more “important”, the amount of females in the department decrease. For camera/ electrical only 5.1% of the crew is women while males come in at 94.9%. This article doesn’t even get into the inequality between men and women on the screen, from speaking roles to amount of nudity.

The film industry has always been a man's business and always will be at this rate of change. Everything in the industry is for what benefits or interest men. Male actors get paid millions more, they have more speaking roles, they don’t have to take off their clothes as often, they even get nominated for awards more. In the New York Film Academy’s study they found some very interesting statistics. From 2007-2012 in the top 500 movies 26.2% of female actresses got naked, while only 9.4% of men did. The amount of nudity in female teenager has even increased by 32.5 percent. Only 7.0% of men wore sexually revealing clothes while 28.8% of women did. Out of all of the 500 films, only 30.8% of speaking roles were female. The forbes 2013 list of the top ten highest paid actors and actresses, females made a collective 181 million dollars while men made 465 million.

The most disappointing part about this information that there isn’t much to do about it. At least not yet. This issue matter because it about time that women are treated with the equal respect that they deserve. People brush the issue off and hope that it will solve itself, but it’s time that a change was made. As soon as more and more people are no longer blind to this issue, women can the equality that they have been working to get for years. Even though this unfairness is something people know about, the seriousness of the issue goes unnoticed and it’s time that people started to pay attention.




SOURCES

SOURCE #1:

https://www.nyfa.edu/film-school-blog/gender-inequality-in-film/

Zurko, About The Author: Nicholas, and Nicholas Zurko. "Gender Inequality in Film - An Infographic." New York Film Academy Blog. New York Film Academy, 2015. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.


SOURCE #2:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-ts-laham-/the-celluloid-ceiling-tru_b_11389544.html

Laham, Martha T.S. "The Film Industry's Problem Of Gender Inequality Is Worse Than You Think." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.


SOURCE #3:


http://stephenfollows.com/reports/Gender_Within_Film_Crews-stephenfollows_com.pdf


  Follows, Stephen. "Gender Within Film Crews." StephenFollows.com. Stephen Follows, n.d. Web.    16 Oct. 2016.


SOURCE #4:


http://wmc.3cdn.net/2e85f9517dc2bf164e_htm62xgan.pdf


Women’s Media Center. "The Status of Women in the U.S Media 2014." Women’s Media Center, 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.



     



Same Race Vs. Mixed Race Relationships

In the United States, same race relationships have been more common than interracial relationships. The reason for this is the limits people set themselves at by being hesitant to be involved seriously with another from a different race. It's all about comfort in a relationship, having things in common. Growing up it's a better chance to relate to people of the same race rather than another race because many people find comfort and reliability in partners who share physical characteristics as well as cultural and racial backgrounds.

Because of the intensity regarding black and white history, society has made interracial relationships focused more on these two races rather than others. The evil era of slavery and racism is what really separates these two races and makes black people feel intimidated to date a white person, Being comfortable is key in a relationship. It gives off a state of belief and ease that everything in the relationship will work out for the good.  has showed it’s easier to be around like minded individuals. For most people, it’s easier to communicate and be around people who have many similarities and most of the time them people are the same race. Every race comes from different backgrounds and sometimes different beliefs plays a big factor on the ability for people from different races to unite.

Location plays a factor on same race relationships being more common than interracial relationships too. Indeed everyone is raised differently depending on the lifestyle one can afford to live, however lots of races have a tendency to live fairly close to one another. For example, African Americans are minority and many grow up similar by being raised in a more ghetto neighborhood surrounded by poverty. Many blacks believe that only the African American race understands the struggle and that’s what relates the many people throughout the race. This is apart of the reason for the continuous awareness of the Black Lives Matter Movement with black people feeling their race aren’t getting the  equal amount of respect compared to white people. With this being said, black people along with other races can tend to limit themselves to only date people throughout their race because of the belief that only their race understands where they come from and can have a better chance to have a long, successful, relationship.

Researchers at the University of Birmingham found that socio-economic status significantly affects someone's choice with regards of relationships. Socio-economic status consists of one’s income, education, social class, profession and more. These researchers at University of Birmingham also did a survey that showed white people have a lower chance to find a partner outside their race because of their advanced social status compared to other races. There are more white people involved in essential aspects of the world such as politics, presidential candidates, and more compared to other races like African Americans and Asian Americans. In 2008, Jennifer Bratter and Rosalind King used the National Survey of Family Growth to investigate the likelihood of divorce for interracial couples compared to same race couples. The comparisons across different marriages showed that interracial couples have higher rates of divorce. Furthermore, these statistics showed that white/black marriages are twice as likely to divorce compared to white/white couples and white/asian marriages are 59% more likely to divorce compared to white/white marriages. The core reason for this stems from people’s contentedness of being with the same race and the inability to develop the needed when involved in an interracial relationship which makes it difficult for an interracial couple to last.

If couples and researchers stopped to think about it, they would realize that same race relationships are more common compared to interracial relationships not only because of being raised closely to people of the same race, but also the lack of desire and ability to develop comfort with another race, and because of prior history that may have separated the many different races. The barriers are not just psychological -- they are geographic and economic as well.

Works Cited:

Gladstone, Sarah. ""Swirling" vs. Same Race Relationships." Ravishly. Ravishly Organization, 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2016. <http://www.ravishly.com/2015/09/07/swirling-vs-same-race-relationships-%E2%80%94-will-we-ever-reach-post-race-america>.


Wang, Wendy. "Interracial Marriage: Who Is ‘marrying Out’?" Pew Research Center RSS. FactTank, 12 June 2015. Web. 13 Oct. 2016. <http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/12/interracial-marriage-who-is-marrying-out/>.