The topics of my slide are soccer and technology. These are two big subjects in my life. I quoted the captain of my soccer team, Jori, who stated, “The grind never stops”. I made the text blue and gold. Not only do these colors contrast with the background, but they are the colors of the union soccer team. I made the part of the image inside the computer screen colored so that oneselves eyes would be brawn to the main topics. This also added a futuristic effect. My background bleeds off the side because it is more pleasing to the human eye. Finally, I used the rule of symmetry, which means that the sides of my slide are not identical and the background is not centered.
What I changed And Learned
Usually in past presentations, I have made my slides “Boring” as Ms. Hull would say. But thanks to her constructive criticism I have tried using some new things such as different colored words to make the presentation more attractive , I highlighted important topics and included pictures. I also gave some of my sentences colored borders. Plus I Used Word Art. When presenting to my fellow group mates I took the following things they said into consideration. Hector told me that I should change the background color because it made the text harder to read. Caresten said that I should use less words. I changed both things and I think that the slide does look much better.
Working Hard or Hardly Working
Here is one thing that doesn’t help in anyway at all, it’s unproductivity/laziness. Most people find me to be a lazy person. My friends do and sometimes they can’t trust me to complete a task that I am not totally good at doing. I often hear teachers say that haven’t met my potential yet and occasionally lack focus. My mother, the one who keeps watchful eyes over me even through all her work will say that I am a heavy procrastinator. I think that it’s all true and I hate to admit it, but it has become apart of me that I really wish to change. It’s not that I don’t want to be associated with laziness, it’s just that I don’t want to be defined by it. I don’t think that I am totally a “lazy” person, but I think that I have a really big issue with procrastination. This is a big problem for me at school and I can sometimes get my priorities mixed up with other minute things at or after school.
I remember one day during my sophomore year, I was in a really heated debate within a group chat. I was so concerned about such a minute discussion that I ended up missing the whole lesson. This wasn’t the first time that something like this happened either but it severely screwed up the rest of my day. I was bombarded with work due the next day with a few big assignments that would take a while, and on top of that I had the work that I didn’t understand at all because I was so unfocused in class. That night was horrible since I had to stay up until around 2 o’clock to get the Majority of it done but I ended up having to withhold my Rosetta Stone work for the next day. The day after that couldn’t have been enjoyable either because I had to use my time in an out of classes to keep up with Rosetta. The rest of the week was like this; trying to finish an assignment close to deadline while ignoring the work I should have my focus on. Rinse and repeat. This isn’t an effective method either as my grades have stooped to averages that I would never thought that I could get, I feel like I have a legitimate problem weather it be my academic, sports or social objectives. I understand that “school come first” but sometimes I feel like school can wait, I know this type of thinking will destroy my academic progress but I do have a way to help with that.
I have this one medication that helps me focus, well I hope it helps me focus, I often can’t tell if it is. I’ve been taking the vyvanse pill for about 5 or 6 years and I don’t like talking about it, this makes me feel like I need someone or something there to help me do things that other people can do without any meds. I don’t want to make this a ADD/ADHD speil but it makes me feel like I am constantly in need of help. I hate this feeling and at times it makes me feel like I am weak and inferior because of it. It’s weird, to feel like you are less than the students right next to you because you need to put forth more effort to keep up with them, and this happens a lot during my english/writing classes.
I don’t really have a personal problem with writing, but writing about something personal is the problem. I hate exposing myself, it makes me feel as if I’m naked. Everything that I normally hide, is now out on display; what scars I have, last weeks bruise, the one pimple that I can’t seem to reach or destroy, even the weakest and deepest sections of my mind and body. To me writing from the heart can feel like showing everyone one more important piece of info needed to eliminate Genero Accooe from the competition for best life achievements. I literally deleted like eight to fifteen sentences from this exercise so far . I Have stopped typing to bite my nails and fingers like 30 times. I know that everyone probably feels this way, but at this point my insecurities now have a significant amount of power over me. My mom has told me many times before that I can’t let my self conscious get the better of me, but I can’t help but think about what others would from me. I need the approval of others, with everything like the way I may dress to the way I talk. I don’t need a verbal response to tell when something can come off as awkward, dumb or confusing, it usually comes from the way someone may look at me during a conversation or just plain old body language. This event has an effect on my writing; slowing it down, forcing me to go back and rethink my ideas regardless of if they were going in the right direction or not.
I know that it may seem like I have got myself stuck in a black hole that I will never escape, a cruel curse of self harm, and a credit card debt that may never reach zero but this will not happen. I am getting better and better, this doesn’t mean I have never faced hardwork in my life though. I have had four jobs since the beginning of my freshman year and completed all of them with good remarks from my higher ups and shows that I am not totally unproductive and that I do have what it takes to live a more productive lifestyle. I feel like I have learned from my past mistakes, even if I feel like I am the only one who has times like these I now I stop and think. I think of my many friends that have a learning disability as well and that for us this is normal, this life and I’m going to have to move forward knowing that this will only help me become a better more productive person, I wanna be like Gucci Mane, Pharrell Williams, Will Ferrell, Charlie Brown. Anything but a Garfield.
Works Cited
GILMAN, CHARLOTTE PERKINS. YELLOW WALLPAPER. INWOOD COMMONS PUBLISHING, 2017.
Jason Lam
Ms. Pahomov
English 3
5 January 2018
I like to think of myself as bright, smart, funny, a video gamer, a procrastinator, friendly, optimistic, resourceful, curious, accident prone, slow, organized, and independent. Being independent in life without the support or help of others is a big stepping stone for me. As a visually impaired person, I need help and support from my family, teachers, and supervisors. Of course now that I’m now a lot older than I was when I first became visually impaired, I am more capable of doing things and doing them by myself, but I’m lagging behind where I really should be on my independency. I was very lucky to grow up in a pretty big family where the adults did everything from mopping the floor, laundry, to cooking, and cleaning the bathroom. My brother and I didn’t really do any type of chore during our early childhood so we weren’t all that experienced in everyday chores. I’m not saying we didn’t do any chore or helped at all, but we weren’t really required to do them. Since I’ve been lucky to have others doing things for me, it was a hard transition from having people doing everything for me to being independent and doing things myself. One thing that comes with being independent is trust, specifically parent trust. My parents are not the most outgoing parents. They are caring and supportive to me. They are also very protective, maybe overprotective. One thing I wanted to change this year, for school, was transportation.
(Our conversation was in Chinese, so here is what it basically translates too)
“Mommy?” I asked.
She was looking at her ipad, and sitting on the floor. She replied, “Hmmm?”
I looked at her and said,“Why can’t I go on the subway to school?”
“There is no why.” she plainly said. She still kept looking at her ipad.
I grew annoyed with her reply. She always says this whenever I ask her why questions on a subject she doesn’t want to argue about or go into because she thinks it’s a waste of her breath. Tonight’s subject was about my change in transportation I made with my braille teacher/supervisor.
So I said, “Yes why!” “Why don’t you want me to go to school by myself?”
She finally looked up and said in a pretty calm yet bold voice, “We’ve had this conversation already. I don’t want you to take the subway to school because no one can watch you. Besides, when it gets cold in winter, there will be snow and ice that you will have to pull your school bag through, and you can slip and fall on the ice. Also, you have to wake up earlier to catch the subway, and it is more convenient and better for you to take the taxi to school.”
Even though she did make some good arguments, I still argued back with her. “But I can handle the cold, and I haven’t slipped on ice once in my entire life yet.”
“That doesn’t mean it won’t happen.” she rebuttled.
I looked at her with growing anger. I’ve always hated that I never got to do what I wanted to do. Yeah, sure, some people might consider a taxi as a luxury to a walk or SEPTA ride to and from school, but it’s really not.
I said ”But the taxi is really terrible! The driver speeds, calls on the phone while he’s driving, curses and shouts at drivers that drive too slow for him, crosses red lights, and when it picks me up from school, it’s late.
I remember the time during my freshman year when I was waiting for the taxi, but it was late for some pathetic reason. I had waited for over 40 minutes for it when I decided to leave and head to my mother’s salon which was nearby. Boy was everyone annoyed with me.
“How come?” she questioned.
“I don’t like it when I hate to wait for the taxi because they’re late. They even lie about why they’re late too!” Unbelievably, the driver does lie about why he’s late. Once, I overheard him talking to a client on the phone about why he was late to pick them up.
“I’m sorry, traffic is just so bad.”
He said this as he was driving through an empty street! He wasn’t late because of traffic, he was late because he wasbiting off more than he could chew! He had so many clients that he couldn’t keep up with his schedule and just blames innocent traffic for his lateness. That’s why I don’t believe a word he says about why he’s late, he’s taking more clients than he can handle.
“That was just an honest mistake. Besides, you need to be more patient, son.” she said.
Be more patient? Is she kidding me? Would anyone wait for a taxi that is almost an hour late? Tell me if that is being impatient! I waited over 40 minutes before I decided to leave.
“He’s also driving me to school late now.”
“ Did you tell the office that you were late because it was the taxi?”
“I did, but I can’t keep on saying that!”
“Why not? If you’re late because of the taxi, then you got to tell them it was the taxi’s fault you were late and not you. “
“Ugh. I don’t think my teachers will keep on doing this for me every single day.”
She looked up at me and just gave me an expression that said all too clearly that she wasn’t going to change her mind no matter what excuse I told her.
So that was an unpleasant conversation I had with my mother a while back.
Still up to this day, I have SEPTA as my transportation to and from school and not the taxi. I’m not regretting my choice to switch even though it is pretty frigid and slippery outside, but sometimes and definitely before I switched, I did vacillate whether I made the right choice. Being independent is a hard thing for me even though I’m older now. Always having help and support at my fingertips was as regular as it could be. Of course, I’m not saying I’m ungrateful, in fact I’m actually happy that I had an easier childhood than most other kids in a responsibility sense. But on the downside to becoming an adult, I became really dependent on others helping me. I guess it’s never bad to ask for a lot of help, but is there a such thing as asking for too much help? Sometimes I do feel that way. I feel that sometimes when I ask questions or for help too much. It makes me feel guilty inside. It is a goal for me to be capable and confident of myself to do things that would otherwise require me to seek help.
YES, I know, it’s never a bad thing to ask for help, but it’s also never bad to do things yourself!
