For my capstone project, I’ve decided to transform an empty room into a room for my younger sister, Rylie, but how can I transform a small room into a bedroom? I wasn’t sure if I could do this project individually, so I enlisted the help of my mother and her boyfriend. We had so many ideas for the room, but due to the limited space, we were only able to implement a few of them. Working with others not only allowed me to acquire experience, but it also made me realize how much I enjoyed interior design. I’ve spent most of my time mood-boarding thoughts and trying to visualize what I want to put to fruition. I decided to add all of Rylie’s favorite items, such as books, creatures, and colors. I’ve discovered new material about interior design as well as new things that Rylie enjoys in the process of my capstone project.

Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15LlnjLif4DaqEty6bAMzd1188LF2Rc05898jCcadTt8/edit?usp=sharing

TheVision

Book: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

James Kry, Sukainah Hasan, Nasir Duppins, & Tristan Mayberry

Podcast Summary:

In this podcast, from finishing the book we discussed why we think the author wrote the book this way. We think Toni Morrison wrote the book to show the power of each character’s story. Most characters were judged because of the way they looked. This caused them to become the character they are in the book. We even see with the characters’ actions everything comes with a price. Sometimes people have to sacrifice in order to satisfy others or themselves. Toni Morrison mainly wrote this book to show the damage that racism has put upon these characters.

Link to Podcast:

https://youtu.be/lVQ2pv-WX80

TheVision

Book: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

James Kry, Sukainah Hasan, Nasir Duppins, & Tristan Mayberry

Podcast Summary:

In this podcast, we’ve discussed skin color. Throughout the book, skin color played a huge part in the book. The first event was Pecola getting judged by a boy named Junior. Junior continues to bully Pecola just because she’s a girl and how “ugly” she was. Another event happened with Pauline. When Pauline moved to another town with her husband, black women judged her for her appearance and the way she talks. Lastly, since black women don’t have a say in what they can do, they find other living things to cater to as an example of choice.

Link to Podcast:

https://youtu.be/0uJK2g3Flyk

TheVision

Book: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

James Kry, Nasir Duppins, Sukainah Hasan, & Tristan Mayberry

Podcast Summary:

In this first podcast, we covered how skin color played a huge role throughout the book and mostly the life of Pecola. In the book, if you’re not how everyone wants you to be, you get bullied for it. We went over Pecola’s very abusive father, who burned down Pecola’s home, leaving her with Claudia’s family for now. Page 5, before the actual story began, quoted “Pecola was having her father’s baby” along with her questioning how women produce babies, sparked a debate between Tristan and Sukainah about if Pecola will be impregnated by her father later on in the book. Towards the end, we predicted where the novel was going to go. It was collectively agreed that Pecola had a lot of issues that needed a backstory that hasn’t been provided just yet. So, in the pages to come, our prediction led us to Pecola gaining a larger role where her tense family situation will be revealed.

Link to Podcast:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HUvBy8ZsDf_PPe4Z-7gYf_gtqqYUgipz?usp=sharing

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Society changed over time. We either help people or we don’t. Obligations. What should we do? How do people interact with others? People have their own ways of showing their obligations towards others, but people shouldn’t be treated with disrespect. Every human being in the world is the same. We went through obstacles to get where we are today.

E S S A Y

“What kills us isn’t one big thing, but thousands of tiny obligations we can’t turn down for fear of disappointing others,” Alain de Botton, a swiss-born British philosopher and author stated. In today’s society, what even is obligations? Do we even have any? No one doesn’t have any obligations, they don’t know how to leave someone alone. As reported by OpenBoarders, “part of the case for open borders is that at very minimum, our obligations to strangers is to leave them alone. Immigrations restrictions, by denying strangers the freedom to move to another country, violates this basic obligation.” This indicates that “strangers” don’t have the respect, or should I say obligations towards others. Everybody is human, no one is different. We all went through petrified phases of our lives and manage to deal with all the negativity, but yet manage to not let those things affect us.

Enrique’s Journey, a story about a boy, Enrique, who travels to the U.S., taking El Tren de la Muerte to reunite with his mother, but there are situations that occur throughout his journey with “truckers,” known as guards. As illustrated in Enrique’s Journey, “one after another, they turn him down. Many, having made the lonely haul from Mexico City, would welcome company for the remaining 380 miles to the border. Still, at least nine in ten truckers here, one trucker at the stop says, refuse migrants. If they said yes, police might accuse them of smuggling. Drivers say it is enough to worry about officers planting drugs on their trucks and demanding bribes. Moreover, some of the truckers fear that migrants might assault them.”(133) This indicates that a lot of guards play a role in the story, in which they are not the definition of obligation because they treat immigrants with disrespect, like garbage, and use them in any way that they can help themselves. For example, they rob immigrants (strangers), they rape them, and they abusive them. As stated in the book, a guard said, “if you can’t pay with cash,” one said, “you know how women pay.”(145) This proves that this is an ongoing situation that is not being brought to their attention that this isn’t how “strangers” should be treated. Another quote states, “her mother was terrified that Gabi would make the trip alone and be raped. She asked Gabi’s aunt Lourdes, twenty-six, to go with her. A smuggler promised to deliver them for $2,000 up front, but he robbed and abandoned them in Tapachula, just inside the southern border of Mexico. They were deported to Guatemala.”(145) This indicates that guards will do anything for themselves and that they have no obligations towards “strangers.” They have no respect for anything nor anyone, but if the roles were switched as them being strangers and strangers being guards then they would know how it feels to be put in an uncomfortable and dangerous situation.

“When I die, the scientist of the future would all know, there was a hushpuppy who lived with her daddy in the bathtub.” Beast of the Southern Wild, a film about a six-year-old Hushpuppy, who lives with her father, Wink, in a remote Delta community, known as “The Bathtub.” Wink is an independent man who is preparing his daughter for “the end of the world.” The Bathtub, in Louisiana, is located in an unsafe environment. Homes, food sources, transportation are all on the ground, which water almost sometimes rises to touch each thing. Every dark storm is a warning for them to know that they are probably not going to survive. Shelter services saw that there were people located at the Bathtub and came back for them to put them in shelters. Wink, the father of Hushpuppy, refuses to leave to be put in a safer environment for him and his daughter, so then they were dragged from there rotten, dirty, and destroyed homes and were sent to the shelter. Doctors ran tests on the people who lived in the Bathtub, without their consent and drugged them, giving them medicine that they are not telling what it is for, and basically doing surgery when they don’t want anything to be done, even though they are going to die.

Obligation; “the social force that binds you to your obligations and the courses of action demanded by that force.” In today’s society, we have our ways of obligations. Do we have respect? Yes. Do we treat people the way we want to be treated? Yes. Do we live from the past? Who knows. Laws, policies, rules, changes over time. We have new things every day, every second, every hour. Obligations from the past are different from today because we don’t live with a harsh, threatening, and abusive past. We’ve outgrown from situations. For example, the LGBTQ community. People would disrespect them in any way, either if the same sex is holding hands, kissing, or just minding their own business. They still manage to face those obstacles. I remember when I was a little younger, I saw two girls kissing each other and two guys kissing each other, who had more disrespect? The guys. But people don’t realize that everyone is the same, we have feelings just like everyone else. We faced obstacles to get where we are today, even if they are obligations or not. People will still manage to bring you down.

In conclusion, obligations aren’t just something that everyone has. We all have our version of obligations, even if it’s in a good or bad situation. My version of obligations would be “treat people the way you want to be treated because we are all human.” People don’t realize how difficult things that people go through. People get treated with disrespect for the things they do, where they live, what they wear, or what they look like. Why cant everyone be treated the same? In 2020 and in the future, we need to learn the respectful way to use obligations. How can you change your obligations?

C I T A T I O N S

“Obligations to Strangers.” Open Borders: The Case, 10 Mar. 2012, https://openborders.info/obligations-to-strangers/.

“Obligation.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/obligation.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

Introduction

My goals for this essay was to really step out of my comfort zone in writing and trying something different. Usually, for my essays, I write about a sad event that happened in my life, but this time I did something different. I am proud of the number of descriptions I had put into my essay and using words that I haven’t used before. One way I want to improve in my writing is trying to use new vocabulary and use it in a professional way in my essay.

Six Flags Unexpected Adventure

These days, who can you trust? Life is not always churros coated with cinnamon sugar, or a harness protecting you, or a person telling you that you’re “all good.” It’s different. You walk out in the open and wait for something to happen, like Kingdom Ka ready to blast you away, unexpectedly. Everything is so unexpected you don’t know what will happen next. Six Flags is a place to have fun, but to be careful about. This was not a Six Flag Great Adventure I pictured it will be.

“Omg, it’s so hot!” Walking in, waiting in line, just trying to get from point A to point B, the happy sun shines brightly. “Hi.” Gently I put my skinny, long thumb on the scanner. “Enjoy your day at Six Flags!” People pass by me on their way to Green Lantern, kids eagerly rushing to Bugs Bunny Boomtown. I pass a large, crystal clear fountain and a congenial gift shop. “Get close,” I overhear, as a family huddles for pictures together. The sound of the carts zooming through the wind hums in my ear. “Hi, do you guys want a family photo?” asked an employer. “No, we’re fine.” The cacophony of carnival game sounds; screams, shots, and dings, blend with the voices of people hoping they’d win. We walk on, loud music roaring through our ears competes with people trying to shout over the noise. Heading to the first ride, people accidentally bumping into us. Kids are crying. The smell of churros, pizza and turkey legs mixes together. “Omg! Look at this line, yo!” I shouted. All the rides are going to be long regardless, so we walked in. “Enjoy your ride on Green Lantern!” As the man smiled at us. No shade, skin to skin contact, the smell of sweat, which drowned the deodorant, and bugs roaming around us. In the distance, you can hear a girl’s voice, “All clear. Enjoy your ride on Green Lantern!” As time passed, it was our turn to ride. Everything was green, it looked like the wicked witch house from Wizard of Oz. As the cart slowly came back, the lady’s mouth which puffs up like a blowfish, then popped, she almost puked. They unbuckled their belts, while the harness slowly rises above their heads, as they exit the cart. The grey, dirty gate slowly opens, as 4 people from each gate get on the ride. I sat at the end of the cart, my friends’ sister sat next to me, Kobe, beside her was her brother, Dymond, and beside him was my sister, Yolanda. We all pull down the green harness and pulled it down to our pleasure, then attached the belt to the harness, there were only three clicks I heard, mines didn’t make a sound, but it didn’t come off when I pulled it. Eh! Who cares? The guy will check it for me. From the right side of my ear, a voice entered, “Everybody good?” Dymond said, shouting over the loud sounds. We all nod our heads. From both sides of the cart, two guys made sure we’re secured. The guys make it to our cart, in which he checked Kobe’s and pulled her belt which she was secured, then he pulled my belt and it was secured, or was it? The employees who slowly swung their hand side to side, thumbs up. “All clear. Enjoy your ride on Green Lantern!” As the girl said. Slowly as the cart moves, bumpy, adrenalin running, people screaming, “Omg!” Slowly as the cart makes its way to the top, lights, people, then suddenly… cart rushes down, people screaming on top of their lungs, hands grip to the metal bar, palms start to sweat. The tracks in which vibrates through the cart, to our feet, and to our mind. Reaching its highest point, slow, scared, screaming. Looking down, parking lots, lights, then… “Woahh!” The coaster twists and turns as if we were being twisted like a pretzel, the adrenaline freezes into a rage, the blood pressure that can’t decide what to do, the heart faster beats every second. Everything turns upside down, the blood that rushes to my brain, face drooping, hair dancing with the wind, then… blood rushes out of our brains and back to our feet. White lights which flash a couple of times, a picture. The black leather strap which held me into the machine suddenly passes out. The face of confusion, wondering why I hear metal clanking together. I look down, notice that the belt wasn’t secured and had detached from its partner. The ride was not done yet. Squeezing the metal bars, eyes shut as if there were spiders on my face, standing as still as a statue, heart beating so hard that I could hear it above the screams. This is it. Am I going to make it through the ride? Am I going to die? The cart suddenly stops, as if the cart instantly stops at a red light. Looking to my right, “My seat belt came off!” I said with fear. Suddenly, laughter, “You good?” Dymond said. What was so funny about that? I could’ve died. But luckily I didn’t. To hide the fact that I almost died, I covered it off with a laugh. The cart slowly making its way back into place. The harness then rises, I got off the seat, then make my way to the exit. My heart knows what my mind was thinking… thoughts and emotions started to fly into my head. Was it funny? Did they even care? Who knows? Hiding my emotions is something that I can do, in which they locked themselves up. “Alright, guys what ride you want to go next?”

“Life is like a rollercoaster, live it, be happy, enjoy life.” Well, this is not always the case, life is like a rollercoaster: unexpected, anxious, and trusting. Trust is what you need in order to get on rides. Getting on a rollercoaster and expecting to have a “Six Flags Great Adventure,” turned into something I had not expected. After that mortifying feeling, I had no thoughts or words. My mind was blank and all I could hear was the cacophony of carnival game sounds. With a quick gasp, I thought to myself, no I can’t do this, I can’t trust these lies. I thought I was safe. To this day I think to myself what could’ve happened to me, the thought of holding onto my life couldn’t surpass me.

I made my slide with varieties of pictures because not all, but each of them tells a story. What had influence my decision making is that when I did some research on how to make a 1 slide mean something meaningful and I ran into this image with all of these pictures about her lost dog and she had a story for her dog’s death. Mines is about my dad’s death, also, always think on the positive things.