The AuthaGraph Map in my opinion is very innovative and different to your convention Gerardus Mercator map. The reason this map was made, was to provide a new pint of view. It was perfect for what I was trying to achieve. I wanted people to know that the world is not as separated as it seems to be. My initial inquiry was “How can I make sure everyone coming into SLA feels represented when it comes to art?”. My initial thought process was to actively represent that we are all different and can’t be categories into one group. But I feel that stems from my middle school mindset. SLA has changed my perspective on a lot of this. SLA constantly challenges my inner bias and thought process. My fellow classmates also acknowledged that we aren’t the same. After I made that realization there was a new goal to my capstone. This goal made my inquiry change. My inquiry had shifted into how can future SLA students acknowledge the difference without categorizing themselves. I’m asking how can we start proactively show students that we all have differences but not letting that stop us from interacting with each other. What better way to show a physical example of the world. This project also has a quirk. It’s purposely left unfinished.

In chapter twenty one, the narrator talks about the birthing process. The birthing process seemed so ceremonial and cultish in many aspects. The way that the narrator described the handmaid chanting in a circle creeped me out. There were three main moments that had me so frustrated. Number one being the wife acting like she gave birth to a baby when in reality it was Janine. Number two being the commander’s wife taking credit for the birthing process. The final one would be the fact that the wives get to name the baby’s instead of the handmaids.

After Jannie gave birth to the baby, I started to get emotional. I got frustrated at the fact that “The two wives in blue help the third wife, the wife of the household, down from. The birthing stool and over to the bed they lay her down and tuck her in”(126). I hated the fact that the wife that literally did nothing in this process was acting as if she had the child. Jannie had the child she should be the one receiving the most help and care.

When the wife is all tucked into her bed. She receives the child from one of the aunts. What I thought was so irritating about this was the objectification of the baby. The narrator starts to say that “The commander’s wife looks down at the baby as if it’s a bouquet of flowers: something she’s won as a tribute”(126). I interpreted the commander’s wife looking at the child as an award for her hard work. Although we never got to learn the relationship between Jannie and the commander’s wife, I believe that it’s safe to assume that there was distance kept. I think if i were in that situation I would have been crying. I wouldn’t be filled with jealousy just because of the baby I had been carrying. It’s the long nights that I was suffering. I would be thinking I did it, not the commander’s wife. That is a frustration I have with the commander’s wife. On top of all of that it’s the wife that gets to name the baby. I feel like the least they could let the handmaid do is name the child they just gave birth to. I feel so sad for the handmaids.

The narrator in the handmaid’s tale is constantly jumping from thought to thought in her mind. Chapter 11 starts off by narrating how the bathroom is a luxury and the only place she ever has privacy. The following paragraph she starts to narrate about her daughter. The narrator thinks about her daughter by saying “She fades, I can’t keep her here with me, she’s gone now. Maybe I do think of others as a ghost, the ghost of a dead girl, a little girl who died when she was five”(64). On the surface level the readers can see the narrator has a constant thought about her being “dead”.

The narrator thinking about her child being dead is more comforting thought as cruel as it sounds. In the new society that has been created, although women are not constantly being threatened there is still a big issue with their society. Society, although it claims to keep women safe, has full control over what happens to women if they don’t comply and that’s what keeps women in line.

Throughout this chapter I think the narrator would prefer her daughter to be dead because of how young she was when they separated. The relationship between her daughter and her, the child still heavily relies on the mom in my opinion. In her mind a small child couldn’t possibly survive the world without a guide from at least one parent. In the narrator’s mind I strongly believe she fears for her child’s life more than her own.

If I were to live in this society and if I had a child to keep myself sane I would honestly gaslight myself into thinking my child died. I don’t agree with the system and to put a child through that. To keep myself sane I would pray that my child was dead. I wouldn’t want my child to live in a society where she wouldn’t have control over her own autonomy. Even in modern day; I wouldn’t have a child. There are so many risks that if I put a child out in the world with so many issues, I just wouldn’t want to bring it upon them.

Growing up I feel like my mother would move the world if she really had too for my sister and me. I grew up with women surrounding me and we were taught that we should be loyal to our families. I feel like I have a different take on why the narrators would rather believe her daughter to be dead than alive. It would be so much easier to believe her daughter was dead than to want her to be alive. I believe a mother would do anything for their child to be safe and sound. My example of believing that is by the strong independent woman that raised me growing up. This includes my mom, aunt and grandma. My grandmother most of all being an example of a woman of family and having a deep love of owning her own restaurant at the moment. She can be so busy but will always try her best to make time for the family. She has sacrificed to get us to stand on this ground today.

The slate post was about plastic pollution. In the community and throughout the rest of the world people are using a large amount of plastic. It is very bad for the environment and the future. In the world right now there are lots of things being done to help stop plastic pollution. A few examples are people trying to minimize the amount of single-use plastic or plastic, in general, being used daily. Scientists are finding organisms that can consume plastic. The last example can be using more glass objects. Some organizations that are trying to help currently are

Keep Philadelphia beautiful

Love your park

Trash hero world

Changing how much plastic pollution there is out there is by working together. There is so much plastic out in the park and in the ocean that we all need to reduce the amount of plastic being produced. The reliance on plastic in this society is huge. Big cooperation needs to stop with the plastic bottles thing instead use glass bottles. Glass bottles are a lot more sustainable for the environment. Glass gets recycled from 50% to 80% which is a lot compared to plastic.

When I had to decide how to do the agent of action, I had no idea what I was going to do. I asked myself “how am I going to change the plastic pollution”. Being realistic now, one person can’t fix the globe of plastic pollution. I designed a presentation which will inform people about plastic pollution. It’s now up to everyone else who wants to help fight plastic pollution or make it worse. I also made a social media account to post daily starting May 28.

Throughout creating the project it was stressful. There are many reasons why it was so stressful. A few are that I had a lot of homework and projects to be working on. Balancing that all out was stressful and stayed up late working on these projects. The second reason is motivation. I lack the motivation to do the actual writing part but I do love researching. I think researching is the easiest because you can learn so much. The last one is that I wanted time to do things other than just homework and projects. They are both time-consuming and to be honest, I want to also have time to learn how to cook or just go outside and be a teenager.

While making this project I would be wondering how effective this would be. The answer to that question is, I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t know, I don’t know because I have to rely on other people. Sometimes things are successful other times they are not. I hope this project is one of the successful ones but if it’s not I can try again until I get it right.

With the whole project, I was under a lot of pressure to get it done. It was very interesting to learn about plastic pollution and the side effects. Although the side effect is really bad it makes someone realize that people are so reliant on plastic. Plastic is everywhere, even in the least expected places. In my opinion, people should know the bad effect of plastic pollution but also how reliant they are on it. It’s sad to see the constant reliance on plastic.

What I learned about myself is that I just need motivation and to be strict with my work. I say this because I just lack motivation a lot. Sometimes it hits in waves. When I push through I feel accomplished even if I only did one assignment. I think it’s something to be proud of because that means I have one less assignment to do and I can move on. What I learned from others is that they will cheer for you and believe in you. Sometimes it’s just that, that a person needs.

When I reflect on this Agent of change project, I feel like my time management could have been better. I lack the motivation of doing work in the last quarter. I would also spend more time doing the project part. I would like to add more detail to the project. Now that’s left is to spread the information. Spreading the information is going to be the hardest part. Not only do I not have any control but people need to work together in this. No one can solve global issues alone, we have to work together.

Bibliography

Presentation

At some point in our lives, we all have gone to a fast food place or have bought a coffee at Wawa. We often don’t think they have much significance in our life since it’s just food. I bet most of us don’t think of the plastic fork that gets thrown out or the coffee cup that has been used. Both of the objects are used and thrown out daily and are both made of plastic. In a way, our world runs on plastic. From grocery bags to water bottles that contain microplastic. Our world is addicted to plastic, and it’s getting worse every day. Slowly our planet is becoming overfilled with plastic. This plastic is killing marine organisms and affects our environment currently. Our society as a whole is addicted to plastic and we can’t go a day without using it. My goal is to inform people about the problem because I can’t solve the worldwide problem in society. We consume so much plastic that it’s affected innocent animals. I want to solve plastic pollution quickly but I know it will take time.

The picture is from plastic pollution EIA

Plastic pollution is the build-up of plastic in the environment. Plastic has a bad effect on the ocean because it doesn’t break down, it breaks upinto small pieces called microplastic. Microplastic are pieces of plastic that are tinier than 5 millimeters, it can be smaller and be seen under a microscope. Microplastic is so tiny that fish accidentally eat the microplastic because they mistake it for plankton. Microplastic is so tiny because the sun heats the plastic slowly and makes plastic very small. Microplastic is very dangerous. It can cause health issues like pierced organs or fatal intestinal blockage for animals. The build of plastic in the ocean has gotten so bad that around the world there are 5 enormous patches of plastic waste.

The plastic in the ocean has gotten so bad, that by 2050 there will be fewer fish in the sea than plastic. People have found whales being beached and when they took a look inside the whale they discovered most of them are filled with plastic. Whales aren’t the only ones filled with plastic, studies have shown that AT LEAST 40% of seabirds and other mammals are affected by the ingestion of plastic. The overproduction of plastic has taken a negative toll on marine wildlife.

The production of plastic increases faster than how it’s recycled. So how long was it since the production of plastic started to increase, someone may ask. It started largely producing plastic 60 years ago. Around 1950 there had been 2 million metric tons of plastic production. In today’s day, there are about 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic that have been made. About 8 million tons of plastic each year enter the ocean. Sources say it’s like dumping garbage trucks filled with plastic into the ocean every 60 seconds or a minute. By 2050 there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic debris in the ocean. That is not the only problem.

Plastic can take up to 400 years to decompose and in most cases more than the given amount of years. The production of plastic increases faster than how it’s recycled. 80% of the waste products are made of plastic. About 50% out of 300 million tons of plastic is single-use plastic. Around 40% of single-use plastic isn’t recycled. This is because single-use plastic is small objects that tend to fall within the recycling machinery, it’s often not accepted with recycling centers.

In this day plastic is in everything, literally. We can’t get rid of plastic altogether but we can reduce it. We can stop buying bottled water or at least limit it. Limiting the amount of plastic being used is another good way. Instead of using single used plastic use replacements for it, it will help the plant and can also save someone money. Another way that is incredible and true is having the living organism that consumes plastic eat the plastic. There called Mealworms, learn more about clicking the link

Throughout this research and reading about plastic, I realize how people including myself rely on plastic so much. Eliminating plastic will be almost impossible but reducing the consumption of plastic will not only help the planet and animals but for us as well. We can all help reduce plastic pollution by doing simple things but it takes effort to solve it as a world.

My annotated [Bibliography] (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CiGswvgvqOQc_nAUocJADXyx1YEy9r04N4LCMvMO-NA/edit?usp=sharing) about plastic pollution).

In Born a crime a few things connected with my writing that influenced the story. A few examples would be when Trevor Noah had a close friend named Teddy, and when Trevor Noah had wanted to switch classes when he liked being in class B better than class A. In both of these stories they have something in common, both Teddy and class B accepted him for who he was. Both of the people accepted Trevor Noah for who he is and made him feel part of a place where he isn’t judged. That is the same with my friendship group, they accept me for who I am regardless of my flaws. One of my favorite quotes in Born a Crime was in chapter 11 on page 99 “Since I belonged to no group I learned to move seamlessly between groups. I floated. I was a chameleon, still, a cultural chameleon.” This quote did connect to me, this connected with being because growing up I was also the same way. I was part of multiple groups but it didn’t feel like I was part of it. I was there from time to time but I never stayed for too long. My friend group and the habits aren’t the easiest to understand, sometimes we can’t even understand each other but that is a rare occasion. I tried to explain the characteristic traits of my friends the best I could to make sure they understand the way our group works. My friend group can get chaotic sometimes and when we are having a serious conversation about things that are affecting us we have each other’s backs. Identity and belonging haven’t always been the easiest thing growing up. I never really had many true friends, they were more of acquaintances. Growing up, we all kind of just lacked friends. So eventually we all became friends even though most of us attend different schools. The story connects with my identity because my friends influence how I am towards other people. While writing the book Trevor Noah’s very impactful writing style, it’s unique in many ways. His writing style had lots of humorous moments which also makes me want to add a lot of humor into my writing style. I am attempting to give my story a comedic effect.. I also want to make it as entertaining as possible. I adore humor, first because I like making things funny and laid back. I don’t like making my writing stiff, I like to have my personality intertwined with the writing.

In many ways, our life is like a flower. The first stage of a flower is planting. Then it grows and develops into a beautiful flower, but with time, it withers away and dies. A flower has many stages of its life, like people. This picture is one of the stages of my life and many others had to face in this pandemic. This photograph was created in late September. The picture Reflection is taken in my bedroom.

The picture Reflection was taken in my room and took a while to shoot. To set up the picture, I first moved my desk against the wall. After setting up, the hard part was taking the picture. Even with 2 years worth of experience in photography, it was a struggle. Since I had no one to help me take the picture, I used the self-timer on the camera, which would give me 10 seconds to get in the right position. It took almost 3 to 4 hours to get the best result. To get the best quality, I decided to edit. It took a long time to do, I tried multiple times, but the exposure was always too much or too little. I stayed up late trying to edit it until I was satisfied with the result until one day it came out how I wanted it.

In many ways, I have gained and lost in this pandemic. It has not been the easiest stage of my life that I’ve had to go through. I just wanted to share that mental health is very important during this pandemic and staying positive can be hard. It’s hard to be home because it feels like you are trapped in a cage slowly becoming smaller, and not being able to be set free. It’s hard but I know one day it will all be okay because things always start and come to an end.

By the time you finish reading this, maybe a stage of your life has ended and a new one has started, like a flower. To be honest, I wouldn’t know, but I do hope you have enjoyed this. This photography project may have sounded easy but it was not. I had to use things around my house since I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere, so I had to be creative. It was hard, but I had fun creating it.