Month: November 2018

At this time last year, I was in New Jersey trying to decide between 16 other schools, probably one of the most thought out decisions I have ever made in my life. I asked for advice from my coaches, elders, friends even school janitors but at the end of the day it is about finding a place that makes you feel welcomed and makes you feel like you’re at home. University of New England met all of my criteria plus more. After I committed to play football here most of my expectations for college were spaced out on the order of things that were being thrown at me, I chose to just focus on the things that were thrown at me and attack them in that order. I did this, so I do not stress myself out over one aspect of college when there is plenty of other things that I could stress about.

My first group expectations and worries, was all about football, the offseason workout, my performance during camp, would I even make it through camp? My mind was completely revolving around football which isn’t a bad thing because I ended up starting as a freshman and making an impact on the team. From an academic stand point I knew it was going to be hard, but this is a different kind of hard, I definitely thought we would be reading way more than we did this year. On the other hand, we did a lot more writing than I thought we would, it is kind of like I was right, but I wasn’t the roles just switched.

Writing is my strong suit, so in high school writing was not hard at all for me, mainly because we barley wrote and when we did it was a one-page paper, I would just follow the five P’s aspect with those essays. I don’t think I was told to forget anything about reading but I was told I really didn’t have to read a whole passage to find my answers or I didn’t have to read a whole essay to be able to find a quote. I was taught how to annotate a passage by just skimming through the passage or essay and find what I need. Come to find out in college I am told to forget everything I learned in high school because I am going to be learning the exact opposite. There goes four years of work down the drain. Great.

Forgetting wasn’t the hard part though, it was learning the opposite because I found myself doing the same things I was taught to do in high school multiple times before I really forgot everything. Looking at it from the perspective of a first-year student who is getting ready to wrap up his first semester as a college student, forgetting what I was taught in high school helped me in many ways. One way is it helped open up the amount of ways I could write a simple essay or lab report. It’s kind of like they opened up a new form of trust in the student telling them that they trust them to write an essay or label report with really no format to follow step by step.

Habits of the creative mind was a big help in trying to forget and learn a bunch of new writing styles and a bunch of new ways to format my writing. After being let off the leash from all the high school “rules” Habits was like my trainer in helping me not get lost in all of the freedom I was given in writing. There are 7 Habits of the Creative minds according to the book, some of these habits I can say I successfully learned and put to affect. I can say that I used the creativity, curiosity, persistence and openness to new ideas aspects in some of my writing. I definitely used the curiosity aspect in my Unabomber essay, I know this because I remember getting lost in my research and pulling away from the Unabomber and then glancing up at how many tabs I had open and I am more than sure there was 20 slides open of a whole bunch of Unabomber information. I feel as if every student in this class this semester has completed the openness to new ideas, because of the simple fact that we had to forget everything from high school and be open to developing new skills and ways of writing. I still have not gotten to the attentiveness, flexibility and reflectiveness, these three habits are hard for me to try and understand.

Over this semester I made a lot of mistakes, but I feel as it that is something that is normal for someone like me in the position I am personally in, along with every other first year student. I don’t like thinking of mistakes as something that stops me from learning or stop me from trying to adjust to this college lifestyle. I feel as if mistakes are something that should be considered as learning experiences and something that should be used as something positive instead as labeled as something negative. One of my biggest mistakes was my priorities were messed up and not in the correct order. I was focused on football more than academics at one point, this wasn’t my biggest mistake, but it led to much more. In the beginning of the semester I was on top of all my work in all of my classes, everything went downhill when I failed my first biology exam and then immediately after that I failed a psychology exam, I think I got real discouraged after that, in which made me not do well on the rest of my exams. I also need to learn how to not be afraid of embracing my failures and my flaws. I need to learn how to be okay with asking for help and being wrong.

From a reading and writing standpoint I don’t think that I made a huge mistake, one reason for this is because this class fits me perfectly. I am a good writer, and a decent reader when I want to be. I would most definitely say that I need to be more cognizant of my reading habits and I also need to just read more in general because reading is just good for the mind overall and good to develop knowledge. I can also say I need to improve on my ability on being able to pull quotes and move them around from text to text. Quotations is another thing I need to try and improve on, quotations as in me quoting myself or quoting someone in the third person.

At this time last year, I was in New Jersey trying to decide between 16 other schools, probably one of the most thought out decisions I have ever made in my life. I asked for advice from my coaches, elders, friends even school janitors but at the end of the day it is about finding a place that makes you feel welcomed and makes you feel like you’re at home. University of New England met all of my criteria plus more. After I committed to play football here most of my expectations for college were spaced out on the order of things that were being thrown at me, I chose to just focus on the things that were thrown at me and attack them in that order. I did this, so I do not stress myself out over one aspect of college when there is plenty of other things that I could stress about.

My first expectation, was all about football, the offseason workout, my performance during camp, would I even make it through camp? My mind was completely revolving around football which isn’t a bad thing because I ended up starting as a freshman and making an impact on the team. From an academic stand point I knew it was going to be hard, this is a different kind of hard, I definitely thought we would be reading way more than we did this year. On the other hand, we did a lot more writing than I thought we would, it is kind of like I was right, but I wasn’t the roles just switched.

Writing is my strong suit, so in high school writing was not hard at all for me, mainly because we barley wrote and when we did it was a one page paper, I would just follow the five P’s aspect with those essays, but come to find out in college I am told to forget everything I learned in high school because I am going to be learning the exact opposite. There goes four years of work down the drain. Great.

Forgetting wasn’t the hard part though, it was learning the opposite because I found myself doing the same things I was taught to do in high school multiple times before I really forgot everything. Looking at it from the perspective of a first-year student who is getting ready to wrap up his first semester as a college student, forgetting that helped me in many ways. One way is it helped open up the amount of ways I could write a simple essay or lab report. It’s kind of like they opened up a new form of trust in the student telling them that they trust them to write an essay or label report with really no format to follow step by step.

Habits of the creative mind was a big help in trying to forget and learn a bunch of new writing styles and a bunch of new ways to format my writing.

How far would you go to express your beliefs?

Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, correct? But to what extent is too much when trying to make a message out of your beliefs? I know the extent that Ted Kaczynski took his beliefs to was too far. Ted was a troubled but very smart man, who dropped out of school to chase what he believed in, a strong belief that technology was a “dynamic holistic system” meaning, he believes that technology is ruining society and technology is no longer serving humanity, humanity is serving technology. This is a very logical and reasonable belief, I believe that this is something that should be displayed to the younger generations, because the coming generations including my generation would be the main group of people that all these technological advances affected. Mr. Kaczynski is a person who follows his beliefs truthfully and would go the extra mile to be heard, and that he did. There are plenty of people in this world who believe that Ted “had a point”. The University of Chicago hosts a group meeting called “the Unabomber had a point” every year. I just feel as if Ted could’ve made a huge impact on the US or even a larger scale if he were to put his beliefs to good use and impact people in a different way than how he did. Ted had a 35,000-word manifesto explaining himself and trying to get his message out to the world. Some of his points were, “personal freedoms are constrained by society, as they must be”, “The stronger that technology makes society, the less freedoms”. All these points and arguments make sense but not enough sense to be displayed by bombing people who involved themselves in modern technology. Ted is the cause of three deaths and twenty-three injuries, just to try and make a point.

Does what Ted Kaczynski did affect the way people who share the same beliefs portray their ideas? Which leads to the question did what Ted do positively effect society or negatively affect society? I feel as if the way Ted went about trying to prove his point negatively affected the way his belief lingers but it didn’t affect the impact. Meaning that whenever you think about technology is beginning to have too much power of the way us as humans control things you immediately think of Mr. Kaczynski rather than a solution or the focus of the problem. Just imagine if Ted chose a different and positive way of using his knowledge in trying to prove his point about technology rather than trying to get revenge on technology, he would’ve had a way different legacy. There’s a fine line that changes the way Ted could’ve became famous instead of infamous. He had a reason to seek revenge but not to that extent.

The effect that Ted had on society itself was a very confusing affect. I am still stuck in the middle on if it was positive and or negative. Simply because, Ted most definitely got his belief out there and read. He definitely made people notice what he believed in and made people understand his points. Was it in a good way? No not at all but did it get his point across, yes, across the Washington post. All of these reasons plus more are positive ways he effects his belief and society. He negatively affected his name, which may blind people from his point because whenever someone hear the name Ted Kaczynski they may automatically think of the way he killed people and why he is in jail. Which may put a shade over the point he was trying to get across. He also, put himself away for life, so there is no way of further advancing his belief. One must outweigh the other and that is something that I personally need to do more thinking on because what he did was wrong but what he believed in is something I really agree with, so it is hard to find a median.

The argumentative question is simply was the Unabomber correct for what he did or was he wrong? Some people have a very strong statement and would be answered almost instantly. Some may say yes, some may say no. Me personally will say I don’t know. His reasoning and beliefs were there and a very reasonable topic to try and make society realize what he was thinking. It is just the extent he took his beliefs to, he had every right along with every other human being to have their own beliefs and have the right to publicly display their beliefs. Maybe a more reasonable question is what motivated Ted to act in such manor in trying to display his beliefs? I know that when Ted was living in his shack in Montana he left the shack for a little while and when he made his way back to it, there was a road that was just built through his shack. “I found they had put a road right through the middle of it”, “You just can’t imagine how upset I was. It was from that point on I decided that, rather than trying to acquire further wilderness skills, I would work on getting back at the system. Revenge. That wasn’t the first time I ever did any monkey wrenching, but at that point, that sort of thing became a priority for me.” This may be the thing that sparked Ted’s revenge, but there has to be a different moment in time where he even thought about bombing. There is a lot of different things that may factor into Ted turning into the monster he changed into. Those factors have to be explored and or respected in their own ways.

I personally believe in Ted’s beliefs one hundred and ten percent, technology is beginning to have a lot of control over what we as humans used to have control over. There is rarely more public telephone usage, when was the last time you used a phonebook? How about a dictionary? Hand washing clothes and hanging laundry out to dry? Newspapers? All of these are things modern technology has replaced or made it seem so useless. I am also a teenager and I don’t know where I would go or what I would do without my phone and social media, but I still have an opinion on my views on society. I also feel as if the technological social media aspect of everything is very controlling. People can simply paint their life and the way people view their life by posting a sequence of picture alongside a caption that goes along with the picture they are trying to paint. Modern day society has been so caught up in how people view their life and how they want other people to look at them. When simply that is not the way to live, so Mr. Kaczynski is not wrong what so ever in that aspect of his beliefs.

On the other hand, Ted was wrong in the aspect of life. There was no reason what so ever to take his beliefs to the extent he took them too, and no one should disagree with that. There is so many ways of going about displaying your beliefs, especially in that field. He could’ve used the brain power we all knew he had to try and portray his thoughts and ideas at the college campuses where he went to school and taught at. He could’ve used his connections to get his thoughts placed on a higher platform, so several people at large could’ve have seen it. Hell, he could’ve found a way to get a billboard. There is so many more different ways he could’ve went about doing this rather than tactically and physically attacking these public tech places.

Now my beliefs are just mine, there is plenty of people who agree and disagree with Ted, there is an article stating “the iPhone X proves the Unabomber right” this article shows that all of these new phones and laptops and crazy new technological advances. This shows that some people fear the distance and how in depth these technological advances may change the way society acts and the way people react to this. Usually the only way the people who believe in what the Unabomber stated express themselves is through incognito blogs. At the time people reacted in confusion to what Ted did, as they should. During these attacks no one knew where this bomber was hiding, which causes confusion. Then when Ted released his manifesto some people found it hard to try and dissect his reasoning and whether to agree with him or not.

Ted left a legacy, it may not be a good legacy, but he left a mark on this world, as I said before people may not agree with him, but he made what his manifesto stated surface and made people look and try to understand where he was coming from. This was a man who really wanted to prove a point no matter what it took. Some people may hate him for what he did, and I do not agree with what he did what so ever. But, I respect his mindset in trying to prove a point and make a stand for what he believed in. The is because that’s the type of person I am.

Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, correct? But to what extent is too much when trying to make a message out of your beliefs? I know the extent that Ted Kaczynski took his beliefs to was too far. Ted was a troubled but very smart man, who dropped out of school to chase what he believed in, a strong belief that technology was a “dynamic holistic system” meaning, he believes that technology is ruining society and technology is no longer serving humanity, humanity is serving technology. This is a very logical and reasonable belief, I believe that this is something that should be displayed to the younger generations, because the coming generations including my generation would be the main group of people that all these technological advances affected. Mr. Kaczynski is a person who follows his beliefs truthfully and would go the extra mile to be heard, and that he did. There are plenty of people in this world who believe that Ted “had a point”. The University of Chicago hosts a group meeting called “the Unabomber had a point” every year. I just feel as if Ted could’ve made a huge impact on the US or even a larger scale if he were to put his beliefs to good use and impact people in a different way than how he did. Ted had a 35,000-word manifesto explaining himself and trying to get his message out to the world. Some of his points were, “personal freedoms are constrained by society, as they must be”, “The stronger that technology makes society, the less freedoms”. All these points and arguments make sense but not enough sense to be displayed by bombing people who involved themselves in modern technology. Ted is the cause of three deaths and twenty-three injuries, just to try and make a point.

Does what the Unabomber did affect the way the people who share the same beliefs that Ted the way they attempt to portray their ideas? Which leads to the question did what Ted do positively effect society or negatively effect society? I feel as if the way Ted went about trying to prove his point negatively affected the way his belief lingers but it didn’t affect the impact. Meaning that whenever you think about technology is beginning to have too much power of the way us as humans control things you immediately think of Mr. Kaczynski rather than a solution or the focus of the problem. Just imagine if Ted chose a different and positive way of using his knowledge in trying to prove his point about technology rather than trying to get revenge on technology, he would’ve had a way different legacy. There’s a fine line that changes the way Ted could’ve became famous instead of infamous. He had a reason to seek revenge but not to that extent.

The effect that Ted had on society itself was a very confusing affect. I am still stuck in the middle on if it was positive and or negative. Simply because, Ted most definitely got his belief out there and read. He definitely made people notice what he believed in and made people understand his points. Was it in a good way? No not at all but did it get his point across, yes, across the Washington post. All of these reasons plus more are positive ways he effects his belief and society. He negatively affected his name, which may blind people from his point because whenever someone hear the name Ted Kaczynski they may automatically think of the way he killed people and why he is in jail. Which may put a shade over the point he was trying to get across. He also, put himself away for life, so there is no way of further advancing his belief. One must outweigh the other and that is something that I personally need to do more thinking on because what he did was wrong but what he believed in is something I really agree with, so it is hard to find a median.

The argumentative question is simply was the Unabomber correct for what he did or was he wrong? Some people have a very strong statement and would be answered almost instantly. Some may say yes, some may say no. Me personally will say I don’t know. His reasoning and beliefs were there and a very reasonable topic to try and make society realize what he was thinking. It is just the extent he took his beliefs to, he had every right along with every other human being to have their own beliefs and have the right to publicly display their beliefs. Maybe a more reasonable question is what motivated Ted to act in such manor in trying to display his beliefs? I know that when Ted was living in his shack in Montana he left the shack for a little while and when he made his way back to it, there was a road that was just built through his shack. This may be the thing that sparked Ted’s revenge, but there has to be a different moment in time where he even thought about bombing. There is a lot of different things that may factor into Ted turning into the monster he changed into. Those factors have to be explored and or respected in their own ways.

I personally believe in Ted’s beliefs one hundred and ten percent, technology is beginning to have a lot of control over what we as humans used to have control over. There is rarely more public telephone usage, when was the last time you used a phonebook? How about a dictionary? Hand washing clothes and hanging laundry out to dry? Newspapers? All of these are things modern technology has replaced or made it seem so useless. I am also a teenager and I don’t know where I would go or what I would do without my phone and social media, but I still have an opinion on my views on society. I also feel as if the technological social media aspect of everything is very controlling. People can simply paint their life and the way people view their life by posting a sequence of picture alongside a caption that goes along with the picture they are trying to paint. Modern day society has been so caught up in how people view their life and how they want other people to look at them. When simply that is not the way to live, so Mr. Kaczynski is not wrong what so ever in that aspect of his beliefs.

On the other hand, Ted was wrong in the aspect of life. There was no reason what so ever to take his beliefs to the extent he took them too, and no one should disagree with that. There is so many different ways of going about displaying your beliefs, especially in that field. He could’ve used the brain power we all knew he had to try and portray his thoughts and ideas at the college campuses where he went to school and taught at. He could’ve used his connections to get his thoughts placed on a higher platform, so a number of people at large could’ve have seen it. Hell, he could’ve found a way to get a billboard. There is so many more different ways he could’ve went about doing this rather than tactically and physically attacking these public tech places.

Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, correct? But to what extent is too much when trying to make a message out of your beliefs? I know the extent that Ted Kaczynski took his beliefs to was too far. Ted was a troubled but very smart man, who dropped out of school to chase what he believed in, a strong belief that technology was a “dynamic holistic system” meaning, he believes that technology is ruining society and technology is no longer serving humanity, humanity is serving technology. This is a very logical and reasonable belief, I believe that this is something that should be displayed to the younger generations, because the coming generations including my generation would be the main group of people that all these technological advances affected. Mr. Kaczynski is a person who follows his beliefs truthfully and would go the extra mile to be heard, and that he did. There are plenty of people in this world who believe that Ted “had a point”. The University of Chicago hosts a group meeting called “the Unabomber had a point” every year. I just feel as if Ted could’ve made a huge impact on the US or even a larger scale if he were to put his beliefs to good use and impact people in a different way than how he did. Ted had a 35,000-word manifesto explaining himself and trying to get his message out to the world. Some of his points were, “personal freedoms are constrained by society, as they must be”, “The stronger that technology makes society, the less freedoms”. All these points and arguments make sense but not enough sense to be displayed by bombing people who involved themselves in modern technology. Ted is the cause of three deaths and twenty-three injuries, just to try and make a point.

Does what the Unabomber did affect the way the people who share the same beliefs that Ted the way they attempt to portray their ideas? Which leads to the question did what Ted do positively effect society or negatively effect society? I feel as if the way Ted went about trying to prove his point negatively affected the way his belief lingers but it didn’t affect the impact. Meaning that whenever you think about technology is beginning to have too much power of the way us as humans control things you immediately think of Mr. Kaczynski rather than a solution or the focus of the problem. Just imagine if Ted chose a different and positive way of using his knowledge in trying to prove his point about technology rather than trying to get revenge on technology, he would’ve had a way different legacy. There’s a fine line that changes the way Ted could’ve became famous instead of infamous. He had a reason to seek revenge but not to that extent.

The effect that Ted had on society itself was a very confusing affect. I am still stuck in the middle on if it was positive and or negative. Simply because, Ted most definitely got his belief out there and read. He definitely made people notice what he believed in and made people understand his points. Was it in a good way? No not at all but did it get his point across, yes, across the Washington post. All of these reasons plus more are positive ways he effects his belief and society. He negatively affected his name, which may blind people from his point because whenever someone hear the name Ted Kaczynski they may automatically think of the way he killed people and why he is in jail. Which may put a shade over the point he was trying to get across. He also, put himself away for life, so there is no way of further advancing his belief. One must outweigh the other and that is something that I personally need to do more thinking on because what he did was wrong but what he believed in is something I really agree with, so it is hard to find a median.

During my most recent conference I had with Dr. Drown a handful of things were discussed, some critiquing me and my writing, some helping me understand future class assignments, and some trying to relate student to professor and ways to improve my contribution to class. Some of the ways I was critiqued in the writing aspect were, to have a better elaborate engagement to my pre-write and brainstorms before I start my essays and papers. Another thing that we went over was my most recent essay and I was told to use more quotes from the reading, pull more facts from the sources within the reading, and to organize my sources next to the support sources. I was told to use more repetitive words and be more argumentative in my papers in my last meeting and that is something I personally improved on and it showed in the paper.

I feel I am doing well in most of the more important aspects of the class, I can improve on the little things, so it adds up in the end. I am doing well in my writing aspect in the class, I find it easy to write and then adjust to what the professor wants while I’m doing it. One part of the class that I find very difficult is something I’ve always had a problem with is the reading portion. I find it so hard to try and apply myself to reading something that doesn’t interest me whatsoever.

Later down the road I know I am going to be put in the position to write hundreds of more essays because once again I am only a freshman, so I have 3-4 years left of schooling. Not only that but I know my future profession will acquire me to write, I don’t know what I will be writing but I know I will be writing. This can also help me not only use this way of speaking just to put it on paper but to use it verbally when talking to a regular person or a person of higher authority. If I am missing a place or situation that I will be put in where I would have to use the things I learned, I know I will be able to adapt to the situation.

My first action plan and adjustment I am going to put forth is putting my phone in my bag and on do not disturb so it does not disturb me and distract me from my work I am trying to do. Secondly, I will try and read and get attached to the books and readings I am assigned. Lastly, I want to try and apply more writing tactics and abilities because I want to continue to develop a very strong writing base. My successes will always just be an addition to a stronger foundation, and my failures aren’t something to stress over, they are lessons that you can only learn from.