Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 4)

When I hear the word identity, I think of superman or Spiderman. Simply, because these superhero’s have two different identities that they usually try to protect by having either a mask or just a way of portraying two different lives to the public. One being a superhero and one being a normal citizen. After having a bunch of class discussions and reading a couple passages about identity I have a different outlook on how an identity can portray yourself to the public or simple portray a self-observing image when looking in the mirror. 

When I was asked to describe or give a definition to what an identity is or how can an identity affect you, I had a real simple answer in all honesty. It was something like an identity is something that you create yourself that people can describe you as or notice you as. Which all in all, is not incorrect at all, but after reading all these passages and having class discussions I have a different view and definition of that word. I would change my description to identity is you, it is the you, that you create along with the things you do in public that can also alter your identity. The public also takes part in creating your identity, but if you create a good outlook by doing the right things in public you will have a good overall identity. Then you won’t have to put on a false persona or pretend to be something you aren’t just so you can boost your identity back up.  

One of the main things you cannot do when trying to keep a steady identity is let others portray into being known as someone or something you’re not. In the “Why identity is a lie we can’t live without” passage “But if you define yourself through the act of opposition, then you are letting the oppressors set the terms”- Kwame. This quote really stuck out to me because I was thinking about this topic, in this type of way when we were discussing it in class a then one of the readings says something that relates to the topic I was thinking of. This quote reminded me of slavery, because when the African American culture was being oppressed, they didn’t let the people who were oppressing them set the terms and give the false allegations they were being told and accused of life. This further led to the freeing of the slaves of the oppressors. Don’t get me wrong there is still a lot of racism in the world today but imagine if the African Americans let the terms that were set continue. This may be a reason that shows why identities matter.  

“The key thing I think is to make sure that the teams are held together by more than just hatred and contempt for the other team. There’s always going to be an element of that, but if you lead with the hatred and contempt, as Donald Trump often does, then you’re leading irresponsibly.”- Kwame. This quote is very meaningful to me because not only does it describe the problem that we are in right now with who is in office, but it shows that one person can give a bunch of people an identity. Trump single handedly with his actions gave the US and his supporters their own labels, some of these people don’t even fulfill these labels but because of Trumps actions that is just the way it’s going to have to be.

Julian Connerton 

Dr. Drown 

January 24, 2018 

Identity Free Write 

I found the first quote, “It’s a fascinating look at how we label ourselves, and how those labels define us and the conflicts that drive our politics. But it’s also about how identity is more fluid than we imagine, and why it often obscures all the things we have in common.” Very interesting because of the simple fact that, these two men talking about identity are making this seem very simple, like your identity is just something that describes the way they look at you. Over time throughout this article they begin to delve deeper into the different kinds of identities and the way people look at these identities. Also, in this quote, it states that all our identities have something that is obscure in common with one another.  

“But if you define yourself through the act of opposition, then your letting the oppressors set the terms” – Kwame. This quote shot out at me immediately, simply because I related this quote through the times where my ancestors were treated with utter disrespect and treated like worthless animals. Imagine if my ancestors never fought back, imagine if they never stood up to the oppressors and just let them set the rules and believed every bad thing that came out of their mouths. The simple fact that my ancestors didn’t let these oppressors set the rules and let these names calling and disrespect of all sorts continue, is the exact reason why we are almost free to this day. This is what I related this quote to, but there is so many more different ways this quote can either relate or define the way I personally feel or the way you feel.  

My next quote that caught my attention was “The key thing I think is to make sure that the teams are held together by more than just hatred and contempt for the other team. There’s always going to be an element of that, but if you lead with the hatred and contempt, as Donald Trump often does, then you’re leading irresponsibly.”- Kwame. This first caught my attention because of the name Donald Trump, I despise of that man, not just for the way he is trying to run this country but also, for the simple reason that he lacks a lot in just a character that the people of the US should either look up to or try and become. This also really made me realize that one person’s negative political and social identity can put a bad identity on a whole country politically. There are so many different identities that have yet to be explored by myself, and I look forward to discovering the different types and the way they shape things around them.

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.

Pollan vs Singer was my welcome to college calling, I call it this because I’ve written plenty of essays over my high school career, but this essay wasn’t just slapping a bunch of words on a word document following a rubric. There was a lot of having to relate yourself to text, take quotes from the passage, and dissecting the passage to find the answers I needed to develop a strong essay. Developing a question essay is very hard and complicated, and I don’t really know why it is so hard but the Pollan vs Singer essay was most definitely my welcome to college call. Maybe it was just the process overall of trying to dissect a paper while trying to make a big question that summarizes the whole passage and then finding a bunch of smaller questions the trickle down the rest of the paper. In my eyes I felt like it was every essay I’ve ever learned how to write in the aspect of just one big paper.

My largest areas of growth in all three processes of this class, have to be learning how to take constructive criticism, coming into college I was being hardheaded even with football related criticism, then when academics came around I was still doing the same thing. I would make it seem like I really listening to what you have to say to me and then I would just go try and fix everything myself. Which later down the road, I realize that, that is not the way to make it through college. After I failed my first exams, I started to take this criticism little by little and I eventually got a little better with my hard headedness and started to make slight increases in my attitude and my test scores.

I didn’t just have to learn how to be able to take constructive criticism, but I had to learn how to dissect and annotate a passage, which was something very new to me. I have never done anything related to that topic ever in my career as a student. It isn’t hard when you are told to just annotate what you think is important but when you are told to find questions and supporting questions I found that very hard. I also had to forget the way I constructed my paragraphs in high school and develop a new way to construct my essays and be creative with the way I organize and construct my essays. My growth throughout this semester was consistently going in a good direction, especially with the help of my writing lab, that really helped me learn how to take constructive criticism and learned how to annotate and use that information to my ability in creating a good essay.

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.

Being an engaged reader and someone who is trusted to critique a partner’s work is overall something I need a major improvement on. Some people and professors may say the improvement doesn’t have to be major, but if I were to judge myself on the abilities I have related to this topic I feel as if I should improve majorly. Assessing myself is another aspect of work that can improve, but I feel like I am hard on myself normally, so I don’t think that will be a hard task. My number one thing that could be improved majorly is the simple fact that I am not the type of person to accept constructive feedback and criticism, I will listen to everything that could possibly be criticized but as soon as the conversation is over I will forget about it and start to try and fix everything myself. Learning from my mistakes is not hard for me because like I said I am hard on myself, so I usually try not to even come close to making that mistake again. Lastly, I feel like I should work on my studying habits and the way I practice the things I’ve learned. Overall this course made me realize a lot about myself and my abilities. From failing exams to learning how to write a 600-word paper in 30 minutes. This course was a wakeup call definitely.

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.

What Should Happen At The End Of Your Road?

“Letting Go”, not onlya very strong story but a story in which it motivated me to become a better writer. I just want to harp on the opening paragraph, this blew my mind, the way it was constructed and placed out had me attached immediately. I as a young man who thinks writing is his strong suit, was highly motivated and was instantaneously attached to everything this writer had to say. I wouldn’t say that there was a friction between me and what the author had to say, there was friction between myself and myself. One reason is, I think that writing and speaking is something I am good at, but when I read this first paragraph I was swept off my feet and showed that I have a lot of work left to do in becoming the writer I want to be. This friction was not a bad friction, this friction ignited a spark of motivation, curiosity and interest that will further motivate me into becoming the writer I want to be.

In recent conversation of what a doctorshould do if the medicinedoes not work anymore and there is nothing else that is possible to be done for a patient. Or should doctorsbe trying to care for a patient’squality of life rather than the quantity of how long he or she lives. Some believe that a patientshould be able to make every decision for themselves closer to the end of their road, and some believe that a doctor should keep trying to keep a patientalive and extend their time on earth. My own view is that a patient should have the right to make every decision they want to when their time is running out. Whetherit is stopping painful procedure because the pain is unbearable or just be placed in their own home, so they could go peacefully in their own home. That is my view and I’m sure others will think differently. There is a handful of questions that arise when this is the topic at hand and some of those questions are explored in the rest of this essay.

Me personally am not a stranger to cancer and terminal illness whatsoever, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer a good 5 years ago, and it was a very life shifting moment of my life. The switch from being an everyday pre-teen kid that played outside until the street lights came on and eating junk food and playing video games all night. Then immediately having to be put into the shoes of having to become the man of the house when my mom had to stop playing the dad roll and having to minimize her mom roll as well. One thing I find astonishing and highly disrespectful, is the mind-blowing amount of money that has to be spent not only by the patientwith these diseases but along with the family members who get pulled into it as well. If these doctors and nurses are trying to save a patient’s life or prolong their time on this earth, why put them in debt enough to cause enough stress to damage their life even more than it has already been damaged by an uncontrollable force. Maybe just maybe, there can be a solution to this mainstream problem, and if there is it needs to be put into play as soon as possible. Imagine if you were on your deathbed knowing you are going to die in the coming weeks and you get a check that will be left with your family that not even half of it can be covered by them. Yes, I find this as a very big topic and a very big issue, now that has started a friction between me and whoever writes these checks.

One of the most powerful and baffling subjects that was brought to my attention was the fact that these doctors were basically messing with Sara’s life towards the end of her road. At the point where these doctors develop the balls to tell a patient that he or she is going to die, from that point forward every decision about what the next step is in prolonging their life, should be placed in the patient’s hands. Sara’s situation was she wanted to die peacefully inside her home surrounded by all of her memories, good or bad. Surrounded by all of the people who helped her along the way during her war against the army cancer. Which is something I one hundred percent agree with and I would respect if I was the doctor in this situation. These doctors poked her 1,000 times with needles on every part of her body possible, shoved tubes in her throat, gave her medicine with side effects that a person who isn’t going through cancer wouldn’t be able to bear, and they still can’t respect the women’s decision on how she wants to leave this earth. I feel like this situation is a perfect example on how important it is to place a person’s life into their own hands. If the cancer is not going to allow a person to live, then why try and force something on that patient?This is a question that I feel like everyone should consider and try to make common sense of it because there is nothing you can do at that point but respect what the patient says. If I am going to die over something that I can’t control, or the doctors I am paying my life savings to try and help get rid of the illness or cancer that is attacking me, I would at least like to be comfortable in the place I die and around the people who love me.

This brings in one of many questions, why should doctors try and serve a patient’s quality of life rather than the quantity of their life? Meaning these doctors should try and make the patient’s life more comfortable even though we all know they are not comfortable. Also, meaning that if a patient wants to live the rest of their life care free and not hooked up to machines, not getting poked fifty times a day by needles, and not eating hospital food. Let them.

I personally believe that a human being should at least have a certain amount of control in their fate and the way they want to go out. Whether, they want to die peacefully in their own house or they want to live the rest of their life free, it should be their decision and be in their own hands. The longer your life is preserved with cancer or any type of terminal illness just means more suffering physically, mentally and emotionally for the patient and the patients loved ones. This question also brings in a conspiracy, are these doctors trying to preserve a patient’s life, so their pay check is bigger?

If someone dies in a hospital that simply means more procedures, tests and analytical findings. Which means, could’ve you have guessed? a nice big check at the end of a hard-fought life that is stuck with the family. Which I find disrespectful to its fullest extent, there is no reason what so ever these doctors should be trying procedure after procedure to prolong a patient’s life and have them die in the hospital. I don’t think it is the doctor’s faults personally, I feel as if there is something way bigger than just the doctors and nurses controlling these actions. Take that thought into your own head and try and figure out who is in charge of these ridiculous checks that are being left with the families of the deceased patients.

Even though the pain that these people who suffer from these terminal illnesses is hard to even imagine, try and put yourself in the shoes of a person who is suffering from an illness of these sorts. Now imagine, already going through a couple surgeries and being told that you wouldn’t survive multiple times by multiple different doctors. You then personally decide between conversations with your family and looking into yourself that you would like to be placed into your home, so you could die in peace and around the things you love and have cherished your whole life. Then, after you make your appeal these doctors try their best to convince you to stay and begin to try one more treatment that they think will be the ice breaker into prolonging your life in a more comfortable way, this tactic is tried. It fails but over the time you spent in the hospital again, these doctors are being paid a lot more than what they would have been originally getting paid if they were to let you go that day and go into your own house.

I feel as if I have a simple solution to all of these sequential issues and problems that occur in today’s society. Everything we know is a business, no matter how long or how short the period of time you stay in the hospital, the doctors and nurses can still go home with a full wallet and a nice house. These professions are taught to keep their emotions out of the work place along with prison officers, cops, and FBI agents. All taught to keep their emotions out of the job because all that will do is get them into trouble, because the second you get emotionally attached to a patient in the doctor’s scenario or an inmate in the prison officer scenario, you will begin to do things you wouldn’t have if you weren’t attached to these people. Remember it is a business, everything is a business.

Writing a paper does not just mean letting your fingers go and your mind wonder, especially about a topic like this. Over the course of not only this paper but my whole college experience so far, my thinking has evolved majorly. Especially the fact that I was forced when I walked into Dr. Drown’s English class to forget almost everything that I learned in high school and develop a new way of thinking and new ways of trying to construct my writing. I feel as if all kinds of people can relate to what I wrote, but I think all people should use this writing as an example of the common problems and ridiculous problems that go on in today’s society. Everyone is going to be related to someone who gets sick or have a close family friend that suffers from a terminal illness and that is just what happens in life. But this article can show and give examples of what goes on in hospital rooms and the things that happen surrounding them.