Blog Reflection

This blog was very fun to do, I do not regret anything about this experience because through this blog project I discovered to be a more responsible and dedicated person since I had to write reflections very often so that I could post this. In this blog I got to say my thoughts about some very controversial topics like racism and gender inequality. This blog was a great way to express my thoughts about a lot of stuff. It was a great project. Dedication and passion for this blog is key. More projects like this should be done because it definitely helps the student express themselves during this college journey.

Compass Reflection

This compass was a way for us to reflect on ourselves daily. It was a fun thing to do and it made me realize a lot of things about myself. Throughout this process I discovered I am a very emotional person and that I have a short patience, it is clearly something I need to work on. Physical was usually one of the lowest because I didn’t sleep well on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I would stay up until late doing work, only to wake up at 6 AM to go to college. My mental state was also low because of how stressed I was, college and other situations were taking the peace away, thus my mental state would not remain calm and it made me feel bad. My awareness is at 25% because I feel like I didn’t really connect much with people besides my group because there was only time to study because of all the circumstances we were in after the hurricane. Emotional was the highest because I got to see my girlfriend, which would make me extremely happy and since emotional can refer to either very sad, happy, angry, etc. I would usually feel either very happy or sad and stressed. This compass experience was very nice and I would like to repeat some day because it helped me realize that we should work more on ourselves so that we can maintain a better mental and emotional state.

Black Men and Public Space Reflection

This story was about a twenty-two-year-old man who had just arrived at the University of Chicago and was a victim of racism. Women would run away from him, probably because they though he was a burglar, killer or rapist. He also experienced seeing a lot of his friends go to prison and a few of them get killed because of racism. People thought the poor man was a burglar went he went to a magazine’s office. It is a sad world we live in. Racism is a very common thing in the United States. White people would think they were superior and truth be told, this way of thinking is ridiculous. In my opinion, race is a social construct because at the end of the day we are all humans and white people treat them different because they look different from them. This is an extremely immature act and it is surprising that adults and people of high authority are racists for no reason. It is probably something cultural, taught from parents to their kids or from friends to other friends. It’s something that keeps expanding during time and has caused a lot of sadness and stress for the black and Latino communities. A type of racial war could occur again if we don’t put a stop to this. We must stop thinking the way that we used to think and change our perspective about this social construct before it is too late.

Group Project Reflection

             This group project was my first in college. At first I thought it was going to be something very simple and that no friendships were going to be made. With time I got to know my group members well and we became good friends. It’s funny because I thought I was only going to college so that I could study. These members of mine were my first college friends and they are really great people. We went through a lot of struggles together when we first started because we would be lost in the class or woudn’t understand a certain assignment. The important part was that we were there for each other and helped each other during this first arduous semester. It was quite fun and we all learned together, I wish we could have been together next semester too and I hope we can all keep in contact.

The Opposite Sex Reflection

In this reflection I will be speaking about Steven Doloff’s text “The Opposite Sex”. Steven Doloff told his students to write about what it would be like to be the opposite sex for a day. I found it quite interesting, but not surprising that men didn’t write much because they tend to be more sexist because of the way society is built. Most of the women that wrote those essays think that men are constantly looking for dates, which is not fully true. I do accept though, from my observations that most men like going out on dates but some of them, for example my best friend isn’t one to date much as women think they do. For some reason, most of the female students thought men were messy in the sentence: “They threw their clothes on the floor and left dishes in the sink”. I think there is a misconception about that because men aren’t as messy as they put them out to be in movies, sometimes we aren’t organized but no one is really perfect. Women also thought that men have physical and social privileges. I don’t fully agree with this because women can also be very strong and fight well, but they do have their menstrual cycle which I’ve heard hurts a lot. That could be considered a physical privilege for men. However I do think that we are in a very sexist society so men do have more social privileges than women because in some cases men think they are superior to women, which is very sad because women are just as capable as men to do anything. Women also seemed curious about what men’s true feelings concerning women are like. From my observations I can say some men really don’t care about who they’re dating or how the girl feels and some guys can be fully in love with someone. The same thing applies with girls, some care and some don’t. Something else I found interesting was that men thought that women always go on dates if they invited them to a really expensive restaurant.”Gold Digger” is the term men used to describe these can of women that crave men who have a lot of money. This is also another misconception because not all women go on dates with guys just because they have a lot of money. The story was really interesting and it made me realize that we have a lot of misconceptions about the other gender and how the other gender feels about us, this is something we should definitely change about society.

Works cited: The Opposite Sex, Doloff, Steven

Hookups starve the soul Reflection

Hookups are a very riveting topic. It is spoken about a lot between high school and college students, they talk about how the hookup experience was and how they feel after it. Personally, I haven’t ever wanted to do this because I am more of a hopeless romantic type of person. I find relationships to be more interesting because you get to know a person more and it’s overall way more challenging and it helps you develop patience and confidence for that other person. Relationships do have their cons though. Some of them are: those negative feelings you get after a fight, overthinking about something they did or said, being cheated on or a breakup. This is why I get why people have hookups, it’s a way to satisfy your needs without getting involved with the person. Having sex is something that satisfies us physically speaking, but from my point of view, hookups do cause an emotional detachment. I think this emotional detachment doesn’t happen to everyone though. This emotional detachment usually happens to people who have just broken up with their partner and no longer wish to feel bad. They look for a way to not feel bad anymore and that way is a hookup. You have sex or make out with someone and you satisfy your physical needs without having to ever feel bad about it but sometimes this method can create conflict between the two. Examples of this are that the girl could end up pregnant or one of the two could end up falling in love during the sexual intercourse. I think people who do have hookups should talk about it before they do it, so they can fully understand that it is a hookup and nothing else, because if not, the hookup could cause the person to start developing feelings for the other person.

Works Cited: Hookups starve the soul, Vanderkam, Laura

Reflection of Salvation by Langston Hughes

“Salvation” is a story about a twelve-year-old boy who was brought to a special meeting for children at the church. During this meeting the children would be placed in the mourner’s bench, then the congregation would pray upon them so that they may see or feel Jesus and go to him. Langston never felt the Holy Ghost and he pretended that he could so he could leave. When he arrived to his house, the boy went to his bed and started crying because he never felt the presence. Having a belief in a supreme being can be frustrating for believers sometimes because other believers tell them that they can feel, and some say even talk to the supreme being. Personally, I believe that there is a god, I’m not sure if it’s the Christian God, but I do think that there is a possibility that a god exists. I can relate to this story on a personal level because one time I was at church and people started to pray on other people. My family and I were one of those who were prayed upon and my whole family felt something and they started crying, saying that it was the most beautiful experience they ever went through. I only felt a lot of relaxation, but up to this day I do not know if it was all in my head. Clearly I didn’t see what they saw and that had a huge impact on me. Religion is a powerful thing and it affect’s everyone differently in both positive and negative ways.
Works Cited: Pittmann, Cynthia. Reflection from "Salvation" by Hughes, Langston