Group Reflection

I was assigned in a group at the beginning of the semester to do several activities for the class. At first, I didn't know them very well, I knew their names but we had only shared a few words during the first semester. Honestly, I preferred to work alone, but throughout the semester I learned that this had a purpose. I realized that everything in life will always be better if you work together with the people you have by your side. Not only will they help your work be better, but you will grow as a person too. This showed me you have to learn to work with others even if you don't get along. Luckily, this wasn't our case, we all get along great and we all did our part in every activity we were assigned together. 

We even did a group chat to talk to each other about the class and sometimes ended up talking about other things. Even in the things we didn't have to work on together, we asked and reminded each other if we had done it and asked for help if we needed it. I had many good experiences in this class with Professor Pittmann, but I have to say this was my favorite. I had the pleasure to know this great people and to work together as a group, we never had a problem communicating for the class or anything else. We had a lot of fun, maybe too much fun, and I wish this semester didn't have to end.

Blog Reflection

Throughout the semester, we were assigned several reflections we had to write on the blog of the class. I have written 14 reflections counting this one. Seeing my entries now, I realize they are all very different but they all have things in common. In every one of them, I write about a different topic and I emphasize about what was assigned; maybe a story, or a movie, or some homework we had done. But in some entries, I would write about something that I had already said, something about how I see life or how we live it. Maybe this is because those things are always on my mind, those are things that never change for me. I didn't really see many changes in my writing from the beginning until now, I always write the same way and I'm always honest. The comments of my group members helped me to believe more in my writing, even though I don't want to be a writer, I would like to always have a blog or a journal, somewhere I can share my experiences and feelings.

We also had assigned to write in a journal five times a week for ten minutes. This was another great thing we had to do this semester. The difference between my writing in the journal and my writing in the blog is that in the journal we had more freedom. In the blog, we had assigned topics and we had to write about that specific thing. We also had some freedom because we could write our thoughts and feelings about that topic, which was great, but it wasn't as much as the journal. In the journal I didn't have to worry about punctuation, grammar, or about what I was writing as opposed to the blog. In the journal I could write about anything I wanted without any worry because it was just for me. The real difference between the blog and the journal is how you can show your true self in the journal, much more than in the blog. I'm really honest in my writing, but I was even more honest in my journal. Writing in the journal helped me learn more about myself and it helped me by letting go of problems or things that were bothering me at the time. The blog is a great way to show the world your thoughts and to share your views and ideals. And the journal is a great way to talk to yourself, to let go of things you can't say to anyone and things you have buried inside of you.

My blog experience was a great one and it wasn't so bad to have one as I thought it would be. I truly think the blog has helped me in my writing skills and to learn more about how I see the world. I realized our thoughts shouldn't be wasted by not sharing them with the world in any way you can. We should be proud of our minds and we should challenge ourselves to take them to the next level.

Serving in Silence

"Serving in Silence" is the true story about a woman named Margarethe Cammermeyer, who was a medical officer that served in the United States military and was discharged for violating the military's "immoral conduct" policy after revealing that she was homosexual. Margarethe was a mother and had been married for many years, but she discovered she was a lesbian when she falls in love with another woman. After being discharged, she decides to fight back and takes her case to court. She believed this was the right thing to do for herself and all of the homosexuals who were afraid to come out. She became a powerful voice against discrimination.

I believe that Margarethe did the right thing by telling her secret, and she was also very brave for deciding to fight for her rights. If she had kept her secret, she would've never been happy. Hiding who she truly was not an option for her because she realized this was no way to live. As Margarethe said in the movie, your sexuality is part of your identity and this shouldn't be something that you're ashamed of.

My reaction to every story about this kind of discrimination is always the same. I think society and everyone who is against homosexuals don't know the damage they're causing. Can you imagine how it must feel like being afraid of people learning who you truly are and what you want? This is definitely no way to live. What I liked most about this movie is that it was a true story and it shows us how hard it is to be different, even more in those times. I get so mad every time I see discrimination against homosexuals, I think it's none of their business. Everyone should get to live their lives the way they want, and no one should ever feel like it's better or easier to hide who they are. We shouldn't let anyone get in the way of our happiness in any way, we should live like there's no tomorrow and fight for what we want.

A Student Takes a Stand

My group's name was changed a few times, but finally we are "The Reflective Ponderers". Every group was assigned a discrimination topic to do a skit and then we had to act following it in class. Our topic was Bullying and the skit was called "A Student Takes a Stand". We decided to do our skit based on bullying against latinos in high school. We thought we wouldn't have any trouble writing the skit, but it wasn't easy at all. After some changes trying to make it better, we finally were proud of what we had done and we had finished writing the skit. The topic was presented through a boy who bullied a kid for being latino and even said he was gay. The latino kid never bothered anyone and was a good boy. We learn that the bully of the story was actually bullied by his dad, and the latino kid helped him when he learned about this. In the end, the bully realized he didn't have to be a jerk and tried to be better with others.

Acting was the greatest part of this activity. I don't like to act and I'm not good at it, but we all had fun doing it and watching the other groups. I think all the groups did a great job on their skits and they were all original. Something that I loved about working on this and watching the other group's performances was that they were all about discrimination and we all took it seriously. We're all conscious of the problems of discrimination we face today in the world and this activity made us realize it even more.

We had to present our skits in a conference in the university as part of our grades. I had never done anything like this in my life. When the professor told us we had to do this, I got really nervous. I'm a little shy and I'm really not good at acting or even talking in front of people. When we did it, I realized it wasn't a big deal, it was actually a good experience and not everyone can say they have done something like this. It was a great opportunity to have the chance to show other students what we had worked on and to show them how we face discrimination every day. I can say that The Reflective Ponderers had a lot of fun working together on this skit and acting it. This are the memories we will never forget of our time in the university.

Poem by Me

In Your Eyes

I saw myself in your eyes

First time I knew it was love

I never thought it would end

We were meant to be as one

I could have stayed

But I chose to say goodbye

How could I let you go?

Oh, take me back to the start

You were all I ever wanted

But I always run away

I wish we could go back

In your eyes I'd like to stay

Trifles

"Trifles" is a one-act play by Susan Glaspell. This is the story of the murder investigation of John Wright. The male characters are doing the official investigation while the female characters are doing their own unofficial investigation. The men are investigating the murder scene and asking questions to the neighbor who went to the house that day. The wife was the one who found him and when Mr. Hanes asked him about her husband she laughed and said he had died of a rope around his neck. The women are looking for things around the house and the men think those things are not important. The men say that "women are used to worrying over trifles". Trifle is a thing of little value or importance. Mrs. Wright was the one who murdered her husband but they never suspect her. We see how the men think a woman is incapable of murdering a man just because she is a woman. The men just see women as housekeepers and they think they only exist to be their wives. This explains how in that time women were presented like less than men. We still sometimes see this in the world, some men think they're much more than any woman.

The Second Part of "The 60's"

In the second half of the miniseries; Brian returns from Vietnam, Michael is still involved in politics on a campaign, Katie had her child, and Emmet feels responsible for the death of his father. They are all facing things from the choices they made in the past and they have to deal with how their lives are now. Brian returned from the Vietnam war with several problems and was traumatized. Brian dealt with all of this alone because he didn't know how to fit in the society anymore and his father didn't give him much support. When Michael sees how his brother returned from war, he fights even harder against the war and he was looking for signatures to bring troops fighting in the war. His father didn't support Michael either. Katie reunited with her brothers and brings her child with her, she felt like she was finally home because she was never happy away from it. After the death of his father, Emmet realizes he should keep fighting for his right but in a peaceful way, as his father taught him. He became part of a group that fed children who were poor.

In the end we see how the father of Brian, Michael, and Katie finally accepts them and their choices. He learned it was better to love them in spite of their choices than to have to live without them. They returned home and were finally happy. Emmet learned to live with the things his father always taught him and the example he gave him, he visited his grave looking for forgiveness, he needed to forgive himself from the seat of his father to finally move on and be happy.

A Room with a View

"A Room with a View"  is a british drama movie by James Ivory. This movie is about a young English movie name Lucy Honeychurch that makes her first visit to Florence, Italy in the early 1900's. She meets a young man named George Emerson and must decide whether to follow through with her marriage in England or follow her heart and her attraction to George. This movie presents the differences in social classes in that period. Lucy faces the situation of having to decide if she should live a pleasant but unhappy life following society's rules or to break free from the expectations of society and norms with choosing her happiness. Everyone in their life will have similar decisions that will be between choosing what's right for society or choosing what's right for you. We are divided in the social classes and not everyone has the free will to choose their way of life.

Society expect us to be good, to follow the norms, and to live up to what they teach since we're born. We have little say in what we should have because we have to follow what everyone else won't criticize. Most of the time, we choose the easy path, we prefer to do what other people tell us is right instead of following our dreams and what we really want. This is the problem with society, if you're from a high social class you are expected to be even more, so this makes those people many times be unhappy. People want to fit in these social classes so they do everything in their power to please everyone except themselves.

The First Part of "The 60's"

"The 60's" is a miniseries that presents how national issues and events profoundly affect two families, one white and one black, in the 1960s America. The Herlihys, the white family, have a son named Brian that goes to Vietnam when he joins the Marines, Michael who gets involved in politics, and their daughter Katie that gets pregnant and leaves home. The Taylors, the African-American family, is a faher who's a minister and civil rights organizer and his son Emmet that joins the Black Panthers serving as a bodyguard for Fed Hampton. The son always thought they had to fight for their right and acts with violence multiple times. His father sees him in a riot and tries to stop him by taking his gun, this leads to his death by a police officer that shoots him.

In this first part, we see discrimination against black people and how they were badly treated all their life. They couldn't fight for their rights and every time they did they were punished. We also see discrimination against women and how men had more rights and better chances at defending themselves. There is also discrimination against the political views and against ideologies of social movements. We see how Katie, still in high school, gets pregnant and has to leave her home, she's faced with this all alone and then joins a hippie commute. Brian joins the Marines after leaving high school and goes to Vietnam to fight in the war. Michael who meets a girl and starts a relationship with her, he fought for his ideals and fought against the war. We see Emmet, who all his life his father told him he had to live peacefully because he wanted him to be safe, but Emmet always knew he wanted to fight for a better life and for all of the African-Americans who were mistreated.

This discriminations will always exist, they existed in the 1960s and they still exist now. Even though it's not the same as before and we all have more rights and a better life, there are still people who suffer from this in their daily lives.

My Journal Experience

My journal experience was a life changing experience. When the semester started I wasn't excited at all to have to write in a journal for the English class. I thought this was going to be something that I was just gonna want to get over with. When I started writing in my journal, I only wrote about silly things that didn't have anything to do with me. I only wrote about the things I saw when I was writing, or something that I was doing, but never about what I really wanted to write. I thought it was stupid to have a journal and actually write about your feelings or thoughts. As I kept writing I figured I could try to write about what was really on my mind, what was really bothering me. When I did this, I discovered what an amazing feeling it gave me. Writing what I was feeling was a great feeling, it was like finally opening up to somebody and letting go of what I had deep inside of me for so long. I've always been a private person, and now more that ever, so I don't usually talk about my feelings or things like that. This is why it felt so great, 'cause I finally could let go of so many things. After this time, writing in my journal was so much easier. I always wrote what I wanted to write, what was on my mind. I wrote mostly about how I was feeling in the moment, or of some situation I'd had that had changed me.

Writing in my journal made me a better person, I learned things about myself I didn't know and I discovered how I really felt about some situations. I honestly think I'm going to keep having a journal,  it helped me in so many ways I can't even describe. At the beginning of the semester I didn't even want a journal and now I don't want to live without one. This is something I would've never thought. This journal know me better than anyone in the world, it know secrets I haven't told anyone and it knows how I really feel. This is something I want to keep having in my life, this journal is my truest friend.

It's All About Perspective

"On Looking" by Alexandra Horowitz is about how we all see things differently, how we miss the little things that are around us because we think they're insignificant. When a teacher or our parents say "pay attention" we automatically think we have to see the person and listen closely while they talk to us, or we have to keep looking at the board while a teacher explains something. The thing is, we don't really know what "paying attention" means. We all see the world in a different way. Some people can go take a walk and just be on their cellphone, without even giving a glance to anyone or anything. Others take a walk to clear their mind and see everything around them but they don't observe, they don't look closely enough to see what is really going on. Or maybe some people, like me, just take a walk and look at the sky and think of all the good things instead of  drowning on the bad things.

It's all about perspective. Perspective is a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view. I'm sure you've heard of the endless debate of the glass, if it's half full or half empty. They say if you think of the glass as half full you're an optimist, and if you see the glass as half empty you're a pessimist. Well, some people will see it one way and others the other way. We can't all think the same way, we're all different. This is why it's all about perspective. The way you see the world and act towards it will define your life. You will live in a positive or negative way depending on how you choose to see things. They say "pay attention" and we think it's supposed to be about school or work, but maybe it's all wrong. Maybe what we should be paying attention to is the world, the little things, what goes around us everyday. We shut out the rest of the world trying to pay attention to a specific thing when we should enjoy every little thing, every detail in our lives. When something goes wrong, look around you. Look for a child laughing for some silly little thing, look for a dog running through the grass, someone giving food to the homeless, two friends talking about their dreams, people falling in love. The thing you should be shutting out is the negative things, look for hope in all those things you ignore for focusing on the bad. Live like there's no tomorrow, and laugh when you feel like crying.

Me

We all have trouble defining ourselves, or talking about who we are. It's so easy saying good or bad qualities about another person, but when it comes to ourselves, we go blank. Well, this is my assignment for today, to talk about myself. I think this will be the hardest blog entry. Maybe some people don't have that much trouble, but for me it's the hardest thing. My name is Frances Nicole Pérez. I'm 18 years old. I study at the UPR of Río Piedras and graduated from Academia San Jorge. I love to be with my family and I'm the biggest dog lover. I love to shop and watch movies and series. I hope I get to travel to many places and see different parts of the world. I think my biggest dream is to become a professional at something I'm good at and love, surrounded by family, maybe a son and many many dogs in my house.

Like everyone, I have fears. Maybe more than some people. I fear that life will disappoint me in ways I won't be able to overcome. I fear not making my parents proud. I fear waking up in 20 years regretting the way I did things, wishing I would've done everything differently. Everyone wishes for happiness, everyone wants to feel satisfied with their lives. This is what I want, I want to be satisfied. I always feel like I want more, like this is not enough for me. Maybe I look for it in the wrong places, I do things hoping to feel something different when maybe this is all I get. It's hard for me to focus on what I have and make the best of it instead of always looking for something new. This is something I wish I could change about me, this feeling of wanting more. I'm one of those people who feel like they're meant to be someplace else. I love everything I have and everyone in my life, I just feel like there's something missing.

Do we all feel this way? Like there's something missing? Maybe what's missing is realizing what a great life we were given and doing everything with love and passion. Fighting for what you really want without caring what everyone else says or thinks. Love yourself and show people that every time you fall, you get stronger. This is what life is, falling and getting back up. There will always be doubts, disappointment, and pain. You just have to make the best of every moment, and learn of every lesson life will give you. But most importantly, be happy.

Violence

In "A Use of Force" we see the theme of violence. I think we all have violence in us, some people show it and others hide it. Since the beginning of time this has been present and probably will always be. In this short story, a little girl is sick and the parents get a doctor to diagnose her. The girl didn't want to open her mouth and the doctor needed to look at her throat to see if she had diphtheria, a disease that was running in school and she could die from it. The doctor forces to open her mouth as she fought back as hard as she could. Eventually, the doctor overpowers her and confirmed she did have a sore throat. 

In some cases, using violence to help someone is the only option and could be the best thing to do. In my opinion, in the case of this short story it would be hard to say if it was right or wrong. The doctor tried to get her to open her mouth by talking to her but she refused so he used violence. He wanted to help her but felt like he didn't have any other choice. Where violence becomes a real thing in this story is when he says he liked hurting her. The doctor says he had fallen in love with her, which was inappropriate, and still would have killed her just for pleasure if he could. So maybe he did the right thing for the wrong reasons.

Violence will always exist, maybe with time there will be less or more, but it won't disappear. Everyone has violence inside of them but we all have the choice to use it or not. Acting in a violent way can make that person feel like he has control or some kind of power, we could say this is a reason why they do it. Some people just like to see others in pain or misery. They do say misery loves company, and a person who would feel pleasure hurting someone else has to be miserable. Still there are others who are kind and even though they might have some violence in them, they don't react towards it. We can't help if we feel like turning to violence in some situations, but we can choose not to do it.

Billy Mills in Running Brave

"Running Brave" is a movie about the story of Billy Mills, an indian who was destined to become the best distance runner in the world. In the beginning of the movie we see how Billy Mills loved to run and how dedicated he was to it, as time passes we notice how his motivation starts to drop. All the prejudice he had to deal with, being an outsider, and feeling like the Indian kid always bothered him, but being in the team and everyone expecting from him was too much pressure. His coach from the beginning told him indians were quitters and Billy held on as much as he could because he felt like this was the way to prove everyone wrong. Then he realized he had to make himself proud more than anyone and this was not the way.

Billy Mills took control of his life the moment he quit the team and then realized in the reservation that he couldn't give up on his dreams. He got his life together with Pam and worked to improve his running skills. He worked harder than ever in his life to achieve his dream of winning the Olympics. Even though Billy had a hard life and dealt with pain, pressure, and prejudice everywhere he went, he never lost hope or courage. This is a great example for all of us and an inspiration to follow what we love. We should always believe in ourselves and what we are capable of. You can accomplish anything you want if you work hard and fight for it.