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.