Graham VS. Brooks

Graham's article "Confessions of a Quit Addict" is about her quitting a bunch of things that doesn't "arouse her passion". She quit college then she pretty much quit her life and left everything back at home her family, friends, quit job, sold apartment and everything to set on an adventure with her boyfriend, Brian. They left everything for this journey to find freedom when in the end she wasn't happy with how her life was going. As soon as she had her son it opened up her eyes and she was tired of living from one place to the next and jumping from one job to the next when one got boring. After having Clay, their son she knew this wasn't the life for them. She wanted friends, family, and a place to call home for her and her son, but Brian wasn't on the same page he was go, go, go all the time that they ended up getting a divorce so with all this she became a writer and learned a lot from this failure journey. She learned that she likes having people to call family and people to call friends. She likes being around people. She learned that no matter what she does she doesn't have to run after change because change constantly finds her.

Brook's argument "It's Not About You" is about all the opportunities that this generation of high school and college students have. Brook's says the way the educational system works now leaves young people/adults struggling with the real world. These generations are getting babied more and more that when its time to grow up and enter adulthood we are left not knowing what to do. Back in the day there was a way of doing life and now these young adults have more freedom and have more opportunities to do whatever they want.

A way these two connect are in "It's Not About You" in his last sentence of the argument he says "The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It's to lose yourself." connects to Graham's article when she says "My family, my home, close friendships, the natural world, and the worlds I create in my work constantly surprise me with their nourishment- a thick and complex root system I might never have know if I hadn't stopped cutting the ties that bind." These two connect because Graham finds out that she now has a son she has to take care of and she can't live in a world that's all about her anymore because she now has another human being to tend too. I actually gained a lot from the conversation that we had in class on Tuesday because I was very confused and unsure of what was going on with these articles and how they connected to each other and now I see how they do so and have a better understanding of the two.

"The Epidemic of Worry"

"Some of the Trumpians are savage" I'm starting off with this quote because it stood out to me. It stood out to me because first "Trumpians" like there are actual people out there that call themselves that and second he called them "savage". He used a word teenagers are using in todays day which shocked me that Brooks used it. Brooks says "some mental health therapists are reporting that three-quarters of their patients are mentioning significant election-related anxiety. People are seeking help for their anxiety because of the election. This election is creating people to have anxiety which I think is crazy and ridiculous. The quote he uses to describe both forms of anxiety the good and the bad which is "the kind that warns you about legitimate dangers and the kind that spirals into dark and self-destructive thoughts" gives a very visual and concrete image and gave a better understanding of the two. They stood out to me because I didn't know that there was two forms of anxiety let alone a good and a bad form, so it informed me that there was two different meanings and gave visual descriptions. The two "flavors" of worry in America are "educated- class anxiety which can often be characterized as a feeling overabundant of options without core of convicting purpose" and when people hear affluent they express worry which usually means "the fear of missing out and the dizziness of freedom." I can definitely see these two "flavors" of worry play out in either friendships or with family because in the article Blow mentions that "affluent people use money to buy privacy, and so cut themselves off from both the deep relationships that could give them purpose and the neighborly support systems that could hold them up if things go south." Why are we setting up guards when one day we may need help, but cant receive it because we have walls built. Just because America is nothing like it was doesn't mean we now have to shut everyone out and trust nobody even though that is how they are making it out to be. Were all in this together. This is our country and we need to make it better together because like Brooks said "American's culture may be permanently changed for the worse" but we change that. As being a citizen of a affluent nation I don't believe I share any of the anxieties that he mentions in this article.

My Overview of How Blogs are Going

In blog number seven I am writing about my experience with these blog posts we do every week. I want to start out by saying that I have actually really enjoyed writing the blogs each week. Even though I sometimes dread writing them I have gotten a lot out of them. What am I gaining from this you may ask? Well I am given the opportunity to write and to write a lot more than I probably ever have honestly. I am given a broad topic and I get to go in any direction I want with it. I hate writing and with doing these weekly blogs has made me hate writing a little less. Out of all the blogs that we have had assigned my favorite one I wrote was the first free write where I had the opportunity to write about anything I wanted and I choose a topic you provided which was about my summer. Why you may ask was this my favorite? Because it gave me the opportunity to write about something that I had actually enjoyed writing and talking about and it gave me the chance to look back on a good time in my life and remember some great memories. I have also enjoyed reading other classmates blog posts. Some of them have very interesting things that they share.

And I feel with reading and commenting on other peoples blogs gives us a better understanding of who they are and their opinion of the topic. I also enjoy seeing who agrees and disagrees with the topic given, for example the blog we had to write about Mike Rowe's interview. It's neat to see other people's perspectives and if they caught something that another person didn't or even myself. I like receiving comments and see what other people like about my blogs or if they have questions or if they agree/disagree with something that I have written. But I think people are too nice in the comments. I feel like people always comment good things whether the blog is good or bad because they don't want to feel bad or they don't want to hurt the writer feelings. But I feel like people need to be honest because no one is a perfect writer. Everyone makes mistakes and it is okay to be that person that has to tell the writer that there is something wrong with there post. I feel like maybe if comments were private where only the writer and the professor could see what is posted people would open up more. People are afraid of being the bad person because no one wants to tell someone they have done something wrong.

"Dirty Work"

Seniors in high school only know one thing and its to attend some sort of college after graduating because that's all school push on them. Everyone makes it out to seem that people that don't attend a four year university of let alone college won't be successful with there life. And that's not true. There's jobs out there that don't require going to college. Do what you want to do not what other people want you to do. At the end you're the one paying back your debt not the people who suggested you to go to college. There are many ways to be successful along with being debt free. Schools have a huge part on this. At the end of the day you want to do something that makes you happy and whatever that may be should then determine whether you go to college or not. College also isn't for everyone, so don't go just because you feel like you have to because then you'll be in debt for no reason. So say you go to college, who says you're going to be good at it? Not everyone is fit to go to college but yet we feel forced to still go.
Rowe uses the quotes " Work smarter not harder" to "Work smart and hard" and I believe this is so true. We're out here doing more then we should but we don't realize it. We could just get the job done while being smart of what we do and putting the hard effort into it. People also think with going to college and getting a degree then they'll have a less likely chance of having to do the hard work or the "dirty work". But someone has to do it it's not going to do it itself. So if everyone goes to college and everyone has the mindset of going to college and getting a degree so that there chance of having to do the "dirty work" is lower then who is left to do the "dirty work"? So we cant have the mindset of thinking college will get us out of that someone still has to do it at the end of the day. I believe his points are very valid and I agree with him on a lot of what he had to say in his interview. I don't think makes me stop and reconsidered why I'm at Blinn because I know exactly what I want to do with my life and the direction I need to head to get there.

My Look On Social Media and Cellular Devices

I believe cellular devices have pros and cons. Many people will disagree or agree with them. They can be helpful when we need to know information as a specific time and there is not a computer near by. Cons, there are so many. We live in a society where we feel like we cant live without our phone being in our hand or at least on us. We feel the need to always be on it or always be checking up on the latest social media posts.

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I had gone out to dinner. Once we got seated I looked around me for about two minutes and just observed what I saw. I was so surprised to see so many people on some sort of electronic device or if they weren't on it it was sitting on the table in front of them. What surprised me the most that it wasn't just the teenagers it ranged from older people to adults to teenagers to even younger children. Why come to dinner if you're just going to be on electronics? Just stay home. The whole purpose of going out to eat is to enjoy it. To enjoy the opportunity to get to go out and have dinner with who ever you're with. Every time my family and I go out to eat we all have to leave our phones in the car or at home because it is rare we ever all are together and get to have dinner together because we all are so busy that we like to be able to have actual conversations without distractions.

Relating to David Brooks article "Intimacy for the Avoidant" the quote " Being online isn't something we do. It has become who we are ..." which is so true. We can do so much online that we don't know any better or any other way. We are so tied up with what we know that we can't just stop. We're all okay with just sticking to being addicted to our cellular devices. Another quote from Brooks is "A lot of this traffic is driven by the fear of missing out." We as people feel if we are not refreshing our social media every couple seconds that we could miss out on something and people just aren't okay with the "missing out" feeling that they get. So therefore people will forever be sucked up in there cellular devices.

How My Summer Went Down

Every summer my family goes on a big trip and we usually try to get as many family members to go as possible. But this summer we had no clue where or what we wanted to do or go. So for weeks my mom searched and searched for something or somewhere we haven't done or gone before. We finally came up with ideas that ranged from going to cancun for a week to flying to California for a week in a half to going on a seven day cruise. But all sounded so fun and every family member wanted to do something different. So weeks had gone by and I hadn't heard much talk about our summer trip as I had as in weeks before.

One night after I had gotten home from work I had asked my mom if she had figured out where we were gonna go this summer. She replied back saying she had no clue yet. A month or so had gone by and I was at a baseball playoff game when I got a group message from both my mom and sister. It said " We know where we are going". I replied "Where?". They replied " Gulf Shores, Alabama". Standing in the middle of the duggout I remember saying "ARE YOU SERIOUS!" I immediately texted them back telling them I didn't want to go. You all are probably think what the heck why not? But because first we had already been to Gulf Shores before and I wanted to go somewhere different because this was somewhat a trip for me for graduation. So I thought I would have had a say so in it. Second the last time we went we stayed at there National Park and camped out in a RV. While staying there there was a huge forest fire not even two miles from us and we lost pretty much everything we brought because we were evacuated and couldn't really take much.

So for weeks I continued to tell them no and I would just go stay with my dad for the ten days they would be gone. And they just kept telling me that this trip would be different from the last and that I just needed to go and that I should be grateful that we are able to go on vacation. It took me up until the second day before they left to change my mind and go. So I ended up going and overall it was an eventful and memorable trip. I definitely would have regreted not going especially with everything that we got to do. I just thought it was going to be boring because we had been there done that sorta thing. But there was so much more stuff that we go to do this time that we didn't do last time. So after ten days of vacation I finally had to adult for the first time and worked the rest of my summer.

What To Think of First College Exam

Honestly I was extremely terrified for this exam. It was my FIRST college exam. I didn't know what to expect or how to feel. The night before I had to work until 10 pm and the whole shift I was freaking out. But coming into the exam today and finishing it I think all went well and I think I freaked out for nothing. I was surprise some of the questions were the same exact questions that we had practiced answering in class. I also thought the test was going to be more questions than it was. I feel like we covered more information than was given on the test. No the exam didn't meet my expectations because I thought I was going to be given a whole different questions about the topics. I prepared for the test by going over my vocabulary every other day to make sure I knew them all. I went over every set of notes we took and broke them up into Cornell notes. I went back through the chapters for this until and read all my highlighter information along with the notes I had made. I also went back over all the try it and apply it things. I believe this process was very beneficial. I think there's some areas that need work but I will work on that next go round. A full short answer, writing intensive test felt very tiring and very lengthy in the moment. It wasn't difficult it was just time consuming. The part that was the most difficult is that I wasn't use to getting full short answer response tests. All throughout of school career tests would have multiple times of questions. Yes, short answers her and there along with vocabulary but not the whole test. So that's something that is new to me.

Words

   Words can have so many meanings. They can be good. Bad. Sad. Happy. Strong. Weak.  Words can fail you or make you proud at anytime. A time words failed me was one night a couple years ago. We had just finished eating dinner and it was time to clean the kitchen and do the dishes which it was my sisters turn because I had done it the night before so it was only fair. But before I could say one word she told me it was me it was my turn and she was not going to do it and started to head to her room. But I yelled "Wait! I did them last night its your turn", so now we're just going back and forth arguing about whose going to do the dishes instead of just getting it done but before I knew it out came inappropriate words and my mom had overheard. It started with "I didn't mean to" to me storming off to my room and ended up getting grounded for a week which included me doing the dishes that night and for the next week. Do I regret it? Yes and no. I was mad so words just came out. But I could have just done the dishes and been done with it instead of starting an argument and it ending bad on my part. I have definitely learned my lesson to just keep my mouth shut when it comes to things like that and just do it.
  A time words have made me proud would have to be everyday. We use them everyday. Words are so important. Words help us explain things like how were feeling or if we like/dislike something. Without words we would live in a totally different world then we do now. Words hurting someone? Happens all the time. Words can be a lot more painful than some people think. And that's just it people don't think before they say hurtful words. Words can never be taken back. They may be able to be forgotten, but they can't be taken back. I have been in so many situations where I am on the end and I'm the one getting thrown hurtful words. I was actually just in a situation just the other day and I'm still hurting from them. But the other person doesn't care or bother to see how I'm doing. She was just willing to throw away a five year friendship out the door like it was nothing.
 

All About Me

My name is Kaitlyn Rae Serna. I was born on May 28th, 1998 in San Antonio, TX which would make me 18 years old. When I was about 2 years old my mom decided to move to Austin. My parents are divorced and both happily remarried which leaves my mom and step dad in Cedar Park and my dad and step mom in San Antonio. My whole life I was a back and forth child and I always will be. From both marriages I have a total of 7 siblings making me the 8th. I only have one biological sister out of all siblings and I was lucky to have her to go back and forth from parent to parent. I attended and graduated from Vista Ridge High School. During high school I was apart of the Sports Medicine program. The reason I joined Sports Medicine my sophomore year was because I tried out to be a cheerleader my freshman year and unfortunately did not make the team. And when I found out I hadn't made the team I knew I still wanted to be involved in some way and my best friends sister had been in this program and had told me that it would be a great way to stay involved. But it was too late to join my freshman year, so I had to wait till my sophomore year. While being in the program for 3 years I found a huge interest in multiple sports like football (both fall and spring ball), baseball, and basketball. Before joining I was never a sports kind of gal, so this was a big change for me. But joining the Sports Medicine program my sophomore year was the best decision I made in high school because it gave me so many opportunities that I probably wouldn't have experienced if I hadn't joined like getting to attend all these extracurricular events for example football made it to the State Semi-finals in 2015 where they played at the NRG stadium that I got to attend, I got the chance to build relationships with all the athletes, and gained a liking in sports. But most importantly I finally found what I was interested in and what I want to do for the rest of my life which is tend to athletes. I look forward to going home and attending some football games this season and when in season baseball and basketball games. Apart from school I enjoy baking and I tend to think its my go to stress reliever at times. I also enjoy listening to country music. Some of my favorite artists are Sam Hunt, Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini, and Jake Owen. Some of my favorite songs are " Ex To See," " Peter Pan," "House Party," and "Church Bells."