Reflection Letter

                I am a mother of two girls, one in High School and one in Middle School.  I currently work as a Nursing Assistant.  I worked in the Construction industry since 1996, my ex-husband and I owned an Underground Utilities Company till the economy and a divorce forced us to sell.  Now with needing to find a new direction for my life to go, I decided to go back to school to pursue becoming a RN.  Fall 2010 I started my first quarter, and I took the CNA course and became a Certified Nursing Assistant and now I am taking my prerequisites for the Nursing Program.  I will admit I had no idea how difficult college was going to be.  I knew working and trying to schedule around classes was going to be challenging and also being away from home at night if I had evening classes, but the real challenge I soon found out was in the school work.  I have done a lot of things and worn a lot of different hats in my life and had always excelled at whatever I really put the effort into, but school work was putting this to the challenge.  Going back to school has really made me have to look deeper within myself and find that last little bit of something at the end of the day.  I have truly seen this challenge as one of the best decisions I have made in awhile, as well as one of the most rewarding both academically and spiritually.  I have learned to see the hidden messages in the challenges, and in the overall adventure.

     My thinking in regards to how I view identity, community and tradition has absolutely been broadened.  I thought the exercise in writing what was in our wallets was a valuable one. This exercise reinforced my own beliefs that we are so much more than what is on the surface.  The one theme I learned the most on was community.  I have to say I really looked at community as where one lived; I never really looked outside the box on this topic.  In reading other classmates papers and postings in the discussion boards it was amazing how many different communities there are.  Previously I would have never looked at facebook, or other online chat rooms or even college as a community.  Tradition’s was a theme in which I enjoyed the most; one of the main reasons is that it is interesting to see what others consider a tradition.  I love to read about traditions that are not just the standard traditions we associate with the holidays. Traditions that have developed around spending family time together are the most valuable to learn from.

                In my collection of writing pieces this quarter I have chosen to include in my e-portfolio; are discussion board posting #1 in Identity titled “Just being who you are in High School, that is no easy task”, which shows my critical thinking skills, my Community paper titled “Communities Are No Longer Just Where We Live”, this is the paper that I submitted that in the end needed the most revision. For a writing that illustrated my awareness of audience and voice I have chosen Identity discussion board #2’s posting titled “How We Identify Ourselves”, and as my last piece to this collection I have chosen my Tradition’s paper titled “What Is For Dinner”, I believe this paper shows my progression into understanding the fundamentals of writing a college paper.

                I found this class to be quite the adventure in that I mean, in one assignment you feel you are headed in the right direction, and down a smooth road, and then with another assignment you are in rough and rocky terrain.  This class for me has been a great learning experience, and I have found that not only have I taken away the skills which I believe are necessary for writing different types of papers, but I now find myself checking and rechecking my emails for proper use of terms, and punctuation, and analyzing the content to make sure that what I wanted to say is what is being conveyed.

               

               

Blog #3

     For my family our Sunday ritual of breakfast and a drive has become our weekly tradition.  As we all know during the week can be pretty crazy and hard to find time to all have a meal together, so in my family we reserve Sunday morning’s for that no matter what.  My kids are older now and they still look forward to going.  I am more of a spiritual person than religious person, so this was my alternative to church.  This Sunday ritual was my way of making sure we at least once a week could set time aside time no matter what to come together as a family.  It is so wonderful to have a day in which you can just get up in the morning, throw on jeans and a tee shirt, no makeup, and have no real time schedule to keep.  It’s even better knowing you don’t have to hurry anyone else along either.  After Saturday’s games in the rain and then doing sixty piles of laundry Saturday night, I find myself going to bed dreaming how wonderful those Bloody Mary’s will be in the morning.  We have several places that we love to go, Darrington is one of them, and it is great because we can also hike by the river with our dog after breakfast.  For me this was the closest ritual I had involving food that is not around a Holiday, I believe it may have started out as something as simple as us all having breakfast together, but now has evolved into so much more.  I hope that my children find that this is a tradition that they will want to continue doing even with their own families.

Voice and Audience Introduction

                Unit three Blog posting is a posting where I feel I was aware of my audience and writers voice. In this particular posting I felt I was writing to a general audience being fellow classmates.  In sharing what my family’s Sunday tradition was, I hoped to generate feedback as to what others did for their family tradition or possibly have other see how special my family tradition is and incorporate that tradition into their own lives.

What's For Dinner

            The ideal scenario of coming home; and walking into the house, and smelling the wonderful aroma of a home cooked meal is becoming a tradition of the past.  Whether it was spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove or a pot roast in the oven, all one could think about was it was sure nice to be home and when was dinner?  To speed this process up you may have even found yourself asking your mother “if there was anything you could do to help.” Home cooked meals are an American tradition that has been forever altered by the innovation of fast food.  In thinking of home cooked meals the tradition does not only apply to the value of what is being cooked, but also the ritual of the process and the memories it can create.  

     With today’s busy life styles and usually both parents working, the modern convenience of fast food is now considered the normal dinner time tradition.  Even if the thought did enter your mind that “yes,” a home cooked meal would be great, the question then becomes where would a person find the time?  In today’s society we are all time poor, so we rely heavily on modern conveniences to try and make up that time.  Now more that ever fast food restaurants are everywhere a consumer looks.  On the way home while fueling up the car, there is the convenience of running into the gas station to pay for gas, and picking up McDonald’s all at the same time.  Off every major interstate exit is a fast food chain of some sort, so no matter which route a person were to travel on their way home from work they would undoubtedly have the option of some version of fast food.  Many of us believe that in the time it takes to prepare a home cooked meal from start to finish; this including the shopping as well as the dishes this time could be spent with family versus in the kitchen.  How we value our time, is a question that needs to be answered.  Teaching future generations the skills and traditions of cooking is just as important as spending quality time doing homework or playing board games.  Without future generations having the skills to prepare a home cooked meal our society’s dependence on fast food will greaten, and future generations will miss out entirely on this wonderful tradition.     

     It has been said that fast food is like a drug addiction, this may be one of the reasons that it’s presence has became so overwhelmingly popular, and has  surpassed the ever diminishing home cooked meal.  It is no surprise that with genetically modifying food that there would not be some risks involved to consumers, one being possible additions to the product.  Christine Rosen  in “You – Only Better” wrote “One way to deny our dependence on nature is to make ourselves masters of nature” (613).  As consumers in our search for the “quick meal’ we have told food manufactures and fast food corporations “heck with what is natural we want quick and easy,” and with that today’s fast food has fulfilled our demand.

     Fast food companies are masters at marketing.  There is no denying that the demand put on us to be great fabulous parents, which at times leaves us feeling as though there is no way we can live up to this expectation, and this is where our guilt starts to flourish.  Fast food companies being masters at marketing know this, and they have seen our weakness as parents and have gone in for the kill.  One major reason fast food is so overwhelmingly the meal of choice is kids love it.  Not only do the fast food companies project their marketing towards children, companies like Disney or the creators of Sponge Bob want these fast food companies to include their toys with the meals that are being served.  So whether it has been a tough day, or heading home from running errands is taken longer than it should have,  or maybe there is just  that plain feeling of guilt, about some parenting inadequacy that society has made parents think they have, this is when it happens. The kids see a fast food restaurant, and the the screams for a happy meal begin. “Parents take their children to McDonald's because they "want the kids to love them. . . . It makes them feel like a good parent." Purchasing something from Disney is the "ultimate" way to make kids happy” (Eric Schlosser 794).  Now there is no possibility of saying no, and once again no home cooked meal, no wonderful heartfelt tradition here being carried out, no, instead just the invasion of fast food America’s number one modern convinence.

     When thinking about home cooked meals and how they have been replaced with fast food, the first think that most people always say in defensive of fast food is that it is cheaper.  In some aspects yes, it can be less expensive to eat fast food versus cook a meal at home.  An example of this might there may be a certain week in which money is tight, and to make the ends meet eating off the dollar menu at a fast food restaurant might help that happen.  In stepping back and looking at this long term, fast food is not necessarily cheaper.  Economics seem to play a big role in society’s belief that it is cheaper to eat fast food then to cook at home.  With the American family budget being tighter than ever, fast food companies have found new ways in which to try and lead us to believe it is cheaper to eat at their restaurants than ever before.  One way in which they have done this is with their “value menus” or "dollar menus.”  Something to consider before deciding if that dollar cheeseburger is really a deal, is the number of health risks associated with eating fast food on a regular basis.  Economics’ really should not dictate to us our priorities and values.  Fast food companies have tried to help us ease that decision by also coming up with new healthier menu options to try and counter the argument of how unhealthy it is to eat fast food, and in doing so they keep us coming back, making us thinking we are making a better choice for our family.

     In our culture there is urgency to be first, to be the best, and to accomplish more than our neighbors.  In doing this time has become our enemy and we have lost time held traditions.  In a generation that is so technology rich that we can genetically alter food but lack the everyday skills to prepare a meal from scratch at home, we have allowed fast food companies to dominate what is for dinner.

Works Cited

Rosen, Christine, Essay, “You – Only Better”, Remix                                                            
Latterell, Catherine G.  Bedford / ST. Martins, New York 2010
Schlosser, Eric.  “The True Cost America’s Diet.”  Rolling Stone Magazine 1998: Issue 794. Print

Writer's Choice Introduction

                This paper is the last of this quarter.  In this paper I was finally able to create a solid thesis statement, I feel through all my mistakes and corrections and trying desperately to understand the process of college writing, I have now possibly done it.  I say possibly because as I am writing this introduction my final paper has not been graded yet.  I as I say that regardless of outcome I feel this is my best write yet.

Communities Are No Longer Just Where We Live

             Communities are what give each of us as individuals a sense of belonging and a feeling of security in our lives.  A community can be so much more than our environmental surroundings.  If we look for others with similar interest and beliefs we will find cohesiveness that will help us as individuals become part of a community. As individuals if we are willing to bring our strength and weaknesses and time to the communities we feel we identify with, we in return will feel validated, and accepted for who we are, giving us a sense of security. *This section I would omit all together, the opening sentence makes the same point.
     The first thing we think of when we think of community is geographically where we live; this may have been how communities where originally formed, but as time has evolved communities have became so much more than that.  * Here I would have opened with my quote then recapped with examples of today’s communities which would have helped move my thesis along.  “Throughout human history, most people have lived around some definable place – a tribal ring, an oasis, a river junction, a port, a town square “(Brooks, 184).  Today communities can be defined by relationships, were freedom and security for one to be himself or herself is encouraged by others who are doing the same, in this process we feel we are being accepted for who we truly are.  “But at the end of the day I can go online and talk to them there, and they know exactly what I am going through and how I feel.  And I don’t have to worry about them judging me for how I feel” (Mim Udovitch, 151). In Udovitch’s essay she writes about Claire a teenage girl who struggles with anorexia. Udovitch goes on to explain how there are different viewpoints in which anorexia can be perceived; there are those who believe it is a disorder and those who believe it is a life style choice.  Claire believes anorexia is a lifestyle choice and finds comfort and security when she is able to log onto a website that shares in her same beliefs and through the website she is now part of a community where she is not longer being judged and where she can be herself.
            Very much similar to Mim Udovitch’s essay is my personal interview with Amy Adams.  * In my personal Interview with Amy Adams. Here I would eliminate so much I talk and move the thesis along by talking about how different generations can see what communities are differently. Amy is an older lady who has recently lost her husband; when asked what community means to her she said “it was the town in which she lives” (Adams).  I knew that would probably be her response, but I also knew that was far to general of an answer, for community is so much more, and she had probably never thought of community as anything else but where she had lived .  I was introduced to Amy through the work I do with Hospice.  I knew that since her husband’s passing she has a more personal community, one that can be defined by people sharing their lives, their stories, and their grief. In Amy coming to meetings and sharing with others her story as well as listening and connecting with others who have had similar experiences she has became part of a community that makes her feel secure, and serves a need of allowing her to find cohesiveness in grieving. 
    In my blog assignemnt I wrote about my own personal community, and that being a community of being a parent.  David Berreby in his essay “It Takes a Tribe” wrote “a subconscious clue for perceiving a tribe as real and valuable, then, may be expending sweat, tears, and embarrassment to get in”  (122).  This quote could not sum up more perfectly what as parents we have gone through to be part of our own community.* The next few sentences are too personal, I derailed the paragraph.  I would instead make this more generalized to appeal to speak to everyone not just parents.  Being part of the “community of being a parent” gives my life purpose.  I find security in that fact there are others I can share experiences with and they in return do the same, for example in being part of this community I have found out that I am not as mean of a mom as my kids say I am, and I have found out that saying “everyone else’s mom lets them do it”, is just not true and must be an old wise tale.  Who of us that has kids has not gone to dinner with a couple that does not? *I would omit rhetorical question.  Wow, try and keep that conversation going without boring that couple to death with every event in your toddler’s life for the past week. So for me this community serves my needs by giving me support and acceptance. 
            There is not one true definition of community, yes, it arguable that community can be as simple as it was years ago with where a person lived, and where a person went to church, as defining what community they belonged to.  Today communities are defined more on our relationship with others than where we live or go to church.  With the internet there are no longer geographic boundaries. Communities today are based on the premise of a shared life or shared emotional connection, and even if there is not an emotional connection a common interest will also bring people to each other. “People need to belong, to feel a part of “us”.  Yet a sense of “us” brings with it a sense of “them” (Berreby, 120).

Works Cited

Brooks,David,Essay,“Our Sprawling,SupersizeUtopia”,Remix                                                                                

Latterell, Catherine G.  Bedford / ST. Martins, New York 2010

Udovitch, Mim, Essay, “A secret Society of the Starving”, Remix

Adams, Amy.   Personal Interview. 23 April 2011.

David Berreby, Essay, “It Takes a Tribe”,  Remix

                                               

Revision Piece Introduction

     My community paper was the writing assignment I turned in that I felt needed the most revision.  Aside from formatting I seemed to miss the concept of the assignment.  My thesis was clear, but in my paper I did not support it through the use of evidence and a clear line of argument.  The paper clearly lacked organization I feel.  I also feel I could have done a better job with synthesizing the quotes; this would have avoided the “drop in” effect.  The voice of the paper was also in the wrong format my use of I’s and you’s should have been omitted.  The conclusion I found hard to rewrite, even though it may be incorrect for the assignment, I feel for the way, and the context of how this paper was written even though incorrect the conclusion fits that version of the writing.  This was the assignment that I turned it that I thought I would be receiving a fabulous grade on, but when I received the paper back graded it was anything but fabulous.  This is the point even though late in the quarter I started to really look deeper into the questions and the assignments to see what is really being asked.

Just Being Who You Are In High School, Is No Easy Task

     In Emily White’s essay “High School’s Secret Life she talks about the different social “Cliques, there are the preppies, the nerds and the jock’s even a group she calls the “natural helpers”.  In the essay by Lucy Grealy “Masks” there was not that same comparison or detail, but what was very much the same in both essays was the role that lunch time or the overall lunch experience played in how one’s assumed identity was judged. “The cafeteria is the place where forms of human sacrifice occur, the merciless rituals of cruelty on which the kids thrive (White, 15)”.  For some students in both essays lunch was an empowering time and very much defined their social status but for others like Lucy it was torture and for her got to the point that for her to keep her own sanity had to have her lunch in the guidance counselor’s office to avoid complete harassment at lunch. One message that was fluent through both essays is just how much especially in those middle school to high school years we want to be accepted and when we feel that we are not be accepted for who we are we will try and fine a “Clique or Tribe” that we feel we are best matched with and that would be the easiest to conform to and that becomes our new identity.

     I graduated in the early 90”s and there were “Cliques” mainly just jocks, rockers or skaters but everyone was very accepting of everyone.  It was a smaller high school and at events or parties there was always a mix of all the groups and if you were like myself and did not necessarily fit into one of those three categories you were still invited, I am not sure why now there seems to be such a huge divide and students feel the pressure to fit in to a particular group.  I feel I was lucky to have the high school experience I did and not have the pressures I feel my kids have now in high school and middle school.  Unfortunately I think high school students’ put too much emphasis on those years, and with it being such major part of the self identity process, if you do not have clear picture of who you are and where you want to go, you can easily lose yourself.

Critical Thinking Piece Introduction

      This discussion board posting showed my ability to critically analyze and synthesis an issue.  The issue was “How did we manage to survive adolescence?”  In my posting I showed with the quotes I chose to use from the required reading what the author was trying to say and also pointing out how the author was trying to say it.  The synthesis was demonstrated in the last paragraph with my own personal experiences tying the whole posting together.