Group Experience

    Coming from completely different backgrounds, we were able to come as one and develop into "The Reflexive Ponderers". I feel like the group really came into itself since we all contributed with our special qualities. Week after week we were able to see each other's points of view while given assignments about topics in which we might've changed others opinions. In my opinion this was actually a refreshing thing since beforehand I didn't really had the opportunity to participate in something like this. From Frances heavy laughter to Marcos scolding, I can say that they really made the experience a whole lot better.

Blog Reflection

         While actually going through a whole 5 months writing as much as i had in my whole life, I found out about a whole different world. This experience actually felt like a new and improved way of letting out your deepest feelings. Although, at first, it did really feel like an enemy, my affair with writing evolved like a “Pokémon”. Not all was beautiful and understanding but it sure did a whole lot of good.

            In my blogs I found love, fears, friendships and even joy. Writing quickly became something to look forward for. Blogs about discrimination mostly were the ones I connected with because of personal experiences. With Billy Mays, I entirely felt his fear of going into a newly found place for him and how scary it can be. With the series of the 60’s I found a deep connection since family is the center of my universe. While going through all these hours spent on it, I sincerely a wellbeing for myself.

            Finally, the best way to describe this is through a roller coaster. Not because of how irregular a roller coaster ride can be but because of its ability to get me up when I was feeling down. This whole activity was concluded with me finding out just how good I can be at doing something that I may not like but being able to take it in as a hobby shortly after.

Literary Contest Reflection

The thing about writing is the extensive possibilities that it possess. With everything new that is written newly found material with a new sea of memories and thoughts surfaces. Writing represents ourselves and therefore most of our work will be able to define in words our current state of attitude and even mind. The opportunity to participate in the literary contest was a fulfilling one because of being able to admire just how others can influence you and at the same time motivate you to become the type of writer that you want to be. It can help you understand yourself more so that at the end of the day what you write represent great value which is the most valuable price.

Throughout the journey to write something authentic you face many obstacles. After overcoming them, you're left with the finished masterpiece. At any ceremony we are able to marble at how each winner shows various emotions that were such different in little aspects. This also tells us about how people tend to differ at almost everything and the writing does too. Some might have wrote about love, others about fears or even things without meaning. This just sums up how there's no greater prize than a love for your own work.

First place or even fourth place doesn't matter. Your work might not be the best when judged by others but this does not matter since your love for your own work makes you a greater writer. Therefore what I found out about how I felt when speaking about the ceremony just left me wondering how much being recognize brings. Yes, the love from others might make you feel head over heels but nothing compared to the one you borrow to your work. At the end of the day none of this will be able to be achieved without it.

Even though it turned out to be a completely bittersweet opportunity since I was not able to attend the ceremony because of a great lack in my communication skills. Still I learned something from not being able to attend, like for example thinking things in a deeper manner and at the same time to not rely on others to complete tasks that you're capable of completing yourself. After all I did some harm to the audience by not sending out the message clearly of my absence which could've been skipped with just the use of the utilities that we possess to be clear about the whole situation. Indeed it was my fault and surfaced to me a calling so that in the future will never happen again.

Poem

Eighteen In Twenty-first

Life for me begins backwards,

It begins where other’s end,

Habits in the space

Between never and again.

The skies race within our veins,

With raging hurricanes.

Our bodies become a part

Of space and time

More than a tapestry

Of rhyme

With meaning, alive

With rhythm and lines.

There’s more to life

Than what we see

Never fall into the abyss,

Inside the quiet terror

Of seizing to exist.

Finally let the clear mist

Of hope in

So it can consume our souls

For the future

Holds so much more.

"The 60's" Pt 2 Reflection

       Years passed and special details about the main characters are revealed. We see how much they’ve came to their own selves and matured. Suffering sums up the feelings inside the family caused by fears and worrying about what others might say. This part really leaves a sense of wonder and calls for an act of self-reflection because of how easy it is to familiarize with the characters. Here we are mostly found with how everything is overcome and the relationship ties grow stronger.

         While faced with more society influenced human beings, the siblings made me come to think just how this time in life it really concretes and influences our ways and values. The most important story in this part is the one of the son that goes to the army. Just left me wondering about what would’ve been of him if he did get that scholarship and had become a football player. But instead it just strongly helps the fact that society really can break you down sometimes if you give it that power.

          As the stories come to an end so did my worries when thinking in place of the characters. I felt most identified with the son who followed truly what he believed in. Not letting others tell you who you are is what, for me, was all that he represented. This is what leaves us with hope because in my case it left me with a sense of wanting to overcome adversity. Then the family really grew and in values and views because they really left out any judgement and really worried about what keeps us human, love. 

"The 60's" Pt 1 Reflection

          Taken on a treadmill that seems to make us run all the way back in time and also how we took steps back towards happiness. Summarizing the time that was the 1960's, the typical family of that time is represented inside one. A mother, father and three siblings show us the views and values that are dominant during these years. Making one realize just how bad they had it back then. A story full of love and changes in the family structure, basically sums up this part of the series.

In my opinion, I have to start off by saying how the siblings completely represented sides of different parts found in society that were mistreated only because they were the "minority". Throughout this part we see radical changes inside the characters since they are only starting to develop as themselves.

The braveness and, at the same time, the fear of the daughter to run away from home; the determination of the son for entering the army without prior plans; and also how the middle one chose to not let others influence in his way of thinking but instead choosing for himself, all were immensely important for me. Felt like they all made up pieces of me and at the same time everything that I lack. Only left me wondering how much the world will change.

Thankfully years have passed by and these ways of thinking are no longer dominant. Now we really value the family which really describes the main focus of the series. Shows just how strong families become by overcoming not only other people but themselves so they can become accepting. Like in my case, family is the center of who I am l, therefore I can say that it reflects on my identity.

"Serving In Silence"

   Margarethe Cammermeyer in my opinion is the true definition of a hero. For me her journey is one fruitfully in both personal and external aspects. She did not only helped society by revealing her secret but also she helped herself in accepting who she was. In my opinion she even dealt with it with greater strength that anyone in that position would've. Grethe did the completely right thing by coming clean about everything and refusing to stay inside the closet since it was the easiest way out. This, in my opinion, did greater good to society than to herself. People like her is what we need more nowadays. People that fill us up with courage no matter our struggles and that helps us to rise above.

"Students Take A Stand" Skit Reflection

       
       Our skit basically consisted in making a calling for others to think before judging. To me it represented greatly the message through the use of an example that is commonly found in today's age. Going through the whole process of formulating the activity, we divided it and went step by step. First, we had to brain storm what was a topic in which we found ourselves relating to. Then, during the activity we reached out and exchanged personal experiences that in the end related to one another. This just explains how discrimination is something that sooner or later we suffer from. Later on, we had the member's part and what they had to say which left us in a better agreement of what was the goal that we wanted to present. After completing the activity and presenting the message, of how discrimination needs to be dealt with and stopped, was transmitted and even made me realize how indirectly we even do it ourselves from time to time.

"Triffles" Reflection

Sometimes we get carried away by our emotions and so we tend to commit stupid mistakes that most often end up hurting others. Emotions are like people that live inside of us therefore from time to time it might be impossible to control them. The thing about this argument is that, even though it might be a factor, this never can be used as an excuse when it comes to discriminating people because of physical and mental aspects. As a person living in the twenty-first century, I can say that racism has come a long way among ourselves. Time has passed as so has our limitations for others. One thing that took off for us to come a long way until today with the creation of women's rights and this was a huge step in humanity.



In the reading titled "Triffles" we see just how the woman's voice is overlapped by the men's. As the reading went on, I found myself trying to put myself in the women's place because I knew and sensed that their intentions meant good. I noticed how they payed mind to the little things or triffles that were familiar with the murdering. Saying they didn't mean good in the murder is an understatement because the men, representing the society at those times thought that the women only worried about "Triffles" which means things without importance. They generalize but at the same time they helped the women find courage in themselves to finally put an end and claim equality.


It is important to make emphasis on the fact of how the women reach a climax within themselves and decide to not say anything about what they discovered. In a final argument, I can say that this is how women finally reached a point where they demanded their god given rights. I guess we can say that they took a big step towards the fight against racism which is exactly what gets represented in this story. And, who knows how many people got inspired and took a part in this fight.

Journal Reflection

    As this semester started and so did my journey on this English course, I found myself with a great challenge in front of me. New tasks came to my hands while getting use to the same routine once more. I must say that I’m not at all a person that constantly spends their time talking only about themselves. From once in a while it will come out of me a thing or two that might be happening in my life but most definitely I will not let out the things that are bothering me. Therefore when I learned about the activity of writing on journals weekly I instantly thought about how it could end up becoming boring just like I think that may happened when talking about myself to other people.

The weeks started passing by with me spending ten minutes of my free time, which is really nothing, just navigating through my mind with deep thoughts that were buried deeply inside. Started writing about animals, aspirations, goals and friendships, all of the normal things we have no fear in letting everyone know. But as the weeks passed by I felt the urge to write something more passionate. Something that would connect me with myself; and I started doing just that, I wrote about my feelings, how I realize that no one is there for you only but yourself. That it is necessary to go through some rough patches so that you can learn for future references because those are the ones that can’t be taught.

This whole experience made me grow as a person and helped me reestablish my mental state of mind which is so needed because at these stages of life is amazingly easy to lose your way. This might all sound a bit narcissistic but I can assure you that I am not even close to it. Just have gone through life wanting to bring every best thing possible for the ones I care about so I have developed a sense of self-care.  Throughout most of my entries I have written how I can improve because my only aspiration in life is to achieve happiness for myself and the ones I love while reaching my goals.

"A Room With a View" Reaction

I could start it off writing about how, since beginning of human time, women have been treated like something with less value but just doesn't feel authentic enough. Instead, I prefer spending time marveling at the greatness that women are and their common stories of great achievements. First of all, I'll just leave the equality argument with the thought that if it wasn't for women we wouldn't be who we are as people without mentioning our gift of living in the world. Here I hope to give my insight after going through the movie "A Room With a View" and the different topics that it briefly covers while not giving away the main one. Its covers goes from cultural aspects all the way to giving a different insight inside an unconventional love story.

Here we face the story of  Lucy while living she lives at older times in Florence and battles through without surrendering to what's acceptable by the society. Through many encounters we can get to see just how really she is and what is going on inside her head. Quickly, I found it intriguing how she differed greatly with the ladies that were staying with her at the place which gave away for me that she was going to be a round character. From the assassination in Florence to the meeting the "good man" we saw glimpses of how she still was a bit like them too. Playing the piano was her way to express her disagreement with the world which was the correct thing to do in my mind because keep her away from trouble. This is a journey for Lucy, she grew greatly in demeanor and she let go of the chains sustained by society for example when she realized she didn't want to get married to her first fiancee. She found out things about herself that not even herself knew therefore leading to finding out that her feelings for George were true and real. I  guess we can say is a great example of over coming adversity not entirely but actually following what makes you happy.

In the movie there are some social prejudices marked greatly. Makes me think of how strong people have to be sometimes to actually achieve what makes them happy and still we stand here waiting for it to fall out of the sky. Learning and understanding is what every human being should do because that is what gives us the capacity to not be ignorant and actually realize how we all have a meaning in life so we should make the most of it. 

"On Looking" My Response

If it was up to us I'm sure we would definitely chose the idea of traveling along the world. By traveling we are capable of experience new things that maybe we had at near reach but by different situations we opted to ignore them. The ones we really see become the most important in our minds when actually we are just ignoring our whole capabilities because they caught our attention. Here's the thing the human nature is completely incomparable and therefore can't be generalized. Though it is safe to say that by instinct we will pay more attention to the things that we can relate to because we might have an inner connection with them.

Personally, I found myself being able to relate with the whole exposition of the story through different experiences. As we go on our ordinary routine and life we tend to ignore the simple things that surely are gifts from gifts from nature. Ironically, I've found myself in front of situations like this, one time, while walking to get my hair cut; I found myself with the realization that I was so uninterested in the whole action therefore something simple enough didn't even get my attention. I couldn't even believe that along my way, I didn't pay attention to a thing as simple as the fuel cost. Like this, I can say that I understand the narrator's struggle of feeling discomfort while ignoring indirectly the many wonders around me. On looking, is a great example of improving one's points of view to not only focus on what gets our attention but also surrendering to the many aspects in the world. We get to see throughout the story how she sees only what it's visible to the one routine living human being. While after this, she tells us of the views of people with various profession and the influence of it inside them. 

In conclusion, we can infer that paying attention is something that can be considered as relative. Something that doesn't make us ignorant to things, instead just help us as professionals be better at understanding things that makes us who we are. Eventually as we grow up, we are faced with situations that normally would be dealt with not the same approvement. As kids we tend to focus and center all of our attention on things that bring us joy. After getting old, we take a great interest on things we didn't really see before because now at the later parts of our lives is when we decide that it's time to see what we have missed. Coming up in age I can safely say that it's true since different views of life hit us day by day.

"A Use of Force" Reaction

   Inside of planet earth live approximately 7.5 billion people. This might be not much if you think of it for the first time but when you study the whole living process more deeply, you're sure to be left astonished of how outstanding it is. With more than 7 billion people living on the same planet you might be thinking, "why do we struggle so much if there's enough people that can work together to achieve a better living environment?". The answer to this is simple, we chose this by our nature because we are driven by our instincts and they tell us to only look for people or to only socialize with people who relate to our way of thinking. If every human being living on earth worked together for the greater good the world might not be even called like that anymore. As a result, 7 billion people mean 7 billion different thoughts and actions so there's a big possibility of arguing. "A Force of Nature" shows the story of four individuals and how disagreement can lead to the topic of violence. 

   As having read the story I can say confidently that it's too short of some elements to define it as only one topic of theme. Since throughout the short story I had many different thoughts of what was really happening in it. At first I implied that it had something to do with the parents because of how they reacted and when they said that their daughter was in the kitchen table. Then I started suspecting that maybe the girl was somehow the one responsible for the whole situation because of how she seemed the one in control the whole time. All of these were not correct in my mind because I concluded that maybe this is the way the author wanted us to think, without use of quotation marks we are left with just having to wonder for ourselves what the situation really is about. At last, my predictions started to fade because at the end the story flowed for itself with a really good theme. 

   In conclusion, I think that this maybe was a case of violence. My main reason would be how the girl reacted when the doctor finally opted for using force against her will to check if she was suffering from diphtheria. Mathilda reacted with anger inside that was maybe stored there for a long time. Which might leave us thinking that she could've been living with it and that her parents were the ones responsible for it. In my opinion, I'm left thinking that the main suspects are the parents since they never really seem truthful while dealing with the situation. This one something I was not wrong when i inferred because it could've all been sorted out if they had a stable family circle with care. 

"Identity"

    Finally a chance where I can write non stop about myself since I don't do it too often. In general, I don't really spend that much time talking only about myself. With this opportunity I'll think that through this I won't have to worry about boring someone up with my business. For me, I think that no one really understands who they are until they've tried everything. Therefore, here I'll be generalizing what I believe is what I am. My identity is something I take really seriously because it's how I see myself and how others do too. People differ in identity no matter where they are from and it can be considered as an authentic gift that makes them special. 

    Now you may ask, "who are you?". I am Neythan Acosta Del Valle, I am everything I fight and intend to be. To be more specific, I am 18 years old, I'm currently attending my freshman year of college at "Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto de Rio Piedras" while majoring in Environmental Science. I'm the middle child of three siblings, I live in Bayamón and basically, I love to be around people. Love to be with friends that think the same way as I do. Go out, have fun and enjoy life are my main hobbies. Enough with that though, let's talk about what I believe the true definition of identity is. In my opinion, it's what you have to find first about yourself so you can be able to establish yourself as a force in this world. Identity is what differs you from close people but at the same time brings you together. For example, as a Puerto Rican it's probably safe to say that most of my likings will be similar from the ones of a fellow citizen. Yes, we will like mofongo and we will have the same traditions but at the same time him and myself will be completely two different souls. I think this is a beautiful way to bring people together, through identity, because you have a great opportunity to learn things that yourself would never be able to go through before. Also, we are opposites but that's the main reason we become so close. 

    It is safe to say, after giving my point of view of this topic, that I believe identity is something essential for every human being. Not matter who we might me or what we believe in, identity is the reason we can become able to live freely and connect with others. In general, I think that it is hard to find yourself in this wide world but I can assure that when you do everything will just fall in it's place. After all we will reach our main aspiration through this, to be happy. 

"Running Brave" Reaction

Overcoming Adversity

          Here we stand, 21st century in the year 2015 and we still find ourselves unable to just live in harmony with one another. Racism is very much alive right now; recent studies show people are more tolerable with that subject now than they were before. Everyone at least once has been touched by this topic directly or indirectly so is important to go over it. We tend to differ people just by their way of thinking, color, sex or even their ethnicity. The movie "Running Brave" is a great example of both how people suffer from this, yet on how someone can overcome adversity and struggle.          

          While growing up inside a strong ethnic group, Billy Mills, grows up with a passion for running. However, he has to show everyone one off his talent because of being stereotyped for people's past experiences with Native Americans. While going to college outside of his home, he encounters really uncharacteristic and unfair things. For example, he gets called "chief" or "quitter" for having "Indian" roots. Or even when people look down on him as if he were worth less than others. Yet throughout the movie it's important to point out how Billy grows to become a better and successful human being with also the help of his loved ones. Therefore, we can say that he is a round character whose main goal is to let us know that everything can be accomplished.        

           In my opinion, we should all take notes from this story. We can learn how no matter what you are, like, do or even think doesn't define you. We are all indeed different and these various characteristics or opinions are what makes this world such an exciting place to live. You don't let others decide who you are or what you can do just exactly like Billy did. In conclusion, his story is one we should all admire so we can take it as an inspirational one and we should use it as a call for everyone to start seeing the world for what it really is. The world is a structure and every human being takes place on it so we need to start taking that into consideration and stop focusing on hurting instead of loving.