Last One # 2

YAAAAY I have never been so happy to make a blog!!!!! This is the last blog I will ever HAVE to make. Although I kind of like the idea behind the blogs, it tends to fall in the back of my head when i have many other things to worry about like ANATOMY which is the hardest subject I have ever taken. English this year was fun I had some very Cool characters in my class like Berkley who is a crazy fun person who always bring a good laugh to the class or Davianna who is super smart and always seemed to make me feel like crap and like i haven't done enough but I appreciated it cause it kept me on my toes and made me want to actually read the stories so that i could keep up with her during class conversations. Thanks to all the other classmates who never really came to class who made our class A LOT smaller and a lot easier to talk freely. This semester has been very interesting but I am excited to see it go. I'm ready for the adventures of next semester and ready to move on completely. And to Mr. Sweeney, it's been a long ride I've been in your class since 101 and I was always excited for the next semester, your a great professor and an all around cool person.It's been fun people lets not do it again next Semester


                                                                                              Che'nyce Lewis


 

What have I done !!!!!

So this semester has not been the greatest for me I have been as my mom says "Slacking on my macing." My Papers have been kind of all over the place and i have really been kind of focused on other subjects. Every once in a while we do something that will grab my attention and make me excited to come to class. I am now seeing the consequences of what i have done. We are in week 15 with only 16 weeks in  the semester and i feel over whelmed with the things I still have left to do. I have to do the revisions on three of the four papers that i have are due in week 16. I have so much going on and in class we talked about getting all of this stuff done and it seems like when i think I'm on track and doing a good job something else is thrown on my plate today Mr. Sweeney reminded me that if I signed up for an A (Which I did ) we had to do a forum which is when we turn one of the papers we have written into a power point or some type of visual project which is really killing me cause as bad as i want an A a B isn't sounding to bad right now. But I'm in the final stretch and I'm going to push till the last minute.

Se7en!!!!

So in class we were talking about a movie called "Se7en" it's a pretty cool and gruesome movie. In this movie one of the character's that went by the name of John Doe was a mass murderer but truly believed he was doing gods work. He killed people who committed one of the seven deadly sins. this topic was the cause of a lot of conversations in my class, Sweeney liked to ask did we think John doe was a better person than one of the characters Summerset that was actually the detective on the case along with his partner Mills. Mr. Sweeney made the argument that Doe was a better person because he seen something wrong and he took action where as Summerset just turned the other cheek on all wrongs being done in the world. I think that even though Doe did do something about people committing one of the seven deadly sins he did in an absolutely heinous way. Summerset was a very intelligent detective who used logical evidence to solve cases he was having a really tough time with this case because he wanted to retire. I really like this movie and I am going to watch it again lol.

My weekend in Boston

On November 8 I went Boston Massachusetts were I am from to visit my with my family that I haven't seen in a really long time. Our trip served multiple purposes, it was my great uncles birthday and his sister my great aunt had a stroke about a month beforehand. My aunt has always been a very vibrant and  beautiful person. It was heartbreaking to find out that all  of her favorite things were no longer in reach. Her speech is impaired and she can only say a few basic words like yes no and uhhhhhaaaaaa and she can't walk without assistance and. For her and everyone else it  was very overwhelming. Through all of this it was awes to see that her personality was still shining through, she was doing her best to smile and enjoy her family all being together. My uncle couldn't have been happier. We had a wonderful family dinner and great family time. While in Boston I was out with my cousins and we pulled up to this sign that made me instantly bust into laughter . There an alcohol store there called "Sweeney's discount liquors" . I just wanted to say congrats to Sweeney for selling good discount liquor

The Symphony

So for one of my out of class assignments I went to see the Petersburg symphony. Going in to the  performance I was sure I wasn't going to like it because classical music really isn't my forte'. I appreciate it but for my its more of night time go to sleep music. I tried to open my mind and try to enjoy the show but I just could there were so many things wrong with it far beyond the genre of music. To begin the selections were all patriotic which wasn't that bad but it wasn't anything that I could really get in to. To top all this off  the performance was horrible to my ears. The symphony was really playing off key it sounded like a group of middle school children was playing. Sooo that was a loss for me but its ok it was a learning experience for me and maybe they were just having an off day.

Speech

This week in my speech class we had an informative speech due and i actually realized how much work goes into putting a speech together. I used to think that it was just them getting up there with a few ideas on a paper and speaking from their head, but it's completely different we had to make outlines and do a bibliography it was just like writing a paper except for the fact that you don't have to have all the information written out because you will fill in the blanks as you do the speech. I did my informative speech on the misleading reputation of pit bulls. Pit bulls are dogs that are really close to my heart, i have had at least 10 pit bulls all together and they all have lived with cats because I love those to. Making the outline for this speech really got me thinking about the paper that I have to do for my English class all these papers seem to link together and i'm running out of things to say about the stories we have read. I am going to think way out of the box for this paper and hopefully that will work in my favor.

The Lone Ranger

In class read a story called The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. This story was about a Native American man who was very dissatisfied in his life, him and his girlfriend seem to have a love hate relationship, they argue all the time and he often takes walks to try to clear his mind. living in a place were racism was still very much alive he had to be careful where he wondered off to and how long he stayed. This story was good it kind of showed his battle with his self and the people around him. Of course being Native American he was from a reservation and everyone who lived on the reservation was expected to live there forever. When him and his girlfriend broke up he went back to the reservation where he felt even worse than before because him coming back pretty much proved his family right that he couldn't make outside of the reservation. The story kind of brought me to my own life and how i was the first person in my family to go to college, even though i n made it here i still have major anxiety that i wont make it where I want to be, but I have to be strong and do my best like he did in the story so that eventually I can end out on top. 

Yellow Wallpaper

A little while ago my English class and I read a story called The Yellow Wallpaper. That story really pulled me in it is about a women who essentially feels trapped in her own house. Her husband is a physician and he diagnoses her disorder as temporary nervous depression. They decide to take a vacation in this old colonial mansion that she finds to be creepy from the beginning. I liked this story because in some way at some point everyone can relate to how the young women feels. I think she feels lonely and maybe if her husband and the rest of her family would have not allowed her to be alone all the time the outcome of the story would have been a lot different. In  books when the author decides to leave us guessing at the end I tend to make the end of the story very happy and probably the exact opposite of what everyone else is thinking. At the end of this story there wasn't really a lot of happy to work with but i would encourage people to read this story and create there own endings and then comment them on this blog post!!!!  

Pride

Well Saturday September 28 a group of my friends and I went to the Richmond Pride Festival and I had so much fun. We spent hours there walking around and looking at all the cool people and things that pride had to offer. We seen a lot of people dressed up in their full rainbow attire. It was a big deal for my friend because it was his first time as an out gay male, it was amazing to see how comfortable he could be, and how he was completely himself around absolute strangers. The highlight of my night was watching the Drag queen performances, they are so entertaining. My favorite one was someone named Shangela she was on RuPaul's Drag Race seasons two and three and was there till the end. She had an awesome performance and got the whole crowd excited.  

The Struggle !

Well I'm a little behind on my blogs i guess i am a little off my game this semester. This is my first semester taking Anatomy and Physiology 205 and it is kicking my butt. I feel like i study for it all day and don't grasp the information. But my English class is going well this semester, in class we read this story called Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway. In this story Mr. Hemingway went with a very vague approach. When initially reading the story I had know idea what was going on, at many points in the story all it seemed like was a bunch of words slapped on paper. After reading the entire thing I went to class hoping that Mr. Sweeney would be able to clear this story up for me and of course he did. As he spoke about the piece we came to the conclusion that the author was comparing this young womens decision whether to have her baby or to abort it. On one side of the bar they were in there was hills dead land and dryness but on the other side there was life beautiful green grass and mountains, fresh air and beautiful scenery. Like in The Yellow Wallpaper the author of this story left the end to the imagination of the reader and again i made the end into one of the most beautiful situations it could have been made into. This was a good story once I understood the context. 

Last One !!!!!

Well it has been a long semester the papers were hard, the 8 o'clocks were killer and the conversations were very interesting. The semester is finally coming to an end i'm happy but the crazy part is i can't wait till next semester i'm looking forward to the classes and the new roommates. This semester has been a roller coaster.  As much as I thought i would hate Writing blogs but i enjoyed the entire process. It was awesome to be able to read other peoples blogs and for them to be able to read mine. Last Semester me and a lot of my other classmates decided that we were all going to take Mr. Sweeney again this semester it's cool that he makes all of his students feel comfortable in his class his class is like our safe place it's a place where some of us can say whats on our hearts without the fear of being ridiculed and talked about. I can't wait till i can Have the class and don't have to write three Research papers. Well............until next time guys

"The House I Live In"

Today in class the reading choice was about the drug war and if we believe that the punishments were to extreme. For some reason this topic took me to a place that i would never like to return. It saddened me deeply to hear some peoples response to the subject, I respect everyone's opinion and i'm glad that our class touched on this subject. But I can't lie some of things being done pissed me off, it's as if they couldn't care less about things happening everyday. It sucks so bad because we are always told to give the presenter the floor and to pay attention but some just were being very rude and doing their own side thing. Any-who i just had to get that off my chest, the presentation made me really want to see that documentary, for me it hit home in a way that I wasn't really willing to talk about but at one point it became to much and i began to tear up. I'm pretty sure the people who noticed was wondering what was going on in my head so I guess I'll try to explain. When I was around 8 years old my father became addicted to drugs, he was losing out on a lot he became absent in me and my siblings life, my mom left him, his family turned there backs on him, and to top it off he was caught with just enough drugs to have him put away for we seemed to be a century in my young eyes. Because of this he became a felon which meant when he did get out there would be no better life waiting for him. Although it was his decision and I completely understand that I think people fail to realize that my father had a problem and for that he will forever be seen in a negative light. When he got out he went to live with a women he had been seeing for a while because he couldn't get a job and because of that he couldn't get his own place all because of that one mistake. He also couldn't pay child support which meant that he was going back to jail. People don't understand how this one thing could cause i trickle down effect into so much more. This topic was interesting and in a way i feel sorry for the people who didn't care to listen and learn. 

Well today is saturday the 13 of April and im really bored. It's a pretty day out everyone is gone and this sucks..... lol i say all that to say it's crazy how earlier in life like maybe our junior and senior year in high school I thought( as i think most teens around that time thought) that once i come to college my life would be jam pack filled with fun. But it's the complete opposite, i mean of course there is some fum involved but i just think things become so much more important like studying for a big test, writing papers :( , and doing homework. In high school homework takes at the max an hour now it seems to take me that long just to do my math homework.College is just so much pressure.For me im the first person in my family to go to college so they seem to hold me on this educational pedistal, sometimes it feels good and others times i just don't wonna be there. But im glad im here and im ready to take my life to a whole different level ......CAN'T WAIT  !!!!!!!!!!!

So today I have just been kind of thinking about my career and my life and were the road im on will take me. I've been kind of worried about not knowing where I'm headed but I 100% know what i wonna be. Being seen as an adult in the worlds eyes is way to scary to think about or even deal with. One day i hope to be a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner with my own house and family. I'm actually scared to go into the real world and i think its hard for alot of people to admit that to themselves and others. It's crazy to know that within the next 5 years most of us will be working takink care of ourselves and maybe even children. It's weird that im in college and im doing good, i have always wanted to go to college but i was never one hundred percent sure it was going to happen my determination and will to push myself to the limit has gotten me here and i hope it will take me further. 

April 3 2013 a day to remember in English

Well today in my English class we had a story we were supposed to read by Dr. Seuss called "Butter Battle Book" this story much like all of his stories have a deeper  meaning. This one we chalked up to be about war and the effect it has has one its surroundings. This conversation led to a whole slew of sub topics. The one that stood out most to me was "open mindedness." This phrase by its self is a confusing and difficult phrase. My definition of being open minded is knowing and trusting what you believe but being willing to at least listen to the opinion of others with the intent to learn. Everyone can claim to be open minded but there are very few that actually are. I sometimes claim to be open minded but as i think about it i realize that I'm not. Lol as they say" the first step is admitting you have a problem. " I will listen to your thoughts and beliefs but at the same time I most likely won't take anything away from the conversation. I also believe it doesn't work when the two opposing thoughts try to bang their beliefs into each others head. Part of debating is listening because if u always want to have the final say and don't let your opposition get a word in edge wise neither one of you will learn anything because eventually they will shut you loud obnoxious self out. Well i guess i learned a lot about  myself all before 9 o'clock in the morning. Classes like this are the classes that make me happy I chose to take  Mr.Sweeney again this semester.

Well friday i went to a play called "The Meeting."It's about the meeting of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin  Luther King Jr. Although this play was assigned as extra credit i had already planned to go because im very much into black history and the changes that we have been through. In this play Dr. King was invited to Malcolm X's house to to talk about their differences. The play was really good and the actors were very believable. I think my favorite part is when the actors decided to arm wrestle at first i didnt get it but then I started to realize that there were so many different things that that arm wrestle could stand for. It could mean that there were showing each other who was stronger not only in the muscle sence but in the sence of book smarts. This was particular because they have to different backrounds of education Dr. King had a college education while Mr. X had only street tought  knowledge. I loved the play and i wish it was more than one scene!

Well I had a pretty interesting weekend. This weekend me and my friends had a girls night out. We decided we was going to this a while ago , but the reason i decided to write about this in my blog is because in my english class we have a writing assignment that has to be about family and im sure the first thing that pops into erveryones head is their blood relatives. I believe that family means much more than having the same DNA running through your veins. These girls mean so much to me. This weekend we went to Red Lobster to have dinner and they make me have fun no matter what. I've never had so much fun at a resturant Well it started when we were waiting for a table we were talking about peircings and tattoos and one of my friends mentioned that she doesn't like the piercings above the lip because it looks like a random booger but the fuuny thing is there was a girl sitting across from us who had one but we didnt realize till she gave us this ugly mean look which made me bust out into laughter and i had to contain myself. We were finally seated and we continued to laugh and have a good time. those girls are my family no matter what. <3

What's the world coming to !

In a paper  my english teacher had us reading this week about Eugenics. To me this is a curse and a blessing all rapped into one. Eugenics is  the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. this could be a blessing because if the doctors find something wrong with a fetus they can try to go in and genetically fix the problem. But the major down side to this is the other genetic things that can be altered such as eye color, skin tone, hair type, and many other physical traits. It may seem like a good idea at first but then reality sets in and i begin to realize that they world is already so set in how they think a person should look, So i think making these alterations to the genetic code would make everybody crazy about their apperance. In the paper the Author made a good point about not getting to know what ur child would be like if you made these changes. The bond between the offspring and the parent could be damaged by   the lack of a genetic relationship. To think that there could be a piece of your child that is not connected to you or ur spouse is crazy. Another reason this is not a good idea is because of the cost, Although they say they would make it affordable the likelyhood that everyone would be able to affordable for everyone equally. It would make things even more divided because the wealthier parents would be able to afford it which would make the other kids feel incompetent. this would not only effect looks it could also change there abilities. It could make them more musically advanced or smarter or even more phsically fit than others.This would give them an unfair advantage in college and in sports. altogether i think if there is no real medical reason for the surgury it should not be done. 

The big Decision

WELL I'M NOT SURE WHAT TO BLOG ABOUT SO FOR NOW I'M GOING TO RIGHT A LITTLE SOMETHING THAT I THINK IS LINKED TO THE CLASS ...................

Writing is a way to express ones feeling 

a way to let all be know in a way so delicate everyone who reads it will want to read just a little more 

For me writing is an escape, its a way to say thing i could never put into a conversation. It's my way of be brave i was once told as long as it comes out who cares how it's coming

Granted not all would understand my point of view but my goal is to make others open their minds even the smallest amount.

I like to write about things that could touch a special piece in every ones heart. Although i despise writing research papers I feel it brings out a side in my work that i would otherwise never know. It's a very fulfilling way to learn info your very passionate about . Although i like alot of writing styles i believe poetry is the best way to say millions worth of words in just a few stanzas. Thats another thing i like about poetry there is no right or wrong way to do it if you want to put it in stanzas you can or if you want to write it all willy nilly over the paper that can be done as well. IF ONLY ALL OF OUR ASSIGNMENTS COULD BE POEMS. (hint hint) i would never fail a assignment. i hope i get to write many more poems in my lifetime and i hope i can encourage others to write more poetry aswell .I LOVE IT !!!!!

class debate

Well for my first blog I decided to write about our first debate in class. So earlier this week Mr. Sweeney decided to let the students as a class pick the topics for our three research papers. Although this task at the beginning seemed to be an easy assignment he decided to added alittle something extra. For this particular assignment the class as a whole had to all agree on the same three topics. "Ohhh man not cool". He tried to make the topics we had to choose from broad so we could write about a plethora of sub-topics. But that made it even hard. In my class I believe there are atleast 20 students which means 20 different ideas 20 different point of views and 20 different thought processes. The only thing that ran through my mind when i rrealized how difficult this task would actually be was "What is this man thinking, is he trying to be on this one subject all semester." To begin we all decided to just simply take a vote because in our minds majority ruled but Mr.sweeney had completly different thoughts.Our voting only eliminated one of the nine topics we had to go through. After about ten minutes of deliberation and trying to pick apart other ideas we all unanimously decided the one topic we all wanted to write about was family. At this time Mr. Sweeney said he was doing this for a reason and all that what through my mind was what could possibly be the reasoning behind this confusion. So this made me begin to think of reasons; maybe its to bring the class together and get us talking, maybe it was to make us get our persuasion on, or maybe it was just to kill class time. Well the truth is i have know idea ans i dont think im going to know untill Mr. Sweeney decides to tell us lol. 

                                                                    Che'nyce Lewis