Carpe Noctem

This book was very reminiscent of my senior of high school. During which, I enrolled in a contemporary literature class that opened my eyes in remarkable ways regarding topics like privilege and institutional racism. I also recognized parallels to concepts that I learned about in my “psychology of prejudice and discrimination” class that I took at my CC last year.  Reading this book was an excellent complement to my previous experience with this topic area-- providing me with interesting new perspectives and ways to think about hidden advantages that allow me to succeed. What I took from this book was not that I should squander the opportunities I have in my life; rather, to better appreciate the institutional and historical advantages that have made these opportunities possible. I particularly liked the reference to the myth of deservedness. It is incredibly difficult, but equally important to recognize the help that we received in obtaining our position and successes and life...

I’m sitting on a dirty laundry floor, waiting for my clothes to finish their cycle. The constant “woosh” of the washer’s and “thrum” of the dryers do not allow me to forget my place or the moment I am in. My predictable procrastination persists in all aspects of my life, so I am forced to wait here as 3 separate washing loads spin and toss my sweaty shirts. Lucky me—each floor is allocated 3 washer-dryer sets, unlucky me—all of the ones on my floor are occupied. In a stroke of lazy ingenuity, I decide to take my roommate’s skateboard and push my towering pile of clothes down the absurdly long hallways that connect my building. I hunch over, like a struggling father pushing his son on a balance bike; huffing and sweating into clothes that were clean just minutes before. A girl quips as I pass by “oh haha dude, I’ve totally done that too.” This is little comfort to the struggling laundry crusader. Ultimately find that I can put my clothes in washers in the 4 th and 5 th floor. The...

This post will be devoted to the second of the “My Life on the Road.” Like the first post I chose to read through the chapters and reflect where I found sections particularly intriguing or relevant to my own life. Beyond the sections I reference directly, I also found a great deal of interesting topics in all genres, but there simply isn’t enough time in my study schedule for me to write about everything profound that I happened upon. I enjoyed the short story she told about a time when she was a student. She picked up a large snapping turtle off the side of the road and putting it “back” into the water-- an action she thought would help to assist the turtle in surviving longer and fixing some sort of predicament it was in. While she was well-intentioned, she didn’t consider that perhaps the turtle wanted to be in the position that she thought it needed to rescued from when it may have actually been trying to lay its eggs. This leads her to an important lesson; to address problems...

Learning how to actively read the novels for this class has been somewhat of challenge for me. Admittedly, I am much more comfortable following the storyline of a fictional book. I believe that the the lack of constraints in a fictional format allows authors to take care of their reader a bit better. Instead of reviewing this book like I did for “Growing a Farmer”--critiquing and analyzing each successive section-- I have chosen to write about sections that I found particularly interesting. I enjoyed her animated description of her childhood; reminiscing about learning to read from road signs and learning from her family how to take care of herself outside of the confines of a conventional childhood. Her predictably tangential narration actually yielded some really insightful observations. For example, she spoke about how movie theaters and malted shakes allowed her to briefly escape her great-depression era childhood. She then uses this to talk about something I have thought about...

Free Write--A Reflection About Lists My history with lists Since I was relatively young, I remember having vast collections of digital post-its on my laptop. I would list upcoming deadlines, personal goals for myself and anything else in my life that could be conceivably be organized into a list. My prepubescent self made lists of girls I thought were cute; conceivably to keep track of what girls I found interesting at the time. When I went through a phase where I was into winning online radio contests, I would catalog all of the interesting local radio stations so that I could make sure I regularly submitted applications to all of their online sweepstakes. When I first started exercising and lifting weights in my sophomore year of highschool I would track all of the new workouts I was learning in long form lists. I have used an agenda for school since I was a middle schooler-- helping me track upcoming assignments and due dates in a central place. Lists In My Present Day Li...