Awe Our Final Blog!!

I have no idea whether to say this semester went by so fast or if it was just enough! Lol I honestly can’t believe I made it through this class. I remember when the semester started, I was freaking out, wondering whether I would make it past the first month, let alone the entire semester. But I can honestly say I did get a lot out of this class. English was never my best subject, especially on an independent basis, and I was hearing that taking English 102 online was the biggest mistake I could ever make, especially since this was the first class I’ve taken online. People were telling me that, on top of everything else I took this semester, English would be the most challenging class. And I would definitely agree, it is one of the hardest classes I’ve taken, but I have taken so much out of it than I ever expected. I learned more about myself and when I truly stand for and I’ve learned to have a little more appreciation towards literature and what it has to offer, even though it definitely can be a pain in the neck at times. And what surprised me the most is that I’ve actually got that itch to start doing outside reading again, which I haven’t had in a long while!

And to my peers, I think I’ve learned more from you guys than anything. Even though we weren’t exactly in a traditional classroom setting, or working together in person, the group projects and especially the blogs were such amazing learning experiences for me. I would even dare to say that I think I learned more in this class than I have in any other English class I’ve taken. I’ve learned to have an open mind and definitely how to see things through other perspectives. You guys are all great people and I really enjoyed working, learning, and sticking it out together all semester. Congrats to all of you who made it as well! And even though I didn’t communicate too much with Jennifer, she did make this class a lot easier in her own way. She made it so much easier for me to get used to taking this online class and helped us to get a better feel for what to expect and letting us know exactly where we’re going and how we’re going to get there. I’m really glad that I had a professor like Jennifer for my very first online class to really take the edge off, but definitely hit us hard with homework. I think that was another thing that really helped keep me on track, knowing that there’s so much to do that needs to get done before the stroke of 12:00 midnight on Sunday night, but within all that chaos, I really did get the take home message from each assignment.

As hard as it is for me to believe, it’s time that I bid my farewell to Jennifer, my peers, and English 102. Thank you all for everything you all have taught me, it’s been a great experience that I’ll never forget and I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors. :)

Love in Popular Music?

Contemporary love songs today don’t even compare to these poems. I think that, compared to today’s popular love songs, poems have deeper feelings and emotions regarding love. In my opinion, songs that are popular, the ones that are usually over played on the radio, seem so shallow to me. I remember back when love songs were like poems accompanied with music. The popular songs on the radio used to be about genuine love and feelings, not just all about sex. Now a days, the only genre, in my opinion, that has the capacity to have real emotion in music and within the lyrics of their songs is country, which is the one genre that a lot of people I know won’t listen to. Thinking of modern songs that we hear every day as poems, I think just the diction alone completely separates songs from poetry. Contemporary songs usually have profanity throughout the entire song, which completely destroys the emotional feeling, if any, that the writer was trying to achieve. I think the writers of these songs, rather than coming from the heart, just do it for the money. Poets have that compassion in their work that makes it desirable to read; poems themselves have a romantic and emotional connotation within them which makes them the perfect candidate for expressing love. Writers seem to have the drive and desire to express these feelings, while song writers seem to do it for popularity. There seems to be this pressure for song writers to write that new number one hit and they’re based on what they feel the public wants to hear.


I know when I turn on the radio, there are always songs on there that, regardless of what it’s about, it’s related somehow to sex. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely songs out there that don’t, that are tasteful. However, I think it’s getting more apparent that the songs about sex are not only the most popular, but there’s so many of them! I know I may be going on a tangent here, but I starting thinking about just the concept of listening to music and reading alone. When I was younger, I was really into reading, in high school I couldn’t stand it and I turned to listening to music. I see that a lot; a lot of people I know would rather sit in a room by themselves and listen to popular music rather than reading a book. Looking at our society today, I think it’s really obvious that this is occurring and it seems to be getting worse. Especially after being in college, I’ve learned the rewarding aspects of reading, and the emotion within poetry can even be overwhelming, definitely an experience that I could never get listening to contemporary music.

What Do You Truly Believe in?

I think it’s important for us to learn about different creation myths, and learning about them poses questions about our own beliefs regarding earth’s creation. We all have our own idea of how the earth was created- some believe that God created everything on earth, some myths suggest that different gods and symbolic figures arose from the dark abyss that we call earth and created everything on earth in their way. And we can’t forget the belief in the scientific approach and believe that earth was created after the Big Bang and earth became what it is today through the process of intense and ongoing evolution. It seems that many people stand their ground; what they believe happened that created earth as we know it today, that’s exactly what happened and there’s absolutely no dispute about it. I can completely understand why people are this way because I was the same way until I started college and I studied intensely about evolution and how legit that evolution really is. I’ve even had the opportunity to examine my own beliefs under an academic microscope to, in a way, compare the validity of my own beliefs to science. As horrible as it sounds, it actually taught me a lot about what I believe in and why I do believe in it.


I think sometimes studying and learning about other creation myths, in a way, gives us a gut check. When I was watching the different creation myths that others believe in, it made me think about my own creation myth that I draw myself to. And I personally think that it’s really interesting to learn about all these different myths and how one event that could be interpreted in so many different ways. I felt really narrow minded when I realized how many different versions of the same event there are and how I just didn’t get myself out there to explore them. It also surprised me how a lot of these creation myths have the same basic “plot” to them. Each one I saw seemed to have some kind of traumatic event that cause some kind of creation of something on earth, and it’s interesting how my own creation belief seems to have the same theme throughout as well. I’ve always been one to believe in the traditional Genesis creation story of how the earth and heavens were created, and I noticed that there are trends that are embedded in the other myths I saw and my own. I think that the experience is very rewarding if we could just be a little more open-minded. Even if someone stands by their beliefs to the very end, I’ve found that in carefully looking at my own beliefs compared to others and that of science, it has made my beliefs and faith in what I believe in that much stronger and I now appreciate my beliefs and have the respect for others that I know I can have in better understanding them. I’m not too sure if I hit the nail on the head with this blog since I kind of jumped around a bit, but through this exploration through learning about different creation myths, the learning experience in itself is incredibly rewarding.

The Weight of Life's Burdens

I think the heaviest burden of knowing is carried by Lily. The biggest burden is introducted in the beginning of the story as she reflects on her mother’s death as a young child. Her mother passed away when she was very young; however we learn the cause during this introduction of her deceased mother. Lily was told that during a fight between her father and mother, she accidently shot and ultimately killed her mother. She carries that burden with her throughout the story and eventually catches up to her when she ran away with Rosaleen to Tiburon, a city that knows of her mother and her passing. Knowing she would be banished from this town and not wanting to return home, she hides the fact that she killed her mother from those around her. I think this burden is incredible at this point in the story since there is so much riding on her keeping this secret to herself; if this burden of knowing is bestowed on the townspeople, her entire time there would fall apart and she would have no other choice other than to go back home with her abusive father.

The other smaller burden she carries is knowing about these bees that she says fly out of her wall and she struggles to catch them. As opposed to hiding this like she did about her secret behind her accidently killing her mom, she does try to tell her father about them and her trying o catch them in her jar, but he doesn’t believe her. Rosaleen does believe her, which relieves the burden of those around her not believing, however, she carries the burden of wanting to capture these bees which Rosaleen doesn’t quite approve of. I think this is a way to lighten this burden for her, having indefinite evidence that there are in fact bees in her walls. Although the burden may have hindered that aspect of her relationship with her father, it was these bees that inspired her to move away and start anew.

One burden that all of the characters here carry is the immense racial inequality within their living environment. Lily sees this inequality firsthand when she accompanies Rosaleen to go register to vote. They were harassed and Rosaleen was beaten so severely by the police officers that she ended up in the hospital. Although she was being harassed by exercising her right to vote and be a part of politics, she was beaten by those who were supposed be in a position to protect her. This inequality is seen throughout the story, including Lily’s relationship with Zach. She believed that African American men were never considered to be handsome, that seems to only correlate to Caucasian men. However, she grew close to Zach and began a romantic relationship with him. In this case, Zach lifted this burden about unattractive African American men that Lily carried to allow her to open up to have a healthy relationship with someone who did lift this burden and could potentially lift many others.

The Love of a Child

If I understood this prompt correctly, I can definitely think of an event where I felt like I had some kind of animal instinct. As soon as I read this prompt, I knew that I had to write about this particular situation. I was raised to care and be a positive role model for younger kids. Especially those in my immediate family, I feel the need and obligation to protect my family from any kind of harm. While I was babysitting my six month old cousin, she was content but incredibly fussy just as younger children can definitely be. I’m still trying to get used to her ever changing schedule and she started crying; the only thing I can think to do to calm her down is to fix her a bottle. I did everything I could to keep her calm while I made her bottle, and when it finally came time for her to take the bottle, she lie down on the couch and fell fast asleep, with her bottle in hand. She let me hold her while she slept and even let me move her into her room, into her crib to lay sound asleep until her father came home from work.

At that point, I felt that I had to do everything in my power to keep her safe while she was sleeping. I also felt an almost overwhelming feeling of trust from her towards me that she feels safe to sleep under my care. I think, whether you’re a mother or not, that’s one of the most amazing feelings someone can ever have in their lifetime. Although it doesn’t seem very difficult to earn their trust, it really is. Children can almost sense when they’re in some kind of danger, that’s usually why they’re really shy and even start to cry when they are around people they don’t know. I went through the same thing with my cousin; I’ve only babysat her for a couple months, and it took me that long to earn her trust because she absolutely refused to sleep while I had her. Just because babies aren’t developed completely in a mental state, they still have their own instincts; this also explains why babies tend to trust and have a close connection with their mothers, and difficult to get the same kind of trust with children while their mothers aren’t around. It gave me the sense of accomplishment and respect from this child, which to me, means the world and more.

Can Suicide Be Justified?

I’m one for being completely against the act of suicide. I believe that there isn’t anything that can happen in someone’s life that is so awful that will push them to suicide. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be taken seriously; I do think it’s absolutely tragic when it does happen and there’s obviously something going on that needed to be addressed. However, the act of suicide is never completely justified in my opinion. And I’m not saying anyone is truly to blame for this, it’s not someone’s fault if it happens to a loved one, but I just stick to the idea that nothing in life is worth getting so upset over to end one’s life. There are always other resources that are readily available to those in need that could reach out and help them before it’s too late. The upsetting part of the idea of suicide is the fact that seems to go unnoticed too often. The warning signs seem obvious, but they are also easily hidden. The most recent cases of suicide I’ve heard the most are ones among younger teens who are pushed to their breaking point, breaking their spirits and who they really are. I think this is one of the biggest reasons why I want to work with kids as my career and even my job now babysitting. I want to be in a position to build kids up and show them that just their mere presence on earth makes such a huge difference. Young kids and teens need this encouragement to reduce the risk of them taking their own lives and robbing themselves from experiencing life and all it has to offer.

I also think that the idea of suicide, along with many other serious issues, isn’t really taken seriously anymore. People just throw it around like it’s a huge joke, whenever the smallest inconvenience comes around for them, some people just throw it was out of proportion and say they’re going to kill themselves. I think it’s so ridiculous, I mean come on now, grow up! If you’re not mature enough to handle the situation you’re in, you shouldn’t have gotten yourself into it anyway. Suicide isn’t something that be messed with, and I think it’s not taken as seriously as it should when people throw it around like its’ some big joke. The more people play around with the idea of suicide, the harder it seems to become for other people to catch the real threats and signs of someone who is truly suffering. It also makes some people hesitant to reach out to those who show signs of suicide since there almost seems to be no way to tell if one is genuinely in need of help or just kidding. I also think that those who really need the help aren’t willing to let it be known so they can get the appropriate help they need for whatever reason they have. They are very conservative and resistant to getting help and treatment can’t reach them until it’s too late, which I think is the biggest tragedy of all.

One metaphor that I once heard was true friendship is like building a house; without some kind of structure and foundation, they will both completely fall apart. There are many things that can go wrong along the way, and if either deed is done in a careless manner, we are only setting ourselves up for complete failure. Both start with a foundation, the most important aspect in both friendship and building a house. Without the proper foundation on a house, you might as well not finish the job you started because it’ll be a waste of time and a disappointing sight to see the house collapse or have irreversible damage as time goes on. In a friendship, this foundation is the trust and honesty between those involved. If there isn’t trust from the start, the entire friendship has the potential to fall apart later down the road. I’m sure that we’ve all gone through this before; friendships destroyed due to lies and deception from the beginning, or even a misunderstanding or deception as the friendship begins to grow and develop.

If the foundation is successfully created, we’re off to a good start, but silly mistakes can easily be made; problems could arise along the way that could set the process back or even demolish the entire project altogether. If the foundation of the house is flawless, putting the frame up and building the walls of the house could be problematic if the process isn’t handled in the correct manner. Any loose boards or careless tightening could cause the framing to come down and leave you back at square one. Likewise, any silly mistake with being careless of other’s feelings, trust can be broken and the friendship could be in jeopardy and could end up back down to the foundation, with hopes of trying the building process all over again. The roof of the home, with the main function of completing the house and providing a rounded feeling of shelter to those inside could never function without the flawless foundation and walls, to protect its inner contents. The roof is a monumental stage in a friendship; the shelter is complete and is strong, seeming that nothing could ever destroy this structurally sound friendship.

Although this metaphorical house has been built and a friendship has been established and seems to be indestructible, even now things could take a tragic turn for the worst. We all know if we don’t maintain our houses, they could slowly deteriorate in various different ways, just as a friendship can. The more we neglect a home or a friendship, more and more damage will be inflicted and will be very costly to fix. If we don’t make sure our homes are clean, mold or other pests could infect the home and slowly but surely destroy the house. This metaphorical maintenance also applies to a friendship; regardless of how much is invested in the friendship, if communication or any other important aspects are cut off, the friendship will begin to deteriorate as well. A catastrophic situation could destroy a friendship faster than any other cause could; betrayal of trust, unnecessary intrusion, and complete shutting out of one another could cause the friendship to crumble to the ground, just as a strong earthquake could do to a newly-built house. We all do our best to avoid these catastrophic events to maintain our close friendships; however these can be inevitable, like an earthquake, and our best defense is to be prepared for the devastation and endure the hardship of beginning to rebuild it all once again to indulge in your effort’s benefits.