Pearls before Breakfast: Joshua Bell on Subway

The reading piece that I chose to do my blog on was "Pearls before Breakfast." The reason I chose to blog about this reading piece is because as sad as it sounds if I happened to be in that subway station on this day I would have been one of those people that just kept walking and ignored Joshua Bell. I tend to block out things when I'm walking especially if it's something that doesn't interest me. I wouldn't recognize Joshua Bell if he walked past me in the streets, so that is part of the reason that I would have just kept walking. If it was a famous artist that I listen to their music and am a fan of (Taylor Swift) without a doubt I would have stopped, taken pictures, and stood and listened for a while.

I think this experiment was a good idea and proved a good point. It goes to show you that when people are "in the moment" they don't pay any attention to their surroundings. The subway station was the perfect place to try this experiment, especially at rush hour. It's a busy place, with people that are moving fast, rushing to catch the next train, and not caring about what is going on around them. I enjoyed learning about this reading piece because I pictured myself being one of the people that proved the peoples point and just carried on with my day.

Razia Jan! The hour speech that touched my heart!

I just got back to my dorm room from the speech from Razia Jan and I am in a happy but sad mood at the same time. Never in my life have I been so touched by a person that I've only known about for a short time. Razia's speech made me tear up more than once and the stories she told were incredible. Razia told a story about a 4 year old girl that somebody asked what she wanted to be when she grew up the little girl answered, "an engineer" the woman than asked the little girl what she meant by an engineer and if she knew what an engineer did and the little girl responded, "just wait, wait until I grow up and become one then I will come back and tell you what it means." From that moment on, Razia had my attention. She explained how she got the money to start her school, she told different stories about daily things that happen around her school, she explained the trouble that girls go through day to day just to get to school to get an education. Never in my life have I appreciated being born in America and appreciated freedom and being able to get an education. Because of Razia's short speech I will never again at my time here at BSU complain about the walk from my dorm to the other side of campus. Razia explained to us that girls walk miles just to get to and from school every day. And not only are they walking miles they are covered in clothing that only allows them to see straight ahead, nothing else. They are not allowed to be walking the streets without being covered.

 

Although I really enjoyed her presentation my three favorite parts of it were first of all meeting Razia and getting a picture taken with her. Secondly, the story she told when she was building her school and a man told her 3 times to go inside the building and sit down that she wasn't allowed to be out there. And Razia told us she said to that man, "listen brother, this is my project, without me staying out here and building there won't be a school." I couldn’t be happier that Razia stood up for herself and didn't take any nonsense from the man. And finally, my last favorite part was during the Q&A and a young man stood up and explained how he served in the military for a year and 1/2 over in Afghanistan and explained how he helped build a girls school and somebody went and lit the school on fire when they were finished just because it was a school that girls were going to be able to attend. Razia and the man had a moment and saluted each other. My eyes swelled up with tears. I could go on and on about this presentation, I have far passed 250 words, so I’ll stop now.

 

I am so glad I decided to go to this, watching this presentation was so much more than just getting extra credit. I got so much out of it and I couldn't be happier that I went.

Good Interview Example!

I chose to do a good interview. This is an example of a good interview because the guy is very well relaxed, the questions all are fit for the position he is applying for. He answers each question calmly, and in detail, he waits for her to finish asking the question, takes a second and begins his answer. He is making good eye contact, dressed appropriately, using good body language. Overall, in my opinion he aced the interview.

Someone to Watch over Me

This week I chose to do my blog on the reading piece, "Someone to Watch over Me" by Theodora Stites. I chose this reading because I enjoyed reading it the most, and sad to say I feel like I do more han half of the same things the author does. Like the author, as soon as I wake up every morning, I check all of my social networks and check what has gone on while I've been sleeping. I start with twitter, move to instagram, and finally facebook. Another part of the reading that I found to be interesting was when the author made the point of "there are no flaws in this world." Which is absolutely true. You can put whatever you personally chose online. You can filter your pictures, filter your text, filter everything. The author mentions the social networking life as somebodys "second life." In todays world I don't think too many people have social networking accounts to have a second life. I think like myself most people have social networking sites to connect with friends and just to tweet, etc. However, there is an exception, some people still do have social networking sites to have a second life. A good example of that is the MTV show, "Catfish." But I truly believe times have changed and most people use social networking sites to be themselves. Out of all the readings we read for this week, this is the one I felt I could relate to the best and that I found the most interesting.

It takes a Tribe Reading

The reading I chose to do my blog on was the David Berreby, It takes a Tribe reading. I chose this reading because I feel it relates to me the best. A part of the reading that made me laugh was right in the beginning when it says, "they'll talk the way "we" do." Which referred to that it won't be long before you pick up on the accent where you go to school. I laughed at this because when we first moved in to school last fall everybody I talked too picked up on my accent, and was so curious as to where I was from, and about 2/3 weeks into the semester my roommate started talking just like me. So it really is true, you do pick up and start talking like everybody else. A part of the reading that I didn't really enjoy reading was when the author was talking about how in some "tribes" there may be some embarrassment to get in and be accepted. When Mr. Hayden was talking about how he had to do a two-day ritual that included being stripped to his underpants, pelted with eggs, smeared with red dye, and tied to a campus tree. That is horrible do to someone, but at the same time it's just part of getting accepted into something. I am in the process of trying out to be a patriots cheerleader and mostly everybody I've talked too has told me to be ready to have to "make my way" into the squad. It happens to everybody and is part of life.

I enjoyed reading this weeks reading, especially because this particular reading was about college campuses and I felt like I could relate to it.

Identity Collage

My project about my identity has already been passed in. However, a blog was due over the snow days about the progress of my project. So for the credit, I am doing it now! I did my collage on my family and my culture and how they are the backbone to my identity. I actually did my entire collage over the blizzard. I had already started gathering photos before the blizzard, and because I was literally snowed into my house I thought it was a great time to put it together. It took longer than I thought and I got very fustrated multiple times with glogster, however I completed it and my project is now complete and passed in!

My Collage : Project 1

For the first project we have to do, the digital collage my idea is going to be my family and how I come from a very Portuguese but also Irish family. I am not only going to use pictures of my family, but I am also going to use pictures of different Portuguese and Irish traditions that my family does. I am going to look online and look around for links and explinations of some of the differnet traditions and see what I can find. I might even ask my mom if she has a video sound recording of my family at a family party and how loud it always is.