Author Archives: DEA GANAJ

As the semester comes to an end, students start to reflect on the work they did during the semester, which is what I will be doing with my English class. I think over the course of my writing has improved and become more professional because my grammar has improved, as well as I am more punctual and careful with how I write them. My essay I believe now are more on the college level as they should be as I continue my journey in college and my English courses. I think the work I am most proud of what my literary analysis paper, this is because I thought that my evidence was really strong when it came to proving my opinion of fiesta 1980. I think the writing project that was the most difficult for me was the first writing assignment because I didn’t have much information and recollection of when I learned English since was at a young age. I think when we started to learn a bit more on grammar and punctuation was helpful and helped make my writing stronger but I could still use improvement with it and make my use of commas, semi-colons, etc. more in reflex when writing so that when it comes to revising y work I won’t have to pin-point those it more carefully. In the future, I hope to continue to write a bit more as writing is an important skill that many should have as it shows maturity, responsibility, and intelligence if someone can write.
Since this semester’s course revolved around the topic of representation and identity I think it will stick with me for a while as they are very important topics that appear on a day to day basis for some people. The concept of identity and representation to me means how you see yourself, based on personality, characteristics, your environment, how you grew up, the culture you were raised in. when it comes to identity and how you represent yourself it is all based on you and to what others think or believe you should be by trying to put you and many similar to you in the same box because even if you might have some similarities all our identities are different.
I think I have made great improvement throughout the semester in this class, other classes and just as a person in general, in the sense that I’ve gotten more mature and responsible and caring for my work a lot more. Being in college has shown me a small insight into adulthood and having to juggle multiple responsibilities without letting one fall. I think one moment that I stretched myself thin was when I had a speech to do the next day an essay due for this class as well as study for a math exam I had the following day so having to make sure I did everything and also be proud of the work I was submitting was a bit of a hassle and had me stressed a little but I was able to manage through it. I think being done with the semester has been the most rewarding because I have been able to finally relax and know I was able to complete my first semester in college to the best of my ability. The whole SEEK and Baruch community have all been a great help in my college experience and have brought upon some good moments and memories throughout the whole semester.

My research paper was based on albanian women and if we are continuing to still follow these roles and norms that have been set for us by passed centuries till our current generation. Many women in many different cultures not just Albania deal with the role that if u have the title of women then that means you must stay home to cook, clean, take care of the kids, take care of your husband make sure he’s happy despite your own happiness and how these criterias are really affecting women negatively and if you don’t match up with what society has set then u don’t deserve the title of being a woman. I had difficulties finding online sources so i decided to take matters into my own hands on find opinions and views of Albanian women and these issues by interviewing multiple Albanian women that I know, some who are really religious and some who aren’t to see if their views change especially if religion comes back into play. 

The NYC Albanian community is one of the many communities I belong to. I was born in Albania and I moved to NYC at the age of two, so most of my life I have spent in America but I still like to stay grounded to my roots of being Albanian. The Albanian community in NYC is somewhat big compared to other states, Albanians typically move to NYC because it is the closest trip back to Albania since most go back for the summer. There are about 500,428 Albanians in NYC. Pelham Parkway which is where i live is actually called Little Albania like hoe Arthur Ave. in Fordham is called Little Italy. The NYC Council Member of the Bronx is in fact an Albanian and many re-elect him. By the end of the month it will be Albanian Independence day so expect those 500,000+ Albanians to go a bit crazy. 

One issue with my community is that many people like to stereotype us as people who settle for working in construction, and being part of the mafia. The problem is that many of us actually have a degree is business or medical like doctor, nursing, dentist and psychiatrists but we cant use those degrees when we move to America and many already have families that they need to support have very little money because are moving to a different country and so they don’t have the time or money to go back to school and start all over to they resort to whatever job is possible to get here. Also many Albanians are stereotyped for being part of the mafia, especially if they have seen the movie Taken. Not all Albanians are part of the Mafia, sure some may be but what country doesn’t have a Mafia. One way i think i can help fix this issue is to be one of those Albanians who continues to strive for more and prove to others how strong and hard working Albanians are.

5192 minutes, 236 episodes, 138 ex partner, 25 occupations, 10 years all adding up to one epic story and show called FRIENDS. FRIENDS is one of the greatest sitcoms of all time and im sure youve seen it and if not you have definitely heard of it. All of the world the show was broadcast and it still airs on tv at certain times and is available on Netflix by popular demand even though the show has been off the air for a while now. The first episode aired on September 22, 1994 and the finale was May 6, 2004, 10 years of relatable comedy between a group of friends who like to argue, fight, laugh, help eachother deal with their problems and not let each other feel alone at times. Even though the show has aged, there isn’t a minute in friends that doesn’t make you laugh. If you haven’t watched it, I seriously recommend you should, and if you have, Were they really on a break? 

An opioid is a type of narcotic drug that acts as a depressant towards someones central nervous system , some prescribed opioids are painkillers such as Morphine, Codeine, Hydrocodone, and Oxycodone.  “We found that the rate of opioid overdose deaths in the United States grew, on average, by 8 percent per year from 1999 through 2013 and by 71 percent per year from 2013 through 2017, Yet, from 2003 through 2013 D.E.A. was authorizing manufacturers to produce substantially larger amounts of opioids.” some medication that has had an increase in production has been oxycodone which has had evidence of being over abused by patients and over prescribed by doctors to the patients which causes the patients to become dependent on the drug. Between 26 and 36 million people worldwide abuse opiates. “D.E.A. is responsible for regulating opioid production quotas and investigating its illegal diversion,” Michael E. Horowitz, the inspector general, said in a video on Tuesday. “We found that D.E.A. was slow to respond to this growing public health crisis and that its regulatory and enforcement efforts could have been more effective.”

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-are-opiates-2795406

When it comes to writing many people have different approaches to it. Two authors George Dila and Anne Lamott have two completely different opinions on first drafts, Anne Lamott believed that you should write a shitty first draft and then work ur way into fixing it into draft two and draft three but George Dila believes into being a perfectionist from the first draft. Personally i agree with George because for me i cant personally cant seem to write something free flowing no matter how bad it songs to just write and fix it later, i have to think a lot and if sentences make sense and connect to one another so that my other drafts are easier to edit and correct rather than having a bunch of X’s in the first draft and being left with only a paragraph out of six pages that were written.

Poverty is the state of someone being really poor. There are two different types of poverty one  is not being able to have enough material possessions and income for anyone’s lively needs, and it can include social, economic, and political elements, and the second is absolute poverty which basically means complete lack of basic personal needs, such as food, clothing and shelter.

Currently 10 percent of the world’s population which rounds to about 1 billion people are facing poverty. Some reasons people and families are struggling to escape poverty is because of lack of clean water and food, little or no access to livelihood and jobs, world conflicts, etc. when it comes to lack of food and water this causes families to stay in poverty because they don’t have the right health state to be able to go ahead and get a job and take care of their family, their main issue sot to be able to find food and water not to find a job. Even If they were able to go ahead and find a job most areas don’t have any jobs available. “Particularly in developing and rural parts of the world. Dwindling access to productive land (often due to conflict, overpopulation, or climate change), and overexploitation of resources like fish or minerals is putting increasing pressure on many traditional livelihoods. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for example, most of the population lives in rural communities where natural resources have been plundered over centuries of colonialism — while conflict over land disputes has forced people from the land they relied upon for food and money. Now, more than half of the country lives in extreme poverty. While inconsistent work and low paying jobs can land a family in poverty, absolutely no work means that a family can’t get by without assistance.” (https://www.concernusa.org/story/top-9-causes-global-poverty/) 

Currently the United Nations are trying to do their best and help nations and families all around the world to get lower the percentage of poverty around the world.

This picture was taken after spirit week at school, this day of spirit week was to dress up the school uniform with something that represents you and for me i put the Albanian flag on the back of my hoodie because to me that is something that represents me and I’m always proud to show that i am Albanian. When i was attempting to take the image i was trying to get the Albanian flag on my back in the shot reflecting from the mirror but it wasn’t working out, which is what you aren’t able to see in the image. If the selfies isn’t explained it would just look like any other selfie that is done randomly instead of that the picture being taken during spirit week.