English 2100: Identity and Representation

Over the course of this semester, the things that have helped me become a better writer is the practice we had with using grammar and punctuation in writing. As a writer, I always had a weakness in dealing with incorrect grammar in the essays I have written throughout my high school years. I feel like I have gotten better at catching little grammar mistakes in my writing. The work that I’m most proud of is the first essay we did, the Literacy Narrative essay. I feel like this essay was the best one I composed because it helped me recall significant memories from my journey of how I became a reader and a writer. I was able to explore and discover more about my writing tone. The writing project that presented the most challenges for me was the Analytical Research paper because it took me a lot of time to write it, I had to change my ideas a lot of times and it was difficult to keep my ideas organized in my research paper. The aspects of the writing process that I still struggle with is organizing my ideas in writing in a way that makes the essay flow and easy to understand. I have always enjoyed writing, more like freestyle writing where I can just talk about my ideas without a specific prompt or rules to follow. As a writer, I often find myself writing meaningful poems. I plan to develop my voice as a writer in the future by focusing on staying on track on the specific topics given when writing papers in my future classes.

The idea that we have developed throughout the semester that has stayed with me is the message of Junot Diaz’s short story “Fiesta 1980” because his story displays what masculinity is and how it affects other individuals in society, such as family members. It stayed with me because we should be aware that masculinity still exists in households today where the man of the house takes control of his own family members. Yunior, the main character of the story has a struggling relationship with his strict father, he is often conflicted with going with the flow on his father’s unfaithful actions and hiding his true emotions from his mother, and telling her the truth. I believe that children in the present day shouldn’t be pressured by masculinity to be someone they truly don’t feel like being, which brings up the importance of one’s self-identity. On the other hand, my thoughts about my own identity have developed more in a good way. I feel like I was able to learn more about myself through the connections my culture has with other cultures and its similar lifestyles. 

I feel like this semester has really helped me realize that from now on, many challenges will come but in just believing in myself, I will overcome them. I’m aware that being a SEEK student at Baruch College is a privilege that I have. I will take advantage of the opportunity I have and work hard and put my biggest effort in everything I do. One of the biggest struggles I had this semester was my math class, it really surprised me because math used to be my favorite subject. One of my goals is to one day give back to the program that will help me pursue a business career and reach success.                            

Throughout this semester, I became a stronger writer. Before this semester, I never really wrote drafts or outlines for my papers. Doing that this whole semester really helped me with organization. Something I struggled with was putting my ideas into words. For example, for the literary analysis paper, I had trouble writing analytically. My thoughts were analytic, but putting them on paper, they sounded more descriptive. Nonetheless, that is the paper I am the proudest of because I got an A on it. I am not only proud of the grade I received, but I put in a lot of effort writing it. I wrote one paper, and then I scratched the whole thing and began another one. To be able to let go of your original ideas and start from scratch is something I never did. The writing piece that I struggled with the most was the analytical research paper. Coming up with a substantial question that wasn’t too specific or general was challenging for me. If it was a regular research paper without the analysis added to it, I don’t think I would have struggled so much. It was a learning experience, and I’m glad it was hard because I ended up learning a lot about my topic, and I learned how to use the Baruch database. I took those skills in writing my art history and political science research papers.                                              Reflecting on our readings and discussions over the course of the semester, some ideas that stuck with me include identity and culture. How we choose to present ourselves and how the media portrays us are two interesting things we discussed in class. Two readings that I loved were “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere” and “Fiesta 1980.” I was able to relate to these readings because the perspective that they were told it was the narrator is around my age. For me, the people around me, like my friends and family, impact my identity. For Junior and Dina, their families affected them as they were trying to figure out who they were. I noticed that my identity shifted now that I am a college student. Being a college student now takes up most of my identity. When I present myself to people, the first thing I say is that I am a student. Throughout this semester, I feel like I have gotten more comfortable with presenting my true self, and college so far has taught me not to be shy and to open, and I am grateful for that.                                                                                           Looking at my development this semester, I could proudly say that I never gave up. The work given by all my classes was overwhelming, and learning how to manage my time to complete my assignments was difficult. I had to give up many things like family time, working, and having leisure time with friends. Most of my time this semester consisted of no sleep and constant running around the Baruch library to get work done. The only time I spent with friends was during lunch breaks or on the phone. However, in the end, I saw improvement in my time management, and I know how to set my priorities. I like how I can say no to things I want to do to be on top of my work. Although I still struggle with getting schoolwork done and spending time with people I love, I am grateful for the sacrifices I made because they are paying off. The grades I’ve gotten have brought me opportunities like internships, honor classes, and job inquires. The seek community has offered me to be a math tutor, and I am looking into accepting their offer. As a friend. I continue to make myself available by giving advice whenever I can. I read my friends’ papers and have study sessions with them. Even though we don’t have the same classes, we help each other out and tall about things that are stressing us. Joining clubs has brought me closer to the Baruch community and has shown me that I made the right choice coming here. I grateful for the people I met and the things I learned so far, and I am ready for what is to come from this journey.

Developing as a writer during this semester was a challenge for me. I became more self conscious of the way my sentences and paragraphs sounded throughout all my essays.  I am most proud of my final paper for many reasons , but I shall only name two. The first one being that was my only paper I received a high grade on and the second being that I feel my paper has touched many people outside of the Baruch campus since I sent it all around in my Highschool for students to read. I plan on improving my writing for the future by having complete strangers read my papers and take feedback on how I could improve it before submitting it.

I am constantly thinking about how affect peoples lives through the use of writing. My goal for my next semester writing course is to make sure that all my papers positively affects my readers. The time for changing the script for how papers are understood needs to happen.  My identity overall has not shifted at all, but my state of mind has through the exposure of reading books and first hand scenarios that I experience from the moment I am about to enter the subway station.

The most difficult thing I had to deal with was law enforcement and the losing of friends from the streets. I choose to remain to myself to just think about how I could save my life and other people of color that go through the hardships I experience. The most rewarding thing I gained from this semester was to see through everyones intentions by analyzing how they move, react and say things to other people. It has helped me decide who should be apart of journey because I truly believe I have something that other people don’t have here in Baruch. So I plan to keep that level of confidence up so I can never be put down by others who aren’t even on the same level as me.

This semester went by really quick. I feel this semester I developed a lot as a reader, as last year I would write an essay without using a comma once. Now I try to fit them in when I could and overall, I feel my writing has gotten better because of it. I am most proud of the research paper as I spent a lot of time on it and personally, I feel I did a lot better than I did grade wise.  I feel the analysis essay was the hardest for me as it was my lowest grade and I had trouble with the analyzing part of the essay putting stuff in my own words isn’t hard its just analyzing information and saying why it’s important could be hard sometimes as you have to be a little creative sometimes. I feel I personally don’t like writing and I don’t see myself as much of as a writer in the future however I do respect it it’s definitely not easy.

Throughout the semester I kept thinking to myself how I could make this paper better and how could I extend what I’m trying to say to the set number of pages or words needed. Every time I write I see this same problem keep coming up and it makes me annoyed because I feel I have to repeat myself but change up the words a little bit. I have not thought of my identity differently and it didn’t change how I think at all.

I lost most of my social life as most of my day is at college and I can’t go home during breaks as I live in Staten Island. Also, I feel college hit me hard and that I’m going to have to try more next semester.  I didn’t change as a friend as I was always a caring friend and I still am. The most difficult thing was my history quizzes. Easily the most redeeming thing was getting a 90 on my midterm in history. It made me feel like I still have a chance. I am still struggling with time management. I can’t work on a project over a few days. I need to use all my energy on one day and that day is normally the night before. I feel if I spent more time managing, I could study better and do better on assignments by giving me time to proofread them and make sure it looks good. I was surprised by the work load I was actually so stressed out during the final week of school it was just assignment after assignment. I feel I added decent presentations and hopefully interesting ones. I feel that is what I did good in. This year was fun and hard. I’m not the biggest fan of the city every time I went home, I just realized how much better it is. It’s so quiet and everyone is so close there.  I am adjusting to the city and taking the train and ferry.

My research question was, How does social media effects teen boys mentally? In this essay I wrote how the media should focus on the effects both teen boys and teen girls . I talked about how suicide rates are higher in boys by almost 5 times . Not only this like girls guys get body shamed and are expected to look a certain way and this could make them think about taking steroids or workout excessively at the gym . I also wrote about cyber bullying in which I used my friends story from and interview. I feel this added a personal touch in which the audience could connect. I also wrote about chatrooms which people can be radicalized and there isn’t that much regulation so people can do whatever they want. We see how shooters are glorified and stuff like that when this shouldn’t be happening .

I learned about the suicide rates in boys being higher. That  shocked me because all i heard/saw was girls being affects by social media and never boys . I just never expected these results . The media doesn’t show the effects social media has on boys and as a society we feel they can not be affected by it.

As a writer, I’ve developed over the semester by taking up on reading novels, articles, poems, and anything else that I could find at my disposal. I’ve taken the time to do so because I’ve kept hearing that if you want to become a better writer, you have to be an active reader; there’s almost no other way around it. In addition, I’ve brushed up on some of the old basics such as grammar, punctuation, and parts of speech. Looking back at the papers I’ve written for class, I’d have to say that I’m proudest of the result of my research paper because besides it being the highest grade I’ve received for any paper this semester, it was the one I was able to connect with the most; I feel like the writing process came naturally to me because I was passionate about the topic. In addition, I personally think that I’ve improved in the way I use evidence and explain its significance in my writing. As proud as I was with my research paper, I found it to be the one I struggled with the most. For example, looking for evidence surrounding my topic on the lack of equal representation of women in the aviation field was difficult; not many people are talking about the issue, and to the world, it doesn’t seem worth discussing. I tried to look for statistics to emphasize how serious the issue is, but a lot of them were not credible. Aside from this, I still struggle with trying to summarize everything in the conclusion without sounding too repetitive. As a writer, I like to write about my own experiences and about topics I can relate with on a personal level. I’d also say that I’m the type of writer that likes to nail everything down on the first draft.

Reflecting on the ideas and issues we’ve talked about over the semester, I still think about how people struggle with identity. It started when we read Junot Diaz’s “Fiesta 1980”. Yunior, the main character, was conflicted with ideas on masculinity because of his father’s actions and how he portrayed himself to his family. I think that in our world today, a lot of people struggle with identity issues and I think that social media is to blame because people post photos of themselves to show to the world that they’re “happy” or “living life to its fullest”, but a lot of the time, it’s an act; a photo doesn’t always tell us everything. To me, the concept of identity and representation is how you choose to identify yourself in front of other people, either because it is accepted or expected of you. As for myself, I haven’t really given much thought about my own identity; I think that I’m still learning things about myself every day.

As I look back at my first semester at Baruch College, I’m proud of the hard work and effort I’ve put in all my classes, and I’m extremely grateful for the friends I’ve made so far. Like any other college experience, there were a couple of struggles along the way in order to meet the demands of college. Sometimes I’d stay after school until 8pm to get that last paper done, or to study for an exam or midterm. I even signed up for tutoring in calculus at the math center because at times it would get very difficult for me. Aside from math being one of the most difficult things for me this semester, I was also having difficulty with managing my time between school and the Air Force ROTC program that I joined in the beginning of the semester; personally, I thought the program was very demanding at times, and I was conflicted on whether I should continue or not, but as I progressed within the semester, I was able to take control in my time management between school and the program. Looking at the bright side, one of the most rewarding things from the semester was getting the chance to watch “To Kill a Mockingbird” on Broadway; it was an incredible experience and I think that it was well deserved after midterms week. One of the things that surprised me this semester was the amount of resources Baruch as to offer. One of the resources that I’ve gotten to use very often was the library’s study rooms, calculators, printers, and laptops that I’ve taken home to do most of my homework on. As for contributions, I feel like I contributed a lot in classroom discussions for almost all of my classes, but I think that I could really work on contributing to the school in general, specifically the SEEK program. For me, I was trying to adjust myself for my first semester in college, and I needed time to figure out what I want to do. For next semester I want to try to join one of the clubs at the school, but I’m still figuring out which one. As I’m nearing towards the end of this reflection, I am grateful for the experiences that I’ve had this first semester, and I will take it as a learning experience, and hope to do even better in the following semesters to come.

For your final blog post of the semester, please compose and share a final reflection that addresses the following three areas.  As always, be as specific as possible in formulating your responses and provide concrete examples where appropriate.  Your post must be a minimum of 500 words (approx. 2 double-spaced pages).  All posts must appear on the blog by 5 pm on Friday, December 20^th in order to receive credit.

–How have you developed as a writer over the course of the semester?  Which work are you most proud of? Why? Which writing project presented the most challenges for you? Why?  What aspects of the writing process do you continue to struggle with?  Describe yourself as a writer.   How do you plan to develop and cultivate your voice as a writer in the future?

–Reflecting on our readings and discussions over the course of the semester, identify the ideas, issues, and questions that have stayed with you.  What are you continuing to think about?  What do the concepts of identity and representation mean to you today? Have your thoughts about your own identity shifted in any way over the course of the semester? If so, how?

–As you approach the end of your first semester at Baruch, think about your own personal development as a student, friend, and collaborator, both in this course and elsewhere.  Where have you had to stretch yourself in order to meet the demands of college life?  What has been most difficult? What has been most rewarding?  What are you continuing to wrestle with?  How has this semester surprised you? Think also about what you have contributed to the classroom, to the SEEK cohort, and to the larger Baruch community.

For my research paper I’ve decided to write about a topic that is very interesting and real to me. The connection between the Latino community and the Black Lives Matter movement is one that is beneficial to both parties. There are many inequalities that both Black and Latino people have faced because of racial discrimination in America. These include racial profiling, favoring certain students for gifted school programs, and micro aggressions towards the community.

In my essay I analyze how the Latin community is intertwined or related to the Black Lives Matter movement through their struggles and similar fight for freedom. I also discuss the racial discrimination happening within the actual Latino community. This idea of colorism is especially something that needs to be overcome through the BLM movement in order to create a more equal field for all groups. To fight for a bigger struggle one must defeat inner anti-blackness in the Latin community first.

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. 

Finding my topic has been a hard process for me. I started off writing about how the fashion industry lacks more representation of Muslim women, but when looking into it, I realized that there has been more representation recently. Thus, I shifted my focus to how are Muslim people invisible in popular culture.

In today’s world, we see a lot of music videos and TV shows that have all types of ethnic diversity, but I have not seen one Muslim individual that play a leading role on television or has become a well-known singer. I am curious to know why is that. Why is there just a lack of Muslim people in popular culture? Is it because our society can’t accept as a norm or is it because Muslim people don’t get a chance because of their own cultural and religious views.

In order to answer all of these questions, I will be looking at various TV shows and music and see the way shows Muslim people and how they stereotype them into a category and find outy how are they invisible and why.