Last year when I graduated from high school, it was a big realization that now the path I am going down is towards my future career. The question was what occupation did I want to succeed in? I had no idea what major or career path I wanted; it was irritating because most of my friends had a set plan already. Although I was told a lot that that decision takes time, I was being obnoxious and wanted a plan now. I was feeling displaced because I felt like I was the only one who did not know what to do with her life. I can remember the conversations with my friends where they would talk about their future jobs and salary. It was hard to talk about with anyone because my family would say “Follow your heart. It is what you decide.” The counselors at my high school were not very helpful to be honest. During the SEEK Summer Experience, I was slowly able to understand and explore the different majors for each career. Due to my first semester, I was still undecided for Business. I was stuck between International Business and Finance. Honesty since I was lost from the start for my future, I discovered that if you’re undecided to just go to the Business world which is why I picked Baruch College. By the end of my first semester, I was set on International Business. During my second semester, I realized that I don’t like business at all. The major was not for me; it bored me if I am being honest. What I did not realized what that I had Biology & Psychology always in the back of my mind. Now, I switched majors to biology and will be having related classes for the fall. The feeling of displacement returns because now I am a STEM major in a Business school. It is not where I belong, so if I decide to continue on in STEM I am considering to transfer schools where Biology is more popular and focused on major in that school. A big help to deciding my major goes to my present counselor, Monika. She gives the best advice and is just great.

Topic #1: Immigrant Neighborhoods in NYC

Question: Have immigrant families been able to contribute to the community sharing ideas back from their home country or from the displacement they were forced to assimilate to their new surroundings? What age group and area in the community were affected the most from displacement?

Topic #2: Siblings and psychological displacement

Question: What experiences within the household could take place that leads the siblings to be psychologically displaced? Do the parents take fault for any possible choices or actions they make?

Topic #3: Adoption

Question: From the displacement kids experience once they are told they are adopted, how does it affect their way of assimilating into their life with their new families?

As I was looking for a great example to relate to displacement, I immediately thought of recent tragedy news in the country of Peru in South America.  About 3 weeks ago, the northern and southern parts of Peru were highly affected by a huge climate change on intense rains that led to huge floods. This country has not experienced a flood like this since 1998 after a small incident along the coastal. There is a Peruvian term called “huayco” that refers to a flash flood caused by heavy rains occurring high in the mountains; the translated word would be mudslides in English. Days after it first occurred up to now, it is still damaging buildings and homes as we speak. In the article, I attached it states there have been 67 deaths since it was posted. The last update I can find is 72 on the death toll. This breaking news is heart-breaking to me personally because my nationality is Peruvian. Although, I was born in America both of my parents are from Peru. The side of my father’s family has been affected due to this flooding. Thankfully, they are all well and alive, but their town had their electricity and water system stopped. Since they cannot go outside, they are stuck at a damaged home with barely any food left. Every day they wait for the rescue team to assist or at least provide food. This relates to displacement because my distant relatives and the rest of the population were living in a safe environment that were taken away from them so fast by a natural disaster. Everyone must now decide on new tasks to fulfill so that they survive through this flood. Many had their homes be ripped away from the strong waves that flew through the town; they must assimilate to starting new again.

I attached the article I was referring to below for any additional information.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/17/peru-floods-ocean-climate-change

In the American sitcom Friends, created by David Crane, it takes place in New York City following the personal and professional lives of six mid-20’s close friends. In the first episode, we meet Rachel who just ran away from her wedding leaving her fiancé Barry. She realizes that she never loved him, so she rushes out in her wedding dress coming across Monica, her high school friend, and meets the whole gang as well. From Rachel’s ego and personality, we can tell she was raised in an upper-class lifestyle who was constantly spoiled by her father with money and luxurious items. Back in Monica’s apartment, Rachel is on the phone with her father trying to explain her reasons for running away. Full of emotions, she admitted she could be independent and does not need her father’s money to survive. Rachel decided to move in with Monica in her apartment as she figures out her life and discovers her independency. She feels displaced because her lifestyle has changed dramatically to where she must provide for herself. Being so dependent on her father has made her a bit arrogant into thinking everything will be handed to her. As the show continues, it shows her struggling of having to do everything on her own and assimilating to finding her path in life. There is a whole new life out there for her now, and it is up to her to decide on every choice she makes from now on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbRXXsYbUc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyILENqGHNQ

The Art-A-Thon event that I attended on March 7 was called “How to Read a Sonnet.” My first assumption was it was going to be long and boring because I was not into reading poems as much. I still decided to attend it because I wanted to experience something new. The sonnet our instructor focused to analyze on was by Shakespeare. It did not a specific title; it was just called Sonnet 20 because Shakespeare wrote a big with multiple sonnets. First, I discovered the breakdown on how to identity a sonnet. I learned that the word “sonnet” means “little sound.” A sonnet is known to have 14 lines with 10 syllables each line so 140 syllables in total. Sonnet 20 has 11 syllables throughout every line; I suppose Shakespeare can do whichever because he is Shakespeare. a group of sonnets, like the book Shakespeare made, is called a sonnet sequence. Sonnets tend to explicitly be about love and romance whether it is about either a woman or a man, but a sonnet is decided to only one person. A sonnet follows a specific pattern; it will be 4 quatrains then one couplet. A quatrain is when the poem is put to rhyme in an “a, b, a, b” pattern. The rhyming will be with the last word of the line after the upcoming one. A couplet is the basic rhyming after the next line like “g, g.”

The most important part and point in attending this event was to learn how to read a sonnet and our instructor gave us three questions that must be answered beforehand.

1. What does it sound like?
2. What does it mean?
3. How does the sound affect the meaning?

It can be hard to answer these questions, but with enough discussion and hearings as we did, we were enough to figure it out. We listened to the sonnet read aloud five times and began to analyze the meaning line by line. Overall, we concluded that it can be about either a man or a woman. Although, the poem states feminine words as woman, it was found to be words of only a description. This poem has a syllable of feminine which the rhyme was more than 2 syllables. When it is only one, it has a masculine rhyme, it can be depicted upon one’s opinion, but it can go either way. it was an enjoyable time and it made me take a liking more into short poems.

1) In the beginning of the article, Dina refuses to put her trust in anyone even for a trust fall. Will this change later on and how will it impact her identity?

2) What type of relationship did she share with her father due to the information she shares about him? Could he be the incident in her life that impacted her trust?

3) How does the therapist help Dina find her true identity and help break down her barrier towards others?