Progress Report 4

Novmeber 15-  2 hours

I invited ALL my friends from Facebook. I have a good amount of friends so this took me a long time! I was happy to do it because this will spread awareness to hundreds of my friends. Jessica and Sarah also invited all there friends so we are spreading awareness all around Indiana! Since our topic is aimed toward young adults we thought that making a facebook page and inviting all of our friends would spread it as quick as we possibly could. A majority of all our friends have joined and we are surprisingly getting a lot of feedback. I am also finding research for the Facebook page as well as to prepare our group for our presentation and questions our audience might have. I will continue to research throughout our whole time we are working on the project.

Progress Report 3

November 19th 2.5 hours

Our entire group worked on making the bracelets. We made bracelets for the entire class to hand out during our presentation. We chose to make the colors teal and white because those colors represent rape and peace. We thought this would be a good way to spread awareness plus it they were fun to make. We also thought that our "audience" would like to get something out of our presentation and thought bracelets were good for both girls and boys. With three people working on the bracelets it did not take as long as I suspected! 

Progress Report 2

November 18th- 1 hour

Met with group in the study lounge and discussed project. We made the proposal and decided assignments for each group member. Sarah is creating a PSA announcement and I will be helping her with that. Jessica will be maintaining the Facebook Group we have and I will find research for the page. We will also be making bracelets to hand out to the whole class and will work on this together as a group. During our group gathering we also made our thesis and completely finished our proposal. 

1st Progress Journal RA (rape awareness)

11/12/2009 10 minutes
Project:
The purpose for my groups project is to spread awareness about rape. We are going to inform our audience with statistics and facts. Our audience is aimed towards teens and young adults. We plan to make a commercial with young adults talking and stating facts as well as showing images to make an emotional connection with our audience. We chose to use a commercial because we though it would reach out to our audience the most. This is because most people in our audience watches t.v and will pay attention to a commercial with people their age in it. We also plan to create a Facebook page because a majority of our audience has a Facebook profile and this will spread the awareness quickly.

What If There Was No Facebook?

Well first off, if there was no Facebook, hundreds of hours of my life would go to something more productive. Most students including myself would get there homework done a lot sooner. I believe that Facebook is one of the biggest reasons why students procrastinate. I spend countless hours wasting my time when I could be getting so much homework done. I usually tell myself that I am just going to get on for five minutes and then two hours later I am still looking at some random persons pictures. I have to admit that it does come in use when I need help or have a question about homework. I can just get on Facebook and message someone in my class and usually they will get back to you very soon because they are checking there Facebook constantly like everyone else. Facebook can suddenly make an insanely boring lecture class fun. I know this seems bad to say, but everyone has to admit that they have gotten on Facebook during a boring class! One time I sat in the back of a lecture class because I came in a little late and I could see everyone's laptop. It was so interesting to see more than half the class "stalking" on Facebook. Although Facebook is amazing and it helps friends connect, it is such a huge distraction! Whoever knew something could become so popular and addicting. I love Facebook but without it, students would definitely have better grades and a lot more free time! 

Halloween

I am so excited for halloween this year! I have never celebrated a Halloween where I get to dress up three different nights in a row. I love buying costumes and thinking of clever ideas. This year me and my roommate decided to dress up as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Whenever we tell people this, they usually have no idea what were talking about. I feel like everyone should know Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Cat in the Hat. It's a classic book! I think that once everyone sees us in our costumes they will understand what we are. It's hard to think of clever yet cute costumes that are original. The other nights I am not sure what I am going to be yet. I have to admit that I miss going from house to house in my neighborhood collecting candy. Halloween is a whole other holiday now that I am older and although it is very fun, I still miss being a kid and doing all the classic traditions. (carving a pumpkin, class activities in school, decorating the yard, dressing up and trick or treating with your friends.) I at least decorated my dorm and bought some baby pumpkins to make my new home feel festive!! Oh how I love the holidays!

"Never go to sleep mad"

The other day I was listening to a song by Ne-Yo titled "Mad". In this song he is singing to his girlfriend. According to the lyrics he is obviously in a fight with her and they fight quite often. In the chorus he repeats, "I don't want to go to bed mad at you and I don't want you to go to bed mad at me." This is a phrase that is used a lot and I think many people look over its true meaning. I really started thinking about what it really meant. Since you go to bed every night, I think this phrase is trying to say do not hold on to things. Just let things go because tomorrow is a new day and you don't want to end your old day mad. If you never go to bed mad then in reality your never mad for a long time which makes you and the people around you a much happier. If you never go to sleep mad then you can never be mad about something for a long time therefore you are letting go of all the anger and tension in your life. Maybe things in life make you frustrated or upset but in the end you just have to find the good in life and try to live positively. Don't go to sleep mad. Let go of things that make you upset. Find happiness in life!

Binge Drinking

Binge drinking has become a very important problem in the United States. It is mostly being done at college universities. Binge drinking is defined as 8 to 10 drinks of alcohol in a row. In reality many students tend to consider binge drinking to be 4 to 5 alcohol drinks in a row. Many people argue that the real definition measurement it set way too high for both men and women. Many policy officials, students, and administrators ignore this problem because they argue that no one is drinking that many alcohol drinks in a row. Instead of looking at the issue and all the problems it is causing such as violence and  theft they are looking at the definition and ignoring the problem. Maybe if we change the name or find a new name people will look at this problem differently. Or maybe people can become aware of the bad effects of binge drinking and try to change it. All we need is awareness and willingness to change. 

Alexandra Nechita.

A couple of years ago I went on a two week art cruise in Alaska. I went with my family and some family friends. It was rainy and cold and honestly kind of boring for me. I mean I did see and do interesting things do not get me wrong but it was not a teenage friendly cruise. Since it was an art cruise there were a lot of auctions and my parents went to a few of them. There was also a very famous artist who was selling her art on the cruise. Her name was Alexandra Nechita. I had no idea who she was and had never heard of her before. Little did I know she was known as this generations "petite picasso". She was an artist since she was a little girl and was a millionare because of her excellent art at a very young age. Not only is she an amazing artist but she also donates generous amounts to many different charities. She is only 24 years old and already has gotten so many achievements. She has been invited to paint in studios that only famous painters have been invited to such as Picasso, and Matisse. She has created so many paintings and they are all very unique. She is known for drawing misshaped people and creatures. I even got to meet her when I was on the boat. Meeting her made me wonder all the other interesting and amazing people I still do not know about. 

Sex Trade

I found this article on Ebsco about the sex trade in Bangkok. The article is called "Bound to the Sex Trade" and it was written by Bradley Davidson. He was writing the article to make people aware of what was going on in Bangkok. Davidson made it seem like prostitution was being promoted everywhere he went. He said when he was walking down the street someone would ask him if "he wanted some ladies for the evening." He also said that most cab drivers would offer prostitutes to him. It completely shocked me that there are cities that promote this and so many girls that are willing to sell there bodies. I learned from reading this article that many women have to resort to prostitution because they make more money doing this than any other job they could get. I think this is totally unfair. Prostitution also is raising the percent of people who carry and spread sexual diseases. It is sick to me that people live in a world where you can buy a human and have sex with them. This is so unethical to me. This also reminds me of this movie I watched called "Taken" where two american girls were kidnapped and sold into the sex trade. This movie frightened me so much because I am about the same age and something like this could happen to me. I am so interested in the sex trade because I am so shocked that something so horrible is happening in the world. I want to study and research it more because I do not really understand how this is allowed. 

Farmville

About three weeks ago my friends introduced me to this new game on Facebook called Farmville. I had heard  about it before but never really looked into it because I thought it sounded lame. Why would I want to farm and plant vegetables? They told me it was very addicting and said if I tried it I would love it. I decided I would give a try just to see what it was all about. I am now on level sixteen. I am not a game person because I get bored really easily but this game is so fun! On Farmville, you plant and harvest plants in order to gain expert points and money. The expert points you gain take you to new levels and the money gives you opportunities to buy plants, veggies, fruits, animals, trees, decorations, land, and buildings. The higher the level the more things you can buy. You also get to have neighbors who are your friends. You can gift your neighbors all sorts of things as well as help their farms. The highest level you can reach is thirty-five. Each level gets harder to beat, obviously. Even after explaining the game I know it still sounds lame. It is just one of those things that you have to try to really understand it. It is seriously so fun! Everyone should give it a try because it is definitely a fun way to procrastinate from doing your homework! Just kidding! 

Muncie Public Library

On Mondays and Wednesdays I volunteer at the Muncie Public Library. I tutor students from grades k-5. So far I have only gone twice so I am still a little new at the whole tutor thing. I have never done it before so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I went yesterday and it was my second day. I brought my car down this weekend so I could drive myself to the library and make sure to be there on time. Well, map quest did not give me the right directions since they told me to turn on a street that does not exist anymore!! So then I decided to call the library to get better directions and they confused me even more. I have an iphone so I decided to put it to use and try to figure out how to get there. All of a sudden my phone went completely black, just my luck. I do not like getting lost because it totally freaks me out!! I drove around for a good hour before I finally found the library. I was a half an hour late at this point and I felt very stressed out. Luckily my "boss" was not mad and was completely understanding about the whole situation. I did not even have to tutor kids but instead played games with them and read them books. It was very fun. I worked with a boy named Mercer who was in the first grade. He was absolutely adorable and full of personality! My boss gave me directions on how to get there so next week I wont get lost! Hopefully....

Family

I am going home this weekend and I am totally stoked! I finally get to see my family. I am not just talking about my mom and dad. Im talking about my three uncles, three aunts, five cousins, and papa. My papa is my grandpa and he is the reason my family is so close. He has put together "family dinner" for years and years. When I was little it was every friday but, now that all the cousins are older and have social lives, we have it every sunday. I absolutely love it. My family is so amazing and I have so much fun with them anytime I am with them. Now that I am in college I do not get to go to the dinners as often. I have not been in so long and I finally get to this weekend. I can not wait to catch up with all of them. I consider my cousins my best friends/sisters and my aunts and uncles my other parents. I am so grateful for my papa because he made sure we stuck together and stayed close. My family has made me a better person and given me so much confidence and personality. I honestly, do not know what I would do without them. That sounds cleche but its the truth! My family members are my favorite people in the world and I am so happy that I get to go home this weekend and see them! 

Stressed Out

Transitioning from high school to college was a bigger struggle for me than I thought. The responsibility has increased so much for me and I have to do everything on my own. Although, I love the freedom, the work load can get a bit heavy at times. I am learning to manage my time and making sure to get all my tasks done. I did not really believe people when they said it would be a lot harder. Now I see what there talking about. I just need to stay focused and make sure to write down all my assignments and then do them ahead of time. Sometimes I feel like I do not have enough time in the day to get everything done and it really stresses me out. I find myself staying up till 2 in the morning doing my homework. I was never really taught how to study in high school so tests are very difficult for me. In the past month or so I have learned a lot about school and responsibilities. Im hoping to get everything figured out so I do not have to be so stressed all the time! Im sure I will get into the swing of things eventually. 

Crossroads

I have found many songs that I might want to use for my crossroads assignment. I am really torn and confused on which one to pick! My first pick is a song by Lauryn Hill called Zion. In this song Lauryn sings about getting pregnant. She has to choose whether to keep the baby and be a mother or loose the baby and be a singer. Lauryn knows that both of these decisions will change her life and take her down two totally different paths. Lauryn chooses to keep the baby and sings "I chose to use my heart." Now she is a mother and sings about her baby boy Zion. My second choice is a song that my mom used to listen to and I have grown to love. Tracy Chapman sings Fast Car and in that song she is telling a story of her life. She is trying to make the decision whether to leave her life now and venture off into something new and exciting or to stay where she is and live like that forever. Tracy is curious and wants to leave the life she had then to "be someone." Tracy is willing to take any new path just to get away and start new. She is not sure which path to take but she knows she wants to take one to start new and fresh. For my third pick I chose a Dave Matthews Band song called Typical Situation. This song is a bit more complicated to explain. Dave is trying to show that people do not except people that are different. Dave is explaining that many people try to fit in rather than be themselves and although it can be a hard choice the excepting one is to try to be like everyone else. He never says to be yourself literally but you can tell through his words that he wants you to see that you do not have to fit in even though people make you believe you should. Choose what you want, not what other people want. I like this song because Dave makes a very huge point without singing it directly. I am very torn between these songs and although they all make you think about different paths to take in life, I still do not know if this is what I want. There are so many songs in the world that it is hard to think of as well as choose one. 

Ishmael Beah

I really enjoyed listening to Ishmael speak. I feel like it brought even more reality to the story because I actually got to see and hear him in person. I really enjoyed Ishmael's book even though it was extremely gruesome. The only part of the book I did not like was the ending because I was so interested in knowing the details of his life after he got away from the war and moved to New York City. At first when he started speaking he simply retold the book and made his long story short. I was really worried he was not going to tell about his life after the book. Luckily he did! I found out that Ishmael went to high school in NYC and it was very hard for him to accommodate to such a different life as well as deal with all the kids asking him questions about his past. He learned to deal with things by keeping his past out of his life and only after two years of high school he went to college where they told him he needed more education before he would be excepted. He finally got into a college and it was in Ohio. He received a graduates degree in political science. In college, Ishmael discovered his interest in writing. In his second year of college he took a creative writing class and because of that class he decided to start writing about his horrible past. His professor helped him. During that time Ishmael had no friends and he was very depressed because it was hard for him to look back at his past life since he had been hiding it for so long. Ishmael stopped writing many times but the suffering children back home pushed him to continue on every time. When he finished the book it was 500 pages and many publishers tried to get him to cut it down to just the story of the war. He refused. He finally found a publisher that wanted to publish it his way and it took three years to do this. Ishmael had a hard time dealing with the media but most of the time he would laugh it off. Through reading this book Ishmael wanted the reader "to discover your own place in this world" (Ishmael 2009). When he said this it really made me think about my place and others as well. Ishmael is an incredibly deep and wise person and is only twenty-eight years old. He has been through more things than most people will go through in there entire lifetime. I am so happy that I got the opportunity to hear him speak and finally relieve myself of the questions I've had since I finished the book. Ishmael has made me so much more grateful of my life and so inspired to find my purpose in this world. 

Being punished without punishment.

A majority of my childhood was spent with my sister and grandma. Sissy and I were always at grandma's house having sleepovers so mom and dad could have there own time. I loved it. When we were with grandma, any wish we had, was granted. Grandma would always cook our favorite food/dessert, play our favorite games, watch our favorite shows, and so on. I am the youngest so the treatment for me was intensified because I was the baby. My sister being the most loving person I know, felt no jealousy towards grandma's extra attention on me. I on the other hand craved the attention and always wanted the spotlight on me when grandma was around. I could basically get away with anything, and being the immature child that I was, I took full advantage of it until one sleepover when I took it too far. 

It was just a regular sleepover at grandma's house. Our day usually consisted of playing with bubbles in the backyard, pretending to be waitresses on the porch, dressing up in grandmas clothes and heels, playing the card game old maid, and "helping" grandma make her homemade peanut butter fudge. As usual I was having a great time. It was after dinner and we were watching grandma's favorite show that she never missed, The Lawrence Welk Show. That show always bored me so that night I decided to be a hairdresser and give grandma a new style. While sissy and grandpa sat on the couch, I stood behind grandma in her sofa chair and styled away. I completely brushed out her usual soft curls and started putting in braids and pony tails. I was obviously pulling a little to hard because she politely asked me to stop and told me she was getting a headache. I was not done yet. I continued to do it and she then told me in a little more stern of a voice to stop. I didn't want to. I walked around to the front of the chair and said something smart, she said something nice back of course. I was mad because I was not getting my way so I slapped my grandma. Immediately after I slapped her I realized I did something horribly bad. I think she could tell in my face that I was horrified. I couldn't believe what I had just done. Of course my sister was yelling in my ear, but my grandma just sat there. All she said was, "Kelsey, don't do that." Thats it. I also heard a few more words from my grandpa saying, "you can't hit your grandma, there is no reason for that so cut it out right now." I was so confused and so many emotions were running through my mind. I was upset because I knew that what I did was incredibly wrong. I was also trying to be stubborn because it would of hurt my pride to admit that I did something wrong. I didn't want to be wrong. I was mad that all my grandma said was "Kelsey, don't do that." I wanted to be punished. I wanted to get in trouble so bad, but I didn't. I said sorry to my grandma and when I said it out loud the apology didn't seem sincere but inside I was screaming for forgiveness. Even the next day my grandma made my sister promise not to tell my parents what had happened the night before. My sister told them immediately and I got in big trouble from my parents, but it wasn't good enough. My grandma never talked about it again.

I still think about that sleepover all the time. I still feel guilty till this day. Now I see that silence was my punishment and that saying nothing hurt more than being yelled at. I was to confused, angry, sad, and guilty to realize that my feelings were punishment enough. My grandma knew that what I did hurt me and she let me deal with the punishment on my own. I learned my lesson even though nothing was said.

Homework actually inspired me....

This week I was assigned to read and take notes on chapters one and two in my speech class. So far, everything I am reading is pretty common sense and very boring. As I got to chapter two, with my eyes almost completely shut and my hand cramping like crazy, an old saying caught my eye. The book did not say who wrote it but the quote read, "If I tell you who I am, and you don't like who I am, that's all I have to say." I have never heard this before even though its an "old saying" but I really like it. I feel like this quote says so much in so little of words. For me, this is one of those quotes that I read over and over again and still find new meaning from it every time. I feel like for anyone, it makes them think about themselves and who they are to other people. When I first read it, I thought about how I sometimes do or say things to make other people more accepting towards me. Then, it made me think about who I should always try to be; myself. It's hard for me to define myself. I feel like a person is too hard to completely explain. But thanks to this quote, from now on, I'm going to try to be myself around everyone and if they can't accept who I am then I don't need them in my life. 

My Generation

My generation is all about technology. I honestly do not know if we could function properly with out it. My generation relies heavily on technology. We rely on phones to communicate with people. We rely on television and movies to entertain ourselves. We rely on security systems to keep us safe. We rely on cars to get us from A to B and navigation systems to direct us there. And of course computers which helps us with communication, education, information, etc. My generation in one aspect are lazy because we have technology to do everything for us. But in another aspect are very advanced because we know how to work all of this technology. Not only do we know how to work technology but we also are creating new and improved technology everyday. My generation is helping the technology industry grow as well as helping new generations to function better.