Last Exit To Brooklyn

For another one of my honors books, I decided to read Last Exit To Brooklyn written by Hubert Selby Jr. This novel told the story of living in New York's infamous Greenwich Village in New York City during the 1950's. This was not my favorite novel, but it did have a lot of insight into life in the fifties. Last Exit to Brooklyn covered taboo subjects such as drugs, alcohol, homosexuality, beatings, and prostitution. The novel focused in on different peoples lives and their perspectives. The outlooks included an average persons view of the neighborhood, a transvestite (known then as a fairy), a man at a young friends wedding, a young female whore, and a man in everyday factory life. From these different perspectives I got a broad variety of insights and social norms. The most shocking perspectives were of the transvestite and the young whore. It was interesting to read through those characters thoughts since they both were away from the stereotypical day to day life during that time. I felt this novel gave me a deeper and more meaningful look into what New York City was like for a resident living at the "Last Exit To Brooklyn".

The Bell Jar

I recently finished reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I found it interesting to read about how the character felt about everything, and her reasoning throughout the story. This book gave great insight into the life in New York in the 1950s, doing a job (magazine writer) that people still find desirable today. I felt the author touch on influence of materialism and having money. During the 1950's the nice things you had/ places you went defined who you were and how you were treated in the book. I also enjoyed reading about her experiences in the various mental hospitals, and it helped me realize that not all of the asylums treated patients the same. It was very interesting to read the narrators perspective about mental illnesses since she had the outlook of someone living in the 1950's. The Bell Jar was inspired by Sylvia Plath's experiences, and they are almost identical to her real life. This caused me to read the book and question how much of the story was actually true, and if those thoughts and feelings were Sylia Plath's. I enjoyed this book a lot, and it was a great book to read right before our "what is normal?" unit. The novel gave great insight into my city and thoughts during my decade.

The Catcher in the Rye

For my first honors book, I am reading The Catcher in the Rye. I am about half way through the book, and so far I like it. It is an interesting story about a boy who wants to be independent and has a lot of thoughts about the world and the people in it. Im not completely sure what the literary aspect of the book is, but I have gotten a feel of his social disconnection and desire to be older/independent. I also think he is in denial about himself in a way.

This book has been a new kind of literature for me.It's different for me to read a book that so far has just been a teen going through life for a few days. I haven't been able to pick up on any key hidden meanings like in the novel, The Grapes of Wrath. It also doesn't have a solid problem in the plot, but the author still has me interested. Once I start reading this book, it's hard for me to stop because it's very engaging.

Senior Year

Begins here!

Semester Reflection Part Two

• What is the greatest contribution you and/or your generation are in the process of making to America and/or American culture?

In my opinion, there are two major contributions that my generation is in the process of making, technology; but more importantly in environmental awareness. My generation has become so much more involved in environmental and even social issues and I think we have absorbed all of the shocking realities that are coming. Although environmental issues are nothing new, and we arent the first ones to begin spreading awareness, my generation has been a large contributor to the "green movement". Its the little things like using metal water bottles or re-useable shopping bags, or even making fashion out of organic and recycled materials. Everyone is thinking a lot more about renewable resources and its become a much more widespread thing to study in college. Even in our class we contributed to it by doing the Media Saves the Beach project. We worked to spread awareness and I think everyone in our team learned so much about our ocean and the dire situation we are going to be facing if we dont take action now.

• What is a quality in a classmate that you would like to develop in yourself?

I want to develop the quality of believing in myself and my abilities. Although I do believe in myself, especially in school, sometimes I just look at something and almost set myself up for failure. There are several of my classmates who I see always trying their best and keeping a postive mindset. Im sometimes not confident in my knowledge and because of that I get in the mindset that I cant do it. I have begun to learn this year that if I keep a positive attitude and ask plenty of questions, I can get over this mindset. At my internship I had to learn how to operate a linux machine and I went in skeptically and I kept telling myself that it was too difficult. After a couple of lessons from the professionals and help from Calvin, I could successfully type in codes and commands and work the linux system and the complex MRI analysis programs.

• What four-year college/s are you interested in and why?

I am open to just about every college. Ive heard so many stories about how people find these random schools they never thought they would end up at, but loved where they went to school. My ultimate goal is to go to Princeton University because my grandpa went there and also because how they described it really reminded me of HTHMA.But I do know how competitive it is and it doesnt take an ivy league to go to a great school. I am also interested in UCLA, UCSD, University of British Columbia, Whitman, Hartwick, Stanford, Warren Wilson and schools in Colorado. I have been looking at schools that are smaller, research based, innovative, hands on learning oriented and hopefully sunny most of the year.

• Beyond grades, what motivates you to work hard at school?

I think the things that motivate me the most are my teachers, being in groups and learning interesting topics. I have loved school ever since kindergarten, and that excitement and love still exists now. I enjoy working hard at my school because usually no matter what we are working on, theres something fun and interesting about it; and even if there isnt, I usually get to work with people I like and that makes everything much better. This year in particular, I have been motivated by the relevance of our work like environmental issues in Media Saves the Beach, or comparing the Great Depression to our current economic rescission. Another large motivation factor was making sure I produced my best work because the public would see it and use it. (calendar and Ampersand)

Semester Reflection Part One

• What have you learned about the way you learn, work, and/or collaborate?

In all of my classes, humanities especially, I learned that I can learn, work and collaborate with just about everyone. There are people in the class who wouldnt be my first choice to work with, but this year I have tried to find everyones strengths, even when it became really difficult. Through being a managing editor for Ampersand, I had to work with everyone in the class in one way or another. I worked best with the people who had something to contribute or help with and students who would give their ideas. I learned that I need to work with people who I can bounce ideas off of, and have them give their input too. Ampersand was the first time I really worked with so many different opinions and work ethics, and I learned how to approach so many different perspectives. It was difficult at times to find strengths in each person, but I did it, and collaborated with everyone to create an awesome book!

• What project was most valuable to you, and what have you gained from it?

This semester, Ampersand was the most valuable project for me, especially with the added responsibility of being a managing editor. I made topic changes in my article three or four times, and my most valuable experience was realizing I didnt know enough about most of my topic ideas. I went from my long drawn out photo essay to commuting to education and the California budget crisis, back to my experience as a research subject. I drafted an article on education and I constantly felt like something was missing. I eventually realized I didnt know enough about the subject, only some of the consequences. It was important for me to learn that I cant write an informative article without thorough research and knowledge and that my experiences can end up being interesting topics too.

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• Describe one valuable mistake you made this year.

My most valuable mistake this year was during the production of Ampersand when I worked as a managing editor. I think that throughout that project, there were several key places where I made valuable mistakes I have now learned from. At first, I didnt step up as a leader in the project as much as I should have. I also didnt communicate my thoughts or problems very well, and when I did it was sometimes too late. Once we were in the layout/proof stage of the book, I made the mistake of getting way too stressed out and frustrated, and I ended up lashing out at several different people. I think that those situations have become valuable to me now because a good portion of it all goes back to communication and if I had been more clear and/or more calm things might have turned out differently. Nonetheless, I am really proud of the final Ampersand book, and the mistakes I made have taught me how to be a better, effective and more successful leader.

Writing Reflection

This year my writing has improved by a lot through all of our writing tips and from the amount of writing we completed. The writing tips have had the greatest impact on my writing skills and it has been completely transformed because of them. I became much more aware of repeating words, making meaning early and especially watching my -ings. I went from "Gatsby is always thinking he can get there" from my Great Gatsby essay, to "At my internship I worked with the lead researchers to help" in my Ampersand article. I also improved on eliminating sledgehammer words. Adding "always" was routine for me until this year when I realized how overbearing it is. In one of my earlier honors literature writings for the novel Beloved, I wrote "What you do, and what conflicts you get in will always have an effect on the people around you" But now, I avoid always because there is a more concise way to convey "always" I worked particularly hard to use the writing tips on my media saves the beach calendar captions since I had such limited space to convey a lot of important information.

I benefited from all of the various critique sessions we did, and especially the ones where we went through editing just writing kips. Going through so many drafts was very important to me, since I received valuable feedback from my peers or Randy. My writing skills grew not only from the feedback I received, but also because I would constantly knit-pick at other peoples writing. When writing Ampersand, I read through so many different articles and the edits I made caused me to go back at take a second look at my own writing. I edited a part of my article to have a simile-"The machine startled me with beeping and loud noises just like a computer scanner." after helping another student fix a simile in their article. Even feedback after the fact, like with my honors essays was helpful because it taught me a lesson for next time. I took the feedback "too much potential, not enough depth & analysis" from my Civil War essay where I wrote "General Sherman had a point when he refused to retreat from Atlanta. He wasn’t trying to terrorize the people, he was trying to erase everything and give the South a fresh start to benefit the generations to come." to deeper analysis in my Ampersand article- "All of the paperwork was laid out with immense detail and in a step by step process. One step includes having thing project you on working be reviewed by an institutional review board to ensure that the project matches the universities policies and regulations."

For my future writing, I want to continue to use the writing tips, write engaging essays and articles, and develop my vocabulary to make my pieces sound more professional. Specifically, my goal is to write professional engaging essays and pieces of writing. I think that some of my earlier honors essays were some of the first steps to getting to my goal, and Ive only gone up from there. My Ampersand article is an example of me getting closer to my goal, but there is always room for improvement. For my honors presidential endorsement, I created my piece by looking at professional examples, and this has been a method for me to create my idea of professional writing since I wrote a satirical essay my sophomore year. Im going to take all of the progress I have made and strategies I have learned this year and continue to apply them next year to achieve my goal through writing a lot more, and learning along the way.