How bad are hookups?

         

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          In the essay "Hookups Starve the Soul" , by Laura Vanderkam, the author talks about how "hookups" can affect the life of young people who are in college or in high school. She says that the definition of a hookup is "when a guy and a girl get together for physical encounter and don't expect anything else". She shows many reasons of why people chooses to hookup instead of having a serious relationship. In addition, she talks about how hormones cause the need or desire to hook up and how people don't have time to be in a relationship. The author is against the hookups because it is meaningful. "Hookups do satisfy biology, but the emotional detachment doesn't satisfy the soul. And that's the real problem-not the promiscuity, but the lack of meaning." But, are really hookups that bad? Adolescent have hormones which, at that age, are growing a lot. Therefore, people seek hookups, because it satisfies that incontrollable desire of physical encounter. Also, not everybody is against of having a hookup occasionally because they know what it means and how it works. I say that the problem is when two people hookups and one of them isn't on the same page as the other. In other words, when one of them thinks is something romantic and serious while for the other one is something meaningful. This is when things get rough. In this cases people gets hurt and with their feelings broken. And the worst part is that the other person who wasn't hurt, doesn't empathize with the other one because for that person, the hookup is something ordinary. Another thing about hookups is that it can lead to serious relationships. Sometimes, people tend to like someone but, because of not knowing if the other person wants a relationship, he or she takes the decision to just become a hookup partner. Then, unconsciously, because of hooking up consecutive times, a chemistry is created between those two person which makes them look and care always for each other. Hookups can lead to various paths. The path where I would say it isn't a good path is the "love doesn't exist path”. This path means that the person thinks that hooking up is the only way to calm the hormones and to be happy. I think that, in most cases, hooking up is just what comes before anything serious and meaningful. It’s an experience that college students and other young people should have at least once if they have the need. In conclusion, I don't think that hookups starve the soul if you really understand for what it is. I'm in favor of the hookups if both person are conscious of the meaningfulness of a hookup. Also, I recognize the danger of a hookup, but I do understand that young men and young women needs it to calm down that hormones that drives them crazy in that age.

Work Cited

Vanderkam, Laura. Essay "Hookups Starve The Soul". Book. Literature For Composition. 13

           February 2018.

 

My Blog

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           When I created this blog, I was very lost. I've never used or created a blog. I had to reach out to my friends and my professor to understand it. The process of knowing how it worked made me feel dumb but at the same time good because I was learning new things. When I published my first post, I was so happy because I felt like I just did an achievement. The writing process in a blog feels different from a writing process in assignments. I like better to write on blogs because its more free and creative. Also, the images and gifs that you post, helps the reader understand what the author is saying. Some of the interesting aspects of the blog are the different instruments, aside words, that you can use to post a blog and the accessibility of posts. In the blog, I can use images and gifs related to my text to show a visual representation of what I'm talking about. Also, I can post links or videos so if the reader doesn't know what I'm talking about, he or she see them and get an idea of what happened or understand better the topic of the post. Another awesome aspect is how easy you can find or read more than one post from a blog. You don't have to close a page and then open another one to see different posts from the same blog because they all are on the same page. One of my most interesting posts is the one called “My Life in a Compass”. In this post, I talked about my experience doing an activity which involved describing my mood on a compass in which I ranked different aspects of myself (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual). I liked a lot this post because I had to do graphs that helped me understand which aspects in me are more affected. This post is like a study of myself and I consider it very interesting because it has graphs which let me proof what I’m saying. The difference between the journal and the blog is that in the blog I can erase and cross out if I made a mistake or if I would like to use another word. Another difference is that on the blog I have unlimited time to write it and, in the journal, the time was limited. Also, the journal was a private work, but the blog is something that people can see and comment about it. In conclusion, the blog it’s a conglomerate of all my ideas on one place. I really like doing posts and having a blog because it’s a place where I can say whatever I want even if people liked it or not. And if people liked it, I would know. I recommend that people who would like to be famous for their writings use a blog because it’s very accessible to the public and, if the readers liked the posts, he or she can become famous. If someday I want to write my opinion about a situation, like on the social networks, I'm going to write it on my blog because it’s more fun.

Work Cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Blog Reflection. Class assignment UPRRP. 13 February 2018.

My Experience as a Fluenter

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          My experience working in a group with some of my classmates was surprising. The first day that I worked with my group, I didn't know what it was going to happen. I didn't know nobody and everyone in my group had different opinions about school or life. It was a challenge for me to adapt to their style of work and organization. Well, for all of us was because we were all new to each other. During the semester, working in groups had a lot of ups and downs. Some positive things about working in group was that not all the job was on one person. My group and I were able to distribute the assignment gave by the professor in a way that everyone agreed. Also, the group members could help me when I had a doubt on something about the assignment or helped me to remember the dates which we had to turn in the assignments. These actions gave me the opportunity to know my group members and create a work style that was fluent and productive. Some negative things were having to rely on the other to make their part because if one of the members didn't did the part, then the professor had to subtracts points to all of us for a mistake from one member. In addition, another bad part was when a member didn't show up in class the day that the professor told us to work in groups. Sometimes, this situation made me, and my other group members feel like we were short on personnel. Despite all this ups and downs, I recognize that my experience with my group was surprising because I didn't expect that our strategies for the activities would work the way it did. I remember the first activity we had to do. It was the presentation of the group. This day nobody knew nobody so it was kind of awkward and mysterious what was going to happen. We had to present the group members, choose a name for the group, that was related to the English class, and tell why we chose it. This was more complicated than expected because all the names we thought were lame or super lame. At the end we chose the name "The Fluenters" because it was a funny word that expressed that people in that group (except me :-) ) where fluent English speakers. When it was our turn to present, I must admit that I was a bit scared, but it didn't matter because one of my group members told me that he would have my back. In conclusion, all turned out fine and we did a successful oral presentation about our group. Working in a group also helped me see different opinions about themes like gender, discrimination, racism, etc. This was because I could hear the opinions and perspectives of my partners and debate until we all came to a conclusion or agreement. This exercise expanded my knowledge on themes that were given in class. Overall, my experience working in group was satisfying and interesting. Having this type of activity helps me to know how to work with people I don't know, how to be a leader and reinforces my teamwork abilities. 

For more information about these theme you can visit ;  http://the-happy-manager.com/articles/why-is-teamwork-important/

Work Cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Group project reflection Class assignment UPRRP. 11 February 2018.

My Life In A Compass

     My life compasses summarized what was my mood of the day in a very organized way. One of the things I really liked about the compasses was that it was a fast activity. Also, that it had to be very brief, and I like to be brief and right to the point. The life compasses helped me see where areas I had to get better for me to be happier in any days. It helped me a lot to realize where areas I was very bad in terms of healthiness. If my physical health wasn't all right, or my emotional health, spiritual health or my mental health. Each day that I did a compass, I just wrote numbers according to what I felt and closed the notebook. But when I pick a day to see how I was doing, I could notice what things I got to avoid or do to avoid having a bad day. Also, the life compasses helped me remember about the things that happened in any day because of the little sentence which described my mood of the day. For me, the hardest part was this one because I had to resume a bunch of my feelings in a way that they could coexist in a short sentence. Now, I look back to all my compasses and remember great days and bad days. But when I put the ratings in a graph, I see that I was having hard time at the beginning of the semester. My mental health was always affected by all the works of college, responsibilities of the house and the assignments I had outside the house. This mental charge made me very frustrated which always affected my awareness because it made me question about why life was so hard on me and a lot of questions related to that theme. It surprised me how my physical health wasn't so optimum or with more 3's. I consider myself and athlete, but since college started, I haven't got time to do sports or give my body some attention on that matter. Although, my emotional ratings are very good. That explains why I didn't gave up or dropped out any class. According to my compasses, those emotional ratings are an effect of writing, having fun in the classroom and motivation from other people. Writing helped me get out all my ideas of frustration and anger that I had on my days. I had so much fun with my classmates no matter how bad was the work that I had to do in class or how bad the joke was. The motivation I received came from special people like family and friends. The last compass I did was very cool. It was a life compass on the first of January. That compass was one of the two 12's I got on the life compasses. That day I felt very healthy, very excited, without any trouble on my mind and ready to have a different lifestyle. My sentence that day was "I feel like the new me is going to be great".

Work Cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Life Compass Reflection. Class assignment UPRRP. 10 February 2018.

Reflection of reflections

       

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           At first, the journal was just a homework more. Then, when the time passed, and I kept doing it, I liked it. I liked it so much that I even liked doing the journal. There were times when I couldn’t wait to do the journal. It helped me manage my emotions and helped me take some decisions in my life. One of the things I liked about it is that I felt heard and it felt great to tell something from the heart without being questioned or shushed. After finishing every entry, I felt relieved and good about knowing why I felt that mood on that day. I analyzed that my entries or life compasses showed that I live a stressful life. There were days were the best part of my day was the ten minutes I took to express myself on the journal. I even would like to continue doing the journal entries on my own because it’s a very good exercise to understand my feelings or mood swings.

          I wasn't so successful following the first thoughts rules. The ones that gave me more difficulty where “don’t stop writing” and “don’t cross out”. In this project I encountered with obstacles like getting my hand tired and not having much creativity. But I learned from these obstacles how to write fluently and how to use efficiently a pen. 

          Some changes I’ve noticed in my writing since this project started where my writing speed and my vocabulary. For example, before, I had ideas coming in my mind while I was writing but I was too slow to write them on the journal, so they just fade it. Now, I write faster for the ideas to get on the notebook. Also, when I was writing, there was thing I wanted to say in, but I didn’t know to say it in English. So, I searched words before every journal entry to know what words to use. 

          Some of the changes I’ve noticed in my life are my time distribution and my decision making. Thanks to the journal, I realized that most of my stress it was because I didn’t have much time to do my obligations. So, I decided to distribute my time better to relieve myself a little from all the stress that I was having. In addition, now I analyze better the situations going on in my life to make better decision when I must. Now I feel more engaged in writing than before the class. This project helped me to see that in the future I couldn't be an amazing English writer. This is shown in my way to build sentences, my incorrect use of words, etc. However, it showed me that I like to express my ideas and that's an important revelation to me.

Work Cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Journal Reflection. Class assignment UPRRP. 18 January 2018.

"About men"

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The author in the written work "About Men" emphasizes how the masculinity of men has changed over the years. Gretel Ehrlich, the author, concentrates on comparing the men of this time with the men of her time, who were cowboys. The cowboys were considered as people with a lot of masculinity because of the responsibility that came with their work. In addition, the author considers the cowboys as rude people for the lonely and isolated life that they had. On the other hand, she thinks that men of this era are fragile like women. She considers that men of this era are weak because they conform to a different type of masculinity, and not a masculinity as strict as it existed in the cowboy era.  

    My dad also uses the definition of masculinity in the perspective of his time. He wants that all the boys must act manly and aggressive when it comes to fights or tough moments in live. However, in this time, not all the boys must act like cowboys or people from that time. In this time, men and boys empathizes with the opposite sex so that the men doesn't have to show their masculinity by being aggressive.

I think that the author’s ideas about the cowboys, is a thought of an ancient era where masculinity and machismo was common in society. Currently, masculinity is an idea that has lost strength due to the diversity and open-minded thoughts that exist. An example that happened to me and connects with the theme of this essay, was my long hair. There was a time where I had long hair and during that time several members of my family liked my hair and other members did not. After trimming my long hair, I could see how some members reacted by saying “Now you look like a real man” or things like that. I did not understand why they told me that because having long hair does not make you more or less masculine, it is simply a type of cut or style.     

Work Cited

Ehrlich, Gretel. "About Men". Essay.  Literature For Composition. 11th edition. Chapter 11. page                  437. 10 February 2018.

Something good out of it

         

Maria's effect on Puerto Rico

          The hurricane "María" changed my life. At first, I thought that Puerto Rico that Puerto Rico could never suffer a natural disaster like "María". I didn't think that a country could survive so many days without electricity or water. This hurricane caused physical disasters to the environment and homes where my friends and family lived. This made me feel a lot of empathy. I wish I could've helped a lot of those people who were struggling in the hurricane, but I couldn't. I spent days listening to people on the radio asking for help. They discussed everything that had happened to their areas and what they had to do to survive this horrendous time. People got very sad and some got even in depression because of this natural disaster. The hurricane destroyed many homes, trees, cars, infrastructures, electrical posts and other objects that were in her way. It made the water levels rise causing floods. I saw how people's properties got destroyed and because of it, it ruined the emotional state of the people.

          After “Maria's” trajectory, I started to see the real value of the things I have. For example, the water is used in so many ways and for so many situations that literally a human can’t live without it. In addition, the electricity is very important in a country, and more in this century where everything works with electrical power. Hospitals, restaurants, stores, supermarkets, the lights in the house and the traffic lights in the streets weren’t functioning after the hurricane.  This places that people tend to attend daily, weren’t available to the public no more. I learned the real importance of communication, too after “María”. Without communication people couldn’t know who on the island needed help or how were they doing. This created a lot of discomfort and preoccupation to their families, and more to the people who needed the help. Additionally, I’ve realized that some people are very used to a life with all the perks of technological advances, but this type of people had problems during and after the hurricane.  I learned so much with my parents about how to live without electricity that now, I’m ready for the next storm or hurricane. Another good thing is that I made a lot of friends in the neighborhood. When I went to play outside, I really had fun with them. I learned also how to cook and make many combinations with a tiny variety of food (especially, canned foods).

         After the hurricane, I truly cared for the ones I love, and I was very grateful that they were okay. Every day, I tried to communicate with some of my friends, but some had signal and others didn’t. I wasn’t relaxed until I was able to reach them. In fact, I offered to help them in anything that they needed. This helped me develop my compassion because sometimes, I even helped people I didn’t know, and it felt good. The hurricane “María” was very tough on my country and its people. It made people lose their homes, cars, furniture, food, and even jobs. But we know how to get back up from this difficult moment and keep moving forward towards the stability that we had before. I believe that we can move forward and improve.

Hurricane "María" hurting Humacao, Puerto Rico

Work Cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Narrative essay on Hurricane Maria. Class assignment UPRRP. 28 November 2017.