Skills After Graduating College

1. Develop personal goals:  When I graduate, I want to make sure that I continue to set high goals for myself and reach as many goals as possible.  College has already helped my goal setting skills.

2. Practice analyzing difficult problems: I have been given opportunities to think quickly and analyze certain events and problems to find out an answer.  I can think more critically which helps me with my problem solving skills.

3. Learn to be an excellent writer: I have been able to expand my thoughts through this blog and writing out many papers throughout the year.  I have been very creative and have been able to come up with many different new ways to express myself in my writing.  I hope to soon write a children's story personally for the class I teach.

4. Responsibility: I have learned many new responsibility skills and have been able to prove to my peers, family, and friends that I am very responsible in getting my work done, studying, and decision making. 

5. Leadership: Being a part of the Service Leadership Program I have been given several opportunities to work with others and build relationships with many.  I have also been able to perform my leadership in many unique ways.

High School to College Writing

Dear High School Student,

When you enter your freshman year of college you will notice a lot of big changes in all of your classes and your writing.  Two major topics that Keith Hjortshoj writes about in his book The Transition to College Writing are (1) college work requires new kinds of motivation and self-discipline and (2) high school teachers are typically generalists while college teachers are specialists.

What Hjortshoj means by college work requires new kinds of motivation and self-discipline is that when you are in college you are paying for your education.  This means you are allowed to skip class as much as you want and not study.  Your grades can suffer, but you won't have your parents or teachers telling you that you need to motivate yourself, study, and go to class everyday.  When you go into class you have to motivate yourself not to sit in a lecture and doodle or fall asleep.  You will need to learn how to take proper notes and keep yourself not distracted.

Another topic that Hjortshoj brings up is that high school teachers are typically generalists while college teachers are specialists.  This means that high school teachers will know a little bit about each subject, but college professors and teachers are teaching one specific subject and went to school majoring specifically in that major.

Two transitions that I came up with are (1) you are given more opportunities to be independent and (2) you are able to make life long friends at college.  When you are at college you are given many chances to be independent.  This means that outside of classes you can make the decisions to go back home or to your dorm room and study or go out and party.  You no longer have your parents telling you what to do and are going to ground you if you make the wrong decisions.  The second topic is you are able to make life long friends at college.  You are able to experience many new things and events at college and what makes those experiences easier is having friends by your side.  Typically after high school you don't see too many people you went to school with, but at college your are with them everyday.

Semester Needs to be Over

I wish that this semester could just be over already.  I am ready for summer break to start just so I don't have to be on campus everyday of the week.  It is a waste of gas and I can't wait to have my life back, that is for sure.  My life literally consists of going to classes, doing homework as soon as I get home, studying for all of the tests and exams that are coming up, and finally getting to sleep at 2:00 am and then waking up about 5 hours later.  Can't this be done yet?

Hitchcock Individual Post

Ethics in Hitchcock Films:
There are plenty of events that could be ethical or unethical in Hitchcock films depending on what opinion you have on the topics and time era that you watch his films.  In the movie Notorious there are many examples shown such as the clothing some of the female characters wear, when there are kissing scenes in the movie they have to have each kiss under three seconds long, they show a scene in the beginning of the film when Alicia is driving drunk and then she wakes up super hungover, Alicia is also undercover throughout the movie as an agent, and she commits adultry on her husband who she is actually spying on with Devlin.

Psychology in Hitchcock Films:
Hitchcock showed two main events in his film Notorious that dealt with psychology.  The first scene was when the MacGuffin was hidden in champagne bottles and the two main characters had to think of complex places as to where the MacGuffin could have been.  The second scene was when Alicia discovered that she was poisoned and how she reacted.

Historical Context in Hitchcock Films:
The time era of the 1960's kissing scenes could not last longer than three seconds long, so you will see a lot of kissing that is short then they will go back at it again and then stop.  This was a continuous patter during Hitchock's film Notorious.  This film was also based in the time frame when there were problems between the United States and Nazi Germany.

Technology/Science in Hitchcock Films:
Hitchcock had a good usage of camera angles throughout the film Notorious, but my favorite scene is when Alicia is laying in her bed hungover and while her body is rolling over, the camera follows her.  It is very comical and this is a great example of how well Hitchcock captured this scene.

The First Time I Hosted Cheerleading Tryouts

I have been the Jr. High cheerleading coach at Ayersville for almost a year now.  A matter a fact, it will be year on June 26 of this year.  Last year when I started my coaching job, there were already tryouts held and it just so happened that everyone made the team that year.  The previous coach before me decided that it would be best to take all of the girls, but in my opinion she really shouldn't have done that because a few of the girls she took weren't as experienced as the other girls and I thought that it would be embarrassing for those girls to be cheering.  I still worked with what was given to me, and I was very grateful for the experience I was given with those girls.  At the end of basketball season, I was starting to grow very excited because it was that time of the year when cheerleading tryouts are supposed to take place.  I made up all of the material and was super excited to get to know all of the girls and see how great of cheerleaders they were going to be.  All of the girls gave it their all during the tryout clinics, but I knew not all of them were going to make it simply because they all had different levels of cheerleading experience.  Some of the girls were gymnasts and attended tumbling classes, so that gave them an edge on their flexibility and tumbling, others were in dance, so that helped them catch on faster to the coreography that was taught, while some girls have never cheered a day in their lives.  I knew it was going to be really hard to cut some girls, but I knew it would be something that I would have to do eventually.  Tryouts were held on April 1 at 5:30 and they didn't get done until almost 9:00.  When the judges gave me all of the score sheets, I had to then add up all of the scores.  I was so nervous about the outcomes and my hands were shaking in fear simply because I don't like to disappoint people.  It was time to announce the girls who made the teams.  I called all of the girls into the big gym and had them sit down on the court.  I began by giving the girls a motivational speech because I didn't want the girls who didn't make it to give up if cheerleading was something they truly wanted to do.  After announcing each girl, I would stop and look at the expression on the girls faces when their name was called.  When the announcements were completed I didn't look at the girls that I had cut from the team, simply because if I see someone upset that will make me upset.  I am excited to work with the nine girls that I have chosen to be on the cheerleading team, and I can't wait to see what all we can accomplish this year.

Small Group Blog Assignment

Psychology is the way we all think, feel, and behave.  Alfred Hitchcock's career was just starting when Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis in the 1920's.  Freud's theory was very popular in many films and books in the United States.  At first Hitchcock was very nervous about the usage of psychoanalysis in his films, but ended up causing his career to sky rocket.

A few examples of psychology in Hitchcock's film called Notorious are the following:

1. The MacGuffin in Notorious was the Uranium hidden inside the wine glasses.  When Alicia discovers her husbands fear of her going into the wine room, she realizes that the MacGuffin must be in that room.  She and Devlin tried the entire party to go into the wine room and find out what was being hidden in there.  When they finally broke in, they discovered that it was hidden in a wine bottle.  They discovered this because one of the bottles fell and broke onto the floor.  When Alexander discovers that they found out where he was hiding the uranium, he went into the wine room to find any clues as to how they knew.  He has to think of so many complex ways to find any clues possible.  This has a lot to do with psychology because he thinks of many different ways to find clues and the way he behaves when he finds out is also a great example.
2. When Alicia was poisoned by Alexander and his mother for being a US detective and finding the Uranium, Alicia quickly finds out that they knew she knew where the Uranium was.  She reacted quickly and became very worried about what was going to happen to her.  Devlin knew that something terrible had happened to Alicia since he hadn't heard from Alicia for a week.  He decided to go over to Alicia's house and find out what was wrong with her and that is when he discovered that she was being poisoned.  This goes along with their behavior and finding out information quickly.

How College Has Changed My Life

When college started I was super nervous about everything.  I was nervous about the classes, the professors, and the people.  I was very silly to be nervous about everything because it all turned out to be just fine.  I have enjoyed all the classes that I enrolled into, I also get great grades in all of my classes.  Also, the professors at college are way different than the teachers I had in high school.  I enjoy that I can be in constant communication with my professors and they allow students to be more independent when it comes to getting assignments done.  I have also made great friends in college that don't judge you about your past and actually try to get to know you.  My friends in high school I barely talk to anymore, but I know that the friends I have made in college I will always stay in contact with and will continue to stay in my life.

What I regret

In life, I regret having others make my decisions for me.  I was constantly picked on and bullied going through school and I was afraid to ever stand up for myself.  These bullies caused me to lose all of my close friends and turn them against me.  I have always wanted to reunite with my old friends but these bullies still continue to say awful things about me.  I have always chosen to let others take control of my life.  I have purposely given up different opportunities just because the bullies were a part of them.  Now that I am at college, I am able to make new friends and I don't have to worry the same way I worried before.

Week Five Blog Assignment

• Explain what Meyer means by stating that lying is a cooperative act? Do you agree? (Be sure to explain.) What does she mean when she states, lying is a way of connecting what we wish we were with what we are?

Lying is a cooperative act because it is when people start to begin the lie that was told.  I do think that people all play the role of choosing to believe in something that they know isn't true.

Lying is a way of connecting what we wish we were with what we are, this means that people pretend to be something that they wish they were, especially when starting new relationships.  

• Would you agree with Truth #2? We are against lying but covertly for it? Explain your response. 

We have grown up knowing how to lie ever since we were babies.  Ever since we were little we knew how to lie by doing deceiving things.  All of the deceiving things we picked up as we got older turned into us lying to our parents.

• What are some of the techniques used to spot liars? Why would we want to learn some of these techniques?

When someone is lying they choose to use words like 'did not' instead of 'didn't' and people also choose not to use names when they lie, they will say 'that girl' instead.

• Do you agree with Meyer that honesty is worth preserving?  How can we create a cultural/societal change regarding lying?

Honest is worth preserving simply because human beings shouldn't get used lying and believing in that lie. 

Number Ten

Number ten was the number I drew the summer going into my sophomore year for cheerleading tryouts.  This meant that I was the tenth person to perform in front of a row of judges being judged on everything I show them.  Before the tryouts the coaches told all of the girls trying out that they were only going to take six girls for the varsity team and six girls for the JV team, meaning that only twelve out of the twenty-eight girls would make it.  I was shaking because of how nervous I was during the entire tryout process.  Even when I was done trying out and just waiting for the results my stomach was still in knots.  All of the girls were very confident that they did well, and I thought I did the best I could have done as well.  I didn't want to get my hopes up though simply because there were tons of talented girls trying out for the same team that I was.  When it was time to go back into the tryout room to find out the results, we all stood in a line by number.  As they announced everyone for the JV team I was very relieved that my name wasn't called because I wanted to make varsity.  They started reading out the names who made Varsity from a sheet of paper and my name was the third name called out.  I was so happy that I began to tear up because I finally got everything that I wanted.  They even announced that I was the highest score of the day, which made me feel super great about myself. I will always think of number ten by lucky number.

Scariest Day of My Life

One day at tumbling practice I was practicing my round-off back handspring full twist.  I was doing it pretty well being spotted by my coach, and then she told me that it was good enough to try by myself.  I was super nervous as soon as she told me to try it alone.  I started to tense up and my hands started to get very sweaty at the thought of me doing it by myself.  The longer I waited in line to do the tumbling pass the more I thought about it and the more I got nervous just thinking about it.  When it was finally my turn a bunch of negative thoughts were running through my head.  I was afraid that I would get hurt or I just wouldn't do it at all.  I took a deep breath and I started running to do my tumbling pass.  I ran three times, did a huge, powerful hurdle into my round-off and then I did my back handspring.  I did those few steps perfectly since I have known how to do that since I was five years old.  When I started setting up for my full twist by foot got caught on the mat.  I was about five or six feet in the air and just started plummeting towards the floor head first.  I landed on the top on my head and my neck, back, and legs slammed full force onto the floor.  I felt and heard every possible muscle, tendons, or anything else in my neck and back crack.  I immediately let out a huge scream when I hit the ground.  My coaches and my sister ran over to me as quickly as possible because they thought that I broke my neck.  I couldn't move anything or open up my eyes because of how hard I hit the ground.  They called my parents and they came and got me to take me the emergency room.  When I got there the doctors put me in a neck brace so I couldn't turn my neck (it's not like I could move it at all anyways) and took me into a separate room so I could get cat scans done for about thirty minutes.  The scans were finally done and now all I had to do was wait.  My mom and I waited in the emergency room for the results for an hour.  All I could think about was letting my cheerleading coach and team down because of our competition that was coming up, and also, I was really hungry so all I wanted was Taco Bell as well.  The doctors came in and told me that I couldn't cheer for two weeks and all that was wrong was that I had pulled tendons and sprained one or two muscles in my back.  I was very lucky, but the worst part was that I had to wear that awful neck brace for two weeks while my neck and back healed.

The Intended Audience

Each of the advertisement videos I watched target different audiences throughout.  This causes each video to be very different and attract different kinds of people to the product based on the content in each commercial video.  

During the iPhone 6 advertisement it shows mainly adults throughout the video.  A lot of it reminded me of a Facetime call because it wasn't a video showing different activities you can do on the phone, it showed adults doing different things for a video.  There was a couple talking during a video chat as if they were far away from each other and staying in contact with one another.  The video also shows people texting one another and being able to instantly send videos and photos to each other in just a matter of seconds. 

During the Samsung Smart TV commercial it shows a women in a window and she is waving.  She catches a lot of people's attention by doing that and by the end of the video her entire staircase to her apartment is filled with different people that she led on.  It turns out that she was just practicing the no-touch T.V by waving her hand around to control the T.V.  This commercial was a sexually based  commercial throughout and then had a twist at the end when showing what she was really doing.  This commercial is mainly for adults.  

During the Mercedes Benz commercial there is a child that runs away from home to a police station in the middle of the night.  I think that it shows a child throughout the commercial to show that the Mercedes Benz is a family oriented vehicle.  

Cain Abel

Starting at the age of six I had a dog named Cain Abel.  He was a boxer and lived for ten years exactly.  He was the best dog any little girl could have asked for.  He loved playing as a puppy and was very obedient.  As he got older he became less playful and very stubborn.  He was even a very lazy dog.  He would just lay around on the couch all day long.  It was funny though because anytime my sister Olivia would come out into the living room, he would growl at her until she left.  That always made my day.  When he was about 9 and a half he was diagnosed with cancer.  It slowly tore him a part.  He lost a lot of weight and had a tumor on a shoulder that grew about every day.  After a few months he stopped walking and he stopped eating the normal amount of food he typically ate everyday.  The only time he were to get up was to eat food.  He couldn't even walk to the door to go outside so he kept peeing and pooping all over his bed.  Soon his kidneys failed and all food he consumed can out either end of his body.  He couldn't get up on the couch and had to lay on a big pillow on the floor.  On May 3, 2013 our family made the decision that it was time to put Cain down.  Everyday he was getting worse and suffering more.  I even skipped school that day just so I could spend more time with my dog by myself.  That day I had to clean my room and do the dishes.  Everywhere I went around the house Cain followed.  It was as if he knew it was his last day to be with his family, so he wanted to make the best of it.  After my sister and parents got home from school and work we went straight to Friends of Felines to say our final goodbyes.  It was the hardest thing I ever had to do as a sixteen year old.  When my family and I got home we started building a cross out of wood and engraved his name into it and dug up a grave for him.  When we went back inside it was very quiet with just us four and our other dog Sheldon.  I am never going to forget the day I had to say goodbye to the greatest companion I had had at the time.

The Day I Broke My Arm

I was six years old on the day of August 19, 2003.  I remember my cousins, Devin and Gavin, came over to my house in the morning because their mom got called into work.  My mom took my cousins, my sister, and I to McDonalds that morning for breakfast.  We all wanted a hashbrown and a sausage biscuit with either white or chocolate milk.  We then eventually went to Dunhams in town because my sister and I needed a new pair of swimming goggles for the club swim team we were a part of.  When we got home we swam in our inflatable swimming pool in the back yard, which was filled with cold water.  We played in the pool for a couple of hours playing Marco Polo, swim tag, and we also had contests as to who could hold their breath the longest.  My cousin Devin could always beat all three of us for the breathing contest because he was the oldest and was best at everything he did.  When we got done swimming my mom had lunch made for us, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and tater tots.  That was my favorite meal as a kid so I was quite happy.  While my mom was cleaning up after lunch all of us kids ran outside and started to jump on the trampoline and play on the playground set we had.  It was a nice, hot, beautiful day that all of us enjoyed until a tragedy happened.  We decided that it would be a fun idea to make an obstacle course on the swing set.  The number one rule was that we weren't allowed to let out feet hit the ground.  I was doing very well when it was my turn to go through the course.  I got to the last step of the course and my hands slipped as I had a hold of the swing set bar.  I landed directly on my arm and I hurt a snap instantly.  As I fell, my mom was trying to chain my dog up to his leash.  When my mom heard me burst out a loud scream she and my dog came quickly running towards me.  As soon as she saw that my arm was bruising she called the hospital saying that would be going to the emergency room.  We sent my cousins and my little sister with my grandma and my mom took me to the hospital.  Before I left for the emergency room I wanted to bring my favorite doll to keep myself company and to make me feel better.  Once I got to the hospital the nurses led me to the emergency room and sent in a doctor to squeeze my arm to pop my bones back into place.  While the doctor was squeezing my arm, I loudly screamed and began to cry even more than what I already had.  After the doctor left I told my mom that all I wanted to do was go home and eat ice cream, but sadly that didn't happen.  I had to stay at the hospital for a couple more hours while they did x-rays and put a cast on my arm. I ended up breaking two different boned in my arm, but I am not sure what those bones are called.

FUN FACT:  the doctors tried giving my pain reliever and anesthetics to knock out a 250 lbs man because I wouldn't fall asleep.  Eventually the medicine kicked in so the doctors could put my cast on.  

Day of Saddness

I knew that this day was going to come eventually.  From the moment he signed his contract I knew that he would be leaving me for an entire summer to go to Parris Island to receive very difficult training and eventually become a United States Marine.  On Sunday, May 31, 2015 was the hardest day that I ever had to go through.  Starting around the first day of the year I kept counting down the months, days, hours, and that quickly turned to the minutes I had left to spend time with Elijah.  I knew that this time was going to come and that it wasn't going to be easy.  As the days dwindled down that was the only thing I would ever think about.  I was always afraid that his feelings about me would change or he would come back a complete asshole.  Just thinking about not being with him for thirteen weeks tore me a apart and I cried myself to sleep almost every single night the month before he left for boot camp.  When it was finally the day of his departure I had this huge lump in my throat and knot in my stomach.  All I wanted to do was hold onto him and never let him go.  I tried to hold back the tears as much as possible, but they kept continuing to flow out of me and I couldn't stop myself from crying.  As he walked out my door I just remember myself collapsing onto the floor in a puddle of tears because my heart was torn a part into a million pieces.  I knew that Elijah was doing amazing things by joining and it was going to change mine and his life forever and hopefully for the better.  I soon stopped crying because I was happy about all the good he was going to cause for his country, for God, and for his family and me.

The Night Before

Yesterday, Thursday, July 18 I was getting ready for my sister's bachelorette party.  I had a pretty pink, strapless, laced dress with my hair curled and make up done traveling with her and the rest of her brides maids to the party location.  My sister decided that she wanted to go to Las Vegas because to her that is a common place to have a bachelorette party.  On the flight to Vegas my sister helped my rehearse my speech I had to give the following weekend during the wedding rehearsal and the wedding reception since I am her maid of honor.  I flapped my gums so much about the speech and about how nervous I was the entire flight that it annoyed her, but thankfully for her we landed and it was just in time for our dinner reservations.  During dinner the rest of her brides maids were talking about how they were ready to get completely wasted and dance the night away so we ended up going to a club.  Going to the club that night must have been a big mistake considering I ended up in jail and don't remember a thing I did last night.  However,  I did end up finding five of the most random things in my pocket. One of the five items was bottle cap to a beer bottle.  It is purple with the letter 'V' on the top.  I am assuming that it was to one of my drinks at the club we went to, but the cap certainly isn't the answer as to why I would be in jail.  Shockingly, I found two Adderall pills in my pocket, which is sort of weird because I don't have ADHD.  The only reason why I would have ever taken them is to stay up and be more energetic, but I would never do that because you aren't supposed to drink and take that medication at the same time because of how dangerous it can be.  The medication does explain why I can't remember anything that happened that night though.  I then found a checklist of bizarre things for us to do that night.  The first thing on the list read "Retrieve men's chest hair," which explains why the fourth item in my pocket was a piece of duck tape completely covered with hair (THAT IS DISGUSTING!!!!).  Now the last item almost like a walky-talky just smaller.  It said Las Vegas P.D. on it.  I was trying to make a connection all my items and it made me re-look over the list that was in my pocket.  It turns out that number seventeen on my list was steal a police car.  That makes perfect sense as to why I would have the walky-talky with me and why I am in jail.  That must have been one crazy night, and I am sad that I can't remember what exactly happened, but it is probably best that I don't know.