Reflection #9

 If I were going to be a real life superhero, I would probably make my costume out of every day material. I would buy fleece and my a cape out of it. My cape would be two pieces of material tied together on all the ends, kind of like the household throw blankets. I would wear jeans and a shirt with my superhero logo. It would be a red t-shirt with two black C's, surrounded by a tornado. The two C's stand for Captain Compton. The tornado would be part of my symbol, because tornadoes are one of the scariest disasters that hit the Midwest. I also draw some inspiration from Red Tornado. My Hometown is named Compton. It has a population of 350. Since the population is so small, not a lot of crime arises in town. There are two main annoyances in the town of Compton, loose dogs, and kids who vandalize the park in town. One of the items I would carry would be a bag of treats. This would lure the dogs to me. I would also carry a leash so I could take the dog back to it's owner, or hold him until the owner is located. This is something my family has done in the past. Being a dog person, I am not afraid of them, as some people are. Catching them and returning them to their owner would relieve the people who are scared, and the owners who had been missing their dog. In order to help stop vandalism, I will try to catch the teenagers who are tagging the park, and put their skills to work. I will carry multiple cans of spray paint. I will ask the vandals to put their skills into something productive, such as painting murals, or repainting the picnic tables in the park. This will help the community become visually appealing!

The heroes I most identify with is the New York Initiative. I believe that these people are doing some extraordinary things! I would like to instill a group like them in Monmouth. It would be very helpful to the student body. Having something like this in Monmouth would be extremely helpful. Vandalism in the parking lots on campus seems to be a common occurrence this year. If there was a group of people patrolling each parking lot, vandalism would be likely to go down. It would also provide a witness of the vandalism, since there are not any cameras placed in our lots. I believe this would cause a lot of people relief because they would be able to seek justice. When my tires were slashed, I was told tough luck by the administration, although I had a pretty good idea of who did it. Having a group like this would be wonderful. This group could also patrol the routes to and from the bar. I know students have been attacked on their way back to campus before, so some do not feel safe walking that late at night. The New York Initiative would be there for people in need, such as students. This should inspire us to want to help out the student body.

Reflection #8

Part One:

I haven't experienced a situation where my beliefs or my identity has been questioned. In the future, I could foresee someone questioning the experiences I've had in my life. People do this all the time. You meet someone. They tell you a story, and you're not sure if you should believe what they have to say or not. Maybe the story isn't really outrageous, but you question it because of the delivery or the context. I am the queen of bad timing, so I can see why people may not believe everything that has happened to me. This, in my opinion, is a question of my identity because everything we, as humans, experience adds to how our life has been shaped.

Reacting to situations out of pure emotion happened to me all the time. My freshman year, one of my friends did something that made me really angry. I decided to quit talking to her. She was one of my closest friends. What she did was really petty and really nothing to get angry over, but for some reason, I thought it was worth addressing. Just recently, this girl and I have reconnected and decided what happened was really stupid, and shouldn't have ended a friendship that was as good as ours was. When I reacted this way, I did not realize I would shut her out for a whole two years. Looking back, I can't believe I made this decision, but I'm glad we fixed the issue.

Part Two:

We talked a lot about the X-men in class. The two different types of mutations can affect how one lives their life, significantly. If you posses a mutation that can be hidden, you have the ability to have a normal job, and participate in the world as a human being. If your mutation can not be hidden, everyone judges and dislikes you because you are just different. They are similar because once someone knows about the mutation, a judgment has been formed. Whether the audience thinks that it is cool to be a mutant, or it is weird. The person's opinion of you is no longer based solely on your personality or their experiences with you. Take hardcore kids for an instance. These kids are normally full of tattoos and piercings. They go to shows and throw down in the mosh pit. They are viewed by society as menaces, which, most of the time, gives them energy to feed off of. They write music about hate and doing what they want. This is because society has created a mold that they want these people to fit into. Society frowns upon tattoos and nontraditional piercings. The kids are who I hang out with the most at home. They are some of the coolest people I have ever met. Sure I have tattoos, but they are not over the top. The only thing I have pierced are my ears, but I am still drawn to these people because they take their freedom to heart. They do not care if they are judged nor do they care what you say. Society does not like this for some reason. I believe that the X-men can teach kids to not care. These characters have found a group of people that are like them, and they fit in. This can say a lot to kids. To me it says “It's cool to be who you are at heart, and you will find someone out there who is the same.” This is a valuable lesson to learn growing up.

I believe that I most identify with Wolverine. I am very normal looking from the outside, but I feel as if I can be underestimated. I also find that sometimes I come across situations that I do not necessarily want to deal with, but I do because I have to. Wolverine, I believe gets set on an autopilot mode. Although it hurts every time he has to break out his claws, he does it because it makes it easier to complete the task at hand. This is how I am sometimes. I do not necessarily want to say or do something in particular, but I know I have to, so I just get the job done as best I can.  

Reflection #7

 Chopra offers different exercises at the end of his book in order to relax your mind. While doing the first activity, I became more aware of every part of my body and how it moves when I breathe. I'm currently in an advanced acting class that deals with voice and movement. In this class we do a lot of focusing on the natural way our body feels when breathing. We talk about allowing the breath to come from deep in your belly and to release it out the top of your head. While sitting and doing this exercise, my mind wandered to the concepts that we have covered in my acting class. This exercise made me feel relaxed and more in tune with what was going on around me. I believe that I will try to do this on a regular basis just in order to relax.

The second exercise made me feel similar things that the first one did, but when imagining the different things, I felt some gaps. It was like I do not pay attention to the things I was trying to imagine as much as I should have. I tried to imagine touching tree bark. Sure I remember that it I supposed to be rough, but I can't remember the last time I touched a tree. Nor the last time I had my hand on a tree and paid attention to what I was feeling. Imagining different colors was a lot easier that the textures. Again, I believe I will begin to do this because of the benefits.

Most of the relationship in my life are in the pleasure category. I try to surround myself with people who I enjoy, and who will be there for me if I need them. The utility relationships that I have in my life are mostly with bosses or professors. With professors, I need them in order to gain knowledge and graduate with my degree. In return they need me, or the rest of their students, in order to have a career. This benefits them because they receive money to support their family. I benefit because I will have a degree and hopefully can obtain a better career than those who chose not to go to college.

The only relationship that I believe that has the potential to become a relationship of virtue is the one I have with Max. Although he is my boyfriend, and it is considered a romantic relationship, I believe that we both care about one another enough to become a relationship of virtue. In order for this to happen, we would have to put more focus toward each other. With school and work, this is not completely possible. We would have to cut out a lot of the stresses in life in order to focus solely on each other.

Reflection #6

 Throughout my childhood, I would come up with crazy scenarios that I would act out with my friends. We made our own characters and played out the story in the backyard. Most of the time it was about mystical characters who were on a hunt for some kind of treasure. Although I do not remember any of the names of my characters, nor the story line, I distinctly remember running through the backyard with our fake swords and shields pretending to slay dragons and other mystical characters. Although playing pretend was the activity I was quite fond of as a child, there is one specific memory with this particular group of friends I will not ever forget. One day it was raining outside, so we could not play our normal game outside. We decided on playing hide and go seek. I was not the seeker at this point in time so I knew I had to have a good hiding spot. I chose to hide underneath the kitchen sink. There were cleaning products and other random objects that were stored under the sink. I took the time to take out every single object, climb in the counter, and replace each object as it was found. I was small enough that my head would fit in between the sink pipe and the back of the cabinet. I was in place so I waited quietly. I could hear the footsteps of the other kids walking in and out of the kitchen as they looked for me. The seeker had even opened the cabinet and did not see me. I was thrilled. One hour had passed and no one had found me yet. Finally the seeker had given up. All were standing in the kitchen at this point so when I climbed out from under the sink everyone was stunned. I used my creativity to effectively hide from all the others who were playing the game.

In my adult life, I use creativity quite often to solve some of my worst problems. The most recent I can think of has to do with the musical Hairspray that we just put on. Nathan Forrestor was our hot dog man. He had a hotdog stand that was supposed to be held up by a strap around his neck. This strap was literally two pieces of rope tied together. He approached me and kindly asked if I could alter this strap so that the cart is a little more comfortable. At this point, we were only a week away form the show, and I had literally twenty other things to do in that week. I looked at him and said “Yep, no problem.” Here I'm really thinking “Great....one more thing.” I decided the best way to do this is grab a strap that usually goes on a messenger bag, or lap top case, and attach it to this contraption. Well doing that was not easy enough. Not the cart hung in front of his chest instead of down by his belly button. I decided to take some tie line, and make an extension on the strap and the duct tape it so that the supports hold in place. Sure this was probably not the most well thought out plan, but it was me thinking on the fly. For the three minutes Nathan was on stage in this costume, it looked good, and it made his neck more comfortable.

In the first ever Superman comic, Clark Kent goes to try and get a job at The Daily Star. He is denied the job by the editor. Later that day, Clark calls the editor to inform him that a mob is attacking the county jail. The editor tells Kent to cover the story. Clark appears as Superman and helps the situation. This allows him to get the full story, as well as, help the people who are currently in the bad situation. After Superman helps out, he calls the editor with the information and receives a position at The Daily Star. Superman is very smart to think up this strategy. He had to use a different tactic in order to get this job. Just simply applying did not work out, so Superman called on his powers in order to get an every day career.