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.