Monthly Archives: February 2016

Weekly Reflection 4

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This week I chose to read the NYT article, “Pastor in China Who Resisted Cross Removal Gets 14 Years in Prison.”  I chose this article because I am devoted to my Christian faith and I was concerned and interested in what had happened to the pastor.  The article states how a protestant pastor and his wife were targeted for resisting orders to remove a cross and received sentences of 14 years and 12 years, respectively.  They were charged with corruption and gathering people to disturb social order and were also penalized with heavy fines and had money taken from them.  The article goes on to detail the additional detainment of a well known Christian lawyer who just so happened to be planning to meet with American state department officials to discuss religious freedom in China.  It is terrifying to think that if I were in another country I could be detained just because I defended my religion.  While I fully understand not all people unite under one faith, it amazes me how little protection some have in other countries and it is difficult for me to comprehend not having full religious freedom. This article made me reflect on the privileges the citizens of the United States enjoy and how much I take my civil rights for granted sometimes.  The government would be in complete control, and I would not be able to speak my mind or practice my faith.  It also made me question why the United States conducts so much business with China when they do not give their citizens religious freedoms and other basic rights.

 

2/26 Daily Reflection

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Reflection is overall beneficial to me.  By reading others’ work, it gives me ideas on what I could expand on personally in my own paper and issues it may contain grammatically.  It gives me practice reviewing others’ work and revising so that I am better prepared to revise my own paper.  In addition, it provides me with more examples of visual analysis papers which helps me to view all of the elements of the photo I have chosen.

Weekly Reflection 3

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This week I chose to read the New York Times article, “ISIS and the Lonely Young American.” The title of the article caught my attention because like many others, I worry about attacks from this Islamic terror organization and fear the group as a whole. The article was extremely long and detailed the steps of how a twenty-three year-old girl became very close to ISIS fighters and supporters. It detailed her conversion to Islam and how they played into her insecurities and loneliness and constantly spoke with her and sent her gifts to win her over.

This whole article was extremely troubling to me. It makes me empathetic towards those ISIS and radical groups target, but also makes me worry because it could be happening right next to me without me knowing about it−which is a terrifying thought. With all of the technology coming out and new social media, it seems like it will just become easier for these groups to target people who feel isolated.

This article also opened up a new side of thinking for me. I had never thought of terror groups working so hard to “win” people over, or pretending to become friends with those they targeted online. It puts what is going on in today’s times a little easier to understand why and how people are willing to convert to these radical beliefs and travel to Syria and the middle East to join ISIS. It is terrifying to think about this happening to my friends and/or family members.

Weekly Reflection 2

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This week I chose to read the New York Times article, “For World’s Top Gymnast, a Body in Motion and a Mind at Rest.” I am not a big sports fan, but I did competitive gymnastics for many years so this caught my attention. The article was about the 18-year-old U.S. gymnast Simone Biles who has won 14 medals overall. It was a personal story about the stress she is dealing with and how she maintains her composure under the overwhelming pressure that she has to always win.

While Simone and I have different goals, I can still understand what she may be going through. I am under a lot of pressure here at Ole Miss to score high on every test, have a job, and also participate in leadership and extracurricular activities. I have a lot of anxiety, so sometimes it is hard to deal with all of these. When a test is coming up or I am stressed out, it is all too easy to start overthinking and start panicking. The article described how she kept a book with her with a list of goals. However, the goals were only about improving certain things, not goals about winning all of the medals. This really stuck out to me and made me reflect on all of the goals I currently have, and made me re-think some of them. In my biology class for example, instead of worrying about making an A I’m going to focus on keeping up with the readings and following my study schedule. While Simone and I may be different, we have the same fears and I can relate to a lot of the struggles she is currently dealing with.

Literacy Narrative Reflection

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I have not done any writing similar to the literacy narrative assignment, so it was a challenging paper to write.  I am not always comfortable reflecting and analyzing my decisions and reasoning behind what I like and what I dislike so that was a new thing for me.  While it was difficult, I really enjoyed processing why I did choose my article and what it says about me as a person.  It was interesting because it let me think about my major with a clear mindset as to why I am so drawn to that certain field.  I was able to easily talk about my background with how this article stood out to me.  I spent a decent amount of time working on the paper, but if I had more time to review and edit it I think I could have added more analysis of what I am ultimately drawn to as a reader.  I generally stayed on topic and made sure not to discuss my beliefs on the article too much, which was a little challenging since it could have easily turned into an argument paper. I was able to make some “big picture” connections, but I could have added more reflection to my paper.  I liked taking the time to actually think about my interests and how they define who I am and what I am drawn to.

Weekly Reflection

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I chose to read the article, “North Korea Launches Rocket Seen as Cover for a Missile Test.” The article stated how North Korea launched a rocket despite sanctions and condemnations from the United States and allies, and is accused of using the launch and its space program as a cover-up for developing ballistic missiles and long-range intercontinental abilities. This article drew my attention because any threat or progression towards nuclear weapons to use against the United States is obviously worrisome to me. Reading this article was really upsetting because I thought of how easily things could escalate and how devastating that could be when dealing with potential nuclear weapons. It is also upsetting because it made me think of troops being deployed during times of war. My dad served in the military for 23 years so I understand how difficult it is on families to be separated during deployments.

It is not hard for me to think of ways this might impact my future. Legislators and military officials have considered and suggested recently that women should also be required to register for the draft. While I do not truly believe it would escalate that far, it is still a scary thing to think about. That would affect my whole future and all the plans I had laid out. I am anxious to hear about what, if any, further actions the United States and its allies will take to prevent or at least deter North Korea from using the nuclear weapons they are believed to have.

A.D.H.D. Diagnosis in Kids- 2/01

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I am definitely drawn to articles on this issue because I like anything medical related.  I think the A.D.H.D. diagnosis discussion in particular is very important because it affects so many of my peers and children in the U.S. today.  I think it is very important to stay updated and involved in health.

These articles were in the Opinion pages section, room for debate.  This lets me know that there will be multiple views on a single issue with all different perspectives.  This is important because it can give the reader points that they may not have thought about before.  It also is not endorsed by the New York Times.