January 2021

“There were a few people who approached me to ask if I’d blocked them,” recalls David. “I thought it was so interesting how this has nothing to do with them — it’s something I was doing for myself — but they’d immediately thought that I blocked them even though I had no reason to.” I found this part very interesting, friends on social media expect to be in contact and share things you find funny with each other, but when David stop using social media his freinds were slightly offended that he hadn’t sent them anything or tagged them in it. I think when you get rid of social media the conversation you have with friends is enriched due to the fact that it becomes more personalized and communication is clearer and easier.

Social media allows many people to come together as a group and unite as one to fight for something they believe in. “34% of Americans have taken part in a group on social media that shares an interest in an issue or cause” (1) I found this quote pretty interesting, I feel like more Americans have taken part in activism on social media. Throughout the past year there were many causes that were all over social media, especially Black Lives Matter. One thing I found interesting about activism on social media is how many people can get behind a movement a bond together over a post.  Social media gives a voice to everyone, even those who may be unrepresented without social media.  I think it is really cool how a hashtag can unite a bunch of different activist posts together and create a stronger movement just with a hashtag.

” We use technology to define ourselves by sharing our thoughts and feelings even as we’re having them.” (Sherry Turkle) I found this quote very interesting, I have never thought about technology this way. With technology we don’t allow our emotions or ideas to develop before we go send them in a text or a tweet. Communicating on technology can make the person you are communicating with misunderstand what you are actually trying to say. The way we act in technology doesn’t allow us to rethink what we are going to say and in the moment it is easy to say something you might not feel in 30 minutes. This challenged my initial thinking about how beneficial technology is for communication, although it really makes it more confusing with each other.

The connection I saw between the readings we read today and Mondays readings were how some millenials are still actually going back to college if they didn’t before and there are still working full time jobs. Another thing I noticed is how the college student now is much more hardworking and dedicated than they used to be which may show the a reader that this generation might possibly burn out also, or they will strive and prosper.

I was suprised when I heard that now most college students are working full time and not right out of high school. For me I generally believed that college students were mostly directly out of high school and somewhat dependent on their parents still. When listening to this I heard many interesting facts that caught me by suprise such as %74 of undergrads have a child or go to school part time and a job part time. More than 1/4 of students are taking care of a child and more than 1/5 are older than 30. These statistics caught me by suprise because it’s not the generic student that people generally believe are a “college student”.  This made me realize the amount of students like Santa Benavidez Ramirez, she is a mother who is working full time and also attending a local community college. These statistics made me question who the average college student actually is and why this has changed over recent years.

In this video I learned a lot about the struggles many college students are faced with during this pandemic. One fact that I heard and found interesting that was 70% are dependent on a job during college. “While their colleges say that they’re going to maybe refund some of the money, it’s not going to come right away.” many colleges have gone completely online and students will be required to go home. This made me question the amount of universities that will refund money for the students loss of a whole year. Many students may also not have wifi at home which puts a big restriction on their learning. Students are not the only ones at loss, many faculty have lost jobs due to the pandemic as well.  This makes me question the future for secondary learning and how Universities will deal with this throughout the future. This article made me question the effect on the pandemic on students learning and wellness overall not just college students.

For me, my main cause of stress is school, which was also a similar cause to what we discussed in school.  I have many rituals to deal with my stress I like to listen to music, meditate, or reading something of my choice. Stress is very easy to get built up and its important to create a balance to release stress.

“Why can’t I get this mundane stuff done? Because I’m burned out. Why am I burned out?” This article made me question what changes on the upbringing of millennial’s caused them to have a difficult time getting simple easy tasks done, such as returning clothes, or voting. The info that I learned from this allowed me to make a connection to different generations and what characteristics they hold or held which made them become different the millennials. These simple tasks take little to no effort to get completed but they have the idea that its not worth it enough to get around to these things.

1.I would’ve wanted to touch more on my everyday schedule and rituals that I perform like health management. Also I could’ve added a restriction of being a student in college and the financial difficulty that is.

 

2. After todays class I thought more about the depth of my relationships and how they have made me who I am. It also made me realize how many small rituals I have throughout my everyday life that I didn’t consider when first working on the bridge project.

Throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school I have always valued my relationships with my friends, whenever I was having a hard time they have always been there for me. I have kept the same couple of friends all the way through we have gone through lots of rough times but also many good times. We all lived in neighborhoods near each other which were mostly middle to upper class neighborhoods. During our senior year one of our close friends passed away in a car accident, more than ever these friendships mattered. Through the times of mourning we were spending countless hours hanging out and being there for each other. Some days some of us were affected by it more than others and we could recognize that stand by each other and help them through it. This had made these bonds between us even stronger. I know these guys no matter how close we are at the time they will always be there for me if I need them. Going off to college split many of us apart but these bonds will always be there.

Growing up my family and I would always go skiing, my dad was my ski teacher. When I was younger I didn’t enjoy skiing and didn’t appreciate it as much, I thought it was too cold and I hated waking up early to drive one hour to the mountains. When I first started skiing I was around 4 years old, my parents skied with me on a leash in front of them. Getting up to the mountains gave us nice family time where we could all be together. Skiing was only possible this often because of how close we lived to the mountains and the convenience of it. My parents had a rule that I could only switch to snowboarding until I was able to ski the whole mountain, by eighth grade I switched over to snowboarding. This change was very frustrating at first, I wanted to quit the first day I tried. After multiple days of falling and having bruises everywhere I finally started to figure it out. Persevering through the pain was the best decision I made because now I can snowboard just as well as I could ski.

My father has always been my idol, he has always shown me it is possible to work very hard and still make time for family. In my first year of life I had 13 ear infections, I was constantly crying but the only thing that would put me to sleep was car rides. My dad would always get home tired from work, and my mom was exhausted from dealing with me crying all day, and he would drive me through the night to put me to sleep. When I was about 5 years old he went back to get his masters degree because he had started his own company. He was often staying in a hotel near Denver where the CU Denver campus is. This was hard because I rarely got to see him but every single night we would talk on the phone. He often influenced me to start many small businesses, like lawn mowing services, parking spots for football games, and landscaping. My Dad has shaped a huge part of who I am because of the influence his actions had on me as a kid.

My brother is two years older than me, we have always been close with each other. Growing up with an older brother made me a lot tougher, we would always wrestle and fight, but I would never win. He has taught me a lot of things, some not for the better but in the end it’s all okay. He was the reason I said my first cuss word and I got in trouble for it. One day we were in my room and he looked at me and said “say duck but instead of the d use an f” and I proceeded to say it, then he goes “okay shout it” and I shouted it, my mom came up those stairs some quickly and I got in trouble for it. Having an older brother who made good decisions and watched out for me was very lucky for me. Although how close we are we are very different people, but our differences bring us together. 

During the summer time I really enjoy going surfing behind a wake boat. In Colorado there aren’t many lakes so it takes a bit of a trip to get up to the lake. Surfing is fun because it is really easy to pick up and do but the main goal is to be able to let go of the rope that is keeping you behind the boat and let the momentum of the wave keep you up. When the weather is nice my family and some of my friends will drive an hour and a half up to Berthoud, Colorado. It is always fun going with a bunch of friends and just hanging out on the boat. When we go up it’s not always surfing, sometimes we get wild and tube. The tubing can get a little intense, luckily no one gets injured. We are able to go around 5-6 times a summer because of the scarcity of lakes in Colorado. It takes a lot of work to get the boat and all the equipment ready and hooked up but it makes it all worth it when you get out on the water.

When I was going into my senior year I went on a trip with a group called me to we, when I went I went with a bunch of kids I had never met before from Canada to Ecuador. Our main goal for the trip was to help build a water filtration system for a village in the amazon. We also explored their culture and got to learn about the way they live. One of the guides from Ecuador had brought her nephew along for a couple days, his name was Martín. Martín spoke no english, with my 3 years of spanish class I was able to have normal conversation with him, I’m sure I was butchering it but he still somewhat understood me. I would always play soccer with him, make him laugh, and he wanted to do everything with me. The whole time he was right by my side wherever we would go. Although I have no way to contact him now, I will always remember our conversation and laughter. 

Every year for Christmas eve my mom’s side of the family all gathers together, this is a rare occasion where we are all able to find time in our busy schedules to be together. No matter what family drama occurs in the past year everyone is able to push it aside and enjoy each other’s presences. Because we all live in the same state it makes this all possible. Every year we have the same dinner, crab legs. My favorite part about these dinners is the outgoing conversation. The crab legs come with a set of tools to crack the crab open and pull out the meat, I always have a difficult time breaking my crab leg open. My grandpa is always the first one to offer to help me with opening it. Once everyone gets their food the conversation decreases because everyone becomes so invested in their meals. These Christmas dinners are very special because it’s a time where you can catch up with all of my family members and hear interesting stories about their year.

Covid put a lot of change on everybody’s life, everything came to a quick and sudden stop within our country. Unfortunately it took away a lot from me, I was unable to participate in lacrosse my senior year because the season had been cancelled. When graduating at this time, I never got to attend a real graduation ceremony which was very disappointing. Most of all having to do everything I do online makes it hard to remember what a normal day of classes was like or going to events with more than 20 people like concerts. Being from Colorado the Covid restrictions have been constantly heavy and makes for a tough time when you have to restrict yourself from doing activities and change your lifestyle. Covid in Mississippi has restricted my social life in college as well. Going through these uncertain times has been confusing and difficult. This restriction has restricted all of us in many ways but it is important to continue to brave through it.

Since I was a kid I have always had asthma, it is not as bad since I have grown up but it used to affect me a bunch. When I was in little league sports, when my asthma held me back the most, I would often try to ignore and and continue going but it would always get to me and I would need my inhaler. Another thing that was tough was to the mountains where there was low oxygen. Since I have grown out of it I rarely need my inhaler, I think this also has to do with the fact that I don’t have to run conditioning for any sport and I can take it at my own pace when I work out. Asthma restricted my ability to do continuous physical activity. Trying to not let it restrict me was difficult but I realized the more physical activity over time asthma wouldn’t affect me as much. Overcoming this meant a lot to me because I am less dependent on an inhaler.

 

Every summer in high school a big group of my friends would get together and go to a concert at red rocks. Most of the time we went to EDM concerts, we would all meet in the parking lot before to take pictures in front of the red rocks. The venue was the coolest part about these concerts. I’m lucky to have been able to experience a place like this. Me and all of my guy friends normally wear basketball jerseys or hawaiian shirts. Once the gates open for a concert we all run up the stairs to make sure we get good seats. This is one time of the year where most of our high school was at one place all having a good time together. My favorite part about these concerts are the visuals and crazy lights they have that match up to the music and being able to look at the crown of people around you. Unfortunately Covid took that away from us this last summer, but hopefully we will be able to go back soon.