“…about 70 percent of college students were working before the pandemic, and an even substantial — even more substantial were involved in the labor force in some way because they were looking for a job, but they could not find one. Now you have all of these people who have been told, we either can’t go to work or my job closed. A lot of people in college work at restaurants, for example, and we have been see what’s happening there. So to be told you still have to pay your rent, and you don’t have money coming in, it really does create a significant crisis…” (Goldrick-Rab)

While listening to and reading How is the pandemic impacting college students I realized just how much this pandemic has also affected me personally and my peers.  The quote above relates to a huge problem that I have experienced. Before coming to college I worked at a lumber yard and once the pandemic hit there was such a lull in the business that I had to be let off.  This affected my ability to make as much money as possible before going off to school.  Well, I thought that I could maybe get a job here in oxford but with an even stricter covid restriction here than back home in Florida, I found it impossible.  In addition to me personally being affected many businesses in a small town like this are being affected too.  Bars that employ a very large percentage of college students have certainly been impacted.  I know a couple of bartenders and they have not gotten a fraction of the income due to bar hours being shortened and a much smaller capacity, bartenders do not get the income in tips they rely on.

In the discussion today I related to two of the topics covered in the reading. The first being work. When I was old enough to drive I got a job.  I worked from 2-5 M,T,Th,F and 11-5 on Wednesdays. The weekends were my 10-hour shifts from 7-5. This put a lot of stress on me to not only go to work every day but also to get my school work done and also have time for social activities. Bringing me to the second topic of mental health. My parents were always there for me when I was stressed and helped me talk about it and find what will help me…Which were my rituals. Going hunting or fishing really helps me relieve my stress and feel much better about myself and ready to attack tomorrow.

“Many of the behaviors attributed to millennials are the behaviors of a specific subset of mostly white, largely middle-class people born between 1981 and 1996. But even if you’re a millennial who didn’t grow up privileged, you’ve been impacted by the societal and cultural shifts that have shaped the generation.” (Don’t see a page number but the header is For the last decade,) 

After reading the article provided I began to almost feel attacked. Not really but in a funny way. Only because I feel as if I have also been called a millennial before. the quote listed above made me question myself if I am one of these people that fits into this type of category. No, I was not born in 1981 through 1996 but some of the other categories fit my upbringing as well. Where I can agree is that I do feel as if I have been largely influenced by societal and cultural shifts they have both affected the millennial generation and my generation as well. These changes were certainly small over time but have become more and more noticeable in The Last 5 Years than ever. I have found even in my own friend group that there are mostly white large middle-class people that have been not going out of the house and doing stuff often because they are so encapsulated in social media and video games. In addition to that, a lot of the things that they are reading on social media also influence their political, social, and spiritual, standards.  I am not completely sure if I just don’t think I fit into this category or I really am in this category. Because I can notice all of the changes around me but I cannot see the changes within myself. That’s what this reading had me questioning.

I would add something to do with fishing or hunting because that is a big thing in my life and probably always will be.  I didn’t see any of them differently but I did pick up that a lot of us have very similar rituals, relationships, and restrictions.  But as I said earlier we are all individuals in the end we just happen to have a lot in common.

After watching Taiye Salasi’s TED talk I began by thinking about my own Rituals, Relationships, and Restrictions.  Everyone is different and I didn’t think of things similar to what Taiyes was but I believe that’s ok because we are individuals. To start one ritual that I wouldn’t be able to function without is coffee in the morning.  Its almost became a part of my life by now, my daily routine.  Secondly brushing my teeth.  I can’t stand not having the feeling of a clean mouth.  If I ever leave the house to stay the night somewhere in bring a toothbrush with me.  I don’t know it’s just something that I have ingrained into my head. I also love to hunt and fish.  There is just something about going into the outdoors and fetching some wild game, preparing it yourself, and best of all eating it.  There is no way to describe the satisfaction of tasting all of the work that you put into that animal or fish.  Another ritual that is in my routine would be playing some Xbox with the boys for a few hours.  It not only brings back good memories of my childhood but also is a good way to keep in touch with people while at school. The element of relationships was easy for me to think of.  My parents obviously, I am super close with both of them and talk to them daily.  I love the way that I grew up and wouldn’t change it for the world.  They taught me so many life lessons at an early age and has shaped me into who I am today. Then my two best friends from my hometown came up to Ole Miss. We were some of the only guys from our graduating class to go out of state and I couldn’t imagine them not being with me.  We pretty much do everything together and most likely will for the rest of our lives. In addition to my boys, I also have a great connection with all the brothers in my Fraternity.  Joining a Greek life organization was a great way for me to get to know a lot of people very quickly and always have someone to turn to.  Bringing us to restrictions. One thing that limits me is the anxiety of going out and having fun with my friends.  I have had a bad experience in the past and it has held me from doing multiple things that at first I say to myself whatever then I later regret my decision of not going.  Also my habit of playing video games.  This easily distracts me from doing my work, cleaning my room, etc. There are many things that I need to work on.

What I hope to gain from this class is confidence in my writing skills and set a goal to be able to tackle all of the activities, blogs, and essays with a good state of mind.

To understand what a writer is I would first have to break down what a writer does. A writer is somebody who takes literature and puts it together and sequence to make a flowing captivating story that can open the mind to readers. Writers have very many different styles techniques and flows. Some writers like to write about fiction and some people like to write about nonfiction. A lot of writers have their own Styles and ways of writing certain types of papers. These styles of writing could be argumentative informative or pictures literature. Writers are people who can use their creative skills to present a piece of work to The world to read and follow. I would describe myself as a rider as someone who likes to use various different types of styles. Sometimes I would like to write in an informative way and sometimes I would like to write in an argumentative style essay to prove a point or show the difference between two opposing ideas.

Social media is a trap.  There are so many influencers, sponsors, and advertisements on these social media platforms that can make an impact on the lives of people using these said platforms.  The impact that this makes can be very negative for a person but also might be very helpful to others.  What I have found is that the impact of social media can be very different between each individual solely based on their own personal interactions with that platform. These interactions could be the posting of very biased opinions and sharing them with the world.  All of this information, a majority of the time, can be misleading and very inaccurate.  People use social media to build their business, feel better about themselves, and to spread whatever message they are trying to convey.  Now I am not sure if I am supposed to write about one specific social media post, or just explaining the influence social media has on people. So; with that being said there are so many things that a person can be lead to support and or believe on social media.  That in itself can be very dangerous, especially to people in the younger age group who are still exposed to all the dangers that lurk on the internet.  One social media post I saw that could be considered a problem would be the false claims made by a party running for president.  These can be identified as false claims because of the fact-checker on these social media websites. In addition, there is a strong sense of hate on social media.  This hate can be forced upon one person or also may be placed on a group of people with a common interest. The reason I found these people being targeted so easily is because of the fact that the people saying these things on the internet are just realising all of their anger on these platforms through a computer screen.  The ones that do these such acts are too scared to do something positive in the world and just have to have something to say. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1goNzzQWrx2qFL4S2Z7w_mpsSXvouWwsMKsEqPSpWzAU/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_rXHpOfEmd9HzEwJkq-eZG83GhFNyOaxWU8_FBVoE7Y/edit?usp=sharing