One More Rep
Education has been one of the main ways that I have learned how to read and write, but certain aspects of it have also been reasons for me to become disinterested in reading and writing. Some teachers that were very fond of specific writing styles that I was not discouraged me from writing the way I wanted to, and how I felt that I personally wrote the best. While gaining a broad sense of the different styles of writing does create a well-rounded writer, it was almost detrimental to my writing skills to have an entire semester of high school dedicated to writing poetry. While this is a respectable type of writing, it is not what appeals to me at all, and does not hold much value to my individual preference in writing styles. I would much rather see my words play out over a page rather than in very skewed misinterpreted lines of text.
One of the most inspirational and helpful places I have ever been to in my life is the gym. It is where I go to process big things that happen in my life, work off excess emotions like anger or sadness, it is where I go to have fun, and it is also where I go to reflect. Many things that happen in the gym can be used in some form or another as an analogy for things that happen in our lives. Becoming a good writer doesn’t happen overnight, just like a good football player isn’t made in a day, and real improvements in the gym won’t be seen in a week. What can be said however is that with dedication and determination a star football player can be born, and improvements can be seen in the gym. It is all encompassed around the phrase “one more rep.” One more rep is a phrase I have heard a lot in the gym as naturally it seems that the gym or a training field is the only place where a phrase like this would apply. This is completely false. One more rep is an analogy for any large obstacle in ones life, or a seemingly impossible task that somehow gets accomplished again and again.
One of the main ways that I live my life is through the gym. In the small amount of time that I have been lifting, my life has changed for the better. When I had first started lifting again over the summer of my senior year in highschool, I was barely 180 pounds soaking wet, and could hardly use half of the machines in the gym. When I first got into the gym I was not completely sold on it. I had been trying to teach myself good exercises to do while in the gym, but as any newbie to the gym will tell you; it is much harder and less effective to learn how to lift by yourself. I had tried for about a month to lift on my own without seeing much results. Finally, I caved and paid for a personal trainer to help establish my goals in the gym and get me on the right path to learning how to lift. As much as I love working out now, I did not particularly like what I was doing back then. The focus for me had been getting my body fat as low as I could before I actually started piling on muscle, which obviously involved a lot of cardio. I was seeing progress, but not in the direction I was looking for.
When I started my first semester at Western Carolina, the first thing I did as soon as I got the chance, was sign up for flag football. It had been so long since I had played football and I was extremely excited to get back into it. I had no idea who was going to be on the team, or whether or not we were even going to be any good but I was excited nonetheless. This was when I first met my friend that helped me on the road to building muscle and a love for lifting weights. We did not actually talk that much for the first few games, but eventually we ended up scheduling a time to go lift together. This is when everything changed for me. Lifting was awesome, I was having so much fun every week my weights were going up and I was getting more, and more confident. I was benching, squatting, deadlifting, all of the things I had wanted to do but had no idea where to start. Eventually I started lifting with my friend from football and a few other guys from the gym regularly and through the course of a bunch of heavy lifting, and a lot of heavy eating I went from a scrawny 180 pounds to a whopping 230 pounds. It was great I had gone from lifting 225 pounds in my deadlift and squat to 450 pounds on my deadlift and 375 on my squat. Seeing these kind of improvements are what make the gym so much fun to come back to. The same can be said for ones writing style and skill; if you see progress and improvement, it can do wonders to your confidence which can in turn help to get the best results possible.
There are some things however which can hold a person back in the gym, as well as life. Lifting alone for example can be preferred by some, but in order to improve physically and mentally it is generally better to have a group of people, or at least one person to progress with. The primary problem with lifting alone is that it limits how much you can push yourself. If you have no one to spot you then there is no encouragement that if you fail, there will be someone to catch you. Similarly, when writing a paper, if you try to get through it without the help of your peers whose to say that it is the best work you can produce.
Another reason in which I particularly enjoy lifting, is that it helps to express to the people around you that you do care about your health and the way that your body looks. By sitting on the couch all day watching television and eating pizza, many people may internalize that behavior as lazy, and unmotivated. However, if someone is consistently maintaining a healthy lifestyle by incorporating proper diet and exercise it conveys the sense that the individual cares about the state that their body is in. For me, lifting and living a healthy lifestyle is a great way to find an activity that will always be challenging. There will never be a point in which the weights get to light, or you have done every single exercise to perfection. It is a constantly evolving sport that you must continually train to get better and better at. Not only does it enhance your mental clarity, but exercising is an amazing way to express yourself, meet new people, and improve your health. While weightlifting will probably be something I will do forever, I also consider writing similar to this. It will never get too easy, and it is something you must work to modify and perfect for your entire life.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
Literacy Narrative Rough Draft
Education has been one of the main ways that I have learned how to read and write, but certain aspects of it have also been reasons for me to become disinterested in reading and writing. Some teachers that were very fond of specific writing styles that I was not discouraged me from writing the way I wanted to, and how I felt that I personally wrote the best. While gaining a broad sense of the different styles of writing does create a well-rounded writer, it was almost detrimental to my writing skills to have an entire semester of high school dedicated to writing poetry. While this is a respectable type of writing, it is not what appeals to me at all, and does not hold much value to my individual preference in writing styles. I would much rather see my words play out over a page rather than in very skewed misinterpreted lines of text.
One of the most inspirational and helpful places I have ever been to in my life is the gym. It is where I go to process big things that happen in my life, work off excess emotions like anger or sadness, it is where I go to have fun, and it is also where I go to reflect. Many things that happen in the gym can be used in some form or another as an analogy for things that happen in our lives. Becoming a good writer doesn’t happen overnight, just like a good football player isn’t made in a day, and real improvements in the gym won’t be seen in a week. What can be said however is that with dedication and determination a star football player can be born, and improvements can be seen in the gym. It is all encompassed around the phrase “one more rep.” One more rep is a phrase I have heard a lot in the gym as naturally it seems that the gym or a training field is the only place where a phrase like this would apply. This is completely false. One more rep is an analogy for any large obstacle in ones life, or a seemingly impossible task that somehow gets accomplished again and again.
Friday, April 8, 2016
Writing Feedback Summary
I think that for me as a writer one of my greatest weaknesses does not come from one single statement or example in my writing alone, but by my writing process as a whole. By procrastinating consistently, and rushing through papers, I tend to miss certain grammatical errors that I would have otherwise caught. As far as improving my writing goes, I think it would be beneficial to change the way that I write, and how I go through the steps of writing a paper or finishing an assignment. For a small example of this problem, I will frequently misplace quotations in a sentence when citing a source. Although I do know the proper placement of them, rushing to finish a paper, and skipping any revisions or double checks usually proves to be a problem which shows in the final product. One website I think I will look to in the future is http://spellcheckplus.com/. It seems like the perfect place to start in addressing my issue with proper grammar.
Midterm Story as Evidence
Classism in America
Midterm Essay
Aidan Marquardt
English I
There are a varying amount of types of discrimination in the world, but one that has recently become more well known is classism and discrimination or unfair treatment based solely off of one's economic position or social class. Classism is something that affects all people in our culture no matter what social class you are in. Whether or not you are on the negative or positive end of classism, almost all people in a society with established social groups are impacted by it. It is important to me because I think that it is ridiculous to be discriminated and demeaned simply based off of one’s social status. It is especially relevant to youth specifically, because many younger people have not developed a full understanding of money, and it is much easier for groups of younger people to discriminate against others that are different than them. However, classism occurs at all age levels and through all members of society in some form or another.
One of the largest forms that classism appears in, is the education system in America. Many people struggle around the world with finding adequate education, but in America, it is thought that everyone has equal access to public schooling. This is not always the case because in many places the education that is received in lower income areas is nowhere near the same as places that generally have a higher level of income. As far as college is concerned, the difference between getting into a state or community college is much different than getting into somewhere like Yale or Harvard. Anya Kamenetz, the author of several books about education, published an article about how elite colleges keep underprivileged kids from attending them. In it she states “Take two 18-year-olds with equally stellar academic abilities. One comes from the socioeconomic bottom and one from the top. That lower-income student is one-third as likely to enroll in a selective college.” While the education standards are much higher, this article discusses how classism can come into effect when viewing colleges and the selection process. Whether or not the discrimination is being carried out on purpose, there is a long chain of events that the author explains lead towards students of lower social class being less likely to be accepted into an Ivy League or more selective college. For example, one of the more inadvertent ways that lower economic class students are discriminated against is by not having the opportunity to visit some of the colleges they choose. Kamenetz states that kids that do not have the money to travel to their prospective colleges are not as highly favored as students that actually visit campus. One of the many various smaller ways that low socioeconomic status can impact a person.
One way that this chain of events unfolds is that if there is a lack of education in the poor, then they are also open to being easily manipulated by political leaders, and other society members. For example, in the article ‘Loving the Poorly Educated’, the Rev. Dan Schatz, uses an example from one of Donald Trump's speeches in Nevada where he was quoted saying “We won with poorly educated… I love the poorly educated”. This is just one of the many hints that politicians will use and manipulate the less fortunate, and without any higher level of education there is a lot less that they can do to prevent being manipulated. They are viewed as an easy vote for people who appeal to their tastes, and do not take into consideration any intellectual aspects of deciding who to vote for. While this is obviously not true, it is in itself a form of classism. One of the best quotes perfectly summing up what our culture does to people that are poorly educated and near or below the poverty line is by Rev. Dan Schatz a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Divinity School. He says that “Our culture conflates formal education with human worth far too often. Degrees, especially from elite universities, become symbols of status and privilege, while people labeled “poorly educated” become targets for derision”.
One of the final points that can be brought up about classism is the fact that someone who is not making enough money and is being forced to work long hours, is not given as much free, creative time as someone who lives in the middle or upper class. The author of the article ‘Too Busy Being Poor’ goes into great detail on how they think that people at the bottom of the economical class are allotted much less free time than a wealthy person, saying “eight hours of work was more than good enough for centuries… Certain classes of people have been working more than eight hours a day for as long as there has been economic stratification.” It is very true that the lower class is often not spared as much time in the day and can also lead to one of the main reasons they have no time to seek out furthering their education with some form of college.
Overall it is important to know the different causes of the economically disadvantaged being discriminated against. To be able to understand why seeking an education or understanding of politics might be much different to someone who works 12 hours a day and has never had the opportunity to attend college or further their education. Our society’s culture is designed around money and education, and if you lack either, in some way or another you as well are a victim of classism.
Kamenetz, Anya. “5 Ways Elite-College Admissions Shut Out Poor Kids.” nprED, NPR. 11 March 2016. 15 January 2016.
"Too Busy Being Poor To Be Creative." The Huffington Post. HPMG News, 29 Feb. 2016. 13 Mar. 2016.
Schatz, Dan. "Loving the "Poorly Educated"" The Huffington Post. HPMG News, 25 Feb. 2016. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.
Midterm Essay
Aidan Marquardt
English I
There are a varying amount of types of discrimination in the world, but one that has recently become more well known is classism and discrimination or unfair treatment based solely off of one's economic position or social class. Classism is something that affects all people in our culture no matter what social class you are in. Whether or not you are on the negative or positive end of classism, almost all people in a society with established social groups are impacted by it. It is important to me because I think that it is ridiculous to be discriminated and demeaned simply based off of one’s social status. It is especially relevant to youth specifically, because many younger people have not developed a full understanding of money, and it is much easier for groups of younger people to discriminate against others that are different than them. However, classism occurs at all age levels and through all members of society in some form or another.
One of the largest forms that classism appears in, is the education system in America. Many people struggle around the world with finding adequate education, but in America, it is thought that everyone has equal access to public schooling. This is not always the case because in many places the education that is received in lower income areas is nowhere near the same as places that generally have a higher level of income. As far as college is concerned, the difference between getting into a state or community college is much different than getting into somewhere like Yale or Harvard. Anya Kamenetz, the author of several books about education, published an article about how elite colleges keep underprivileged kids from attending them. In it she states “Take two 18-year-olds with equally stellar academic abilities. One comes from the socioeconomic bottom and one from the top. That lower-income student is one-third as likely to enroll in a selective college.” While the education standards are much higher, this article discusses how classism can come into effect when viewing colleges and the selection process. Whether or not the discrimination is being carried out on purpose, there is a long chain of events that the author explains lead towards students of lower social class being less likely to be accepted into an Ivy League or more selective college. For example, one of the more inadvertent ways that lower economic class students are discriminated against is by not having the opportunity to visit some of the colleges they choose. Kamenetz states that kids that do not have the money to travel to their prospective colleges are not as highly favored as students that actually visit campus. One of the many various smaller ways that low socioeconomic status can impact a person.
One way that this chain of events unfolds is that if there is a lack of education in the poor, then they are also open to being easily manipulated by political leaders, and other society members. For example, in the article ‘Loving the Poorly Educated’, the Rev. Dan Schatz, uses an example from one of Donald Trump's speeches in Nevada where he was quoted saying “We won with poorly educated… I love the poorly educated”. This is just one of the many hints that politicians will use and manipulate the less fortunate, and without any higher level of education there is a lot less that they can do to prevent being manipulated. They are viewed as an easy vote for people who appeal to their tastes, and do not take into consideration any intellectual aspects of deciding who to vote for. While this is obviously not true, it is in itself a form of classism. One of the best quotes perfectly summing up what our culture does to people that are poorly educated and near or below the poverty line is by Rev. Dan Schatz a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Divinity School. He says that “Our culture conflates formal education with human worth far too often. Degrees, especially from elite universities, become symbols of status and privilege, while people labeled “poorly educated” become targets for derision”.
One of the final points that can be brought up about classism is the fact that someone who is not making enough money and is being forced to work long hours, is not given as much free, creative time as someone who lives in the middle or upper class. The author of the article ‘Too Busy Being Poor’ goes into great detail on how they think that people at the bottom of the economical class are allotted much less free time than a wealthy person, saying “eight hours of work was more than good enough for centuries… Certain classes of people have been working more than eight hours a day for as long as there has been economic stratification.” It is very true that the lower class is often not spared as much time in the day and can also lead to one of the main reasons they have no time to seek out furthering their education with some form of college.
Overall it is important to know the different causes of the economically disadvantaged being discriminated against. To be able to understand why seeking an education or understanding of politics might be much different to someone who works 12 hours a day and has never had the opportunity to attend college or further their education. Our society’s culture is designed around money and education, and if you lack either, in some way or another you as well are a victim of classism.
Kamenetz, Anya. “5 Ways Elite-College Admissions Shut Out Poor Kids.” nprED, NPR. 11 March 2016. 15 January 2016.
"Too Busy Being Poor To Be Creative." The Huffington Post. HPMG News, 29 Feb. 2016. 13 Mar. 2016.
Schatz, Dan. "Loving the "Poorly Educated"" The Huffington Post. HPMG News, 25 Feb. 2016. Web. 13 Mar. 2016.
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