"Could Your Facebook Profile Throw a Wrench in Your Future?" by Rebecca Dince

I personally think the employers have every right to look at your public online pages. If you post something you don’t want certain people to see then don’t post it at all. Our generation has a hard time understanding that stuff people put on the internet is on there forever. If you think about it in the employers’ point of view would you want to hire someone who has pictures of them all over the Internet doing drugs or drinking alcohol? Even just one person can ruin a company. People should only post information or pictures that they are comfortable for everyone to see. The employers are just doing their jobs and if that involves not hiring someone due to inappropriate images or information that they posted on the Internet they have every right not to hire that individual. People need to be responsible for their actions. Use this article to learn a lesson, be careful what you post because it can come back and haunt you.

"Focusing on Friends" by Steve Tesich

There is only one situation I can think of when I was proud yet embarrassed in front of my friend. This friend of mine is a guy, back in high school he was one of my best guy friends. But I always had these feelings for him. Before we graduated I told him how I loved being with him and around him and that I’ve always had feelings for him. Unfortunately he did not feel the same way about me because of our strong friendship. I was proud of myself that after almost 5 years of friendship I was able to confront him about it. Yet I was also embarrassed because he didn’t feel the same way about me. Which ended up making me feel like I made a fool of myself. The good news is we are still amazing friends and if anything confronting him made me stronger. There will always be a special place in my heart for him but I am perfectly fine with just being friends.

Making Connections #2

Thomas Wolfe quoted "you can't go home again". Now for many people that may be true. In "Abandoned but Not Alone" by Thomas Oliphant the kids in that article physically cannot go home again. Their parents have kicked them out and practically disowned them for being gay. Those are the kids who can't go home again. This quotation can also apply to the choices students make on where to attend college. If it's far enough most kids barely get to go home and see their family. As for me I am only two and a half hours away from my home. I can't go home anytime I want but I am close enough for if I want to go home it’s only a couple hours out of reach. I wouldn’t like being too far away from my home because I enjoy seeing my family every so often. That’s why I personally chose to stay fairly close to home.

Making Connections #1

In a way I can somewhat relate to Joseph Suina in “And Then I Went to School” and Amy Tan in “Mother Tongue” because I’ve had a recent experience when I was among people who I did not share a common language with. This past Columbus Day weekend some friends and I went to Montreal to visit my friend for her 18^th birthday. In Montreal the common language is either English or French. Luckily most people there spoke English but there were a handful of people who only spoke French. Most of the signs were all in French too so it was kind of hard to understand where to go. Unlike my other friends I was with I took French in high school. So I had some idea of where to go and what people were saying, even though I was never really good at French. But it was so weird to be surrounded by another language I only knew so little of. It felt kind of confusing to navigate our way around Canada.

"Let the Colors Run" by Ron Suskind

In the short story “Let the Colors Run” by Ron Suskind a young man was asked to write a five-page midterm essay for his class. Instead he wrote a very beautiful two-paged poem. After deep consideration the teacher gave him a B. Now if I were the teacher in this situation I’d be confused at what to do as well. Although the poem was very beautiful, that was not the assignment. I’d probably feel bad giving the student a low grade since he clearly put a lot of effort into the poem, so I’d most likely settle with a C or B. It was defiantly reasonable that the teacher will be grading the research paper harder next time. And if the student didn’t do the next paper correctly I would definitely give him a failing grade since he had a conference with the teacher about it.

"Abandoned but Not Alone" by Thomas Elephant

Thomas Oliphant’s argument in the reading “Abandoned but Not Alone” is going against the parents who kicked out their own kids because they were gay. I completely think his argument is reasonable against the parents of those kids who were abandoned. I don’t understand how a parent can just kick their own child out because they are gay. Why should that even matter? The parents should be supporting their children not shunning them from the family. I can’t imagine my parents ever doing that to me and I am so thankful my parents will always be there for me no matter what. I think the Point Foundation is such an amazing program. My favorite part is how an adult helps move in a student on their first day of school so they don’t have to do it alone. It is sad at the same time because there are so many other kids out there that need help but the foundation can’t support all of them.

"The Meaning of Work” by Rodrigo Joseph Rodriguez

After reading “The Meaning of Work” by Rodrigo Joseph Rodriguez it made me think to myself what I value in a job or career. I’ve come to the conclusion that what I want for my job is something I enjoy doing everyday. I want to be happy with my job, if I’m spending the rest of my life doing the same job it might as well be something worth getting out of bed for. Although a good salary is also a very good plus I think I would rather have something I enjoy. My plans for the future is to become a Nurse Anesthetist, lucky for me they have a very good salary so hopefully it will be something I really enjoy. I enjoy the math and science so hopefully this job will be a good fit for me. My grandmother was the one who suggested nursing to me because she was a nurse then after doing more research I decided to go for Nurse Anesthetist.

"Bricklayer's Boy" by Alfred Lubrano

In Lubrano’s essay he talks about how for once his father let him pay for something, even though it was just something small and simple. But it meant so much to him that his father finally let him do that for him.  I can relate to this with my own family. My parents have spent countless dollars on me my entire life. Once I got my own job, I finally had money of my own. My parents don’t like it when I offer to pay for my own things but it gives me a sense of accomplishment to know I am able to pay for the things I want and not have to take my parents money that they earned. Once my mother let me pay for dinner at a local restaurant called Bellini’s. It was a special treat for my family and I. It wasn’t that expensive but it’s the thought that counts.

"Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan

I can completely relate to Amy Tan's short story "Mother Tongue" and how she had to use “standard English” for her mother to understand what she was talking about. But instead of myself having the issue to change my words so others understand, I am the one who doesn’t understand. Sometimes the people I am around say words that I just don’t understand the meaning. I’m the type of person who isn’t very good with large words. I stick to simple words. It can be embarrassing sometimes when I have to ask what a word means. Sometimes I just play it off like I know the meaning and work around the word and just try to understand the rest of the sentence. It would give me a better excuse if I was from another country and didn’t speak English very well. But the sad fact is I was born and raised in America and still don’t know the definition of the larger words that many people do know and use on a daily bases. I’m always open to learning new things so even if they need to break it down for me I can learn from them and use it to enhance my own vocabulary. 

"And Then I Went to School" by Joseph Suina

In the short story of “And Then I Went to School” by Joseph Suina, the author went to a new school for “a better life in the future”.  In result of going to this new school there were multiple changes in his life that were very different from the life he was living before. For example he was now exposed to running water and a new language. In a way his life does get better, he is exposed to a new way of living and can make a decision on his own for which way he would like to live. Attending college would provide him a better life because he will be more successful in life and the school will open him to more opportunities than he was offered before. If Suina is giving anything up it’s seeing his family everyday. On page six he says, “I left to attend a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school 30 miles from home.” He mentioned before how his family doesn’t have a car so they can’t drive back and forth to see him. He was very close with him grandma so not seeing her everyday was probably the hardest part for him.