English

21002

Sarah Perez

Josiah Rajgopaul

CCNY

While this semester was underway, I found myself working on writing about a wide variety of topics while also refining my abilities in a large number of areas, those areas primarily being highlighted through the course learning objectives. I enjoyed my most recent essay the most because of the challenges it had posed to me, as I was responsible for finding professionals to interview whilst also finding articles that would also back up my views. I felt like I had to be thorough, and I enjoyed covering multiple bases in order to find what I needed to make my argument the strongest it could be. This decidedly highlights the qualities listed in Course Learning Objective number four, by describing how to develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes. This was done because this was an essay where I would have to work with others in multiple ways in order to refine and strengthen my essay. For example, during class time, when my essay was presented to the class, my classmates had given me advice and constructive criticisms on how to improve, thus showing the collaboration and social aspects of this assignment. Furthermore, I had to collaborate and socialize with the people that I had interviewed, naturally, as I had to ask them questions and guide the discussion in a productive manner. Another Course Learning Objective that this essay had helped me achieve would be number two, which is to enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self assessment. The way this learning objective was achieved was because I had to read over my essay multiple times, while undergoing through 3 drafts, all which included me revising and editing the content therein.

Furthermore, throughout this semester there have been other assignments that have helped me reach other course objectives as well. For example, for Essay #1 the multicultural interview I was able to achieve and understand course learning objective #1, ( acknowledge your and others’ range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility )  as the assignment had me interview somebody from a different ethnic background, as such, I was able to witness the linguistic differences and draw conclusions from the rhetoric used. I found it especially interesting how the person I interviewed spoke differently utilizing different speech patterns, which went to show the sheer contrast in difference from how we were raised, and our backgrounds. Another course objective I was able to understand through this essay would be #6, formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing. I mention that because my stance throughout the essay was that despite how vastly different we could be, in the end, we’re all human so to some regard we’re all similar, and I was able to paint the difference in cultures and traditions whilst also being able to tie connections between myself and the person i interviewed, as such, I was able to keep my stance and support it throughout the essay. In addition to this, I was able to understand course learning outcome #8 as well, that including strengthening your source use practices (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources) as this interview had me quote what my interviewee was saying in my essay, and paraphrase what was being said in some instances within the transcript. Furthermore, I had to summarize the interview in the essay, while also synthesizing and analyzing from my interviewee’s experiences, which all ended up being cited within my essay. 

As you can see, a common trend occurring from my essays is that they call for me to reference several different course learning outcomes. Another example of this can be seen through essay #2, which had me do a deep dive into studying an online group through a field observational essay, in which I would have to describe the mannerisms and occurrences for the Star Wars subreddit. As such, while undergoing research for my essay I had to find a middle ground between what I had in mind for my essay and what the people of reddit would post. Obviously, the people who were frequenting these online subreddits were not having my essay in mind, which is why it was essential for me to utilize learning outcome #3, which required me to negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation in order to format the information provided to me in a way to elevate my essay. Naturally by design, this also achieved course learning #5 as well, which entailed engaging in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond. I mention this because I had to go through several instances in which I had to dive through the science fiction genre through several facets primarily within the subreddit, and connect the information to not just the given context defined from the essay, but furthermore I had connected the information beyond just what was required from the essay. Another learning outcome I was able to further understand and utilize would be course learning objective #7, practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects. This objective actually goes hand in hand with several of my essays as I had to reference the internet and library sources in order to strengthen my arguments and essays overall. For instance,  in my field observational essay I had to use the Star Wars subreddit and other online databases like magazines and interviews for my essay. However, Another essay I wrote that strongly utilized this course objective among other ones, would be my literature review essay. My literature review essay required me to refer to several differences sources in order to strengthen my argument to support my view, which also connects to both #6 and #8 as well, as I referenced several different case studies and articles in order to support my viewpoint, using the CCNY library, and other online databases, primarily from Harvard, as sources for my writing project. 

In conclusion, looking back at this course as the semester continued underway, it was obvious that it allowed me to touch base on various areas and become more capable as a writer because of the unique experiences and challenges I was thrusted into. As such, I feel like I’ve been able to progress and become stronger in these focus areas, where previously I didn’t have a strong head start or understanding, I now feel capable.

English

21002

Sarah Perez

Josiah Rajgopaul

CCNY

   

Reflection

I thought about my research question by trying to imagine what could help me grow as a person. There are some pieces of information that no matter what we choose to do in life, will help us tremendously, by being universal in that regard. Initially my question was, what are the effects of love on our mental health? However, upon initially having that question, it had caused a lot of confusion with people, as it was seen as too broad. I was often asked to further clarify that statement, and make it more digestible, so I decided to try to uncover the relationship between love and our mental health as a whole, by seeing how relationships and the love they foster affects us. There were a large number of challenges I faced when trying to find credible sources, first and foremost, there were a lot of pseudo scientific sources, especially because of my research question relating to love. I wanted reputable and scientific facts to back up my claims, and although anyone can write about love because it’s a universal thing, to have credibility to someone’s name especially with science would help my case significantly. As such, I’ve discarded a number of sources that I felt weren’t reliable enough, especially from blog posts from people without degrees. If given more time to conduct an interview, I would have tried to find more people who have done experiments in this field to not only touch on the practical applications of what I’ve researched but also the scientific areas. A course learning outcome that I’ve utilized while undoing this research would be practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects, as I’ve referred to various articles online for this essay.

Relationships

In our day to day lives, we should always strive to make the most out of every moment. Our time on this Earth is limited, so we should do what we can to try and make the quality of our life better. My question is, how does love affect our mental health? We all can get joy and love out of different places, but there are some traits that are universally human. One of these traits is that the quality and the strength of our relationships could actually affect our physical and mental health significantly. (Department of Health & Human Services, 2017). Having these worthwhile connections can reportedly reduce anxiety and depression rates, cause us to have a higher sense of self esteem, as well as be more empathetic as people. Oddly enough, it could also allow us to have a stronger immune system. (Department of Health & Human Services, 2017) All these factors adding up can just go to show how essential relationships alone can be for us to thrive in many ways. When it comes to an absence of these relationships it can cause irregular sleep patterns, higher blood pressure, and increased stress. This can also cause an increased likelihood for depression and even suicide. It’s even flat out stated that having relationships leads to a better quality of life. (Department of Health & Human Services, 2017).

Something Natural by Design

Love and trust is the backbone to any healthy relationship. (Department of Health & Human Services, 2017) Love is linked to our biological nature as humans, more specifically the dopamine and reward receptors being fired off within the brain. (Love and the brain. Harvard Medical School). This goes to show, from a biological standpoint, science shows how beneficial that love can be for us. Love can take many forms, from a romantic relationship to a family connection. At the end of the day, regardless of how a relationship manifests, the research shows that when we feel love, it can actually deactivate the neural pathways that let us feel negative emotions, like fear or social judgment. (Love and the brain. Harvard Medical School). Moreover, it’s also mentioned that some of the most primitive areas of the human brain are involved with love. (Love and the brain. Harvard Medical School). In other words, when we take a step back to look at how the brain works, fundamentally, not only is our brain hard wired to crave and desire love from a primal standpoint, but it also rewards us and casts away negativity inherently when we receive love. In those regards, the natural and most healthy thing to do is embrace love. This goes to further establish the relationship between love and our health, by showing how beneficial love is for us. When 2,500 scans of the human brain were done on people who looked at somebody they loved and then somebody they were just familiar with, the people who felt love had their brains become more active. (Love and the brain. Harvard Medical School) What this means is, fundamentally, our brain simply works more when we feel love, which in some regards can be seen as us unlocking more of our potential.

What’s best for Our Health

With all the prior points I’ve shed light on in reference, we should all be able to agree that love just overall makes our lives healthy. Believe it or not though, there are a lot of layers to unpack behind this sentiment. Older people, who have obviously lived longer, can have their mental health decline and actually have poorer physical health if they don’t have any meaningful connections or support. (What’s love got to do with mental health? Next Avenue 2022) We’re said to be social creatures that thrive on social interactions, and unfortunately if we’re left alone for too long without love we can feel increased rates of depression as mentioned before, and poorer physical health. We shouldn’t just focus on health, but also in fostering environments we enjoy for our sake. There is a clear relationship between love and better psychological being in life, and it also can give us a feeling of euphoria. Moreover, chemicals can be released within a couple between one another to further strengthen their bond, similar to the chemical release between a mother and a child. (What’s love got to do with mental health? Next Avenue 2022)

What this means in other words, is that from a natural and biological standpoint our bodies literally respond to love and reward us for it in various ways, and our bodies release chemicals in an effort to grow closer to those who we love. For these various reasons I’m inclined to believe that love’s relationship to our health is beneficial and ideal, and we should foster and promote love with what we do.

Real Life Examples

When prompted to do research in this topic, I tried thinking about real world applications for this information. How could one utilize this information in order to better their daily lives? Naturally, it’s a firmly held belief anybody has the capacity to show love and empathy if they so choose. As such, I seeked people who assist others in critical points of their lives, who actively implement love into their jobs. I spoke with Mr.Gafur, a highschool teacher about his preferred style of teaching, and how it affected his classroom. He mentioned how highschool could be a very stressful moment in students lives, but when he shows up with passion and love for what he does, and he treats students with respect, it makes them easily more motivated to do the work. He said “Kindness is contagious”. He mentioned how there are all kinds of different ways to show passion and that you care, and how his love for his job not only helps himself but his students as well. This actually aligns with what research shows, if you motivate and inspire your students as a teacher they want to do more. (“When You Believe in Your Students They Do Better.” YouCubed, 2019) This mirrors the effects of  love and our mental health, because when you treat people with love and reaffirm their efforts they will actually be in a mentally better place and improve. In addition to Mr. Gafur, I also spoke with another person with a lot of experience, albeit in a different area, nevertheless still utilizing the same principles, Ms. Shameen is an assistant at a hospital, and in conversation with me she explained very simply, your attitude when you show up to help people can very seriously make a drastic difference when it comes to recovery. Basic kindness and empathy and love for what you do can not only make your attitude and composure when you do your daily activities better, it can also help take stress away from the patient and make them more relaxed. “These are people in high stress situations, and if you’re there for them, it makes all the difference.” What Ms.Shameen explained to me aligns perfectly with the narrative painted by research, in terms of how compassion and empathy and caring can make patients healthy and feel better. (Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference, 2019.)

Conclusion

In conclusion, no matter what career we pursue, or what relationship dynamic is observed, universally love is essential for us to be in a healthy mental space. I’ve gone through speaking to professionals in different areas who utilize these principles that help them in a plethora of different ways, and they’ve described it as life changing. Not only can you come to appreciate the little things in life, but you feel better while you’re living too. I understand for some, establishing these relationships and dynamics, and moreover accepting love can be very challenging, however I’ll illustrate some ways in which we can seek a better mental state. In life we develop a number of habits, these can be healthy habits, like working out. Other times, these habits can be detrimental, like flat out rejecting love and the idea of getting closer to people or displaying emotion because it makes us uncomfortable. The issue here is, if you don’t allow yourself to fully feel or display how you feel, you’re inherently depriving yourself the experience of being authentic to who you really are. The trick is, we have to take risks and to break out of our comfort zone, as what’s comfortable for us isn’t always what’s best for us, and the payoff makes the initial discomfort worth the risk. There will be a number of times we may fail in our endeavors, however we must remember we’ve only truly failed when we’ve wholeheartedly given up. 

References

Department of Health & Human Services. (2017, October 2). Strong relationships, Strong Health. Better Health Channel. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/Strong-relationships-strong-health

Love and the brain. Harvard Medical School. (n.d.). https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/love-brain

Next Avenue. (2022, March 18). What’s love got to do with mental health? Next Avenue. https://www.nextavenue.org/whats-love-got-to-do-with-mental-health/

English

21002

Sarah Perez

Josiah Rajgopaul

CCNY

How I selected this online community for this assignment was very simple, I grew up watching star wars. As a child, the stories seemed very cool to me, it was all incredibly surreal. Naturally, the older we get, typically the more observant we become. If any media of entertainment is written well, it will stand the test of time. I say this all because, if we enjoy a franchise as a child, sometimes we will grow out of it, however if we mature and develop, we can come to appreciate the writing to a higher degree, thus enriching our appreciation for this source of entertainment. What I’ve just described was the process I went through, as I began to enjoy Star Wars even more. I understand that I have my own views and internal bias, which would make anything I’d write seem unfair from an observational standpoint. That’s why I tried to adapt via maintaining an open mind and accepting everything I saw. I couldn’t allow my personal feelings get in the way of the observations, as the appropriate time to share my views was in the commentary. To be frank, I’m very active within these communities, and I’m well aware of the trends and mannerisms. It was all decently familiar for me, however a discovery that fascinated me was how strongly some people cared for the characters, even going so far as to create stunning fanart of their characters. Fan art was nothing new, but just seeing the talent blew me away. In terms of outside sources, I used the official star wars twitter, as well an interview with BBC. Naturally, because I had to read, and fix my essay based on peer advice, a CLO that this assignment achieved would be “enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment”.

One of the core defining characteristics we all share as human beings is empathy. It’s a real life superpower. We always hear stories in fiction about legendary people and their heroics, the constant struggle between light and dark, and naturally because of empathy and love, we can see ourselves in the shoes of these characters. We naturally wonder, “What if that was me?“, or even “What could I have done differently?”. Such a thought pattern is perfectly natural, and should even be promoted. It allows expansion within the mind because it enables us to do critical thinking, in some instances it can even leave us to break out of our comfort zones and imagine ourselves in scenarios we try to avoid. For some, especially myself this provides a keen sense of humility because I’m able to consider my shortcomings and better myself accordingly. It should be the goal of any self respecting individual to better themself and be surrounded by love and support. I mention this all because Star Wars offers a home to many, a place where they can express love,frustration, be free, and have deep and enriching discourse with others like themselves.

In my observations, it was my goal to play the role of a watcher and analyze trends, and deconstruct the social settings where these fans would be. I’d be analyzing how they would interact, the social norms, including but not limited to any patterns pertaining to communication, the rules and guidelines, I’d be looking into if there were any leadership roles and if so what that would look like. In addition to those factors, it would also be critical to include how inclusive or exclusive this community was, as well as identify an identity they had. Naturally, if there was to be any discourse there would always be some disagreements or conflict, so I would have to touch base on what that would look like within the Star Wars Subreddit. Lastly, to ensure that everything I would observe was as reliable as possible I’d connect my source to other secondary sources.

First things first, I had to scroll through the subreddit to get a feel of the nature of the subreddit. The question that was in my mind at the moment was, what kind of content are they putting out there? At the top of the subreddit was a pinned and highlighted post, for people to have discourse over the latest releases of Star Wars media. Below that, was fanart somebody had drawn of their favorite character. Below that post we can see somebody talk about the lore. From 3 posts alone we can extrapolate a plethora of information, including the social dynamics, among other things. We can see a common trend, that being people being honest, open, and voicing their opinions. At the basis of this forum, as should be the case with any ideal forum, there is discourse among passionate people, that passion being so strong in fact, that people are investing time out of their day to create stunning art, because they feel that these characters have a special impact on them. We can see that people communicate through the comment sections, in an incredibly civil fashion. The method that the subreddit has utilized to achieve this safe and inclusive space is through the use of several rules and regulations, all easily highlighted on the right hand side of the page in desktop mode. If you are confused about a specific rule, you can click on the rule to be provided with a drop down menu, to send you to a portion of the site that further explains the rule in extensive detail. Arguably one of the most important qualities of this subreddit would be the inclusive and loving nature that has been promoted by the rules as well. People are expected to be respectful to one another. The power dynamic is shown through the use of moderators, who regulate discourse and help keep things civil. Due to the fact that Star Wars spans over so many generations and it’s global, that means many people can bring their individual political views and ideas into their opinions on the franchise. Within the subreddit, they have their own rules to help keep things civil when it comes to politics, however outside of the subreddit, where conversation isn’t as moderated, people can be very hateful, and even racist. During the release of the “Kenobi” TV show on Disney Plus, a character named Reva Sevander played by Moses Ingram, was getting a lot of hate for various reasons. Some people disliked it for apparent poor writing, while other people took it upon themselves to personally message the actress racist and hateful messages. Unfortunately, Ahmed Best, another actor of color who plays both Jar Jar Binks and Kelleran Beq also received a large amount of hate. He even revealed in interviews he was contemplating suicide because he felt so largely overwhelmed by the hate. This helps paint a picture for how essential these rules are, because it allows for productive and kind discourse to occur, whilst also condemning those who try to act as gatekeepers and hurt this franchise.
The key reason why I started this observation explaining empathy and its impact is due to the fact that it connects to the nature of the Star Wars subreddit, not only by the fans, but by the creators and actors. The most liked post on the subreddit was from the main actor of “Kenobi”, Ewan McGregor condemning racism and advocating for inclusion on his instagram story. This, in tandem with a tweet from the official Star Wars Twitter, “There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist”. The reason this all connects is due to the fact that these messages illustrate the true nature of the franchise. The point is to love one another, to educate one another, and to foster a safe environment for everybody. This shouldn’t be an exclusive community just for men, or just for older people. This is for everybody. This provides the members with a sense of belonging and safety because they’re able to project their thoughts and ideas in a safe environment.

English 21002

Sarah Perez

Josiah Rajgopaul

CCNY

Sarah is a 19 year old undergrad student at the City College of New York. She was born and raised in the Bronx, and that’s where she feels home. Her family migrated to Canada and the United States from Carribean, namely Guyana. Guyana is a tropical country, with rich wildlife and lush jungles located in South America. Sarah’s ancestors were taken out of India from the British Empire, roughly sometime around the 1800s, and sent throughout the West Indies to work on plantations, especially for the sugar industry. There was a large number of cultural diffusion going on within these areas, as African, Indian, and Chinese workers were all sent to enact hard labor together. Sarah’s story is one that has to do with a lot of travel, and a lot of hard work. For generations, her family has been on the move, due to some circumstances beyond their control, to end up in the United States. This is her experience being told.

Sarah was born on December 7th, 2004, however this is not when her story truly began. Only becoming independent from the British in 1966, meaning Sarah’s own grandparents were alive during the British occupation. Life in this area was especially hard, with sugar and gold being large exports from this country, most of the average citizen’s life was spent doing hard labor for lackluster pay. Due to these less than desirable conditions that people were facing, and lack of pay, the quality of life was poor, due to people not being able to afford much, and living in poverty. This made other countries, fresh with opportunity and money, a desirable location for these people who had to deal with these unfavorable conditions.

( Photo of Guyana’s Beautiful Rainforest ) -Source: Lonely Planet

I met with Sarah in the library in the North Academic Center, also known as NAC. We had just gotten some food into our systems previously, as we wanted to be bursting with energy for this interview. It was imperative to be in top condition. We found a cozy spot, and started to record. I asked for her permission to record the interview, customary under such circumstances to ensure she was fine with it, and we proceeded. I asked her a series of questions, pertaining to migration and history, which do truly go hand and hand. She passionately explained the history to me.  As mentioned previously, due to economic and historical conditions, people can be attracted or repelled from certain environments depending on what the situation is. Sarah began to explain the conditions of Guyana, this third world country that had lacked infrastructure and opportunity, the intense level of poverty, and how it was almost necessary for her family to leave to change their lives for the better. She explained how her family had migrated to North America, and because of the better education opportunities, and the better economy and jobs, her family was actually able to thrive and have significantly better conditions, in a sense living the American Dream. 

( Natural Disasters are common in the caribbean, here we can see the results of a flood in Guyana ) –Source: Loop Caribbean News

I asked her how connected she had felt to her home country, as she lived in New York City her entire life, and she said she went on medical missions, where she would perform surgery and help the children who were still going through these harsh living conditions. She explained although Guyana is no longer under British Occupation, they were still a third world country, meaning a large amount of people had been living in poverty. I complimented her, and I said her work was very noble and helpful for the people who needed it. I began to feel slightly worried though, because I thought some of the people from her home country might envy her, or feel jealous. So I asked her, does her family in her home country keep in touch with her? Does she feel any kind of hostility or disconnect because of the lifestyle and location difference? She explained to me not to worry, and her family was tight knit, and they supported and loved each other, despite any differences, which truly warmed my heart. We’re all human in the end after all.

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