Environmental thinking

"The degree to which we are all involved in the control of the earth's life is just beginning to dawn on most of us, and it means another revolution for human thought." (Thomas 915)

We humans create and destroy. We create technology that betters our lives yet the power it uses causes us to destroy the environment. As we find new ways to help the environment, it, in turn, has a destructive thing follow. Take, for instance, cryptocurrency. You don't need to waste materials for tangible money, but mining it (getting it from graphics cards that are used in computers in some cases) uses a lot of power. It seems as the world dies, we will start to notice the changes for the worse in the environment around us. It seems that most of the time we don't see problems until they are right in front of our face or if we are personally affected by it. Most of us are starting to see the problems of climate change, but many are to yet see them as others do. As time progresses, we will most likely see the problems that others are claiming as well as our claims being accepted by others. This will cause a new revolution of think, as Thomas says, of human thought on how we can save the earth we inhabit. Nothing will come quickly and effortlessly, we need all of us to invent and think of solutions to the problems and consequences we are facing due to climate change. We can be earth's greatest threat, but we don't intend to be that at all, so let us fix our problems so that we and future generations can live in a world that isn't crumbling in front of them.

Grades Kill and Destroy

Getting a B is unforgivable. Life is fading away from my very eyes, is it still worth living for? How could I ever do this? I have failed, let everybody down, I am eternally screwed until the very day I die. The amount of money I would give to get an A, the people I will destroy in my path to get an A, I will sacrifice everything I have saved up and looked forward to, and much more, for an A. Thousands of dollars will be spent to get that filthy, no life B changed to the celebrated war hero A. My sanity is at stake, and my privilege is supreme. "As my eyes glaze overall I can see is the B becoming fuzzy in my vision. I have gone to hell and back to get A's and I have made enemies. Many enemies have been made through this treacherous path. This is for the singular purpose of completion and to be superior to all." And also dives them away from me.

My grades compensate for my lack of social life.
My grades control me like a puppeteer
My grades are the number in which I am defined by society
And finally, my grades are the reason why I drive my friends to insanity

I'm not happy, I'm not sad, just disappointed in myself because of the pain a B can cause to me.

My Use of English

My first language is English, and I do not know how to speak any other languages fluently. My mom's side of the family is Polish, but my great grandpa was the last one that could speak polish in my family before he passed. He did not pass down any part of that language, and everyone else in my family is strictly American. Growing up in the north, we speak "normal American" English, no southern or British accents. When growing up, your vocabulary starts to grow and broaden, which a younger generation of kids may not understand. Since I am the oldest cousin in my immediate family, I tend to speak more simple and easier to comprehend English to the younger kids. I have to censor my language sometimes to keep the "innocence" of my younger cousins and other relatives. Keywords such as "die", "kill", "suicide", "shut up", and "idiot" are FORBIDDEN when kids are nearby. For instance, my cousin was curious about 9/11.  He was talking about it to his mom (my aunt) when I joined in on the discussion. He asked "what happened to the terrorist piolets?", my aunt responded in a smart and innocent way, and I responded with something that involved the word "suicide", my aunt scolded me for that. I quickly retracted my statement and didn't stay for too much longer because I knew I was most likely going to say another "no-no" word.

Cousins (oldest on left, youngest on right)

When talking to my friends, I loosen my language barriers. It seems like I have a good filter switch when talking to family vs. friends (but now since I have said that I will slip up the next time I talk). We talk with more "inside jokes", which others may not understand the meaning of. There's your standard texting language (lol, hmu, ect.) that I sometimes use, but for the most part, I don't heavily rely on these to shorten my texts. With friends, keywords like "bruh moment" have a meaning that is very hard to place, so it is understood by a few people, those few being adults and maybe some kids. Language that would be considered harsh and mean to adults might be taken lightly by us. Some of these words we use ironically, for comedy, or they can have satirical meaning to them, which justifies why those harsh words are used among a group and not publicly.

These English switches, as I will call them, are used for specific people and in specific situations. They establish a type of credibility among the people you are talking to. If you were to use texting language with adults that are not familiar with the technology, you don't seem credible in their eyes because it looks as if you don't fully know the English language, just messy abbreviations that can lose meaning. If using complex and regular English among friends and peers, it gives off the feeling that you are not "in touch" with technology. These English switches establish credibility to different groups of people, being your peers or family. It helps establish your knowledge and helps better communicate and relate to your peers and family.

Metacognitive Reflection

I have remained stagnant as a writer over the course of this semester. I have made sure to make good claims and use good evidence to support it. The more and more I write, I feel like I am getting better, but I still seem to be in the median of writing good essays. I feel like I have improved in my evidence and quote placement. I am also starting to feel a little more comfortable when writing claims and having significant evidence to support it. I really need to focus in on my analysis. I plan on focusing on improving my analysis and looking at examples of how others write an analysis. Looking up examples online should help out greatly. With better analysis, I should be able to push my essays forward and have them be more meaningful. I am proud of my Gatsby Short answer because I feel like I had good evidence and a good argument. I lacked the analysis in it, but everything else seemed to be a very strong argument. I need some more help with using better analysis. I know that I need to improve it, but I'm not too sure what exactly I need to do.