Amazing Quote: by Rodney Williams

 

“Every day you have the opportunity to learn and experience some-thing and some-one new. Seize the opportunity. Learn and experience everything you can, and use it to change the world.”

I feel like this quote is so touching and so true.  I hope that I can start to live my life by embracing everyday to its fullest and learning as much as I can everyday.

"Art of Listening" Response

I really enjoyed reading the article "The Art of Listening" by Henning Mankell and I think it would be so cool to be able to travel and live other places to be able to study them and learn from them.  I think it would be awesome to be able to see the world through other ways then the one I am use to here.  I think it would be a huge learning experience.  I don't really ever get to travel much, but I feel like it would be an amazing opportunity to be able to one day.  I also loved the part in the article when it talks about the reasoning behind why we have two ears but only one tongue.  I think it is because we are suppose to listen more than we are suppose to speak.  I feel like it has to do a lot with what we are learning in class and reading about in Wadsworth because we are suppose to learn from others by listening to what they have studied or research and then add some of to it by what we learn or find out on our own.  So in other words we should listen more and first and then speak less and only after we know what research has already been done.

Also I feel like it had a lot to do with learning about others views and how they communicate.  By going to Africa and listening to others conversations, he was able to join in and formulate his own ideas, which is very similar to  Kenneth Burke's Parlor conversation.  It shows how one can listen and learn by listening and then be able to speak after and add their own opinions to the conversation.  I feel like that was the purpose of the article to show that one can learn by just listening and taking in ones surroundings.  It shows that he was able to gain knowledge just by listening to others around him.  He was able to realize that how they tell stories or write their books was different compared to Western ways and he did this just through listening and reading; trying to show that if one just takes the time to observe, listen, and take in others information, then one can gain knowledge.

I feel like this is very good information to guide us through Project: Experiment because we can learn from what others in the past have done and be able to use it to guide us or aid us in making our own conclusions and opinions.  I feel like for my experiment I can look at past agencies and organizations that have been helping do good deeds and acts for others for years.  This will help me make decisions on how I should approach and help others during my experiment.  Being able to have past research and information on topics helps us now and in the future to go off of data that has already been collected and then add to it and make more research for others to use in the upcoming years.

Library Session

I enjoyed learning about how to avoid plagiarism and also about how to search on the web using keywords and phrases.  I think that plagiarism is very serious and it is a fear of mine.  I never want to plagiarize and so learning about ways to protect myself from it was very important to me.  It made me realize that as long as I give credit when credit is due to authors and make sure to put quotation marks whenever necessary, I should avoid plagiarizing.  Also I realized that I could use some help on how to use a search engine and help to find results that are more accurate to the material that I need.  I usually typed in full sentences and I used the word "or" when I really should of been using the word "and" because I wanted information for two things that weren't related. This all will help me to quote my resources for my experiment without the fear of plagiarism and also allow me to locate my sources easier by knowing how to locate them.  I know have a better understanding of how to cite and quote sources and how to research information on the web and I am so ready to get started on looking for sources on doing good deeds for others.

"Find Out What Is Important To You"

        My personal community is the most important to me.  My family, friends, and people that I communicate with are very important to me.  This community includes:  my mother,  my father, three sisters, my fiance, my aunts and uncles, my grandparents, my friends, and so many other people.  My parents are my biggest fans and my biggest supporters they are the ones that have my back and we are very close.  We all are there for each other and having a great support system and knowing that I have people who would do anything for me gives me the strength and ability to accomplish goals and tasks.  I am a very outgoing person and I love talking and having a personal life that is strong and true.  My community of friends and family all get together at least two to three times a week and discuss how things in our lives are going and we feed off of each other and this allows us to stand together strong and have supporters and people who we can count on.  
        To me in life having people who you trust and who you know would do anything for you is very important.  I have had many times in my life when my friends and family have been there for me and gave me the strength to succeed in whatever task I was facing.  For example, about a year and a half ago I began having seizures.  I felt as though it was going to stop me from becoming a nurse and put my college years out of reach, but I had an amazing support system and they helped me through everything and as you can see I am a college student and am happier than ever.  During my leisure time I enjoy hanging out with my fiance Tyler and other family members.  I also play softball and many other sports for fun and enjoy reading and watching television to relax.
        My hometown is Anderson, Indiana and it is a small yet loving community.  I have lived there my whole life and it is the type of community where everyone knows pretty much everyone and where you feel as though you have plenty friends and people that care about you.  I love my hometown and I am glad to be associated with them.  I believe that having so many people to help me has been the reason why I want to help others.  I think that more people need to try and step out of their comfort zones and go above and beyond there duties as a person and give a helping hand to others.  I am hoping that doing at least one good deed a day for someone other than myself will help me feel as though I am making a difference in this world, even if it is just a small one.  Turning this into research I am going research some different volunteer ideas and the statistics on how much people do or don't help others and hopefully be able to persuade others to volunteer or even just commit to trying to do at least one nice deed or task every once in awhile for someone else.  I think that if everyone sets out to help others then this world could become such a better place and people would feel as though help is just around the corner.

Experiment 30 Days

Today in English 104 I started to think about what I want to do for my experiment and I think I know what I want to do.  I think I want to try to do a good deed at least once a day for 30 days.  I am a very caring person and I just feel like this would be a chance for me to start showing others that I care and that I will and can help you when you need it.  I hope that me doing good deeds or helping someone or more than one person a day can become a normal habit for me and that this experiment will turn into something I do for the rest of my life.

First One :)

I just wanted to post to say that I am new at this, but I feel like it could be fun and a great way to communicate with my classmates!  I hope everyone is having a great first week of our spring semester :)