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Best class ever, you must be wondering to yourself. On February 12th, we drew in class of what we thought T’Gatoi looked like. I thought this activity was very amusing because never in a million years I thought I would be drawing in a college course let alone with crayons and markers.  Considering that the last art course I took was in 8th grade, it was safe to say my drawing was definitely not the best.

When Dr.McCoy told us to draw what we thought T’Gatoi looked like, my mind went to pac-man ghosts for some reason. In my head, how Octavia Butler described how Tlic move very swiftly, I connected it to how the ghosts in pac-man cut around the corners very quick. On top of that, I also thought a Tlic could look like the monster in Stranger Things 2. For those who know what I am talking about it is the shadow monster.  It was interesting to see what my fellow classmates thought a Tlic looked like. For example, Roisin thought a Tlic looked like a human but with a lot of limbs with a exoskeleton look to it. On the other hand, we have Anderson who interpreted a Tlic as a worm like creature with a lot of limbs. Anderson’s illustration stood out to me the most because how creative it was.

After my group was done talking to each other, we googled “tlic” and Anderson’s drawing was the most accurate. Looking back at the text, one can see how a Tlic is illustrated. For example, Gan describes what he sees when Lomas is being cut open by T’Gatoi  for the birth of baby Tlics. He describes them as “large worms”. Also Gan describes T’Gatoi as boneless when she moves fast and states T’Gatoi has a long spine. Dissecting this text now illustrates to me a worm. I do not believe Dr.McCoy’s main point of this activity was to show that you can read the text better but that is what I got out of this activity.

In conclusion, I titled this blog as “The Best Class Ever” because a simple activity opened up my eyes that I can understand Blood Child even better. Even though we are college students it does not mean that we should lose sight of our creativity. At the end of the day creativity is what makes us different.

 

Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild” explores the risks and rewards of childbirth and how they motivate characters, specifically the protagonist Gan. Although the short story does not deal with childbirth in the exact same way we know it, the T’lic-birth that Terrans experience is similar in some ways to that which women experience in our society. What prevents me from comparing the two more accurately is that we, as readers, do not know what a healthy, normal T’lic birth looks like. We only know what this birthing process looks like when it goes wrong. And I, as a woman, do not know what childbirth looks like when it goes wrong. I have only witnessed it go as planned. I am trying to keep this in mind as I evaluate the risks and rewards that Terrans experience in giving birth, versus those which women in our society experience.

Continue reading “The Risks and Rewards of Childbirth”

When discussing with my classmates the power of choice (or lack thereof) in Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild,” I began to think about my own experiences with making choices. Did I have a choice in where I am at this moment? Did I ever choose this country, state, school, room, or body that I am in? I’ve never felt like I was outright forced to be in any of these, but I don’t think I ever made the conscious decision to be in them. More relative to the short story is the question of whether or not I had a choice in ending up at SUNY Geneseo. Before I delve into that question, I want to look at Gan’s freedom of choice. Gan was born into the Preserve; A place which Gan portrays as being a safe enclosure where Terrans and Tlic live together in symbiosis. Whether this is true or not I do not know, but at about halfway through the story, Gan is happy with this set-up. Although Gan is content with receiving eggs, warming T’Gatoi, and obeying the Tlic, he did not have a choice but to be born into The Preserve and therefore abide by its laws. This also means that Gan is never allowed to leave. According to him, he is safe in The Preserve. So one can assume he is not allowed to leave because it is for his own good. But this makes me wonder about my own choices. I am at Geneseo for my own good, I am kept safe by its set of laws, and I enjoy being here, but just as Gan’s contentment doesn’t equate to a choice well-made, I don’t know if mine does either. In deciding to attend Geneseo, I didn’t have much choice at all. My parents pay for my education so they had a great influence in where I chose to attend. They insisted that I go to a SUNY school because of the lower tuition and I insisted that I go to a Division 3 school because I wanted to be a part of the track team. So, we both agreed that I should go to the best Division 3 SUNY school I could get into. And here I am! But what would have happened if I disagreed with my parents? If I wanted to go to a more expensive school I would have had to pay for it myself. But I wouldn’t have been able to because I have approximately $0 to my name, since my parents insisted that I only work in the summers and focus on academics during the year. So if going to a more expensive school wasn’t an option, what about no school at all? If I didn’t go to college my parents wouldn’t let me live at home with them, unless I somehow found a job that paid enough money, demanded the respect of others, required skill, and was deemed worthy by my conservative, bearded, Irish-Catholic immigrant father. Impossible. I couldn’t consider living anywhere but under my parents’ roof because, as previously stated, I have $0. What if I decided to leave Geneseo at this moment? I’d find myself at the same bleak dead-end as in the other scenarios. I’d get booted from the O’Neill Household and I would be all by my lonesome. I don’t feel like I am here against my will, but if I were to leave, I would end up with nothing. Essentially, I am making the choice between earning my degree at SUNY Geneseo or spending my life homeless. To me, this is not a choice. I will admit that my analysis of my hypothetical choices is a bit dramatic. There is some choice in me choosing an education over homelessness. And maybe I wouldn’t end up completely homeless, but if I want to have emotional and financial support from my parents and a decent-paying job, I don’t have a choice but to stay where I am.* I didn’t realize that until I began to question it. Gan doesn’t realize he is trapped in a living space that could be potentially dangerous for him and he has no choice but to stay there. Maybe he would realize that if he wondered about his own freedom of choice. What would happen if he decided The Preserve was not enough for him? *my parents are not evil people– this is only hypothetical, and these scenarios are assuming I’d be leaving school to dedicate my time to something silly, or nothing at all.

Recently I have made a connection with some of the ideas in the book Reflective Writing to my own experiences, specifically with running.

As a runner, I try to reflect on my races, so I write race reflections after each of my races. I didn’t really think about that this could connect to a class until I was reminded of it while reading Reflective Writing. Specifically starting with page 22; “Reflecting on yourself and your experiences.” This section discusses reflecting on, as the name says, your own experiences. It discusses reflecting on your writing, and your own feelings of a situation, how your feelings and opinions of a situation change, as well as your process of revision and growth. When I write race reflections I try to do a similar process of reflection. I try to write down what went wrong, what went right, how I felt and what to improve on for next time.

An example of the similarity is on page 23, which shares example of how students thinking should be guided, stating that “rather than trying not to think about the experience, students have had concentrate on it and analyze their reactions.” When someone gets criticism they often don’t want to face it, they often want to only focus on what they are good at. However, we need to analyze and reflect on our pieces to become better writers. This is like runner’s experiences with bad races. When I have a race that I am unhappy with, the first thing I want to do is forget about it.  However, the more productive thing to do is to analyze the race and learn from it to improve upon for next time. I might analyze my split times for each mile and realize that I started off way too fast, so I didn’t have energy at the end, so next time I’ll try going out slower. Even if I have a good race, I need to look at what I did right. I also write do outside factors, such as what I ate before, how long before I ate it, if I felt low on energy, if I was very nervous or relaxed, etc. By writing these factors down I can figure out if it’s something that I should mimic or avoid for the next race.

Another similarity between running reflection and writing reflection is looking to other people for advice. As the premise of our class is Academic Partnership, when writing we can work together to generate ideas and review each other’s work. other people can find grammatical errors, biases and incoherent ideas that we ourselves may not notice, as well as provide us with experiences and beliefs different than our own. When I reflect on a race I also look to other people; specifically teammates and coaches, for advice on what I can improve upon. Looking to other people can give us insight on things that we otherwise may not notice and enable us to become the best versions of ourselves in any situation we encounter.

When asked what my college major is, I often respond with an uneasy “I am not sure yet”. During my first semester of college, I felt shame in not knowing what job I wanted for the rest of my life and jealousy towards those who did. Although, as my time in college has progressed, I have accepted the fact that I am not completely sure of my future just yet.

Prior to attending Geneseo, I was met with a feeling of nervousness when thinking about the next four years of my life. I became uneasy over the thought of spending a significant amount of money on college when I did not know what I wanted my end result to be. I wondered if Geneseo offered the major that I would eventually decide to declare. I also wondered if the general education courses I was enrolled in would help me to discover my future major. I was met with several doubts and questions, but I took a leap of faith and I am pleased with the results thus far.

As I further my education, I am happy that I have decided to begin my college career as undeclared. It has allowed me to explore possible career choices through general education classes. I originally had thoughts of becoming a biology major, but I ultimately decided against this after taking an introductory biology course. I realized that the biological aspects being taught were not what I wanted to focus on for years to come. Although, through other general education courses I have developed an interest in a possible Psychology or English major. Many of my strengths and weaknesses have become clear to me as I further my education. Even though I could have chosen a major that was somewhat interesting to me when I began my freshman year, I chose to take a variety of different courses in order to see what I truly felt passionate about.

I realize that I could take my general education classes at my local community college, but I am glad that I decided against doing this. Starting my freshman year at Geneseo has offered me so many wonderful opportunities. I have already met lifelong friends, taken fantastic courses, and gained the experience of living alone. Knowing that I will not have to become accustomed to a completely different college once my general education credits are complete is reassuring.

This experience has taught me the importance of patience and problem solving. Not all of life’s answers will always be readily available, sometimes hard work is necessary to find the answer. With the help of guidance and time, I know that I will eventually discover the major that is right for me. Even though I am not currently sure of my official plan, I am confident that all of the pieces will eventually fall into place.

Truthfully, this was the first Code of Conduct that I was told to read for an assignment.  Typically, in high school when asked to read it, I would either not read it at all or on the rare occasion that we had to return a signed piece of paper, I would just sign the paper and not even look at the Code of Conduct itself.

I started reading with the assumption that it would just describe certain actions that everyone knows are actions that should not be done on a college campus, such as consuming drugs or sexually assaulting someone. Surprisingly, the text was very long and somewhat specific.  However, with the Code being in depth, it was also very vague.  As my classmate Laura stated, the text must be open to interpretation so that everything that someone could possibly do is covered in the text and could interpret it anyway that they desire.  However, that raises the question of which parties get to interpret it?  For example, the last sentence before the list of actions that should not be taken is a sentence that reads “This list is not all-inclusive”.  With the list not being all inclusive, how then does the student body at Geneseo as well as faculty and even the Geneseo community decipher what actions should and should not be taken.  Granted, some rules are common sense such as sexually assault someone, or damage of the colleges property.  But other misdemeanors such as recording people are not so clear.  So often now, people use their phones to take pictures of things or to record something that someone is doing.  Every time someone does this without the subject of the picture or video being notified, they are in violation of the Code of Conduct, even if the purpose was not to harm the subject of the video.  This concept for me is hard to wrap my head around because without even thinking, I bring out my phone to record something that I saw.  My intention is never to hurt anyone but subconsciously I think it’s okay because everyone else does it.  It’s just what you do, for lack of better words.   That certain example can be interpreted many ways.  For example, the Geneseo Code of Conduct states that “when such a recording is likely to cause injury or distress.” But what does that said injury or distress qualify as?  How do I know if the person will be distressed?  That definition of “distress or injury” is very open to interpretation.

Another one of my classmates, Roisin shared that she had an experience with Code of Conduct violations and she specified that as someone discusses their punishment and the severity of said punishment differs between which faculty member you talk to.  Personally, I don’t think that makes any sense because if two people perform the same violation and one person suffers a steeper consequence than another just doesn’t seem right.  I understand that one person could be more apologetic than the other, however, as faculty-especially administrators-there should be guidelines to how they judge things.  This personal story that Roisin shared is another example of how vague the Code of Conduct could be and an example of how many different things could be interpreted in so many ways.

Tuesday’s class discussion regarding a liberal arts education and connecting different majors and classes really got me thinking. In Geneseo’s GLOBE, its 7th learning outcome is “To work effectively in a pluralistic society, recognizing and respecting diverse identities, beliefs, backgrounds, and life choices; to practice effective communication and collaboration across diverse communities and organizations; to critically reflect on the reasoning and impact of one’s personal beliefs and actions.” Since Geneseo is a liberal arts college, we are all required to take several classes outside of our major. This specific learning outcome connects to our class discussion because as a liberal arts college we are required to take many classes outside of our majors, to gain a “broader” knowledge. Although many people dislike the fact that we all must take classes outside of our majors, myself previously included, I’ve come to see the value and necessity. As a Psych major I am required to take Human Biology, which I am taking this semester. At first, I was dreading taking it, I would not consider myself a science person and did not like biology in high school. However, I’ve found that it is a lot more interesting than I thought, while there are many parts I dislike there are also many that I enjoy and find interesting to connect to real life situations.
Geneseo’s mission statement and GLOBE also stress the importance of the ability to apply skills learned in class to the outside world. One way I see that at a liberal arts college is making connections between different classes. For example, last semester three of the classes I was taking were; Psych 100, Intro to Global Social Changes, and Comparative Politics. At one point in the semester I saw a connection between the classes that I found very interesting. In psych I was learning about different parenting styles and how the different styles affect a child’s development, personality and life outcomes. In sociology I was learning about how socioeconomic factors affect children. How things that are provided by the family one in born in to, for example; resources, environment, parental income, community, school etc. affect children. Kids who are born into wealthier families most likely attend better schools with more resources and therefore more likely to attend better colleges than student who come from poorer families who may not have money for notebooks, or even food. The former has safety nets to fall back on while if the latter has an unfortunate situation happen, like a house fire or a lay off. They might not have anywhere to turn and may resort to homelessness. I also found the connection to my comparative politics class because we often discussed the economy in several countries and how those developed differently in different countries and evolved overtimes. We learned about why some countries are more successful than other and what economics factors work, as well as which don’t. I may be pulling at strings, but I see a connection between how parenting styles affect children because of the socioeconomic resource they provide or fail to provide, and how those factors contribute to their later jobs contributing to the economy and how the economies differ in different countries. Different countries have different parenting styles that are the social “norm” and these parenting styles may contribute to a child’s academic path and job outcomes, contributing to the differences in the country’s general job occupations and economic efficiencies.
I also see a connection from Geneseo’s mission statement to the presentation that Dr. Harris gave that we were able to attend for extra credit. For anyone who didn’t see her presentation, she discussed her life as an illegal immigrant in the U.S., challenges she’s overcome and ways we can make our community for dreamers better, by being a supportive community that helps all different types of people. I see the connection to the mission statement because our mission statement shares the importance of a community, specifically a diverse community. A community enables people to work together, for example as Dr. McCoy often shares that we need to put the chairs back into our real classroom because it is our obligation to the custodial staff, and we would not have a functioning environment without them. A diversity community can open us up to ideas, experiences and beliefs that are different from our own, enriching our experiences in college. Taking different classes and connecting those classes allows for us to reap the benefits of a liberal arts college. While it may seem unnecessary at times to have to take classes outside our major, it helps us apply our skills to and prepares us for the “real world.”

I walked from my morning class back to my dorm, the air was cold as it always is. I took off all my layers, plopped my backpack down and began homework. It wasn’t long till I was easily distracted by the TV playing in the common room, I watched for a few minutes and then went back to work. This description of my day to a reader sounds uneventful as if this presumably happened to hundreds of kids on campus today. Is this true? Some people have told me college is the best years of their lives, some have told me it was the hardest, and some even addressed it as life changing. Leading up to my freshman year I heard so many different takes on college. It intrigued me as to how different college can be depending on what you make out of it.

It is an interesting concept that whoever you talk to about their college years could have something completely different to say. This ties into the assignment to read Geneseo’s GLOBE.  The first section titled “A Framework for Building and Assessing a Holistic Student Experience at Geneseo”. We as students hear so much about this idea of the college experience. A mother emphasizing the learning part of a student experience, or a cousin whispering make sure you really get the college experience! Everyone who steps foot onto this campus comes in with a different mindset. Some are going to sit in their dorm all day, skipping classes, blinded the pleasure part of a college experience. Some are going to spend hours on end stressing, and studying ignoring the pleasure aspect. People leave college with the person they spend the rest of their lives with, people leave college with a degree in something they love, or something they hate. People leave college with the best memories of their lives, or with only the mental images of piled up textbooks. There isn’t just one collective experience assigned to us, we as individuals have our own, some may be smarter, and some more enjoyable but your GPA, your friends, or the number of parties you attended don’t define your college experience, you do.

Writing without guidelines is a newly discovered struggle of mine. Assignments have always been structured around a proposed topic, argument, or question. I wrote to achieve the assigned word count, or to hit all of the rubric bullet points. I didn’t realize my reliance of doing so, until the stress I felt when Dr. McCoy didn’t assign a blog post word count. Without a word count I feared the unknown of what an “exceptional post” was supposed to look like.

I have improperly used templates my whole life. Templates were my safety blanket to avoid being “wrong” or “missing the lesson point.” It wasn’t until reading the Introduction of They Say I Say, that I viewed templates as a guide to expand on  my own ideas. I am in the process of learning the skills of freedom of expression and being a critical thinker.