ENTRY #11 An Awesome Experience

         It was an unpleasant feeling the first time I got introduced to blogs by Prof Nielson. I almost gave up on the class when he mentioned in the syllabus that blogging was going to be 15% of our final grade. How am I supposed to make an A then, when all the blogs I had read before were written by professional writers? Little did I know that I had seen and read many before that I never considered as blogs because they were very casual. My fear died out and I was so ready to start blogging. Since it was something new, I took a major interest and got serious with it.

        I followed the guidelines provided by Prof. Nielson carefully, especially entries that required us to write about a particular topic. I made sure I stayed on top of my blog writing by visiting canvas every day to check on what’s due; the main reason why I enjoyed it. It is one of the few things I enjoyed doing during the 8 week period. Blogging allowed me to give a voice to my passion. It gave me a chance to put my views on current affairs into writing. An opportunity to engage in civil discourse. More interesting were the comments and feedback I received from Prof. Nielson and peers. They did help in my learning. Since the course required a lot of writing assignments, blogs provided an opportunity for regular practice.

       There were no major challenges since most of the work required us to express our views and opinions. It helped my writing by allowing me to experiment with multiple media formats. As a student, I believe my opinion and experiences would help teach others and blogs helped to put these experiences into writing. It was indeed useful and valuable and I hope future students put all seriousness into it. Other instructors should try and introduce blogging into their curriculum so all students may benefit. It is an awesome experience.

ENTRY #10 A Blessing For All

I was barely six years old I remember, when my father encouraged me to put an orange seed I had finished eating into the earth I was standing on. I don't remember exactly how long it took but after some years, I found myself sitting under an orange tree I had planted myself.
First, my father told me what would come out of the seed if I put it in the soil, "it'll grow into a big orange tree and bear many fruits", he said with a big beaming encouraging smile. I smiled too but mine was mixed with box doubts and anticipation. I was confused but went on and tried.
He told me to water it two times each day, mornings and evenings. Ones or twice when I was late for school, I'd ask him politely to water my plant and he'd say it’s not his job. If such days persisted, I'd come home to meet a shriveled plant that looked like death itself. But when I watered it regularly again for the next few days, it looked fresh.
Many times I had to uproot the growth around it. Once I hesitated to uproot a nice flower that was growing close to my plant but my father said "As much as you love flowers, you don't want any plant competing with the one you planted for nutrients. Do you?" So as difficult as it was, I still had to uproot the flower.
So I went through so much taking care of my plant, especially because I was just a child and not a farmer. But it grew up beautifully and blossomed, yielding many oranges. I had a plan: the orange tree and all the fruits were mine, I own it and I was going to use it alone. But there was some strangeness about this tree; it produced so much that I couldn't eat the fruits alone, not even my family. So sometimes kids from our neighborhood would come and pluck a few oranges without my knowledge. So one day I asked my dad, "Why do I have to work all alone on the tree and when it finally grows up, I can't benefit alone?" My father's reply was weird. I did not understand it until a few years ago. He said, "God knows everyone and his toil, and legitimate hard work will never go unnoticed. When God finally blesses you, there is no room on this planet that can contain your blessings. Even the people around you will be blessed too." He said it is no one's responsibility to help you, that's why he didn't water my plant. He then added that no matter how beautiful something may be, I shouldn't allow them to ruin my bright future. That's why I had to uproot the flower even though I loved it. That way I would grow and be a blessing for all.

ENTRY #8 Racism or Pride

"It's hard to understand", these were the exact words used by former President George Bush as he describes the jury decision in the Eric Garner case. A lot of Americans including myself are finding it difficult to understand. Did the so called "grand jury" see the video at all. I was never in surprise when the Michael Brown case was dismissed because i did not know what happened at the scene, and maybe what Officer Darren Wilson said about Brown charging him was true. I had already given a no-charge verdict in my mind for Officer Darren Wilson just after watching Brown's store robbery. However, I believe an indictment should have been the least for Officer Pantaleo, even if he would end up being found not guilty in court. That would have shown a little regard for human life. Or does the grand jury believe a black man's life is not that important? All these after hearing a man scream for his life, and still officers wouldn't let go off the choke hold. This goes a long way to say that Barack Obama's statement about equipping policemen with cameras is rubbish. There were discrepancies and controversies in the witness statements involving Michael Brown shooting, all because we didn't have it on camera. Now here is a perfect case where everything has been captured on Camera, and still a grand jury sees no reason for indictment. I believe the only solution is education for the black man. If this is a case of racism as many people are saying, then the black man should live a good life so that we could have more minorities in the jury. If we educate ourselves and become responsible in the society, we have great chances of being selected among the jury in cases like this. Getting ourselves involved in drugs and gangsta life would only end us in jail and cause us to lose our civil rights. We have the power to vote and the right to be selected among the jury if we have our civil rights, so the black man should educate himself.