A Post about Food on Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my three favorite holidays! I love the time of year and the way it signifies the start of Christmas (at least for me).

My family celebrates Thanksgiving the way most others do: the turkey, stuffing, and all of the other dinner staples. This year’s holiday was a little different because most of my family was unable to come. My great uncle is ill and many family members stayed with him in Florida and my grandparents traveled to Florida. So, this year it was just my parents, my brother and sister, my uncle, and my cousin. It was definitely a quiet holiday, but it was still wonderful.

It was the first year that I have not spent with my grandparents and it was also the first time my mom and I made my grandmothers stuffing recipe. Surprisingly, it went very well and I was proud that we got so close to her recipe. This year I made dessert and I took the liberty of choosing two things I had never tried before.

I made a pumpkin chiffon pie; a recipe that I saw on Paula Deen’s show. It was very simple to make and I initially thought it would be a nice change from the authentic pumpkin pie. I was wrong! I did not like it at all and honestly no else did. I took a chance and it did not work out.

I also made a pear and apple cobbler; a recipe from Down Home with the Neely’s. This recipe was slightly more difficult and more time consuming but it was a success! Everyone loved it and it was a great change from the usual apple pie. It was served warm with vanilla ice cream and fresh whipped cream.

All in all I had a nice Thanksgiving; I just hope it’s never this quiet again! I also decided that I would try a different recipe by one of my favorite chefs: Paula Deen.  

Table!

Watching football!!

Inquiry Final Very Rough Draft

It is hard to believe that the semester is already coming to an end! At the end of every semester we all know what awaits us, finals!

Our Inquiry final is a video project about how we plan on differentiating ourselves from countless other graduates and what makes us unique individuals. I decided to do my video project on my future career in teaching. My video right now is in its earliest stages, it is a very, very rough draft. I would still like to add pictures, narration, and a video interview. I have a lot of work to do!

A Sticky Situation...

One of the most difficult situations that I have been in this semester has been the adjustment to college and making new friends.

I am not going to lie, it has not been easy for me adjusting to college and making new friends. The academic part of adjusting was never the problem; instead it has been the atmosphere and the lifestyle change. I have never been in a school with more than five or six hundred students total, so Southern is a huge change for me. My high school was fairly small, with a graduating class of one hundred and twenty or thirty something students. I was part of a very tight knit community, where everyone knew each other and we all shared a common bond (it is very hard to describe this). It was difficult accepting that I probably would not get to know everyone in my graduating class and it was very weird at first. Now I am getting more and more comfortable at Southern, my high school will always have a special place in my heart, but now my school is Southern!

Making friends has been quite a challenge. I am a quiet and shy person, I cannot help that, it is simply who I am and I have learned to accept myself that way! While being quiet is a gift, it can also have some negative impacts, especially when trying to make friends. I am proud to say that I have actually made friends with at least one person from each of my classes, and that is a big deal for me. I am gradually becoming closer to each of these individuals, and I am just taking my time.

I am also happy to say that I am beginning to get to know people more in our Inquiry class! I felt a little out of place at first but I feel like I am beginning to fit in a little more. I realize that some people may interpret my quietness as a snobby or rude person, but I truly do not intend for this to happen! I have promised myself to open up a bit more and make more friends, I know that it will be a slow process but I am confident that it will happen!




"The strong bonds formed at SHA shall ne'er in life be broken..." <3

 

Being a leader

When I first read the topic of this blog I panicked a little bit, I really did not think that there was a time when I was an actual leader. However, when I put the question into perspective, I realized that I have been a leader in several distinct ways.

One great memory I have a being a leader in the more literal sense, was in high school. I was a volunteer tutor at St. Rose/St. Francis School in New Haven and I was asked to tutor groups of students instead of one-on-one work. I have always been quiet, a quality that has been both a blessing and a burden, and having to be in charge of others seemed to be a daunting task. Instead of going into panic mode I decided to embrace the challenge and this was the final push I needed that showed me I was going to be a great teacher.

I had a group of seven fifth grade students: five boys and two girls. They seemed a little afraid of me at first, but once I was able to get on their level, while still maintaining authority, they began to both respect me and like me! I made doing school work fun and still showed them the importance of learning and education. I loved being a leader and a role model for these great kids! It was not long before every student in the tutoring program wanted to work with me! It was an honor and I was so happy that I had taken on the challenge!!!

In the end, I ultimately feel that being a leader means you are not being a follower. By being a leader you set a standard for yourself and you are confident in making your own choices; in essence you do not let peer pressure influence you. I feel that I am also a leader by standing closely by my morals and values. Many of my friends drink and they have often asked me to join, but I have always held my ground and simply said no. That definitely is not my scene, and thankfully they respect my always unchanging no! To me this makes me a leader, being able to stand up for what I believe in regardless of what others think. Today we have to be strong minded individuals if we want to succeed in college and in life!

An Intellectually Stimulating Class

One of the main purposes behind a college education is to force us to become “deep thinkers”. By this I mean we do not simply take in information being taught to us, instead we analyze and look for deeper meanings, ask questions, and do research. Generally people have that one class where they are constantly learning new ways of thinking and their thought processes are being challenged. For me personally, that class has to be my Spanish Conversation and Culture class (level 305), taught by Professor Sobeira Latorre.

This is definitely a class where I feel intellectually stimulated. In my AP Spanish class last year we covered some topics that I have learned about this year, but the biggest difference is that we have gone more in depth. I have also learned about many new topics this year.  

In this class we cover different countries, their history, current events, and politics. We covered Puerto Rico and its transformation into a Commonwealth of the US. More deeply we discussed the most heated debate on the island: should it stay a Commonwealth, become a US state, or become an independent country. We had to weigh in with our opinions and our reasons why.

 One of the topics that I found most interesting was our work on the Mirabal sisters. While working on a chapter about Trujillo’s dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, we also did research on those who opposed him and what happened to them. The Mirabal sisters were four women who revolted against Trujillo and led underground opposition groups. The dictatorship was horrifying; people were constantly being captured, tortured, and killed. This was no different for three of the four Mirabal sisters. Three of them were tortured and jailed, eventually Trujillo had them assassinated. We were able to watch a movie about the women and learn about their impact on their country. It was so interesting it motivated me to want to learn more, so I went out and purchased a book by the only surviving sister, Dede Mirabal.

This class has shown me things I never even knew existed. I have the ability to express my opinion and back it up with facts; I do not have to just listen to a lecture. I leave the class with a list of topics to look up and learn more about!

A Place to Study...

Every person has a favorite place to study. That place usually has a couple of characteristics: quiet, comfortable, familiar, and relaxing.

Being a commuter student I am not on campus as much as those who live there. I do not have a very cool place where I study, but I still like it! My favorite place to study while on campus is the library.

There is just something about being in the library. I feel safe, relaxed, and in a good mood to study and do work. I like the way I feel when I am surrounded by books. The library is the perfect escape from the hectic and buzzing of the campus. In between classes I go to the library and sit in my table near the window. I like sitting near the window because when I need a break I can look outside. I just watch cars going by and people walking or simple things like rain falling and leaves blowing.

I know it probably sounds like I am crazy but I assure you I am not! I guess you could say I like the simpler things in life. I do not really have a secret, cool, or off-the-beaten-path location. Instead I have I generic study spot, but somehow I am ok with that!

STRESS...

Stress: the word that seems to define the life of many high school and college students. Every single human being has experienced the feeling of stress, the difference lies in how people handle it. Since I have been in college I have had times of immense stress and others of barely any.

This past week was a very stressful one for me. Not only did I have a lot going on in school, but I also had things going on at home. I had two papers due on the same day and it was just a homework heavy week. This is my fault, but I started the papers close to the due date and I was stressed out trying to finish them. I made the situation worse by thinking of the worst case scenario, which would be not finishing them on time.

The first thing I did was put away my laptop and leaving the area I was working in. Music is one of my greatest passions and when I am stressed I immediately turn to music as a source of relief. I tend to listen to something upbeat or a song that I really like at that moment in time. To me music represents an opportunity to escape from reality for just a few minutes; you can put yourself in another place. After listening to music for about fifteen minutes I went back to work on my papers. I was newly focused, I was in a better mood, and I was motivated to do my work.

I would recommend listening to music when feeling stressed. Just find a place where you can just sit alone and relax while listening to music for just a few minutes. Another option is just sitting quietly in a place that you feel comfortable and taking a moment to just think and clear your mind. I also read about the benefits of breathing exercises. While completing a campus safari I stopped by the counseling center and grabbed a paper with ideas for stress relief. If you are feeling stressed take a deep breath and try one of the afore mentioned techniques. Good luck!

One of my favorite artists right now! Drake's music motivates me!

Grade Inflation

So what is grade inflation? Grade inflation is exactly what it sounds like; many universities have engaged in the act of raising students grades without merit. Many people argue that this practice is fair because students with lower averages have a harder time getting into graduate school or getting a job. Others oppose this idea by arguing that it is unfair and it gives students grades that they do not deserve.

Personally, I completely disagree with the idea of grade inflation. I never even knew something like this existed until I read the articles. It is ridiculous that any school give out higher grades so that the students look better when applying for a job. How can the person be qualified for a job if they did not even earn their grades?

This also raises the issue of unfairness. What happens to the students that actually earn their grades through hard work? They get nothing in return. I was never the perfect, straight A student, but I sure did have a lot of respect for those students. Many of my friends in high school had high honors which were constituted by a 3.8 GPA or above, but I did not. Like I said in an earlier post, it was not until my senior year that I made high honors and it took a lot of hard work and perseverance. That is something that no one can take away from me because I earned it!

Grade inflation is not fair to anyone. It is not fair to those that honestly earn their grade and it is not fair to those who essentially are cheating themselves out of a good education. You earn your grade; the same way you earn an A you earn an F. It may sound harsh but it is true. Work hard and earn your grades because this is how real life works, you get what you deserve, no one cares how hard you tried.