Personal Statement: Plot Twist

When I was in second grade, I had decided that I was going to join the ranks of the creative, imaginative, brooding, and eccentric writers of humankind. This choice, like all choices, came with various repercussions, which have both affected my life in a positive way and affected my life in a dark way. I, however, have come to accept both the good and the bad of being a writer, for it is who I am, and I cannot change that fact. During my grade school years, I had begun to concoct some of the most imaginative and fantastical stories in my head, and I attempted to put them down in writing through the form of the novel. I had plenty of time to work on these novels, for my social, academic, athletic, and extracurricular life had not yet begun; however, once the pace of my life quickened and my list of activities increased, I began to write short stories, for I no longer had time to work on my novels. About a year ago, my free time had once again been cut; therefore, I attempted to write poetry. Since that time, I have written roughly thirty-five poems with topics ranging from God, love, politics, fear, despair, hope, and life.

A few months ago, my sister introduced me to the writer Allen Ginsberg, a beatnik poet and author of “Howl.” I was not familiar with his blunt and raw style of writing, as most of my pieces were quite refined and eloquent. After reading “Howl” and other works by Ginsberg, I wrote a poem that possessed a less refined style than my usual poem. It is a ninety-four line poetic account of a writer who perceives his ideal world in spilled ink. The poem is titled “Defiance,” and it attacks our world’s archetypes in religion, politics, pop culture, the family, society, human thought, and human nature. In the poem, the writer tries to articulate his disdain for our society. He then concludes that to change the world, he must act, but he is not sure how to do so. Finally, the writer speaks of his wanted future, but realizes that it is unattainable until he changes the world.

I am that writer. There is much in the world that makes my stomach turn, eye twitch, spine shiver, and head pound. I, however, haven’t the slightest idea how to fix it. Part of me thinks that I am wasting my energy thinking of such nonsense and should divert my attention to the good and brush the bad under the rug. Part of me thinks I should write about it to make myself feel better and then stop there. Part of me wants to drop everything, go out, and try to change the world with every fiber of my being. However, I am missing a happy medium. In terms of logical fallacies, my mind was giving me false dilemmas. There are other ways for me to get my point out there, which incorporate both writing and action. In addition, I can lead a happy life while trying to fight the evils of the world (and no, I am not trying to be a Bruce Wayne want-a-be).

However, there is a slight roadblock. Many have tried to do this in the past and failed simply because of the colloquialism, “history repeats itself.” Mark Twain once said, “A favorite theory of mine – to wit, that no occurrence is sole and solitary, but is merely a repetition of a thing which has happened before, and perhaps often.” What makes me different from Thoreau, from Lewis, from Plato, from Frost, from Ginsberg? It is a haunting question indeed. Then one day, a magnificent thought came into my head. In the fantastical stories of my youth, I never made the conclusions the way the reader expected from interpreting the plot; I loved to use the literary device known as a plot twist. My question then became, “If it worked there, why not here?” Indeed, the past is the plot of the future written by the nature of humankind, but why can’t we be the plot twist? Winston Churchill said, “History will be kind to me because I intend to write it," and I too intend to write it! From that day forward, I decided to be the plot twist of history, the resistor of conformity, the anomaly of humankind, the architect of fate – I decided to be the writer.

Normalcy is overrated

The twenty-ninth president of the United States, Warren G. Harding, campaigned for the presidential election of 1920 with a promise of normalcy. Not one person in the entire country knew what he exactly meant by normalcy, but it sounded pleasant to their ears, for their ears had recently been beaten with the calamity caused by the First World War. In a campaign speech, President Harding questioned the Progressivism of the decades preceding the war: “America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration…” To Harding, normalcy meant a perfect situation; however, the question remains, what is normal? Harding believed that normal meant reactionary politics, but his predecessors believed that the ideals of Progressivism were normal. So, who was right: Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, or Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, or perhaps none of them, or perhaps all of them?

Since I was in my second year of elementary school, I have wanted to be a writer. At the time, I did not realize what this would entail; if I had, I wonder if I still would have made this bold lifestyle choice. By becoming a fiction writer, I had taken on an archetype of oddness, nonsense, abnormality, and insanity. For millennia, writers have been perceived as the odd ones and the not normal ones, and frankly, most enjoy this perception; in fact, for many years, I enjoyed it. However, today, I am losing touch with this enjoyment. I am different, which is no surprise, because everybody is different, for everyone has their own quirks and tendencies; yet, I have always felt that I am a member of the club of people who are just a little bit weirder than the rest of the world. Perhaps this notion of me is slightly exaggerated, but even my friends will attest to the fact that I am slightly weirder than most people are. I had once accepted myself as the odd one – heck, I embraced it! Yet, I write to you now with a different tone. I am getting tired of being the odd one, or the eccentric yet introverted kid, the self-hating narcissist, the tortured writer. I am starting to want that normalcy – whatever it is – of which President Harding spoke.

I am tired, tired of the mocking, the sneers, the jeers, the laughs, and the tears that accompany being the odd one (now, not everyone mocks; some praise. I had a woman once tell me that all the girls love a poet, and she is somewhat correct, for I have had girlfriends who love my writing and love my weirdness, but I have also lost girlfriends because of it). Everybody’s different; yet, for some reason, some of us take the word different to new heights, and the world mocks us for it. When I write my poetry and my stories, I am happy, but when I am looked upon for it with a mocking eye, I am not happy. If I do not write and pretend to be this societal archetype of normality, then the mockery end, but I hate myself for giving in to society’s demands. It is quite the contradiction indeed! To write or not to write, that is the question. If I don’t write, I lose who I am, which is most important; therefore, I must take the hits, turn the other check, carry the cross, walk the walk, and talk the talk. I am who I am; I cannot change this. So, what is normal? I haven’t the slightest idea. All I know is that I am not, but some days I wish I could be whatever this normal is. Nevertheless, I soon remember that normal is probably boring, and eccentricity and nonsense and fantasy and extraordinariness is quite enjoyable, and it is who I am.

My First Twitter Chat

Tonight, I was fortunate to be in my first organized chat on Twitter. In addition to it being my first, I was one of the moderators! While the chat was going on, my fingers couldn’t move quick enough to tweet posts, for every minute (sometimes multiple times a minute) someone was using the hash tag for our chat and was presenting a new idea for the chat topic. To say the least, it was interesting. From the outside, it would appear to be unproductive and disorganized, but in fact, it possessed the greatest efficacy that I have ever seen in a discussion. Everyone involved in the chat presented excellent comments, ideas, questions, and topic-prompts, all of which were able to keep the chat alive. Even though disagreements were a common aspect of the chat, people always disagreed politely and with a strong counterargument.

I think that chats on Twitter can be an extremely effective way to conduct academic discussions between students and educators across all of academia. I, however, think that if these Twitter chats were used in education, some modification would need to be made. For example, it seemed that ideas were being thrown around too rapidly, preventing those in the chat from digesting each comment fully. In addition, it seemed that side conversations occurred within the Twitter chat discussing one subtopic while another separate conversation is going on about a different sub topic. I feel that it would be more effective if set sub topics were decided beforehand and set times during the chat. This is so that everyone involved is able to read everyone’s thoughts and comment on each. Nevertheless, since I have only been in one chat, I am not sure if the aforementioned problem is really even problem. Perhaps the rapid fire of ideas is more analogous to real-life arguments/discussions.

I hope that Twitter chats are able spread like wildfire across the whole of academia, because they are an exciting, effective, and energetic way to discuss interesting and controversial topics. Maybe a few modifications will need to be made to increase the efficacy of these chats, but overall, I believe that these chats have high potential in enhancing education through social media.

A Student-Created High School English Lesson Plan Using Web 2.0 Skills

English Web 2.0 Lesson Plan on Prezi

One Thought: A High School Student's Perspective on Education and Technology

The current technological revolution is altering the way society functions as a whole. Developments in technology have shifted fundamental characteristics of society like transportation, architecture, communication, and education. People no longer travel by foot and by animal, but instead they travel by automobiles and by airplanes. People no longer use caves and mud houses as shelter, but instead they use skyscrapers and quaint suburban homes. People no longer communicate through smoke signals and handwritten letters, but instead they communicate with telephones and the internet. Yet, education has not accompanied these other fundamentals of society as they have progressed into the age of technology. Students are still educated in classrooms with rows of desks while a teacher relays information to them on the subject matter for the student to absorb, so they can spit it back on a test. With the societal shift to an age of technology, the structure of the education system should progress along with the other aspects of society.

In a recent survey, corporations produced a list of four features that they want their employees to possess: the ability to think critically, the ability to communicate effectively, the ability to collaborate with others, and the ability to be creative. The expectation that people are able to retain information for a test is not practical in the modern workforce. This is not to say that the information being taught is worthless, but the current manner of teaching and learning this valuable information is archaic and ineffective for students in the modern world.

The current structure of the education system worked tremendously during an age when populations were educated for a short period and then placed into the mines, factories, and various other blue-collar work environments. The workforce has evolved into a modern workforce that requires a new set of service oriented and technology-based skills. The growth of the internet and the development of technological devices such as laptops, tablets, and smart phones have created these new set of skills that students will need to possess as they enter the modern workforce. Educators need to accept that this change is happening, so that they can adequately prepare their students for the twenty-first century work environment.

Apple Corporation published a recent statistic that sixty percent of their revenue comes from products that did not exist three years ago. Progression in society used to take decades or sometimes centuries to come to fruition; however, today’s society is changing more quickly. The fact that the majority of Apple Corporation’s products were not in existence three years ago demonstrates how quickly people need to adapt to these new technologies. Educators need to educate themselves in the appropriate use of these technologies that will best aide their student’s in their education and their future endeavors.

The typical classroom consists of four walls encompassing students, desks that were designed a century ago, environmentally unfriendly textbooks, a pulpit for the teacher to speak from, a board with notes scribbled on for students to copy verbatim, and an expert in some subject spitting information at their students as they quickly write what the teacher says in their notebook. Does this mundane and conventional system work? Yes, classrooms structured in that fashion have worked for centuries. Then why would society want to change something that works? Just because a system works well does not mean it cannot be improved. Access to the plethora of information, resources, tools, people, and ideas that exist in the online community enhances the classroom experience. The answer is not to decimate the physical classroom and go completely online. The online community will never replace entirely the conventional classroom. The online community, however, needs to be incorporated into the classroom properly, so that students can render the highest potential of their academic learning experience.

Human ingenuity has significantly facilitated the progression of society; however, this progression does not come to society without any repercussions. In the film, Inherit the Wind, the lawyer who is defending the teaching of evolution in schools says, “Progress has never been a bargain; you have to pay for it.” Teachers have always been seen as the expert of the subject matter that they are teaching, and their job has been to teach their students the set curriculum. If society moves away from the conventional classroom to a classroom integrated with technology, the role of the teacher will expand. Not only will teachers be able to teach their students the lesson plan, they also will have to mentor their students as they enter into the vast online community. Students will now have access to an infinite amount of resources online, but not all of them are appropriate for academic purposes. There is an unlimited number of websites available to students for positive academic, social, and networking purposes, but there are also websites that could be potentially harmful to the wellbeing of students.

However, these consequences can be curtailed. Once society integrates the conventional classroom with technology, educators will have the responsibility to teach their students the application and importance of appropriate and acceptable technology use. Students must learn how to become digital citizens, members of the online community who act responsibly while using the internet. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are popular among students today, but inappropriate language, images, and comments plague these sites frequently. The reason that the aforementioned behavior exists is not that these sites invite such incongruous behaviors. The reason is that adults condemn these sites, forcing their children to learn how to use these sites unguided, or adults treat these sites as “no big deal” or “just a fad,” which also forces children to learn how to use the sites unguided. Teachers need to educate students on the proper use of the tools and websites on the internet, so that students can use the internet correctly and safely.

Society has shifted from one based on blue-collar labor to a fast paced, technology-based society that demands certain skills like collaboration, effective communication, critical thinking, and creativity. In addition, the future workplace will require its employees to be educated in the applicable use of continually changing technology. The current education system is only somewhat effective in helping students achieve this height; however, for students to reach their highest potential, the current structure of the education system needs to adapt properly to changes in society and technology. This age of technology will alter the current learning environment by allowing students to communicate with their peers and additional educators across the globe, by allowing students to achieve their highest potential through the exploration of all aspects of academia, and by allowing students to experience the vast academic, social, and networking opportunities offered by the online community.

My Nation on Nationstates!

Over the summer, I discovered a website where you have the ability to create a country. Everyday you are given an issue and the way in which you handle this issue determines the way your nation develops. It is very interesting and very fun. Here is the link to my nation: http://www.nationstates.net/illuminati_res

Dipity Timeline of the Beginning of my Writing Career

on Dipity.