Lanajarae

[yourhopefulgarden]

Best Trait

Well first and foremost I just want to say that in an attempt to keep myself humble I would say that I do not know what my best trait or quality is. For this assignment, I couldn’t decide to choose one thing about myself that I think is great, so I decided to text my friends and just people that I know. As they all replied to my question, I noticed the variety in the answers. I did not get one same answer from two different people. Each person had something different to say, and I noticed that it was based on our relationship. From this I can conclude that my best trait is being able to be what a person needs when they need it. This means that whatever trait a person needs, I can be that for them. For example, some of the traits I was given were: dependable, committed, responsible, caring, humble, supportive, loyal, and self-aware. I guess I make the world a better place my being able to show love to all people, accepting people for who they are, and being able to be what they may need. I do all of these things, but I still remain true to who I am and my morals; this is honestly the best part.  

[yourhopefulgarden]

Self-Care

I would say that my self-care this semester has been much better than last semester. Last semester I found myself more stressed and upset than anything else. When I went home for the break after talking with my family, I realized it was because I was not making time for myself. This semester I would have to say that I began implementing project “take time for myself”. In my personal life, this includes taking time to read my bible, praying, hanging out with friends, and engaging in sober activities. In my school life, it included things such as taking mental breaks, listening to music to relax my mind, reducing my procrastination, and reducing my work load. In doing these things I’ve come to notice that my stress level has been reduced significantly. I rarely find myself stressed about something, and I have not had any breakdowns as I did last semester. I avoid negative situations by not surrounding myself with people I know to be negative individuals, and by just trying to find the good I every situation. My self-care techniques could be more effective if I were to implement them at the precise time. That is why time management is also something that I need to work on.

[yourhopefulgarden]

Procrastination Pt. 2

I hold myself accountable with my procrastination by weighing my options and deciding on an outcome. I decide if the actions of my procrastination are worth the disappointment and anxiety that they will bring me later. For example, if I know that I have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it, I start on it as soon as possible, because I know that if I wait until the last minute that the anxiety of doing the assignment later will result in me not desiring to do the assignment completely. For me, the stress and anxiety that comes from procrastinating is not worth it. I would much rather start the assignment and avoid those feelings. I also, know that my procrastination on one thing will hold up time for other things that I could be doing. I also, just do not enjoy the feeling of knowing that I am procrastinating. It makes me feel unproductive and as If I am wasting my life, I did not come to college to waste time, so that also drives me as well. The final thing that drives me to not procrastinate, is my desire to succeed. I have always been known to be a person who holds myself to high standards and I am trying to keep that standard in my life. I believe that that standard has helped me succeed thus far in life, so I think it is necessary to keep. For me failure is not an option, so if procrastination leads to failure, then procrastination must be dealt with.

[yourhopefulgarden]

Procrastination and I

Well first let me just acknowledge the fact that I do have a problem with procrastination. However, this problem did not start recently, it’s been around for a while now. I do agree with the article in that as a child I was held to high expectations and standards. In my family, my older siblings did not do the things that they were supposed to do, so the responsibility fell upon me. I can distinctly remember family and friends being shocked and surprised if I didn’t excel in anything that I put my hands to. My mother and my pastor would not even check my report cards in High School, because they would say “I already know you have all A’s”. That stigma on its own would make me nervous if I made anything lower than an A. It wasn’t until I came to college that I finally decided to get a hold on my procrastination. I realized that college was a higher level of education that was not free, so I couldn’t afford to let my procrastination problem be the reason I failed. I first started by telling myself about the consequences of my decision to procrastinate and weighing in my mind to determine if they would be worth it. Ultimately, I decided it would not be worth it and I would slowly stop my procrastinating. I would also think about how much work I would have to do at one time and how overwhelming it would be and that outweighed my desire to procrastinate. 

[yourhopefulgarden]

Dissertation Album

My initial reaction to Mr. Carson’s album for a dissertation was shock and amazement. I was shocked, because I didn’t think a University would allow a student to produce an album for a dissertation. Normally, when we hear of dissertations; we think of long essays that compose a book or novel. His presentation was certainly not the normal dissertation that is presented. I was amazed, because I feel like he did something bold and brave. He has done something that has opened the door to more creative forms of dissertations in the future. Mr. Carson has set up a guideline and a new way for students to express themselves in the world of language and literature. When I compose any piece of literature I do not get as creative as Mr. Carson did, I always follow the guidelines that my professors have given to me. For this reason, anytime I have a professor tell me to be creative when writing, it is a hard task. Reading this article makes me want to be more creative with my literature work. I have the opportunity to do that with the new media project, and I look forward to trying.

[yourhopefulgarden]

Topic

Well, you’ve already told me in class that I can’t or shouldn’t change my topic, so I am sticking with the topic that I chose. I do like my topic and I am certainly interested in digging deeper into the topic. I believe I will discover more than I observed, and that sparks my interest. However, I become a bit panicked when it comes to doing new things that require more of me than what I am used to, and I believe that this is what will happen. I think I am ready for the challenge, however I will not be fully sure until I get to the next task. I also have a little anxiety about how I will find the information for my research question. If I would really have to sit in a room full of department chairs that would make me melt into a little puddle. Although, I am sure in the end it will all be worth it and I would enjoy the experience. The questions that I wrote for my ethnography are the ones that I am interested in pursuing, but for the sake of making a topic I would change them to be more concise. For example, I would say “How Does the Georgia State Foreign Language Department help their students succeed?”.

[yourhopefulgarden]

Humans Of New York

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/154522643976/my-father-wants-me-to-come-home-to-botswana-he

I chose this post because I can relate to it. Not necessarily in an emotional way, but because I am kind of in the same predicament as this young lady. She moved away from home for a better life I am supposing and now she does not want to return because of the new life and freedoms that she has found. For me it is that I have moved away from home to start college and try to establish myself in the world and learn how to be an adult and be on my own. Now that I am experiencing certain freedoms and taking on new responsibilities, I never want to go back home. I feel that the things that I am now learning and experiencing and trying to get used to are being taken from me. To also coincide with this young lady, I have found a church base here in the city and they are my new family outside of my family. They welcome me just as their own and they help me whenever I am in need, it’s a new feeling of home and it’s something that I do not want to give up. In life, we are supposed to go forward, not backwards and that is the feeling I get when I go home.

[yourhopefulgarden]

Favorite Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7eSUU9oy8

I personally wouldn’t say that I have a favorite song for all time, but I do currently have a song that is my favorite right now. I usually find a new song and I usually play it repeatedly until I get tired of the song. After that period, I am usually in search of a new song to listen to on repeat. For now, my favorite song is Redbone by Childish Gambino.  This is my current favorite song, because I love the earthy flow that it has. It also has this very soulful sound despite the message that the lyrics proclaim. I love how the song is titled to contradict the hook of the song. One would guess that the song is named “stay woke”, because that is the hook line that is repeated thoroughly throughout the song. However, it appears that Gambino was describing his feelings towards a woman, according to the title, this woman must have a “Redbone” skin tone. I love how Gambino sings the song in a voice that is significantly different from his natural voice and how he stretches the words to fit the beat and make the really earthy flow I described above. From one perspective, it seems that he is speaking on his feelings for a woman, but from another perspective after reading the lyrics I see that it is much deeper than that.  It seems that he wanted to have a serious committed relationship with a woman, but she was not willing to give him what he wanted. I believe that the female decided to give her gifts to another man. After that fling failed she wanted to get back with him, but he didn’t want sloppy seconds. Gambino really seemed to enjoy the presence of this particular woman, because in his lyrics he stated, “It made me put away my pride”. From there the hook “stay woke” makes more sense. He is telling other individuals to be careful of who they give their heart to, because it could lead to heart break. In his situation, the woman that he wanted was stolen by another guy who seemed to have attracted the attention of the woman he wanted more than he did. He did not know these things so he continued to wait for the woman to decide to make the commitment. Overall, this is my current favorite song, it has a decent meaning despite the profanity. I love the sound.

[yourhopefulgarden]

My name is Lanajarae Gordon, I am a freshman in college and i just turned 19 years old a few days ago. I’m still getting used to saying i’m 19, but i’m sure it will come around eventually. I am really an education nerd, I love learning and I also enjoy spending time with my friends in my spare time. However, at times I can be extremely antisocial and distant, so its the best of both worlds. I almost forgot to mention that I am in college to get a degree in Business Management, I plan to run my family’s business one day. My ideal life would be a live free from pain, suffering, and everyone would be wealthy and happy. I’m sure that you will be able to tell by my introduction, but according to my personality test I am an INJF. This implies that I am an introvert, intuitive, a judge, and a feeling person. I totally agree with the results of the personality test, it honestly sort of  helped me understand why I act the way I act sometimes.