Journal #38

My job shadowing experience was very helpful.  I learned that it is positively what I want to do when I am older.  However, I job shadowed a Speech-Language Pathologist who mostly worked on patients who were older and some were dying.  I know that now I would like to work in a school or in a hospital pediatrics section.  I observed an x-ray of a swallowing exercise to see if the patient was aspirating any liquids or substances.  I also observed a shock therapy method used on a patient while she ate her lunch.  This method is apparently very controversial, but it has helped the patient.  The shock did not hurt her, but it did work her throat muscles while she ate to re-train her abilities to swallow and to talk.  I know this is what I want to do because Speech Language Pathologists truly help people. While they are not really known, they help patients relearn how to eat and to talk.  You never will know how much they really help until you cannot eat your favorite food due to a swallowing disability.  I did get a taste of the reality of the job though.  Many of the patients were old and close to their end.  The Speech Pathologist had to be honest with them and recommend a diet according to whether they wanted to fight to stay alive or just eat whatever they wanted in their last days.  This was a very sad and depressing part of the job.  Also, a gross part of the job is that you deal with a lot of nasty mouths.  You have to help clean mouths of those who cannot do it themselves in order to check their swallowing.  This was the next worst part second to the sad parts.  There was also a boring part.  The lady I was shadowing had to file a lot of "notes" after a visit with a patient so their doctor could observe what she had done.  My job shadowing was overall good though.

Journal #37

The many diverse instruments like piano and trumpet and saxophone are what I see at the beginning of this song because it is all instruments.  I also see people dancing the scat cat dance and the mash potato.  I also see a jazz club that is full of swingers and soulful people.  I think that the saxophone helps a lot with imagery. I also see a lot of colorful outfits that people are dancing in.  There are women in colorful dresses that are flowing every which way due to their swing like dance moves.  Now the song is at a quieter part, and I see the end of a day.  Similar to closing time, I see all the loners at the bar of a club, slowing finishing their last cigarette and swirling around the small amount of drink that is left in their glass.  Many people are walking out into the cold streets of New York City, but the musicians continue to play for the few who remain in the club.  The piano player seems to be done, but he joins back in after a long saxophone solo.  It seems that the piano player is getting his second wind, and whit a smile on his face, he takes of the song once again.  The people at the bar who were sad about this night ending begin to see things more positively as if the piano brought them a second chance.  You see many of the men look around as if to get in one last dance with one of the remaining ladies, although there are few still in the club.  A few couples get back up to have one last dance.  The bartender finally takes charge because he is ready to go home and sleep after a long day, so the cello or bass player starts to play a solo to quiet things down once more.  You can see the rest of the band is exhausted from a long night of playing jazz to the many people in the club. They wipe their foreheads as if to say it was a job well done.  Before you know it, the band peps up one last time to wrap up the song the way it started- soulful and passionate.  The band knew that this was their last song and they should finish it off right.

Journal #36 Being yourself

There is a great importance to being yourself!  If you try to be something you are not out, than you will never be truly happy.  This is unfair to yourself and to others.  People should know what you are like so they get a fair chance to know you.  Also, it is unfair to yourself because if you act in a way that you really do not like, than you will never be happy.  Also, you will never be able to search for who you really are because you are not being yourself. This is super important because you can also go insane if you hold secret feelings inside of yourself.  If you do not let out your true self, then you will be a very sad person.  I learned that in high school there are a lot of people who hide their true self.  They try to be like someone else so they can fit in.  This is a hard time in high school because there are a lot of fake people and you have to see who is real and who can be your friend.  I think I am mostly myself, but there are times when I keep quiet or I just agree with someone because it is the easy way out of a situation.  This happens a lot in life.  It is not called being fake all the time if you just try to solve a conflict by giving in, even if it goes against your personal beliefs.  There are times in life where you have to choose between being friendly and being yourself.  That goes for many situations in life.  You can either be mean, or you can be yourself.  It just depends how you truly are as a person when you decide how to act in a situation.  I know that there are times in life where you just want to try and be the good guy because your personality is not a mean one, but you have to shoot someone down because it is the right choice.  This is a good quality to have to a personality because you can distinguish what is write from a lose-lose situation.  You must try and come through as a person in your decisions, but life is life.  You need to be yourself, yet make all the right decisions.  Life is obviously confusing.

Journal #35

My writing has changed enormously since September the 24, 2012.  I have learned to be more thorough and to dig deep into research to find my information.  I also have learned that I need to spend more time researching because, back in September, I did not spend as much time researching as I do now.  I think that now my writing is at least one-hundred times better than in September.  My writing also now seems more intellectual and it actually raises new ideas from that of my peers.  My old writing style basically stated already known topics and did not explore much beyond the topic.  Now my writing displays new ideas and it is a lot more interesting to read than my old writings.  I also use way more support now than I used in September.  I now use more parenthetical citations to support my facts and my elaboration had progressed as well.  I think this is due to Mr. Langley's great teaching skills.  He taught my fellow peers and I how to write properly and how to make essays go above and beyond expectations.  He gave us pointers on how to make our writing better by bringing in outside facts by using extra literary criticisms in our essays.  This has helped my classmates and I get better and better as we keep writing more and more.  Another reason I am better at writing is probably due to the fact that we write an essay or analysis every other day.  We write so much that it was inevitable for us to get better and better with our writings.  Also, sentence studies have taught us to use better grammar and to also use great punctuation in our essays.  I think that all of these factors have helped my writing skills enormously.  In these past few months, my writing has gone from plain and somewhat horrible, to better and well supported.  I believe that my writing from September compared to now is horrible, and now it is awesome thanks to English Class!