Reflection: A Look Back at English 104

Now as the year winds down and everyone begins to prepare for the holidays, we sit here and reflect on what we have learned. In English 104, I have learned a lot and have improved my writing skills along the way. A few things to look at that I enacted this year are the effects of posting online, the effects of peer and instructor feedback, and my strengths& weaknesses in writing. Though these seem to not have played a big role in my papers throughout the semester, but these two processes has helped improve my paper tremendously.

            As we went along in English 104 we posted most of our writings on Word press. Posting all our work on word press helped me a lot in my prewriting processes and strategies. When we send our work on word press, everyone at large is able to see what we have written and give us their intake of the writings. Such as, in my encounter “Right Track Rap”, I put a lot of though and effort into writing it because I have already been working on word presses for awhile and didn’t want to disappoint anyone. So I took my work from Right Track (which is my first encounter) and enhanced it into a rap to make Right Track Rap. In Right Track I took line by line to tread it into to my rap.

Artifact 2: Right Track Rap

Nearly a decade later, I’m finally on the right track. After everybody been wondering, questioning me. People been wondering if I’d live my dream, asking me to get my head out of the clouds and get it right. I’d be telling them hell no, eight years of incumbency tells you damn straight. I’m flying high right through the clouds to my next election. Hell yeah!!! Soon all you backstabbing people be calling me Senator Bragg. But I say I’m…….

Finally on the right track, I’m coming home with money in the bank. I’m finally living my dream; I can hear the people scream and yell for me. When I felt weak, I became strong. But I say I’m….. Finally on the right track, it’s like an earthquake just shook my life. I’m living up my expectations; I’m leaving the 69th District of Illinois and heading to D.C. When I felt scared, I became brave.

Heading to my new office, it’s a clear and brand new day. My people decided in 2021 that I’d be their next Senator Bragg. Everybody around me be asking for help and money, I’m sorry to say the Government is broke. They already done and gave the bailouts away, can’t you see them CEOs rolling in their Ferrari’s? I’m running with a pack of wolves and all they smell is my blood. Them backstabbing hoes trying to cut me up, and feed me to the sharks!!!!! But I’m sorry to tell you, I’m a political caliber and I’m here to stay!!!!! But I say I’m…….

Finally on the right track, I’m coming home with money in the bank. I’m finally living my dream, I can hear the people scream and yell for me. When I felt weak, I became strong. But I say I’m….. Finally on the right track, it’s like an earthquake just shook my life. I’m living up my expectations; I’m leaving the 69th District of Illinois and heading to D.C. When I felt scared, I became brave.

For the time being I will be content for awhile riding my dream. But I will always have my eye on the prize, even if it only last awhile. I can imagine when I close my eyes; it feels like I’m opening doors. I’m rolling up in my limousine to the White House. I and the first lady are going to have a party. Just keep my eye on the prize……… keep on the right track.

Artifact 1: Blind and Now I See

Growing up as a child I didn’t always have a normal dream childhood like “leave it to beaver”. I grew up in a home where there was religious conflictions constantly and my parents divorced a very young age. Since they divorced when I was only in second grade, I grew up in mostly poor neighbourhoods that are not ideal for a parent raising children. I quickly came aware what gun shots sounded like as I heard through out the night, then of course there was the usual bum shooting up heroine in the hall, the neighbours fighting, and it goes on. But what do you expect of a mother on a low income with no child support?

My mother is always positive no matter what happens in life because we must keep moving on. She would always tell me, “If you stop moving your going to die, if you have already stopped moving your already dead.” When my mother said this she referred to dead not in a physical manner, but rather in a spiritual way. When you left life bring you to a halt, you stop living life and your no longer growing.

Then there were always those moments in my life that I would feel sorry for myself and I would say, “Why me!!!!!!!!?” or “Life is not fair” not realizing what I have. But in these moment my mother always knew what to say and hear. She would bring up how life is never fair, such as the Jews being exterminated by Hitler, parents having to bury their child, and people fighting cancer. Once she told me, “Michael life is not fair. Nor is it any more fair that someone else go through what you are and not you. Life is not fair, but life is what you make of it.” Hearing my mother say this has forever changed me because I needed to hear her say this to me.

Not that I am all grown up in life, I have fully matured in the morals and values my mother distilled in me. I am now 21, I am battling low white blood cell counts(which means I’m at high risk of leukaemia due to symptoms I have and family history), one of my best friends I recently died after being pulled off life support, and the list goes on. Why should I continue life when it don ‘t sound to positive? Well life must go on no matter how unfair it may seem to us. We may feel at times that our issues are greater then others and we should only care about others. We must always feel compassion to others because your issues may be greater then the person next to you, but some people are able to handle more then others. The moment we stop valuing all human life, is the exact moment we are no longer human. My Mom always helped me think positive, when I was surrounded by negatives.

Blind and Now I See

Growing up as a child I didn’t always have a normal dream childhood like “leave it to beaver”. I grew up in a home where there was religious conflictions constantly and my parents divorced a very young age. Since they divorced when I was only in second grade, I grew up in mostly poor neighbourhoods that are not ideal for a parent raising children. I quickly came aware what gun shots sounded like as I heard through out the night, then of course there was the usual bum shooting up heroine in the hall, the neighbours fighting, and it goes on. But what do you expect of a mother on a low income with no child support?

My mother is always positive no matter what happens in life because we must keep moving on. She would always tell me, “If you stop moving your going to die, if you have already stopped moving your already dead.” When my mother said this she referred to dead not in a physical manner, but rather in a spiritual way. When you left life bring you to a halt, you stop living life and your no longer growing.

Right Track Rap

Nearly a decade later, I’m finally  on the right track. After everybody been wondering, questioning me.

People been wondering if I’d live my dream, asking me to get my head out of the clouds and get it right.

I’d be telling them hell no, eight years of incumbency tells you damn straight.

I’m flying high right through the clouds to my next election. Hell yeah!!!

Soon all you backstabbing people be calling me senator Bragg.

But I say I’m…….

Finally on the right track, I’m coming home with money in the bank.

I’m finally living my dream; I can hear the people scream and yell for me.

When I felt weak, I became strong. But I say I’m…..

Finally on the right track, its like an earthquake just shook my life.

I’m living up my expectations; I’m leaving the 69th District of Illinois and heading to D.C.

When I felt scared, I became brave.

Heading to my new office, its a clear and brand new day.

My people decided in 2021 that I’d be their next Senator Bragg.

Everybody around me be asking for help and money, I’m sorry to say the Government is broke.

They already done and gave the bailouts away, can’t you see them CEOs rolling in their Ferrari’s?

I’m running with a pack of wolves and all they smell is my blood.

Them backstabbing hoes trying to cut me up, and feed me to the sharks!!!!!

But I’m sorry to tell you , I’m a political caliber and I’m here to stay!!!!!

But I say I’m…….

Finally on the right track, I’m coming home with money in the bank.

I’m Finally living my dream, I can hear the people scream and yell for me.

When I felt weak, I became strong. But I say I’m…..

Finally on the right track, its like an earthquake just shook my life.

I’m living up my expectations, I’m leaving the 69th District of Illinois and heading to D.C.

When I felt scared, I became brave.

For the time being I will be content for awhile riding my dream.

But I will always have my eye on the prize, even if it only last awhile.

I can imagine when I close my eyes, It feels like I’m opening doors.

I’m rolling up in my limousine to the White House.

Me and the first lady are going to have a party.

Just keep my eye on the prize……… keep on the right track.

Digging Deeper

As religion becomes more secular today, everyone still knows the basics. Such as, Christians believe in Jesus, and Jews don’t believe in Jesus. But what do people know about Messianic Jews? They are Jews descendants raise on the beliefs of both the new and old testaments, and Jesus as Christ the Savior. The issue Messianic Jews, such as myself, are facing the lost of cultural identity in a secular society.  Jews for one don’t believe the messiah has come yet, and they hold the laws of the Old Testament as sacred. One of the sacred laws is maintaining your body as a holy temple. This forbids tattoos’, and piercings of any part of the body.

As time goes by religion is getting pushed further and further to the side, and is thought as irrelevant today’s world. The issue has become a great loss of cultural identity among the Messianic Jews youth. As each generation goes by, that is more culture identity being loss.

One of the biggest debates today among the lack of culture identity is the issue of piercings, and tattoos. This debate has become highly popular in religious organizations, and among youth. It has become highly popular in today’s society, especially among the youth. Jews among many Christians view doing such things to your body that God ordains as the holy temple is not just immoral, but it’s a sin. They argue that God sett us aside to be different to the rest of the world, and to stay clear of pagan rituals. Then some Christians (majority youth and younger generations) view getting a tattoo or piercings as not a sin. Their main points are that as Jesus came to die for us he gave us free choice and set aside outdated Jewish laws. Such as, the forbidding of eating pork in the Old Testament was considered a sin. Eating pork use to be a sin, but now in the New Testament were allowed to eat pork at our own risk of are health.

Messianic Jews in Today’s World

For my final prompt project, I have decided to do my topic on Messianic Judaism. This topic interests me because I grew up being raised as a Christian with Jewish background due to our ancestry. My target of this research paper is to inform my readers about Messianic Judaism and how societies play on personal self-identity. Growing up I’ve always told people I’m a Messianic Jew and no one has heard of this term because it’s not widely popular. A Messianic Jew is someone who believes in Jesus as the messiah, but still practices some Jewish rituals due to heritage.  I just want to explain how people’s religion has defined them and now in today’s society there are self-identity conflict being face. For example as a Messianic Jew I uphold some Jewish standards such as not eating pork or maintaining you body as a temple. But as I’ve become more secular I’ve gotten my ears pierce and I want a tattoo of the “Star of David”.  So as societies change so does views and morals of religion aspects changes also.

So far as my sources go I have found two books I will be using, along with 2 journal articles I have found so far. The two articles I have found explain the culture and values of Jews, and how in a changing societies it becomes an issue. In the first article it about the values and culture of Jews and how they have reacted to the globalization movement. In this article it talks about in this globalizing world we live in there a issues of different cultures and beliefs clashing. Due to this new societies are on the rise and people’s self-identities are changing. In Article 2  it more of the historical background of Jewish Americans across time and the changes as the Globalization take lift off.

The ethoses of my research paper are from my opinion, my experience through religious culture, and my sources. The sources my journal articles used were from “A History of Jews in a Modern World”, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, and Journal of Research in Personality.

Community Prosperity

In one of Malcolm Gladwell articles, “Small Change”, he informs us on his opinion on how he believes that today’s social media’s, such as; the famous Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are not ways that are considered practicing social activism. Gladwell notes many examples of certain situations where protesting viva web makes little or no impact throughout the article. He claims that people also exaggerate the great impact of social networks, such as, Twitter in the Iran protest when the state department suspended all maintenance of its web site. Though it appears that Facebook and Twitter seems like a tool to talk trash about your ex wives, and socialize about whether the Chicago Bears will make it to the Superbowl ever again. Once you look beyond whether or media should be considered social activism, you can see that social media’s has changed our society’s eyes of what a “community” is.

Growing up as a child I lived in a small town call Belvidere, where people were close together in unity. I could go to the local McDonald’s and you’d see a group of elderly people from all different backgrounds and ethnicities communicating as if they have been friends for life when they just met. As a child I could forget being a trouble maker or riding my bike in the street because the news always reached my mother what I was doing and I would get grounded. Then I asked my mom, “How do you know all the time what I’m doing?” She simply replied, “You’re always being watched by the neighbor, our friends, and the elderly.” Then I understood what a community was actually about. A community  is not just about a group of people living in the same environment or sharing the same interest, but also its where people communicate with each other and watch out for one another like a family.

“Like” Facebook

One of the fastest growing social networks that nearly everyone use is Facebook. Facebook is definitely one of those places where conversations will vary a bit; most of the conversations you may not care to read. This social network is a place where you’re able to inform people what you fell or think, share some lyrics that have been stuck in your head, and its a place you can switch your relationship to “it’s complicated” as if no relationship is complicated. Though in big hit film Easy A, one of the teachers made a point that people just post whatever comes to mind; such as, “Roman is having an OK day, and bought a Coke Zero at the gas station. Raise the roof.”

Although, this media source may seem pointless to some it’s also a  specific way to keep in touch with friends, or unite with fellow amigos that you lost touch with. Most of the time if you post something you will receive some sort of feed back varying from comments to the post, or just simply liking the post (clicking on the thumbs up). A lot of times if someone comments on the post the reader will respond excitedly because deep down most people want people to care about what you are saying.

The Right Track

Nearly a decade later, I have achieved eight years as an incumbent congressman serving the 69th district of Illinois. The voters decided in the elections of 2021, that I would be their senator and now I am no longer heading to my usual office where I’ve been residing as Congressman Bragg of the 69th District. Rather I’m heading to my new office as Senator Bragg were the air is clear and it’s a new day hearing everyone say, “Good Morning Senator Bragg”.  My position as Senator is where I’m planning on becoming a political caliber makes me content for the time being, but  my eye is on the White House.