Never have I ever…blogged (well not before this class at least. If I’m being as honest as I can be, I’ll have you know that I was NOT too thrilled about doing this, especially not for a class! Actually, I think that most of this English course was me looking over the syllabus and thinking “Oh gosh” followed by a deep sigh. I thought professor Perry’s creative style was going to be a bit too much for me. However, I am so glad that I got this experience!

Our second project was a digital one and that was a bit different. It was definitely out of my comfort zone and I thought it’d be hard, but it was the total opposite. I enjoyed working on it much more than writing a traditional paper, sometimes it’s okay to do things different than the way you’re used to. Of course, blogging for a class is also one of those things.

I enjoyed the idea of blogging for a writing class. It keeps you actively writing, and this was very beneficial when it came to writing my papers. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to catch up with the blogs and other assignments due in class. Fortunately, I was able to do to it! I think I’m beginning to enjoy the idea of blogging. I’m considering about doing this on a personal account as a matter of fact.

I would like to encourage others, as I have mentioned before, I plan on being a school counselor someday. There is so much negativity going on in life, so it’s nice to read something inspiring for a change. I think this would be an interesting hobby to take on!

Taking English 1102 with Dr. Perry has been one of the best experiences of all my freshman year. My last English class I took during the previous semester was boring and dry I’m not sure if it was because the professor was more focused on the basics of putting together an MLA style paper than he was focused on creativity. In contrast Dr. Perry’s class is based on creativity in the ways that she allows her students to have “free writes”, always stops to take the opinions of her students on specific topics (and respects their points and views), also project 2 allowed us to think outside of the box and express ourselves.

The books that I read this semester for her class were all excellent reads. They all were written from the perspective of people of color which made them even more comfortable to read. I loved how I could relate to Danez Smith, Jen Cisneros, and Michelle Obama. These books taught me so much more than I was expecting and moreover this class and the topic it is based on taught me about spacial justice which I had no idea was a thing. Who knew an English class could teach you about spacial justice, LGBTQ+ issues and so much more social matters?

I really enjoyed the structure of the class from the grading system, to how the course flowed in the way that Dr. Perry more so talked to you rather than at you during lectures, and all the projects were a delight to do.

I like the idea of blogging for a class I got to see how other people felt about each project we were working on. The only thing that went wrong is towards the end I and a few other students couldn’t post on the big because of technical difficulties.Dr. Perry took the time to relate with her students and understand their minds. She’s very respectful and conscious of many social issues. One thing in particular that comes to mind is on twitter someone reprimanded their professor for using the n-word for and I quote “instructional purposes” in comparison when reading a poem that was 60% just the n-word from Don’t Call Us Dead Dr. Perry skipped over them without even thinking twice. Also though that was an obvious thing to do, I appreciate how she took the time even to go the extra mile and say why she was not going to use that word due to the history of oppression behind it. All in all, she’s a great professor who shows her passion for educating and I enjoyed taking this course.

For my movie review, I watched Bamboozled because I had never watched a Spike Lee movie before and I can honestly say it was the worst first impression of all time.

It was not until I went to research more information on Spike Lee I found out he is known for his over the top controversial productions that usually consist of exaggerated satire based on race relations and colorism the effects of media on modern everyday life, urban crime, poverty, and political issues.

 In my film review, I said, “this particular film makes the viewer question if satire can be taken too far.” I questioned this because the movie had black people doing black face in it, white people saying nigga, and so much racism. I was stressed out while watching this trash and I could not watch another movie because I was halfway through watching it and I wanted it to be done in time for class the next day.

Daymon Wayans performance in this movie was terrible he looked like a sad impression of Mr. Peabody, Jada Pinkett-Smith’s acting had no dimension it was just dry although she was the one person in the movie who made sense half the time. At the end of the movie Sloan (Jada’s character) ends up killing Delacroix (Daymon’s character) because her pro-black brother ends up getting murdered by police for murdering her boyfriend who was a blackface actor. Long story short that scene was supposed to be tragic but it ended up being a mess it was hilarious bad acting the worst I’ve ever seen from Jada seriously go back to the last 10 minutes of the movie don’t even watch the whole thing just the last 10 minutes, and you will wonder what were they thinking with this movie.

There’s no doubt about it to the average student college is hard, it’s stressful, and it puts a toll on the best of us. My Freshman year of college is almost over, and at this point. I feel like I want to give up and I don’t know, make money in a way my parents would never approve of. All jokes aside I often wonder when this hard work will pay off? When will I actually feel like I’m going somewhere in life? I can’t drop out because I’m a first-generation college student and everyone’s eyes are on me plus with me having an island mother and a Nigerian father there’s no way in hell I could ever fix my mouth before them to even at the very least say “gap year.”

Think about Megan Thee Stallion even though she’s one of the most popping female rappers right now she’s still in college and continuously fighting for her degree, that’s inspiring. Did you know Kim Kardashian goes to law school despite being a multimillionaire and being married to Kanye West also another fellow millionaire? Plus get this, Beyoncé wished she went to an HBCU and based a whole historical performance off HBCU culture. If all these powerful inspirational millionaires crave education why can’t an average joe like me do the same?

In all honesty, I would really love to drop everything going on in my life and start my own business. I would love to be a self-made billionaire, but there’s also a side of me who wants to help, heal and treat people like the doctor I should be. I wish I could do both at the same time, but as soon as I get home, I’m so tired that all I could do is sleep and the days that I don’t have class I work a full-time job to support my household.

Is there a thing called the freshman jitters? Because boy am I scared for my future, my mental health, and physical wellbeing. I feel like I’m having a mid-life crisis and I’m only 19.

Dropping out is not an option because I would never forgive myself for making a few assignments that I can’t wrap my head around ruin my future. I also not only want to make my family proud I too want to be proud of myself, I want to be able to say I did something finally, I want people to hear my name and feel inspired.

Thank you for reading my written mental breakdown.

My digital project is about cancel culture and how celebrities respond to the repercussions of being canceled.

Cancel culture is a term that refers to the phenomenon of “canceling” or ending all financial and other forms of support one may have typically for celebrities and political leaders on due to most likely past remarks that may be racist, homophobic, colorist, or sexual assault.

I realized that often when a celebrity or a well known person gets called out on something problematic they said in the past they often say that ever since then they’ve grown so they should be excused, I feel that they should take responsibility for their actions and not just brush it off and say “I was 15 so it doesn’t matter”. Most celebrities do not understand how this is offensive to people because through the problematic remarks were made in the past that does not change the fact that at that point in time it offended, triggered or effected someone.

Ironically grown men and women do not know how to apologize properly so for my digital project I created a website that includes lessons on how to maneuver the stages of being canceled. The lessons include emotional support, how to understand where people are coming from, and how to get back onto the road of restoration.

Becoming by Michelle Obama is one of those books I would give to my future daughter to read while growing up my mom mad me read some her favorite books, and I learned many things from those books such as confidence, self-worth, and how to deal with reality, etc.

Michelle’s book exudes the topics of being a black woman in America, love, confidence, reality, racism, what home is to each of us, grief, and spatial justice, etc. These topics are fundamental for all people of color to understand. Many people of color find themselves accommodating and excusing racism in their communities, such things known as “black cards” that give a pass white people or non-afro Latino people to use the n-word around black people they are friends with. This form of being racially uneducated is dangerous in our society it allows white people to believe that the n-word is just slang for a friend and to forget the negative and oppressed history behind the word.

In many places of the book, Michelle talks about what it means to be a black educated person in America, how you must have thick skin and high confidence in your day to day life. Many young black people doubt themselves and even at times turn to self-hate in accordance to their skin color and how they get treated for being black in a way this book can show young people of color that they are not alone and how to navigate life easily.

This book is also beneficial to non-people of color a majority of the time racism is desensitized in their communities and when being educated on specific racial issues they tend to be ignorant or condescending this book is not one of the first books to be written in this form, a form that allows the reader to see life as it is through the eyes of the writer. The tone of the book isn’t too severe, and it does not outright scream “racism is bad,” but it takes Michelle a true genuine black woman’s feeling and perspectives into account which makes non-people of color bound to think about racism and how it affects people around the world

Upon reading some of the comments on Amazon for this book a few of the top comments were rude, out of order and made little to no sense in my opinion I feel that if someone rushes through this book and does take the time to reflect on each chapter after it is written it may seem dull or dry. I find this book to be very insightful, tasteful and a breath of fresh air, it is in my opinion of the best books I have read.  J+

So my thoughts on this course. I loved this course, and although it was challenging and hectic at some moments, it was by far my easiest class this semester. I enjoyed the different readings, i enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone and blogging, writing about poetry, making a short film, writing a research essay which i hate doing, and now a movie review. So the things we did in this class were very different but thats what made it interesting, and overall im glad i picked this course and this instructor.

My feelings on blogging have been mixed, but evidently i enjoyed doing them. I’m basically expressing my own thoughts and feelings freely without having to be so damn formal all the time. Like with the mla heading and citations and this and that, i love it but at the same time i get sick and tired of doing the same header 24/7. And also lately ive been doing all these fun fonts and colors and sizes with my blogs, i realized that made typing them all much more fun and easier for me. But honestly the only pain of this semester was word press not working. If word press was properly working i could be able to go above and beyond with my blogs. But hey its okay.

The book choices we had for this semester was fun and engaging, THOM was probably my favorite. I thought Becoming was gonna be my favorite but i think the awful period of coming back from spring break and doing it made it so much more uncomfortable to read. Overall, this was a good semester for an English class, i usually kinda hate english classes, but this one wasnt so bad. I wouldnt of changed anything about it. And no, im just not saying that!

I’m so excited for this summer!

Maybe that’s why my mind hasn’t been focused on school lately. This summer i have plans to visit my long term childhood best friend in New York. I’ve been best friends with her for at least 10 years now, and i haven’t seen her in ages. We talk every single day, non stop, and the longest we’ve ever went without talking is a month at least. We’ve been by each other sides since leaving elementary school. Starting highschool as bestfriends and graduating highschool still as bestfriends was something i thought we’d never do. We used to always plan on going to the same college and living together on or off campus. Thats still an option but right now we’re both still in 2 year colleges, but we both turn 21 this year and shes been wanting to move to ATL, so it might be an option. She lives in upstate New york and we’re going to go on a couple road trips and we’re actually going to visit the city. I love everything about New York, but I love NYC to be exact, like being in Manhattan, or SoHo and visiting times square! I just wanna go shopping with her, try different foods! Enjoy the hot weather, even tho im already dealing with it in GA. But fun fact, i actually thought about living there ( New York) once im older and settled in with my life, but i also love the idea of living in Nevada, Texas, Washington. But i’m still keeping my mind open. I’ve never traveled by myself before, so i’m excited to see how this is gonna turn out, im sure its not rocket science. I’ve had to travel international thousands of times, and i’ve been through immigration more times any person my age should, but that’s the sacrifices of having parents and family who live out of the country. Thats all i really have for this blog! I just wanted to express my happiness and excitement for this summer.

What do i think about this film? Well first, i love the hunger games! I’m the type of person to secretly criticize movies in my head or on my personal blog once i watch them. So being able to pretend that i’m a editor and review one of my favorite trilogy movies is like a corny dream come true.

The hunger games is an eye opening movie, i always have the thought of what if this is the world we lived in? It sounds crazy but it just seems so surreal, it made me question so many times if this was real or not and every time i remember its not. I even had this same thought in middle school when i read all the books. That was back when i actually enjoyed reading, now it’s such a hassle and i feel like i have no available time. But the movie was so well produced, the actors were amazing, and im speaking for all of the films just not the first one. The only thing i hate about the films are the horrible love triangles. It reminds me of twilight, dont get me wrong i used to love twilight but its so annoying!

This semester has been completely draining! Balancing a new job, plus being in school full time has been such a hassle. I thought id able to do both of them, and so far i have. This semester is almost over and i’m somehow still managing everything going on in my life pretty well. I entered 2019 with high hopes of getting all A’s and B’s, but obviously that didn’t go so well. At the same time i’m not giving up, so evidently that’s all that matters.. Well to me. I even went through a phase of not knowing if i wanted to continue in school or if i wanted to change my major! But someone very close and special to me said how proud they were of me, and how i have so much going for myself. They may not have noticed the impact of those words to me but they meant so much to me at the moment, and they still do now. Honestly, it’s been my motivation lately to try my hardest and finish this semester strong. But theres always next semester! But first lets focus on this summer, i cant even begin to think about Fall semester right now.