Cover Letter

Dear Portfolio Readers:

When I signed up for Composition 101 I was unaware that I would have to put together a portfolio of my work to be later assessed by others. Once I found out I became a bit nervous and uneasy. I love to write, but I usually do not let many people see my writing until it is perfected, which for me is after months of editing. I have always feared my ADHD interfered with the organization of my writing, so I would always go over it many times before I shared it with people, unless I had to rush for school. When I do have to rush for school I feel it may not be as good.

I write from emotion. If I do not have an opinion on a subject I will not write about it. My emotion and opinions are the driving force behind my writing. I need to be inspired and dedicated. While my writing tends to be passionate, I struggle with the organization of my written thoughts. I blame my ADHD. On some of my essays, I have to write out bullet points to keep the flow of my papers clean. I learned this trick in this current class.

The first piece of writing I am going to provide is the first essay written in Composition 101. The assignment was a memoir based on one of the three topics given, curiosity, creativity, or persistence. I chose to write about the persistence I have as is struggle with social anxiety. It also is about how my social anxiety kept me from attend college for a few years after high school. The piece gives a little history on my life struggles and past troubles in school.

My second essay is branched off my first essay. For the assignment we had to take the topic we chose for our first essay and form a question to answer in a more researched based essay. The question I wrote about was “What are the differences and similarities between physical and psychological persistence?”  This essay gave me the opportunity to back up my opinion with research. It was a bit hard for me to cut out a lot of my thoughts and replace them with researched based facts.

The last essay I have is an annotation paper. This was the hardest essay for me to write since it was purely fact and researched based. This essay gave me a chance to work on getting great sources instead of mediocre ones. It was one of the last papers I wrote in Composition 101 and I feel it made me work the hardest.

I hope you enjoy my essays. I worked extremely hard on them and despite not having months to edit them, I am pleased with the outcome. I hope you are as well. Than you for your time.

Persistence Memoir

I feel as though everyone is staring at me, judging, even though I know no one is even glancing in my direction. All those eyes on me, I’m bound to do something ridiculous. I spent all of my middle school and high school career afraid to be myself and always trying to impress the other kids. It never worked and I made a bigger fool of myself than I ever could have by being myself, but still fear of disappointing random people is a fear of mine. I worked so hard at trying to making people like and accept me and it didn’t work.

I was a foster child for thirteen years of my life. I bounced from foster to home to foster home until I was ten years old. At the age of ten, I moved to Westport with a family that I lived with and loved until I graduated high school. Once I graduated I realized I still had questions about myself. I knew that I couldn’t go to college right away, nor did I want to. I hated the last few years of high school, why would I want to jump into college not knowing who I was.

Two days after I walked across the stage of my high school auditorium and received my diploma I was on a plane to Arizona to meet my biological mother’s family. I spent seven months there and then moved to Oklahoma to meet my biological mother. I spent two days there and realized I was not like that family. While related by blood, I was not similar to them in any way. They were bold and outgoing, loud and aggressive, and extremely country.

It took me a full year living with friends in Oklahoma to save money to move back to Massachusetts. When I finally did I felt I was ready to give college a try despite my social anxiety. I was ready, but nervous.  What would the other students say when I asked a question they thought was stupid? Would anyone talk to me? All of these questions swirled in my head. I was terrified. I knew I didn’t want to spend my college career kissing up to people and doing what I thought everyone wanted me to do, but how do I be myself and have enough confidence and strength. I decided to just take the plunge. I had already been trying to put myself in social situations more, so I thought why not?

My first semester I took three classes. I took math, history and psychology. I figured three classes to get adjusted to the school setting again. I loved my classes. I loved the topics. I had always been great at math and psychology. History I did well in but never found an interest in.

The first day of class was the most dreaded day for me. The day where you have to introduce yourself to the class. My first class was psychology, my professor finally called in me to introduce myself. “Hi, my name is Desirae. This is my first year at BCC and I have no idea what I want to study.” It felt like those tiny sentences took hours to come out. I could have even sworn I heard chuckles when I said I had no idea what to study. I sank back into my seat, I just had to keep thinking, “baby” steps.

The other classes went the same way. I stood up, introduced myself, felt like a fool for not knowing what I wanted to do with my life. Just having the other students look at me made me feel little and that I never should have come to school. As the semester progressed, I became very interested in my psychology class, even sharing ideas and stories with the class. I started to feel safe even with all the people around me. The interest in learning about the subject made the people around me easier to handle. It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns though.

My math class proved to be a bit tougher to handle. My professor quickly found out I was good at math. I then was constantly called to the board to show the other students how to do the problems. I could feel the hate from their eyes as I solved the problem. To make matters worse, the professor once said, “If anyone has questions, ask her.” I was mortified. A few weeks into that class and I was already being called upon regularly. The stares, whether there or not eventually really got to me. I stopped coming for a few classes. I couldn’t handle it.

When I went back to math I was so far behind and I couldn’t catch up. I failed math. Failed. I failed only one class in my lifetime before. This was when I realized and became strong enough to say to myself that I am in college for myself, no one else. I knew I could do it because I had been doing it in psychology.  By the end of psychology class I was comfortable talking about controversial topics with the class. I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t care if they didn’t agree. I was starting to be myself. By the time the second semester began I knew I had to be me for me. I couldn’t fail another class because of people.

Although I am still shy I show up and participate. It’s a struggle every day I go to class. I just keep the goal of passing and bettering my life in my head. I know that I will never quite feel comfortable in front of strangers, but by pushing through it I become better at interacting with people on a daily basis, even people I know well. Striving for just a little ease and pushing through the pain to achieve my goals. That is the exact definition of perseverance.

Psychological Persistence V.S. Physical Persistence

Persistence is a very tricky and complex concept to explain, never mind even being persistent all in itself.  The person being persistent has a series of steps that they must take. Situations that require physical persistence may include the following scenarios such as healing a broken bone, recovering from a sickness, relearning a task that was once lost, losing weight, learning a new task to improve oneself, while situations that require psychological persistence may include overcoming a social fear, learning to live life again after a near death experience, losing a loved one, recovering after a traumatic event such as rape or assault, coming back home from war. These types of persistence for very different from each other.

Each of these types of persistence requires different steps and tasks to accomplish the goal desired. For example, for a person struggling to lose weight, the goals are set, eat healthier, exercise daily, and possibly take vitamins. The steps are clear cut and simple to follow. Now the physical persistence that occurs, one must push oneself to follow the goal by doing a multiple of things, such as, writing things down, tracking your movement, and setting up time frames to accomplish the goals set. As hard as those tasks may be, they are clear cut and what must be done is simple. Sometimes, the person must be ready and willing to make the change, ready to be physically persistent.

On the other hand, psychological persistence is quite a bit different and a little harder to make a clear cut plan with steps to follow. For example, for a person who just lost a loved one, whether to death or a mental illness, there is no set plan, no guidelines to follow for them to carry on with their life. The person wants to be persistent and live life normally again, but there is no set list or guidelines and no schedule to follow to make life easier and or better. The person knows that they have to grieve and do everyday things at the same time, they also learn to live without the person they once loved or learn to live with a person they used to know but no longer do. One must also realize their life has forever changed and then be alright again. They know what they have to do, but their mental state is not up to par, they are not ready, it will take time. In the article 6 ways to be Persistent, the author quotes, “…They let their fears and doubts paralyze them from moving persistently toward their goals.  Or perhaps, their motivation is no firm enough to drive them to work on it.” (Macabasco).

There is no set time or clock for any of the psychological persistence a person must go through. One cannot make a schedule. Seven am, wake up eat, shower, brush teeth, get dressed. Eight am, go to work until 6 pm. Seven pm, prepare for next day, eat dinner, clean up, cry for two hours. Ten pm, go to bed repeat until one feels better. Unfortunately it does not work that way. Even others, cannot assist as well as one could if it were a physical persistence. In a student’s essay they wrote that their friends didn’t know what to say or how to help. (Preceding to Move Forward)

Another difference is the way people react and treat a person being persistent. When a person is physically being persistent others can see it. They see the struggle and that makes it easier to help the person struggling.  For example, a person trying to lose weight clearly has a plan a goals to accomplish, others can see these plans. They can see the difference of food intake, the increase of exercise, or watching them calculate both.

For a personal being psychologically persistent, others have a harder time seeing it which makes helping extremely difficult. For instance, I have a social anxiety not seen by others. The first time you meet me I come across shy and quiet but I am anything but. It takes me a long time to become comfortable around people. Since I do not wear a sign saying “I have social anxiety, go easy on me.”  People tend to ignore me and think I am shy or antisocial. They do not see how hard I am trying to be in public or around large groups, therefor they cannot help me or make it easier for me.

While there are different ways to be persistent depending on what type of situation a person is in, there are also similarities. In the article “7 Sure- Fire Way to Develop Persistence”, the article gives seven steps, of that a few would be appropriate for both a psychological and physical situation. The step that is similar in the article is the first step, “Learn the life of successful people”, that in order to become persistent one must learn the ways of an already successful person. (Latumahina)

For a physical persistence, one must learn from a trainer or someone who has done the same thing you are trying to do. For example, if a person is trying to learn to walk again, that person would go to a trainer and hang out with people who have lost that ability and gained it back as well as people going through it. A person being psychologically persistent in the aspect of experiencing the death of a parent, taking the step to go to a group meeting for people who have experienced the same loss who have made progress would be beneficial.

Which is harder, physical persistence, or psychological persistence? It is not clear cut. Physical persistence may have a guided time line along with steps to take and psychological persistence does not have a timeline but does have steps to take. Both types of perseverance, psychological and physical, require a ready mind. To say which persistence is harder, is to guess blindly without any knowledge. It depends on the situation, one physical persistence might be hard to overcome then one psychological persistence.  The goal is to “Keep a Positive Mental Attitude” (Macabasco), if one loses that there is a strong chance to fail at the goal desired. A positive mind is the one common thread among both types of persistence.

 

Works Cited

Latumahina, Donald. “7 Sure-Fire Ways to Develop Persistence.” Life Optimizer RSS. Life Optimizer, n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2015.

Macabasco, Lou. “6 Effective Ways to Become Persistent.” Lifehack RSS. Lifehack, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

Arruda, J. “Preceding to Move Forward.” Thesis. Bristol Community College, 2015. Web.

Cannabis, Marijuana, and Hemp

Cannabis in the Health Field:

Although the FDA has not yet recognized or approved the marijuana plant as medicine, scientific studies of the chemicals in the marijuana plant have led to two pills that have helped. There are many studies that are searching to prove medical marijuana helps pain, seizures, and cataracts. (Face of Cannabis).  Good Housekeeping had an article about one family’s choice to move to North Carolina to be part of the experimental drug study for their young daughter who had been suffering from Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS). Their daughter had been suffering from over a hundred seizures a day and it was hurting her development. Their daughter now take 2 drops of medical marijuana oil a day, once in the morning and once at night and only suffers from few seizures a day. The family is very happy the have this blessing for their daughter who is now back to her happy cheerful self. (Graves, Ginny).

Cannabis in the financial field as Hemp:

Hemp is an extremely versatile crop. The hemp product can be used for paper, textiles, health foods, organic personal care products, clothing, construction materials, biofuels, plastic composites and more. According to the research done by Forbes, hemp can be used to manufacture over 25,000 products. In 2012 the hemp industry was valued at $500 million from retail sale and growing hemp. (Yonavjak).

Cannabis in the United States Past:

Throughout the United States hemp and cannabis were widely used but in 1937 the United States of America passed the “Marihuana Tax Act”.  Despite the U.S. Government’s “Hemp for Victory” campaign during World War II, the tax created problems and soon even hemp was classified as Marijuana and taxed. The Act soon caused legal problems for companies. Many industries faced harassment from law enforcement. This led to more and more industries not using hemp for fear of taxation, harassment, and losing their business. By 1970 the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) was passed, formally and legally prohibiting cultivation. (Yonavjak)

Cannabis in the United States Present:

Today, hemp seed, fiber and oil are used in raw materials by major companies such as Ford Motors, Patagonia, and The Body Shop. Most companies that use hemp are forced to import it to America since it is still not “legally” allowed to be grown and cultivated. In 2013 The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013 was brought to the House. It has yet to be passed. This act would remove federal restrictions on the cultivation of hemp industrially. On the state level 31 states have introduced pro-hemp legislation but only19 have passed the legislation. Despite the states’ laws allowing hemp to be grown the farmer still risks federal raids, prison time, and property and civil asset forfeiture. Due to this many feel that it is not t worth the risk. (Drugfacts)

Cannabis in the Music World:

Marijuana is gloried in the music world. One cannot listen to a radio station without here at least one song referring to weed. There are literally thousands of songs just about weed and smoking it. Lil Wayne, a famous rapper released a song dedicated to the day of weed, 4/20. It is everywhere in the music world. Musicians have gone to jail over weed and fighting over it. Bob Marley made a living of the image of him smoking weed. (TMZ) marijuana is so mainstream even Willie Nelson plans to make his own brand of marijuana and sell it. This brings in music revenue and marijuana revenue. (Kedmey, Dan) To show the major connection between marijuana and the music industry take the band Green Day. They were signed due to them being a “Stoner” band.  In the 1990’s they were signed but many music labels where not signing punk bands because they didn’t sell many records. Due to them being very open about marijuana and using it, hence their first album title “Dookie”. (FRICKE, DAVID)

 Works Cited

Yonavjak, Logan. “Industrial Hemp: A Win-Win for the Economy and the Environment.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 23 May 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

“Is Marijuana Medicine?” DrugFacts National Institute on Drug Abuse, Apr. 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.

“Face of Cannabis.” Facebook. N.P., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

“Lil Wayne Sparks Music Deal with Pot Biz ‘Cause its 4/20 and Stuff.” Http://www.tmz.com. Tmz, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2015

GRAVES, GINNY. “HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO SAVE YOUR CHILD? (Cover Story).” Good Housekeeping 260.4 (2015): 75-79. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 May 2015.

Kedmey, Dan. “Willie Nelson To Launch His Own Brand Of Marijuana.” Time.Com (2015): N.PAG. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 May 2015.

FRICKE, DAVID. “The ‘Dookie’ Chronicles.” Rolling Stone 1204 (2014): 46-51. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 May 2015.