Sense of Place Essay Reflection
After completing this assignment as a Social Scientist, I was available to see today’s society and how closed off we can be. In New York City, I could definitely say we don’t have as much hospitality as the south or other cultures. I realized why speaking to those we don’t know might feel strange and uncomfortable is because of how isolated we are used to being. The assumption I had about Chinatown is everything is always so busy because everyone just wants to shop. I’ve always known Chinatown to be busy and crowded but I always visualized it as a place like 34th st Herald Square. In my notes, I wish I spent more time in some spots of Chinatown and not just the areas I’m familiar with. I also didn’t try to interact with anyone, I only watched others interact with each other. I think it would have been interesting to record how the community interacted with me, and how they directly made me feel being there. Overall, I enjoyed the experience, and I am surprised at the questions I was able to raise watching the daily life of Chinatown.
Self Assessment Essay
The most important part of being a writer is authenticity and observation. As writers, people tend to write without observing or extensive research on the topic at hand. We forget the little details of the surrounding world and view the world as if everything is revolving around us. I’ve never received the opportunity in other composition classes to write about subjects through the lens of an outsider or even as an interviewer. I recounted, sometimes, we are viewing the world through a fishbowl lens but others we are subject to bask in the beauty of what’s before our very eyes. Culture, language, community and oneself. I analyzed a new substance to my writing to add depth and understanding in a world I kept myself isolated from. In a world, where it’s normal to stay within one’s own community without acknowledging others. In the class, Writing for the Social Sciences I was able to add a new component to my writing. I was able to use my writing to write about the surrounding world and observe myself and other people. Through the Social Sciences I can now incorporate in all of my writing the understanding of identifying person vs. world, person vs. person and newly learned person vs. culture and language.
The first assignment of the course was the Peer interview. Naturally, I was turned off by the thought of engaging with another classmate. There was no purpose to interact, just get the work done and get it over with. To my surprise my partner Sebastian Cacere was the easiest person in the world to work with. He was patient, quick to respond to my questions about minor details and most importantly he made me feel comfortable enough to ask questions. In my wiring I recount Sebastian establishing, “ What I hope to gain is connections, people, friends. That is what I want to get out of college, oh and I guess knowledge.” This assignment was the stepping stone to observations. I didn’t feel like my writing evolved just yet but I had fun introducing someone else in my writing. I enjoyed showcasing someone of a different background and the way he viewed the world. I don’t think I was able to enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing and self assessment. I tacked developing and engaging in the collaborative and social aspect of writing processes, as well as acknowledging mine and others range of Linguistic differences as resources, and drew on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility.
Personally, the assignment that stood out the most for me was the Sense of Place Observation Essay. This assignment changed my view on the world and made me feel like a true Social Scientist. It took me sometime to figure out what community I wanted to observe. I was just going ti observe near my building and banter on about my everyday life. However, it hit me out of now where. A community always there and am surrounded by everyday. The glorious Chinatown. I titled my essay, Chinatown: The Land of the Caring, and just took a ride on the bus and walked around for about ten minutes. I favored this community because of how loving they were to one another in a world where we can be so brutal. Honestly, the part of this assignment that was the most meaningful was my concluding paragraph.. My concluding paragraph made me question the world and how isolated we are from each other. In my reflection I dug deep and wrote, “Still, I question, did we in America force people from different parts of the world to isolate themselves in our society?” I realize maybe the way other people communicate within their own culture and communities are normal. However, it really opened my eyes to the way we group ourselves in the world. We can only fully operate and authentically communicate with people similar to ourselves or from the same background.
Sense of Place Observation Essay
Chinatown: The Land of the Caring
Have you ever walked next to someone carrying a dead pig for blocks? It might sound strange, but this is normal strolling down Mott Street all the way down to Grand. Growing up in the Lower East Side, there’s a wide variety of cultures, religions and ethnicities all in one community. Everyone down here has at least been to Chinatown once and has experienced passion and culture. There’s a natural special connection shared amongst the Asian community. The warmth and joy of being surrounded by those who share a non-verbal similarity clearly fills the hearts of those who reside in the infamous Chinatown. Come, stay for a few and understand the culture, daily life and familial pride of Chinatown. It was my pleasure to observe and record the nature and speed of the environment they call home.
The Journey to Town
I used to ride the M9 bus every day in high school but today using this time to observe intrigued me on everything I knew but still missed. The doors creaked open on the corner of Grand, people of all ages entered the bus, but the elderly caught my attention the most. An Asian girl and boy around the age of 15 and 16 took their hands and lead them to first seats available. The elderly woman and man looked up with a warm smile and continued speaking to the two in Cantonese. I didn’t understand a word they said, but I observed the connection between the elderly and the upcoming generation. The way the youth cared and naturally protected them reflected culture. An understanding of admiration shared amongst one another set the tone right away before I stepped off the bus into Market Place.
The Lap Around Culture
I tripped over many shopping carts pacing through Market Place. The savory smell of dumplings and fried rice spilled out of restaurants on every corner. Markets with vegetables outside the stores grabbed my attention. Conversations with strangers were present everywhere, it was obvious one major connection between the community was food. The infectious smile of an employee handing a dragon fruit to a woman followed over with a conversation. Not something short and sweet but meaningful and long. The man hunch over to her little girl and smiled handing her another fruit. The girl took her two hands, loosening the grip on her tiny bookbag and reached high for the fruit. I thought to myself, “That man is nice. He’s really friend to all customers who walk through.” Shortly after walking further, I noticed, these exchanges were frequently occurring. These interactions were normal amongst society. I began to question, is it comfortably shared against one who shares the same background? Is the Asian community overly friendly or is this how society is normally supposed to interact with people?
America Vs. Culture and Humanity
My observations filled me with questions about the everyday life of the general population. In America, we tend to be very isolated and try our very best to ignore communication with the surrounding world. I am glad to have picked Chinatown as the community I observed because I valued seeing how human interaction should be. Still, I question, did we in America force people from different parts of the world to isolate themselves in our society? Did we make people feel it’s not okay to share long meaningful conversations with the surrounding world? Chinatown is a place where you can receive healthy human communication and share a warm moment with the man from the fruit market.
Transcultural Essay
The Culture Doesn’t Define Me
“I make my own decisions, regardless of norms within my religion and ethnicity. It’s all about the shit I want. It’s up to you to watch my journey, follow with caution if you want to view.”
– Delilah
The person I chose to interview is an extremely good friend of mine who values her religion and ethnicity. She acknowledges, though there are faults and her personal repulse to some social, political and cultural stances, she remains proud to be a Muslim Guyanese woman. In this interview, for the sake of her identity being concealed I will refrain from using my friend’s name and use the name Delilah.
Delilah is 20 years old and her view on politics is liberal. From a very young age she has been wearing a hijab and has voiced to me the importance of making a sacrifice for her religion. At the same time, she always assures me it’s only a woman’s choice whether they want to make this commitment but most the times families force hijabs on children. Personally, I am a Black woman whose family is from the South. I do not have any religious obligations, though my background has deeply influenced my worldviews. I found her sacrifice to a higher power admirable, but I needed to know how her life has been impacted. Curiosity may kill, but there’s always been a certain urgency for me to know what has shaped Delilah’s fiery appraisal to feminism and being leftist. The topic question we decided to discuss was, how did your religion and ethnicity influence your views on the world?
There’s been too many times to count Delilah has expressed racist remarks from her family about African Americans. Not only, racism but multiple men brought to the house to ask for her hand in marriage because of her parents. Of course, her worldviews are different considering her parents grew up in Guyana while she grew up in America, a place where noticeably women fight for change and equality. She remembers times sitting at the dinner table and hearing family say how they would never want their children to date Black people and they only could approve of their own culture. This ideology from what she says is only a mutual feeling amongst the Coolie people in Guyana. Coolies are those who are of Indian descent. Coolie people make up majority of Guyana, but the remaining part of the population are more from African descent. Not all of Guyana shares the same views. During the interview, I recounted leaning over to Delilah, I scooted the phone over to have more of a personal moment, “If you grew up with listening to hate speech, why did you feel it was easy for you to rebel against those views.” Woman to woman it was simple. Minority to minority it was simple. The connection we both shared on this topic was undeniable. She looked me directly and the eyes and said, “I know my voice and my words have the power to enlighten a nation, all women do, and I won’t be silenced nor shunned, this is me.” Delilah’s culture from her words sometimes hinders women from having an identity although she values having a community with girls who wear a hijab. It’s interesting to see how we both want the same things for similar and differing reasons. In my family, many people had children late so a lot of my elders or relatives close to me were born in the very early fifties. My Aunt Barbara was born in 1949, so I have a primary source to the effects of racism and female oppression. My political views are based off my ancestors and everything they could not do and have. I am a leftist because of oppression, and I am a feminist because I remain in a world where women are not equal. While my friend gets her views from hearing different backgrounds discriminated against and stereotyped. In addition, being told what she can’t do within her home. I get my views from my people being discriminated against. Either way, I political and social views align. I’m not sure if it’s because we are women or if it’s because we understand how it feels to be censored in the world with a still discreet but very noticeable social hierarchy. It all started to boil down to morality. Morality connected two women with two different backgrounds to see the issues and face them together.
Transcultural Essay Reflection
The Culture Doesn’t Define Me
“I make my own decisions, regardless of norms within my religion and ethnicity. It’s all about the shit I want. It’s up to you to watch my journey, follow with caution if you want to view.”
– Delilah
The person I chose to interview is an extremely good friend of mine who values her religion and ethnicity. She acknowledges, though there are faults and her personal repulse to some social, political and cultural stances, she remains proud to be a Muslim Guyanese woman. In this interview, for the sake of her identity being concealed I will refrain from using my friend’s name and use the name Delilah.
Delilah is 20 years old and her view on politics is liberal. From a very young age she has been wearing a hijab and has voiced to me the importance of making a sacrifice for her religion. At the same time, she always assures me it’s only a woman’s choice whether they want to make this commitment but most the times families force hijabs on children. Personally, I am a Black woman whose family is from the South. I do not have any religious obligations, though my background has deeply influenced my worldviews. I found her sacrifice to a higher power admirable, but I needed to know how her life has been impacted. Curiosity may kill, but there’s always been a certain urgency for me to know what has shaped Delilah’s fiery appraisal to feminism and being leftist. The topic question we decided to discuss was, how did your religion and ethnicity influence your views on the world?
There’s been too many times to count Delilah has expressed racist remarks from her family about African Americans. Not only, racism but multiple men brought to the house to ask for her hand in marriage because of her parents. Of course, her worldviews are different considering her parents grew up in Guyana while she grew up in America, a place where noticeably women fight for change and equality. She remembers times sitting at the dinner table and hearing family say how they would never want their children to date Black people and they only could approve of their own culture. This ideology from what she says is only a mutual feeling amongst the Coolie people in Guyana. Coolies are those who are of Indian descent. Coolie people make up majority of Guyana, but the remaining part of the population are more from African descent. Not all of Guyana shares the same views. During the interview, I recounted leaning over to Delilah, I scooted the phone over to have more of a personal moment, “If you grew up with listening to hate speech, why did you feel it was easy for you to rebel against those views.” Woman to woman it was simple. Minority to minority it was simple. The connection we both shared on this topic was undeniable. She looked me directly and the eyes and said, “I know my voice and my words have the power to enlighten a nation, all women do, and I won’t be silenced nor shunned, this is me.” Delilah’s culture from her words sometimes hinders women from having an identity although she values having a community with girls who wear a hijab. It’s interesting to see how we both want the same things for similar and differing reasons. In my family, many people had children late so a lot of my elders or relatives close to me were born in the very early fifties. My Aunt Barbara was born in 1949, so I have a primary source to the effects of racism and female oppression. My political views are based off my ancestors and everything they could not do and have. I am a leftist because of oppression, and I am a feminist because I remain in a world where women are not equal. While my friend gets her views from hearing different backgrounds discriminated against and stereotyped. In addition, being told what she can’t do within her home. I get my views from my people being discriminated against. Either way, I political and social views align. I’m not sure if it’s because we are women or if it’s because we understand how it feels to be censored in the world with a still discreet but very noticeable social hierarchy. It all started to boil down to morality. Morality connected two women with two different backgrounds to see the issues and face them together,
Peer Interview Final
The Man with the Plan
Stories are meant to be heard but most of all a story is meant to be remembered. Treasured for the amazing, the excruciating details and the hardest moments we don’t even want to recall. Our whole lives are stories with moments captured physically and mentally until each day a memory slips into the wind and becomes a faint remembrance of our existence. However, this story isn’t just a memory for our light-hearted Sebastian Caceres, these moments manufactured the compassionate person he grew up to be. The times he treasured from his childhood, driving around with his grandfather, each BBQ and all the moments eating in a restaurant with him and letting time rush past, rolled into his adulthood. So, when you think about a story of your life keep Sebastian in mind. Here’s a story that might be like yours. Again, keep Sebastian in mind because it just might be the slow transition to adulthood you need for your own road navigating through college and coming of age. The story of the 6’3 Queens native and his sure-footed strut around NYC. He’s now ready to take on the world head on with his enthusiasm and cheerful spirit.
Sebastian Caceres was born and raised in Queens and currently lives in Woodhaven. He was born November 30, 2002 and favors serial killer documentaries and shows. With his brown eyed charm, around him not a single killer will get away with murder because of his ingenuity and wiliness to understand people. Which is what he favors most about himself “What I like most… to be honest that’s kind of difficult for me to answer, but if I were to say something I like most, it would be the ability to try to understand others.” It’s not surprising he took his natural abilities and enrolled in The City of New York last year to apply his favorite kind of shows into his future. Not quite in the realm of criminal justice but more closely related to his wiliness to understand everyone he encounters. Sebastian knows exactly what he yearns to get out of college! He smiled with his eyes slightly narrowed from the genuine look of joy that rose from his face. Leaned forward into the camera with his upright posture and silver chains dancing from the glare he announced, “What I hope to gain is connections, people, friends. That is what I want to get out of college, oh and I guess knowledge.” Through his degree in Psychology, he has dreams and aspirations to own his own business being a counselor or experimental psychologist.
Sebastian is a true example of a young adult shaping his life together on his own terms and own journey through the help of his biggest influences, his parents, his grandfather and his friends. However, just as anyone else he’s concerned about life after college. The “what now stage” is a moment in time he’s nervous about tackling. “What scares me the most about the future is the negative changes that come with it. I know it’s going to happen, but it doesn’t make it less scary.” He’s focusing on the now but still dwells on change and continuously questions, will the world change for the better? He wonders, “Could the Social Sciences become too important and make significant errors that can affect people in a large way?” Through it all, he would first like to alter what he dislikes about himself before setting out to change the world. “What I wish I could change is my inability to express myself straightforwardly. Like it’s hard for me to formulate my words sometimes, it can get all jumbled up and it’s really frustrating.” He knows these issues with him are just a minor setback and will not stop him from influencing the world with his charisma and kindness.
A story is built off the foundation of where you come from, your biggest influences or even your most fond childhood memory. However, a story reaches its peak when you start your journey of discovery. The discovery of who you are at this very moment and who you would like to be in the future is all a part of your story. Today, gratefully you are still writing your story! With every twist and every turn, it’s a new page and a new chapter written one after the other. Sebestian’s coming of age story does not stop here. The unstoppable Sebestian has new obstacles in his life to tackle but values what he calls, “the power of time”. May time be his friend and work with him on his road to success. Walk on with your Vans and better the world the way you know how, with joy, charisma and selflessness.
Peer Interview Reflection
Through the Peer Interview assignment, I learned in general the most important part about a person is their upbringing. We are molded by the adults in our lives, situations we went through and aspire to be a splitting image of our idols or the opposite of what we fear to be. Sebastian had taught me how important situations are in our lives. Most importantly the small moments we have when we are young because those are the best moments to look back at today. I had already got a sense of Sebastian’s personality through class and break out rooms so I pretty much got a preview of how the interview would go. I was glad to see who and what makes his personality so vibrant and build off it in my writing. What I would have done differently in my interview was ask more open-ended questions to get a little more of his personality and life into my writing. I feel good grading myself; I tried my best to build off the feedback I had received without disrupting the authenticity of my writing. I appreciated doing this assignment and enjoyed doing it because as a Psychology major and a social scientist I got the chance to investigate someone and learn things most important to us during our coming of age. During this time in our lives, it’s important to value the small moments we will never get back and learned that during this assignment.
Peer Interview Rough Draft
The Man with the Plan
Stories are meant to be heard but most of all a story is meant to be remembered. Treasured for the amazing, the excruciating details and the hardest moments we don’t even want to recall. Our whole lives are stories with moments captured physically and mentally until each day a memory slips into the wind and becomes a faint remembrance of our existence. However, this story isn’t just a memory for Sebastian Caceres, these moments manufactured the compassionate person he grew up to be. The times he treasured from his childhood, driving around with his grandfather, each BBQ and all the moments eating in a restaurant with him letting time rush past them rolled into his adulthood. So, when you think about a story of your life keep Sebastian in mind. Here’s a story that might be similar to yours. Again, keep Sebastian in mind because it just might be the slow transition to adulthood you need for your own road to navigate through college and coming of age. The story of a Queens native ready to take on the world head on.
Sebastian Caceres was born and raised in Queens and currently lives in Woodhaven. He was born November 30, 2002 and favors serial killer documentaries and shows. Around him not a single killer will get away with murder because of his ingenuity and wiliness to understand people. Which is actually what he favors most about himself “What I like most… to be honest that’s kind of difficult for me to answer, but if I were to say something I like most it would be the ability to try to understand others.” It’s not surprising he took his natural abilities and enrolled in The City of New York last year to apply his favorite kind of shows into his future. Not quite in the realm of criminal justice but more closely related to his wiliness to understand everyone he encounters. Sebastian knows out of college, “What I hope to gain is connections, people, friends. That is what I want to get out of college, oh and I guess knowledge.” Through his degree in Psychology he has dreams and aspirations to own his own business being a counselor or experimental psychologist.
Sebastian is a true example of a young adult shaping his life together on his own terms and own journey through the help of his biggest influences, his parents, his grandfather and his friends. However, just as anyone else he’s concerned about life after college. The “what now stage” is a moment in time he’s nervous about tackling. “What scares me the most about the future is the negative changes that come with it. I know it’s going to happen, but it doesn’t make it less scary.” He’s focusing on the now but still dwells on change and continuously questions, will the world change for the better? He wonders, “Could the Social Sciences become too important and make significant errors that can affect people in a large way?” Through it all, he would first like to alter what he dislikes about himself before setting out to change the world. “What I wish I could change is my inability to express myself straightforwardly. Like it’s hard for me to formulate my words sometimes, it can get all jumbled up and it’s really frustrating.” He knows these issues with him are just a minor setback and will not stop him from influencing the world with his charisma and kindness.
A story is built off the foundation of where you come from, your biggest influences or even your most fond childhood memory. However, a story reaches its peak when you start your journey of discovery. The discovery of who you are at this very moment and who you would like to be in the future is all a part of your story. Today, gratefully you are still writing your story! With every twist and every turn, it’s a new page and a new chapter written one after the other. Sebestian’s coming of age story does not stop here. Sebestian has new obstacles in his life to tackle but values what he calls, “the power of time”. May time be his friend and work with him on his road to success.
