I guess this is the end... a very bittersweet goodbye.

So it’s time to sign up for classes. Alright, well, the first thing to do is to sign up for your core classes. Those courses include English, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science. However, not all will wish to sign up for these subjects, which is perfectly fine. But, if you wish to, one day, transfer out of Georgia Gwinnett College, I suggest getting those courses out of the way. But, I would go into greater detail about English. Why? Because I thought that my English class helped me with a lot of communication skills and my grammar. So, the question is, “Why should you take English 1101”? Well, because we need it, whether for academic purposes or just because.

If you were to judge any class by its cover, you wouldn’t see what the difference is between this particular class and any other core course.  But look closely at the professors. Take this into account! Knowing which professor teaches a class is just as important as the course itself. For instance, if you do end up choosing to take English 1101, pray that you get Professor Paige Arrington. She is a great teacher, she helps you with any assignment you’re having trouble with, and, most importantly, you actually learn something. I mean, I cannot stress enough about how some professors go completely off topic, wasting their own time, and their students’ time. Thankfully, I did not have those kinds of professors, and hopefully, I will not end up with those kinds spring semester. Now, let’s go into detail of what you should expect in Professor A’s class, if you choose to take it.

1)      You will definitely feel welcome on your first day.

a.       Getting to know one another is very important to Professor A., so you, along with your classmates and Professor A., will participate in a variety of learning exercises.

2)      Professor A will go into great detail on the syllabus, as well as explaining what you can do to get A’s on your assignments.

a.       She can relate to you on the same level, whether you are terrible at English or quite advanced in it. She tries her best to meet you halfway, but it’s 50-50. Take advantage of what is being offered to you! She wants you to succeed.

3)      Go to her during her office hours!

a.       If you have questions or comments about any assignment, test, project, etc., it is best to meet with her during her office hours, because you will not regret it. I can honestly say that every single time that I met up with her, she not only helped me immensely, but also gave me ideas on how to improve on anything in her class.

4)      Be on time, ALWAYS!

a.       She will not tolerate tardiness, but at the same time, she will not kill you if you’re 2 minutes late due to morning traffic or something like that.

5)      Be open-minded.

a.       Throughout the semester, you will learn and talk about topics that most people are very sensitive on, like sexual orientation, political views, religion, etc.

b.      If you can’t handle that or if you do not wish to be exposed to that kind of learning environment, don’t bother taking this class.

And if you think that’s not a lot, just wait until your first day. But one thing is for sure; you will never feel obligated to do an assignment. If you feel like not doing, she will not bother you about it, whatever the reason may be. It’s your education, not hers.

            In all, this class helped me not only in the classroom, but also in my everyday life. And I’m pretty sure that you will not get this kind of experience in any other English classroom at GGC. Call me crazy, but if I could, I would most definitely take this class over again. Good luck and don’t worry,  you will succeed!

This "Social Adventure" is beginning to collapse... but like a phoenix, another "idea" has emerged from the ashes...

Alright, so the preparation for this “social adventure” has not exactly been going as planned. At first, I thought that the preparation would be easy to do and just by asking my cousin to participate is, literally, a challenge. So I will start from the beginning.

 I can’t remember the exact day, but I remember it was the day after Professor A. explained the instructions for beginning our adventures. Cool, so in the back of my head, I knew who to ask to participate in my adventure, but I didn’t know how (Obviously I did know how but, I just didn’t know if she was going to go through with the plans). So right after the school day ended at approximately 10:45 am, I immediately left GGC and headed home so that I could get started on organizing. Even as I drove on my home, the thoughts of preparing just kept worrying me. So as I got home, I entered through the garage, ate something, and headed to my computer.

I knew that communicating with my cousin would not be possible by speech, so instead, I first messaged her on Facebook, to see if her cellular number had changed or not. I messaged her my number and I logged out of Facebook. Waiting for her to respond, I just sat back and waited…and waited…and waited…until finally, she texted me. (WHAT THE HELL?!) My reaction at the time was so because, she rarely speaks to any of her cousins. So she texted me and said, “Hey, this is Giselle. What is it? You wanted to ask me something?”. I responded back by explaining to her what the project entailed and basically, I wanted her to do this adventure with me. For some reason, as I was explaining it to her, I was incorporating my personal goals with the goals for my adventure. Meaning, this adventure would not only fulfill my project goals, but also it would help two cousins bond, knowing that we do not socialize nor associate with same group of people.

So as I explained everything that I had to explain to her, both my personal and professional goals, she surprisingly came to an agreement and told me, “Alright, let me think about it and I will let you know J”. Cool, so that put me less preoccupied about this task… but only for a short time. Time went by; days turned into weeks; weeks turned into a month, and basically, she blew me off. Yeah, I felt mad and disappointed, but at the same time, I knew that what my family had been saying about her was entirely true; “She’s lazy, irresponsible, and she only does favors for her friends, and ignores her family”. Okay, so back to square one. I had no one to use for my “social adventure”. After that day, I had been putting that thought of “trying to find someone for my adventure” on hold.

I was literally confused about this whole thing. Until one day, Professor A. asked me to see her during office hours to discuss my G.O. and paragraphs, as well as my adventure. Going to her was like seeing a small glimpse of bright light in a dark, endless tunnel. She also gave me advice on how to create my paragraphs and how to create this blog. Therefore, I call my new idea for the adventure a “phoenix” version of my “social adventure” because my first idea collapsed into oblivion and my new idea was inspired by the tremendous help of Professor A. So stay tuned for my next blog to see if this idea will develop into my “social adventure”…

An adventure within an experience

Whuz Poppin’?

My definition of a Social Adventure is coming across a challenge in which you are restricted in terms of means of communication between you and another individual whom is restricted from discovering the world around him/her, and surpassing all obstacles in order to become successful in understanding with one another.

My idea for encountering a social adventure is visiting the school where my cousin, Giselle, attended for her high school education. She was born deaf in both ears and it has been difficult in understanding her position in society. Most of my family members try to reach a mutual level of communication with her, but in the end, she probably feels like a misfit in my family. Doing this adventure will not only enhance my ability to use sign language, but also will help me better understand where individuals like my cousin feel in society, where their everyday life is complete silence.

The institution is located in Washington, D.C. and I plan to contact them soon and make an appointment to visit and stay at the campus for a whole weekend (That’s right, Friday, after school, Saturday, and I return Sunday evening.) This will be an adventure for me because I hope to gain as much incentive as I can as to understanding and spending time with individuals that only communicate using their hands. In addition, I do not know, (or I should say, I barely know), any deaf people, so it would be really cool and interesting to be in that environment. On the other hand, I know that many individuals will think differently about attending the institution. Who knows? I’ll have to ask my cousin to see what people REALLY thought about the school, in terms of workload and the environment in classrooms.

As for when I get back to Atlanta to my life, I will obviously ask all my professors for extensions (I would say at least two days). Or if I get bored in Washington D.C. (which I doubt), I will probably do my assignments (Haha). Furthermore, I will ask that I be excused in case of an emergency and I leave on a school day. I will document my experience by recording video journals every morning and evening of my stay. If I am out during either times, I will use my cellular device or take pictures of my practicing American sign language. Also, I plan to visit a Specialist and ask questions as to how and why any individual can end up hearing-impaired.

I know I will have fun with these people, because in the end, they are just like us, only with different communication skills. Once I return, I predict that I will be a beast at speaking American Sign Language, have more hearing-impaired friends, and have a well amount of knowledge on how to live in a deaf society. This adventure will be a great social experience and I am looking forward to it.

Life as an Adventure

In my opinion, an Adventure is not just a way of seeking an adrenaline rush through your body for a short period of time (whether it be skydiving or trying a type of food that you didn’t even know existed), but rather, it is of feeling a sense of touch and fulfillment unexpectedly. An adventure in which I had felt like I had discovered the New World was three summers ago, when I traveled to Colombia, South America for the first time in a long time. I know, many of you may wonder why or how this categorizes as an adventure for me, but reality, it had been my first time going in over 8 years. I guess you could say I was pretty anxious to see what had changed since I had last been there, if the same people still kept in contact, etc. All of these unsolved questions just made this experience even more meaningful, yet mysterious.

On the day of my departure, I was just inches away from approaching the gate entrance into the plane and on my way to a place where it left me puzzled and excited. However, all of these questions led to me believe what if something was to happen in the midst of this flight? Would this trip be like I hoped for so long it would be? Only time would tell if it was. That same afternoon, I had arrived to the José María Córdova International Airport in Medellín, Colombia. My heart literally dropped as the plane was descending from the clouds of the Andes and onto the runway. Obviously, I looked like a tourist by the clothes that I wore and my slow-walking into the airport. I then knew that this was the beginning of my adventure to Colombia. Aside from the fact that crime and drug-trafficking were on the rise, I was easily able to avoid being identified as an American Citizen in public. The reason I took this precaution was because in many countries where kidnappings of American Citizens for money were common, like Colombia, it is always best to blend in with the people, even if you don’t know a single thing about their culture. Thank God that nothing happened to me during my visit.

So, from the airport, my grandfather was waiting for me and it was a great moment because I had not seen him ever since I was a little boy. As we left the airport, I was traveling through the country-side, taking it all in on my way to the city, when all of a sudden, “CRASH”! An unsuspecting car drove past us with such acceleration and the car that was in front of ours. It was so close that it almost hit the car I was in, causing a fatal accident. All I could think was how some (not all) of the Colombian people got their license to drive. As the sky began to shroud itself in darkness, so did my mind. I was exhausted by the time I had arrived to my aunt’s house. But of course, a celebration of my arrival had been set up and I had to stay up and meet everyone (Oh God). As the days went by, I actually felt like I was living there, even though I have never lived there. Just feeling this way made my stay an absolute dream and I was just shocked at the fact how my departure date came so quickly.

It was definitely bittersweet to think about it, especially after only being there for a week. But I knew that this was only the beginning and that I would encounter more adventures each time I would travel to Colombia. The adventure of this adventure was definitely the anticipation of everyone’s state of emotion and just thinking about what I would do during my stay. With this experience in mind, I think anyone with an open-mind to embracing different cultures would feel the same way I did, unlike others who do not wish to know any life outside of their own country because with much tension going on in the world, not many people wish to travel to countries with a history of drug-trafficking and kidnappings. I guess you could say traveling to Colombia is a task for risk-takers and for those who love the Spanish language, as well as the history behind this country.