Fin.

It was. And I was. These are the phrases, of which I will use both, that will guide my reflection on English, on Millbrook, on the past, and on the future.

It Was:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. How could I possibly generalize the ups and downs of my high school experience? There were plenty of times in the past four years where I felt overwhelmed by work and alone in my academic journey, but I like to think there were equally many times spent laughing with friends and happily bettering myself. It was a time where I feel I made a tangible transition from a boy to a man. I have not only gained forty pounds and a few inches since freshman year, I feel as if I have gotten smarter and more decisive. It was a lot of things good and bad, but all of it was and is now the past. Each day marks one less that I will be around the same people at the same school doing the same things, which can feel like a relief at times. But I am not immune to the human characteristic of being a creature of habit, and I feel like I have grown into my expectations and my surroundings.
Walking across the impersonal stage in an arena not built for me is a proverbial ripping off the band-aid and forced ascension to the next tier of education, but it means so much more than that to myself and many others. It was a lot of things I will leave behind, and a lot I will take with me. I started my time at Millbrook High School taking paideia with Mrs. Genesky and Mr. Grow, and I will finish my time taking classes from both of them. A kind of poetic end to an experience whose life lessons I won't completely understand until much further down the road.
It was something I am incredibly thankful for, I know there are so many people who have invested their time and efforts into my success, and that I am not an island. I couldn't have made it to where I am sitting today without help from my teachers and coaches, as well as some facets of the Millbrook community I will never meet and can never thank properly. It was so much that a paragraph, a page, or even a novella couldn't cover it. It was four years, it was too little of some, it was too much of others, and in the end it was so much more than I can explain.

I was:

I was new. I was young. I was excited. I was afraid. I was so many things the first day of high school. One thing I wasn't was well dressed. I spent more time worrying about my outfit than any of my classes, but I still managed to mess that up. What should I wear? Who should I be? I went with a red Hawaiian shirt, blue board shorts, and floral Vans. I was ready to make a good impression on my peers and on my teachers. I was ready to learn and I was ready to make friends. I was unaware of how much I'd grow and change and how much my opinions, personality, and friend groups would change. I was prepared and I was unprepared. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) I was myself then, and I am myself now, even if those two people dress differently and look different. I was goal oriented, I was strong willed, I was unafraid of challenges, and I am still all of those things. I was not beaten down and deterred from hard times spent working but rather molded into the student and person I am today because of it. I was young, and now I am older. I was many things then and I am many things now. I was many things, and I will adopt many more along my next four years of school and my throughout the rest of my life. I have so much more ahead of me, but I have also left so much behind. I hope that I will have left my mark on Millbrook in some way, and I know that I might not ever find out if this hope is met. All I can say is that my experience has left its mark on me.

Thank you to:

Thank you to all of the people I have not once met, but who have supported my education and classroom environments through your efforts.
Thank you to all of the teachers who truly cared about what they taught and made me care, too.
Thank you to all of my friends who were there for me when I needed them.
Thank you to my family for supporting me and loving me, even when I was tough to be around.
Thank you to Coach Hostler, who helped me become the athlete and man I am today.
Thank you Mr. Grow for loving the past and caring about the present, I have had you three times throughout my schooling experience at Millbrook, each for vastly different classes and your passion for teaching did not wax or wane in any of them.
Thank you to Ms. Romano for creating a fun and safe environment for us to learn, discuss, and escape from the intensity of our other classes.
Thank you to Mr. Baron for pushing us and being the bad guy sometimes, you clearly care about us and are willing to be the tough love we all need.
And thank you lastly but not lastly but not leastly Mrs. Genesky. You are the only teacher I know who could make Macbeth riveting and who could make a room full of busy teenagers laugh, learn and work. I frankly don't care who they decide to make teacher of the year for the state, because you have already won in my mind.  I am so lucky to have had you twice in my Millbrook career and hope my brother Griffin is just as lucky. You have helped me so much along the way and one sappy blog post isn't really enough to cover it, but I'll try anyways. Thank you so much.

Walt Whitman the Always lit Man

This blog on America's 'Good Grey Poet' begins with my examinations of Walt's personal notebook and my response, and is followed by my response to.

Walt's Notebook:

My initial reaction to seeing the contents of Whitman's notebook was holy crap. This is because one of the most cohesive and legible transcendentalist authors has such a disorganized and jumbled notebook. After my initial reaction faded, I realized it was not altogether atypical of an artist or writer to have jumbled personal thoughts that seem to make little sense to a reader. Part of having a personal notebook is that it is just that, personal, and Whitman's scribbled notes made sense to him. My next thought was to look past the formatting difficulties and try to find content that was more revealing about Walt himself. Many of the lines of prose are appear to be thought of on the go, and Walt has written them down in apparent way to remember them for later works. One line stood out to me because it seems to stray from the pattern of lines written for poems, Walt wrote "I want to see what ? before I die" on one of the later journal pages. This line stands out to me because it brings home the point that Walt was approaching the end of his life while compiling the Leaves of Grass. The drawings also interested me because of their apt portraiture. Walt including drawings in his notebook characterizes him as artistic but also interested in the human form. All drawings but one are of a male face, and the drawing that is an exception to this rule strays far from the others. On the last page of a notebook there is a depiction of a skeleton with curly hair, a three point hat, and a large sword through its heart standing on a beach with its arms in a shrugging position. This sketch could symbolize death or the loss of love, but it is not exactly clear to me why Walt would include this drawing in his personal notebook. Walt Whitman's inner thoughts appear to characterize him as a dedicated poet and an all around artist who concerned himself with the issue of his own mortality and of humanity.

New York Times analysis of Walt's Notebook:

The New York Times sought out to provide an insightful commentary on the inner thoughts of Walt Whitman, of which they did incredibly well. The first yellow note describes the names and addresses of the people Walt Whitman wrote down to remember, a fact that seems altogether less significant. The New York Times then dropped a bombshell about something I failed to notice, that Walt Whitman's notebook began an imaginary dialogue between himself and Abraham Lincoln. Whitman then goes on to discuss religion, liberty, and the dissolving of the Union during the Civil War. Whitman's writings on these topics, snippets of a conversation he never had, are of profound significance as far as context for his later work such as Drum Taps. After the conclusion of his passage Libertad, Whitman begins Ship of State a direct assessment of 'President-elect' Abraham Lincoln's capabilities. Whitman states that "any body can sail with a fair wind, or a smooth sea" implicitly referring to Lincoln's difficult position as captain of the ship in metaphorical rough seas. Whitman then calls out "Blow mad winds!" as a way of saying that circumstance could test Lincoln and liberty itself, but he believed that Abraham Lincoln and the United States could weather the challenges. The New York Times also informed me that the sketches are likely portraits of Whitman drawn by someone else and not original works of his.

Conclusion:

Overall, the in-depth New York Times analysis provided me with a much deeper understanding of Whitman's notebook than my surface level observation of its pages. It is clear through my own assessment and that of the New York Times that Walt Whitman was in fact large and contained multitudes. On one hand, his personal life was going through a midlife crisis, but on the other hand Whitman was a joyful man who viewed America's future with optimism. Even though Whitman assessed the waters Lincoln would navigate to be rough, he had faith in Lincoln's ability to preserve liberty in the United States. Whitman proved himself to be a complicated, but still immensely likable author with the personal thoughts in his journal.

American Dream the Ice Cream

The American Dream, what a wonderful thing
Its pursuit and fulfillment have great gifts to bring
It was thought up a long time ago, around 1921 or 22
It puts big happy smiles on the faces of me and you
Other have countries have dreams too, but they're not as pretty
Any country but the U.S. has a dream that's sh-

ooooooooooookkkaaaayyyy then let's get started on my American Dream blog!!

My working definition of the accepted American Dream is: "To work hard and raise yourself up from humble beginnings to a happy life of well deserved financial success and to start/support a happy family"

With that being said I want to delve into the strengths and weaknesses (let's say areas for improvement) of the current American Dream.

Strengths:

• Based on hard work
• Includes supporting a happy family
• Doesn't hinge on beating others
• Happiness is central to the dream

Areas for Improvement:

• Doesn't involve helping others
• Wrongly equates money directly to happiness 

In my humble opinion, the American Dream has more strengths than weaknesses and doesn't exclude anyone on accounts of race or gender. In the American Dream, it is only through hard work and developed skill that people can reach financial success and therefore happiness. Implicit in the American Dream are the values of honesty, diligence, integrity, and kindness. The American Dream is not perfect, but it is a guiding principle that, if realized, creates a better life for all.

I define wealth as a balance of financial and emotional security. To be wealthy, you have the material goods you need and want, and you are happy with what you have and who you have around you. It is entirely possible to be emotionally wealthy and finically poor, and vice versa. The traditional American outlook is that financial poverty is directly associated with moral poverty and emotional poverty. I don't believe these traits to be directly correlated, but it would be foolish to believe that these traits are never spurred on by or the cause of poverty.

The dangerous assumption of the dream however is that money=happiness. Make no mistake about it, money is incredibly useful and very necessary for many people's ideas of what happiness is, however it is not the end all be all of being happy. All of us know at least one person who has all the money in the world but at the end of the day leads a sad and unfulfilled life. 

I believe that for myself to lead a fulfilled life I must help other humans and our environment in some positive way. That I was born to help in some greater way that I do not quite know yet. I don't think that I am Mother Theresa and I don't want to entirely give up my financial goals to attain my guiding life goals. Of course I'd like to make a couple million dollars and buy enough cars to outfit a racing team, but I don't want to do it through slimy means. I also understand that those in poverty are not to be looked down upon but should be provided opportunities to help themselves.

Metamorphosis. Metamorfóza. Metamorfosi. Ebomini. Metamorfozė.

In 1915 the German writer Franz Kafka published his novella: Metamorphosis. This novella tells the story of Gregor Samsa, who awakes one morning to find himself transformed into a large and grotesque insect. Though the cause of the transformation is never revealed, the novella focuses on Samsa's struggle to adjust to his new identity. Franz Kafka published Metamorphosis in German, and throughout the 1920s and 1930s his work was subject to many translations. The original text, Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt, was translated in to four main English versions. I will attempt to dissect each of the English translations and examine their diction, syntax imagery, details, structure, and any other stylistic or figurative elements.



#1:As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

This translation seems to be more direct from German to English in that it does not account for English syntax or sentence structure. To make this sentence flow better, there should have been a semicolon or period in between 'dreams' and 'he'. There are three distinct diction choices in this translation, the words uneasy, transformed, and gigantic. Uneasy connotes a teetering between positive and negative, so they characterize Samsa's dream as partly negative rather than nightmares. Transformed implies a large and significant change, which seems to be more true the story than a choice such as changed. The word gigantic aptly describes the size of the bug Samsa has become, but does not provide much by way of imagery. These word choices help to create a matter-of-fact tone, but the syntax makes the sentence structure feel poorly constructed and awkward to an English speaking audience. 

#2:Gregory Samsa woke from uneasy dreams one morning to find himself changed into a giant bug.


This translation is much shorter than the previous one, leading me to believe that it is more direct and does not concern itself with details such as where Samsa woke up. Something very interesting about this translation is the changing of the main character's name from Gregor to Gregory. Gregor is a more traditionally German name than Gregory, so this change may have been made to make the main character of Kafka's novel seem more relatable to an American audience. This translation also describes Samsa's dreams as uneasy to the same effect, but uses the word changed instead of transformed. Changed is an understatement for the kind of metamorphosis that Samsa has been through, and does not convey a feeling of real transformation to the audience. The phrase giant bug encounters a similar problem to the word changed in that it is an understatement of the brevity of the situation. Giant bug seems too casual, too colloquial, to be a terrifying change. #3:When Gregor Samsa awoke from troubled dreams one morning, he found he had been transformed in his bed into an enormous bug.

This translation is not perfect, but it seems to be the best overall. While not as succinct as the previous translation, it has a very coherent and pleasing sentence structure. The main diction choices in this translation are transformed, troubled, and bug. I agree that transformed is the best way to communicate the change Samsa has undergone, and I could see the argument for the word troubled to describe his dreams, I do not support the decision to use the word bug. A bug does not inspire fear nor does it aid in the translator's creation of a dramatic tone.

#4:One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin.

This fourth translation seems to be the most different overall. It contains the most commas and clauses, and seems to be the longest translation. It would have been better for this translator to split his or her thoughts into two sentences as opposed to mashing all of this together. The most significant diction choices made by this translator are agitated, monstrous, and vermin. Agitated does not seem to aptly describe the nature of Gregor Samsa's dreams, because agitated implies angry and the dreams are more likely troubled or uneasy. I agree completely with the choice to use the word monstrous when describing what Samsa was transformed into, however the word vermin is not specific enough to specify that he is an insect (rats, raccoons, and opossums can be considered vermin as well).

Syntax, sentence structure, punctuation, and diction all have huge effects on how meaning is created in each of these sentences. Simple word choices such as adjectives to describe what Gregor Samsa was transformed into completely change how the premise of the entire novella is framed. When translating from another language into English, it is important to consider not only the direct translation but also what will resonate with the audience the most. It is because of cultural differences in the significance of specific words or phrases that a translator has to take some creative liberty with the translation to get the original authors message across the same way it would have been communicated to its original audience. Each translation has a different effect on how the reader understands it, so it is best to keep a translation concise. Good translations don't overcomplicate or oversimplify. The point of this exercise in evaluating translations is to show us that diction and stylistic choices have a huge impact on how a reader understands a text, and that translation requires a comprehensive understanding of both language's grammar and diction.

Practice IOC oh me, oh my

Below is the excerpt used for my IOC practice.

I had a fair bit of difficulty organizing my thoughts throughout this practice IOC. I attempted to introduce the context of the novel, author, and date for my introduction. I then moved to my thesis that Kathy H.'s point of view develops Ishiguro's main themes of bothering, self-actualization, and the importance of childhood. I discussed each of these points one by one, using pertinent quotes from the text. I concluded by reviewing my points and Ishiguro's intentions.

Criterion A: 5

Criterion B: 3

Criterion C: 3

Criterion D: 3

Total: 14

Never Let Go watch Cam Newton Lose

I suffered severe emotional trauma watching the Panthers lose and decided to use my freebie to cover the damages.

ExhausTED

https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself

In his brief three minute-fifteen second TED Talk back in 2010, Derek Sivers postulated that it was better to keep your goals to yourself than to share them out to others. Although this contention is bold and may defy conventional sensibilities, it is not the first time this has been stated; as Sivers pointed out. Sivers' main argument is that when you announce your goals to others and are those goals are acknowledged you feel a sense of "social reality" and are satisfied without having actually done the work.

Sivers argument is mostly based in logos, and he develops his own credibility by citing the works of famous psychologists such as Kurt Lewin, Wera Mahler, and Peter Gollwitzer. Sivers then goes into depth about a 2009 study of Gollwitzer's where 163 people in 4 separate tests were told to write down their biggest goals where half of them were told to share their goals out while the other half were not allowed to discuss their goals. Sivers goes on to explain that after the people who were told to share out finished, everybody was given 45 minutes to work towards that goal with the instruction that they could use as much time as they needed. Sivers explains that Gollwitzer's study found that people who did not share out their goals actually spent much more time working to achieve them as compared with those who shared out.

Sivers' delivery of his argument is filled with personal connections to the audience, as he opens with a direction to brainstorm their biggest goals and then engages them by asking about them. Sivers then goes on to tell his audience that they "should have kept their mouths shut" and piques their attention. Sivers is succinct and blunt in his delivery of his argument, but still manages to introduce his point of view, support it with research, and conclude by drawing connections to real life goals (his example was running a marathon). Sivers is successful in convincing his audience that what he is saying is not only true, but supported by various credible sources and in-depth research.

I chose this TED Talk because the title intrigued me; I am used to sharing my grand goals with everyone around me and I am often encouraged to do so. After watching Sivers talk, I am pretty convinced that what he said was true. I find that it is really easy for me to say something like "I'm going to clean my room today" and feel accomplished about it without actually doing it (like today). In my experience, the people who work hard in silence are the ones who get the most done. While the urge to share out my goals hasn't diminished, I will definitely think twice before shouting out long term goals to the world.