Journal #38

For job shadowing I went to Memorial Medical Center and followed a post surgical RN. Her name was Kristyn and she was going to classes to become a Nurse Practitioner, which is what I want to eventually become. During my morning there, I followed her around as she went to each of her five patients as she checked on the, to see if they needed anything, and give them their medicine. The patients had had procedures such as gallbladder removal and skin cancer surgery. It was interesting to me because everyday would be different and it is different than just sitting at a desk and doing the same thing over and over again. When a patient was going to be released, she had to fill out a lot of paperwork, which was what she said the worst part was. Throughout the day, she gave me many interesting points to think about with nursing, such as if you do not like a certain section that you are in, you can just switch. This also goes along with the main reason I like nursing. It can reach so many different areas, so there id bound to be something that you can find that you enjoy doing. I think that nursing would be a good career, but I would like to further my degree, and become a nurse practitioner, because they are more like a physician. It also made me realize that I definitely want to be in pediatrics, because the adults that were there had all sorts of weight problems and issues because of that. It frustrated me because they could have avoided all of those issues by being healthy, but they are not. With children, they have other problems, i know, and it could be very sad with children who have a hard life, but i think i would like it much better. If eventually i find out I do not like pediatrics, I can always switch, because that is the best thing about nursing.

Journal #37

When I listen to Blue Monk by Miles Davis and the Monk Quartet, I see many things. I someone playing a piano in a little jazz club. The club is dark and a little smokey, with people sitting at small tables lighted with candles, sitting on top of dark red table clothes. The audience taps along as the saxophone plays along with the piano, and the drummer begins in. I picture the saxophonist getting very into the song, playing from his heart, and his eyes closed so he can feel the music. Around the room, the people so the same as their heads bob, and their feet tap. As the piano fades out and just a faint drum sounds in the back, the saxophone takes its solo, and the people watch with awe. As the piano rejoins for its solo, I picture the some couples slowly getting up to dance. The men twirl the women around the dance floor, as they feel the beat through their bodies. They slow down as the bass solo begins, and watch the bassist with his glasses on strum as his body moves with the rhythm. He also bobs his head and his body, while the whole room watched him. Everyone soon rejoins as the audience claps for the solos and begin to dance again as the music picks up. Around the room, I picture people at a bar, smoking a cigarette and drinking as the music ends they all stand and clap for the musicians hard work and soulful music. As the musicians exit the stage the people slowly finish their conversations filled with awe and praise for the solos, and wish to come again next week. They put on their coats and gradually leave the smokey jazz club until it is only the bartender left cleaning, and the musicians thanking each other and packing up their instruments. They say their goodbyes and will be back next week to do it again.

Journal #36

It is important to be yourself because if you act like someone you are not, you lose yourself.Acting like yourself can be really hard, especially as a teenager. You fell constant pressure to be something you are not, and that can easily change who you are, how you act, and what you believe in. In being yourself, you must find people that will accept the fact that you are who you are and will like you regardless. You need to acct like yourself because it is being true to the individual inside you, and expressing yourself no matter what people say or think. I like to think that I am myself all of the time, but I know that I act different around different people. Which is okay, but it is how much different you act that really says whether or not you are being true to yourself. Being true to yourself can also help you guide yourself in the right direction. If you stick to what you believe in, and gradually as you get older grow and extend on those thoughts, morals, and beliefs, then you can make yourself into a strong person. Being true to yourself makes you strong, which leads to a life of happiness. I think that it is important that we stay true to ourselves in order to keep our heads above water, if you will. By this, I mean that if you lie to yourself and do the things that you inside know you do not believe in, then your just keep getting more and more overwhelmed in the lies you tell yourself, and eventually you are no longer yourself, but a person the people around you that influenced these decisions have made you into. I try to keep to my morals as best as I can, but it is very hard sometimes to do this. I think if you can make it our of high school proud of who you are, then that is yourself, and you should stick to it.

Journal #35

My writing in The Declaration of Independence Reflection blog was very choppy and did not flow very well.I had very short kind of insignificant paragraphs, and they did not really seem as though they made an essay. Although they did not flow, I used very good examples and support for my arguments. My thoughts were well organized and easy to follow. In my discussion post, I had many topics, whereas the reflection blog there was one focused topic to write about. In the discussion post, I had fewer support examples because I was covering more topics than before. In the discussion post, I had more direct quotations than in the discussion post, and in the reflection blog, I used broader examples and talked about them. I kind of talked about a specific section in the Declaration of Independence, and then made a broad overview of that section. In opposition, in the reflection blog I had a quotation from one of Whitman's poems, and then I went on break down the quote. I did a broad break down, and then related it back to the point I was trying to prove. I think my writing has improved a little bit, but these were hard essays to compare. The kinds of writing were very different because int he reflection blog, I was just telling how the Declaration of Independence had examples of the topic. In the discussion post,I was comparing and contrasting Walt Whitman's writing to the characteristics of Realism and Regionalism writing, talking about how Whitman revolutionized American literature, and how Whitman's poems were showing his search for Self that he believed in. Overall the writing is somewhat different, but also a little bit similar. They were kind of the same in my examples and the support to back them. I had a good post when I  wrote my reflection blog and I had very good support and examples. On my previous blogs compared to now I have improved a lot.