The time had come, the walrus said...

So it’s the end of the road, the last week of class. WooHoo!! It has been a long semester for me because I am a full time student, I work, and I am a single mother. At the beginning of the semester when I first looked on Blackboard at this classes weekly assignments I was a little scared. There seemed to be a lot of work even from the first week! Being a full time student and not having a lot of spare time on my hands I was a little worried about the amount of work given to us but as the semester went on I had a great time learning and completing the assignments. There were a few that I missed (oops) and there were a few that I didn’t enjoy (completing For Analysis questions) but for the most part I really enjoyed this class. I think that Professor Gross is an amazing teacher, even through an online class I feel that I learned a lot from her. I also enjoyed the other students in the class whose group I shared and whose blogs I read. This was not my first English class and I am positive that it will not be my last (I’m a single subject English major, eek!) but I did enjoy the class a great deal and am hoping that there are other English classes that Professor Gross teaches that I will be able to take.
As far as saying good bye to everyone, good bye. I hope that you all enjoyed the class as much as I did and I hope we all pass with flying colors! I know that we didn’t meet in person but like I said earlier I really enjoyed working with the people in my group and reading and responding to other peoples blogs. There are a lot of interesting people in this class and it was nice to see other peoples perspective on a lot of the different subjects that we covered. I hope you all do good in your classes and that finals don’t stress anyone out too much. I look forward to hopefully taking a few more classes with some of the people in this class and seeing how we mesh together in person and not just over the internet.
All in all, I guess I just hope that everyone had a good time and that everyone got what they expected out of the class. I hope that everyone goes where they are heading and that there are not a whole lot of problems on the way there. I hope everyone has a good summer, if you’re taking summer classes (like I am) I hope that they aren’t too rough on us and that everyone succeeds in their endeavors. Have a good rest of the year everyone!

Creation Myths

Creation myths in there own way are very exciting for me to learn about. Most everybody has heard of the Greek deities, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus Christ these gods are widely known throughout the world but learning about other gods and other myths from places that I honestly haven’t even heard of is really cool to explore. There are so many different types of gods and holy figures it almost makes my head spin. Even though it is fun to learn about new things and to know them I still hold onto my own beliefs. I believe that there is one God and that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I believe that He died or my sins and the sins of the people around me hoping to give everybody a better life and a chance into Heaven. It is kind of weird in some sense to hear that some people don’t believe that there is a heaven or hell or that there is even a God to begin with. I think that being able to study and compare all these different creation myths helps people to really know who they are. In a way it could cause the reverse affect and cause someone to doubt who they are and where they come from but I think that if you have very strong beliefs then learning about these different myths can help you grow stronger in your beliefs and have more faith in them. There are always going to be people that believe in something different then you do and that it just the way that the world is. Everyone is different and if they weren’t then our world would probably be really boring. Being culturally diverse and having knowledge of the world around you is a great gift though, no matter who or what you choose to believe in. We can all benefit from each other even if it is only in the simplest or smallest of ways. So learning about other cultures creation myths is fascinating, people believing that we come from dragons or eggs or that someone was just poofed into existence really is cool and not so different then what anyone else believes. Like I said I believe in God but nobody knows where my God that created the earth in seven days came from, He has just always been there. All in all I think that everyone could benefit in some way or another by learning about the different cultures and beliefs around the world. Even if it is not what you choose to believe yourself, nobody has the right to put down someone else’s beliefs especially when if they took the time to learn even a little bit about them they would see that all of our beliefs really are not that different. Everything came from somewhere and everybody wants to have a purpose in life so having knowledge from around the world definitely couldn’t hurt your chances of knowing who you are and what you are really here for.

Knowing is Hard to Handle...

It seems to me like every character in the story has some sort of “burden of knowing”. The characters that mainly stick out to me with a burden of knowing are T. Ray, Lily, August, and Rosaleen. I have not yet completed the novel but so far these four seem to know the most and carry the heaviest burdens. T. Ray knows what happened to Lily’s mother and that is his burden. In his own way he is protecting her by not telling her the whole truth about what happened and leaving her in the blank but at the same time he is constantly punishing her for trivial mistakes. Rosaleen has a burden of knowing because part of her knows that Lily is suffering and why but she cannot talk to Lily about it. August has a burden of knowing because she recognizes Lily and knows that her mother came to stay with her and her sisters and she knows part of Lily’s sad story as well but just like Rosaleen, August cannot say anything to Lily.
I think that Lily carries with her the most burden of knowing because I think that deep down inside she knows what really happened to her mother but because of all the pain and suffering she has been through she chooses to suppress this knowledge and live in ignorance because it seems like it is easier for her to do so. Lily is also burdened with the knowledge of how she and Rosaleen ended up at the calendar sisters’ house, she knows that how they came to be there wrong and she also knows that lying to the sisters is wrong yet she continues to do it. There is one point in the story where Lily accidently overhears a conversation that August and June are having and August tells June that she knows that Lily is lying. Because Lily heard this statement from August it makes her feel even worse about lying to her when she has shown such kindness to them.
I think that this story is extremely complex and because each one of the characters has some sort of problem that they are going through or some issue that they are dealing with you have to keep track and pay close attention to every one of them. Though Lily is the main character, her connection with each of the other characters in the story is significant because all of these different connections help her to grow, to experience, to learn, and to accept the issues and the pains that she needs to overcome. I have not finished the story but I do have high hopes for the way that it will end. I believe that Lily will figure out the right things to do in all of the different aspects that she is having troubles. I also believe that each one of the other characters in the story help Lily in her journey of discovery in their own unique way.

Perfect moments

There have been many times where I have felt very strong feelings, those feelings have ranged from anger to sadness, from sadness to joy and anything in-between. I think my most memorable overwhelming emotion was love, with a whole lot of joy mixed in. I had this feeling when I held my son for the first time. I cannot even begin to describe the wonderful feeling of holding the life that you created in your arms for the very first time. The feeling of holding their tiny hands and counting their little toes. Of seeing their eyes open and focus on you and of knowing that no matter what that little person is yours and you will do anything for it. Don’t get me wrong there were countless (well 10 exactly) months of cravings and morning sickness, well all day sickness in my case, and crazy hormones and a ridiculous amount of ups and downs and a whole lot of pain. When it came down to that moment though, it was like the entire world stood still and He and I were the only people in the world and from that moment on he was the only person that meant anything to me, the only person and I would do anything and everything for. I do not really know too much about animals and how they are with their young so I cannot really say that it was an equivalent feeling to any one specifically, but I think that the feeling of protectiveness would be the same as any lions or maybe tigers. I know that they are very territorial animals and that when anyone or anything gets close to their young they become very defensive. That is the way that I feel about my son constantly and in order to feel so protect over something or someone you have to have a special kind of love for them and let me just tell you, if my heart could have exploded the first time I held my son I think it would have. Like I said before there are really no feelings and no words that I could use to describe how literally awestruck I was in that moment. I don’t know if everyone who has kids feels that way the first time that they hold them but oh man, nothing can compare to it. All I could think was how I made this perfect little person and I know everyone thinks that their kids are special but in the first moment they really are perfect. There is nothing that can take that joy away and nothing that can tarnish the memory. Babies are perfect, the innocence and the, I don’t have any other word except perfectness, are so overwhelming. I think that if there was any way to feel so happy and so amazing all the time that I would do it no matter what, not meaning to say that I am just going to keep having babies, lol, one is more than enough for now.

It's so sad to think about...

Suicide is a very sensitive subject to breach; there are a lot of different views and a lot of different feelings that are involved in this area. There are also a lot of different reasons why people choose to end their own lives. I personally think that it is unbelievably sad that this happens so often. I looked it up and over 33 thousand people in the United States commit suicide every year, what’s even sadder is that suicide is the fifth leading cause of death in youths between the ages of five and fourteen and the third leading cause of death in youths between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four. I find it very disturbing to think that a five year old would feel the need to end their life. Children so young should not even know that there is something of this nature in the world, let alone be a statistic in the ever increasing numbers. When you are a teenager sometimes things get really hard and the thought does cross your mind. I will admit I have thought about it before and I know friends who have thought about it before as well. I don’t personally know anyone who has attempted suicide or committed suicide and I thank God everyday that I don’t. Is suicide justifiable? I don’t really think that anyone can say, we all have our opinions on certain issues and feel how we feel about them but until you have walked in someone else’s shoes to know how they were feeling and how they were thinking, it is nobodies place to judge them. A lot of times kids get bullied around at school, people start rumors about them, make fun of them, and basically make their lives miserable. When you are a teenager you don’t really have a choice but to deal with it either, you can’t stop going to school, you can’t move away, and most of the time you can’t hide from it either. As an adult there is more stress added and often times more expectations that need to be lived up to. I can understand why people would feel like there was no other way out and because I can understand it makes me so sad to think that so many lives have been ended mostly because of society’s ruthless misunderstanding and violence towards anyone and everyone. To feel like there was no way out would be torturous. I also think that this problem can be drastically reduced and that is another reason why it is so sad to think about. There is something that can be done to help these people, to save them yet many times people just turn the other way. I think that if our society cared more about each other and showed more compassion and respect towards other human beings that the numbers of people who felt the need to end their lives would dramatically decrease. It is essentially all up to us and what we are or are not going to do about it.

What Could Life Be Like...?

I think that there are so many different analogies for what life could be like that it is insanely hard to pick one. We all know the famous saying by Forrest Gump “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get”, then there are the sayings that life is like a rollercoaster, life is life a swing, and so on and so forth. All of which are true. Life is like a lot of things. There are so many different ways that life could go wrong or life could go right, there are so many ups and downs along the way, and there are a lot of situations that come by that people just don’t know how to handle. So how do we make the distinction? How do we know what life is really like? I don’t think we can. We all live our lives one day at a time, one moment at a time. Some of us like the live in the future or live in the past but when it comes down to it we have nothing but the here and now. If we don’t live everyday for what it is then who is to say that we will have tomorrow. There are even reference to this in the Bible, don’t put off something for tomorrow if you could do it today.
I think that all of these analogies are true. Life is really like a box of chocolates and you never really do know what you are going to get, life is also like a rollercoaster there are so many ups and downs and most of the time they catch you off guard. The key is to live for each moment because you really don’t know if you are going to get another moment to do the things you want. If you love someone tell them, if you want to do something do it, if you want to say something say it. Too many of us too often live our lives in fear and that fear is eventually going to be our downfall. Would you rather wake up the morning of your last day thinking “I wish I would have…” or would you rather wake up on that day thinking “I am so glad that I did…”? I think that everyone should live like there is no tomorrow because tomorrow is not guaranteed to us, the only thing that we really have is now and what we choose to do with it.

What's in a type...

I do not believe that people have certain types, what I do believe however, is that people are naturally attracted to certain characteristics they see in other people. There may be qualities that people look for in a person that they deem necessary for them to be compatible such as, loyalty, trustworthiness, compassion, etc. As for the specific type of a person, I believe that that varies. Just because I like tall guys with lots of muscles and a good sense of humor, does not mean that that is the only “type” of guy that I will date or even the type of guy that I will marry. I do believe that some people have strict requirements for the person that they will date, a check list you could call it, of what exactly they are looking for in someone else. These people however, are going to be hard-pressed to find someone who is an exact match to that list and who lives up to their expectations. I think that these qualifications come from a variety of different things in peoples’ lives. The way you were raised could be a factor, the friends that you have, the lifestyle you live, the people you have dated in the past. There are so many things that could cause you to want to be with someone who has certain characteristics or cause you not to want to be with them. For instance, if you dated someone who liked to hit you and make you cry then realized that you are better than that and do not deserve that kinds of treatment (and no one does) then in your next relationship is someone tried to treat you that way you would not put up with it. Same goes when you are with someone who treats you amazing, if they are good to you but it does not work out, in your next relationship you will want someone who is good to you as well. I think that part of needing someone to be a certain way, a certain “type”, partially comes from your own insecurities. What these kinds of people do not realize though, is that when you have so many expectations you often get let down. Nobody is perfect and it is not anyone else’s job to try to make them either. The way that I have found works the best, but I am not expert and in no way know everything about relationships and what makes them work, is to be open-minded and accepting of who someone is and if after getting to know that someone, you do not like the person that they are then that is that. If you feel the need to try to change them then that is not the person for you. There are always going to be things in a relationship or a person that you do not care for one hundred percent but nobody is perfect and if that persons flaws are too much to deal with then you are better off finding someone else.