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Is college worth it

 For my synthesis essay, I took the position of defending college and I said how it was worth it for numerous reasons. The packet had good evidence to back it up, so that was my stance, however, I feel like in the world with AI and highly advanced technology, college can be a sort of gamble if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing and how to get it. For example, those who want to work in health care, engineering, law, etc. College is the obvious and best choice for becoming successful at those pathways. However, most other things can be argued that college is not so necessary. I’ve seen several TikTok’s of people with bachelors degrees unable to get any jobs with racks of debt. While I do think college is good for building connections, new experiences, and mentally stimulating, it can be high risk and not always worth the investment for some. Especially with AI, many are predicting the replacement of many white collar workers, and many banking + finance jobs for efficiency. Coll...
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Vertical Farming

Vertical Farming is often presented as a replacement for traditional agriculture, however, I believe it works best when both systems are incorporated together for our society. Both methods have their pro's and cons, and removing one completely for the other would ignore what it does well. Vertical Farming has clear advantages of the space maximization, allows food to be grown in cities and not just rural areas (like where most traditional farming is done), making it more accessible and reduce transportation since food is grown closer to where lots of the population lives. It also uses less water, zero pesticides, and it is season-independent.  At the same time, traditional farming lays a role that vertical farming cannot take over. Large-scale crops like corn, rice, wheat, etc, require more space and are more practical to grow in open fields of land, and has more high-efficiency regarding production in bigger amounts. Replacing traditional farming with vertical farming would create...
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Creativity Decline

Seeing the prompt we were reviewing in class about creativity, it made me take into account that we may be in a creativity crisis more than ever and how much creativity is really needed and should be more valued. Creativity highlights skills of original thought, brainstorming, problem-solving, and artistic ability. Some can argue school already takes away some creativity, because of its requirement for only one answer being allowed, kids feeling unable to express themselves in a classroom setting, and more. With this, schools can be unintentionally discouraging creative thought because of standardized testing, doing things catered to teacher expectations rather than exploring new ideas. Along with that, this is likely only going to worsen with our new modern technology and AI. Today, thinking is an optional thing to do. You can brainstorm ideas with the use of AI and completely eliminate the need to problem-solve with your own thoughts.  At the same time, creativity may not fully d...
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Being a Beginner

 "Me Talk Pretty One Day" made me realize how much being a beginner / in a new environment can affect the way you get treated, or if you will get judged. David Sedaris describes his experience trying to learn French humiliating, but also comedic. His use of humor describes uncomfortable moments, and instead of complaining about the teacher, he hyperbolizes harsh comments and reactions, like how he said that she "stabbed" a student in the eye, when it was just a poke. This makes the story funny, but also reveals how stressful a new environment can be and how being a beginner has a sense of humility and embarrassment to it. Even though the students are trying their absolute best to learn, their mistakes are just a sign of stupidity and being unprepared in the teachers eyes. While Sedaris struggles with his French, the teacher treats him with incapability and views him as lazy. In reality, he's just new, and this isn't something you can pick up right away, whic...
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Nacirema & Costco

 Reading about Nacirema made me think about how normal behavior can look strange when used with different language, and from an outside perspective.  One ritual that reading Nacirema reminded me of was Costco. This stood out to me because in Nacirema, we are all accustomed to going and grabbing mega-sized carts, massive aisles, and buying things in bulk, even if you do not need that much at once. The experience feels less like shopping and a cultural routine that everyone in Nacirema takes part of. Thinking more about this experience, it appears as a ritual for the Nacirema's long history with high levels of consumerism.  People buy giant packages of food, paper towels, snacks, produce, all because it feels practical and more convenient. Leaving Costco with an overflowing cart feels almost like an accomplishment as well, knowing you won't have to go shopping again for weeks, and for some products even months, due to Nacirema's overconsumption problem. The more you buy, th...
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Company Man & School

 Reading the "Company Man" made me rethink how glorified work culture is when it in reality can be really damaging to a person. When you're an ideal employee, you're seen as hardworking, responsible, dedicated, and financially stable. To both your boss, and your peers. But as the Company Man progressed in story, the idea of working so hard until your death date made it uncomfortable to read. It also made me realize how easy it is to get wrapped into the corporate world, and only reward yourself based on your career and work ethic. This story also was similar to how students will value themselves based off how  high their GPA is and how prestigious their extracurriculars are. Like The Company Man, work ethic and academic success is commonly a way for people to measure their worth.  The irony of Phil being respected at work, but his personal life suffering made me think about how this case can be relatable for many students spending all their time studying and stressing...
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Moana and gender roles

P.g 589, #6: examine a popular movie in terms of gender roles and write about it in what ways do the characters reflect conventional roles and in what ways do they step out of those roles? ————————————- The film reflects conventional gender roles when Moana is told by her friends and family members to remain on the island and prioritize her own safety, much like how in real life, women aren’t expected to go out and be the “hero’s”. The second protagonist, Maui, embodies the typical “male hero” role. Muscles, tattoos, superpowers, and so on. Early in the film as well, Maui repeatedly doubts Moana for her abilities to rescue her island and underestimates her, which is common within gender roles in society with men thinking women are less capable of accomplishment.  However, they were able to step out of these roles more as the movie progressed which was a nice twist. This was unexpected for me, since I noticed that disney has repeatedly used similar tropes throughout their films, for...
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