Final Essay Update

For our last assigned essay in English, we were all assigned an argumentative essay with the topic up to each person. I decided to write mine loosely on space travel and if it is feasible for billionaires to be exploring the galaxy. I have mixed feelings on this topic, for part of me thinks that space travel is really cool and can provide many benefits to humanity, but another part of me thinks that it's wrong for people to be traveling to and from space when our own planet is not doing too well. Our oceans are dying, people are hungry, unemployed, have bad mental health, homicides and violent crimes, homeless, and so forth. With all the problems here on Earth, is it fair for the elite to be investing their time and resources into the galaxy? I will not answer that here, but it is a very interesting and new question that many are questioning for themselves. Personally, I would love to see space become an accessible tourist spot for everyone to see, but the price to be flown into space is astronomical (no pun intended). I have collected all my resources for this essay and I feel ready to write since I have completed my prewriting for the essay. I do not feel anxious for this essay and more/or/less feel ready to type it and be done with it. 

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Travel

I often think about how much life is happening outside of our area of northwest Indiana. There is so much world to see and yet I feel like all I know is northwest Indiana. Looking at the same fields and roads I have known all my life does eventually get old. Traveling all over the world is a dream of mine, but travel is difficult for various reasons; cost, time, work, and the list just goes on and on. I watch a blogger/YouTuber called "bald and bankrupt" who travels all over the world to places that aren't generally visited. He visits a lot of old Soviet states, poverty-stricken neighborhoods, India, South America, Cuba, Africa, the Sahara Desert, and so forth. I love watching his videos because they are very eye-opening and broaden my perspective on life and the world around me. Considering that I have never been out of the United States, I resorted to watching his videos to get my travel fix. Besides just watching bald and bankrupt travel, he also provides great commentary and gives history lessons for each area he travels to. I have learned quite a bit watching him and have even picked up words from different languages. Most of the videos that I have watched from him come from his travels to old Soviet states where the effects of socialism can be seen in the architecture and old infrastructure that were never removed from the government. As I am typing this blog, I am watching one of his videos in which he travels on a trans-Siberian railroad and stops at certain towns to explore the area. I would love to go the places that this man has been, but I do not know Russian like he does. However, perhaps my Spanish speaking could open travel to South American countries and other various places. Though I will not claim to be anywhere close to bilingual, I do know a fair share of Spanish and hope to learn even more languages. All in all, I am starting to get tired of the freezing cold weather and cornfields and would love to see more of the world outside of my box. 

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Reflection of Class

 My group finally presented our group project, though we were shorthanded by two members. Four out of our six members presented the project, which honestly was more than enough. While I was anxious before presenting it, as usual, it was relatively stress-free. Now that it is done and presented with, I am just more happy that it is done and I can move on to something else. As it was announced in class, we are starting a new project which basically seems like an argumentative essay but less "pro-con" like. I have previous experience in writing argumentative essays so this should be a great opportunity to brush up on my skills. I am not too anxious about this paper, and while I am not excited to write this paper, I am also not stressing out about it. I am not decided on my topic yet, however, I will keep jotting down ideas. Some ideas I had were about cryptocurrency, healthcare, or various topic in the health field regarding one's own physical and/or mental health. In previous blogs, I have discussed my own journey with physical health, so it would just be fitting to do a topic in that field. As cliche as it may sound, investing in your own health now will pay dividends later in your life. Either way, though, I feel little stress in regards to school which is great for both your mind and body and helps me feel prepared to knock out this paper. 

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Reflection of Group Project

    Going into the group project, I was somewhat wary of working with other people. I have had a mix of experiences with group projects, some good and some very bad, but this was my first college group project so I was optimistic in hopes that it would be different. It was not much different than that of working in a high school group, besides members being more mature and less attempts at comedy. Everyone in my group was willing to work and I had no problems with really anything. We were very successful in delegating tasks to everybody and formulated general guidelines for everybody in the group as to what needed to be completed. Mostly everyone submitted their portion of the project on time and all of our work was compiled together neatly via the timeline made by one of the group members. Generally, specifically in high school, people had a tendency to be lazy and not want to contribute anything meaningful, however, this group was very successful despite our lack of talking in the classroom. We did not really have to talk much, however, because we understood the project and our tasks enough to just work on what needed to be done. I have always felt indifferent towards working in a group, for sometimes it is advantageous because you get to do less work while other times it feels like more work due to incompetence of others. Oftentimes, it is nice to work alone and not be forced to collaborate with others, but I found this project to favorable, overall. 

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Blog 10: Midterm

    While I was not confident heading into my midterm week, I came out doing just fine thankfully. I always stress about my performance in school because I feel that I never do enough and am never prepared. Usually, I'm just too hard on myself and do fine and that was thankfully the case here. I only had two midterm tests and then the midterm grade for this class, which overall was not as stressful as I thought. For this class, our midterm was basically just keeping up on the blog posts so I had no stress there, and then the other two tests were in my theater and political science class which I scored well on as well. A lot of it was just a review of the big topics that had been discussed in class so it was not too challenging and did not require much studying/review. 

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    Perhaps part of my success can be attributed to Athletic Greens, which is a green supplement drink thing filled with vitamins and minerals and all that good stuff. It does not taste very good by itself in water, as it honestly takes like sweet grass. I found a way to overcome the nasty taste, however, by mixing it with whey protein, honey, oats, peanut butter, and milk. While it may not still be the greatest tasting thing, it is much more doable to drink and does not taste as "sweet grass-like" taste. Getting enough nutrients in your body can only be a good thing so that is why I drink this stuff so I can be "healthy". I am not too sure if I feel any more or less different, but mentally I feel better so I guess that's all that matters. 

Blog 9: Tim Dillon and Chrissy Chaos Podcast

    I always found people who exclaim that they listen to podcasts to be very annoying. Anyone who has ever told me that they listen to podcasts has had a hint of arrogance to it. Maybe that's more based on the person themself saying that they listen to podcasts, but generally, that's just how it has been. That's not to say I'm not guilty of this and constantly talk about two podcasts in particular: The Tim Dillon Show and the Chrissy Chaos podcast. Both of these guys are primarily based in New York and are very successful comedians and so forth. I originally couldn't get into podcasts when I first tried entering this realm, as they just seemed pretty boring and I couldn't maintain my interest in it over such a long period of time. That was until later in my high school years when I started listening to the Joe Rogan podcast, mainly to tune in to his interviews with pro-MMA fighters. It wasn't long after that that I started branching out and trying to find more podcasts that I like. It took me some time, but, I eventually found my two favorite podcasts in the world that I tune into about every week. Laughing is always a good thing, and I spend a lot more time laughing now. Sometimes they have extreme forms of comedy, but it's always in good spirit and has helped me in forming my opinions about things in the world. Their podcasts are about an hour-long, which is just about the right time before it becomes too long for the listeners. Even then, when I listen to these podcasts I barely notice the time and I usually find myself wanting even more content. These two podcasts may not be for everyone, which is why it's important for one to take some time and find what content they want to listen to. Music and podcasts are very similar in that it's basically unique to the person who decides what they want to listen to. 

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Fall Break

     Coming into fall break, I was rather unaffected by the two days off initially. On Friday, I felt like it would be just another two days without having to go to college but we still have homework so what's the point of the two days off anyway. However, as I am writing this today on the last day of fall break, I sort of have a newfound appreciation for it. I was able to get done with some of my homework early and set myself up for the week. Usually, I do homework about the day before it is due, and I still procrastinate to a degree. But because of the boredom, I forced myself to do homework and that alone has relieved a lot of stress and anxiety. Sleeping in is such a blessing, and being able to do that the past two days has felt life-changing. The White Sox are playing the Astros right now and currently, the score is 1-0 White Sox. I'm going to watch the rest of the game after completing this post so hopefully "Sox in 5". 

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