Turning My Avocation into My Vocation

          Why is the path to most decent careers so long and difficult? At age thirty-two, I finally realized what I wanted to do with my life. While I have accepted the required path, and am dealing with it, I still find myself astounded at the amount of time it will take to reach my goal.

          People often find themselves at a loss when asked what they want to do with their lives, especially in their late teenage years and early twenties. I am a perfect example of this phenomenon. From age eighteen to thirty-two I knew that I wanted financial stability, but had no specific vocational aspirations.

          I was born and raised in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area, having lived my childhood in a Maryland suburb of D.C. in Montgomery County. Having what most would call a “normal” childhood, I attended Kindergarten and elementary school with nothing exceptionally good or bad happening to me. My parents divorced just before I started middle school, and I moved with my mother to Arlington Virginia to attend Middle School. In middle school, I met the first teacher I actually liked, a teacher who could actually get me interested in the material he was teaching. This was a new experience for me. I moved back to the the burbs' to live with my father while I attended high school. The word "attended" is a' propos, as I was not terribly "into" my high school experience. High school went by slowly with nothing terribly inspiring occurring to give me any ideas of what to do with my life. I moved out on my own after high school, and a failed attempt at community college which resulted in wasted money and zero completed credits.
         
          Throughout my twenties I worked in a number of manual labor style jobs, paid my rent, and essentially “spun my wheels”. I went through life month to month, never looking far ahead or making any specific plans or goals. I worked just about every job you could imagine in a restaurant, bar, or nightclub. The long and short of it is; I made decent money, paid the bills, and wasn't going anywhere in life. A short time ago, I was injured and had to stop working long enough to lose my job over it. It was then that I was forced to figure out my future.

          There is a saying; “Make your avocation your vocation”. The only thing that I know I love is history. Truly, -all- human history fascinates me. And so, with a “light bulb moment” coming about a decade later than I would have preferred, I decided to become a history teacher.

          I reverse engineered my intended career into my scholastic road map. The according plan will result in my graduation from UVA in 2017 with a bachelor's degree, and, I hope, a job. Having wasted enough time prior to returning to school, I wish there were an easier, faster, and more direct path to my goal.

P.J. Wordsmith
English 112-7  

I Remember

I remember every time when I am with my father

I remember the smile when I say something foolish

I remember you giving me so much love, care

And

how you have fulfill my all wishes which were right or wrong

I remember how you treat me like two years old  baby with so much care

I remember how you can not see my moody face sad

I remember how you can tell when I am having a bad day

Even though

You can tell me what went wrong, and what a solution is

I remember how you have the best understanding of me in the entire world

I remember you always taking my side even I am wrong

I remember how you have given me best advices which were good for me

I remember your so much love for me

I feel I am the luckiest daughter in this earth to have a father like you

And

I am thankful to God for making you one of the best person in my life

 

One favorite word I want to say I Love  You Dad

without you my life is nothing

May God give you long life, and have your shadow on my forever

And

You stay with me in my happiness, and sadness right next to me

These are words from bottom of my heart for my dad. Sometime we cant express our feelings by telling face to face, and this is a good idea to share your thoughts in writing.
Nabila ENG 112

The Ocean

When I am in the ocean I feel complete.

It surrounds me like a huge blue-green blanket

When I am in the ocean, I feel complete.

It is like 300 million tears of happiness mixed 

together to form one ocean.

I can imagine living down in the beautiful ocean.

-Jennifer C.

I wrote this at a time when I was missing where I grew up. I lived near the ocean and this poem comes from remembering all the good memories made at the beach.

Psychological Transformation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MYsx6WArKY

"Self-Transcendence. It's just a fact", according to Jonathan Haidt, a current social psychology professor at New York University's Stern School of Business. Haidt purposes that humans are "homo-duplex" or two-level man. Lower-level is described as "ordinary"; a person who is interested in fulfilling his own interest and desires. But the second level is called "level of sacred". It is the level which transforms from the lower level and becomes a member of a community. He or she becomes interested in what the team or the community wants and work together to achieve the community's goals. In order to achieve the level of sacred, there needs to be a transcending event that changes our entire view of the universe. Some transcends through religions or possibly drugs. Either case, it changes us. I personally thought this was a great lecture and drawn an interest to me about social psychology. I highly recommend to people who are looking for a change in their lives, searching for a way to become an entirely new person.

-Mike K.
Eng. 112 Sec. 009A

You Know Who You Are - Poem

You know who you are

You are there to protect, but instead incriminate.

You are there to guide,  but instead let us fall.

You are there to help, but instead scream and yell

You are there to love, but instead you show animosity

You are there to give, but instead you take

You are there to give her away, but instead you repudiate

You are there to be sweet and kind, but instead you are a cruel monster

You know who you are

This is a poem I wrote while feeling hurt. I have edited it a bit to make it sound a little better. After I wrote this, those hurt feelings went away. I found out more here then when I used to write in journals that words are powerful. Keeping them locked away in your head and in your heart eventually lead to no where good. When I wrote this it transferred my feelings out of my heart and head on to this paper. Now this paper holds my feelings until it no longer can. 
Tiffany D Eng 112-020

Is there satanic symbolism in music?

If you search YouTube for Illuminati and its relation to the music industry, you will find a treasure chest of information. Does the Illuminati really exist? Do they have a hand in the music industry and converting famous people into devil worship? What you see in these videos are scary and shocking. It will have you wondering. I personally think that a lot of individuals read to much into the whole thing, but watching videos like the one above makes me rethink it just a bit. What do you think?

"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" -- some things to consider

"To light a candle casts a shadow." -- Ursula K. LeGuin

If you are thinking about writing your final essay about Ursula LeGuin's short story, "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," I strongly encourage you to do some extra reading. Here are some timely, relevant, and helpful sites:

This essay compares the people of the fictional town of Omelas to the people who attend or work at or support Penn State University. The people of Happy Valley may -- or may not -- turn out to be very Omelas-like. What do you think? Truth in advertising: one of my best friends in the world has been a professor at Penn State for twenty years, and he is about to "walk away . . ."

 And here is a blog post written by a young man from Ireland. This essay convicts all of us. His argument is that in one way or another we all live in Omelas -- and we have not walked away.

UPDATE (12/06/2012):  Here is a link to a video clip from ABC News, which discusses a raid on a sweatshop in India.

ANOTHER UPDATE (5/1/2013):  Here is a link to a cool Tumblr page that might lead you to some thought-provoking questions.

ONE MORE UPDATE: (5/10/2019): You can find other journalists and cultural observers who have compared Omelas and its inhabitants to real-world situations. Here is one by David Brooks, published in New York Times in 2015. And here is one by one by Vandana Singh, written in 2018. Both are quite thought-provoking, and might help you organize your thoughts as you write about this short story.

There's more out there: timely writing about the state of the world RIGHT NOW, that uses this short story as a way of framing a particular argument. So my challenge to you is -- find it. Think about it. Respond to it. And then write about it. This is the true point of literature.

And dudes: Cite your sources!

Posted by Liz Holmes