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December 2022 - Write-It

My Expierence with Comics and History

My experience with reading comics has overall been pretty good for me even though it’s been a while since I’ve last done it. Although it definitely caught me off guard getting assigned a comic book, especially on civil rights, in English class. It wasn’t too difficult of a template to adjust to as I used to read some Garfield and I’ve liked Garfield. I found it easier to read than a book as it made it easier to skim through. This was helpful as it allowed me to easily get the main idea due to the images. The only issues I had while reading was sometimes figuring out who said what and occasionally, I’d get lost when the book started jumping around between subjects.

I’d say that I already had a lot of knowledge in the subject as I like history a lot. One effect of this is that I read about American and global history a little bit in my free time. I’ve found school history to be very unreliable and commonly flat out wrong when discussing topics so my knowledge on history has been independently learnt. Due to this I feel like I know more than most people on the subject. 

On civil rights specifically I already have lots of pre-existing knowledge. For example, I’ve read lots on reconstruction as well as how segregation became a thing along with similar things that happened in foreign countries. This made it so that I wasn’t really surprised by bad things that were shown in March. I already knew a lot about the Ku Klux Klan, segregation, and the prevalent culture at the time. I also knew about the political parties and the conditions under segregation. In conclusion, I had a mostly easy time reading March and I had lots of prior knowledge on the subject.

 

New Year, New Me

In the beginning of 2022, I had three goals for myself: to not stay in relationship/friendships that don’t benefit me, start going to the gym consistently, and not spend as much time on my phone. I understand that certain new years resolutions and goals can be pretty cliche and have a stigma around them. However, I do always try to accomplish at least one of the goals I make for myself at the start of every new year. While the phone goal was accomplished for about two weeks after the new year, the two other goals did stick throughout the year. At the beginning of the school year, my roommate asked me if I wanted to accompany her to the gym. Since then, we’ve gotten into a routine schedule to lift together every day. I was never able to push myself to go, especially due to the fact I would be going alone, but now that I have Britney, I feel way more comfortable and enjoy going. Regarding serving relationships/friendships that aren’t beneficial to me, I started to distance myself from certain people who didn’t have my best interest in mind. By distancing myself from everyone, I was able to see who my true friends were.

I’m going into 2023 feeling satisfied and more motivated to accomplish my new goals. I have created four new goals for myself. First, I want to finish out the second semester and end of my freshman year of college on a high note with at least a 3.3 GPA. I know I can do it, as long as I keep my motivation up and procrastination at a minimum. Secondly, I want to come out of my shell a little bit more, be social, and meet new people. I believe I’ll be able to achieve this with the help of rushing in early January. Third, focus on efficiently saving money. The broke college student lifestyle is not enjoyable and has made me realize I’m not great at saving money. Lastly, I want to continue going to the gym. I’m so grateful to Britney for showing me the ropes in the gym. I want to get to the point where I feel experienced enough that I could go home and enter my gym there and be able to work out comfortably knowing I can work out safely and efficiently without a partner there.

 

Christmas Time in Farmville!

Ever since I was a child Christmas time has been my favorite. My birthday is in December, so it has always been the most enjoyable time of the year for me. This past Friday, December 2nd was my 19th birthday. It looked a bit different this year because I was not able to celebrate with my parents and little sister. Fortunately for me Sunday, December 4th was the annual Farmville Christmas parade. Christmas parades give me a sense of nostalgia because I used to twirl fire batons for many years in my hometown’s Christmas parades. The Farmville Christmas parade was by far one of my favorite events I’ve been to this semester. I enjoyed watching it so much that I decided to do a little bit of research about it.

The Farmville Christmas parade for 70 years has been sponsored by the Farmville Jaycees. From an article, I found in the Farmville Herald “the Farmville Jaycees are a group of young and active citizens coming together to work for a common cause and to build a sense of community while positively impacting their community.” For the Farmville Jaycees to be able to bring so many people together and coordinate such a big parade in a relatively small town is astonishing considering that all the parades I’ve attended or been a part of in the past were all much larger communities. This year the parade started at The Department of Motor Vehicles on North Virginia Street and 2nd street and then moved west after that on 2nd street to the North Main Street intersection at Mcdonald’s. This is about a half of a mile, 13 minute walk. Similarly to the parades I’ve been in, there are many participants in the Farmville parade, including churches, fire departments, marching bands from high schools, and small local businesses. Not to mention there are also nonprofit organizations like motorcycle clubs, and other groups. Each year’s parade has a unique theme that participants are encouraged to customize in order for the judges to select a winner at the conclusion of the event. Participants were urged to create their floats and vehicles in keeping with this year’s love motif since the subject was A Valentine’s Day Christmas: Hearts and Love. I loved the idea of this instead of just the traditional red and green Christmas decorations. Seeing everyone dressed up and all the floats decorated in this theme brought a smile to my face. Even though it was quite chilly, I still enjoyed every minute of it.

 

Who’s ready for the Christmas Parade?

 

Final Blog Post

One of my favorite things to do is hang out with my friends. I would not say I have a lot of hobbies, but this is something I do regularly. It doesn’t matter what we are doing, I would rather do nothing with a group of people than sit alone. I find so much enjoyed talking to people. It is crazy what you can do when you know the right people. I feel like social networking is one of the most useful tools anyone can use. Starting conversations can sometimes feel weird, but the opportunities you get when you open up and talk to people are amazing. When I think about some of the coolest things I have done, the majority of those events we caused by a random conversation. I do not think I would even be here at Longwood if it was not for meeting and talking to certain people. I feel like if you do not put effort into meeting and socializing with people you limit yourself. I have been thinking about possibly switching my major from computer science because I am not finding much enjoyment in it. I want to find a career path where I can use my skills in talking and interacting with people. I want to look further into my options over this Christmas break. I do not want to limit myself to a career I will not be happy with in the future. I feel like right now is a great time because I have the opportunity to see what  I want to do and find the path I want to take. It’s never too late to make a change and be whoever you want to be. I want to take advantage of the time I have right now before I look back and wish I made a different decision.

 

Where is the Klan Now

Most KKK members reside in the more southern rich states. They reside in states that are more conservative than liberal. And the number of KKK-based groups spiked in 2017 after a decrease. In Mississippi, there are 5 groups, Alabama 4, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, 3, Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia have 2. And Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Washington only have 1. This adds up to a total of 42 groups in the US. Not to mention that within every KKK group there are approximately 50-100 people per group. 

Even though it is 2022 and it’s been five years I still find it baffling that a hate organization is still around. It’s really weird and makes you wonder if America is ever going to get out of racism. Even though the group isn’t as active as how they were in the 1960s-1980s knowing that the government hasn’t done anything about it or forced them to disband and probably never will force them to is scary. It is as if the government doesn’t care about people of color at all. 

I feel like in order for someone to really be a part of the KKK they need to have a mind that is forever closed off. And those people, the people who aren’t willing to change, terrify me. It’s as if they don’t want to let go. They want to continue to hold onto/ manifest a world full of hatred and racism. It’s also bothersome how some young adults who weren’t even born in that time frame are part of those groups. Romanticizing a life that they never lived, but were taught. This brings me to the next point.

Racism is a learned behavior. A child is brought to the world knowing nothing, but if they are exposed to the behaviors of someone who plays an active role in their life then it’s only natural for the said child to follow in those footsteps. They presumed that if someone they looked up to acted like that then it was okay. I just find that in order to teach a whole generation how to resent a specific race for existing is draining. How is one person going to go on their entire life hating and hate crime, I guess some people, the KKK, live for that and see that as the main reason for their existence. 

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2017-08-14/the-kkk-is-still-based-in-22-states-in-the-us-in-2017

 

 

The Effects Of Media

In March book 3, we read about the impact that the media had on shining light on issues, such as police brutality, that African Americans had been facing. New anchors would cut into real footage of marches and reveal the violent advances of the police dealing with the “unlawful assembly.” The media had the impact it did because it reached all across the nation, showing what was really happening under their noses. The nation’s response was pretty immediate, demanding there be no inference of marches and then religious leaders, ministers, and priests discussed their desire to march alongside the protesters.

Social media nowadays can be very beneficial, just as it can be negative. I use social media mostly to stay in contact with friends and family I’m separated from and to capture memories that I often look back on. I can use social media to post about social issues and post GoFundMe’s for people or problems that need profit. Social media is also convenient because there are always people offering their input on social issues. Therefore, it is easy to inform yourself, typically with both sides of every topic. You can practically educate yourself on any social issue on social media by reading hundreds and thousands of other individuals’ opinions and views. Though, I think social media is also very damaging to my generation and the next. Social media apps, like Twitter where you can only use up to 140 characters per tweet makes it evidently harder to discuss nuance and complex social issues. As people try to keep informed and update their followers, many statements and views can be misinterpreted. As well as social media often beats the news. Many events that take place will often be tweeted, and posted about on Instagram and Facebook before media outlets will release more complete stories. Oftentimes, on social media when an issue is presented it may often be one-sided, or lack lots of contexts. Events often will get painted in a different light than the reality of the situation. Another way social media is negative is how endangering it can be. When protests were going on during the pandemic for police brutality, racial injustices, and LGTBQA+ issues, people would post publicly about when and where these protests were to be held. Making these protests easy targets for predators against said issues to come and disrupt the peace.

https://www.cs.odu.edu/~tkennedy/cs300/development/Public/M03-SocialMedia/index.html