Reflection 2

“You may delay, but time will not”- Benjamin Franklin

In class, we have touched on the idea of how authors, like Oscar Wilde, point out blemishes in society by satirically portraying them in their stories. This idea of looking at our culture in a different way has forced me to notice things about our modern world that may go unnoticed to some. One thing that I feel many people don’t take into account is time.

Time. Time, is something that is limited, but yet feels limitless. We don’t know the ending point but before you know it, it could come to an abrupt end. During my three full semesters here at TCU, I have struggled with this idea of time and how to cope with the fact that it’s passing me by faster than I imagined. I still can remember my first class of biology my freshman year of high school almost 7 years ago and how eager and determined I was. I knew the world was mine to take and I was excited. Since then, looking back on those years, I have done a lot, and also learned a lot. But, I have also taken a lot for granted and not fully taking advantage of every moment.

At the beginning of this year, I found myself moving out of my freshman dorm Clark Hall and moving to the Grand Marc, my own apartment. At this moment is when it really hit me that I am alone. My parents weren’t there holding my hand, helping me move in and making sure I was all settled. They had their own problems and obligations, and I had to respect that.

This made me grow up quickly and made me understand the responsibility we all have has college students to step up and take control of our lives. This is something that I continue to struggle with and will have to learn how to overcome this uneasiness of growing up.

This fear of maturity, directly relates to the unknown aspects of time and how it goes unknown as the most significant thing for us as people. It is the most important intangible thing that our society has. Everyone seems to run out of it, and always seem to have a limited amount because of our chaotic lives. But, the most interesting and scary thing about it is that no matter how rich or lucky you may be, time doesn’t make excuses for anyone or anything. We are simply people living on a continuous countdown of sorts.

We must realize that we are simply living history; soon we will be gone and forgotten by some. We will be the people that lived through 9/11, elected the first African American President, and fought for gay rights. Most of us won’t be remembered as influential figures like Jim Valvano, Bill Gates, or Bono, but we too can become selfless and make a difference, no matter how much money we have.

We must take on the responsibility to take advantage of the moments we have and make the most out of them. We need to do what we truly love and make time for the ones we truly care about because our “limited time” isn’t limitless.

Laugh Out Loud #1

The New Hall, or I guess its Clark and Marion hall now, is a place I have never really cared for. A couple of my friends live there and older Resident Assistants just infect the place continuously asking if you live there and waiting for your friends to come down to get you from the lobby. This time my buddies and I walked in, not to be greeted by any one, just silence. There was a eeriness to it. I mean it was late, but not late enough for no one to be up in the New Hall.

This absence of power gave us the freedom to say what ever we want and at what ever decibel we desire. We continue this while we wait for the elevator to arrive. Once we enter we increase the sound as it seems we are able to escape the environment that could connect us to any sort of problems. Just as the elevator is about to close, my friend's RA barely catches the door. Silence takes over the elevator and our eyes are all just glued to each other's, just trying to hold in the laughter. After we got out of the elevator, with the RA right in front of us, we just burst into laughter. This continued shortly as we walked until we both split paths and entered out respective house holds.

Partially what sparked this wave of laughter was due to the pure awkwardness of the situation and the fact that we were surprised by his abrupt presence into our conversation. It was probably the person we least expected to see and wasn't necessarily the most desired person we'd hope to see. It was purely situational and was one of those "you had to be there" moments.

But I think this type of humor can explain something about ourselves. It shows our true carelessness to some situations. Though this situation I had in New Hall may have been a little distasteful due to the fact it was someone of power, it would have been the same with anyone. This sense of pure laughter reminds me of someone bursting with freedom and they can't control it. They feel fully comfortable with letting go and entering this sense of "carelessness" and true contentment.

 Overall, this outburst of laughter was very interesting looking at after taking part in this class. It gives me an idea about the sources of our laughter and our true emotions while laughing. And eventually helping me trying to formulate my own answer to the question Why Do People Laugh?

Funny Jokes, Cartoons, and Videos

Frank Caliendo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwMONEPz4yA

Will Ferrell Bloopers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyMpZTba5Tc

Conversation 1

Just yesterday, I met with my new conversation partner, Brandon. We sat down at Union Grounds and pretty much started asking each other the generic questions when you are complete strangers. It was kind of awkward and just hard to relate to one another since we came from such different backgrounds, but it got easier as it went on.

I felt like at the beginning I had to lead the conversation since English was more natural for me, but as we continued we were both able to ask each other questions regarding life. At first, we talked about how he liked school and where he lived on campus. This is when I got to understand just how much English he actually knew. I began to realize that English was more difficult for him as he was probably at a middle school level. But I could tell that he was able to comprehend information, he just wasn’t able to process it as fast as me. So I could tell he was smart and new English well he just needed practice. He told me about his troubles, and how this “listening” section of his IEP program was the hardest. We talked about his IEP program for a lot of the time and how just questions surrounding his path to TCU. Being from China, he said a lot of people come to the states seeking a college degree. Initially he said he wanted to go to University of San Francisco, but found his heart in Texas after doing some research about DFW and the Neeley School of Business. He is aspiring to become a Finance student here at TCU as well as a minor in Chinese. Me being a business major, he asked me a lot about classes and their difficulty. I shared that though they are hard, if you study you will do well. I then started to ask about his schooling in China. Brandon went on to say that he studied pretty much from sunrise to late into the evening. He made it seem so monotonous and automated. It sounded pretty awful.

Then we left Union Grounds and went on a walk and smoked some cigarettes. He wanted me to try his Chinese cigarettes that he was talking about throughout our conversation. We went back to his room in Waits and he grabbed them and even gave me a pack. We went outside and just stood there, trying the different flavors of these cigarettes. As were just hanging out, I felt like I was just spending time with one of my friends getting to know each other better. The conversation wasn’t forced like it was at the beginning. It just flowed.

I think one thing that actually lightened up the mood was the laughter that we both expressed. As we got to know each other more and more, the laughter became more frequent. It made the environment more enjoyable for both of us. This once again connects to the idea that laughter and humor is a unifying force rather than something that is used to isolate people from one another.

This more relaxed environment could also be connected to the fact that we became familiar with how each other spoke and our tendencies. We both had to adjust and stretch our typical language in order for the other to fully understand. This was difficult but as we continued the conversation, it became easier and more of a habit to be more descriptive and simple when talking to Brandon.

Though the first conversation with Brandon was interesting and fun, I learned a lot. I began to understand there’s a lot of world out there that I haven’t seen, and I need to get out soon and explore. Secondly, that we as people are the same, no matter what the skin color or gender, we are still all the same and equal. In contrast, I also realized that though we may be human, we all have a different story to tell, we just need to be patient and listen. 

Reflection 1

           The start to my second semester of sophomore year has been very interesting. In this Lit and Civ course, I have been impacted and become to look deeper into the humor and how it affects the connectedness of our global society. This idea of the bonding of humanity has also been prevalent in my business classes. With these select few classes, it has greatly opened my eyes to how humanity is connected on a global scale.

            During the past couple of weeks we have been talking about humor and how it is viewed among different people around the world. But yesterday during class, the question was asked “is laughing unsocial?” I thought this was a very interesting question, as I have never thought laughing held so much weight in society. My first instinct is yes it does if you are the one being singled out and laughed at. Then I started to think about laughter and what it means to everyone; and even when you may be at the heart of the joke, it can still be funny. This made me disagree with the question altogether as I began to believe that laughing and smiling is one of the only things that we as humans can all do. This brought me to the conclusion that laughing and humor are the exact opposite of “unsocial,” but they are unifying. Victor Borge, a past Danish comedian, states it the best, “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” This shows that though distance may separate us, laughter can still bring us right back together with each other.  The unifying force of humor is one that cannot be stopped or resisted, and can greatly help us bond with different people from all over the world.

            This idea of connectedness is also very important and consistent in the business world. During the first couple of weeks in my Business Information Systems class, we have talked heavily about how necessary collaboration is when you’re in a group setting. Earlier this week, in BIS, we had the chance to hear a “distinguished engineer” from IBM. His job is mainly to see trends among people on social media and how they react to certain events or fashions, for example the commercials for the Super Bowl. With his job, he also has the software to look at who calls whom and who responds to certain tweets, and from where they are in the world. With this, he was able to show us a chart with lines connecting people all over the world just based on who they were interacting with via twitter or telephone. The power of this software can be seen through a story he used as an example during class; he shared that during the last month there was a food born sickness starting to spread over a region in New York. With access to everyone’s social media updates, they were able to track who brought the contaminated food product and where they ended up having the picnic where the initial contamination took place, all within 12 hours. This statistic alone shows how connected we are on a global scale and the potential upsides that this software may have as it could give us crucial information to keep the United States and the world safe.

            Overall, the world is connected in many ways. Yet we are not bonded only by technology and laughter but in so many other ways. The fact of the matter is, is that everyone in this world can relate to one another but we just have to keep our eyes open for those opportunities.