#advanced comp

The legal age of adulthood in the U.S. is eighteen-- except for children that are intertwined with crime, who suddenly find themselves elevated to adult status for the privilege of capital punishment. But the majority of eighteen-year-old “adults” are still seniors in high school, still -teen categorized and therefore, still cocooned in naivety;  post-secondary plans come with far too much freedom at once to be anything but reckless with it. So how do we cross the bridge from sweet, innocent childhood to depressingly alone and jarringly aware adulthood?

Rite of Passage, as cliche as it sounds, is paramount to maturity. It is not the act of growing up, but the act of choosing to begin the descent into adulthood. There are multiple stages of becoming an adult, it isn’t some magic, dragon slaying fairy tale where you complete the quest and poof! You are an adult now. It’s not always a universal choice--- or even a conscious one. Sometimes, uncontrollable circumstances violently tear people from the womb of childhood all too fast. Sometimes, despite having every resource afforded, a person never grows up. Sometimes, the world is fair enough to allow a person the chance to grow up comfortably, but that is a rare case of fortune.

And how do you know what and when your rite of passage is? It isn’t something you mark in big, bold red marker on your calendar. It can’t be valued either; rite of passage is one of those profound hindsights you can’t see until it’s behind you. As enigmatic storyteller Bill Harris has put it in “The Fight,”: “They are only cruel punishment. And they just may be too much.” Harris uses these words to describe an unforgiving beat down he helplessly witnessed between two friends in his high school years. Harris’ friend decided that a fight was what made him a “man” or not. Not the outcome of the fight, but the fight itself. Harris didn’t know he’d still be thinking about it now, in 2017. And he wasn’t the one fighting. In fact, Harris encouraged his friend to back down. But rite of passage isn’t about the actual event, whatever it may be. Yes, driving and going to prom can be considered rites of passage, although not the kind that stimulates and enables personal growth. Classify them as cultural milestones, like southern debutantes waiting to be announced into the right societal circles before being considered “grown up.” That doesn’t help you decide who you are. That just decides how old you are. True rite of passage is a challenge, whether internal or external, that invokes contemplation, risk and giving up your inner childhood sanctum.

Rite of passage is the deciding force in transitioning into adulthood, and is specifically unique per person, like a soul or personality. Everyone loses something in the shift, be it fame or blood shed. You cannot cling to the past and be expect to be accepted into the future. Premature dreams absolutely must burn, morals shift uncomfortably, and lies be brought to justice. Rite of passage is what teaches people that the world is far too enormous to be aware of everyone living in it as an individual, that inexplicable evil exists, and that sometimes trying your best just won’t fix anything. The beauty of it is that rite of passage is neither chaotic nor good, it is a neutral force posed to us. The actual learning of universal truths and growth is done by us, once we choose how to react to the situation. The right to adulthood is an equal opportunity, but the choice to accept passage is yours.  There is no ultrasound advanced enough yet to tell a person what type of future they are having. The only way to really know if your grown up is to just go ahead and do it long enough to notice. When your time comes, will you graciously take the offer? Or has it already passed you?

This semester has been exciting and overall I felt that the required texts connected harmoniously. The Medium is the Massage was a great introductory message and it was really neat to see what McLuhan predicted would happen and comparing that to my experience living it. Style: An Anti Textbook was my favorite reading from this semester. Lanham made great points that I agree with, such as where has the style gone? Hearing his take on prose and comparing Americans to Europeans had me reconsidering a lot of my prose not only in my school work, but everyday speak, emails, and text. I enjoyed this Lanham's book so much that I finished it on my own and even logged it in my Goodreads app. Hodgson's book Post Digital Rhetoric and the New Aesthetic was one that had me struggling through chapters, unfortunately. It was interesting to read how our digital age has consumed so much of our life that we are now speaking and understanding things through technology, so much so that there seems to be no divide of life and technology. Though I struggled with reading this book, I did look up talks that Justin Hodgson gave and listened which helped tremendously. My favorite project was the digital conversion analysis. I enjoy making digital art and often work with companies doing their advertisements, so this project was something I found myself enjoying on a greater scale. I also found fun in the non-digital art project just because I am a person who enjoys crafting. It almost gave me child-like joy when I settled on an idea for this one (I had many) and could successfully combine something related to school and show it through art. I'm excited to connect this project into a website, be on the lookout! The blog element of the class was also a nice, exciting touch. It made reading assignments not seem as daunting and easy to add flair, which in turn makes the project more exciting. Another note, the GenAI analysis project was eye-opening and made texts written by AI easier to spot. I've done some peer reviews for other classes and read one that had the same format, font, and headers that ChatGPT gave me for the project which seemed concerning. Social media posts and unfortunately books I tried to start (Kindle Unlimited has now been cast out of my home!) are some other places I've been able to spot some GenAI written texts thanks to this paper.

 Some people are like soda cups at fast food restaurants, some people are like rubber bands, and some people are like summer rains when it comes to active stress. Active stress being a a new issue that occurs in present time.

Imagine you are filling a soda cup at your favorite fast food joint. Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, wherever. You get distracted waiting for the server to call your order, and the cup overflows, spilling in a fantastic Niagara Falls down the side of the cup, the front of the machine, and to the floor. It happens too fast and you are so shocked and embarrassed that you don’t know what to do. You start freaking out, yelling and moving before the soda soaks your shoes. Here, the cup is your capacity to internalize any stress that enters your life; the soda, of course, is the stress. The distraction equals that necessary ability to separate work from personal life, which is detrimental for dealing with your stress. You can’t quit your job, but you also need time to process and rationalize with your issues. Being a soda cup means you take on more than you can handle,and maybe even fully aware of it. You think you can sort everything out just right, and that cup won’t spill. But trust me, that is too idealistic. 

Now, the rubber band type is polar opposite of this. Rubber bands cannot handle the tension of being pulled to far. They snap and then go shooting off into the distance somewhere and the tension is lost, leaving the rubber band stretchy and unable to be utilized again. People that fall in this category can’t handle bad news well, and unlike a soda cup, cannot internalize stress. Small things freak them out. When that happens, rubber band types shut down. They quit whatever activity is freaking them out, but not with out inflicting small damage to the people around them. They may snap or sass or even pull the silent treatment, but they generally don’t mean it. It was just a small outburst, which leads into the next category: summer rains.

Summer rains build up and fizzle out quickly, but leave lasting and irreparable damage. Floods, wash outs, even fatalities sometimes. But the water is needed. This type collects their stress and carries it with them everywhere, and it is highly noticeable. They do their best to carry on being productive, but sooner rather than later, they will break down. They are the type that needs support; some kind of shoulder or reassurance to relax them. Once the episode is over, they prefer to resort to nonchalance and continue whatever they were doing. 

I am too young to know who I am, and far too preoccupied to begin such an extravagant search. I haven’t learned to see past myself yet. I don’t have a firm grasp on any universal truths. Compared to others, I have life too easy. But I’m not here to juxtapose my life with anyone. I can’t, because fortunately, I am the only Nessa this world will ever have. Maybe I’m being over dramatic. I’m an eighteen year old kid with a free education. Maybe I’m a side effect of my community. Everyone leaves, and I am stuck here, alone. Forgotten. Maybe this is me and I haven’t realized it yet.

How hard is it to make friends? Not “Hi!” in the hallway friends, not “Hey do you have the homework LOL,” friends. Real, true friends. The kind who accept your idiosyncrasies and grow with you. The kind that aren’t scared to call you on your BS. Not that hard, you say? Boy, let me tell you something. When most people begin searching for themselves, I was unconsciously divergent and began searching for my people. I looked in grungy teenage angst. I looked in brash “I get all my clothes from Justice at the mall,” prep. I looked in movie theatres. I looked in political activism. I looked in cliquey tribes. I looked and I looked and I looked. I left no stone unturned. It became a war against myself, because I haven’t fit perfectly in any place I’ve been. Should I settle and accept that things just aren’t so cogent or should I press on? Are my people really out there?

The more I searched, the more lost I became. I let go of the little bits of magic star dust that came together and made me Nessa. I’d meet someone, and I’d package up my self confidence, my likes and dislikes, my thoughts, and even my dreams in a dull, plain cardboard box. After a few weeks of talking to the new friend, I’d take that box and drop it off at goodwill. I wouldn’t remember what I put in there, and it didn’t matter. My friend would tell me what to think and how to feel. What to wear. What to like. What to complain about and with what frequency. I was a dog on a short leash subconsciously begging to be let out, however when anyone tried to unchain me, I barked and howled with a ferocity fit to star in a Stephen King novel. I wasn’t ready to be  aware of my toxic behavior. You can’t help someone who doesn’t think they need help. 

  My mother and I attempt to keep a flower garden in the spring. As much as I wish i could tell you it’s the envy of every neighbor on the block, it’s not.We get too busy to water the plants, or it’s just too humid to weed the beds. So, in the beginning of every spring, the yard is a Gatsby party: too good to be true. And as time labors on, as spring loses her novelty and grows into womanhood, the garden spirals out of grace and becomes some half baked attempt at a cover of Southern Living or Better Homes. But here’s the thing-- the plants, while growing rampant and in severe disarray, are still growing. They don’t need my mother or I, because they are self reliant. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay all about this, “Self-Reliance,” and while people will never be as transcendental as flowers, there are some truths to it.

  Self reliance is a learned skill starting out from childhood, hidden in the shape of the R word. Responsibility. Eventually your mom stopped making you those dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, right? You become autonomous, but not perfect. It’s just like when I forget to water those plants in my garden. The plants never needed me to water them. They would of been fine on their own, but my watering them was beneficial for a while, helped make them stronger. Supporting them, if you will. Emerson is so amped up on not caring what other people and retreating into yourself for solace that he forgets the beauty of a sociality. “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against...its members,” (para. 3), and while you certainly could argue this, I think Emerson is a bit too radical. Emerson portrays society the same way 1940s America viewed the Soviet Union: as an enemy to be feared and fought. Maybe he spent a little too much time with Thoreau or maybe he had an awful circle of friends, but  that’s not necessarily true.

 Think of all the times we’ve come together. Recently, we’ve helped communities across the southern coast rebuild and repair from the calamitous hurricane season. Support is an important factor of humanity-- nobody wants to feel alone. But if you can handle being alone, you can handle being apart of a group. In many ways, self reliance is the freedom we blindly crave, the freedom we are willing to trample the earth we are planted into and abandon our own watering source for a taste of. We are like the plants I try to care for, even though I don’t always water them, they continue to grow out of the confines of their designated places, just like how you continue to grow outside of yourself.  Self reliance is a learned skill, like cooking or gardening. We are always learning about it, learning from our mistakes or from others.

 Don’t let Emerson con you into believing you won’t ever need help, that the world is out to get you. Because you will need help, and like the millions of times before, you will ask for help. If help does not come to you, you will be self reliant. If it does, you will be grateful.

Signing off,

As Americans, we love our ability to protest; we are decidedly dedicated to using our voices, whether we are heard or not. I recently read Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, triumphant “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which led me to the conclusion that activism, whether I’d like to admit it or not, is a large part of my young life,because “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” (para. 4). Is this boom in activism a bad thing? Not necessarily, and here’s why: everyone has opinions, and public activism in 2017 has become a sort of peer news, like grapevine chatter.

Change only occurs when it’s forced, just as Dr. King says in his letter “...freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor.” (para. 11). Good activism will bring up a controversial topic- say, Betsy Devos and Title IX- and facilitate a healthy discussion with facts and honesty. Talking creates awareness, and in turn, knowledge. Think about the Marriage Rights Act of 2015, and how this fantastic progressiveness didn’t happen overnight. It took decades for people to be able to see that love is love. Groups like Black Lives Matter or the Pro Choice Movement have been able to reach a wide variety of people with their message- and whether the audience agrees with their message or not doesn’t matter. People are willing to inject their own opinions to any topic, with or without understanding it.

In this day and age, with the omnipotence of the internet, choosing not to understand is unforgivable. There is an ocean between misunderstanding and ignorance. Ignorance is a choice, but misunderstanding is an attempt. Ignorance harbors hate and will never solve anything. Think about popular television news channels, like “FOX News”or “CNN.” Both channels are the same when you factor out their perspectives. They talk about the same cycle of topics throughout the day with different talk show hosts and opinion polls, their guests can only speculate on topics, and the amount of pandering going on is exponential to the amount of truth being said. None of this solves anything, nor does it impart any real intellect. These channels have the tendency to be ignorant, and spread ignorance. Which is why activism has become so integrated to our daily lives. Think about it this way: I can’t talk about going to college. It’s because I have no experience with actually going to college. I have filled out applications, I have friends who are in college, but I myself have not been. It’s like ethos. When it comes to activism, understanding is ethos. Catch me in the fall of 2018 and maybe I’ll have some college ethos. Activism is firsthand, so-and-so from twitter is really in Saint Louis, experiencing the rioting in Delmar Loop.

In the end, activism is a major part in our lives now. In this day and age, we’re all activists. Choosing to ignore what’s going in the world is impossible, so you might as well join the discussion. Just make sure you have a strong grasp on what you’re talking about, or you could end up part of the problem and not the solution.

Signing off,

There is an underlying issue that is happening in schools all over:  conflict with “mother tongue”.  I decided to focus on this topic because of learning about this concept of mother tongue in relation to African American Literacies.  This conflict correlates with African American Literacies in the way that individuals who use African America Vernacular English or AAVE, feel that they are forced to change their mother tongue in order to fit into a “white-based” curriculum.  The topic at hand is:  Why do children tend to change their mother tongue once they enter the social stage of development?  In particular, the social stage of development is the first couple of years children attend school.  In order to tackle this question we must first define “mother tongue”.  “Mother Tongue” refers to the language a person has grown up speaking from early childhood.  Research has shown that many children whose primary language is not the primary language of the institution they attend are most likely to drop out of school or fail in early grades (Children Learn Better in Their Mother Tongue).

 This is an issue that needs to be addressed because a child should be able to come to school and use their mother tongue as well as being introduced to the secondary language, whether it be English or other languages.  The school system should not have the right to choose which language the student has to speak primarily.  The student should feel comfortable enough to use their mother tongue.  It becomes an issue when a child who prefers to use their mother tongue is bullied because it is not the primary language used by their classmates.  In addition to this, it becomes an issue when a child has to question their self-identity. In terms of self-identity, it becomes an issue when a child has to choose between using their mother tongue or the primary language at their institution because they fear being seen as an outcast. Overall, all of this is a negative impact on the student’s self-identity.  Secondly, this can also have a negative impact on the student’s academic success because of the unnecessary stress this adds to a student’s first years in their educational institution.  This can be very detrimental to the student because at this age they have not even begotten to figure out who they really are as an individual.

 There is a shared universal notion about how mother tongue correlates with learning a secondary language such as English.  The notion is that a child will learn English much more effectively if they continue to develop their first language (mother tongue) at the same time.  Research has shown that many skills obtained from learning the first language can be transferred to the second language. For instance, in the context of reading one useful skill is the ability to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from context. Another skill is the ability to decide which new words in a text are important to look up in the dictionary and which words can be ignored (Shoebottom).  

 An example of the importance of maintaining the learning skills of the mother tongue is stated above; that example being the effects of mother tongue on self- identity.  However, this is not the only reason of the importance of mother tongue and secondary language development.  According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, also known as UNESCO, the other underlying reason is that it raises awareness of the value of maintaining the world’s languages and cultures by promoting and resourcing mother tongue-based education for young children.  UNESCO has encouraged mother tongue instruction in early childhood and primary education since 1953.  One of their major goals is to make sure every child has equal access to education.  According to Kosonen and Benson, when children are offered the opportunity to learn in their mother tongue, that student is more likely to succeed in school and their parents will feel comfortable enough to communicate with teachers and be a part of their child or children’s education (UNESCO).

 More and more cultural groups are beginning to realize the importance of ensuring that their linguistic heritage continues to be spoken by their youngest members of their communities.  In addition to this, research constantly shows that a child’s ability to learn a second or additional languages does not decrease when their mother tongue is the primary language of instruction during the primary school stage. Fluency and literacy are two important skill factors to obtain when learning mother tongue because it lays a cognitive and linguistic foundation for learning other languages.  When children receive formal instruction in their first language during primary school and then gradually transition to academic learning in the second language, they learn the second language more rapidly. If they continue to have opportunities to develop their first language skills in secondary school, they can become as fully bilingual (or multilingual) learners. In comparison to this, if children are forced to switch abruptly or transition too soon from learning in their mother tongue to schooling in a second language, their first language skills may diminished. Even more importantly, their self-confidence as learners and their interest in what they are learning may decline, leading to lack of motivation, school failure, and early school leaving. UNESCO and other international agencies concerned with early education, children’s rights, and linguistic diversity argue vigorously for the pedagogical imperative of using a child’s mother tongue as the medium of instruction, especially in the early years of formal schooling (UNESCO).  

 It is important to provide some additional statistics to show just how important mother tongue survival is.  According to UNESCO, at least 10 languages disappear per year.  Also, of the 6,000 currently spoken languages in the world, about half are threatened. A 1999 survey by the University of North Dakota’s Summer Institute of Linguistics, in the United States, showed that more than 3,000 languages are each spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. Linguists believe that a language is in danger when fewer than 100,000 people speak it. If no action is taken to preserve these languages, then half of the languages spoken today will vanish over the century. This is very serious because when the last speaker of a language dies, it is very hard to revive it (UNESCO).

 In conclusion, mother tongue and self-identity go hand in hand.  It is important to have a student continue their skills in learning their first language in order to be successful in learning other languages.  This connects to the course, because of the same struggles of those whose mother tongue consist of AAVE or black slang must face in a predominantly “white-based” curriculum.  It is important to incorporate the mother-tongue into the curriculum so that the student feels a sense of confidence in who they are and where they come from.  Who knew that language could have such a deep connection and impact in determining one’s success in their first years of education.  

 "Children Learn Better in Their Mother Tongue | Global Partnership for Education." Children Learn Better in Their Mother Tongue | Global Partnership for Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.

 Shoebottom, P. (n.d.). The importance of the mother tongue. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from http://esl.fis.edu/parents/advice/intro.htm

 "UNESCO." UNESCO. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.