The goal of this project was to create a poem that has a point and create some type of visual to go along with it. Our Visual piece and poems went through many refinements and critiques before they got to their final state.
Poem:
We are fish in a tank Watched day by day As we drop Like flies sprayed by repellent
We are like fish ripped from their environment That are taken and put in a tank Feet stop growing trapped in enclosures That ache our backs and minds Injected with no choice As our antibodies weaken And voice is stolen by those with more choice
Spoonfed red dye Like a man collecting his father's inheritance Reading the labels As the list grows of ingredients we cannot pronounce Yet we condone the actions Like it's our responsibility to serve these companies Like bees that must serve their queen
Sicker and sicker we become As if it is now accustomed Doomed by the death is what we'll see Until we cease these actions Yet we act like fish hiding in their castles Hiding from those who watch
But we are not fish in a tank There's no need to hide in castles We have a voice and a choice Yet we act like fish in a tank
Artist Statement:
As I've grown up, I've always had an outdoorsy family that does Colorado things. But I never had an experience with natural medicine, grounding, vegetarian/veganism, homeschooling, disconnection to reconnect, and things like that. Ever since I was little, I started practicing some of these things in my own way. For example, I started not wanting to eat animals pretty much as soon as I could talk, I've always enjoyed being outside and just walking around barefoot or laying on the grass. I enjoy laying outside and listening to the sounds and have always noticed how much happier I feel after. The older I get, the more I'm drawn to this lifestyle. I have started watching vloggers and bloggers who write and vlog their days, and I've found it really interesting. Especially raising a child this way seems really beautiful to me and just like an overall wonderful experience. In a way, I wish I had experienced this a little bit more as I grew up. But I think it's also cool that it's now something I can learn and explore on my own. So as I age, I`ll start paying more attention to the things I'm doing and eating and as I'm being more drawn into this lifestyle. Therefore, I thought this unit would be the perfect opportunity to write and research this new passion/interest. When I first started writing, I had trouble talking about all my ideas and kind of just threw them out there. I didn't really like how it turned out, and it just didn't sound flowy or cohesive. After writing my first draft, I conferenced with Lori, and she gave me some ideas on how to make it better. What I ended up doing was basically completely rewriting it using some ideas from my first draft, but I tried to use many more poetic devices, and it ended up sounding much flowier. Something that really helped my poem grow and have more strength was having a central metaphor and using lots of similes. Through my poem, I use an example of fish in a tank. “We are like fish ripped from their environment That are taken and put in a tank” This really related to my ideas and gave a lot of imagery and connection to the reader. Another thing I did through my poem to help it stick to the theme was using nature-themed similes and metaphors. An example is, “Like bees that must serve their queen”. I just think that sticking to an overall theme really helped it grow and sound cohesive. Overall, I had a really good experience writing this poem and am really happy with my final outcome. I learned a lot more about poetry and my topic as I continued to write it. Thinking about this topic so heavily for multiple weeks definitely educated me on the lifestyle and made me more interested in it. I can't wait to continue to learn about it more and live this lifestyle more.
Growth as Poet Reflection:
In the beginning of this poetry unit I wasn't confident in my poetry skills and wasn't excited about it because of my past poetry experiences. In the past I've only written really structured poems, these poems have never been enjoyable for me and I've always felt that the rules take away from the meaning. I was also not confident at all in my ability to know, recognize, and use poetic devices. When I started writing we were given the choice of many structure options to write our poems in. Since structured poems are something I really dislike, I decided to write a free form poem. In my original draft my goal was to just write my ideas down so I could get them out and then refine them after. My first draft lacked poetic devices and the message felt unclear and like there were many opinions and ideas going on. One example of my first draft is” Technology Advances throughout the world”. Although my poem does have some connections to this it felt unclear and really just took away from the meaning of my poem. This was also the starting line of my poem which made my poem even more confusing. My new starting line is we are fish in a tank. This line goes throughout my whole poem and connects well with my central metaphor.
The first change I made was finding a central metaphor or idea that I would carry through my poem. The metaphor/ symbol I used was fish in a tank. I had started this idea in my first draft but it was weak and short. I only had 2 lines of it that read “Like we are fish in a tank But we are not fish in a tank” It was just thrown in there and simply didn't add anything to my poem. I have many places in my revised poem that I used this metaphor. Some examples are “We are like fish ripped from their environment that are taken and put in a tank” and “Yet we act like fish hiding in their castles hiding from those who watch”. This change really helps the reader have imagery and imagine us all being watched. Picturing this can make someone feel uncomfortable or sad and have a deeper connection to the poem. This also makes my poem sound cohesive and gave me the opportunity to connect it to poetic devices which strengthened the quality of my poem. The second change I made was using some ideas from my first draft but expanding on them and rewriting them in my new draft. An example from my old draft is “ we have the power to reconnect and heal our wounds and aches” A new version of this in my most recent poem is “ Feet stop growing trapped in enclosures, that ache our backs and minds” I did a lot of changing/ rewriting of lines, doing this helped get my idea across and makes my poem much more pleasurable to the ear. As I rewrote lines I put in poetic devices where I could. Doing this made it much more secretive and interesting to read. An example of this in my new draft is “As we drop Like flies sprayed by repellent”. I didn't have a previous line like this but using poetic devices and the nature theme I was going for I created this line which I think really adds depth to my poem. These changes intrigue the reader and make them want to keep reading. Reading a piece that just bluntly tells you what it's about is boring. But making the reader think about it by using playful techniques is much more interesting and effective for communicating an opinion. The final change I made was lengthening and slightly formatting my poem. My first draft was simply a paragraph. There were no stanzas and it was very short. There were only 16 lines in my starting draft and my final draft has 28 lines, and has 5 stanzas. Formatting and adding more to my poem helped me add more information to my poem. Which helped me get my message across. And formatting it into stanzas really helped organize my poem. For the reader it organizes the writing as you read through it, helping you better organize your thoughts and realizations. I think creating an organized piece of writing really helps the reader skip the steps of understanding formatting and instead skip to just letting the message soak in.
Model Un Reflection:
Model UN is a simulation of the United Nations conferences. The issue we studied and debated was the current Afghanistan humanitarian crisis. This crisis happened because of the Taliban takeover which led to the United States freezing 9 billion dollars in assets. The freezing of the assets led to empty banks, no money for essential jobs, and left the country out of necessary human resources. Nearly half the population is facing severe poverty and could lose their lives. We debated ways to solve this issue after weeks of intense academic research. We had to represent the countries we were given and their stance on the issue it was a great experience and I learned alot!
Policy Paper:
Policy Statement: The Philippines wants Afghanistan to regain stability in the economy, get the supplies and support they need to get through this crisis and protect the women that are suffering violence and inequality.
When the Biden administration took over they took their troops out of Afghanistan which led to the Taliban's takeover which further led to the current Afghanistan humanitarian crisis. The Taliban's takeover left the United States with having to freeze $9.5 billion dollars, and many other countries and other organizations freezing assets as well. Banks ran out of money and Afghanistan doctors, teachers, and civilians were left unpaid and with nowhere to collect money out of their savings. The assets being frozen have left no food, water or healthcare in the country. Leading to malnourished children and civilians in desperate need of medicine, healthcare attention, and supplies. The New York Times states that “An estimated 22.8 million people — more than half of Afghanistan’s population — are expected to face potentially life-threatening food insecurity this winter” (Barbaro). This is the effect of the asset being frozen and the necessary supplies not being provided. Many women are also facing violence and being kept away from their rights. The Conversation states that “The threat of violence has long been a harsh reality for many Afghan women: a survey by the Demographic and Health program of USAID conducted in 2015 showed that 90% of women in some areas of the country have experienced violence from their husband”( Jenevieve). This shows how violence against women has always been a rising issue in Afghanistan but is continuing to get worse.
The Philippines believes in humanitarian rights for all and wants to see this humanitarian crisis resolved. To resolve this crisis assets need to be unfrozen and out back into the economy. In alliance with that, the countries that unfreeze the assets need to come together as a whole to make sure the money is being put in the right places. Aid needs to be heavily supplied to all who need it. Aid needs to be supplied by the countries that froze the majority of the assets first. But in the spirit of doing the right thing, other countries should do what they can to donate to the aid organizations that are helping Afghanistan as well. The aid that is going to be provided should first go through aid organizations but if those supplies aren't being provided they will have to go through the Taliban to get to the citizens. Neighboring Countries should open their borders for refugees and set up safe buildings in the centers of the cities for the refugees to come. Women and children should be first priority in getting aid or taking place in refuges spaces as they are the ones facing the most danger. It's important to make Afghanistan safe for women again as well. To do this an agreement must be made with the Taliban that if aid is provided and money is put into the economy they must allow women their freedoms and rights and protect them from violence. The Philippines believes in helping the Afghan people GOVPH states that “ Just last week, the Philippines welcomed Afghan nationals, including women and children, who were seeking refugee status in the country”(GOVPH). This shows that even as a small country we are doing what we can and others should do. Work Cited:
Adolescence Project: In this project we studied adolescence. We studied theories myths and how your adolescence experience can shape your adult life. We finished are unit by creating a mask and essay to show or debunk one thing about adolescence that we believe is important.
The mask: Essay
You watch a little girl grow and grow. She is growing into a young woman. The world is a scary place filled with evil minded people, all you want is to protect her from the evil that surrounds her. Your intentions are to protect her but somewhere along the way you become disconnected and feel farther and farther away from her. This girl doesn't want to be hurt by the world either but through the intentions of others trying to protect she slowly felt like she was becoming less and less trusted just because she was growing up. It feels like you are being pushed apart or like a divider has been placed between you guys. This girl is me, throughout our lives we have so many experiences that shape us. For me these experiences created a mask that I involuntarily put on when I'm around other people. Since I can remember I started creating different stories of my life depending on the people that circled around me. My intentions were never to lie but to keep me safe and unjudged. This has always put up a wall between me and having meaningful and healthy connections with others. But why when I try to share my opinions why does my heart start to beat, my throat gets tighter and my body clenches in fear of simply speaking? I believe this fear is rooted in the mask I have created to protect myself. You're watching this girl after her and her mother just got in a fight. She wants to resolve the issue. She is confused about what happened and what she did wrong. She loves her mother and doesn't want to fight and doesn't want to feel the way she's feeling. She says I don't understand why you being so mean she's yelled at about an unrelated issue. Shes told she is being too sensitive over and over. She sees that trying to resolve the issue made her feel worse. She feels squished and small like she's talking to a giant. When adolescents try to be open and use skills they have been told to use and the response they get deeply hurts them they start to learn a skill of hiding it. This is where these experiences show us what we can and cannot say. So for me after this experience I added not communicating into my mask. This just drags the ability to have a good relationship with your adolescent farther and farther away. One thing we studied in class was attachment theory. This is a theory of the way adults personalities are and how their child and adolescent life affected them in adulthood. So for me this part of my mask could be related to having an avoidant or anxious attachment. And how I have trouble communicating and prefer not too because of past experiences which also altered personality. You watch this girl stand up for herself to her family, there being immature and rude. She is upset and acts out she yells at them and tells them to stop. Again she is put down, ignored, and invalidated. She feels threatened by other things. Instead of feeling like she was wrong she feels sad and unsure of her safety and the love she has for the ones who hurt her. Everytime she tries to be open, she fears losing the privileges she has because they are threatened to be taken away when she stands up for herself. The next day she wakes up everyone acts like nothing happened, everyone continues on with their everyday life. Often parents overuse the power they have over their adolescent . They might be trying to do good but often they really just cause more harm than good. Threatening your adolescent with taking away the good things in their life instead of helping teach them and show them everyone makes mistakes and ways to solve them is really one of the most harmful things you can do. For me feeling threatened after being open just caused more havoc and a greater divide. Versus if I would have had a space to be open without feeling threatened and unheard I wouldn't have had to create a greater divide. So if you take away anything from this essay I would want it to be that you have to give your adolescent a safe space to communicate. It's truly so important to create this space for both you and your adolescents' safety. Creating this space will bring nothing but honestly, safety and a better relationship with your child. This space is filled with equals not a higher and lower power. It's a loving space that has reasonable boundaries!
Project reflection:
I grew as a writer a lot because of this project. It was super hard to write my essay because it really pushed me out of my comfort zone. I had to write about experiences I had which was super hard and took lots of revision. I really struggled with thinking back and having the confidence to write about myself. In my beginning drafts I was writing about how my experiences made me feel but left out the actual experiences. I went through many drafts before I had the confidence to write about my actual stories. These changes made my writing stronger because it was personal, clear and interesting. I had many takeaways from my project but for me my biggest takeaway was that there are so many myths about adolescence and everyone takes and has different experiences with them. Through talks with classmates and socratic seminars I think my biggest takeaway is that adolescence needs a safe space at the end of the day. My reasoning behind this is that no matter what at the end of the day is that it's crucial to have a place your safe in and go back to without this an adolescent can end up relying on others who might not have there best interest. And they can end up on the wrong path. Throughout this semester I have grown as a student and project worker. For one example, at the beginning of this year I wasn’t creative and let boundaries limit me. But throughout the projects we've created, especially this specific one, I was able to get out of my comfort zone and create work that was personal, creative and beautiful. This class has helped me grow in many ways and I'm very grateful for the experiences I have had to grow. As a group member I was gone for much of the time we had so I really had to prepare for my group before I left. In the beginning of our work time I helped my group create a plan and we assigned tasks and ideas to each person. Because of covid many of our ideas weren’t possible but we still were able to create maps and lists and have organized work. Most of our job was during exhibition and to help guide groups around but since I was gone I was not able to. So before I left I hung up posters brainstormed and made sure I gave my support to my group as best as possible.