Thursday, January 21, 2016

Brainstorming topics go HERE from Mike

Please tell us about your two best possible ideas in the Comments section below.

It pays to think through and express what you might write about before you do it.

All best,

Mike

29 comments:

  1. The fist topic that stood out to me was number one (duh) but this one stood out to me because I believe I am very in touch with diversity. One of my closest friends is black and so are many of the people I train with at my gym. I would probably make the subject of this topic about some of my experiences with my training partners.
    The next subject I found interesting is number two. I think it would be fun to descibe my perfect neighborhood and give a look into what I think would make a good community.

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    1. I have two specific scenes that I think I will address in my essay for topic #1. The first would be a time me and my black friend were in a Kroger. It was a simple enough trip, me and my friend Bee (Brandon, but he goes by bee) were in the Kroger here in town by the Walmart. This took place about three months ago, we just finished up a workout and I stopped at the store to get something to eat. Bee was on the phone the whole time which I never mind because normally just after a workout he has to make all the calls back that he missed. Well, when we got to the register Bee was still in his conversation and standing behind me. There is a security gaurd on duty at Kroger and he stopped Bee (who was still just standing beside me) and asked him if he needed some help. It dosen't sound bad in typeing but if you would have seen the body language and the way this guy said it, it was as if he was telling him to leave or buy something pretty much. This was one of my first times seeing with my own eyes just how much farther we as a country need to evolve and move past the racial stigma that has plagued our nation for too long. The second topic is a much more heart breaking story involving a semi pro basketball player and his experiance as being a black player in the 1980's. I'll save it for my paper but lets just say its heart breaking to hear what he had to go through.

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  2. I am leaning towards writing on topic #6, where pressure and discomfort is important to grow. The next topic that I might write about is #1, since I am not in touch with diversity and am not sure if I care.

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    1. My topic focuses on adversity making a person grow. I want to focus on my life growing up, specifically my mother raising three children by herself. Also I want to describe my choice of going into the military after high school and this actually bringing more challenge to my life but also alleviating my concern for paying for college.

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  3. The topic that I feel will make a good paper for myself is #1. I like #1 as a topic because I support diversity, but I wouldn't describe myself as "in touch." Honestly, I think that my life is pretty one dimensional, which isn't intentional, and I think it would be interesting to reflect on that. My second pick would probably be #3. All-in-all, I am pretty young in the big scheme of life, and I've worked in enough places in which I've worked with (and been in charge of) people who were much older than myself. I think there is a good enough story to write about somewhere in my past where I bumped heads with these people either because of our age differences or work ethics.

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    1. I changed my subject over to #2.
      Okay, so after doing the map exercise I realized that writing about my the neighborhood from my childhood is a subject that really interests me.

      Possible scene 1)
      I could write about a morning during my early teenage years in which I was waiting at my bus stop for school. I could write about how it was always foggy and cold in the morning, and I could show all of the different, odd kids that rode my bus. I could write about the social hierarchy the occurs between younger kids and adolescent teens. I could talk about the creepy, overly red house, with its red porch, that was my bus stop throughout grade and middle school.

      Scene 2)
      I could talk about the day that my sister and I thought we'd be brave and venture out away from our block. Ultimately, my coat and bike were stolen by a bigger kid who beat me up. At the end of the day, my sister and I had a big friend of ours stand on my bike as the want-to-be thief was pinned underneath it. We basically beat him up. It sounds like a harsh story, but oddly enough my sister and I may not have had a more bonding experience in our lives.

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  4. I really think #1 is the one I will do. I love my neighborhood, and it was full of adventure when I was a child; ranging from intense Pokemon battles to running from the Banshee in the forest and the clown in the well. Life was never dull where I grew up, at least not for me. There was always an adventure just outside my front door, you just needed a little imagination.
    My second pick would be #3, because although admittedly, I have a long way to go when it comes to accepting certain concepts of diversity, I have come a long way. One instance is actually when I met my best friend. He was very different from me; maybe not in terms of race or "culture", but upbringings and backgrounds. I was raised in church, he wasn't, I never smoked anything, drank anything, got into trouble, went to jail...but he did. If I didn't learn to accept his past, or him as a person, I would be short a brother. We have learned so much from each other, and I would not be the person I am if it weren't for him.

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    1. It was Halloween night in 1998, and a friend and I were dared to venture into what was affectionately called to the neighborhood kids the "Banshee's forest", and exit through to "the Clown Crater". I was terrified, because the sun was very close to setting and that was when the Banshee witch would come out and scream your head off. But I would gladly take on a horde of screeching witches if it meant that I didn't have to face the Shawnee Hills Killer Clown. He lived in a giant pipe that stuck up from the cold dry ground of Clown Crater, the empty, baron field right behind Staders garden center. It was an isolated place, at least that is what it seemed to us. It was a place where the killer clown came from the pits of hell to eat children or enslave them, or even drag them down into the pits of that dark pipe. I remember smelling fire that night; probably one of the neighbors having a bonfire or something, but to us, it was the smell of the witches' house burning to the ground all those years ago. And we could hear her screeching, but she was too far away to make your brain explode. My friends and I started running. I was trying to pace myself for running out of Clown Crater, because again I would rather fall prey to the abominable scream of a condemned beauty then be dragged to hell by a clown; after all, I was saved by the blood...and I hate clowns. So naturally, I trip and lose my friend who had run off. So I was in the middle of the woods, with no sound. I could see my breath, a sign of a ghost. I picked myself up and sprinted out of there, especially after hearing the screams of a girl. I got to clown crater, I had to run up to the pipe and touch it without getting grabbed by the evil clown. I prayed herder than I ever prayed before, going up to the pipe to hell. I stared out it for a moment, feeling a sense of dread, oh how I wanted to get home and snuggle up to my dog! I touched the pipe and sprinted out of that vile place. I ran up the hill and I was safe, and my friend was waiting for me. We did the dare, that made us cool!

      So there I was, facing the brunt of the Elite four in the field of our neighborhood that we made into Indigo League. I had my trusty Alakazam, Lugia and Houndoom. I made it to the champion, but regrettably lost. I very rarely lost a Pokemon match, and this time was especially tough; because just like in the video game, the champion was my mortal enemy in the neighborhood. It taught me a lesson in humility.

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  5. I'm thinking that I'll do number five. I'm thinking of doing the essay on the impact of movies or literature. I'm going to focus on the different ways movies or literature have helped shape me to who I am and the lessons I learned from them.

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    1. Scene 1 - Watching the boy and the stripped pajamas. One of the characters in the movie saw someone so young being treated so bad . Only twelve when watched the movie. Learned some important life lessons.

      Scene 2 - Watching Selma. Much older. Seventeen. With my family. Saw how our nation responded. Saw how people reacted. A much more realistic view of the harsh realities African Americans had to go through.

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  6. Topic #6 is my number one choice. It relates to me so much with my education throughout high school and how I believe stability and comfort has always worked for me. My next choice would be topic #3. I have never been a people person, and so when I got my first job it was a struggle.

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    1. One scene would consist of the very first day that we started dissecting cats in my Anatomy and Physiology class my sophomore year of high school. This is because it allowed me to make the connection right away with the material we were learning about. Another scene would include the day I took my first semester exam in that very same class. Having to retain everything I learned about a topic I actually enjoyed and felt comfortable with was surprisingly easy for me and overall it would relate well to the topic I picked.

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  7. I think either #3 topic would be best for me because of the events in my life. Where I went to school was about 50/50 black/white and we learned to be one. Also, we had one of my brother's friends stay with us for about 3 years and he was black. With those events that actually makes me qualified to write about topic #1 as well.

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    1. I remember walking up to my home from school, a little neighborhood on the north side of Marion, Ohio. My house was a small ranch style with a living room built on the back but the back door was on the side of the house. The dark brown color scheme from the 80's decorated my home. When I walk in the house was quiet, seemed to be something important going on. I was only 12 years old at the time (31 years ago), so I had no clue what was happening. My mom, my dad and my brother were standing around one of my brother's friends. Mom holding his chin and turning his head as if she was examining him. I then seen what everyone was looking at, his eye, black and blue and swollen as if he had been hit by Ali himself. That's when everything changed for my family.
      "You live here now," Mom said.

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    2. Laying in my room across from Ricky playing a card game. The room laid out with bunk beds on one end and single bed on the other. The room shows every sign that 3 boys slept here. I am not sure of the topic of the conversation but I do remember saying something to Ricky that I totally regret and I'm sure changed his view of me. He talked some trash talk to me because he was winning the game.
      I regretfully commented "Nigger please."
      You see Ricky was African American.

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  8. I think either #3 topic would be best for me because of the events in my life. Where I went to school was about 50/50 black/white and we learned to be one. Also, we had one of my brother's friends stay with us for about 3 years and he was black. With those events that actually makes me qualified to write about topic #1 as well.

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  9. I like both #3 and #6. #3 seems like it would be an easy topic just because where I work there is so much diversity and that has brought about many conflicts that needed to be resolved. On the other hand though, #6 seems like a fun and interesting topic for me because I tend to be on the shy side and I think pressure or discomfort is what's best for me in a learning environment.

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    1. One specific time that I could write about is last year when our store hired this gentlemen named David.He had moved to Ohio from Canada a couple years back and he hadn't had a job in nine years (since he was 18). This had created conflict because he hadn't had much experience in any work environment, so it was challenging to really get him in work mode and focus on the tasks and expectations that our store had for each employee. Not only was it a challenge for me as a boss, but it was challenging for him to be and grow as a person in a place that was different from where he had originally lived.
      A second idea I could probably talk about is one that I am actually encountering right now. We just hired an older gentlemen straight in as an assistant manager because he had previous work experience as the store manager for a Burger King in Columbus for another franchise. It is also hard to expect what you are going to get when hiring in from other stores. yes, they may have knowledge of the job, but there are chances that there work ability was tainted or is different from what our store expects out of employees. That is basically the situation I am in and it is a challenge to try and remold habits.

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  10. I am most interested in #6. This is because I am quite interested in the growth of society and what hinders and helps it.

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    1. One scene I am considering discussing isn't a personal experience. I would like to discuss African Americans and the civil rights movements. This is because this was a period of time when the thought of diversity made many white people uncomfortable. This discomfort lasted a very long time, especially as the African Americans were slowly being given more and more rights. This, over time, helped to grow our country and the relations within it to where it is today; not perfect, but far better than during the last century.

      Another scene I am considering discussing happened with one of my friends. She is Asian American and it is difficult for her at times to fit in to a community where nearly everyone around her is white. Her family still keeps up their cultural values from China, but also try to live like we do here in America. One year, she invited me to go to her Chinese new year celebration. Though I was uncomfortable, having never experienced anything like this and the culture shock was going strong, I ended up having an amazing time. It was an experience that I would have never been able to have if I had just stayed in my comfort zone.

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  11. I am interested in number #3 because where I worked would make it easy to write about a challenge working with people different than me. I also in #6 because it wouldn't be hard to talk about a foundation for learning that to me would be best.

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  12. I plan on choosing either essay #6 or essay #5. I think that #6 would make for a good essay, because I have personal connections to it, and have had experience trying to grow as a person during both tines of comfort and adversity. #5 would be a good topic for me, and I would choose music as the focus. In highschool I was a choir member, and I have always loved music as long as I can remember, so an opportunity to write an essay about that sounds entertaining.

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    1. One scene that I might consider including in my essay is the first musical that I was in, in the sixth grade. I have a good memory of the musical itself, as well as the connections that I made with people during the musical. Another specific scene that I may consider writing about is when my marching band was able to play at the Outback Bowl in Florida, which was in my sophomore year of high school. I remember feeling a great sense of accomplishment because of this event, and it made me very proud to be a member of my school's band.

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  13. I am interested in doing #5 about the topic of music, just because of my personal experience with it and even things I've heard from other people. I have grown up with a family so enriched in music and thats really affected me as a person. I also was thinking of doing #6 because of the connection I have with it and my major of Education. The debate really means a lot to me and has extended my thinking of how I want to be as an educator.

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    1. I'm going with #5 in regards to music and the affect it has on people:
      -Scene #1: The place in time would be on my Grandma's back porch with my Dad, some summer days we would hang out outside playing 96.3 on the radio, which is the classic rock station. My Dad was a trivia guy and would always quiz me on who was singing the song. There were songs we hated to hear and songs that we loved. We would bet on who could get the most right in an hour, and the winner bought the other ice cream (he always ended up buying but it was in all fun). There's a song by Van Morrison that he always sang to me and my sister called "Brown Eyed Girl", he used to call us his brown eyed girls. I think this would make sense in my essay because after my Dad passed away when I was 12, the song brought great comfort to me, it was a form of therapy that really helped my grief process.
      Scene #2: As a History Education major, studying times like Vietnam and the history of Rock n Roll has always stood out to me. For example, how events like Woodstock has brought people from all walks of life together for one common purpose, that is simply amazing on its own. It created senses of culture that are still present today, and that is something that I am grateful to have experienced in my life so far with all of the concerts that I've attended. For a couple of hours I am surrounded by people with the same common purpose as me whether they be successful doctors or a young couple trying to make it by. That creates a sense of belonging that all humans crave. This would make sense in my essay for this fact purely. Music is a form of pop culture for the soul, its not just surface its goes much deeper than that.

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  14. My two choices are number 1 as well as number five. I've been a minority in America my entire life so I have experienced diversity all throughout it. Diversity is an important part of my life and I've always tried to protect my own culture as well as others when they are bullied so I think I could write heavily on this subject. With number give I could right about how music had the power to change the lives of young people

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    1. In 4th grade on the playground at school, a child runs up to me and exclaims, "go back to the middle east and spend your indian money" out of rage I punch him in the face. Another scene could take place while I was on vacation in hilton head this summer. As we all sat around the dinner table I look across it noticing both my sisters have married white men, one of which was adopted and raised by African American parents, I notice my family has almost every race in it as of now, truly showing diversity.

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  15. The two topics that stood out to me were #2 and #5. I would like to use #5 to show that either video games or YouTube can have a positive impact. I think that both of these had a positive impact on my life, so I think I could write an essay explaining this.

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    1. Scene 1: Before my freshman year of high school, I hadn't really gotten into YouTube all that much. However, one day at school, something called "slender man." I was curios, so when I got home, I went to YouTube and typed in slender man. One of the videos that popped up was "Rage Quit - Slender." I clicked on it, not knowing that that YouTube channel that I actually started watching regularly.
      Scene 2: A couple of years later, I was watching a podcast from the same YouTube channel. In it, they announced that a person from the channel had recently gotten married. However, they also announced that another of the members had recently broken up with a long-time girlfriend. This was one of the first times I realized how long I had been following this channel, and how attached I had become to them.

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