Mykol – Page 2 – Hall 1121 Spring 2019

Contagious Energy by Michael Vignoles

Michael Vignoles

Dr. Hall 1121

2/9/2019

Contagious Energy

Most of my days started out at eight in the morning. Orange rays of light began to peak out of the clouds as the train whizzed by. New Yorkers were still yawning, lulled by the sounds of the train, their long tired faces adorned with bags under their eyes, and their dazes were always far away and out of focus. You could tell some were still in dire need of their morning coffee. Then there was me, in my own world. My shoulders were getting sturdy to every beat of lil Wayne. That’s how I got hype for work, like I’m Tom Brady about to win another Super Bowl. The store was located in the heart of the city, right under the Empire State Building. It shone it’s light above, like a beacon, leading me home. This first day at the flagship store was like no other. Customers and staff were looking at me like I was absolutely crazy on drugs. I was screaming at the top of my lungs welcoming everyone into my store, I didn’t mind the stares though. Not one customer was going to pass me without being greeted. I screamed “She’s a size 9 in women and the hubby here is a size 11 in men!”, to a couple that came in. It was followed by a slight second of confusion in the customer’s eyes, as she wondered how I knew their size but I didn’t stick around to long to explain, I was already running downstairs getting their shoes. As I ran back back up the stairs, everyone could hear me yell, “We can’t stop and won’t stop!”- my signal to let customers and staff know that I’m giving 110% in everything I do. Both staff and customers constantly asked my manager, who I had been working with for a year by then, “Who is that and why is he so loud? Is he always like that?”. Without batting an eyelash she would reply, “That’s just who he is”.

In my eyes, to be the best manager one could be, you have to be able to motivate every employee under your wing as well as anyone that walked into your store. I was able to get the opportunity to become a manager at the highest volume store, because of the energy I exuded and the relationships with customers I was able to make. Oddly enough, my motivation was knowing that the world we live in has gone to shit. For example, we have a buffoon of a president in office; we have concentration camps separating children from families, and people of color who still do not feel safe enough to buy a bag of skittles and an Arizona. At times it feels like we as individuals have no power and control to make a difference. With a set of rosy colored glasses on, it was then that I realized that I met hundreds of people around the world virtually everyday and that I could then have the power to impact every customers lives that I crossed paths with. Even with something as small as my famous greetings. In a world that makes you seem so small at times, I finally found a way to make a huge impact.

I once had a family who was visiting the city from Wales while working at the store. They were a couple, with their daughter and son. While spending time with them for the first time I didn’t think anything out of the ordinary would come of our interaction. I made them laugh and they even bought a lot of items from me, though they didn’t seem to intend to. It was when the family came back the next day, and the day after just to visit me that I felt that this was something different. Their hotel was right next to the store so they always ended up visiting at least once a day during their trip, just to say hello to me. On their last day in the city the family and I took a group selfie, and they said next time they come back to the city there going to come and find me. I was shocked that our small interactions had grown into a bond almost friend like, with my confidence on the rise I let them know that the next time they would see me I would be running the store. This family only served as a reminder to my manager of how much my presence, kindness and energy meant to them, how it set me apart from all of my other coworkers. With everything seeming to fall apart out in the outside world, I was just happy to be able to bring a smile to this family everyday on their trip in the city, letting them into my own little world for a while.

One last experience I remember with a customer, started off seemings awful. It is not often to see a customer who’s shopping and looks so unhappy at the same time, so when they came in they caught my attention almost immediately. This customer came in with her friend, both from Long Island and visiting the city. Without mentioning why she looked so miserable I proceeded to help her with shoes. My goal was to get her to try something on but it was also now to wipe the unhappiness from her face if even for just a second. I brought the shoes out she asked me for and some other ones that I thought she might like. One thing I learned was that customers who you are able to make laugh and connect with were the easiest to persuade to buy. I knew I wanted to make her laugh so I pitched some socks because I knew I would be able to make jokes with them. My favorite line to go in with was, “I have some socks. You get five pairs for only nine dollars. That’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, you don’t have to do laundry. That’s also five days worth of warm-sie toes-ies”. At first it was rough, she was still visibly upset but then she began laughing and suddenly it was like she forgot why she was so sad to begin with. Later that day I found out that the reason she was so sad was because her boyfriend broke up with her and her friend was trying to show her a nice day in the city. I had only managed to heighten the niceness of the day.

These were just some of the experiences that I believed were so small, and yet ended up leaving an impact with each and everyone of these people. What amazes me more is how many other lives I’ve impacted but just never really realized it. I’ve learned that regardless of whether you give out love and positivity or hatred to this world, it will always return tenfold later. My job was to persuade customers to buy products from my store, however, I was the best at it because it became much more to me than that. I truly cared and wanted to give a one of a kind shopping experience, leaving all customers with a smile at the end of the day regardless of what was happening in that awful outside world. I can’t control that outside world, but in my world, my shoe store, I was able to make smiles for everyone.

Marginal notes HERE. The rest of the comments are in the “Comment” section.

A response to “Voice of the self” By Keith Gilyard

Michael Vignoles

Dr. Hall

A response to “Voices of the self”

Keith Gilyard uses personal experiences and imagery to help portray his experience being a minority and his own drug problems while maintain high school. I really enjoyed when Gilyard was writing about his experience he was not afraid to use his own language he grew up with and used during time of the story. The main fact that Gilyard was trying to prove is that you do not need proper English to writing a great story with meaning. Gilyard describes his language as “Black English” which some can argue is not the proper English society has chosen to be correct.

Gilyard had to struggle dealing with being a minority and being surrounded around a ghetto community. He dealt with finical struggles which lead to him drug dealing and burglary.

“I became involved in a series of crimes that initially ranged from purse snatching to burglary. Ripping off some White woman down in Jackson Heights”. (p. 227) He dealt with finical struggles which lead to him drug dealing and burglary. This ultimately started his decline in his academics as well as the use of heroine. However, the environment that he was raised gave him the identity to be able to talk “black english” which is argued to not be correct. However, Gilyard is able to use black English to help connect and create a colorful image for the reader. Giliyard is painting an image for the reader during a burglary gone wrong

‘“Should I shoot him?” Wallace asked me.

“Naw man,” I replied, my mind on the real business at hand. “We ain’t got time for that.”

“Only take a second.”

“Naw man, stop jiving.” However, I wasn’t totally convinced he was. Tango was quietly pathetic, what you might call a hope fiend.’ (p. 233)

Gilyard is not afraid to use his own personal language that he grew up speaking to his family and friends. Ultimately this gives the reader an idea of Gilyard struggle and point of view before even knowing the writer. Using improper words like “Naw man” or “We ain’t got time.”

I also really enjoy that Gilyard was not scared to show his true literature abilities in the conclusion to make a strong and solid argument about whether Black English is proper and should be embraced more in public education.

“What has been commonly referred to by educators as “failure” to learn Standard English is more accurately termed an act of resistance: Black students affirming, through Black English, their sense of self in the face of a school system and society that deny the same.”(p. 258)

As a minority, Gilyard and many other have been oppressed and dined their true home culture because society gets to choose what is proper and what is not. Gilyard broke social boundaries and stereotypes by writing a great narrative with a life lesson to never give up. Moving forward this piece has inspired me to not be afraid to use my personal experience and culture to paint a vivid image for my readers.

Mother Tongue: Michael Vignoles

Michael Vignoles

Hall 1121

1/31/19

Making the Impossible Possible

Growing up I was fortunate enough to be adopted by college scholars that I’m grateful to call my parents. My farther migrated from England and achieved a masters in Mathematics, and my mother went to college for Nursing, and years later is double majored in Criminal Psychology. So unlike Amy Tan, there was a consequence if I were not to speak proper and sophisticate english, especially if we were in public. However, like Amy Tan and her mother, reading and writing was not my strongest ability. I struggled with the similar problems like being judge by others and how society saw me as an individual. English and Writing was never my strongest trait while growing up but always excelled in STEM classes. (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)

School in general I always had to work harder, and study longer through nights to just get a B in school. I constantly compared myself to my siblings who flew by their classes like it was a walk in the park. I remember in elementary school my older brother won the Spelling B in his grade. As his younger brother I would always look up to him and I wanted to win a Spelling B too . My mother helped me study what seemed to be an endless list of words for weeks. We made sayings to help me remember the words that I couldn’t remember. To this day when I think of the word “decision,” I say the word in my head as “Dec-is-sion.” The day of the Spelling B finally came and I have never been more prepared for anything in my life. I was ready to win. When I’m up on the stage, I realize the judges are giving the other kids words I never studied for. Then when it was my turn they gave me words that I just have to sound out and hope for the best. Later, I founded out that I was given the list of words for the grade above me and not the one for my class. I was devastated for weeks.

Years later we attended a new school in the city that was very test friendly. I would get pop quizzes at least once a day, depending on the class. This school would give out rewards for achieving goods grades, good conduct, and even perfect attendance. My brother and sister always got their first and second honors rewards and I wanted to bring home something too. My goal that year was to get the Perfect Attendance reward. In my head perfect attendance was the only reward that I could get because it would be a miracle just getting one 100% just one test in a semester.

I wanted to prove that I was more capable than what people thought of me. I always excelled in my STEM classes because everything was easier to comprehend. Just like how Amy Tan mentions she got B’s on the English test, but would alway do significantly better on the math and science test. She continues and states

“Math is precise, there is only one correct answer. Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English Test were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience.”

I always enjoyed Math or Science because there was always one correct answer, and multiple different way to find it. I could take any path of problem solving and as long as I get to the right logical answer. However, I never gave up on my reading and writing skills.

For my last year of High School I made it to an honors Reading and Writing class. Rumors had it that this teacher had assigned essays due every week. Again, growing up it became normal to always work harder than other. That whatever task was at hand had to be done with 110% of dedication, will power, and sleepless nights. Those sleepless nights of reading and writing made my skill significantly better. This teacher helped me find my passion for reading and writing. Just like the quote above, English is portraying a story, and how my personal point of view is what makes a great story. It’s all personal experiences and opinions on how we see things. That class helped find a passion for creative writing. That I have an unlimited source of words to portray my thoughts and feeling perfectly onto a piece of paper to show to the world. Now I would rather write an essay than trying to solve the instant velocity of a ball right before it starts to fall down again.

Just like Amy Tan reading and writing is not our strongest abilities, but we both had the passion to continue to work on our weaknesses. Furthermore, writing is now one of my strongest abilities. Amy quotes “I happen to be rebellious in nature and enjoy the challenge of disapproving assumptions made about me. I became an English major my first year of college. – I started writing nonfiction as a freelance the week after I was told by my former boss that writing is my weakest skill.” In my opinion, Amy was able to excel in writing in the same ways that I did. I always want to work hard and prove people wrong. To work on my weakness and them strengths. The way she was raised had no impact on her English. It’s the willingness to always perceiver and work hard until the impossible seems possible. Never would I have thought that I would be saying that reading and writing is one of my favorite subjects now.

Author: Mykol

Contagious Energy by Michael Vignoles

A response to “Voice of the self” By Keith Gilyard

Mother Tongue: Michael Vignoles

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