Unit 1

Ana Behibak. The phrase that was not used in this house often , but it was used often with my sidi, which means grandpa in Arabic. Ana Behabik translated to English means ‘I love you.’ Although it may be unusual that it wasn’t said in my house very often, my sidi never failed to say it all the time. My sidi was a very special person who loved all fourty of his grandchildren equally. He would always stay over in my house which I enjoyed very much. 

        “Ana Behibak Ayah” is what he would always tell me randomly. That was his way of showing love and affection. Saying those words was his love language towards all of his grandchildren. Of course, to show gratitude and affection, I would say Ana Behibak back. That phrase was special.

       That one memory where the phrase ‘Ana Behibak’ was used by my sidi is the one that I’ll never forget. The mutual sharing of love and affection that time takes place in that moment is always cherished and thought about. It was a cloudy breezy day at a park, mini rain puddles everywhere, the smell of fresh grass everywhere, chatter everywhere, and food at every picnic table. It was a lovely day. It was behind a BJs but our family marked it as a place to have food gatherings here and there depending on the occasion. There was a family gathering. The tables were filled with food. There were little kids riding their scooters. The uncles and aunts all having conversations in every corner. Then there were cousins and I that chilled at an empty table. 

       The reason for the family gathering was because my sidi and his wife were leaving back to Palestine. Therefore my dad and his brothers wanted to throw one last family gathering where we can all spend some cherishable memories before he had left back.

       It was a few moments later where my cousins and I decided to walk up to my sidi who was sitting on the bench and decide to keep him company. He had a pen in his pocket. It was a black pen that had gold on the clip and cap. He had many of those pens and had left most in whichever of his son’s house he stayed at. There were two left in my dad’s house. One of them I got to keep, which is a special pen of mine. I never write with it, but instead I keep it as a reminder of him and that special memory. 

       Back to the topic now, my cousins and I wanted him to write on our hands which he had did. We had all widened our palms as he took turns writing on each one of our hands. On each of our hands he wrote ‘Ana Behibak’ in Arabic letters with a tiny heart. That moment was unforgettable. We each hugged our sidi and then proceeded to all stand in a circle where we took pictures of our hands. The flashes that went in and out after each picture taken signified this moment that brought love. The last few moments after that memory was a bit blurry but I remember it being all laughs and happiness.

     Unfortunately when my sidi was back in Palestine, he passed away two years later…the year 2020. I found out during my chemistry class while I was taking a quiz which I had ended up failing miserably due to the news. My family and I had met with our other family members to grieve his death, and it was a dark time. My cousins and I would share memories of him though that made us miss him terribly. And then we talked about that one time he wrote on each one of our hands with love. As sad as we were, we knew our sidi would want us to still smile. We all walked to carvel later that night to get ice cream and just cheer up while still sharing memories of our sidi. That day went from sadness to laughter. We sat at the playground of this Church just eating our ice cream. 

    Ana Behibak became a more meaningful thing than it was before my grandpa passed away. It taught me to always tell the ones I love that I love them. It is used at my house more commonly now and I always make sure to tell my family and friends that I love them the same way my sidi has. My cousins and I still hold the pictures we had taken of our hands as a small but extremely cherish-able memory. I will still continue to tell my loved ones that I love them just as a legacy I see that my sidi left behind.

Unit 2

Self love is self care. Its purpose is to bring the importance for the well being of an individual to love themselves. It is a reminder that allows them to take care of themselves mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The term itself has been stamped in the year 1950s, and has been practiced since then. Self care is reinstated in many ideas of what people find taking care of themselves to be. Self maintenance is more than its little physical acts, but it’s taking care of yourself mentally as well. Due to the global pandemic outbreak that occurred in 2020, a lot of people have connected with the practice of self care. The act of it was deeply encouraged during the time of quarantine since it has had an impact on many people.  The pandemic has caused many people to feel isolated, empty, and overall, have a low self-esteem. Self care allows for individuals struggling mentally, physically, and emotionally to deeply work on themselves by treating themselves well. Or even if they aren’t struggling, it’s all about maintaining the well being of yourself, to feel happy and whole as a person. 

Growing up as a teenager in the generation where social media started to grow and become popular, I’ve seen others including myself feel affected by it in a way. It built insecurities, low self-esteem, and overall a negative impact on mental health. Having to compare ourselves to unrealistic perceptions of others looks wise, social status, financial status, etc, just brings pressure to yourself where you feel like you have to live the same as well.

That’s particularly the reason I became passionate about taking care of myself. I practiced making myself feel happy by doing little acts of pampering such as trimming my hair every once in a while, doing my brows, and sticking to my facial skin routine. I would work out consistently, bake, and even do photography. Self care is different for everyone. It’s truly important that individuals work on the comfort of themselves as they’d feel much happier. Unfortunately, not everyone feels courageous enough to do those things for themselves. 

Some individuals diminish the idea of self care as they find it to be selfish. They find themselves feeling guilty even doing the slightest thing for them. The true key to being able to take care of yourself is to realize that the only way you can love and keep others safe is to do it for yourself as well. Self care is not selfish, as it allows you to fuel your own content without depriving others of theirs. To be able to move forward with life, is to be able to maintain your well being and mentally health. 

In consonance with the article ‘Why Self-care isn’t Selfish,’ it states “So there are aspects of self-care related to sleep — everyone should take a bath, light candles. There’s this idea that we need to calm down. But what can you experience today that is going to fill you with the positive emotions you need to do the most important things in your life? It’s about refueling yourself in order to engage with life” This was claimed by Dr. McGonigal who explained the importance of practicing self care for yourself. He explains in an aspect that self care isn’t about relaxing and taking it easy on yourself, but it is to feel more alive and to stay motivated with your daily life. It’s more than it’s little act of pampering yourself, but more of being kinder to yourself.  Dr. Groppel also stated “Self care is a lot of things…It can be exercise, creating boundaries. It’s keeping yourself safe emotionally. Maybe it’s not arguing with that uncle about politics right now. It can be spiritual. But you are in control of it.” This means that you are in power of your own content. You are in power of keeping yourself satisfied and confiding in your own well-being. 

Many individuals reinstate the idea of self care and what it may be. The act of safe keeping the well being of yourself has evolved over time. The one thing that hasn’t changed was the intention of it. At times, the acts of self care may not even feel like it, which often causes individuals to feel discouraged. It often affects their mental health which makes it a struggle to even take care of themselves. 

Doing self care is more than just its little activities such as bathing or reading a book, but it’s really making yourself a priority and making good daily habits. People have had their concepts about what self care was. At one point it was pampering yourself, but now it’s a whole new meaning. According to the article ‘How to make ‘Self Care’ actually feel like Self care,’ it states “The ‘face masks and bubble baths’ of self-care hit a peak a little bit ago, then people started rebelling against it and talking about how it’s no longer that…It’s about mental health and taking care of yourself.” People feel that it’s not enough hence why they feel discouraged. The whole key to finding a self care routine that can work for you is to break down into four components. According to the article ‘How to make ‘Self Care’ actually feel like Self care,’ it states “We can break down self-care into four buckets: physical, mental, social and spiritual. Using those frames of references, you can begin to experiment with different techniques that might work.” The point of breaking down into four buckets would be to identify which one is mainly affecting you. For most people, the social aspect of their health could be affecting them the most because they tend to feel lonely which impacts their emotional, physical, and mental health. The solution in terms of self care would be to start figuring out what’s good for you. 

How can one start practicing taking care of themselves? And even if they already do, how can they stick to it? As earlier mentioned, self care is many different acts for people.  It is the idea of making it a consistent routine for yourself. Once it becomes a habit, that’s when you may start to feel your levels of serotonin rise. One of the acts of taking care of myself that truly makes me feel content is buying any type of fragrances. I love buying lotions, perfumes, body scrubs, body butters, and just anything that has to do with scents and body care. I’d say this is self care to me since I have a joy for collecting and adding it to my pamper routine. However, self maintenance can vary from pampering, shopping, hobbies, or even just sitting down and watching television.  The main purpose is that as long as it makes you feel good, then it’s something you should do. 

In the article “How do you practice self care?,” it mentions the different routines of employees who practice self care. Each mention the one aspect of their routine that they find to be therapeutic to them. One of them is named Fransesca Donner and she brings up how she’s made her dad’s spaghetti her own spaghetti. She says “When life starts spinning too fast, I go to the supermarket and get what I need: ground beef, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, flat leaf parsley, canned tomatoes, tomato paste, dried pasta. My world starts to calm just seeing the ingredients collected together in the basket.” That is her form of self care. Buying the ingredients of the spaghetti originally made by her father is what calms her down. Another individual in the article is Bonnie Wertheim. Bonnie discusses how she’s an introvert but still makes alone time for herself. She says “I am an introvert, which is to say that I love socializing, but it exhausts me. So I try to do at least one thing alone every day. Most mornings I’ll run a few miles around my quiet neighborhood…It keeps my interpersonal-emotional tank full and also reduces the daily number of nagging dysmorphic thoughts that pass through my brain.” She does morning runs for herself just for alone time which makes her feel good. Not only is she devoting time to herself, but is also doing something that keeps her mind at peace too. 

Self care is a form of self love. There are many things or just one thing you can do, but as long as it makes you feel good, do it. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish, it’s making sure your well-being is at a good place mentally, physically, and spiritually. As an individual myself, I find new ways to add on to my self care routine. Now you should be able to find the things that keep your body and mind healed and content. 

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Reflection

As a reader, writer, and scholar, I have learned so much about myself. I learned more ways to be creative. Not only when it comes to completing assignments, but being more creative in the outside world. I also learned how to stay professional when writing, rather than just keeping awkward sentences and informal statements. Comparing my work from last semester to now, I can see that my work is much more better now. I saw that in Unit 1, I have wrote a lot of awkward sentences that didn’t make sense. I also used words without giving context as well which is why I believe that my work compared to early on the semester has made big improvement. Now coming to reading, I am able to identify run on sentences, fragments, and awkward sentences, and refrain from them.

My least favorite assignment was Unit 1. As much as I enjoyed sharing a special phrase with meanings behind it, I was struggling with how I can be more descriptive with it. I ended up leaving a lot of awkward sentences in my writing because I was unsure of how I can show and define the importance behind that phrase. Now looking back at it, I can see where I have went wrong with them. As I read it, I fixed a lot which allowed me to understand my writing mistakes and not make them again, especially writing in different genres for our unit assignments.

When I went from writing an essay to transporting it into a comic strip for Unit 3, I was more focused on getting the illustrations to really match the message coming from the essay. I wanted to make the content appealing for my audience. The attractive the content and design looks, the more people will look and see the message of the comic strip.

My early beliefs about my writing was that I really thought I was doing great in my writing. I thought that as I was typing, my writing was perfectly fine and didn’t even have to be looked back at. Even myself, I really believed that I made 0 mistakes in my writing except grammar which autocorrect fixed. However that changed after revising and seeing how many awkward phrases I had in my writing. I saw that it’s important to really double check and make sure to see if there’s anything to fix. Whereas for myself, I would often doubt at times that I would do so badly despite my efforts and beliefs with my writing.  I would often assume that while writing, the outcome will still turn out horribly. Now though, I believe that after picking up lessons and keeping in mind what to write and what to avoid, there’s no need to doubt but to really write what comes to mind rather than doubting I’ll do good. The meaning of being a writer is to just know that there’ll be an outcome to it anyways.  I learned to just write what comes to mind and what is relevant while following guidelines.

My experience with revising my own pieces are good. I don’t acknowledge that it is my own, but just simply read it and fix what needs to be fixed. It teaches me what I need to keep in mind for the next few papers that I write. When I read Unit 1 and Unit 2, I saw that I did make a few mistakes and fixed them. Overall, my experience was good as it allowed me to pick up from my mistakes and improve them to be better as a writer and reader.

I have adapted to online writing since my junior year of high school. I have wrote many essays online since the global pandemic so I feel that adapting to it mid semester was not the slightest bit difficult. However, I find it to be overwhelming and stressful especially having assignments from my other classes.

This course was extremely challenging to me. I was not only stressed from this class but I was stressed by my other classes as well. I feel that because of my personal problems outside of school, it was affecting my performance in completing school assignments. In this class, missing assignments just kept piling on for me. I began to try my best and really fight the lack of motivation I had by having motivation. My only goal is to reach an A in this class and that’s how I overcame the struggles I had in this class.

UNIT 1 REVISION

      A specific word used in my community is the word corey. I am not sure if this is the way you spell it but it’s a word that is used when you don’t complete something you’re supposed to do in one shot. I am not sure how this word came from, but it is a word that means a lot to me now because my father used to tell me that as a kid which I find kind of funny now, but not at the time. This word has a huge meaning to me while growing up. Ever since my dad passed away, and I’m at work or doing something at home, I always think about that word which in a way motivates me to complete what I have to do.

    This has been a word also used with a lot of my family members because if we had homework over the weekend, we would have to complete all of it in one day and not spread it out throughout the week. It was a good way of just making sure we were able to stay on track and in a way, make sure we are not slacking off or becoming lazy by spreading small tasks that are not needed to be spread out into multiple days because obviously, not everything can take a day to complete. Also, this can be something like practicing a skill or something because you are most likely not going to become a professional in one day by doing it all day. It takes consistency, dedication, and hard work to master something. I think he just means that there should be no slacking off when you are trying to do something or complete something and that we should aim at trying to do something we should do, but we just internally find resistance in not wanting to complete something for some strange reason.

  My dad was an electrician and one day, I was helping him out to complete a job at a job site in Brooklyn. I was with my dad, my cousin, and my uncle because my dad and uncle were close and had a similar field of work where they were usually with each other when working, and I was just watching him while he was wiring up a service panel, and my cousin and his dad were working somewhere else. It was around the morning because we usually go to different job sites on Sunday because I was pretty young at the time and had school, so I was only available to help him on Sundays. It was around the Springtime I believe because the weather was not bad and it wasn’t cold at the time I believe. I was pretty active and I loved playing basketball and I was always excited to play with my cousin when we would come back from completing a job with my dad. It was also very loud because of the construction going on and it was kinda messy where we were because there were a lot of tools near us, as well as material, and the area was a little messy while he was working because there was a lot of garbage like wires, circuit breakers, etc. I believe he brings me with him often to see what he does so I can learn from him, and I would also end up cleaning the area and bringing him tools from the truck when he asked for something specific. Sometimes when I would not clean up the workspace area properly, he would use the word corey because I did not clean it properly because it was important to keep the place clean so you are organized and you can keep track of where everything is. When he would use this word, at the time, I didn’t really care. I was just like whatever and just moved on because I didn’t really care or focus on the word, but now looking back at these times and with this assignment, I can see what was going on in his head and the goal he was trying to set in a way. 

    The word corey was a word that was used in his community like his family growing up and was passed down in a way and used in my family. I am not sure if this word is still being used by other people in the world but there is surely another word that is being used in the same context of the word corey and it would be. This word has been a huge help in shaping not only me but my siblings as well because I was not the only person being called corey because my sister and brother have been called this countless times as well, so it was interesting to see how well it shaped them as well because I believe my brother has been called corey the most and he is very successful right now and this word may have had an impact on him as well. My sister has not been called this word much from what I remember but my sister has always done well in completing her tasks and she makes sure she gets what she needs to get done on time and is usually hardworking when she needs to be. I think the word corey definitely has an impact on how you are and act as a person growing up, as well as other words that have the same or similar meaning. I also don’t think my dad has used this word purposefully in thinking that it would shape our future or how we would end up turning out in the future or maybe he did in his own way, but it was something that just happened in the moment and it’s just a word used to call someone in certain situations. It would be interesting to see how others turn out from this word in different communities.

UNIT 2 REVISION

    Have you ever just taken a look at how far we have come and developed as a society? There have been so many changes and ways of life that slowly changed. For example, there are so many different ways to make money now unlike before because now there is so much social media where people use it as a job or people who invest in the stock market as a job. Now there are NFT where people draw digital art of something that can be something like an animal. The most common image being drawn is a unique looking monkey with unique features such as wearing sunshades or a headband or even wearing chains.  It may seem silly to you at first why this is even a thing honestly and it can still sound silly even if you are informed about NFTs.

    NFT stands for nonfungible token and the term fungible means exchanging something of the same kind such as a dollar bill or coins. Things that are non fungible can be things such as a car or a house someone exclusively owns because of their unique characteristics. “If it helps, you can think of NFTs as like the certificate of authenticity you might get if you bought an expensive sculpture. This basically means you have a claim of ownership, where you are considered the original owner and copy. There are people who can copy the file, but they do not have a certificate saying that it is authentic to them. It is the same as a robber breaking into someone’s house and stealing it, but you have a certificate claiming that you are the original owner.

     A note to take with you is that it is not that simple to get started and just start selling or buying NFTs that easily. To get started, you will need to buy crypto in order to start being able to even make money from your NFT. The most common crypto currency used to get started is Ethereum but there are other forms that can be used. There are also many apps that allow you to set up a wallet or account to buy or sell your crypto. Then you will set up the wallet information to have the money come in if you were to sell an NFT. Something else to also note is that since you need to by something like Ethereum, Ethereum has gone up a lot more than before which was from around 1 thousand to around 5 thousand dollars, so it can be a little tricky to get started if you are new and trying to save so many can look at it as like some sort of gamble but you have a choice so you should also be cautious and aware of your decisions and what your doing because it can be dangerous to do if you are careless and can cause many issues on your financial situations that you may have to deal with. There are many fake people out there who will try to sell you fake NFTs. Many people will try to get you to buy something fake so it is very important to pay close attention to the details. There are many platforms that can be used to make and sell NFTs.

     The steps to actually making an NFT is uploading a file of the NFT you are looking for or trying to sell which is a digital file and it cannot be hand drawn. Now there are different ways in actually selling your NFT. You have an option to set a set price where there is only one offer and if it is sold, you get the instant amount of money. You also have the option to have an auction and you can set this auction to a certain time where they can be sold or bid on for a time to another time chosen by you. The last option is giving a certain buyer access to the NFT through a secret link, and this is usually done based on how confident you are with your NFT because you are giving them a full copy of the NFT with a nice resolution to see the details thoroughly. You can also add a description to your NFT and this will allow you to provide a little description on what the buyer might like out of it and can help sell your NFT faster. Something you may want to know is when your NFT is bought, there is a fee and a commission fee you have to pay out of the wallet you set up. These are small things that are important but not many people talk about it and they don’t show you how many things go into selling or buying NFTs. It is honestly a risk you can take with uncertain outcomes but there may also be benefits if you are confident and aware of what you are doing, or have a plan or make it a situation where it will not have a huge effect on someone. Another thing to note is that any sort of digital file can be counted as an NFT. 

    There have also been many situations where creators or artist or other social media influencers have scammed people to buying their products like crypto, etc., so it is important to watch out for that because it can be misleading and a huge risk you might be taking and some of them have been caught and called out on. There is so much false information being spread on the internet that you do not know what is true or not and there can be so much information that is misleading that can actually have a huge effect on a huge amount of people and actually potentially ruin their lives because of listening to false information being spread around. There was a time where I invested money into the stock market because I saw some guy on twitter talk about it how it was going to increase a lot and it turned out he was wrong which caused me and a lot of other people to lose money if they listened so I was apart of that problem that was going on with social media influencers going around or people on the internet spreading misleading and false information. If there was someone out there who was so confident and put a lot of money in because they believed him, it would ruin that person’s situation insanely much. 

    NFT is a new thing that has not come out too long ago so we may see many things to change and new ways things will be done so it is only a matter of time where we will be seeing something new that will happen over time. There are obviously things that will still happen and won’t change which is sad but if you are smart about it and doing things based on your own research and thoughts and you are very confident in it, then it could be very useful and impactful. There are many risks and factors that go into NFT but if you are up for the challenge, then it is up to you. Everything is dependent on how you handle the situation and what you want to deal with and it is important that you need to just be cautious about what you actually want to do when selling or buying an NFT and listening to information that is going around.

Works Cited

Melanie Kramer, Stephen Graves. “Beginner’s Guide to Nfts: What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?” Decrypt, Decrypt, 18 Jan. 2022, https://decrypt.co/resources/non-fungible-tokens-nfts-explained-guide-learn-blockchain.

Roose, Kevin. “What Are Nfts?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Mar. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/nft-guide.html. 

Reflection

Since this semester, I have seen a huge growth in my ability to write better because as I was writing for these assignments, I saw I was improving because I was able to write well for my other classes as well and it showed me I was able to improve even more after more time and practice. I also saw some mistakes I can still work on over time because I do know there are things I notice I have a habit of that I need to get rid of when I write and I will need to be able to fix that over more time and practice. I would honestly say I did a good job on my Unit 1 after reading it, but it is possible to improve it more with the structures of the paragraph because I saw there was a new paragraph started when I was continuing a sentence from a previous paragraph. For example,  “I believe he brings me with him often to see what he does so I can learn from him, and I would also end up cleaning the area and bringing him tools from the truck when he asks for something specific.”  This sentence should have continued but instead I added this sentence to a new paragraph, “Sometimes when I would not clean up the workspace area properly, he would use the word corey because I did not clean it properly because it was important to keep the place clean so you are organized and you can keep track of where everything is.”  I do feel like it is better to have advice from peers reading someone’s work because I feel like when you read your own work, often times, you don’t realize the mistakes you make because you assume what you did was right and when you read your own work, it usually feels normal to the writer when it might not be, so it would be better to have some good feedback on the writing for these kinds of mistakes. Assignment One was interesting because it was something unusual you actually have to look back on and think about because even though it’s a word that was common to the individual, it may have been looked over because I did not see it as unusual at the time which made this assignment unique. The word I chose for Assignment one was ‘corey’, “The word corey was a word that was used in his community like his family growing up and was passed down in a way and used in my family.”

 I would say my least favorite assignment was Unit 3 because I used social media for my assignment because I know there are many young people there that are usually on there for entertainment, but I saw social media also as a way to learn new things and I thought it was a good way to connect to younger people. The only part was that I do use social media, but I am not very good at creating things and posting them on social media, so it was a bit uncomfortable for me to complete this assignment but I chose it anyway because I thought it would be the best possible method for this assignment. Some things I learned over this semester when doing these assignments is that it kind of forces you to be open minded when writing because there are probably topics you can choose that you are not able to see because you are use to writing about specific topics but these assignment kind of forces you to look back for something to write about. 

It was also very challenging to do some of these assignments as well because there is some research required such as for Unit Two where I wrote about NFTs. I would not say I was completely knowledgeable on this subject, but I had general knowledge about this topic and I was a bit curious a little to know more about it because maybe one day I might get into it, so it was just nice to have an opportunity to learn more about it. I would also like to point out that I feel like writing about something is a better way in learning something more efficiently than just reading about it because it kind of forces you to point out the main points and what is actually important and it stays with you more rather than just reading and a higher chance of forgetting some of the information sooner. In Unit 2, I tried to start off by giving some of the general and basic information I knew and learned. “NFT stands for nonfungible token and the term fungible means exchanging something of the same kind such as a dollar bill or coins. Things that are non fungible can be things such as a car or a house someone exclusively owns because of their unique characteristics.” This was a way to give the reader a little insight of what I basically already had an idea of and go on by adding the risks involved and a little more specific information on how it is used. “Something else to also note is that since you need to by something like Ethereum, Ethereum has gone up a lot more than before which was from around 1 thousand to around 5 thousand dollars, so it can be a little tricky to get started if you are new and trying to save so many can look at it as like some sort of gamble but you have a choice so you should also be cautious and aware of your decisions and what your doing because it can be dangerous to do if you are careless and can cause many issues on your financial situations that you may have to deal with.” After giving the reader this information, I showed the reader the steps on actually knowing how to get started. This was a way to show them if they were actually interested, then these were the things they would end up having to do. “The steps to actually making an NFT is uploading a file of the NFT you are looking for or trying to sell which is a digital file and it cannot be hand drawn. Now there are different ways of actually selling your NFT.” I know this is something freshman’s will not be able to do because they are still young but it is just some things that they will be informed about which may be helpful to them in the future.