INTRODUCTION

In this project, I was given the opportunity to give my thoughts some reflection by recording everything I was thinking about throughout a day. Recording my thoughts every half an hour, along with taking pictures, gives me a better insight of who I am as an individual. It showed how my actions and memories can really bring beneficial and detrimental effects to my future.

THINKING IN WRITING

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

11:30: I should start on this eng project

the main character is being stupid

12:00: what time should I leave the house?

Should I lay here and just watch a little more?

12:30: I’m hungry.

This is boring.

I want to play volleyball.

1:00: when should I do this pile of hw?

I’ll do it tomorrow…hopefully.

1:30: my bed feels too good.

I should get up and play some ball.

Nahh…gonna keep laying and watching tv

2:00: I’m craving ramen.

Should I get up to make one? Nahh.

2:30: this show is boring and stupid now.

Should I start to get ready now?

3:00: ok, I’m going to force myself up now

Time to get ready.

3:30: what should I wear?

What should I bring besides my camera?

Do I need a ball?

4:00: should I go to Baruch’s game or Lab’s game?

Why is this train so slow?

I want to play volleyball really badly now

Dam, I’m awake. how did I miss my stop?

4:30: I’m early. I’ll watch the first game

Graphic arts sucks this year

ELRO is beast

5:00: ELRO won.

Should I warmup with Baruch? I will.

5:30: game time. Who’s going to win?

6:00: how did Baruch lose the first set?

6:30: Baruch won second set

7:00: this is dragging way too long

Third set.

7:30: finally finished. Should I go home?

What to do when I get home?

8:00: it’s so boring…I rather be playing

8:30: should I do my hw?

How long should this paper be?

This perspective drawing is confusing.

Which color should I use?

9:00: this is taking forever

I still have other hw to do

10:00: finally dinner time.

SOF vb team bugging me about playing on Saturday

10:30: gonna stall time by eating slow

11:00: should I continue hw?

I’ll just lay around, watch tv and continue tomorrow

12:30: I should shower, I sweat before

1:00: going to watch tv until I fall asleep

Can’t wait to coach Baruch and SOF on Saturday

THINKING VISUALLY

Doing My Foundation Drawing Assignment (Yu, “Foundation Drawing Assignment”)

Spectating Baruch High School’s Volleyball Team’s Time Out Session (Yu, “Baruch High School’s Volleyball Team’s Time Out Session”)

Watching 22 Jump Street (Yu, “Watching Television”)

THINKING RHETORICALLY AND REFLECTIVELY 

How often do every individual actually take the time off their busy schedule to think about their own thoughts? Not very often, nor likely. To think about our own thoughts also means thinking about what connects to them and those connections are just memories, which leads us to be thrown off track about what we were initially thinking about. Confusing? It’s just my own thinking and logic by simply saying that even the process of thinking is a procrastination of our mind. My name is Samantha Yu and I’m an expert at focusing on things that I set my mind to and I’m also very indecisive which leads to me having an unpredictable future. Through this essay, I would be expressing my most important thoughts about my past, present, and future self, not only through words, but also visually through photos. To start it off, the assignment was introduced to us, instructing us to log our thoughts in a day every half an hour, and taking pictures alongside. The most important thoughts, themes, and pictures were then picked out and summarized to narrow down the significance of the day and ourselves. Now, going back to my day of thoughts, I can see that everything can lead to different consequences to my future personal, academic, and professional life. I argue that my thoughts are a procrastination, they’re all over the place, and I need to work on focusing them on the things that matter. From looking at all my different actions in a day, it shows that my thoughts lead to procrastinating actions that can affect my future personal, academic, and professional life.

From the moment I wake up till when I sleep again, there are always the same three thoughts that I think about every day. First, is the mountain load of homework that waits for me to complete it. The sight of my homework instantly gives me thoughts such as, “I should really start on this English project…” and “Should I do my homework? How long should this paper be?(SYu, par.1,39-40)” My mind is all over the place most of the time due to all the different amount of workload and stress given by my professors. With my personality, whenever I start something, I would finish it till the end. But before I start the things, I have moments of doubt, uncertainty, and indecisiveness. For example, sometimes I would say things like, “Do I really want to start this? Will I be able to accomplish it? Do I have the confidence to stay focus all the way?” And when I see all those words on the same assignment sheet, I just end up getting scared and try avoiding it. In the picture “Foundation Drawing Assignment”, I was attempting to complete my Foundation Drawing class’s homework, but all those words on the assignment sheet just looks extremely horrifying to me. Thoughts like these are what throws me off track. Luckily, I do try to remind myself about the significance and benefits of the workload every once in awhile. I would think about how doing and accomplishing these assignments would give me the satisfying grades I so desperately want and determined to get. Sometimes my own reminders work and sometimes it doesn’t work, so when it doesn’t work, I just end up getting lazy. I’m all over the place when it comes to commitment of doing homework and I should work on focusing on it more because it matters to my future academic life.

The second thing that I think about every day, are physical activities. As noticed from my first argument, I can’t commit myself to doing homework all the time, and the main reason for that is because I can’t sit still. My body always feel the urge to get up and move around. Whether it be running around the blocks, playing handball, basketball, soccer, or volleyball, I need to do at least one to be satisfied for the day. My love for sports lead me to becoming the assistant coach for the School of the Future High School Volleyball Team and Handball Team. Out of all the sports mentioned, I have the strongest passion for volleyball. I’m so passionate about it that at some points I could play eight hours straight without resting or eating. In the picture “Baruch High School’s Volleyball Team’s Time Out Session”, it shows my main location of that day at Robert F. Wagner Middle School’s Gym watching the Baruch College Campus High School vs. Pace High School volleyball game. The picture brings out a meaning to me that is more important in my point of view than any other’s. It shows dedication, confidence, and most importantly, teamwork. These Baruch girls gave me the honor of coaching and drilling them for a day before their first game and I was more than glad that I could assist them, so I also went to support their first game. During their game, I kept thinking to myself, “Who’s going to win? They have a similar skill level. How did Baruch lose the first set? Baruch won the second set. This is actually dragging way longer than it should. Finally into third set, and Baruch won!(SYu, par. 31-36)” Occasionally, during those thoughts, I somehow start to think back to my stressful amount of homework and where should I go after the game is over. Like previously described, my thoughts are everywhere. Now, to tie back to my argument, volleyball is definitely described as part of me, but it’s also a distraction and the procrastination to my professional future, as my parents would describe it. They think that it’s merely something useless and should just be left in my high school past and memories because playing volleyball all the time would not help me pursue a career anywhere. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I do agree to their concerns because I never was the smartest in academics. The stereotype, Asian parents are very strict with grades lower than A’s, is mostly true. To most Asian parents, they are very strict when it comes to our grades, because they know what hardship is. They don’t want us to experience the same hardship as them because of their low educational status, so they demand more from their kids to have a brighter future. Having my parents and school work in thought, I cut down more on practices and play time this year for work and school, but I know that when next Summer rolls in, I’m going straight back onto the courts and Nationals. Now, unfortunately, the college I attend, New York City College of Technology, don’t have their own volleyball team and that made me a little unhappy. On the bright side, that will keep my mind more on school work and lead me to be focused on the more important matters.

The final thing that I think about daily is sleep and television. It’s obvious, I don’t have much time to think about things like these unless it’s my day off, but it’s actually a constant thing in my head. After the Fall 2014 semester started, I have been pulling all-nighters everyday because of school work and television. True, I have a lot of stressful homework but once I get it done or nearly done, most of the time ends up to be watching television instead of sleeping. The reason I do this is because I have a mindset of having to watch a little bit of TV a day, or else my day would feel completely non-entertaining. And since I have this kind of mindset, this leads me to watch into early morning without even realizing it, and the next thing I know, I have to go to school. In the picture, “Watching Television,” it shows me staying up after homework to watch 22 Jump Street. The most sleep I ever got on a school night was 4 hours and during weekends, I try to sleep in. Throughout the day, I just think about wanting to sleep and being lazy, but I restrict myself of having those thoughts. At night, I would think, “Should I continue homework?…Nope, I’ll just lay around, watch TV, and continue it tomorrow since it’s not even due yet.(SYu, par. 49-50)” Sometimes, in my opinion, I think sleep is not really a complete necessity and productivity is more important. Of course, in order to have productivity, one must have rest and sleep, but my opinion has no logic, it’s just my opinion. I think using every minute of your life to do something productive, rather than sleep, is more important. Like for me, I choose sports and television over sleep, but maybe it’s just because I’m already used to it. Saying this, brings it to how my third argument is about sleep being my third procrastination in life. So continuously being productive means continuously having thoughts and because I don’t sleep much, it gives me a lot of time to think about many things, whether it be important or not. My thoughts about sleep messes with my mind, and I should really change that because sleep is what matters most to every living thing and it would definitely show a detrimental effect to my future personal life.

The most important things in my life all show a beneficial and detrimental effect to my future whether it be personally, academically, or professionally. School work, volleyball, and sleep are all very important to me, but what I need to learn to do is how to control my thoughts of each thing in order to live a less-stressful future. Having my thoughts all over the place every second, leads me to take my mind off the things that actually matter in life.

 Works Cited

1) aznsam366 [Samantha Yu]. “Re: Project 1: Thinking in Writing.” OpenLab. ENG1101 D346 English Composition 1, FA2014, 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

2) Yu, Samantha. “Baruch High School’s Volleyball Team’s Time Out Session.” Flickr. 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014

3) Yu, Samantha. “Foundation Drawing Assignment.” Flickr. 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014

4) Yu, Samantha. “Watching Television.” Flickr. 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014