Category: Essay 1: Intellectual Home (Page 1 of 3)

Tyrell Trower
10/11/2022
English Composition

My Place Of Peace
My intellectual home first starts with a quiet room with not a soul around me for my best focus
and concentration. For me knowing that someone else is in the room with me messes me up almost as
if I can feel their energy. Only my spirit needs to be there for when I’m working on homework. It’s
kind of a bad thing but that’s just how I am. My window needs to be open to receive sunlight because
it gives me a nostalgic feeling when I’m doing anything really. It gives me excitement as we know sun
also gives people energy as well so maybe that’s what going on. My dog is a big factor in focusing
because he knows when I’m doing homework. He sees my all my papers and books and 9/10 decides
to lay beside me through it. My dog is like my escape goat when I’m feeling tired or worried, I just rub
him. Which reminds me of Malcom X article. Malcom X was an African American man who was a
hoodlum in the streets until he was sentenced in prison for 7 years. In prison he began his journey of
trying to become intellectual with his words by reading the dictionary front to back actually using
these words. But his purpose for wanting to speak better was to impress someone he deemed important
and influential in his eyes who was Muslim like him. Without the small prison place he was in with his
cell mate , him learning wouldn’t be possible. Me and Malcom X is alike in that way because it took
him to be in a certain environment for him to tap in to a intellectual more side of him. Without going
to prison, he doesn’t become Malcom X that everyone knows. My silent room with no one in the room
is my sole purpose for wanting to do homework and without that room with sunlight and my dog next
to me it would be 10 times harder for me to work because to me it’s my place of peace.
The person that really gets me going is my mom. She’s the mom who always remind you to
study and do your homework all the time. She’s just always on top of things which forces me to get
things right and always make sure the things I need to get done first is complete. To the best of my
ability as well. Without her I would have slacked in high school, and never would have made honor
roll. In high school it was pretty easy for me to slip because of the different things that I was doing and
what was around me 24/7. It takes a strong person to not get persuaded by such things. At the time
honor roll was a 3.5 gpa average which is what I received. One homework slip and I receive a 3.4 gpa
which doesn’t allow to make honor roll which is why I’m always grateful to my mom because a lot of
that was her tough love and encouragement for me to not give up on reaching my honor roll goals. To
be honest honor roll was my motivation in the first place because I just chased a feeling that I’ve
always wanted when I see people walk up to the stage once they call they name and everyone is
clapping and proud of that person. A feeling that I definitely wanted to feel for myself and was
determined to get there no matter the cost or things that I needed to sacrifice in order to do so.. Which
reminds me of Salvator Scibonas article because he got his motivation from his friend who was going
to college across the country. He saw where she was going and wanted to go to college there as well.
He applied and somehow managed to get called to enter even though before he wasn’t that good of a
student and didn’t care about school really. He began reading way more than he usually did once he
learned and began reading top reading level books. For him his motivation and first reason to reading a
lot was a student, for me it was my mom he encouraged me to be In my books heavy and do my
homework and focus in class at an extremely high level.
For me to get the best out of city tech I simply need a new environment that enjoy being at a lot
which is by the grass at the beach but it’s actually really cold outside right now. I’m now an adult so I
need to learn how to hold myself account and regain that same drive to be an honor roll student I did in
high school. I can’t depend on my mom anymore because I’m older now and she doesn’t make me do
things anymore. She’s sees if I have the drive to do so myself because in the future when I become a
fully grown man no one will be there for me but me. I have to learn how to hold myself accountable
for my own actions. Whether that be watching YouTube videos on motivation which really tends to
help me, or looking up ways to be more motivated in school to give me reasoning for being my best when it comes to college. A chapter I’m not all the way used to yet.

Courtney Johnson

Prof Sean scanlan

English1121 composition 2

10/9/2022

         Intellectual Homes and character development

When it comes to my intellectual home, I’d like to think that it consists of people, place

and process. This consists of being either in my room or in my living room copying notes from

 powerpoints into my notebook or reading. Most times, I’ll be on facetime with my best friend 

while she does her homework. We’ll just listen to music, talk about our homework, and bounce 

ideas off of eachother. I have a really short attention span so listening to music while I’m doing it 

is essential. It keeps me focused. Even as I’m making this, I have music playing and I’m still 

being distracted however, it does help a lot. Out of all of them though, I’d have to say that 

process and people are most important because they’re the most prominent roots in my 

development as a person.

I’d very much like to be like Malcolm X and Salvatore Scibona. While I do really like

Scibona’s reading and his development, I prefer Malcolm X’s specifically because his 

intellectual home consists of all three aspects just like me, and I find it very interesting that I 

relate to such a major historical figure in that regard. Scibona’s intellectual home place being St. 

John’s college, and process, which was reading. Malcolm X’s intellectual home, like I said, 

consisted of all three. People being Elijah Muhammad and Bimbi, place being prison more 

specifically, his cell and  the library, and process being reading and copying and memorizing 

entire dictionaries. They both however have major character development

I live in a very small apartment. The only spots in my apartment that I have space to relax 

and study are my living room and my own room. Whenever I do anything academic, there needs 

to be very specific conditions. Lights either need to be off or any random color (I have lights that 

can change colors). There MUST be music playing because it helps me focus, and most times my 

best friend will be on the phone with me and we do our homework or study together. I chose 

Scibona and X’s articles because I love the connection between their intellectual homes and how 

their homes helped them develop as people.

For instance when X said “In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there. I 

had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not 

only wasn’t articulate, I wasn’t even functional. How would I sound writing in slang, the way 1 

would say it, something such as, “Look, daddy, let me pull your coat about a cat, Elijah 

Muhammad—”. He comes to a realization that he’s not articulate when it comes to trying to 

express himself to Elijah Muhammad. Then there’s Bimbi who he tries to emulate, but fails. “… 

when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge 

of any conversations he was in, and I had tried to emulate him. But every book I picked up had 

few sentences which didn’t contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as 

well have been in Chinese.” This in addition to his realizing that he isn’t as articulate as he wants

 to be inspires him to start reading.

I know I’m not in prison, but I know the people in my intellectual home inspire me the 

 same as they inspire Malcolm X. My best friend loves writing so when she gives me her papers 

to proof-read, sometimes I’m left astonished by how succinctly she puts her thoughts on paper. 

It’s a constant reminder and inspiration to read and write when I get the chance. The other aspects

 of my intellectual home help with that too because I set a mood I want with my lights and music 

and lose myself in my work and my reading.

Scibona as opposed to X did have a traditional education, but did not take it seriously 

until he went to college. His intellectual home was made up of a place, being St Johns, and 

process which was reading. Our intellectual don’t have similarities other than our process, 

however there is one thing that is really similar. That would the change we had when going into 

college from high school. “And I loved this whole perverse and beautiful idea. I would scrap 

everything (or so I usefully believed) and go to that place and ask them to let me in. It felt like a 

vocation. It was a vocation… Reader, I married it”  I relate to this because when I went into college, I 

promised to be as diligent as humanly possible when it came to academics. “I carried bricks and mortar 

to rooftops during the summers, but if I hadn’t made time to read the night before, my legs wore out by 

noon. Even my body needed to read.” Although I don’t share is exact same sentiment for reading, I 

know that college is the reason for me enjoying academics more than when I was in high school

All in all, X and Scibona have intellectual homes that I find very interesting. They were 

the sole reasons for their development as people and I hope to have development quite like them 

as my intellectual home changes. Next semester I’m transferring to a college upstate and I’m 

really excited to see where that takes me.

Ali Alkhulaki

Prof Sean scanlan

English1121 composition 2

10/6/2022

 

 

My home is my happiness

 

        Comfort does not necessarily represent a state of relaxation often it helps people be happier, and when people are happier they tend to work hard  which leads to better quality of what is being done.  My home is my ideal intellectual home, it’s the place where my levels of comfort are the greatest with that being said another intellectual home is reading and writing weather it be magazines or daily apps I use on my phone reading is a big part of my daily routine. Similar to Scibona I lacked courage and the will to motivate myself to gain knowledge and pursue a path in school, I chose a path of a simplicity where I worked a mediocre job in a place where my heart was not content with, I wanted more ! I excepted more from myself!

 

         Similar to Scibona reading became a haven it gave me the opportunity to understand more, it became a passageway to many opportunities and a way to be at happy and at peace with the mind.

Scibona lack of knowledge and passion to do better slowly shifted throughout the passage, his eagerness to break free from a lifestyle of unhappiness lead him to situations that became the building blocks of freedom from a world of sadness and his own mental slavery. Scibona described it as “ I wanted with certainty only one thing, to get out of Ohio, and the Colonel might hire me anywhere in the world”(Scibona pgaph1). In that text you can feel the emotional stress he is in. Similar to Scibona I fell into a comfort of what was present for me “ a underpaying job that felt miserable” it restrained me from opportunities and the ability to be able to get better for myself. The intellectual home of Comfort is very important it shows that even if you are comfortable in a place that is not fit for you, you will never be happy and content with yourself and it will affect your ability to bring out the best of yourself.

 

 

Alexie Sherman  is a writer that wrote Superman and Me , Which to sum it up  explains the struggles he went through as a Native American living on a reserve and growing up seeking knowledge to help him get out of the struggles of his people which where a very uneducated group that had low expectations for themselves leading  him to obtain  a Superman comic book which became the first step of him becoming the successful writer he is today. Similar to Sherman Alexie reading is very big part of my life and I started off with comic books,  captain underpants,, diary of wimpy kid these assortment of books that entertained me and helped me gain a love for reading. Alecia Sherman in context describes “ I refued to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read book late into the night, until I could barely keep my eyes open” (Sherman, pg6). Reading became an addiction and can be justified as an healthy addiction which contributed to his success as a writer. Comfort does not just have to be in a place Sherman found his comfort in reading and reading gave him the push he needed to reach his peak performance.

My Intelligence is for Lease

       Discomfort is necessary to support an intellectual home. Before I, or anyone can find

what works, there needs to be failure, and for a clear idea of what works to exist, it’s equally true that what doesn’t work needs to be present. Salvatore Scibona’s “Where I Learned To Read” and Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me”, there are subliminal and abstract examples of how lack can lead to fulfillment. 

       In the first story, we meet a young boy who learns to read in the discomfort of his home. Him and his family live on a reservation, which we’re not given much context for but it’s not out of the ordinary to imagine that this indicates an uncomfortable lifestyle. He learns to read by making connections between the illustrations of his comic books and the words written in the text bubbles. While this is impressive and heartfelt, I imagine that there is a reason why a young boy was so lost in a book, seeking for understanding instead of enjoying it in passing. 

         In that little boy, I see me. I see 12 years old me butchering the lyrics to trending songs on the radio and making out one word of the sounds I heard that made no sense to me. I see myself watching Disney Channel and Nickelodeon shows, completely understanding situations because of the body language, and being able to recognize what words meant something would happen. And finally, I see myself— being transferred to an American school even when I spoke no English because my parents knew I would figure it out and that it’d be better for my future. Children are easily consumed by any form of storytelling because of the hunger to understand that they all carry. His intellectual home is reading and letting himself be carried by a story. In real life, this can present itself as learning best by consuming large amounts of information and creating concepts that help you grasp it independently. 

        In Scibona’s story, I see discomfort in direct form. There is apparent discomfort in his working situation, and according to this sentence; “I did my best to flunk out of high school. I failed English literature, American literature, Spanish, precalculus, chemistry, physics” (Scibona 1) school was definitely not a safe place for him either. He hated his job too: “I loved that job the way a dog loves a carcass in a ditch”. These high levels of discomfort must be carried out by something that ties it all together: his intellectual home. The high level of passion that he ends up having for reading must be equal to the high level of discomfort that he experienced from what his life was filled with as well. 

        My intellectual homes are in direct relation to what it is that I’m consumed by at a certain moment in life. There needs to be something lacking, for me to find a method to get things right. My intelligence is for lease. It’s occupied by the substance of my lifestyle and occupied by the methods I find to be the most positive for me at that time. 

Being bilingual has definitely made education a bit of a challenge for me but with the motivation to succeed all felt possible. While places, people and processes come to mind when  thinking of an Intellectual Home. I find that it is people and processes that are the central components that reinforce and form my Intellectual Home. In order to go into more depth of this I will begin by summarizing my personal experiences that helped grow roots to my Intellectual Home, then I will compare my experience to that of Esmeralda Santiago, along with the shared feelings between Jeny Liao and I, and for last I will use the similarities of experiences and feelings to finalize the formation of my now Intellectual home. 

    I was 7 years old when my life in New York was instantly taken from me. I took a plane with my mom and brother leaving my dad behind. I wasn’t surprised because I knew his work here was better than any in Mexico. What I didn’t know was I would be leaving my English language behind and what was meant to be a two month trip would rapidly become two years straight. The first weeks of school was challenging because everyone only spoke Spanish but I felt relieved when all I did was sing English songs at the front of the class like the famous “Itsy-bitsy spider” or “twinkle-twinkle little star” and counting numbers 1 to 100, I loved to share the English language with all there but I didn’t know Id easily forget it. I still recall the day I had forgotten the first word, I called my dad crying asking how to say 100 in English and he told me with an accent, but the next day I’d forget again and again until it was no longer a  number but all English that was faded. I came back to New York and now my Spanish was perfect but having to relearn English would be challenging for me. With the help and guidance of two bilingual teachers and my father as well as the strategies they taught me I was able to become an A student for the rest of elementary school. 

    Esmeralda Santiago had the motivation and no limits which was key to her success and in fact mine too. Esmeralda was born in San Juan Puerto Rico, she struggled with the English language but with the help and attention of her teacher Ms.Brown she improved. “After the first week she moved me from the back of the room to the front seat by her desk, and after that, it felt as if she were teaching me alone.” (Santiago 3). Ms.Brown played a big part of Esmeraldas Intellectual Home, but for me it was Ms.Bueno and Mr.Carasquillo who helped me get straight A’s and pushed me not only to understand but also read and write English. Esmeralda felt watched by Ms.Brown and having all her attention on her helped, I felt motivated whenever Ms.Bueno would pull a desk right next to mine and begin to point at words and have me make a connection with a word that seemed similar in the Spanish language or when she made me re read sentences over and over again until Inwas able to understand every single word. During tests she would give out animal crackers and chocolates and would tell us that it would help us score higher. I always felt I needed a snack after and all it took was for her to look over my shoulder for me to feel smart and optimistic. Mr.Carasquillo would always break us into groups and I was always in the group he had to teach and in the front seat. I felt although he was teaching a group his attention was on me and I was very motivated knowing he cared to explain himself whenever I felt lost. He one day gave me children books in English and the exact same book in a Spanish version. “Every day after school I went to the library and took out as many children’s books as I was allowed” (Santiago 3). Esmeralda relied on children’s books in a way to help with her understanding of reading English. Esmeralda had a teacher who motivated her and strategies which she picked up in the same way I was guided and self taught to an extent. 

     Jenny Liao and I have similar thoughts when speaking of our parents. We grew thinking “[…] a mastery of English would promise a good, stable job in the future. [and that this] missing piece in my parents’ lives would propel me forward for the rest of mine.” (Liao 2,3) Before I learned the English language I would stay up late waiting for my father to come home and help me complete my hw, he was so patient and did the best that he could when he was struggling and having him next to me kept me motivated too and I was able to see that he was picking up on English words similar to Spanish and guess what was being written. We always knew the importance of the English Language and we tend to connect it to many possibilities that our parents weren’t able to benefit from. While Liao had a more pessimistic perspective on her parents not knowing English, I always admired them for even being in a place where they are always reminded that they don’t belong because they hear an unknown language rather than their fluent language. That is why my parents motivate me and although I became a great student in elementary school and was able to balance both Spanish and English. As I grow and become more educated I feel lost between both languages. I tend to mix them up in sentences so naturally going from one language to another. Justas Liao exemplifies “I attempt conversations with the kind women behind the bun counter at Taipan, my favorite bakery in Manhattan’s Chinatown,” (Liao 5). At my job I am the only one who speaks Spanish and I try to keep the Spanish conversations going for as long as possible to help me practice too. 

     To conclude, my experiences in Mexico and coming back to New York helped me realize the importance of reading and writing in English as well as the importance of my first language. I’ve learned to keep a balance with strategies that were taught to me and the people around me. That is why my Intellectual home consists of the presence of my parents or brother regardless of the physical place of study. I always sit at the front of the classroom because I feel like the professors walk around the front more and even that keeps me motivated. The connection of English and Spanish words still helps me with understanding words I’m unsure about. The need for a snack or a drink while studying keeps me consistent in my education. Helping with the flow and making me feel more concentrated does make me feel like I am more likely to get things done. During long study sessions I make sure I have enough snacks to keep me on task. When I read I always read out loud because it’s what my teacher used to make me do and I feel as if doing that helps me understand and deeply process what I am reading so I reread until I am sure I understood and if not I write notes to the side making sure to come back to it and look it up in Spanish. When I am writing I write as if there are many people in the room listening or paying attention to what I am doing and that keeps me focused. 

    

Michael Osei-Antwi

Prof. Sean Scanlan

English 1121: Composition 2

10//6/2022

     I never knew the proper approach to studying for an exam. When I have an upcoming test, I have to figure out a new way to unlock the things I have learned in my head. The article about Salvatore Scibona is an article I can relate to, as well as the article about Howard Gardner. To prove this, I will reveal more about my home and what my Intellectual Home is. Next, I will compare how Scibona’s seriousness in reading reflects on the way I think about Art and how Gardner’s five minds for the future will help me achieve creative breakthroughs. Lastly, Gardner’s Synthesizing mind will help me develop new ways to improve my intellectual home to become a better architect.

 I am always busy. Ever since I left my mom house to live independently, everything has been hitting me hard. I cannot even seem to remember the last time I had the freedom to just simply do nothing. One of my personal goals to improve myself was to go to college, even though I am not the best student, but I have to start somewhere. School, class, textbooks are all things I do not enjoy. When I hear the word “school”, my immediate thought is to the hundreds of pages teachers assign for readings and exams that do not seem to correlate with lectures. Studying for me has always been a difficult task, until this one person came into my life and changed my perspective on schoolwork. She is an intelligent person who makes sure I have my class assignments done correctly. She helps my life easier in life and with everything else. This what build intellectual home, with just having one person by my side while I feel like I have nothing, she makes it easier to accomplish my responsibilities.

I hate being busy, but I also like being busy just for fact that it always keeps me moving and motivated. I work a night shift job where I’m consistently moving around on a pallet jack. I make above minimum wage so it’s a job that expects a lot of us. I feel like I always have to be at the top of my game when it comes to my job. Picture a busy street that has consistent traffic flowing around. The noise of the loud machines, people walking through the traffic of moving electric pallet jacks. I mean how are you be able to think with all these things going on. In a way I can say I’m similar to Scibona in the way he was in the beginning of the article when he felt like his job is all he had. Jobs are just places you go to do things you don’t enjoy doing. He stated “I loved that job the way a dog loves a carcass in a ditch” when he said that I knew he didn’t like his job and was ready for something new. When he said, “he went home stinking of it”, you could think about how a really bad smell that’s just on your body throughout your ride back home. Most of the time I come back home being covered in nasty stuff from my job and it’s disgusting how I have to repeatedly wear the same clothes back to work.

While I can relate to Scibona’s writing in the past, I can relate to Rahmani’s essay in the present and the near future. In order to support this, I will first describe my intellectual home in detail. Second I will explain how both writings relate to me and my intellectual home. Lastly, I will explain how my intellectual home will help me succeed in life.

My intellectual home consists of a mixture of place and process with no people. I am the biggest procrastinator I know. With that being said my process for my intellectual home is that I normally wait a day or two before an assignment is due to begin. The pressure and anxiety from having to turn in the assignment before the deadline brings the best work out of me. One thing about me is that I hate noise. I can admit that I have the attention span of a squirrel. I get distracted from a mere fly buzzing past my ears more than once. So my intellectual home needs 100% silence. I then need to discipline myself, which is the most important part of my intellectual home, and think of the negative outcome of not completing my work, so my biggest distraction which is my phone needs to be put away. The place for my intellectual home is anywhere that has peace and quiet indoors (mainly a library or my room late at night).

The essay that I can relate to the most is Salvatore Scibona’s essay “Where I learned to read.” I intentionally flunked my second semester of college, spring semester of 2021, as my motivation for school slowly flushed down the drain. The very first sentence of the essay “ I did my best to flunk out of high school. I failed English literature, American literature, Spanish, precalculus, chemistry, physics”(Scibona, 1),  really hit home for me. I received a grade of WU for most of my classes and an enormous F for my marketing class. If that didn’t shock you I didn’t stop there, I did not go to school my 3rd semester either. I miraculously returned to school in the spring semester of 2022 and had a 3.4 term gpa. That wouldn’t have been possible if I didn’t relate to the metaphor Scibona used “Even my body needed to read” (Scibona,1). The last semester was when I discovered my intellectual home as I was so invested in redeeming myself from my past college mistakes. I dedicated the majority of my time to school and felt off if I wasn’t doing something that was related to learning. My second choice is Bilal Rahmani’s essay “Chronicles of a Once Pessimistic College Freshman” simply because moving forward his adjustment to college is how I plan to prosper during my time here. I was precisely the student that Bilal described as “I didn’t join any clubs; I didn’t make any friends; I didn’t go to any rallies or shows or games. I didn’t care. . . You went to class, spoke to no one; you left class, spoke to no one; and you went home to do your homework, alone” (Rahmani,1). I was the useless antisocial type of student, which is very ironic because I am not an ounce of shy, and am actually a social person. My plan is to bring out the inner me for the rest of college and actually engage in college life. Opportunities that were never expected would show up with open arms if I welcome it with my involvement with college. 

My intellectual home would lead me to success. I would need to cut out the procrastination part but the disciplined part of my intellectual home would take me far in life. I have a step by step plan in life in which school plays a big part in so I cannot afford to fail.