After reading “Later” by James Surowiecki, I didn’t find the article very interesting. The overall article was simply just boring and very confusing, it uses a lot of examples and I feel like all the examples overlook the point, like on page five he goes into detail about an experiment saying “In the first stage, people are offered the choice between a hundred dollars today or a hundred and ten dollars tomorrow;” and goes on about how some of the people preferred to wait while others didn’t, this example was not needed especially because he doesn’t directly relate this to procrastination after that he goes on to other example of another experiment about movies and Netflix… which definitely wasn’t needed. All the unnecessary examples were making me even more confused than I already was while reading. The article also was jumping around a lot, so it felt disorganized, like on page seven he starts talking about taking his car into the shop and one of his family members being sick, “when I was writing this piece, for instance, I had to take my car into the shop, I had to take two unanticipated trips, a family member fell ill…” then goes into another story about someone he knows “A magazine editor I know, for instance, once had a writer tell her at noon on a Wednesday that the time-sensitive piece he was working on would be in her in-box by the time she got back from lunch.” And after a story about a general in the army. All on that one page! In summary, the article is not one that I would like to read again, there were too many examples, a lot of which were confusing, boring, and unrelated topics which distracted me from the main topic of procrastination.
Author: Jade (Page 3 of 4)
“Who don’t hear must feel” something my grandmother would tell me if I wasn’t listening growing up. She warned me when I believed I knew better and refused to listen to advice. I was always an independent child who preferred to complete tasks on my own and who struggled before asking for help. Even if it were offered, I would still turn it down. I always hated group assignments and presentations; I always thought I could earn a higher grade on my own. I didn’t quite understand why it was such a big deal until I started middle school. In 7th grade, instead of an exam, my English teacher assigned a group project as a final assignment. Initially, I intended to take charge of the work and do it entirely on my own. But as the project progressed, I realized it was too much for me to handle on my own. I had thought about what my grandmother had told me realizing that if I didn’t listen to my classmate’s advice on the project, I would have to suffer the consequences of getting a bad grade. I had to put independence aside and learn to ask for help from my group members to get the project done effectively. Together we came up with ideas, divided the work, and supported each other throughout the project, and in the end, our group effort got us an amazing grade. I also made some of my closest friends I have today from working on that project. It was a valuable lesson that taught me the importance of reaching out for help when needed. Independence or self-reliance although can be positive qualities, also causes us to struggle. It can make us feel like we have to figure everything out on our own, which can be overwhelming.
Learning the value of asking for help and collaboration helped me in so many aspects of life. It taught me that I don’t have to do everything alone and that there is strength in working together. Whether it’s in school, at work, in relationships, or in friendships, being able to collaborate with others has opened up many new opportunities and perspectives. It’s also made me more adaptable and flexible, as I’ve learned to listen to different ideas and compromise when needed. As I’ve grown, I find it just as exciting to achieve goals as a team as it is to achieve them individually. So, embracing help and support from others has definitely made me a more well-rounded and successful person overall.
The “ingredients” I’ve noticed so far from reading “Maybe I Could Save Myself by Writing” and “The Fourth of July” are sharing who you are, your experiences, and your perspective, to try to relate to the reader. In both readings, the author shares their experience being their race and how it affected them. Olivarez shares how he felt like anywhere he went he didn’t belong and how he used poetry to overcome that for himself and let others know that they were not alone. Lorde shares her experience of being black in the 60s and how her parents and sisters’ not acknowledging racism made her acknowledge racism. A good place to start my own educational narrative is by finding a conflict in one of my own experiences as an individual, that could relate to a bigger group of people and also express a way that I think would also help them. A concern I have about writing an educational narrative of my own is that although I have experienced a lot, I don’t think I have experienced anything impactful enough or with much significance to write about; let alone something that a whole group of people can also relate to.
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