Balsamine Chen, Period 8, 4/8/22

Balsamine Chen

Period 8

4/8/22

Literacy & Learning

Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.

Our Interview with the Vampire lesson on Tuesday was about the responsibility paradigm in relationships. In a healthy relationship, there is a responsibility to communicate your expectations, to respect each other, and to try to support each other. In Interview with the Vampire, the paradigm of Louis’s and Claudia’s relationship is a little different, but still mirrors some of the relationships we see in the real world. They are intensely dependent on each other, and because their relationship never started on equal ground or with consent from Claudia, the level of respect between the two constantly changes as they find new aspects to their personality. I think reading these stories teaches us what doesn’t work, and that can be more valuable than learning what does.

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception.

One thing that Ms. Fusaro said stuck out to me so much that I had to write it down: “If you can’t define love, how can you expect to give or receive it?” I’ve heard the saying that you can’t love others if you don’t love yourself first, but I never considered the importance of my own definition of love in forming healthy relationships. According to Merriam-Webster, love is a strong affection for another from kinship, sexual desire, admiration, benevolence, or common interests. To add on to this, I believe love is the commitment to connect, communicate, and understand others’ dreams and struggles through good times and bad. This applies to all relationships between friends, family, lovers, etc. Love can also be like the weather depending on the health or stages of the relationship—sometimes it warms your soul, sometimes it fogs your mind, and sometimes it hits you with grief or anger. What ultimately matters is deciding to weather the storms (pun intended) and support each other’s growth. I think this lesson was one of my favorites of the year, because I’ve often discussed the importance of social-emotional learning with one of my friends. From navigating home life issues to reconciling differences with peers, social-emotional learning applies to all aspects of life. Ultimately, one important lesson I’ve learned during senior year is that self-reflection is key to advancing in life.

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

The lesson of communicating expectations applies to my Monster Project in Modern Mythology, both in the content and production of it. Our film will focus on the toxic relationship between two teenagers and the skewed images they have of each other, and my teammates and I will also have to communicate our expectations of each other as we work on it. Coincidentally, I also had to put this lesson to practice that Tuesday after school in my weekly NYC Department of Buildings Youth Leadership Council meeting. In this program, I’ve been learning about urban sustainability, building design, and construction safety, and this week, I was matched with three other students from around the city to create an outreach presentation about sustainability marketing. Although it was really awkward at first, we got along pretty well and created a basic timeline for the next month. We also created goals for next week’s meeting (researching and taking notes on different companies’ practices that we each wanted to present) that everyone agreed with. Good communication will be applied everywhere I go, and I will certainly sharpen my skills as I gain more experience in life.