Julia Song, Period 8, 5/27/22

Julia Song, Period 8, 5/31/22

A goal that I have for myself right now is to enjoy senior year as much as I can and to have fun

with my friends before we go off to college. Also, another one of my goals is to be grateful for

every single day I wake up and am healthy. One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to journal

everyday, and I have been. I use this app called 1sec where I film a 1 second clip everyday and

write about it. Looking back at all of my memories makes me understand just how much fun and

activities a 24 hour period can be filled with. In a blink of an eye, this school year has passed by

so quickly and I am currently typing my last blog for this class while being quarantined after

testing positive for Covid. Getting Covid made me realize just how many events I missed and

things I could be doing instead of sitting on a couch, that also happens to be my bed, soaking in

my own germs. It made me really sad when I had to miss my last Multicultural show after

practicing a dance with my club members since way back in September. I watched the videos

that my friends took the day of the show and saw all the empty spaces in the dance where I was

supposed to be and felt awful. My mother and sister also bought tickets but didn’t end up going

so that my mother could take care of me. I also missed out on my friend Harry’s birthday party

that I was looking forward to so much. I resolved that once I test negative for Covid I am going

to treat every single day as if it's the last and live life to the fullest. I have to look on the bright

side and think of all the events that I won’t miss: Olivia’s birthday, Sofia’s birthday, prom,

graduation, and all the other future events coming my way!

Veronica Royzen Period 7 05/26/2022

Goal Setting & Growth

At this current point in time, what specific goal(s) do you have for yourself? Why? How do you demonstrate resilience towards achieving this goal? (or these goals?) How does the world around you affect your perception of this goal? (or these goals?)

March 29:

Now that the whole college process is finished and everyone knows what they will do in the next chapter of their life, I started to think about what I wanted to achieve in life. It certainly doesn’t help that I feel like I’m at a weird place in my life where my old life is ending, a new one is starting, yet, at the same time, nothing seems to feel right. My whole life has flipped upside down, and I wonder how everything will affect me the next day, week, month, year, and so on. 

The first goal that seems closest to me is to graduate high school and move into my dorm at the college I’ve committed to. High school ends in three months, and college starts in five months. I can’t say that I’m ready for any of it because I’m so used to the life I’ve had for the past 18 years. I tell myself to continue waking up every day because my fear of the future won’t stop it from appearing at my doorstep. My fear will just lock me in a cage, and it will hurt me and keep me from experiencing new things. It may seem like I have it all figured out or that I’m not scared. In truth, I'm terrified. 

May 30:

    Over the past couple of months, my life progressed so quickly that I felt like I didn't have enough time to process everything. A PSA I submitted to a national competition with a friend was runner-up for animated effects, and I was shocked. With this PSA, my friend was in charge of planning it out and filming it while I was responsible for editing it. To see that my skills were recognized on a national level made me believe in myself more by pursuing media production as a minor. I still don’t know if I will keep mechanical engineering as a major, but I do know that I have a plan to fall back on. 

    My first goal is still to graduate high school and move into the dorms at Northeastern, but I’m not as terrified as before. The fear is still there, but I have many things to look forward to in the summer before I start college. I was able to get a job at a movie theater opening up near the school. The commute becomes easier after school because I have to just walk to the plaza where the theater is. I was also able to pay for a ticket with my best friend to visit Hawaii for a bit over a week in July as a senior trip.

    Currently, I don’t have many goals that stand out to me. The only one I can think of is being able to try out and be accepted into the equestrian team at Northeastern. I have been in the sport for seven years, and I have competed for two and a half years, so I hope my experience will help me join the team. The equestrian team is good at Northeastern, and they compete with other schools in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association, otherwise known as the IHSA. If the pandemic didn’t occur, I probably wouldn’t have taken a break from horseback riding, but college allows me to return to the sport I love and enjoy. The future is arriving sooner than anyone thought, but I've learned not to rush things, enjoy what I have now, and continue working towards my goals

William Olsen, Period 7, 5/25

 

• Socio-political Consciousness

• What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

• How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

Now more than ever in the wake of the most recent tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, my thoughts are filled with my frustration with our system. The leaders that we elect continue to fail us over and over again, on both sides of the political spectrum. Most of our leaders are fueled by greed, whether that greed is for power, money, or both. They pander their campaigns to target the vulnerabilities of voters, and take orders from the corporations and lobbyists that give them insane sums of money. The vast majority of Americans support universal background checks for purchasing weapons, the most basic form of gun control, including 83 percent of gun owners, and 72 percent of all NRA members (Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics). And yet, buying a gun in states such as Texas is still as easy as ever, in some cases gun shows may not even ask for identification. This is because the NRA continues to back politicians such as Mitt Romney, who has received over 13 million dollars from the NRA over his political career. So as the cycle has repeated itself once again with media outcry, meaningless condolences from our elected officials, and no changes being made, my pessimism continues. It is very heart-wrenching to say but I have no doubt that this exact cycle will repeat again, and no meaningful change will happen once again. It seems to me like the only way change will occur is from the people, but I can’t feel anything but powerless under our current system.

So now I reflect and think to myself how can change happen? How can change happen if the people we elect to make a change and represent us only care about their own interests? And as much as I think about it, I cannot come up with an answer. I think back to the BLM protests and riots a couple of years ago. That was an unprecedented amount of public outcry and joint protest against a corrupt system, and after all that, did much change really happen? If we organized again to that level would it make a difference? At this point, it might be our only option. Besides school shootings, mass shootings in general are also extremely prevalent. The N train shooting that occurred about a month and a half ago was especially shocking because it was since I take the subway all the time and it was so close. Probably around two weeks after the shooting occurred I was going to a Yankees game, and I took the train at 36th street, which is where the shooting took place. The entire time I was on the train I was so paranoid something bad was going to happen. Reflecting on it now, it is terrible that we all have to live in fear of getting shot at any moment doing our daily routines and just simply living our lives. Something needs to change, and we all need to work together to fight for that change

Ashley Ng, Period 8, 5/13/22

Modern Mythology 2022

Ashley Ng

Period 8

5/13/22

In class, the topic of moral relativism was discussed in detail because of the reading we did the night before. World War Z explores the different aspects of humanity that rise to the forefront in the event of a zombie apocalypse. And the chapter we read in particular focused on Breck Scott, who produced a placebo vaccine for rabies. He’s responsible for the deaths of many due to purposeful misinterpretation, corruption, and self-service. However, in his interview, I do agree that in the event of a zombie apocalypse, people should’ve done their research. The tricky part is that while emotionally, my head says Breck Scott is a villain, he technically hasn’t done anything wrong and I can’t fault him for bettering himself in a situation where people had a lot to lose. 

Again, we reviewed how ethics refers to the law while morality has to do with personal values. To summarize my earlier statement about Breck Scott, from an ethics standpoint, Breck Scott isn’t in the wrong, but from a moral standpoint, he’s wrong for taking advantage of so many and leading many to their deaths. In times of upheaval, there’s often the adjustment of morals. Moral relativism brings up the question of how much can someone justify in the name of the greater good. 

In many hypothetical situations, such as the cable car example, “The Grove” episode from The Walking Dead, or even going back in time to kill someone who will cause massive harm, it’s about taking action to stop a perceived eventuality. But there’s no way of knowing the future for sure. How proactive should a person be? Or rather, how reactive should they be? It’s about justification and the amount of justification needed differs from person to person. Going with the “going back in history” example, how would you react if you travel back in time, knowing the person in front of you will kill millions? How would you react if you were a bystander that the time traveler told? What if you were the said person? Then it’s about the credibility of the source.

One person brought up that if they’re the time traveler, then they have established history on their side. They would know for a fact that the other person would go on to cause the deaths of millions, citing Adolf Hitler as an example. The role of the bystander or the person themselves was never brought up. Documented history is the same as a word-of-mouth prophecy about the future to the bystander or outsider. Anyone who isn’t a time traveler is considered an outsider. They’re lacking information, or at the very least, the complete picture due to completely different experiences. It reminds me of the occurrence of self-fulfilling prophecies, often as a result of incomplete information. The three types of people in the situation are free to act on their own, with different levels of understanding. Most of the time, they work to avoid the end that was prophesized. This can set forth a complex chain of actions and then end in the same result. At the very least, this is my interpretation of self-fulfilling prophecies in Greek mythology.

This discussion brought up how important and different information, interpretation, and justification can be for people. What’s considered fact for one person can be something else for another person. In the end, it’s important to consider how different types of people will react to the information presented to them.

Julissa Liang, Period 8, 5/9/22

JULISSA LIANG

PERIOD 8

BLOG #4

5/9/22

Many issues are gradually arising during this vulnerable time - especially with the increase of gun violence along with mothers and families who cannot feed their babies due to a nationwide shortage of formula. Coincidentally, there is a risk for all women in losing substantive control over their own bodies. It would be nearly impossible to tackle these issues without maintaining the level of urgency for change in a brief blog post. However, I do see a noticeable similarity between all of these issues of inequity and overall imbalance of societal power. We, as Americans, continue to seek action - demanding for focus on safety, liberty, and change. Regardless of our voices being shown through many forms of media and protest, there has not been any significant change. It leaves us hopeless and most of all, powerless - even though we are told repeatedly that our voice is power.

As a student, co-worker, daughter, granddaughter, sister, and simply a child, I feel vulnerable. Why am I tense, when I enter the doors of a subway station? Why do I have receipts piling up of Ubers I’ve taken in the past few months? Why do I carry pepper spray? Why do I coordinate a second outfit for when it’s nighttime? As I’ve grown older, I’ve only become more aware of the insanities of the world; I miss being the oblivious child that I once was. How many more lives will be sacrificed before we can finally feel secure in our own homes, schools, churches, subways, and buses? 

Going back to our lesson on “Interview with a Vampire,” it really shows the imbalance of power prevalent in our society. Those who have a distinct higher power will always maintain authority because so many people are oblivious to the power struggle, and most of all, so many people fear change. 

Shengrui Shao, Period 1, 5/23/22

 Modern Mythology 2022

*RUMBLE* The sound of rumbling thunder echoed through the small village. 

It was a dark and dreary night. The massive downpour of rain beat down on the ramshackled village huts. The dark angry rainclouds hung overhead, blocking the light from the moon. *RUMBLE*

The thunderstorm showed no signs of relenting, its fierce, powerful rain and gales tearing at this humble village. The cobbled path through the village was devoid of stragglers and the houses: devoid of activity. That is, all except one. One small house, smaller than all the rest, at the outskirts of the village, a light shone through the tiny window, a bright yellow light, the only sign of activity in this cold, dead night.

And in this tiny shack, a miracle was about to occur…

“Hold on, my dear! Hold on!” A deep voice called. “Don’t give up! Don’t give up!!”

The room inside the hut was small, cramped. Pots and pans lined the wall to the left of the doorway, over a small blackened stovetop. On the right of the door was a cabinet, and on top of the cabinet, a small candle flickered dangerously, ready to extinguish at a moment's notice. Directly opposite the entrance was the bed, a hard, wooden bench with a thin blanket strewn to the side. A man was kneeling on the side of the bed, huddling over a figure lying on the bed.

“Ahh!” The woman screamed in pain, her voice jagged, her breathing uneven. “H-how much longer? Geralt…”

The man gripped her hands tightly. “Yes? What is it? What is it, honey?”

“G-geralt….” The woman squeezed out in between breaths. “I-if I don’t make it… Ah! If I don’t make it… Promise me… P-promise me!”

“Promise you what dear? I’ll promise you anything! You’ll be okay! Just push! Push please!” Geralt hysterically yelled.

“P-promise you’ll take care of him.” She muttered before leaning her head back in pain. “Ahh! I feel it, he’s coming! He’s coming! Geralt! Promise me!”

“I promise! I promise!” Geralt wrapped his hands around the woman’s, gripping onto them hard. He stared at her skinny frame, shaking with every contraction. His eyes widened as he saw a head begin to emerge. “Dear, push! Push! You’re almost there! You’re almost there!”

The woman screamed in pain. Her mind was solely focused on one task, making sure her son was born into the world. Her mind was blank, and the lightning hot flashes of pain were brighter in her vision than any of the lightning striking down outside the hut. She pushed, using every ounce of strength she had left in her, pushing herself to the very limit of her being, until she heard a cry.

“Waaah!” The sound of a baby wailing could be heard against the backdrop of the rainfall.

It was this wail that finally allowed the woman to relax. She opened her eyes, looking at her dear husband. Clutched within his hands, wrapped in a thin blanket, was a tiny, tiny baby.

She lifted her arm, as if to touch her child. However, before lifting it far, her arm fell, hitting the bed with a dull thud. She couldn’t move her arms. She had no feeling in her limbs. She could slowly feel herself drifting off. However, she knew she couldn’t yet.

“Geralt…” She muttered, her voice barely over a whisper now.

The husband quickly responded, his entire body trembling. “Dear, y-you did it! You actually did it! It’s actually a boy too! It’s actually a boy!”

“Geralt–Remember what you promised… Hope–his name.” She whispered.

Geralt nodded before inching closer to his wife. “Look dear! Look at him. This is our child–our child!!”

Their eyes met and without even saying anything, a silent message was passed. Geralt felt a cold chill spread throughout his body. His voice trembled as he whispered. “N-no…”

With the last bit of her strength, she looked deeply into his eyes, the eyes of the man whom she loved with all her heart. If only… If only she was able to stay with him. If only she could raise their child together. Oh, how her heart craved for this, how deeply she ached knowing her child would grow up without a mother. She longed to be able to live for longer. Just a year, two years longer! But no. This was it for her. Staring straight into the eyes of her beloved, her heart told more words than her mouth could speak. With the last of her strength, she curled her lips into a melancholic smile.

‘Grow up, son. Grow up to become big and strong. You’ll carry on my dreams! You’ll be a good man and live a good life! All the things that mother wasn’t able to try in this life, you can try them for me. You’ll be the kindling that grows into a burning fire, one that will fill the entire world with your warmth! Your mother is sorry she can’t be with you. Your mother is sorry… Please, Hope. Forgive me. Forgive me for not being able to be there for you…’

Five Years Later…

“Father? I’m home!” A bright young voice calls. Pushing open the door of the small hut on the edge of the village, the young child is greeted by the sight of bottles. Bottles littered the floor, emptied, broken, and in disarray. Laying slumped over on the bed was a man. In his right hand was a large bottle of wine, and his head was hung low. His appearance was disheveled, beard untrimmed, hands dirty.

Seeing his father slumped over on the bed, the child pauses. Slowly, he bends down, picking up the bottles one by one in his tiny hands. One by one, he stacks them in the corner of the hut. He bent down, picking up the broken shards of glass.

“Ow!” The child yelped before biting his tongue. He glanced over at his sleeping father anxiously, only breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that his father was still sound asleep. Glancing at his finger, he saw a streak of red. Sucking at the cut, he carried on with his task.

After cleaning up the floor, he walked over to his father, slowly prying the bottle out of his hands. Setting it on the floor, the young boy sat down in the corner of the room before opening up a book that laid to the side. There he sat, quietly reading.

An unknown amount of time later, the man on the bed stirred. He shook his head, allowing his messy, long hair to scatter all around his face. Looking around the room, he saw the bottles of wine stacked neatly in the corner, the swept up shards of glass, and the little boy reading a book in the opposite corner.

Slowly, he sat up, causing the bed to creak under his weight. The boy looked up. “Father! I cleaned up th-”

Suddenly, the boy felt a searing pain on his head as he felt himself collapse against the floor. Looking up, his heart shudders in fear as he sees his father leering over him. 

“Where’s the bottle?” The man roars.

The child was confused. “B-bottle? What bottle?”

“The wine! The wine bottle!” The man shouts loudly. The man balls his fists, raising them into the air. The child cowers, raising his tiny arms to protect his head.

Before the man could hit the child again, a voice shouts. “Geralt! What are you doing? Don’t touch Hope!”

A woman rushes into the hut, putting herself between the father and son. “Are you insane? Is this how Anne would have wanted you to treat her son?”

“Anne? Don’t mention Anne to me!” Geralt roars. “If it wasn’t for this demon! This child!” He points toward Hope. “If it wasn’t for him! Anne would still– Anne… would still be here…”

Geralt trembles, his voice cracking as his emotions overwhelmed him. “It’s all his fault! It’s all his fault!”

“Do you have any idea how wrong you are? Do you know what an exceptional child your son is? He beat a bunch of kids 5 years older than him in a spelling bee at the local school! He’s such a kind, wonderful young boy!”

Geralt shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t! Anne will never come back! No matter how great Hope is!”

The woman shook her head before looking at Hope. “Hope, you can come live with Aunty if you want. Aunty will take care of you.”

Five Years Later…

A sickly cough echoes through the small rundown hut. On the bed lay a young ten year old boy. His hair was unkempt, the clothes on his body were ragged, his complexion was pale, and all over his body were bruises that were black and purple.

“Father…” The young boy muttered.

At his bedside sat a weather worn man. His features were  austere, hardened with wrinkles and black marks. His uncut hair was slicked back in a ponytail, out of his way. His hands were rough and calloused, yet at this time, they held onto the hands of the young boy lying in the bed. 

“Hope… Hope! I’m sorry. Father is sorry.” The man gripped onto his son’s hand tightly. “It’s all my fault. Oh, why did I drink? Why did I drown out the pain with alcohol? How could I hit my own son?”

“Cough, cough.” Hope’s phlegm filled cough tore at the heart of the father. “I… Father, maybe this is for the best.”

“If I was never born… If I never existed… Then…” Hope’s voice was fading, gradually getting softer. “Then, would mother still be alive?”

“No! No! Your mother’s death wasn’t your fault! I shouldn’t have said that–I shouldn’t have blamed it on you. Anne dying was an accident… It was just an accident that had nothing to do with you.” The father shouted maniacally. “Please, Hope, hang on. Father will get a doctor! Father will find you a doctor! No matter what I have to do, I’ll make sure you live!”

Hope smiled, his young childish face lifted into a beaming smile. He looked right at his father. “Father? Was I a good son?”

Slowly, the father shook his head. “N-no… Don’t leave me. What will I do? Who will I have left?”

The father’s eyes were going red from regret. Why didn’t he take care of his son? Why was he so blinded by the death of his wife? What happened to his promise? Didn’t he promise? Why? Why??

“Take care of yourself, father… Hope is going to go to sleep for a little…” With a lifeless thud, Hope’s hand hit the worn wood bed.

The father stared blankly, with a singular thought running through his head. “I killed my son. I killed my son. I killed my son. I killed my son. I killed my son. I killed my son. I killed my son. I killed my son. I killed my son!”

He jolted up, digging his dirty nails into his head. “He’s dead! He’s dead! My own son, dead by my hands! Anne! Oh, Anne! What have I done! Ten years after you died on this very bed, I killed my son, who now lies where your body once laid!”

His right hand balls into a fist, punching himself atop his skull. “The child I helped you deliver into this world! The child I witnessed birth with my own two eyes! I killed him! I witnessed his first breath and his last! And yet, those were the only breaths I cared about! Everything in between! I didn’t– I didn’t care!”

His eyes darted around the room furiously before spotting something in the edge of his vision. He stumbled toward it, fumbling as his two hands gripped the object.

“H-Hope… Don’t be afraid. Daddy is sorry. Daddy is so sorry. I’ll repay you. For everything I couldn’t give you. Just wait for me.” He raises the object to his neck.

“Wait for m–” His words were cut off by a fresh streak of red, splashing against the brown walls of the hut.

*Clang* As the knife hit the floor, a lifeless body fell too, hitting the cold surface of the hut with a dull thud.

Geralt stared at the hard wood bed, his eyes filled with the cruel note of despair. “Wait… For me…”

Ryan Sliger, Period 8, 5/26/22

 Ryan Sliger 

5/26/22

One goal I have for myself right now, is to lose weight before starting college.  During the last 5 months the baseball season has been really difficult in trying to maintain weight, and I often found my weight constantly increasing.  Now that the baseball season is over I can work towards losing that weight again and eventually be ready for college where I plan to work out every day.  One reason I have for this goal is to ease myself into my college transition.  While I do plan to start working out alot more in college, I will hopefully not have to diet, and manage school work at the same time.  Trying to lose weight over the summer proves to be the best way to deal with both issues.

One way I will show resilience is mentally.  While trying to lose weight it is normal to experience cravings and one way to avoid them is by building up mental strength and showing resilience. This resilience will also help prepare me for college because balancing the gym with school work will be a struggle. I also demonstrate resilience by constantly working out.  This shows the dedication I have towards my goals.

The world around me I think is helping me achieve my goals.  After watching various tik toks and talking to different people who constantly go to the gym, everyone seems welcoming and ready to help.  I eventually want to be someone in that  community who is helping others get better in the lifting community.  I also think that social media has helped me conceptualize a physique that I would be proud of and set an end goal for myself.  Overall I think the world around me is very helpful in achieving my goals.

Connor Murphy, Period 7, 5/20/22

 Currently in class we’re reading the book ‘World War Z’ and it’s probably my favorite of the books we’ve read so far. What makes it so good in my eyes is the world it builds around you while you're imagining the scenario. After learning about how the book is a collection of stories from throughout the war I was immediately interested in what actually happened throughout the war and after. Ironically this kinda means I would’ve rather heard the UN report they mentioned at the beginning of the book but this doesn’t take away from the stories themselves. Currently my favorite of the stories I’ve read so far has to be that of the Admiral Zheng He nuclear submarine. I think this story really encapsulates my favorite parts of the book all in one. It has the human experience pinned down with the emotions amongst the crew and how they did their best to put those aside to do what would be best. It also shows the development of human history through the war, with mass exodus to the oceans, the formation of the Holy Russian Empire from the military revolt, and ending it off with being the direct cause of the Federation victory in the Chinese Civil War. This specifically has taught me about the resilience of humans. Of course it's something I’ve always been aware of, with the common analogy being that the Human race are like cockroaches where even world ending events wouldn’t be able to wipe us out. However in this book they go a little bit further, we often hear about the apocalypse as humanity being pushed to its brink with populations declining rapidly and only portions of humans tattered across the globe. In ‘World War Z’ we see a humanity that is defeated at first but eventually comes back from destruction, it truly is a ‘war’ following in the footsteps of the second world war. The Axis had near complete domination over Europe and was pushing east with the goal of completely destroying the Soviets and the populace of Europe. In any isolated scenario this would seem as a near total defeat, with the Western allies pushed to sea and nearly repelled from Egypt and the Soviets falling back well beyond their borders. However both sides never gave up, it would have been easy for the British to give up after the loss of France, the Germans even offered peace, but they didn’t. The Soviets could have given up when German boots marched through Ukraine and the Baltics up to the gates of Leningrad, but they didn’t. When the Japanese attacked pearl harbor they did it in hopes that the US wouldn’t be able to retaliate against them, demoralized from their defeat, but it only brought the American people into the war full force against the Rising Sun. Not to mention that Japan’s other campaign in China had seen resistance throughout the decade, causing the Chinese Civil War to stop so both sides could focus against the Japanese threat to what they called home. We see this reflected World War Z, humanity is pushed back and it gets bad, almost defeated by an enemy they were not prepared for, but through it all they did not give up. Defenses are put up, plans are made, and eventually the world is able to recover to a point that's stable enough to call a victory. This concept doesn’t really apply to other classes, but it shows us why the world turns. Humanity is determined, it doesn’t back down easily, it doesn’t give up when it gets hard, and often it fights to the last man and nothing before it. People everyday do what they think is right because they believe it has to be done, there are only two options: give in or keep trying. And for humans, if surrendering and fighting til the end come to the same conclusion, then at least they can say they stuck true to their values, their people, and their war because if someone is going to take that from them, then they’ll have to do it by force.

Nicholas Sirota, Period 1, 5/26/2022

What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?                       

problem with systems of inequity and oppression, including authoritarian governments, is that not only are those systems immoral, it is ultimately ineffective. Systems of authoritarianism often fail to view people as intellectual individuals, and only determine people based on their outside traits. In today’s society, successful governments last as a result of a mutual connection between individuals and government leaders. On the contrary, oppressive systems of government do not rely on collaboration but rather subordination. Instead of maintaining a connection with individuals, oppressive systems of government isolate groups of people based on their differences and fail to have them become educated so that they do not recognize the immorality of those systems’ actions. The reason why authoritarian governments do not last is that eventually, these individuals will become educated. Education is a powerful tool because it creates unity among the oppressed individuals through a shared idea, which is why historically many oppressed groups of people, including the American colonies and the Haitian slaves, have successfully rebelled against oppressive regimes.

How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

As I mentioned earlier, I believe that education is a powerful tool and can be used to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues, including inequity and oppression, by creating collaboration among individuals. In order to solve oppression, educating others about the problems of oppression is always the first step. Looking back, one of the aspects of the Modern Mythology course that has really surprised me was the large extent of how the stories we read connected to the real world. From the story of Juleidah and her struggles with a patriarchal society to Grendel and his struggles with isolation from human society, many of the stories we read in class dwelled on issues of oppression as well. Just like in real world trends, oppression failed to work in these stories, as Juleidah ended up rebelling and Grendel was made into a monster that caused terror towards Hrothgar’s people. These stories have a huge influence on our society, and they will help us be better prepared to tackle real life issues of oppression through the lessons these stories teach

Rayhan Mohammed, Period 7, 5/19/2022

 Rayhan Mohammed, Period 7, 5/25/2022

• Socio-political Consciousness

• What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

• How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

Recently, there have been events that have made me feel pessimistic, and I don’t know whether or not that is warranted or if my thought process is simply misguided. One of these events is gun violence like the mass shooting that has just occured in Texas. Normally, it is paramount in the aftermath of any tragedy to find out what could have been done to prevent the tragedy from occurring and how similar events can be prevented in the future, but I don’t know if that is actually going to happen at all. Shootings are part of the news cycle at this point, and that’s just sickening to think about. For the people who don’t want gun control no amount of violence is going to change their mind. The debate over guns is a debate of power, power that will not be easily relinquished. I don’t know what positive change is likely to happen. 

This feeling of pessimism has made me reflect on how I feel about the world at large. I don’t want to feel so terrible about everything. I’ve found in my own day-to-day life that my own personal outlook can influence how I feel about my day, and that the more I see the good, the better I feel. But is there any good to see in this situation? I feel fairly confident in my day-to-day life that I am able to maintain a positive attitude while addressing the challenges that I encounter and getting help when I need it. In my bubble, there are obviously ups and downs, but I think I can accept everything as it happens. But I don’t know if I should maintain that optimism about the world at large. After all, I believe that I have a large influence on what happens in my own life, as opposed to merely existing as a passenger in the grander scheme of things. Furthermore, I feel like being so optimistic about the world would be overlooking what I see with my eyes. In this situation, by looking at how many past mass shootings have happened and how they simply keep happening again and again, I don’t know if America is actually going to have a positive movement in terms of advancing gun control, and in fact they might even go in the other direction. Sometimes I think that being optimistic would be morally wrong in some way. My mind tells me, how can you see the events from Wednesday, and have hope for anything? Often I think that I have no reason to feel hopeful. On the other hand, I feel that pessimism isn’t productive, and that I gain nothing from it. I don’t feel as though there is anyone who benefits by me being that pessimistic, whether it's myself or the people around me. Therein lies my conflict: Either I am pessimistic and the world makes me miserable, or I am optimistic and I don’t know if that is an agreeable position for me. 

What I do know is that I can go back to my life after I worry about these things, and that everyone and everything that brings me joy in my everyday life is still intact, and right now there are children and families for whom nothing will ever be the same. I don’t know how I would deal with that. I couldn’t.

Gary Shteyman, Period 8, 5/25/22

Gary Shteyman 

5/25/22

 Why The Sopranos should be taught in Modern Mythology.

The Sopranos was a drama that aired on HBO from 1999-2007. In the show, the titular Tony Soprano balances his life as the head of the New Jersey Italian mafia, with his life as a father and husband. Prior to watching the show, I had actually known very little about it; my first exposure to The Sopranos was when my band teacher told the class that he would have a cameo in the prequel movie, The Many Saints of Newark, released in 2021 (having now seen the movie, it is with great dismay that I report that he does not, in fact, have a cameo, and it got cut from the final film). At its core, the show is about one man, Tony Soprano, and how his internal beliefs and traumas interact with his external world. The show is not afraid to shy away from Tony's malicious and sociopathic tendencies, as well as his more heroic qualities, which is why I believe this show is a foundational piece of visual storytelling for the 21st century.

One of the first scenes of The Sopranos, and the scene that hooked me onto the show, shows Tony Soprano having a conversation with his therapist. This is not a one-time-occurence, either; the majority of the episodes in the show show at least one conversation between these two characters. Through the show, we get several glimpses into how Tony's relationships and childhood affect his present-day actions, a vast departure from the stone-faced, resolute mob bosses we see in other pieces of media (Godfather, Scarface, etc.). We get to see how Tony takes the lessons he learned in childhood, from a ruthlessly cold mother and absent mafioso father, and translates them into his own selfishness and cruelty. For example, Tony Soprano is famous for his brutal temper, as well as his frequent infidelity. His father also exhibited both of these traits; one of Tony's foundational memories is watching his father chop a man's finger off, and Tony had to cover for his father's mistresses on several occasions. While his behavior is not excused by this Freudian interpretation, the fact that the show spends so much time analyzing the main character, making Tony more of an antihero than a likable protagonist, is what makes it so special.

One of the main staples of modern stories and pop culture, our modern "mythology", is the idea of the anti hero. In the modern era, society has essentially rejected the concept of a perfect superhero. Long gone is the Cold-War era hope that a man from space will come down and save all of us, that one person can stand for all that is good and hopeful in the world. For a wide variety of reasons, including political and social unrest, easily accessible information about what's wrong with the world, and growing distrust between communities, the antihero has become the protagonist that society has become attracted to. In Tony Soprano, we see ourselves. We can imagine living his life, growing up in the streets of Newark before moving to suburban New Jersey, having to combat depression, anxiety, and paranoia. We judge him for his faults and feel disgust and rage at his actions, but in the back of our minds, we realize that what is on screen is a perfect reflection of humanity. We are not perfectly rational beings, we feel anger and the desire to inflict pain, just as Tony Soprano does. His actions helped inspire us to seek out more of these reflections, in the forms of Walter White, Bojack Horseman, Daenerys Targaryen, or even modern Superman. Because of Tony Soprano going to see his therapist every week for years, the American population was shown the power of the antihero, establishing a craze that lasts to this day.

Jackalin Shvidky, Period 1, 5/25/2022

Goal Setting & Growth

At this current point in time, what specific goal(s) do you have for yourself? Why

How do you demonstrate resilience towards achieving this goal? (or these goals?)

How does the world around you affect your perception of this goal? (or these goals?)

 

For as long as I can recall, I remember my family sitting at the dinner table reminiscing about the life they left behind. Their memories are bitter-sweet. It was not easy to be a Jew in a country with a deep history of antisemitism. Hiding was not an option in the former Soviet Union, where nationality was listed on passports and birth certificates. The United States was seen as a safe haven and land of opportunity.

          My parents hoped for me to never experience the hate and discrimination that they lived through, and I have been fortunate enough not to see it on a large scale until recently. Over the last few years, antisemitism has peaked, as social media pages became flooded with microaggressions and outright racism. Hate stems from misinformation and fear, with advancements in technology making the spread easier and faster than ever before.

I wish I could erase all the hate and fix the world, but that is not possible. Yesterday I was clever… I thought I alone could pick the world up and turn it upside down. Soon I realized I can’t magically change every persons’ opinion and put humanity back at ease. Change takes time, persistence, and lots of work. I had to start with myself.

I cannot change the world, but I can start by learning more about the issue and educating those around me.

One particular instance that opened my eyes to the lack of knowledge and education about antisemitism was a simple discussion in my sophomore year World History course. We were studying World War II and my teacher turned down the lights to play a video about the Holocaust; by the end of the class period, many of my classmates seemed shocked at what they just watched. I was confused. My own grandfather is a Holocaust survivor, and, quite frankly, I had assumed everyone knew of the horrors that had occurred. Apparently not. After class, my best friend, who attended a Catholic middle school, confided in me that this was the first time she had seen this side of events. I was honestly taken aback and appalled. This event is what made me eager to spread the severely lacking knowledge and awareness about Jewish identity, starting with those around me.

I had been a member of the Jewish Club since my freshman year, but after this incident, I started taking a much more active role. I wanted to do everything in my power to draw more attention to the issues, which I faced firsthand. My first steps were to learn more myself so that I could provide accurate information to those around me. I started educating myself by attending seminars and listening to influential speakers who would in turn show me how to effectively influence others. I eventually became the secretary of the Jewish Club, as my passion for awareness only grew.

By starting to change me, I began molding those around me. I alone can not change the world, but if enough people better themselves, the world will change. There are issues we know nothing about because they do not affect us personally, which is why awareness and self-growth are so important in promoting positive change.

Sonia Lyakhovich, Period 1, 3/15/22

 Socio-political Consciousness

• What are your thoughts and feelings about issues of inequity, oppression, and/or power?

• How do you reflect critically on your own beliefs, assumptions, values, and experiences, and how these can influence your perception of self and others?

During a Seder dinner, we celebrate the freedom of the Jewish people from slavery in ancient Egypt. Some old or disabled community members, however, have trouble leaving the house to buy matzah, the unleavened bread, for the Seder plate.

In my Russian-Jewish neighborhood, the Jewish Community House brought us together for Mitzvah Day, a community service event, where we pack boxes with grape juice and matzah the homebound need to celebrate Passover. As we deliver the packages, we listen to  “babushka’s” stories. They were not given equal access to jobs and education because it said “Jew” on their Russian passports. To succeed in their society, they had to work much harder than a non-Jew.

I have also heard these stories of antisemitism many times from my family, but every story tells me about another hardship. My grandmother was sent miles away from her home to escape World War II bombings. A professor failed my mom because she looked Jewish, and she hid in a synagogue to avoid expulsion from her university. At first, I was shocked to hear that people did not speak out against these acts of antisemitism, because that would have been my first thought, but then I realized that it was not possible to do so without being arrested. Jews did not have supportive friends.

Hearing these stories around Passover is especially important as we celebrate our freedom. While I am grateful to know my history and perform a mitzvah, I am reminded how Black communities in America have to fight for equity and justice. It has not only helped me listen to stories of African American hardships and prejudice in society, but learn how I can amplify their voices and be an ally. As I deliver matzah, I know there is more to unpack.

Alan Shnir, Pd 1, 5/23/2022

What makes a society run? What holds people united under a “nation” or common “culture”? What makes some groups thrive and others decline? These are the questions that determine which nations will continue in the generations to come and which ones will decay into the ink of history books. 

As explored in a previous blog, 50,000 years ago, humans went through a Cognitive Revolution. This is when humans first started to display the attributes of what we call culture. A homo sapien in Anatolia would bury his dead and speak a different language from his brethren in East Asia. Back in these ancient times, customs would differ between every single family, and every clan. In a world of only 1 million people, there were likely tens of thousands of “cultures”. Yet today, in a world of almost 8 billion humans, there are only around 4000 cultures. How did we get to this point? Thousands of times more humans than our ancestors yet a magnitude less in different cultures.

To put it bluntly, survival of the fittest, or in this case, survival of the tribe. Most of human history can be described as survival in one of two forms. First was when one tribe was able to create sharper spears than their neighbors, which caused the former to thrive and the latter to die. Second was when one person in a tribe had more desirable practices, causing his descendants to outnumber those of others in the tribe, which caused those practices to be the ones to prosper in the future.

And so, it is through these two driving forces that human culture and civilization has been able to consolidate over the past 10,000 years since the creation of agriculture. We saw these principles in place with farming, as farmers could have supported more children than Hunter gatherers. Sure, farming people were on average shorter, less fit, and less healthy than their hunting counterparts, however, there were just more farmers. As the generations went by, the farming numbers advantage allowed farmers to create cities and for people to specialize. This meant more people freed up to create stronger, sharper spears and arrows, and more people to field those tools. And with the bigger armies and better technology, the farmers drove the Hunter gatherers out of existence. This was one of the first of many great steps that consolidated cultures. Farming also created cities, and when people live close together, their ideas spread faster, and as a by-product, customs between people in the same city become more similar. From families and tribes, customs consolidated into kingdoms and cities. Then, you had the creation of religions and gods.

These transcended the borders of cities, and spread between peoples hundreds of miles apart. Religion did not always mean gods, but a common belief in either a system of values, or the power of a monarch. This is when we saw the world's first “nations” as we know them. From the Egyptians, Babylonians, to the Qin, customs had now spread past the city walls. Since then, much has of course changed. Religion has morphed into a belief that’s spread beyond just the borders of a single nation. Instead, one of the current dynamics we have today is nationalism, or a belief in the common struggles of a people in a nation. Whether the struggle for Liberty among Americans or of republic for the French. This is the fabric by which most modern successful nations function.

It is through this context that the modern cultures we know today were created. And with these principles, we can see why some people developed the way they did. In America and much of the West, individualism was one of the founding principles of societies. America was colonized by people who were attempting to build new lives in their own individual vision, hence why individualism became our nation’s founding principle. In contrast to this, in East Asia, the society is based around collectivism. In these ancient cultures, rice farming was one of the most important activities to the people who created East Asian culture. Rice farming is extremely labor intensive and requires significant cooperation between groups. Ancient farming groups that had better cohesion were able to out produce neighboring groups that might have been more individualistic. In addition to this, rice farming also yields significantly more calories per acre, which is why East Asian and South Asian nations have such large populations. In comparison, Wheat farming is not as labor intensive as rice farming and can be done without too much cohesion between groups. This is why Europe and much of the Middle East developed into dozens of fragmented nations and kingdoms instead of ever consolidating into one major nation the same way East  Asia did. Also, the lower productivity of wheat farming is why Europe has had such a small population for the majority of history when compared to Asian nations, further explaining the differences in social functions.

These cultural and social differences are exactly what Max Brooks explores in “World War Z”. America’s individualistic nature is what caused it to crumble at first in a zombie apocalypse, due to lack of social trust in a common response. However, the individualistic nature also meant that many pockets of people were well prepared to fight off zombies because of the same lack of trust in a strong government response. Individualism also meant that there was a large variety of ideas that could’ve been used in order to fix the pandemic, and why the US was able to eventually survive the zombies in some form. In China, the extreme trust in government and large population is exactly what caused the country to crumble so quickly as well. Too much trust in an incompetent government response meant that people did not focus too much on their own survival. A large population is also what caused the undead to be able to draw on much larger forces than in other nations.

This pattern was very constant in the exploration of what nations crumbled during the zombie onslaught. However, then Brooks dives into the countries that managed to survive the “apocalypse”. In South Africa, a nation marred by a history of division and separation, a plan of division and sacrifice was exactly what worked and helped the country survive. In Cuba, decades of isolationism and strict government rule is what allowed the nation to emerge from the collapse of the world order as a superpower. In Israel, a nation very well known for scientific discoveries, an early government response to the undead was what allowed for the nation to also survive. And so, the story goes on, as Brooks explores how different societies fought different wars with the zombies.

However, there is one important thing I wish to point out in the writing of this novel. This book was written in 2006, when the world was still coming out of a Cold War order. Today, the world is different, especially due to the advent of social media, and cell technology (as well as some additional experience with battling pandemics). These are all technologies where we are just starting to see how they affect our societies. Nations are different and through Max Brooks’s novel we can see those differences.