Can Beauty Be Constructed?

       Aimee Mullins, featured on My 12 Pairs of Legs Ted Talk, proves that beauty can be constructed through how Aimee lives her life. Aimee Mullins is a model, American athlete and fashion designer. She lived her whole life standing on prosthetic legs but that did not stop her at all from growing up to be a beauty woman and accomplishing her goals. She did not let her disabilities hinder her in her life. Aimee used her constructed prosthetic legs to assist herself in her athletics, academic studies and ultimately attaining beauty. This shows that even though she is disabled she did not let it affect her in being the funny, kindhearted, attractive and intelligent woman she is today. This can be a lesson for anyone who may feel that they are not beautiful or that they could use some improvement. If they feel that way then they should go ahead and construct their own unique beauty. If one puts in the rigorous effort and hard work towards their goals then they will be rewarded with a positive outcome.

            Beauty can be constructed in the sense that we as humans can help ourselves attain beauty and construct it for ourselves. An example of this in my life where I wanted to construct my own beauty was when I was a freshman in high school. I always wanted to be a varsity wrestler for my school team and I looked up to those who were seniors in my high school who wrestled. After much effort and work I put into each practice I grew to become a better wrestler. Finally after years of effort I achieved what I always wanted from freshman year, a better body, a strength increase and the title of varsity wrestler. Staying consistent with the positive qualities we show towards others such as kindness and support can be beneficial to constructing beauty.

Aimee Mullins: My 12 pairs of legs

http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics?language=en

Final Revision, Essay 1

The Importance of Identity

            From a young age we define our identities and if someone was to make an attempt at taking a piece of our identity away we should fight back no matter what. Gloria Anzaldua did exactly this when scolded by her Catholic teachers at school for actively professing her identity. Gloria was punished for speaking her native language, Spanish. “If you want to be American, speak ‘American.’” That is what the teacher said to Gloria. The only effect this had on her was to provide inspiration for her to be proud of her nationality. I disagree with the rational of the Catholic teachers because even though she may be living in the United States she doesn’t only have to speak English. Millions of people live in the United States and they do not all speak only English. Therefore you do not only need to speak English to be American, so there was no reason for Anzaldua’s reprimanding. For Gloria, her identity relates to her Spanish language because it is uniquely and entirely part of her personal life, as well as Spanish Culture. Therefore, Anzaldua fights back and does not stop speaking her home language whether it be at home, with her friends, family, or at school. This piece is a chapter of Anzaldua’s book, “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza,” which depicts Anzaldua’s life at a young age and follows through adulthood. It also explains how her identity remained with her and how she applied it to everyday life. She understands that America is a melting pot of different identities which adds to the American culture. Everyone in the world has a different identity no matter where they are located on the globe.

An identity is not simply just a language; it consists of much more. An identity can be made up of multiple features such as language, morals, personality, nationality, family, friend’s, culture and education. Identity is how one goes about their life. For example, Anzaldua identifies Spanish as her primary language. She speaks it at home with her family and at school with her friends. Anzaldua also writes in her book not in just English, but in Spanish as well. Gloria writes about her personality as, “Stubborn, persevering, impenetrable as stone, yet possessing a malleability that renders us unbreakable…” (Anzaldua). This is significant because it states how her personality is strong minded and persevering. She did not back down when faced with the being sent to the corner of the classroom by her teachers at school. Her experiences as a child shaped her identity. After she was told she was not American she was strengthened. Anzaldua then applied the lessons she learned from that incident and matured. This shows how identity is important as ones strong beliefs in their identity can help someone grow and mature to be a resilient individual.

Identity consists of education and environment. Education can be part of someone’s identity because if one is not well educated they may speak with slang using improper grammar or sentence structure. Education is also how one obtains a job in the future, so if one isn’t properly educated they will not have a decent high paying job. Identity is made up of family life as well because one may look up to one or more family members such as a mother or a father. A family tragedy also can also change a person but it also can strengthen them too such as a child who lost a father and they must now take care of their mother. Having an identity is important since it affects someone in every aspect of their life.

We should all remember that identity is important because your identity is who you are as a person. That is why even though Anzaldua might have been living in America she did not have to speak ‘American’ just to be considered an American. Your identity is how others see you and how you will be remembered. We should stand up for ourselves if someone is trying to bring us down and not let them negatively affect how we truly  are as a person. Anzaldua’s identity is her Spanish language and the Hispanic culture surrounding her. Our identities may be made up of many parts but as a whole that is who we are as an individual. No one should be judged for being professing their individualism for that is what makes up their identity.

Can Beauty Be Honest?

        The definition of beauty is to have a combination of qualities such as shape, color, or form which all please the aesthetic senses, especially the sight. If beauty is based off of sight then can beauty truly be honest? Anyone can change the way they look in this day and age with the use of Photoshop to edit photographs of themselves. Makeup can change the way ones skin looks. Even surgeries are preformed to permanently change their bodies. Beauty should not be based solely off of sight since visuals can be deceiving. People have to prove the beautiful qualities they have such as a smile, a laugh, kindness, compassion and caring. Anyone can undergo a surgery to look different and possibly more “beautiful” on the inside, but they could be an ugly person on the inside.

I believe that beauty is not only based off of sight alone but ones true beauty is made up of positive qualities someone has. Negative qualities can take away from ones beauty such as bad makeup or hair which are visually seen but also a terrible personality and a spoiled lifestyle take away from beauty. Cameron Russell, a Victoria Secret model, was interviewed on Ted Talks and she gave her opinion of beauty and if it is honest or not. Cameron says that one’s image is superficial and that surgery can change your image. She says that some people win the “genetic lottery” and just have more beauty than others or at least what society’s norm for beauty is. That norm is a tall, skinny and Caucasian woman and she fit the part very well but she doesn't let her modeling career take over her life. Cameron Russell’s definition of beauty is that beauty is constructed or man made and that it is fake. I agree with that as anyone can change their outward appearance but what really matters in the end is what is on the inside.

Cameron Russell: Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model

http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_russell_looks_aren_t_everything_believe_me_i_m_a_model?language=en

Final Revision, Essay 2

The Boulder Run Issue

I drive back home from a long week at school looking forward to seeing my friends from my hometown at the main shopping center in Wyckoff, Boulder Run. As I am rolling by I am yelled and cursed at by some 8^th graders just for driving past them and I was very surprised by their disrespectful behavior. They also were hassling the people who were coming in and out of stores and just all were being annoyances. I continued driving and went behind the shopping center to look for better parking and what I witnessed shocked and confused me. With my own eyes I saw kids who looked no more than 6^th grade smoking marijuana and drinking from a brown paper bag. After seeing this at Boulder Run I just went home and decided to hang out later.

While I was driving home from Boulder Run I reflected on what I just saw. I thought to myself that something needs to be done to resolve the problems my town has. What should be done to get rid of the problems? I believe there should be more police patrols at the shopping center to demoralize those young gangsters and let them know that they have a higher chance of being caught. There are already patrols in the area to prevent normal problems such as drug dealing and theft as it is a shopping center. Also what should be implemented into the Wyckoff shopping center are more security cameras behind Boulder Run that will be linked to nearby security to investigate exactly what those kids are up to.        

I remember how Boulder Run once was when I was a freshman and a sophomore in high school. Boulder Run has changed so much that now it looks like as if it was a completely different place. I would always go from my bus stop to Boulder Run with my best friends to get some food or look for jobs to make some quick cash.  I always loved walking from my home to Boulder in the spring and summer too because it was a nice walk. The warm sun felt good on my skin and I would see many of my friends on the walk on my way there. Slowly over time I noticed a change in Boulder and just how it feels to be around there. Most of all my old friends started to not show up as they used to do and younger kids started showing up and were obnoxious from the get-go. They displayed this to the community by vandalizing property by breaking windows and the kids were also being too loud. As I was graduating not many teenagers my age went to Boulder as we all had vehicles and many more responsibilities such as jobs and sports. The middle school kids started to take over since no one other than older shoppers populated Boulder Run at this point. The kids followed in the footsteps of how the teenagers acted by smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol except they started very early. Business owners are complaining at how the kids are acting outside their shops but the cops haven’t seemed to have done much about that.

I can compare this drastic change in my community to Valerie Kinloch’s research project titled, “Harlem, Art and Literacy and Documenting ‘Harlem is Art’ / ‘Harlem as Art.’”   Kinloch writes that, “How did the youth view ‘Harlem as art’ in relation to the influx of newness in the community?” (Kinloch) She continued writing that, “Their dismay led them to view newness as negative…” (Kinloch). The newness in my community is the younger generations not walking in the steps as the older and much more respectful generations. I am in dismay at how my town is becoming now that all the seniors have gone off to college and that no one is repopulating Boulder Run. The only thing that is all over Boulder Run is the smell of marijuana smoke, vandalized property and litter. The crime rate is increasing and the fact that the younger generations are taking up terrible habits is not helping out the situation. This intoxication and growing thug mentality explains their bad attitudes and always acting up to the older generations like they are tough or trying to prove themselves.

            The police in Wyckoff are very tough and are always there to help out the younger generations with any issues they may have and will not be overly aggressive towards underage issues. My friend’s father is a cop in the area and he tells me that patrol cars are always in and out of the shopping parking lot just to make sure everything is safe and sound in Wyckoff. Every once and awhile they will catch a drug deal or give a driving related ticket. Security cameras are also around the entire premises and inside many of the stores such as Marshalls and Stop and Shop. This is precautionary to make sure that no illegal activities will occur and also that if any theft and anything else occurs that the perpetrator will be apprehended. More cameras should be put up behind the shopping centers as many illegal activities occur behind there which I can say I have seen from firsthand experience.  At this point in time I believe that the patrol cars should pass through Boulder more frequently. If a kid has to be detained due to their folly then so be it. This will teach them a lesson and that they should correct what they did wrong. The police force should be notified of the underaged problems that were slowly arising. This would give the Wyckoff Police more of a clue as to what the main problems are in the area which is marijuana smoking and under-aged drinking and obnoxious behavior. If the police know in detail what the problems are and where they occur then it will be much easier to fix the issue.

The future depends on the up and coming generations as they will take over all the jobs that the older generations are leaving for them once they retire. If we want a good future for ourselves and our children then we should solve the issues that we have occurring in the present. This is why the marijuana smoking, alcohol drinking and verbal profanity should be squashed among the middle school kids in my town. Boulder Run and Wyckoff itself can become a much better community with the implementation of frequent patrols by police cars. The security cameras behind the shopping centers as well as tips to the police about the illegal activities that the minors are participating in will also aid in the removal of the young crime.

 Khaleeq, a man from Harlem that Kinloch interviewed compares how an area can change for better or worse depending on what the generations have done to assist. Khaleeq says while interviewed that, “They were never here when I was growing up. They were too afraid to come to Harlem, and at night! Never would've happened.” While Harlem changed from worse to better Wyckoff, on the other hand, is going to better to worse and it is up to the community to cause a change and remove the corrupt thoughts from the generation’s minds.

Problem In Community

The Boulder Run Issue

                        I drive back home from a long week at school looking forward to seeing my friends form my hometown at the main shopping center in Wyckoff, Boulder Run. As I am rolling by I am yelled and cursed at by some 8^th graders just for driving past them and I was very surprised by their disrespectful behavior. They also were hassling the people who were coming in and out of stores and just all were being annoyances. I continued driving and went behind the shopping center to look for better parking and what I witnessed shocked and confused me. With my own eyes I saw kids who looked no more than 6^th grade that are smoking marijuana and drinking from a brown paper bag. The area wreaked of beer and marijuana smoke and I had, had enough. At this point In time I just went home and decided to hit up my friends later to hang out with. While I was driving home I thought to myself that something needs to be done to end the problems I just saw. The underage drinking is bad enough but the fact that they were so young really upset me. Smoking marijuana is illegal and should never be done unless needed for medicinal purposes and I highly doubt that those kids all had medical marijuana cards. The disrespectful behavior that those kids have towards their superiors is not necessary and their something that should be implemented to stop all that. What I believe that should be done is have more police patrols at the shopping center to demoralize those young gangsters and let them know that they have a higher chance of being caught. There are already patrols in the area to prevent normal problems such as drug dealing and theft as it is a shopping center. Also what should be implemented into the Wyckoff shopping center are more security cameras behind Boulder Run that will be linked to nearby security to investigate exactly what those kids are up to.

            The police in Wyckoff are very tough and are always there to help out the younger generations with any issues they may have and will not be overly aggressive towards underage issues. Patrols cars are always in and out of the shopping parking lot just to make sure everything is safe and sound in Wyckoff. Every once and awhile they will catch a drug deal or give a driving related ticket. Security cameras are also around the entire premises and inside many of the stores such as Marshalls and Stop and Shop. This is precautionary to make sure that no illegal activities will occur and also that if any theft and anything else occurs that the perpetrator will be apprehended. More cameras should be put up behind the shopping centers as many illegal activities occur behind their which I can say I have seen from first hand experience.  At this point in time I believe that the patrol cars should pass through Boulder more frequently. If a kid has to be detained due to their folly then so be it this will teach them a lesson and that they should correct what they did wrong. The police force should be notified of the underaged problems that were slowly arising. This would give the Wyckoff Police more of a clue as to what the main problems is in the area which is marijuana smoking and underaged drinking and obnoxious behavior. If the police know in detail what the problems are and where they occur then it will be much easier to rectify the issue.

I remember how Boulder Run once was when I was a freshman and a sophomore in high school, it was almost like a completely different place. I would always go from my bus stop to Boulder Run with my best friends to get some food or look for jobs to make some quick cash.  I always loved walking from my home to Boulder in the spring and summer too because it was a nice walk and I would see many of my friends on the way there. Slowly over time I noticed a change in Boulder and just how it feels to be around there. Most of all my old friends started to not show up as they used to do and younger kids started showing up and were obnoxious from the get-go. As I was graduating not many teenagers my age went to Boulder as we all had vehicles and many more responsibilities such as jobs and sports. The middle school kids started to take over since no one other than older shoppers populated Boulder Run at this point. The kids followed in the footsteps of how the teenagers acted by smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol except they started very early. I can compare this drastic change in my community to Valerie Kinloch’s research project titled, “Harlem, Art and Literacy and Documenting ‘Harlem is Art’ / ‘Harlem as Art.’”   Kinloch writes that, “How did the youth view ‘Harlem as art’ in relation to the influx of newness in the community?” She continued writing that, “Their dismay led them to view ness as negative…”  The newness in my community is the younger generations not walking in the steps as the older and much more respectful generations. I am in dismay at how my town is becoming now that all the seniors have gone off to college and that no one is repopulating Boulder Run. The crime rate is increasing and the fact that the younger generations are taking up terrible habits is not helping out the situation. This intoxication and growing thug mentality explains their bad attitudes and always acting up to the older generations like they are tough or trying to prove themselves.

The future depends on the up and coming generations as they will take over all the jobs that the older generations are leaving for them once they retire. If we want a good future for ourselves and our children then we should solve and issues that we have occurring today. This is why the marijuana smoking, alcohol drinking and verbal profanity should be squashed amongst the Middle School kids in my town. Boulder Run and Wyckoff itself can become a much better community with the implementation of frequent patrols by police cars. The security cameras behind the shopping centers as well as tips to the police about the illegal activities that the minors are commence will also aid in the removal of the young crime. Khaleeq, a man from Harlem that Kinloch interviewed compares how an area can change for better or worse depending on what the generations have done to assist. Khaleeq says while interviewed that, “They were never here when I was growing up. They were too afraid to come to Harlem, and at night! Never would’ve happened.” While Harlem changed from worse to better Wyckoff, on the other hand, is going to better to worse and it is up to the community to cause a change and remove the corrupt thoughts from the generation’s minds.

My Favorite Place

I personally enjoy spending most of my time inside of my lively, fully packed, moderately sized dorm room. A regular student spends time in their dorm only to do homework, watch some television, play on the internet and have a few friends over. My dorm room is not the average room. This changed ever since my 4^th roommate Mike brought in a 60 inch TV. Let me explain in further detail why I have a total of 4 people living in this dorm. I live in the I-wing at Fairleigh Dickinson University which were all originally offices. It is a single floor and houses about 18 students. Some rooms in the I-wing house two students but in my case my room, “I9” houses up to four. Now one may think that is a very crowded room but after entering the main room there is a door that leads to my side which houses myself and my roommate PJ. As we are small in number we got to know each other very well and learned to communicate well and make new friends quickly. Now back to why my dorm is even more unique then the fact that it has two rooms and has a gigantic television. On the second night of college I and my roommates threw a 40 person freshman gathering inside our rooms. We had a FIFA tournament in the main room and a water pong tournament on my side. This spread the word of I-wing being a party spot for the freshman class and more specifically the room I9, later becoming the rooms I9 and I12. The spread of word by mouth caused my room to become very popular and many people still come around I-wing looking for a good time. I hear rumors of, “I-Wing banging parties,” by people who I haven’t even met before. This also gave myself, PJ, my other roommates BMAC and Mike a lot of publicity amongst the freshman class as well. In reality my day consists of waking up, showering, cleaning my side and their side of the dorm and going to class. Nothing out of the ordinary but people love to hype things up which is understandable, the I-Wing community are all awesome people. Although most of the random people are no longer present as much in the I-Wing my room still has a lot of attention drawn to it. Which is understandable…it has a 60 inch TV in the main room! All day and night people from the I-Wing and friends of those people come in and out of my room to watch TV shows such as Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy and playing FIFA. I’m not really interested in video games but it is pretty cool to watch on that big screen. Also my side of the room contains the huge speakers so music is nearly constantly playing and for a matter of fact it is playing while I am writing this paper. I learned to deal with the noise and the amount of people in my room and I enjoy the company as well it reminds me of home and how open my house is for all my friends to come through. That is why my dorm I9 is my favorite place at the moment, it reminds me of home and I enjoy all of the people who come through here.