Talking with professionals through Twitter.

In my future I am interested in working in the Business Industry. I want to be in this industry because I want to open a restaurant with my sister and her roommate. We believe that if we open our own restaurant in downtown Charlotte or Charleston, we can make money and also bring awareness to our community.

Over the past few days, I have been engaging in a conversation with @DeanJones and @Brandondodd. Dean Jones is a man who trains small business professionals to succeed in their business; he is also a coach and a consultant. His short-term goal is to reach out to eleven thousand business owners in 2011. I am glad to say that I am among one of those eleven thousand business owners that he helped.  I asked him what was his advice for a college freshman pursuing a career in the business industry and he said to figure out what I like to do. For example helping people, tech stuff, ending poverty, and helping the environment.  This really got me thinking, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I know that I wanted to help end poverty, helping people, and help the environment at the same time. How will I fulfill this dream? Well after a lot of thinking I came to the conclusion of establishing a green restaurant that helps people and end poverty by giving out free food at least every month.

I also tweeted with Brandon Dodd who is a father, a youth pastor and business owner who loves people. He interjected by saying if I wanted to major in business that I should start one, which is a very good idea but I would start one when I know that I could be successful. He also asked about what type of restaurant. Overall twitter became very effective in talking to professionals that know what they are talking about.   

Thanksgiving Break :)

Oh how I love Thanksgiving!! Its one of my favorite holidays other than my birthday which is New Years day. Thanksgiving brings out the holiday spirit in people, they tend to give a lot more and care a lot more for the less unfortunate. This year my family and I decided to have Thanksgiving in Charleston, SC. My mom and I went shopping on Wednesday, the night I had arrived. We bought a small turkey,collard greens, stuffing mix, macaronis, apple pie,vegetables, bread, sparkling wine and even a small dinner for my dog! It was a long night at wal mart but we got everything we possibly needed to make that night successful.
My mom started cooking at 6 in the morning. The smell of turkey and macaroni and cheese woke me up. When I smelled this I knew it was time for thanksgiving. I got up brushed my teeth and started cooking myself. I was in charge of making rice, the stuffing, the yams,heating the bread and also making the dessert strawberry cake. I started making the rice because it was the easiest and while that was cooking I made the stuffing. I chopped up my vegetables and also my secret ingredient and I cooked it to perfection. As soon as the turkey was done, I put the strawberry cake in the oven and in two hours I was done with everything!
In our family, ever since I was little every thanksgiving we wake up cooking and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. This year we still followed our tradition watching the Rocketts and Santa finishing the parade for the coming of Christmas.
In the end, I had a very good and tasty thanksgiving. I am very thankful for the loving family that I have and I would never change them for anything better.

SGA Meetings

I was elected Senator of the Student Government Association in October. I was very nervous giving my speech that night, but with everyones support I was voted in. Every Wednesday after the Leadership Community time, we have an SGA meeting. First my committiee University and Community Relations has a meeting, where we discuss community service and how we can help our community more. In the past few months we have been trying to pass a resolution where we have recycling bins around campus. Recycling is very important, not only for our campus but also for our planet Earth. it will greatly affect our campus by making it more neater and also using our resources better. I am especially excited that we are serving brunch to the Ronald McDonald house, we will be serving 30 to 40 homeless families.This committie in the future will do great things, our goal is to help as much people as possible within our community.

After the University and Community Relations meeting, we have our official SGA meeting. All the senators sit around the table and wait for our names to be call, after this we say the Pledge of Alligiance. Then we all sit down and talk about problems that we need to fix at school. For example we discuss how the UNC college system want to increase tuition and also how we can improve our school and make it welcome to visitors and students who stay here. In the years to come I tend to stay with the SGA, they offer alot of opportunites and also if you are apart of it, you will be the first to know everything about campus. The SGA is a very good organization where you can express your feelings, get involved in school and also make a difference in your community.

Noises off!!

I attended the Noises off play with Danielle last Thursday night. I thought it was a really funny and well thought out play! I especially loved how Chase McCall one of our LLC members acted in this play. He did such a wonderful job! His character was a guy who tried to sneak in a date inside the house. He thought that he had the house to himself, but come to his surprise another couple thought they had the house to themselves to!  At first when it started, I was really confused because I had not noticed it was a play within a play, so the characters they were acting out were actually acting for another play. It’s so confusing!  The first half the characters were practicing a play that they were going to perform the next day.  It was really funny when the director was sitting in the crowd and out of nowhere he just started screaming “CUT CUT CUT!” that part especially scared me! I was not expecting that at all! I also was not expecting Chase’s character’s partner to wear lingerie. If it was up to me, I would be freaked out! But that just shows she has a lot of confidence within herself to play that role. The play had well rounded characters. My favorite character was the guy who kept getting nose bleeds because he was nervous too much. I thought his character was especially funny, when he kept falling a lot in act 3. Act 2 was definitely my favorite act because it showed what happened back stage and even though they weren’t talking, you could see their personal lives unfold.  

In the end, this play was one of the best I have seen! I had so much fun laughing and seeing the lives of these characters perform. I had one question though… what was the significance of SARDINES?!?

Periods: the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Periods are so important in a young woman’s life because it’s a sign that the young girl is growing up.  It is also important because it’s a sign that your body is getting ready to have a baby. This topic is very important to me because I couldn’t wait to get my period when I was young girl. I wanted to feel like a grown woman and also to brag to the other girls that I was more developed than they were. Getting your period can be sometimes scary to developing teenagers. You could you get pregnant if you are having have sexual intercourse. Seeing so much blood some may wonder, is it ok to lose that much blood in a matter of days?

I remember the first time our class talked about periods. I was in 5^th grade and the teachers had separated the girls from the boys. Boys had to go to another class to watch a video about the male reproductive system, while girls stayed in class to learn about the women’s reproductive system. Our teacher asked the class if we have ever had a period before, only one girl had raised her hand. She asked does anyone know what a period is, that same girl had raised her hand. She put on a video about periods and the reproductive system of a woman.  The video explained that the body of a woman is very complex because we are able to carry and support a baby; it also is a system that cleans itself out each month. Let’s learn more in the next paragraph.

                The woman’s reproductive system has a uterus, which is a hallow organ that carries the baby from beginning to birth. The Fallopian tubes, which is an organ located around the uterus. It is a curvy, hair like structure and at the end it has a hairy structure that releases the egg from the ovary. Last but not least the ovaries. Ovaries are white sacks that keep the egg warm and moist. The menstrual cycle is twenty-eight days long. It is broken up into three cycles. The first stage is fourteen days before the actual cycle begins the lining of the Uterus wall begins to thicken. This happens because Progesterone (which is a female hormone that helps regulate the menstrual cycle of a woman) causes the lining of the uterus wall to thicken in preparation of a fertilized egg (“wiki.answers.com”). When this happens the already ripened ovary releases an egg. This is called Ovulation. Being that there are two Ovaries, a different ovary is used every month. Stage two of the Menstrual Cycle, the lining of the uterus thickens even more; once the egg from the ovary is released it goes down the long white tube known as the Fallopian Tube. After it goes into the fallopian tube, the egg travels into the Uterus and waits for the egg to be fertilized. When the egg is fertilized with sperm it attaches itself to the lining of the uterus leading to pregnancy.  If fertilization doesn’t occur, hormone levels drop causing lining of the uterus to break down. With the breakdown of the lining of the Uterus, the period will happen in one to two days. On the first day of the period, the shredding of the endometrial (which is blood and tissue) begins to flow out of the vagina. Bleeding can last from two to seven days (“plannedparenthood.org”)

                Speaking of periods, I remember the first time I got mine, I was twelve years old. It was a bright sunny day outside. I got up, brushed my teeth and got ready to go to school. I wore a pink shirt with white capris. I thought I looked cute. My very first class of the day was Math. That day I had to do some math problems on the board and explain to the whole class how I got my answer. I was very nervous. I got up out of my seat and went to the board. I saw my friend tried to mouth something out to me to sit back down but I didn’t pay any mind. I turned around to write on the board when a little jerk said “Hey, she has blood on her butt!!” I turned around red as can be, looked down at my butt. It had a huge red circle on my white capris! It was a bittersweet moment for me. I was excited to get my period but also horrified that all my classmates had seen the most disgusting moment in a girl’s life. I ran out of the room crying and went straight to the bathroom. I was horrified and embarrassed, good thing my teacher ran behind me. She calmed me down and gave me her cell phone to call my mom. When my mom heard the good news she was so happy. She immediately picked me up from school and we went home only to have the talk that every teenager has…The sex talk.

                Whether it’s your first period, your 500^th period or your last period due to menopause, periods are very important to a women’s reproductive system. It determines whether you can have babies or not in the future. Every girl has that one embarrassing moment that deals with their periods, people should be informed about them because it’s a natural occurrence that happens every day to young girls everywhere.

Sacrificing for Freedom

Freedom is the feeling of being independent through physical and mental aspects of our lives. It uplifts us knowing that we live in a society of being free. The United States had not always had freedom, after slavery African-Americans had a hard time integrating with White people, which gave them a sense of not being free. Being tied down to a task for example working at a convenience store all your life and not having any known skills can also take your freedom as well.

In the story “Homeboy” By Malcolm X, he writes about the everyday struggles African-Americans have to face to be accepted in the white society. He observes African-Americans and sees that they would do anything to become white, for example “Shorty” a young black man who talks, and looks like a white man because he wants to look cool . He lets Malcolm X steps into his shoes to witness their everyday downfall that they have to endure. Although African-Americans have freedom, they are still segregated from the white people. White people have safer communities, better jobs, and also look cleaner and tidier. Black people on the other hand have dangerous communities, do not have the best housing, worthless jobs, and tend to look poor. This is the reason why black people look up to white people, they want to dress like them, and talk like them. Freedom is defined by the way the person perceives it.  “Shorty” grows up with seeing African-American celebrities dressed like a white person and also looking like one with the conked hair. These celebrities are role models to young black men like “Shorty”.

In the story “A&P”, the cashier whose name is Sammy is bound to being at the cash registers all his life. He notices girls that come into the grocery dressed like they came from the beach or the pool. These girls are very carefree; they are wearing nothing but bathing suits which is a sin of disrespect for the business, workers, and the other customers. His boss notices these girls dressed in an inappropriate way and he demands them to cover up some more or they will not be served. This is very understandable; people should dress in a respectful manner. As Sammy sees that his boss asks the girls to put on some clothes, he feels like it’s a free country; people can wear whatever they want. In a sense he wants to be like them, have their freedom to go out with friends and not have a care in the world like going to work. Every day he gets reprimanded by a customer and he doesn’t want to be treated like that anymore. Sammy gets his freedom by finally quitting his job at the grocery store, quitting his mentally enslaving job that he has worked for so long. This was a decision that will ultimately affect his life. He doesn’t have any known skills that will get him a better job with more pay, but people will do anything for freedom. They would sacrifice anything to fight for what they believe in, When Sammy quit, his boss said “you don’t want to do this to your mom and dad” when his boss said this, it mentally bound Sammy to that job, he was only working there to satisfy his parents relationship with his boss. In the end Sammy made a good decision when he quit, in the future he will probably get a better job and be more successful than he was when he worked at the “A&P Grocery Store.” 

            Ultimately freedom is the feeling of being independent through physical and mental means, but are we ultimately granted freedom in our everyday lives? Today people are bound by a lot of difficulties that do not give us freedom, whether it is being stuck at a cash register all your life or mentally bound by a cultures lack of self esteem.

My first trip in Atlanta

My boyfriend and I went to Atlanta the week before Fall Break. We went because we wanted to visit the Atlanta Aquarium and also to meet with some of his family. This was the first time we had gone on a road trip by ourselves. We had a blast! leaving from Charlotte to Atlanta, takes four hours and a half depending on traffic. We left Charlotte at around 3 o clock and didn’t get there til 7 o clock. yes it was a LONG ride, but it was worth it! Once we got there, we immediately loved the city. Atlanta has so many lights at night, it was so breath-taking. After cruising around the city, we met up with family, had dinner and went to sleep. The next day we had a local bakery’s breakfast. I had ordered something I normally wouldn’t try at home. I ordered an egg, and sausage bagel, which to my surprise was really good and tasty! After eating we went downtown to the park. It was so nice how everyone came together and played a game of chess, walked around, or played with the water statues. The breeze felt so good as we sat down and enjoyed the view. We were surrounded by the CNN building,the Aquarium, and also the Coca Cola factory. After sitting and talking for about an hour we decided to go to the Aquarium. I havent been to the aquarium since I was little so I was really excited! Atlanta’s aquarium is known for having the biggest aquarium in the south, and indeed it is! When we arrived we immediately went to the shark tanks. it was so fascinating how we went through inside a long tunnel with the sharks and fishes swimming everywhere. After taking lots of pictures, we noticed that there were scuba divers inside the tank! They were doing tricks with the sharks and doing flips under water! After the aquarium, we went more sight-seeing unfortunately the Coca Cola factory was closed but that didn’t stop us! We went to a Hibachi Restaurant named SAKE, it was the best japanese restaurant i have ever tasted! We went home and watched a movie. the next day we decided to try something new, so we went online and searched cheap restaurants online. The search gave us this restaurant, named Varsity Hotdogs. The history of this restaurant dates back 50 years ago. A young student at Georgia Tech dropped out of college, everyone loved his hotdogs so he decided to put a hot dog stand across the college. With determination not only did he succeed, but this young student made a name for himself and also foe Georgia Tech. when we came in there, staff immediately started singing songs and dancing.  It was so much fun, and there hotdogs with fries were really good! Overall we had a blast in Atlanta, and I would not mind living there once I get out of college.