Chapter 1 "Bricklayer's Boy"

I honestly think that I'm part of the white collar, but I do agree that at some point in my life I was a combination of both; the blue collar and the white collar. I was born in Mexico and moved to the United States at the age of nine. It was a really tough transition; I literally had to start from the bottom in which I consider to be part of the blue collar. At that point in my life I had a dream, a goal to reach; The American dream, which a lot of people would call it. Now that I’m in college and being the first from my family to make it this far I believe my blue collar is already fading to white. I had the opportunity to continue with my education and become someone in life. One of the biggest disadvantages from being a white collar is that everybody expects so much from you that you’re afraid to make any mistake and disappoint everybody.  

Chapter 4 "Symptoms of Math Anxiety"

The majority of students in school dislike math and prefer to not deal with it, it has been proven that many students suffer from math anxiety at a young age. Tobias mentions in his article many reasons why students experience math anxiety. Most of the time students are afraid to make mistakes in math and instead of asking for help they would sit in the back hopping for some miracle to happen. They also tend to get frustrated when they don't know the answer and won’t ask for help, afraid that they would get judge or bully by their peers. Other students believe that mathematical ability is inborn, that no matter how much hard work they put in they would always be wrong. I honestly think that math is not a hard subject and can be very easy. I was always good in math and throughout the years I always saw many students struggle with paying attention or solving math problems. I believe you just have to pay close attention and practice any math problem a couple times and you’ll be good when it comes to exams or quizzes.

Making Conections #2

Growing up as an only child for 17 years was one of the weirdest, unique experience in my life. I always got what I wanted and never had to share anything with anybody. My parents were really strict and were always on top of me; making sure that everything I did was correct. From this I was able to have a really strong connection with them. One of the biggest promises that we made and was really important to us was that no matter what, I would never lie to them. Even if it was the worst thing in the entire world I would always be 100% honest with them. Everything was perfectly fine until I lied to them. I lost their trust and it was the worst feeling ever. The fact that they told me that it was going to take them a long time for them to trust me again really made me feel like the worst daughter ever. It’s been almost a year since then and I’m still working in gaining back their trust, hoping that one day they’ll forgive me. From this experience I was able to realize that, like they said, no matter what, is always better to be 100% honest and that can help you prevent other unwanted accidents. 

Making Connections #1

At the beginning of my high school senior year I met a 15 year old boy. We became pretty good friends and somehow he thought I wanted something else than just a friendship. He said that the way I sent my text messages and talked to him made it seem like I wanted to be in a relationship in which I never thought. I found out about this three months later when he asked me out, and it was right after I told him he was really special to me and that I was glad he was part of my life. During that time I was going through rough moments in my life  and he was a really good support for me, he was always making me laugh and helped me feel better. After I told him how I felt about us and apologized for making it seem like I wanted something else he became distant with me and never talked to me again. I never thought something like this would ever happen to me, I was  always the one giving people advices when they had to deal with this type of situations and never thought I would ever need someone to talk to about something like this. I spoke with his sister and explained everything, she spoke to him about it and eventually got over it but he still never talk to me again.

Chapter 2 "Earning and Learning; Are Students Working Too Much?"

Kramer article "Earning and Learning: Are students Working Too Much?" talks about students working too much and affecting their learning. He blames colleges and aid offices for the problem that students are working too much. He believes that the raise of college tuition and the aid offices giving less and less grants to students force them to find a job; over working themselves with school work and duties. As he states "So the aid offices expect students to cover a large percentage of their budgets through earnings.."(62). From my own experiences I believe Kramer's arguments are valid. I’m only taking five classes and sometimes I feel over scheduled to a point where I forget important events. I’m currently unemployed and the fact that I took loans makes me want to get a job, which would lead me to a really stressing scheduled. Many students who have a job and attend to school don’t have time to socialize or join extracurricular activities. I believe students can become successful if they weren’t over load with school work.    

Chapter 2 "Could Your Facebook Profile Throw a Wrench in Your Future?"

I believe is very unprofessional for employers to do background checks from Facebook. Looking at someones Facebook can sometimes give you false information. We live in a generation where technology unfortunately is getting ahead of us. Making it easier for people to hack accounts, create fake profiles about people and even have total access to their social media. Anything that goes up on the internet its not always accurate, employers should keep in mind that Facebook is not a good source to grab background information about students. However students should also keep in mind that Facebook is a public site and should consider the type of information they want to share before making it public. It still doesn’t give the right for employers to go snooping in someone Facebook account. I believe Facebook and this other social media were not made for background researches for jobs, people do have lives and should be respected. “ It seems to me that people who look at sites such as Facebook in order to, in effect, spy on students are taking advantage of the internet in a way that’s not all that different from the way that sexual predators exploit” said Nancy Bauer. In which I totally agree, in this case theres no difference between a sexual predator and a employer. Both are looking for information that would somehow benefit them. Employers cant just go based off or assumed something from a picture or a comment. You need to give people a chance before judging, you never know what they can bring to your table.

Chapter 2 "We're Lying: Safe Sex and White Lies in the Time of Aids"

I do believe sex education is necessary to be taught in public schools, this would help young people make healthy decisions regarding sex throughout their lives. I feel like at this point society is very open minded and kids learn about sex at an early age. Therefore I believe sex education should be taught when students enter middle school. In my opinion they should start by learning the parts of the body and how they work, like why men have penis or why women have a vagina. Kids would get an idea of what could happen and would be interested in learning methods that would help them prevent unwanted pregnancies or from getting STD's.
In my freshman seminar class we recently had a discussion on how some public schools students were only told to not have sex at all and didn't get no type of training on how to use a condom or how to protect themselves when it came to having sex. I don't think this is the right way to prepare students to make healthy decisions in their future. Many students still don't know much about sex when they hit high school, and from what I've experience a lot of parents don't like or want their kids to learn about condoms or birth control, they think they getting persuade or somehow influence to have sex at a young age; which is why I think some kids start having kids during their high school years. Kids should learn about sex the same way they learn about math or history, it would prevent girls getting pregnant at an early age or the spread of STD's.

Chapter 2 "Universities seeing a Gender Gap in Enrollments"

We live in a society where our generation came in believing that with a college degree, came a stable job and a stable income. It has been made clear that if you don’t get good grades and attend a four-year college, the rest of your life will be a dismal failure. Unfortunately like Rodriguez states in his article “It’s a trend that continues to grow -more women are attending to college after high school, but fewer men are enrolling" I believe this is due to how students are being raise. Most of my male cousins decided to go to the marines because they thought college was meant for weak people and they need something that would prepare them not only for their future but life in general. Most of them were raise with the idea that men should be strong no matter what and should never give up I guess that's why they think college would be a waste a time for them. In other occasions students don't have the opportunity to attend to college even if they really want to due to family problems or can’t afford to attend to college. A friend of mine from high school couldn't attend to college do to his emigration status and had no financial aid help. Some students might just think they struggle too much in high school that college is not be for them or don’t want to feel stress out. These are some of the many reasons men don’t attend to college.

Chapter 2 "Drinking Deaths Draw Attention to Old Campus Problem"

I believe Sink choose to open her article the way she did to show the readers what can really happen with alcohol abuse. When I started reading the article it was kind of shocking that someone’s life can be over in less than twenty four hours and it also scares me. I know many people that went away to college and within the first week they were drinking and smocking when in High School they never took up those habits. Sometimes they even loose control over themselves and don’t remember what happened the next day.
 Mr.Lane stated "..more restrictions would not solve the problem. Its more about the individual responsibility" I personally agree with Mr. Lane, I believe students tend to do more of the things that are prohibit to do and that no matter what students would always find a way to get alcohol. Students should also keep in mind that “having control” over alcohol is a big part to consider when drinking. Schools will always try to find new ways to prevent or solve problems when it comes to alcohol abuse but sometimes the more you try the less results you would get. Colleges should keep in mind that no matter what students would find a way to drink and should consider another alternatives to communicate with students, let them know that alcohol can lead them to death. In some situations alcohol abuse is due to peer pressure, they either don’t want to feel left out or get picked on for not drinking. This is some of the situations the schools should consider more than making and using rules that obviously students will not follow.

Chapter 2, "Focusing on Friends"

When I started high school I never guessed I would finally meet the people who I now consider my true friends. I always thought a “bestfriend relationship” was base on two people but I was totally wrong. My life is now surrounded by three incredible girls who have help me, cheer me and share laughs with me for almost four years. I learned that you don’t have to be from the same race or like the same type of music to called someone a “bestfriend”. We all have different characteristics and I guess that’s one thing that makes our friendship unique. Each of us have something that help us become “one”, its like working on a group assigment, we all contribute somehow to make sure it gets done. It feels great to know that you can get along with someone whose from Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico when you’re totally the opposite and who are whilling to try new things from your Mexican side. Of course we have fights but who doesn’t? and the funniest part is that we would fight over the smallest things ever, like calling someone by their second name. Two of them are actually my roomates here in Plattsburgh(Alexa and Michelle) and no, it was noot plan to come to the same college just like it wasn’t planned to become bestfriends in high school. Sometimes as much as you want to plan your life, life always finds its way to surprise you with unexpected things that can make you happier than before. Unfortunally Daniela is not with us but luckily shes two hours away from us and shes always in contact. Im happy with the people im with and glad their in my life.