kameel majeed

 "I believe in being myself. I believe that I—not any stereotype—should define who I am and what actions I take in life." Says Kamaal Majeed ,the junior from Waltham,Masschutes. A strong individual will prove everyone who doubts them wrong. A strong individual will open up immature minds to help them realize their choices they make without even arguing,fighting,debating.

    After Reading "Being Content With Myself "by Kamaal Majeed . Kamaal emphasizes, regardless what the stereotype is, if you have a dream then don't let anyone ruin your dreams. Kamaal relates back to stereotypes of being the only black student in honor classes his freshman year of high school. Here is One of Kamaal's experiences, "On my first day of high school, going into math class, two of my classmates pointed and laughed at me. I initially thought my fly was open, or that something was stuck in my teeth. But as I took my seat, I heard one of the students whisper, “Why is a black person taking Honors?” So my fly wasn’t open. An honors level class had simply been joined by a student whose skin was an unsettling shade of brown .Comes to find out that Kamaal is not your typical middle class black kid. Who likes rap and hangs out in the streets, and plays sports. Kamaal is unique. He keeps his eye on the prize and doesn't let outsiders remarks get to him.

    Some of Kamaal's ideas of stereotyping i can agree with. Besides his taste of music I was in the same boat through out high-school. I took AP and Honors classes. Come to find out I was the only black male in the class, and had that uncomfortable look on my face as if I didn't belong in that class. That feeling lowered my self-esteem and made me second guess myself. My biggest regret is letting all the negativity take a toll on me and affect me emotionally and physically. And, even though I completed the courses i started ask myself is college really for me ? am i prepared for college ? .. Now that i am older,mature, and understand the way of education it's all up to me. Forget what others opinions are if there not 100% right, then why even listen to them?  This story amazed me because i can honestly say its up to the individual on how he or her handles the obstacles of stereotypes.

My biggest stereotype in high school was the "player" role. Because i dressed nice, kids judged me about my looks and not me smarts. Winning a scholarship worth 7 thousand dollars in high school not a lot of people knew that or cared. But it just relates back to kamaal majeed comments on your peers trying to get in your business.

Colombia Otherness!

Its always good to self-evaluate yourself. When one feels like they are off path of their dreams, you have to take a step back and self-evaluate. Think of the saying you " take a step forward and get knock down two steps back". Once you self-evaluate and put things into perspective it’s like taking a step forward to where you want to be.

After watching Thandie newton Ted talk, she talks about humans self-image and self identity when it evolves and they go through trails and tribulations. She describes "oneness". Having oneness is having the ability to acknowledge your self-image. Your mistakes, your goals , and anything else that you can critique your self-identity. Thandie Newton understands that embracing your own talents only helps you in the long run; rather than being a follower or trying to be something that you're not. In her talk from  paragraph three she describes her self image. " The self that i attempted to take out into the world was rejected over and over again... the self was not constant". For example, flashing back to when Thandie Newton was young and how she went about without losing her self-confidence.She says in paragraph 5, "Without it, we literally can't interface with others. We can't hatch plansand climb that stairway of popularity, of success. But my skin color wasn't right. My hair wasn't right.My history wasn't right. My self became defined by otherness, which meant that, in that social world, I didn't really exist". She simply gives you the idea how her state of mind kept changing because her peers opinions.

Relating back to newton comments. I agree with her idea of finding your self-image . I can understand when I am young or don't really know how to put my dreams into perspective, times can get rough. I think that's where Thandie Newton trying to get at, having the audience actually put their dreams into perspective regardless of outsiders thoughts,and opinions. Embracing otherness means to me, embracing good and bad self-criticism. On the other hand, embracing myself is giving myself a chance to actually be unique. What i mean is giving myself credit for something good and telling myself when i am doing bad. Even though i can’t see myself in public i can always run back to the mirror.

One key to success is embracing otherness and learning from your mistakes. It would be really helpful if you can make self-evaluating a habit of yours. On the days where you have no motivation or grit just imagine the bigger picture. I would hope that people (including myself) understand what was the past and how you can change it. We do have a whole lifetime to make a difference and be unique.

Drive!

People that talk about their dreams are the same ones that are satisfied or not trying to better themselves. It kills me, because all over community college the kids drop out after they have received financial aid. When we try to self-direct ourselves the only problem we have is criticism by our peers. All i know is having ambition, separates the rich from the poor.

After listening and reading PINKS speech, he believes if all humans have the ability to self direct their dreams we will create a better lifetime for ourselves. He express his beliefs with doing a IQ experiment with students from MIT in Massachusetts to students in London. further on, the results came back shocking that the smart ones did poor work for a high sum compared to the slow ambitious who took a pay cut. Now looking at his closing paragraph he says,"I think the science shows that we care about mastery very, very deeply, and the science shows that we want to be self-directed." Then supports his claim with examples like Steve jobs who was a intelligent man and wanted to be self-directed with his mastered craft. And with that Steve jobs shocked the world and i am pretty sure himself as well. Pinks goes in depth with his experiment and his results, but to sum it up, when humans become satisfied with life they lose drive and time.

So how do i feel about it? pinks opinion is agreeable . Like going back to the experiment, the less fortunate ones have more ideas and output to say than a person with intelligence who has tunnel vision. When i say tunnel vision i mean a person that is ignorant and sassy and rude. Someone that is already satisfied with life and living comfortable. Now regarding pinks comments on the three factors one should inherit; i 100% agree with him. Pinks quote:" it turns out there are three factors that the science shows lead to the better performance, not to mention personal satisfaction: autonomy, mastery and purpose". Basically to sum all three skills i would label them under ambition. A person with ambition and not afraid to take a loss or not afraid to look for solutions the right way, can self-direct themselves to success. It can be as easy as getting tutored, applying for jobs, investing your money. I feel autonomy or ability to self-direct your actions just tells a lot about your character. Some people are satisfied with being average. Me on the other hand, I believe if i inherit some type of autonomy it would be a turbo boost for my success.

When does your IQ reflect a person's determination to be successful? Yeah i don't know the answer to that either. But i do know, that if you're determined to be successful, then your handwork and efforts will reflect regardless of your IQ. Everyone was created differently but all have the same ideas. If you can self-direct your own life without losing motivation, you will emerge and mature and you will become successful.

Should I Write The Paper

                                       

I remember in high school, every time we got a hard English assignment I either procrastinated or didn't even try. When i did try the ideas i came up with were not even close to the topic i was suppose to write about. A lot of the times when sitting down trying to write an essay; it gets rough because you have so much technology now and free time to do the assignment later.

Regarding the comic sketch. The artist claims, when writers have a good idea or even a hard topic they lose focus. Not only do they lose focus but then procrastination kicks in and the writer loses all self-motivation to get the assignment done. Which causes us (humans) to find something better to do than write a paper. The artist, kind of makes this image like a before and after comic. First you see the writer trying to gather her ideas and actually do the big assignment. Then on the right side you see where the procrastination kicks in and the writers ideas so far are no where near the topic of the assignment. Maybe that's the process of what procrastinating looks like?

Its funny, I totally agree with the comic. Basically this is the process of procrastination that everyone goes through when actually trying to write a good essay. It never fails when you have a five hundred point essay due and you can only think of things that lose your focus. The typical person always gives up when all they can think about is food or simply anything that affects them socially. Like i said before , In high school , I waited till the last day to start my senior exhibition. Luckily I knew what I wanted to do. But the point is, if I would of just started at the beginning of second semester i wouldn't have to stress about it with all my other big assignments. With this comic,i can connect to it like as if i was having a conversation with my cousin. I am the type to start something in class but when i get home i put the assignment to the side and procrastinate.That's ashamed i know...

A goal of mine is to do “More Actions and Less Talking”. When it comes to big assignments i tell myself “lets do it, get it over with early, so you wont have to worry about it”. Once i finish it early i can go back to my free time and do whatever i was doing. Developing a new habit of just doing it will make reading and writing come easy to me! But of course, losing the habit of procrastinating. not a lot of people can make a transition from a bad habit to a good one..Although, they're not a lot of people either that can self-evaluate and make a change.

Life is bigger than just school!!

How is it possible that in life we problem solve more than in school? Now,feel me out on this! See, my uncle needed a ride home from the auto shop. I ended up giving him a ride and sacrifice being late to school to take care of my family. All i am saying is I'm the type of person that puts family over school friends,sports..

So with that short story. The artist gives the idea, humans worry about bigger things that they use in everyday life rather than just school. The artist's image is straight to the point. Making a Venn- diagram to express his beliefs, the author uses the two traits problem solving and memorization to express his opinion about average humans. The only reason for that is when an individual tries to even out their options they become stressed or just give up.

I understand how the author came up with his belief on life and school. But, I wish he would of been more specific about life. Because in life every human has their own hobbies,work,sport, etc. Which makes them unique as an individual. If the author would of compared sports and school, the percentages would be the same. When doing a sport you memorize your game plan and you don't really problem solve you just fire back! As for school you memorize ,your notes for all of your test and presentations. Now compare life we problem solve because we have to and its to broad to compare! When families have no food, they problem solve. When your car breaks down, you problem solve. When you don't have a way home, you problem solve. I feel the author took a element of life which was school and tried to figure out how much time and effort he puts into it.

Why do we problem solve more in life ? I know in school i work better problem solving than memorizing specific key ideas. its always good to self-evaluate yourself and figure make sure you are not stressing yourself out. Even though at times you feel you put all your time into one element of life, doesn't compare to the realistic things in life such as:family,friends
,money,power. In school you will have to memorize a lot but if you compare a different element to life i bet like football. You don't have to memorize as much as problem solve .