Heroes

The discussion on “heroes” in class on Monday was really interesting to me. The book described heroes not as a spectacular person, but more of an ordinary person doing their jobs day in and day out that we often times take for granted. This thought of a hero as an ordinary person really got me thinking. With this definition, we can all be heroes to somebody. Everyone is important. If one person influences thousands of people and if another person only has an influence on one person in their whole life I think that they are equally as important. As long as someone is faithful and diligent with what they do, they should be recognized as a hero. Our culture today often times praises one person over another just because they have a bigger impact than the other, but I don’t think this is right. For example, let’s say that you tell one person about Jesus and they accept Him in their heart as their Lord and Savior, but that’s the only person you lead to Christ. Then, that one person ends up being a world changing revivalists who leads millions to Jesus and ushers in the second coming of Christ. At first thought, you would think that the second person is more important than the first. However, without the first person the second person never would have known about Jesus. This shows that not one person is more important. We should start celebrating the people who aren't necessarily at the top of the chain because we don’t know where we would be without them. 

Struggles in HS English

In high school I took two different AP English courses. My junior year I was enrolled in AP English Language and Composition and my senior year I was enrolled in AP English Literature and Composition. My experiences in these two classes turned out to be very different. I ended up passing the AP test my junior year, but not my senior year, but that was not where the differences stop. My junior year I really felt as though I had a good understanding of what was expected of me in regards to writing essays. This allowed me to put forth my best work and was even enjoyable (as enjoyable as writing an essay can be). However, my senior year things were much different. We were required to analyze poems, essays, or novels and write some sort of an analysis essay about them. Although I had developed good writing skills, they did not show up in this class. It was extremely hard for me to write an analysis essay; my brain just doesn't work that way (which is why I am a math major). I knew exactly what was expected of me, but I simply could not perform at the necessary level. This was actually really frustrating for me. I don’t feel like I was taught how to properly analyze a text and based off of that analysis write an entire essay. This reflected in my essays and ultimately on final AP score. Although this affected my AP score, I don’t think this had much of an effect on my development as a writer. I know that I can write; I just couldn't analyze properly in order to write an adequate essay. Hopefully, I won’t ever have to analyze a text and write an essay based off of that again!

My Changing Culture

This past Tuesday, I and four friends decided to pile in to my little Honda Civic and head to San Antonio to see go to a church service with a guest speaker and worship leader. The guest speaker was Corey Russell. He is one of the main pastors at IHOP (International House of Prayer) in Kansas City, MO, and I love listening to him preach. This past Christmas break I went to Kansas City to a conference and his sermons was definitely one of my favorites. Rick Pino was the worship leader and although I have never heard him lead worship, I was very excited to worship with him because I have heard great things about him. While driving the three hour drive to San Antonio I was sitting there thinking that my friends and I are a little crazy in the head. We were willing to drive six total hours, get home around three in the morning, and have to turn around and go to class the next morning, just to go to a two hour church service. This thought brought me back to how in high school I would drive three hours just to go see our football team play a game or another sporting event. When I did that I never once thought I was going crazy, but why would I think such a thought when going to worship God? It’s because our culture thinks it isn’t worth it. You can go all out and look like a crazy person for a sporting event, but if you worship and love Jesus with the same enthusiasm you are considered to be crazy. The thing is, is that it was totally worth it! God met my friends and I in a powerful way that night and I would totally do that all over again. It’s really cool that my culture is changing to where I use to drive and do crazy things for sports, but now I am doing that for Jesus and it is so much more worth it and life giving! Have you noticed little culture changes in your life since coming to college?   

Storytelling: For or Against

The past couple of weeks we have talked and reminisced upon storytelling. In class, Dr. Melzow has asked us multiple times to think of stories that our parents told us when we were younger. Each time she has asked us to do this I find myself drawing blanks. I simply can’t remember anything my parents might have told me. Upon further thinking, I really don’t think my parents told me stories or urban legends to scare me into being careful about things and for this I am extremely thankful. I personal did not enjoy reading any of the urban legends that we read in “Reading Culture” this week and I am a college student. There is no way that I would ever tell my kids some of those stories. This isn’t coming from an overprotective mindset or outlook on life, but rather was mindset that I want my kids to have pure minds and thoughts. These stories are evil and why should I bring evil into my kid’s minds? If I don’t want my kids to do something, I will simply tell them why they shouldn’t do something or go somewhere and will give them a clear vision on why I am asking them of that. Then, they will see where I am coming from and will know that I only want what is best for them. I would much rather speak truth and give reasoning than to scare someone into believing what I am saying. Do you agree with or do you think this is being a little extreme?

Manti Teo

Manti Teo went from a household favorite to a disgraced figure very quickly. Losing the Heisman trophy to Johnny Manziel and getting blown out by Alabama in the national championship game are the least of his worries right now. He has lost his own personal dignity and credibility. Reports came out that the “girlfriend” he was “dating” was actually a fake identity that Teo was tricked into believing. Some would say that Teo was involved with the whole scheme to give him a better chance of winning the Heisman. And some would even go as far as saying that Teo did all this to hide the fact that he was gay and wanted a fake girlfriend to cover it up. Either way, Teo has become a very disgraced figure on college sports.

In the culture that we live in today, the media has a lot of influence on celebrities and the image that they portray to the public. Although the media has crushed Teo’s image and not many people believe in him anymore, some people still do trust him.

I found two blogs about Teo and their opinions on the whole situation. Each blog used the rhetorical appeals of logos, pathos, and ethos to convey their opinions of Manti Teo. I found it very interesting that the blogs each ended with a paragraph showing support for not Teo and building his reputation up. This was effectively done by the use of pathos by both authors. Even I started to rethink my beliefs on Teo after reading those paragraphs. The authors really pulled at my emotions which made me question my beliefs and outlook on the whole situation. The blogs were different in the fact that one recognized what Teo did, but didn’t want to blame him. The author even sympathized for him and felt his pain. He even went as far as saying that he is a champion in his eyes. The other blog also recognized Teo as a liar and stated what he did was wrong, but then went on saying that Teo was the perfect person to attack because of his honesty and trust in other people. The author also states that the world could use some more people like Teo due to his trust in other people. Both blogs use logos to present the facts about Teo lying because they are undeniably true.

Brother Jed

With Brother Jed coming to our campus I thought it would be appropriate to post about him and the cultures of Christians here at Texas A&M. For those of you who don’t know, Brother Jed is a preacher who travels across the country visiting college campus’s to preach. However, his method of preaching is one of condemning people and not about the true love of Jesus Christ. The arrival of Brother Jed brings out many people to academic plaza (where he preaches). The majority of people there are atheists mocking Brother Jed, Christians trying to love people that might be angry or confused at what Brother Jed is saying, and random students passing by in between classes. A lot of what Brother Jed says causes controversies for Christians and really challenges them to assess what they believe. The predominant culture of Christians here at A&M is rather comfortable. People would say that the majority of students at A&M are Christian and it is easy for Christians to make friends and get through college. Brother Jed really challenges the average Christian and tests their faith. Are Christians going to step out and defend their faith? Are they going to become uncomfortable for the very faith that they are defined by? Or are they going to sit back in their comfortable culture? This Christian culture at A&M is a blessing, but can also be detrimental to one’s faith. It can allow Christians to think everyone loves Jesus and causes Christians to be stagnant in their faith. Christians here at A&M should be continually stepping out in their faith and redefine the “culture of a Christian.” That is what I would love to see. True revival will happen when all the Christians here at A&M completely fall in love with Jesus and act like His death on the cross actually means something. We don’t need a religious culture, we need people who love Jesus and that is all that matters to them.

My personal definition of culture

Culture can be a very broad topic and can have multiple definitions. I believe that culture is your way of life. It is what you do and how you do it, even down to the smallest details. Nothing should be left out when thinking about your culture or the type of culture you live in. I also believe that culture is both concrete and abstract. It is concrete because our cars, housing, clothes, food, buildings, and etc. are all part of our culture and can be touched. Parts of our culture that can't be touched (abstract) are ideas, values, beliefs, morals, and desires. Our ideas, values, beliefs, morals, and desires are all extremely important to a culture even if you can't necessarily see them or feel them (sometimes you can). Language is also an abstract part of culture. A group's language is extremely important to them. 

 A definition of culture that I found issue with is the one that stated "Culture is to know the best that has been said and thought in the world." Although I have heard and seen lots of great things in my life, I personally don't believe that I know or have heard the BEST there is. Therefore, does that mean that I don't have culture? To me, this definition is very vague and not accurate. There is a lot more to culture than knowing the best that has been and thought in the world. Also, who decides what "best" is? One person can think that one way is the best and another can think another way is best. Are we wrong if we are different? Who knows? It's up to you to decide.