Author: Julia Menendez

Final Reflections

Julia Menendez

Over the course of the last 15 weeks, I feel like I’ve learned so much more than I could have imagined. I started off the semester not feeling excited about poetry (that was a tough way to start the year) to actually enjoying it. Where I feel I haven’t changed too much is in my feelings of writing papers. While I have come to look forward to writing my weekly blog post, I still struggle a bit with writing at length. I appreciated the most from this class was the overlap of diving deep into real world theories in works of art. Before this semester, every english class I’ve taken only focused on the story rather than the bigger picture and I hope I take those skills with me into my next classes and into my life.

I’m not sure if these count as pieces to be proud of for the semester, but my blog posts were by far favorite assignments to complete. Since our class is remote and I haven’t had a chance to connect with other students, the only way to learn about one another was through the blog posts. While online classes give us the flexibility to work jobs and was a saving grace during quarantine to study towards a degree at home, sometimes it gets lonely and is hard to feel motivated. The blog posts gave me the sense of community that I felt like I was missing. If I had to pick one blog post as my favorite, it would have to be the one on Desiree’s Baby. I enjoyed the story so much that I went to write my research essay on it.

My greatest difficulty this semester was definitely my essay writing. I have never been a gifted writer and have always dreaded writing papers. I never feel like I have enough to say and that they always come out really short even though I feel like I’ve said everything to say. I’m not a super creative person so I feel that sometimes that plays into my inability to expand on different topics. This is always been a weakness of mine so I do think that I ended up putting it off, out of sheer embarrassment but I will never get better without practice so even though it was a tough task for me, I think I improved, even if it was just a little bit.

Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better semester or a better professor. It can be difficult to grasp concepts through online classes but I always felt accomplished and challenged when it came to this course, our weekly meetings were a highlight of my week. If I had to do it over again, I don’t think I would change anything or want any part of the curriculum to change. All the excerpts that we studied were very well written and I loved each of them. I’m very grateful for this experience.

Happy Endings

Julia Menendez

I chose to analyze “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood. I was immediately drawn in by the title because I am a sucker for a happy ending. I love rom coms and sappy books and anything that might fall into a “happy ending” category. Then I read the story. I absolutely loved every part of it because it felt like real life. That saying “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get” so, so true.

Margaret Atwood makes the argument that how and why things happen are more important that what actually happens. This frame of thinking reminds me of another saying I grew up with “it is about the journey, not the destination”. People sometimes focus so much on the next goal, the next week, the next year and don’t take the time to really enjoy all the little moments that bring you to that goal or make up that week or year. We get so wrapped up in life that we end up forgetting to live.

Marriage Proposal

Julia Menendez

Marriage proposals are such a tricky thing to discuss, I could go on all day. Being from the South, people tend to get married very early in life (late teens to early twenties) so I’ve already seen an array of marriage proposals with my peers. Also, because it is the South, things tend to lean towards more traditions like asking the father, like we saw in Chekov’s play. Not to mention the pressure that social media has added to these events. I sometimes cannot believe my eyes when I see the over the top extravaganza that has been arranged. When I moved to New York City, it was an entirely new world. While there were still those assumed gender roles in most proposals, it felt a lot more like the two people in the relationship were equals with women proposing to their boyfriends. I was shocked seeing so many more sentimental proposals than showy ones as well. Of course, this is all from my own personal experience but I think that people are (very) slowly moving towards more progressive proposals but I always think there will be at least a glimmer of the seemingly outdated proposal rules.

How Important Is Mindfulness to Your Daily Life?

Julia Menendez

At the beginning of the pandemic, for the first time in my life, I started feeling a constant sense of being overwhelmed and anxious, much like the rest of the world. I turned to long walks with my siblings and playing with my new puppy, but that only helped so much. On social media one day, I saw someone preaching how beneficial meditating has become in their life and challenged others to try it out. I downloaded an app and started small with three to five minute meditations every day and sometimes at night to fall asleep and it made the world of difference to me.

Beyond meditation, I’ve started to implement mindfulness in my life as well to “stop and smell the roses” so they say. I’ve started to take my time in doing things rather than rushing through. I realized that I was moving so fast through life that I would have a hard time remembering certain events or just everyday. Discovering different techniques to help with these over the past two years has really been my saving grace with my sanity.

Chopin

Julia Menendez

Kate Chopin being a white woman whose family had slaves during this time period but being bold enough to acknowledge the issues of race, is very interesting to me. She is clearly much more progressively thinking than other people. However, Chopin is discussing race issues from the perspective of someone who has never personally experienced that ridicule. Because of this, she isn’t able to completely and fully comprehend what the African-American population was experiencing in their every day lives while being slaves and what that really meant for Armand to discover he was of mixed race. Despite her lacking those hardships for herself, I really do appreciate the story she wrote and her bringing attention, to hopefully her community who may be in favor of racism, with these issues. I think that everyone should use their voice to advocate against racial inequalities despite your own racial background.

Armand

Julia Menendez

The end of this story truly stunned me, as I’m sure it also stunned Armand. Considering that Desiree and the baby are long gone by the time he realizes the huge mistake that he has been made, I’m not sure that there is anything for Armand to do besides go down a rabbit hole of self-loathing and questioning his identity. If I was a fly on the wall to observe how Armand would react in that moment, I imagine him falling to his knees, screaming and crying, totally hysterical in the fact that he gave up both his wife and child for a “curse” that really came from his family. I also imagine that would never share this information with anyone else, scared that someone would treat him the way he treated his own wife.

Feminism in Ichiyo

Julia Menendez

Given that “The Thirteenth Night” was written in the late 1800’s, it was completely different what was expected of women. They were meant to be the homemakers, take care of the children and make sure their husband was happy. However, Higuchi Ichiyo’s life did not consist of that protocol exactly. After her father’s death, her life was devoted to taking care of her mother and sister. In my opinion, I think that Ichiyo based Oseki on her own struggle. She could’ve left her mother and sister hung out to dry, but what would be the alternative for her life? Being unhappy in a horrible marriage? I believe that Ichiyo felt stuck in her life but realized that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, especially for a women during this time period.

Marxism in The Thirteenth Night

Julia Menendez

Leading up to her run in with Roku, Oseki has questioned every aspect of her life and was willing to give up the lavish lifestyle that was provided to her by her husband because she was unhappy. Oseki’s father helped her come to the conclusion that everyone and every marriage has issues, basically telling her it is better to be miserable in her mansion than miserable on the streets. Once Oseki started talking with Roku and realized how worse off her life could be, I felt that she had a bit more of an appreciation for her life despite it’s issues. Their meeting also reiterated what her father was trying to instill in her about not feeling so alone in her depressive state.

Isamu and Roku are more similar than what meets the eye. Despite their difference in social classes, they have the same viewpoint of their families and wives in which they don’t really care for. Roku’s wife left him because her husband was making her unhappy, the same thing that Oseki was leaving Isamu for. However, because of Isamu’s social status and wealth, Oseki’s father convinced her to stay with him for the greater good of the family. I guarantee that if Isamu was lacking in those departments, her father would’ve never given her that advice.

Government

Julia Menendez

“The Trial of Thomas-Builds-the -Fire” and “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” gave us insights into how corrupt government really can be. I mean, when the lawmakers are sitting around trying to decide what and how many things to charge you with just to make sure you go to prison, we are looking at a real issue in our law system. While we have seen a good amount of issues with corrupt cops taking advantage of their power, the Indians have never experienced anything differently. Their land was ruthlessly taken from them and were forced into the way of life the American government deemed as “better” for them. I believe that the lawmakers they were surrounded with in this story were using Thomas Builds-the-Fire as an example for the rest of the tribe. If they found a way to put him in prison when he didn’t deserve it, it would scare everyone else into not fighting back as well.

Discussion Post: Parents

Julia Menendez

Personally, I am conflicted with how honest parents should be with their children because of my own personal childhood. It was instilled in me at a very young age that honesty is always the best policy but I do think that there are some occasions where small lies are good for children. For example, whether or not to tell kids about Santa has become a controversial topic for parents because they say they don’t want to lie. But in my opinion, I think that is a “lie” that is one that is rooted in a special, magical place. I also believe that parents should not reveal too many “adult issues” (divorce, financial strain, etc) until the child is mentally capable of comprehending the issue at hand. However, one thing that I think parents should be totally transparent about with their children is mental health. Far too often, parents teach their kids unhealthy ways to communicate their feelings and over time feel that those feelings are not valid. It’s a beautiful world to teach your children about and parents should try to show their kids that every day but it is not all sunshine and rainbows and if parents are able to show their children that in a healthy matter, I believe it will help their transition to the real world be a lot smoother.