Psychology of Adolescence |
My mask |
Adolescence Reflection
The time I started writing in Animas High School, I wrote stories and poetry about one specific topic and had no variety, no context, no logic once so ever. Everything felt bland and bitter, all over the place yet no color. Now writing this year in 2021, I can see that I have improved drastically over the years. I write now in metaphors, these metaphors though, you can understand them. I really believe that my writing is the best way I can speak to the world. My writing expresses my thoughts and perspective. This essay “The Blossoms” is a perfect representation of what I can express at this age. I have given all of my mind to this essay except for the deepest darkest parts, and honestly I feel relieved deep down. I can breathe and relax with all of these little inconveniences that have been holding me back, in a mental sense. The Blossoms on the tree have been with me since my childhood, this metaphor has always stuck with me, it’s just now that I say something about it. I also tried to focus on making my essay seem more like a rant than an official essay because I wanted to express how my mind shifts from topic to topic. For example the line “Skydiving Naked. Ok, That may have been an exaggeration” This quote brings the reader back to the fact that I’m just another human, I’m not a leader, I’m not a king. I’m just me, and I believe that’s important for the reader to understand because I’m basically proving that anything is possible, the good and the bad. Anything is possible to you if it is possible for humanity. You just need practice and effort. When I wrote this I tried combining both writing skills. I took away a lot from this project, I found that the things that had been bothering me for years now I could just get rid of cause they didn’t need to exist. I also learned that a lot of the students in my class were brave enough to go confront their demons and ghosts. They confronted their parents, their friends, and their past relationships. During the exhibition I got to see all of my friends at their full potential, full effort, and full will. It really shows how powerful our school is at our full potential. A huge improvement from last year. Adolescents are always changing going through phases of life. Everything about adolescence is changing every single day. We aren’t rebels. But we can be developing emotional dreaming teenagers and that’s what I saw in manys projects. My project I feel I completed just as I wanted it to be. Everything that I ever imagined was in my project, the essay was spectacular, reviewing my adolescent life so far, the mask explained how I’m healing and blooming, and the wheel proved how much effort I put into what I truly love. I grew so much in my understanding of adolescence and mainly the understanding of my fellow peers and the truth is, we are all super depressed!
The Blossoms
Desmond Tsosie
I wake, fragile as ever. Noises from the sound of the harmonic notes on my alarm and the birds chirping together in synchronization. I wake, surrounded by the warmth of the layers above, the freezing cold on my face. That cold awakes me and I feel, Feel safe and warm inside somehow warmer than I felt when I had the layers. I’m not waking up in the morning to the smell of bacon and eggs on a steel pan, I’m waking up to the world above what I can imagine. The alarm telling me to stay out of sight, the birds making me feel safe and telling me everything's okay. The layers being the amount of silence and protection from being found fill the bubble around my mind, But that cold, that freezing cold that we are all in some way afraid of, expositor. Exposing the colorful creative true self, the glistening blossoms in the hazel sunset. Sometimes I forget that we need to travel beyond the storm to find that beautiful color. Maybe we all forget that, yet it seems not all people have that same philosophy. I seem to be the only one in my friend group to be afraid to express themselves, To find themselves. Still, what is “finding yourself”? We could all explain it in a variety of ways. In my own opinion, I honestly believe that the people who “found themselves” love themselves and for humans in this generation loving yourself may be the hardest thing to do. As hard as I try, I can’t seem to look at myself as a talented adolescent teen. We often forget that everything people have done, the good and the bad, we are capable of. What if we looked at ourselves as we look at our families, friends, lovers, or even for adults, our children. Would it be easier to love ourselves? Would it be easier to express ourselves?
To “find yourself” is to “express yourself”. I do not mean only expressing yourself to the people around you, I’m including expressing yourself to you. Find something you love and pursue it, find something you cherish and protect it, nurture it, love it, find something that you need and get it. If you need happiness, chase after it. Expressing myself through the year has been difficult which many people may not relate to. My friends, family, and peers seem to understand how to express their interests very well, probably due to me being around the students of Animas High School and Mountain Middle for the past few years. Some dress in 50 pounds of jewelry, speak in fake british accents, eat cuisine, fancy food, and go skydiving naked. Ok, That may have been an exaggeration, my point is that people who grew up with separate experiences express who they truly are in a variety of ways. Some may love the shadows and bathe in the silence and depth of the “ordinary”, some may run in the fields of clover sinking in the joy of freedom. It’s extraordinary we all branch off into different regions of the blossom tree and get blown by the wind at different times, speeds. Yet, we grow onto the tree filled with hues and light and fall off of it dry and gray. Sometimes you may get blown off of the tree by the hurricane surrounding us, or burned off by the fire rolling in the sky. We are going to grow, we are going to feel and get blown by the breezes of this beautiful world, we are all going to suddenly not exist and crumble into the gray. So the moral of the story is… do anything you want, travel anywhere you want, use the world for your own personal gain- I’m obviously joking, I would never say that.. On a school essay at least. When you turn gray and crumble you also plant seeds into the ground and start a new legacy. A story, It really just depends how you want to be remembered. You “express yourself”, Express yourself to your parents, then to your teachers, then your friends, your peers, and your children. I am but a small blossom growing above a lake, I’m not big, strong, sturdy. I am just a blossom.
I’ve been through things, not as harsh as others. One of the main breezes from the wind that continues to twirl around me is my anxiety. I Don’t understand what has caused me to become fragile and terrified of failure. I always had a sense that failure only leads to knowledge and understanding but ever since 7-8th grade it has become difficult for me to remember that lesson. I know many will continue to say “Anxiety is just who we are.” I honestly think that may be the worst thing to think about. Anxiety doesn’t make us who we are, it just challenges the moments we have, Anxiety doesn’t control who we are, It isn’t who we are! Yet, what changes in the mind of an adolescent boy/girl to start creating fears that don’t exist. That is what anxiety is, we create scenarios that are far from the truth. I’m in an outstanding school, I’m creating an album, I have the best people around me constantly yet I seem to not trust any of it. When I was younger I always constantly felt eyes watching me, judging. Debating if I should be alone or irrelevant. Eyes staring from the walls, from the doors, from the ceiling, the floor, the lights, the windows, from deep inside my stomach, my heart, my head. Those eyes were mine. The truth is everyone has that feeling, Nobody is paying attention to anybody else, you’re only paying attention to yourselves. All of the leaves develop and don’t comprehend what process they are going through, they get dark and change into a different shade and then develop their true colors. But that feeling, I never knew how much of an impact a single feeling could have on me. That useless horrible feeling that was only in the back of my stomach. It took so much of me, It consumed me and most likely others, so much to the point I have lost friendships that were special, Lost hobbies and motivations, Lost so much of myself that I had to rewrite a whole new story. My mother during this time was always finding a way to motivate me. She healed me from so much pain. She has always fought anybody who would even have a silly glance at me. She pushed back at the wind easing me towards a calmer breeze. Very protective yet also extremely understanding. She talks about her hopes and dreams and she always brings up the worst scenario as if that is the first thing that she brewed up in her mind. I think that is where I learned how to be extra attentive and sceptical of others. My dad taught me that things could be worse for me. The Reservation, a place that is disappointing yet filled with people with pride and honor. My blood usually pulls me towards this area. Pinon, AZ. Where a lot of my family was born and raised, One of the disappointments of this area is the fact they have opportunities and don’t take it, because they are afraid to lose their ways. But my father left to pursue his dreams. He lives in Arizona with his three daughters and my four brothers. Pinon, It could have been my home, my story wouldn’t have been the same if I was raised there. My dad shows me that I have a chance, a chance to make a difference. It shows me that I am not going to be better than anyone ever,we are never going to be better than any person in this whole world. But I,You,We can all be the best versions of ourselves. I think it’s insane, the little things can have such an impact. Feelings, Learning little habits from parents, words, and falling in love.
Falling in love. One of the best feelings, you get this warmth, you have this energy you want to express to someone special, and you can write more MUSIC! Three Years Ago, I started production on a song called “Falling In Love” which is now by the name of “Tokyo Lights” It made me feel wonderful, made me feel Beautiful! I started learning how to play piano and guitar. I then found out I wasn’t going to fall in love with somebody I knew but I was going to fall in love with music! To this day, I am creating an album named “Maroon Eyes” that follows the story of my life. Following everything I have covered in this essay and beyond. When I write music, I feel powerful. I can write all of my issues into my music, all of my sorrows, all of my fears. Everything is put into melody, harmony, rhythm, my album. It makes me love myself. It makes me hopeful, makes me happy, makes me… romantic! I am a blossom on a tree brushing up against the chimes of the water below. 110 songs I had written in the year of 2020, 15 songs recorded and finished, 5 songs performed in front of an audience, 4 collaborations on projects, 1 album ready for release. This is how I express myself, this is how I love myself, this is how I find myself. There is a long way to go and I’m ready. I’m ready to detach from sakura and create a ripple effect on the lake below. We still have a ways to go, years before I arrive on shore, years before we detach and flow through the breeze, then gray and bloom into a magnificent sight to behold.
The blossoms,
The variety of colors we can’t see,
The shifts from the breeze we don’t notice,
The seeds in the ground we don’t feel.
The bark holding us higher than the grass below,
The branches setting us through separate courses,
The roots of what we don’t know,
The gray, inevitable but peaceful,
The blossoms, calming, by the maroon lake and the hazel skies.
Love Yourself, Express Yourself, Find Yourself.
Desmond Tsosie
I wake, fragile as ever. Noises from the sound of the harmonic notes on my alarm and the birds chirping together in synchronization. I wake, surrounded by the warmth of the layers above, the freezing cold on my face. That cold awakes me and I feel, Feel safe and warm inside somehow warmer than I felt when I had the layers. I’m not waking up in the morning to the smell of bacon and eggs on a steel pan, I’m waking up to the world above what I can imagine. The alarm telling me to stay out of sight, the birds making me feel safe and telling me everything's okay. The layers being the amount of silence and protection from being found fill the bubble around my mind, But that cold, that freezing cold that we are all in some way afraid of, expositor. Exposing the colorful creative true self, the glistening blossoms in the hazel sunset. Sometimes I forget that we need to travel beyond the storm to find that beautiful color. Maybe we all forget that, yet it seems not all people have that same philosophy. I seem to be the only one in my friend group to be afraid to express themselves, To find themselves. Still, what is “finding yourself”? We could all explain it in a variety of ways. In my own opinion, I honestly believe that the people who “found themselves” love themselves and for humans in this generation loving yourself may be the hardest thing to do. As hard as I try, I can’t seem to look at myself as a talented adolescent teen. We often forget that everything people have done, the good and the bad, we are capable of. What if we looked at ourselves as we look at our families, friends, lovers, or even for adults, our children. Would it be easier to love ourselves? Would it be easier to express ourselves?
To “find yourself” is to “express yourself”. I do not mean only expressing yourself to the people around you, I’m including expressing yourself to you. Find something you love and pursue it, find something you cherish and protect it, nurture it, love it, find something that you need and get it. If you need happiness, chase after it. Expressing myself through the year has been difficult which many people may not relate to. My friends, family, and peers seem to understand how to express their interests very well, probably due to me being around the students of Animas High School and Mountain Middle for the past few years. Some dress in 50 pounds of jewelry, speak in fake british accents, eat cuisine, fancy food, and go skydiving naked. Ok, That may have been an exaggeration, my point is that people who grew up with separate experiences express who they truly are in a variety of ways. Some may love the shadows and bathe in the silence and depth of the “ordinary”, some may run in the fields of clover sinking in the joy of freedom. It’s extraordinary we all branch off into different regions of the blossom tree and get blown by the wind at different times, speeds. Yet, we grow onto the tree filled with hues and light and fall off of it dry and gray. Sometimes you may get blown off of the tree by the hurricane surrounding us, or burned off by the fire rolling in the sky. We are going to grow, we are going to feel and get blown by the breezes of this beautiful world, we are all going to suddenly not exist and crumble into the gray. So the moral of the story is… do anything you want, travel anywhere you want, use the world for your own personal gain- I’m obviously joking, I would never say that.. On a school essay at least. When you turn gray and crumble you also plant seeds into the ground and start a new legacy. A story, It really just depends how you want to be remembered. You “express yourself”, Express yourself to your parents, then to your teachers, then your friends, your peers, and your children. I am but a small blossom growing above a lake, I’m not big, strong, sturdy. I am just a blossom.
I’ve been through things, not as harsh as others. One of the main breezes from the wind that continues to twirl around me is my anxiety. I Don’t understand what has caused me to become fragile and terrified of failure. I always had a sense that failure only leads to knowledge and understanding but ever since 7-8th grade it has become difficult for me to remember that lesson. I know many will continue to say “Anxiety is just who we are.” I honestly think that may be the worst thing to think about. Anxiety doesn’t make us who we are, it just challenges the moments we have, Anxiety doesn’t control who we are, It isn’t who we are! Yet, what changes in the mind of an adolescent boy/girl to start creating fears that don’t exist. That is what anxiety is, we create scenarios that are far from the truth. I’m in an outstanding school, I’m creating an album, I have the best people around me constantly yet I seem to not trust any of it. When I was younger I always constantly felt eyes watching me, judging. Debating if I should be alone or irrelevant. Eyes staring from the walls, from the doors, from the ceiling, the floor, the lights, the windows, from deep inside my stomach, my heart, my head. Those eyes were mine. The truth is everyone has that feeling, Nobody is paying attention to anybody else, you’re only paying attention to yourselves. All of the leaves develop and don’t comprehend what process they are going through, they get dark and change into a different shade and then develop their true colors. But that feeling, I never knew how much of an impact a single feeling could have on me. That useless horrible feeling that was only in the back of my stomach. It took so much of me, It consumed me and most likely others, so much to the point I have lost friendships that were special, Lost hobbies and motivations, Lost so much of myself that I had to rewrite a whole new story. My mother during this time was always finding a way to motivate me. She healed me from so much pain. She has always fought anybody who would even have a silly glance at me. She pushed back at the wind easing me towards a calmer breeze. Very protective yet also extremely understanding. She talks about her hopes and dreams and she always brings up the worst scenario as if that is the first thing that she brewed up in her mind. I think that is where I learned how to be extra attentive and sceptical of others. My dad taught me that things could be worse for me. The Reservation, a place that is disappointing yet filled with people with pride and honor. My blood usually pulls me towards this area. Pinon, AZ. Where a lot of my family was born and raised, One of the disappointments of this area is the fact they have opportunities and don’t take it, because they are afraid to lose their ways. But my father left to pursue his dreams. He lives in Arizona with his three daughters and my four brothers. Pinon, It could have been my home, my story wouldn’t have been the same if I was raised there. My dad shows me that I have a chance, a chance to make a difference. It shows me that I am not going to be better than anyone ever,we are never going to be better than any person in this whole world. But I,You,We can all be the best versions of ourselves. I think it’s insane, the little things can have such an impact. Feelings, Learning little habits from parents, words, and falling in love.
Falling in love. One of the best feelings, you get this warmth, you have this energy you want to express to someone special, and you can write more MUSIC! Three Years Ago, I started production on a song called “Falling In Love” which is now by the name of “Tokyo Lights” It made me feel wonderful, made me feel Beautiful! I started learning how to play piano and guitar. I then found out I wasn’t going to fall in love with somebody I knew but I was going to fall in love with music! To this day, I am creating an album named “Maroon Eyes” that follows the story of my life. Following everything I have covered in this essay and beyond. When I write music, I feel powerful. I can write all of my issues into my music, all of my sorrows, all of my fears. Everything is put into melody, harmony, rhythm, my album. It makes me love myself. It makes me hopeful, makes me happy, makes me… romantic! I am a blossom on a tree brushing up against the chimes of the water below. 110 songs I had written in the year of 2020, 15 songs recorded and finished, 5 songs performed in front of an audience, 4 collaborations on projects, 1 album ready for release. This is how I express myself, this is how I love myself, this is how I find myself. There is a long way to go and I’m ready. I’m ready to detach from sakura and create a ripple effect on the lake below. We still have a ways to go, years before I arrive on shore, years before we detach and flow through the breeze, then gray and bloom into a magnificent sight to behold.
The blossoms,
The variety of colors we can’t see,
The shifts from the breeze we don’t notice,
The seeds in the ground we don’t feel.
The bark holding us higher than the grass below,
The branches setting us through separate courses,
The roots of what we don’t know,
The gray, inevitable but peaceful,
The blossoms, calming, by the maroon lake and the hazel skies.
Love Yourself, Express Yourself, Find Yourself.
MUN Conference
The MUN Conference is a UN inspired conference that focuses on Afghanistan's "Humanitarian Crisis" that started in November 2021. Through this project each student had chosen a country that is in the General Assembly and were required to research, create policy papers, and speeches for these countries that focused on the "Humanitarian Crisis" My country was Nigeria and was a difficult country to find opinions on the matter for. Nigeria had only specified that their only concern is a rise in terrorism due to the Taliban gaining control of Afghanistan. In the conference we had to give 1-2 minute speeches giving our countries opinion on the topic then create a resolution and create a solution using the UN's method.
Nigeria, Africa
Desmond Tsosie
When Biden’s Administration requested all troops to return to the US in November of 2021, The Humanitarian crisis began leading to a worldwide outbreak of concerns and questions arising for all countries around the world who correlated with the UN and some that had not. In an article written by Obiezu “The Nigerian President warned in his opinion piece that the US departure from Afghanistan creates a threat towards the frontlines of their country.“ (Obiezu, 3) Nigeria is facing their own crisis as is Afghanistan and due to the Taliban taking control Nigeria gains concerns and fears. Nigeria has been communicating with the Taliban and UN to try and create a better sustainable way of the Taliban running the country by becoming a type of government for the country, though this solution was rejected due to Sweden declining the UN’s offers. Nigeria has been in ac“War on Terror” for a while and were making decent progress, creating a sustainable country by lowering pollution rates and gaining more benefits with education and healthcare. Although their country was extremely clean and sustainable for tourists and such attractions, Millions of people were put into human trafficking or “misplaced.” by a terrorist group Boko Haram which leads to speculation of if the government being involved with the kidnappings since they were open and were types of society that couldn’t benefit the system or government. (Criminals, Homeless, etc.) Indeed the government in Nigeria is extremely corrupt, shootings in protests lead by the law, selling citizens to human trafficking for better pay, and more! While Nigeria is built for tourists and an extraordinary representation, there are many underground systems and “sketchy”, suspicious, and out of the ordinary. Laws in Nigeria are ran by religion, homosexuality is a crime and can even be punished by death. (So can suicide, suicide can be punished with a death sentence.) Nigeria is an extremely selfish country, if something is a serious issue in the world, their first area of the process is to protect themselves before interfering with other countries, the only countries they have communications with today are China and The US. That's why when Afghanistan was left with the Taliban and Humanitarian Crisis, Nigeria quickly requested a conference to move forces to the front line of their country and shut down all air travel to and from Afghanistan as well as Pakistan. This leads to them having more of a fragile area in their country to where th terrorist group of Boko Haram taking control as the Taliban and this is mainly due to Boko Haram and the Taliban having correlation and being allied to eachother. Leading to fear of the Taliban and Boko Becoming a leading force which is far from what the Taliban’s real motives are and would be. Nigeria’s support with the humanitarian issue is mainly focused on themselves. They aren’t willingly helping with the humanitarian crisis or trying to solve it as other countries. Nigeria quickly fled into defense once the Taliban had a good hand on Afghanistan.
From all the sources I have found, many not relevant to add into my policy paper to add, the cites I have found never had any solid solutions to the issue and no contributions to the humanitarian crisis of Afghanistan in the past, there are no cites or articles that even describe them having any communication once so ever, and even if they did it was mainly about the economy and trading goods. Their only way of supporting each other was through the magnificent country of china. China is a huge business focused country that doesn't enjoy getting into any problems that are messy or unnecessary for their business ethic. Yet in the past few months China has been fighting for Afghanistan citizens rights, “Chinese Officials said that Beijing respects Afghans’ right to decide their future, implying that the Taliban’s victory reflects the people's will” (Johnson, 2) China has much respect for Afghanistan’s citizens and provides refugee camps for any who choose to escape the clutches of the great snow leopards claws. Then those refugees can also be moved to Nigeria where Nigeria has many refugee camps for people sent from Afghanistan. That is the main way Nigeria is supporting the Afghan People. Nigeria really has no opinion on the matters in Afghanistan due to complications with Boko Haram and terror in their own country.
Works Cited
Romei, Valentina “The Afghanistan economy in charts, what has changed in the last two decades” Financial Times, FT, 21 August 2021, London UK,
https://www.ft.com/content/bfdb94a5-654b-4286-8da9-34c0ff3b88aa
Humanitarian, UN “Nine things you need to know about the situation in Afghanistan right now” Afghanistan, UN, UN, 24 September 2021, London UK
https://afghanistan.un.org/en/156613-nine-things-you-need-know-about-humanitarian-crisis-and-response-afghanistan
Obiezu, Timothy “Nigeria Says Taliban Victory Puts Africa In Terror Spotlight” VOA News, VOA, 17 August 2021, Katsina NIgeria, https://www.voanews.com/a/africa_nigeria-says-taliban-victory-puts-africa-terror-spotlight/6209680.html
Johnson, Ian “How Will China Deal With The Taliban” Council Foreign Relations, 24 August 2021,
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/china-afghanistan-deal-with-taliban
Desmond Tsosie
When Biden’s Administration requested all troops to return to the US in November of 2021, The Humanitarian crisis began leading to a worldwide outbreak of concerns and questions arising for all countries around the world who correlated with the UN and some that had not. In an article written by Obiezu “The Nigerian President warned in his opinion piece that the US departure from Afghanistan creates a threat towards the frontlines of their country.“ (Obiezu, 3) Nigeria is facing their own crisis as is Afghanistan and due to the Taliban taking control Nigeria gains concerns and fears. Nigeria has been communicating with the Taliban and UN to try and create a better sustainable way of the Taliban running the country by becoming a type of government for the country, though this solution was rejected due to Sweden declining the UN’s offers. Nigeria has been in ac“War on Terror” for a while and were making decent progress, creating a sustainable country by lowering pollution rates and gaining more benefits with education and healthcare. Although their country was extremely clean and sustainable for tourists and such attractions, Millions of people were put into human trafficking or “misplaced.” by a terrorist group Boko Haram which leads to speculation of if the government being involved with the kidnappings since they were open and were types of society that couldn’t benefit the system or government. (Criminals, Homeless, etc.) Indeed the government in Nigeria is extremely corrupt, shootings in protests lead by the law, selling citizens to human trafficking for better pay, and more! While Nigeria is built for tourists and an extraordinary representation, there are many underground systems and “sketchy”, suspicious, and out of the ordinary. Laws in Nigeria are ran by religion, homosexuality is a crime and can even be punished by death. (So can suicide, suicide can be punished with a death sentence.) Nigeria is an extremely selfish country, if something is a serious issue in the world, their first area of the process is to protect themselves before interfering with other countries, the only countries they have communications with today are China and The US. That's why when Afghanistan was left with the Taliban and Humanitarian Crisis, Nigeria quickly requested a conference to move forces to the front line of their country and shut down all air travel to and from Afghanistan as well as Pakistan. This leads to them having more of a fragile area in their country to where th terrorist group of Boko Haram taking control as the Taliban and this is mainly due to Boko Haram and the Taliban having correlation and being allied to eachother. Leading to fear of the Taliban and Boko Becoming a leading force which is far from what the Taliban’s real motives are and would be. Nigeria’s support with the humanitarian issue is mainly focused on themselves. They aren’t willingly helping with the humanitarian crisis or trying to solve it as other countries. Nigeria quickly fled into defense once the Taliban had a good hand on Afghanistan.
From all the sources I have found, many not relevant to add into my policy paper to add, the cites I have found never had any solid solutions to the issue and no contributions to the humanitarian crisis of Afghanistan in the past, there are no cites or articles that even describe them having any communication once so ever, and even if they did it was mainly about the economy and trading goods. Their only way of supporting each other was through the magnificent country of china. China is a huge business focused country that doesn't enjoy getting into any problems that are messy or unnecessary for their business ethic. Yet in the past few months China has been fighting for Afghanistan citizens rights, “Chinese Officials said that Beijing respects Afghans’ right to decide their future, implying that the Taliban’s victory reflects the people's will” (Johnson, 2) China has much respect for Afghanistan’s citizens and provides refugee camps for any who choose to escape the clutches of the great snow leopards claws. Then those refugees can also be moved to Nigeria where Nigeria has many refugee camps for people sent from Afghanistan. That is the main way Nigeria is supporting the Afghan People. Nigeria really has no opinion on the matters in Afghanistan due to complications with Boko Haram and terror in their own country.
Works Cited
Romei, Valentina “The Afghanistan economy in charts, what has changed in the last two decades” Financial Times, FT, 21 August 2021, London UK,
https://www.ft.com/content/bfdb94a5-654b-4286-8da9-34c0ff3b88aa
Humanitarian, UN “Nine things you need to know about the situation in Afghanistan right now” Afghanistan, UN, UN, 24 September 2021, London UK
https://afghanistan.un.org/en/156613-nine-things-you-need-know-about-humanitarian-crisis-and-response-afghanistan
Obiezu, Timothy “Nigeria Says Taliban Victory Puts Africa In Terror Spotlight” VOA News, VOA, 17 August 2021, Katsina NIgeria, https://www.voanews.com/a/africa_nigeria-says-taliban-victory-puts-africa-terror-spotlight/6209680.html
Johnson, Ian “How Will China Deal With The Taliban” Council Foreign Relations, 24 August 2021,
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/china-afghanistan-deal-with-taliban
MUN Conference Reflection
- Knowledge: What are the skills and/or knowledge that you will carry with you from this project? How has this project changed your behaviors and/or thinking?
- Refinement: If you were going to do this again, or if you had a time machine and could go back to the start of this semester, what would you do differently? How would this change impact your learning and the project?
- Perseverance/Difficulty: What was most challenging/difficult for you about this project? Where and how do you think you could have improved your performance?
- Voting: Which resolution(s) did you end up voting for in MUN? Why did you choose to vote for this particular resolution over the others?
Sophomore Inspire Week
Sophormore inspire week is week where sophomores of Animas High School get to choose four options (projects) they want to explore for a week, I chose to build Library Boxes with Ande. Me and my group got to design library boxes, study builds, and more! We got to work in a maker-space and got to build skills in building and performing arts. We built ideas and created refinements on our boxes when we built it such as a latch mechanism that locked the box. We were able to perform "Beautiful Work" in a creative and exciting way.
Growth: How have you grown as a learner and delegate during this project (think about habits, skills, knowledge, etc.)? What did you do to grow in this way?
During sophomore inspire week I had grown drastically. During the time of covid-19 I was in 8th grade and hadn’t thought about the future much. Then that passed onto Highschool, I never was able to see how important this area of my life would be. Then when I got into sophomore inspire week we started to focus on the topic of which direction we were interested in heading in, career wise. I then finally had a realization that my highschool education really is important. After that week I have been really focusing on school and wanting to do better in my classes. I'm slowly but surely bettering myself and my grades.
Big Takeaways- What were the biggest and most lasting things you learned during this experience? What aha moments did you have? What lessons did you learn that you will take with you moving forward through school and work?
The biggest aha moment I had during this experience was that life is always difficult and changing. Society norms rule the world and you can't change that even if you try your hardest. I made a plan to head in a direction that will create a better future for myself, I want to push for a job that is extremely difficult so I can put more effort into my work even if that job isn’t what I truly want it's better than procrastinating and lacking motivation in my classes to get something done.
Time Management- How effective were you at time and task management during this project? What kinds of structures worked for you, where did time management become more difficult? What did you notice about HOW you worked when you had big chunks of work time?
Me and my group used our time well, for the whole project time management was a mess. We just chose to do too much work in the time we had. We got finished with the library box on time yet the things we wanted to add we couldn’t in the time we had. Then again this project was well planned by our teacher Ande we could have got it done in the time we had we just ran into some problems with the box itself. It was great getting to create the library box and we had an amazing time doing it.
Advice to Future Students- What advice do you have to future students about how to make the most out of their Sophomore Inspire Week experience?
My advice would be to put effort into the work. The more work and effort you put into what you’re making the more successful you will feel. The whole week felt like a break from all of the work you had to put into your normal school experience. This experience is very fun and different from what other schools have to offer. You get to be creative and express yourself through your build and work. Another piece of advice is to create a schedule and timeline because when we were creating our projects we didn’t have a solid timeline of which we were going to build which got us behind. So have fun and create a timeline of which you’re going to work.
During sophomore inspire week I had grown drastically. During the time of covid-19 I was in 8th grade and hadn’t thought about the future much. Then that passed onto Highschool, I never was able to see how important this area of my life would be. Then when I got into sophomore inspire week we started to focus on the topic of which direction we were interested in heading in, career wise. I then finally had a realization that my highschool education really is important. After that week I have been really focusing on school and wanting to do better in my classes. I'm slowly but surely bettering myself and my grades.
Big Takeaways- What were the biggest and most lasting things you learned during this experience? What aha moments did you have? What lessons did you learn that you will take with you moving forward through school and work?
The biggest aha moment I had during this experience was that life is always difficult and changing. Society norms rule the world and you can't change that even if you try your hardest. I made a plan to head in a direction that will create a better future for myself, I want to push for a job that is extremely difficult so I can put more effort into my work even if that job isn’t what I truly want it's better than procrastinating and lacking motivation in my classes to get something done.
Time Management- How effective were you at time and task management during this project? What kinds of structures worked for you, where did time management become more difficult? What did you notice about HOW you worked when you had big chunks of work time?
Me and my group used our time well, for the whole project time management was a mess. We just chose to do too much work in the time we had. We got finished with the library box on time yet the things we wanted to add we couldn’t in the time we had. Then again this project was well planned by our teacher Ande we could have got it done in the time we had we just ran into some problems with the box itself. It was great getting to create the library box and we had an amazing time doing it.
Advice to Future Students- What advice do you have to future students about how to make the most out of their Sophomore Inspire Week experience?
My advice would be to put effort into the work. The more work and effort you put into what you’re making the more successful you will feel. The whole week felt like a break from all of the work you had to put into your normal school experience. This experience is very fun and different from what other schools have to offer. You get to be creative and express yourself through your build and work. Another piece of advice is to create a schedule and timeline because when we were creating our projects we didn’t have a solid timeline of which we were going to build which got us behind. So have fun and create a timeline of which you’re going to work.
Poetry Project
Migraines
Finding every syllable I write gut wrenching,
Eyes bloodshot red, From all the time I spent,
Cuts, Gores, Galore, Grating, tensing,
Mind, a pinnacle, ignitinting, fighting, fencing,
Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Remedies of such,
Taking more, and more, never enough
Of the extremities of pain.
They want to make me feel numb
Screaming, Crashing, Trashing, “JUST TAKE SOME?”
That feeling of pressure is eternally draining,
Lights, colors, hues, colors, neons, lights,
Nights, Days, mornings, moons, suns, days, nights,
Oh and the pressure for some may be suspending
Capsules, Cures, families recommending,
“It's just a migraine, just a light migraine,”
Yet whenever I have them there is no ending.
Finding every syllable I write gut wrenching,
Eyes bloodshot red, From all the time I spent,
Cuts, Gores, Galore, Grating, tensing,
Mind, a pinnacle, ignitinting, fighting, fencing,
Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Remedies of such,
Taking more, and more, never enough
Of the extremities of pain.
They want to make me feel numb
Screaming, Crashing, Trashing, “JUST TAKE SOME?”
That feeling of pressure is eternally draining,
Lights, colors, hues, colors, neons, lights,
Nights, Days, mornings, moons, suns, days, nights,
Oh and the pressure for some may be suspending
Capsules, Cures, families recommending,
“It's just a migraine, just a light migraine,”
Yet whenever I have them there is no ending.
The poem I wrote “Migraines / Bloodshot Eyes” started out as a poem that represented the feeling of a weighing migraine in a chaotic environment, I started out by describing migraines with lines such as “mind a pinnacle igniting fighting fencing” to explain what a migraine is and what it targets, and “lights, colors, hues, colors, noens lights” to describe the insane thought process in a first person perspective. Then I started to shift the poem into an overexertion of a migraine and tried to make it as chaotic and mind bending as possible. I used many poetic devices in my poem at the beginning, some that we didn’t even study, I tried to make it as complicated as possible and almost confusing. Once I had a thought of what I wanted to write, I used a syllable count to shift flow from chaos.
Flow: 12, 10, 10, 12
Build up: 12, 9, 8, 7
Chaos: 9, 8, 10, 9
Flow: 12, 10, 10, 12
(each number, is a syllable count in each line in the poem)
The one issue I had with my exhibition presentation was I couldn’t present my second poem which was supposed to be presented by an art piece that was going to be presented by a backlight and invisible ink and that was the most sophisticated piece of my poem, the poem I wrote in between the lines that was meant to represent the thoughts going through ones head was suppose to flow with the original poem, this poem is
“The subtle hint of agony through each word, as they control my withering hands,
Avoiding the transparent burns, from dark cold crispy sand.
Unique thoughts, demons locked, even beneath the absurd.
The thoughts in my canvas as you sit there stoic and stern.
It’s not the physical pain that thrills them.
Never enough to kill them.
Sometimes I lay staring the ceiling,
Wondering if I’ll ever get the satisfaction of healing.
The reason they scream at me, just may be the reason, I’m with the demons, demons following me.
The pressure pulls me inward, outward, upwards, downwards, my own body eating itself away.
All secrets, All choices, will always be seen.
It’s really a wonder, what do my bloodshot eyes mean?”
But in the exhibition I had to improvise and read both poems aloud on exhibition night and luckily I pulled it off but I did not pull off what I originally had planned for the exhibition. The main issue I faced was that I had previously had gone on a trip to phoenix the week when we were meant to create the exhibition art pieces and practice so next time I’ll use my time wisely.
I didn’t make many changes except for the hidden poem in the back of the original piece I wanted it to stand out as exemplary work and show how I grew as a poet in that sense, I felt that it would be a unique and interesting way of standing out from the crowd and really expressing myself, on exhibition night I took a different approach which was to show how I grew in my proficiency and action to read the poem with more descriptive meaning and in depth conversation, I did make most of my changes to the second draft of my poem though were I used different metaphors and a variety of different tools to express my poem which was a little difficult when I couldn’t find much wrong with it as well as my peers for critique. My only goal was to stand out, not go too far, not above and beyond, just stand out as a poet because in a sense that is what goes above and beyond. My third change I would say I’ve one to my poem was make it easier to present and read aloud. I made it very difficult in the first form of my writing making it an extravaganza of words and tools. In my earlier drafts I used a syllable count to start off my poem so it really did have flow incorporated from the very beginning and I had a form I wanted to use and a topic, it sort of gave me a head start for my poem. I really only began with how migraines had made me feel in the past and never had anything that related to anxiety or anything remotely close to the theme of my poem in its final stages. It was very comforting, too comforting so I decided to use a lot of tools and play around with my syllable count for a while too find a great mix between perfectionism and chaos! That ended up being draft two in draft two I decided I wanted to add a little bit of spice to my poem so I came up with the idea of hiding a secret message my final product was going to be a canvas that had my poem written on it and in invisible marker would be part two and I would shine a blacklight on the canvas revealing the poem for my art piece. That didn’t end up working because of trip plans. I had a list, a schedule, I had everything in place but I underestimated the time I had and couldn’t turn in exactly what I wanted which makes my believe I don’t deserve an A for this work or the presentation of it, all though in exhibition night it all went according to plan and my slip up worked with the schedule of the times, In my third draft I had written my secret poem and didn’t really work on the original too much I pretty much left it how it was after the two refinements and peer critique and basically that was my final product. I felt prepared I felt confident and I still feel proud of my work!
Flow: 12, 10, 10, 12
Build up: 12, 9, 8, 7
Chaos: 9, 8, 10, 9
Flow: 12, 10, 10, 12
(each number, is a syllable count in each line in the poem)
The one issue I had with my exhibition presentation was I couldn’t present my second poem which was supposed to be presented by an art piece that was going to be presented by a backlight and invisible ink and that was the most sophisticated piece of my poem, the poem I wrote in between the lines that was meant to represent the thoughts going through ones head was suppose to flow with the original poem, this poem is
“The subtle hint of agony through each word, as they control my withering hands,
Avoiding the transparent burns, from dark cold crispy sand.
Unique thoughts, demons locked, even beneath the absurd.
The thoughts in my canvas as you sit there stoic and stern.
It’s not the physical pain that thrills them.
Never enough to kill them.
Sometimes I lay staring the ceiling,
Wondering if I’ll ever get the satisfaction of healing.
The reason they scream at me, just may be the reason, I’m with the demons, demons following me.
The pressure pulls me inward, outward, upwards, downwards, my own body eating itself away.
All secrets, All choices, will always be seen.
It’s really a wonder, what do my bloodshot eyes mean?”
But in the exhibition I had to improvise and read both poems aloud on exhibition night and luckily I pulled it off but I did not pull off what I originally had planned for the exhibition. The main issue I faced was that I had previously had gone on a trip to phoenix the week when we were meant to create the exhibition art pieces and practice so next time I’ll use my time wisely.
I didn’t make many changes except for the hidden poem in the back of the original piece I wanted it to stand out as exemplary work and show how I grew as a poet in that sense, I felt that it would be a unique and interesting way of standing out from the crowd and really expressing myself, on exhibition night I took a different approach which was to show how I grew in my proficiency and action to read the poem with more descriptive meaning and in depth conversation, I did make most of my changes to the second draft of my poem though were I used different metaphors and a variety of different tools to express my poem which was a little difficult when I couldn’t find much wrong with it as well as my peers for critique. My only goal was to stand out, not go too far, not above and beyond, just stand out as a poet because in a sense that is what goes above and beyond. My third change I would say I’ve one to my poem was make it easier to present and read aloud. I made it very difficult in the first form of my writing making it an extravaganza of words and tools. In my earlier drafts I used a syllable count to start off my poem so it really did have flow incorporated from the very beginning and I had a form I wanted to use and a topic, it sort of gave me a head start for my poem. I really only began with how migraines had made me feel in the past and never had anything that related to anxiety or anything remotely close to the theme of my poem in its final stages. It was very comforting, too comforting so I decided to use a lot of tools and play around with my syllable count for a while too find a great mix between perfectionism and chaos! That ended up being draft two in draft two I decided I wanted to add a little bit of spice to my poem so I came up with the idea of hiding a secret message my final product was going to be a canvas that had my poem written on it and in invisible marker would be part two and I would shine a blacklight on the canvas revealing the poem for my art piece. That didn’t end up working because of trip plans. I had a list, a schedule, I had everything in place but I underestimated the time I had and couldn’t turn in exactly what I wanted which makes my believe I don’t deserve an A for this work or the presentation of it, all though in exhibition night it all went according to plan and my slip up worked with the schedule of the times, In my third draft I had written my secret poem and didn’t really work on the original too much I pretty much left it how it was after the two refinements and peer critique and basically that was my final product. I felt prepared I felt confident and I still feel proud of my work!