New Hybrid Essay

Julia Gonzalez

Professor Pessin

English 114B

29 Apr 2013

Optimism at its Finest

     This semester I was introduced to something new and interesting. What I was introduced to was the concept of creating our own blog. A blog is a form of webpage that has certain information on it. In our blog we had our own choice to pick our topic and a place where we can freely express our own thoughts.  I was a little unsure about this whole blog progress but I was immediately intrigued. I decided to choose optimism because it was what appealed to me the most and what I can relate to. I’m usually for the most part an upbeat and outgoing person that loves the thought of people smiling and staying positive so I said why not. When I started my blog I didn’t know what to put but the more I wrote the more I felt comfortable. In my blog I talked about Law of Attraction, appreciation and ways you can improve your life.

    At first I didn’t know what to write in my blog but overtime the more I wrote the easier it became to translate my idea out to the audience. My blog begins by me speaking about some articles that I came across that talked about how to better improve your life with some steps and just to become a better person overall by being optimistic. These articles not only helped me strengthen my points but they also taught me that they are different ways and methods to stay positive. I already knew for the most part but with the including research I learned so much more about myself and optimism. I got to learn different ways and reasons for me to be happy. Some steps that I came across were to let go of the past, ignore the negative comments and live like if it was your last day. I tried my best to include evidence to back some of the steps up and even included silly videos like the Beatles one where they show how silly they are and how enjoyable  life is.

         I included law of attraction in my blog because it correlated so much with what I believed. Law of attraction is the belief that if you think positive thoughts, you will attract positive results in your life and if you think negative thoughts, you will attract negative results in your life. The law of attraction does not work by itself; it works in conjunction with action.

For example, if you wanted to run a marathon, it would not be enough just to visualize it, you would actually have to go through the strenuous training regime to be able to run the marathon. You have to do what your heart wants and be willing to push yourself to accomplish that. You can’t just simply wish to lose weight or become a writer without putting in any effort to complete your goal. Law of attraction helped my blog establish a different component that illustrates optimism as a state of mind not just a feeling you feel when you’re happy.

    Appreciation is something we all take for granted.

We don’t realize how good we have it until its  all gone. We don’t realize that we have the greatest gift of all and that’s the gift of life not many people have that chance and we take it for granted because of other small insignificant problems. We often mistake our tiny problems for big ones and let the problems consume us and le the negativity feed of us and thus making us feel depressed and negativity. With this blog I wanted people to learn to find  a new way of living life in a more happier perspective even through the very hard times.

 With my blog I added this poem that should have been added to the blog but it slipped my mind. This poem is about standing strong and not letting the hardships of life overcome you and just enjoy life to the fullest because it’s a truly remarkable thing.  

Stand Strong

© Sammy Kisinga Mwangangi

When things seem difficult miserable

Life is turning away from you

Intimidated and worn out you remain

In darkness at a corner you examine

Watching the sky as it disappears

Reminding the lost beloved ones

How beautiful and caring they were

Vanishing without saying goodbye

Shortening your long life span

And leaving you destitute and lonely

Deeply you wonder

How life can really be unfair

To honest and good people like you

But all you let go off

And focus to mend your life

And strengthen your heart

With good and caring friends on your side

Opening the picture of brightness

Knowing GOD holds your hand

Leading you to your success

Stars embracing the whole sky

And you know your journey has started

In pursuit of your purpose

Slowly matching from dusk to dawn

With smiles and determination

In whispers you read your heart

ALWAYS STAND STRONG

Works Cited

Source: Stand Strong, Life Lesson Poem . Web.20 Apr 2013

<http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/stand-strong#ixzz2RIjl7Yrk

www.FamilyFriendPoems.com>

Metacognitive Analysis

Julia Gonzalez

English 114 B

Professor Pessin

22 Apr 2013

Metacognitive Analysis

    When I first heard about writing a hybrid essay I was a little confused on what I had to do. It was the first time I ever heard of it. But, as I read a couple of hybrid essays the sooner I realized what they were and that is that they are just different meshes of writing or any form of media that tell their own unique story. These essays can include photos, any source of media, poems or anything that will help you get through your audience. You can include media to your essay to help your audience better understand your story. It helps them paint a better picture and intrigue them more to your story.  Hybrid essay can vary from different lengths it all depends on how long you want it and how long it takes you to get through your audience.

     When first writing this essay I was really lost because although I knew what I wanted to say I didn’t know how to incorporate them into words for my essay. I had to make sure I included my experience writing the blog and learning about Project media and how to use it.  I had to ensure I talked about what I learned through all my process of writing my blog and my experience with electronic writing. I made sure I included as much detail as possible on what I learned. In my hybrid essay I ended with a poem that I hope helped my audience better understand what I was trying to get through my essay. I used the same technique as Cheyenne Nimes because that way you better understand what your whole argument or discussion was about.

     Overall, my experience on  writing a hybrid essay was okay I can neither complain nor say I had a wonderful experience. This experience was challenging but it helped me learn a new way of writing and that’s always useful in the writing world. I’m so used to original essays that learning you can add some sort of extra component like a photo , video or poem to write  your essay brought something new into essay writing instead of the usual boring same old same old essay writing. I in the other hand prefer just going the old fashion way of writing because although pictures and poems may be more attention grabbing I believe that what should matter in an essay is your writing style and content you add to it.  If you get your point across just by using persuasive words than that my friends takes a whole lot of skill and makes you a great writer. I didn’t fully understand how to write the hybrid essay in the first place so I tried my best to follow the rubric that was handed to me. Although this writing style is nice, flashy and new I don’t think I would use this method quite often. Hybrid essays may be interesting but like I said the old fashioned way is just easier and is something I’m more comfortable with.

Hybrid Essay

Julia Gonzalez

Professor Pessin

English 114 B

21 Apr 2013

Hybrid Essay

     Have we all had those writing assignments that at first hearing about it sounds like a drag but the more you start writing about it the more you tend to like it? That’s exactly what happened to me when writing my blogs. At first, when I heard of this I was excited but didn't know exactly what to expect. But the more I posted the more easily it started feeling. Don’t get me wrong I love writing it’s my passion but I never really understood how to successfully write a piece of writing electronically until the blogs came along.

     

  I've never written a blog before so when I heard of this assignment I was both curious and doubtful. I was curious in the sense that I was really looking forward to seeing how this will turn out but doubtful because I really didn't know what to do. The blog we were assigned had to include photos, videos and any other sources that we found useful to our topic. We each had the opportunity to pitch our blog idea and if approved we can start posting away. The posts all had to mesh together to be able to tell a special kind of story to the audience and make sure that it’s relevant to your blog topic. My blog topic was optimism I chose this because wanted to be as helpful to those who are having a bad day as possible. I wanted to prove that optimism is a state of mind and if we think bad thoughts bad things will happen kind of a sense of you bring your own misfortune with your negativity.

    

     In my blog I included a bunch of articles, photos and videos and most importantly my opinion. Because I had to reinforce my point in many posts I added. All my posts had a different story to tell and it was up to me to unravel that story and explain it to my audience. The more I researched for my blog the more intrigued I became with my topic. Before my blog I just thought of optimism as something you had to work on everyday which is partially true. But, after the research I soon learned that there are different methods of being happy. As in, there are different ways to think positive and different results that make you smile. Everything affects us whether we like to accept it or not it’s true. We are all human and express our emotions differently. There are just some of us that prefer to not express our emotion because that will make us seem weak just as the saying goes that “ Real men don’t cry” this isn't true because we all feel were not made of stone where nothing phases us. That’s why I felt strongly towards my blog because although we all have those days or times were times are extremely tough and we hate everything and everyone having a grudge isn't going to help anything.

      

     I will admit that throughout my blog I did find some articles that argued my point and contradicted my point of view. But, these articles really didn't pose that much of a threat as I thought it would because they all had similar points of views.  They all shared that being optimistic isn't all it’s cut out to be. What I mean by this is that being optimistic doesn't always bring joy into your life and in some instances that is true but it all depends on the person.

       Thanks to Project media I learned even more about electronic writing; where I learned that you can post a range of documents to the post ranging from a picture to another website thanks to the URL or HTML. All you have to do is add the link to where it is required and you can easily upload what you please. Thanks to this, writing electronically became a lot more useful and a lot easier to prove my points.  Electronic writing helps reach the audience more by you having proof to back up you r point especially like pictures or videos that support what you are trying to prove or are talking about.

    When you use any source of media you automatically show a better presentation of your topic and provide a better painting of the picture to the audience so they can better grasp what you are trying to portray. Project media helps you better understand that with the help of the different ways of electronic writing that you can prove your point and make a great argument or a great source of writing if you use the right tools electronic writing will be a breeze.

    Being happy all the times is neither easy nor required on a daily basis but if you see everything as bad nothing will ever get better. Life is a beautiful struggle where we need to stand strong everyday and be ready to face it head high and show it that you are in control of your life. Here’s a poem I found that may help see what I’m trying to say:

Stand Strong

© Sammy Kisinga Mwangangi

When things seem difficult miserable

Life is turning away from you

Intimidated and worn out you remain

In darkness at a corner you examine

Watching the sky as it disappears

Reminding the lost beloved ones

How beautiful and caring they were

Vanishing without saying goodbye

Shortening your long life span

And leaving you destitute and lonely

Deeply you wonder

How life can really be unfair

To honest and good people like you

But all you let go off

And focus to mend your life

And strengthen your heart

With good and caring friends on your side

Opening the picture of brightness

Knowing GOD holds your hand

Leading you to your success

Stars embracing the whole sky

And you know your journey has started

In pursuit of your purpose

Slowly matching from dusk to dawn

With smiles and determination

In whispers you read your heart

ALWAYS STAND STRONG

     If this poem doesn't prove my point then nothing will. Overall, I had a great experience writing my blog it was fun and easy to do. It made me realize that there is more than one writing style and just because you find a new one it doesn't necessarily mean it would be a bad one. I found this type of writing enjoyable and found a new and better way to express myself.

Works Cited

  Source: Stand Strong, Life Lesson Poem . Web.20 Apr 2013

         <http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/stand-strong#ixzz2RIjl7Yrk

        www.FamilyFriendPoems.com>

Conclusion

 

My purpose for this blog was just to bring light into your darkened days. To bring some joy and smiles throughout your day.  I think I did a good job by providing various articles, pictures and videos of what I thought optimism was. We all deserve to be happy because the only person that is stopping us is our own self. Be happy, smile more, enjoy life because you never know when it can be gone in a blink of an eye. With that I give you guys my farewell and this quote that clearly states the whole purpose of my blog. I want you guys to live life with the out most positive outlook in life because once we start thinking negatively we all go down hill. So, chin up be who you want to be live your life how you want to because its YOURS not anyone else's. Good  bye my lovely people hope you guys have a better life thank you for reading love you :) <3

Ob-La-Di, Ob-la-Da (Beatles)

This video shows the Beatles clearly showing the message that through all the hardships life still goes on. This is just an upbeat song and upbeat video to match that just shows the trouble they get into but still fool around and enjoy life as we all should. And just have a great big laugh at ourselves once in a while and just breathe and enjoy life. Life wasn't meant to be taken too seriously it was meant to experience new things some good and some bad either way we are the ones that shape the way we think and see things not anybody else. So just smile and enjoy life you'll live longer if you do or so i believe. This video always puts me in a good mood because I always reminds me to smile through the bad that everything isn’t as bad as it seems and if it was to just relax, breathe and take everything one step at a time. It’s much easier that way without all the fuss about worrying whether things will get better or not. Life takes time and effort it’s up to you whether you choose to use it wisely or not.

Blink of an Eye

This picture speaks for itself but to expand a little on it. This picture tells us exactly what we fail to see in our busy every day lives. We often presume that we are always going to keep the things we have when that's not necessarily the case the things we have now can be gone in a blink of an eye. We think that just because we have such a great life going on right now that we are always going to have that. That's not the case we have to have some bad times in order to overcome and appreciate what we have more. It's like the saying that money cant buy happiness many people think that's false because with money they can buy what their heart desires. But if we all had money to buy what we wanted we wouldn't appreciate what it took to get it. We just think of life as easy and that's false. We just have to learn that things wont always go our way and there's no need to fuss about t when there's so many other things going on for us that we take for granted. So just enjoy the splendors that you have because material things may come and go but when it comes to important things like quality times with family and friends now that is priceless so enjoy it as much as you can for you never know when it might be gone.

I am Sam

If you guys haven't watched this movies then I must say its definitely a must see. I won't ruin the movie for you but the deal of the move is that the main character Sam was born special and has a daughter who gets taken away so Sam fights for the right to raise his daughter. This movie is really heartwarming and makes you appreciate life just a little bit more and show you that if Sam can do it so can you. Nothing can ever stop you from reaching your goals. Throughout the whole movie your heart goes to Sam and makes you open your eyes to how cruel the world is that no matter what there will always be something wrong with you. But, thanks to Sam you get to realize that even though that may be the case you can always make people open their eyes and show them that you are capable of doing what your heart pleases and that they won’t stop you from reaching and getting what you really want. I am Sam is a very emotional film well it was to me it taught me to better appreciate my life and everybody that’s in it. This film  clearly demonstrates that we are all human that may look different or have different aspects to ourselves such as an illness or something of that sort but we are all still human with feelings and emotions.