Loose Ends

RG. (2017) Dreamcatcher.

For my final Action in my Who am I? Class, we learned about our dreams and the meanings behind them. We were able to explore and analyze many dreams. For the second action project, we were assigned to build our own dream catcher. I wanted to include the different meanings and feelings behind my dream in my dream catcher, but since I have never built one before and, because I did not know how to portray them well enough, it was difficult. I was proud of how I handled that situation.

As you can tell by the pictures, I have a very interesting dream catcher. I connected “glo” sticks and wrapped it in suede strings with gray string for the webbing and hanging beads. In the center of my dream catcher, I have a suede knot that represents when you tie something up (as in "tie up loose ends"). When things are tied up, there is closure, and therefore you open a new pathway, a new light path.

I want feelings of joy, happiness, power, and comfort passing through my dream catcher. I chose the colors red, and gray because red symbolizes many different things like love and electricity. But, it also symbolizes evilness and fear. While I sleep, I know my dreams are sent from my sub-conscious mind, and I certainly want good messages to be filled with positive elements. Sometimes fear and evilness are good as it makes one think about what matters in life. I want greed and negativity to be filtered out by my dream catcher, and I chose the many shades of beads at the bottom because those colors represent security, fun, safety, and friendship, which are positive aspects I want surrounding me. Also, I made the webbing out of gray string because it represents responsibility.

The one dream that has affected me, to the point where I chose it to do a dream catcher about it went like this: I woke up out of bed, I turned on my speaker and started listening to music. Suddenly my dad yells “get ready we are going somewhere," so I got ready, and we leave. We pulled up to a bowling alley, and I had a party. I drank root beer, bowled, and had a good time. Elements of this dream connect back to the beads and having fun. This dream seems to be ego based and based more in my reality than an abstract dream that would be more for a Jungian analysis. My dream partner is someone who I share my dreams with. He didn’t respond much to this dream, but I feel it's about my subconscious desire to have more fun in my life. Also, I feel it addresses my need to be more spontaneous with my family. Whenever we go somewhere, I have to know the destination. If not I get very frustrated, which may be an issue about control. I believe this dream is telling me to let go and live a little.

RG. (2017) Dreamcatcher.

What is God?

For are first Action Project in are who am I class was to talk about truth and how you see it. We made a podcast that talks about what we believe in and I chose to write about religion. What I found most challenging was recording the whole thing. What I am most proud of is how my podcast turned out. Enjoy!!



People say we live in a Christian nation, but when it comes to religious belief, I consider myself an atheist. According to Wikipedia, atheism is the rejection of the belief that any deities exist. Usually, when someone has a religious belief, it is something they grew up with, but for me, I did not grow up in an atheist family. My mother took me to church and even put me in a Christian school as a child. As I got older, though, I found it hard to believe in something that I do not see as real; people telling me about a God without evidence was too abstract. My truth is that I do not believe in a God and that religion is used for control.

When I was in the 1st grade, my mother put me in a religious school affiliated with the church that my great-aunt attended. The teachers would sometimes tell us that if we weren't obedient that the devil was using us or teach us that the Bible was the only religious text we should read. I know my mother did not like the guilt tactics they used to get us behave, and she took it upon herself to explain to me that there were many religions, not just Christianity. I think subconsciously the guilt and the dogma didn’t sit well with me because I found no matter where my mom took me to church, I was not interested and didn’t feel like I belonged. In fact, my mom says that I never sat still and I didn’t pay attention to church when I was younger. The music was often too loud, and the adults never explained why we worshiped the way we did when I went to children's classes.

My grandfather is a very religious person, and he believes that there is a God. He said that as he got older, his faith grew stronger. You can probably already guess that my dad is not really into organized religion but has a spiritual understanding. My mom no longer practices the religion she grew up with and dealt with some backlash from my grandfather. Because of her experience, she gave me the freedom to make choices that felt right to me as it pertained to religion. As I get older, I may become more spiritual. I may find a mentor or sage who can give me a better explanation of God and the faith behind it. This person may help me to form a spiritual belief system, but for now, I agree with my dad, and I see religion as a way to control people through guilt. Telling me that “God is going to get me” as a way to make me do something is not an honest way to get action or respect from someone. The abstract nature of individual belief systems is not something I understand. It is not my truth as I do not have facts nor does it fit into my reality.

Overall religion is how you see it. It can differ from family and friends. My parent's religious views differ from my grandparents. In return, they have allowed me to have my experience and opinions as it relates to religion. I believe religion should be a personal belief that works for the individual, even if it may not agree with those around you. That may be hard for some families because their religion is tied to their identity, but I have been fortunate enough to have parents who are willing to understand my views and allowed me to form my own beliefs.

Who Is Malala

My final project in MDGs & You class, is a documentary slide presentation on the world leader Malala Yousafzai.   This presentation explains who she is, what she has done, and how we can relate to her. Enjoy!

Women are People, Too

In 2016 you would think as a society, we would be beyond gender inequality. Unfortunately, we are not.  As a result, the second Action project in my MDGs & You class will focus on gender equality in the USA and abroad. The purpose of this action project was to see gender inequality in a whole new light.

Bug_girl_mi. (2011)  Mind the gender gap. Web:Globalgendercurrent.com

Around the world, many individuals do not think women are equal to men. Many countries, including the USA, have gender inequality and sadly, there is not a direct way to measure it. When looking at gender inequality, there are many different factors.  Two examples are marriage choices and equal pay for women. Places abroad such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and here at home in America,  struggle with gender inequality.

First, let's talk about marriage in the USA. Between 1995 and 2012, in the state of New Jersey alone, 3,499 children were married. Most of the New Jersey child brides were 16 or 17. (NPR.org) Even though the legal marriage age in most states is 18, how are kids 16 and 17 getting married? Most of the time in these types of marriages the male is controlling the female, and she cannot get an education, cannot work, or do other things especially when the groom is much older than the bride. Secondly, equal pay is a major problem in the USA. The gender pay gap is mainly led by the fact that people think women cannot do a job as well. But, if we thought of each other as equal, this would not be a problem. In 2015, female full-time workers made only 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 20 percent.(iwpr.org) This is apparent even in Hollywood. Actor Jennifer Lawrence wrote an article about the gender pay gap in Hollywood, and it’s rather significant.

Now let's take a look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  One of the main problems with marriage in the DRC is that they are forced. There is growing attention to the problem, however, for many women and girls in the DRC, marriage can be slavery. It can begin with abduction and rape or can be arranged by fathers to repay debts. These brides enter marriage against their will. They are forced to provide labor without compensation and cannot pursue their own life goals because they cannot escape (freetheslaves.net).   So in general females can be forced into marriage by the father or be obliged by other circumstances and cannot live their lives on their own terms.  Equal pay is a major problem in the DRC as well.  In 2013, women represented 49% of the total labor force (wikigender.org),  yet, they do not get paid as much. They are underrepresented in government and upper-level jobs and paid less.  In addition, once married, women have to ask for permission to work from their husbands (peacewoman.org).

Even though America seems more technologically and culturally advanced, both countries share the issues of wage inequality and undesirable marriage situations. The DRC can learn some things from the USA in terms of giving married women freedom to work and live their lives without first seeking their husband's permission.  Unfortunately, America still has some work to do with curbing underage marriage and closing the wage gap. Both the DRC and the USA have work to do.  Women are a viable workforce and are the backbone of our communities, therefore it's time the world recognizes their contributions.

Works cited
"Children Get Married In The U.S., Too: #15Girls : Goats ..." Insert Name of Site in Italics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2016 <http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/10/28/452540839/children-get-marri>.

"Gender inequality in the DRC [2010][English]." Insert Name of Site in Italics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2016 <http://peacewomen.org/assets/file/Resources/NGO/hrinst_genderinequalityinthedrc_>.

"Pay Equity & Discrimination ? IWPR." Insert Name of Site in Italics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2016 <http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equity-and-discrimination>.

"Wives in Slavery - Free the Slaves." Insert Name of Site in Italics. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2016 <https://www.freetheslaves.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/ForcedMarriage-ExecSum_>.

Food is Your Obligation

For my first action project in MDG's I wrote an essay about hunger and why I think it is a big problem.

Carleetur. 18 August 2014. Stop Hunger Now. Web:wikimediacommons

Jonathan Sacks once said, “Close to a billion people - one-eighth of the world's population - still, live in hunger. Each year 2 million children die through malnutrition. This is happening at a time when doctors in Britain are warning of the spread of obesity. We are eating too much while others starve” (borgenproject.org). What does this have to do with hunger, you might ask? This quote means over 2 million children die from starvation, but some people are very obese, and all the food that people are wasting could go to the starving. I feel that food is a human right because we need food to stay nourished and healthy; food is not only a necessity but a human need.

In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, food falls under physiological needs. A physiological need is something that is necessary to survive. The consequence of a lack of food can result in increased mortality rates and poorer school outcomes. " Additionally, 49 million Americans struggle to put food on the table"(Dosomething.org). I believe this is because of money and lack of resources. If jobs paid more than minimum wage, I do not think putting food on the table would be a problem (Dosomething.org). Food deserts are also a part of the reason we have hunger in poorer communities. What is a food desert? A food desert is an area where grocery stores and shops that sell fresh food are too far away. Food deserts can be a problem because kids would rather go to their local gas station and get unhealthy food. The benefits of improved food accessibility are, better health outcomes, a decrease in crime, and improved education outcomes for students.

In elementary education, nutrition programs for students can help with health and learning issues. Most schools have breakfast before school, but for students who struggle to get to school on time, this may be a problem. In a nutrition program where teachers and principals have breakfast in the classroom, the following resulted were reported: "student alertness (76%), better attendance (57%), fewer disciplinary problems (54%), fewer visits to the school nurse (55%) and fewer tardy students (49%)" (learningfirst.org). Behavior and health improvement were noted as an all around improvement to the school.

Working to bring larger grocery stores to neighborhoods and also providing accessibility to farmer’s markets could decrease hunger and help keep people healthy. Grocery stores help circulate money into the community and bring jobs. Green space for community gardens bring people together and farmers markets allow access to fresh foods. Since SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participants have access to farmers markets sales nationwide, sales have topped $11.7 million. (Policylink.org)

In conclusion, I believe that food should be human right because we need it to survive. There is significant proof that kids without food do worse in school than children that are properly nourished. I think money plays a big part in why children go hungry.

Works Cited

"10 Quotes on World Hunger - The Borgen Project." N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2016. borgenproject.org/10-quotes-world-hunger.

"49 Million Americans Struggle to Put Food on the Table." N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2016. webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20110907/49-million-americans-struggle-to.

Bell, Judith, MPA, et. al. "Access to Healthy Food- Why It Matters." Policylink.org. Policy Link/ The Food Trust, Nov. 2

"Students Too Hungry to Learn: A Challenge We Can Solve ..." N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2016. learningfirst.org/students-too-hungry-learn-challenge-we-can-solve>.