Wampler's Ascent

In my psych 4 class, I was assigned to watch a movie and type a response to it. In the movie Wampler’s Ascent, Steve Wampler becomes the first man with a disability to climb El Capitan. Steve has lived with cerebral palsy all of his life and has spent 95% of the time in a wheelchair. The movie documents Steve's journey climbing 7,569ft in a wheelchair. Wampler was climbing El Capitan for a charity for children with disabilities similar to his. His journey throughout the movie is incredibly inspiring. Wampler has lived with cerebral palsy, but that has never stopped him from living a normal life. It would not be right to say that he struggles with the disability or suffers from it because he is living his life like anyone else would. He has a wife and kids and he has such strong ambition that is admirable to anyone. In the movie, Wampler is on the rock for six days and in those six days, there is a change in his attitude. He endures through many difficulties such as his seizures, the soreness from using his upper body strength to pull himself up, and the mental, emotional, and physical drainage. However, he never gave up. He continued to climb and he proved that anyone can achieve anything whether you have a disability or not. What I found most fascinating was his ambition and his passion. He has so much ambition to accomplish something and puts passion into everything that he does. His positivity has a domino effect, it spreads through person to person and it is truly inspiring. Most of the time when someone sees someone with a disability in a wheelchair they tend to have sympathy and feel sorry for them, but Wampler does the opposite. He shows people that he is just like any other person. He not a wheelchair person, he is just someone that is in a wheelchair. Wampler repeatedly says “mind over matter” whenever he would get too tired and felt like he could not climb anymore. I was able to relate to this because that is something that I would say to myself whenever I wanted to stop running in a race. With this, Wampler once again proves that our disabilities, or our bodies, or our strength do not determine what we can or cannot do. Our minds are what determine what we can do and accomplish. The movie Wampler’s Acsent was inspirational and I hope you get a chance to watch it!

Against Meat

I found Foer's article about his experiences with vegetarianism very interesting. One of my best friends is a vegetarian and in the beginning, I always felt awkward eating meat in front of her. I didn't know if it was disrespectful to eat meat in front of her or if it just grossed her out. She never minded if people ate meat in front of her. Every one in her family eats meat and it doesn't bother her. I remember when I tried to be vegetarian. I think I lasted two weeks. I mean, I definitely have respect for vegetarians and vegans but man I just can't do it.
What I found most interesting in Foer's article was the part when he talks about him and his wife deciding to raise their children vegetarian. He says that most of his childhood memories were sushi lunch dates with his mother, turkey burgers with his father, and his grandmother's chicken soup. I don't believe that there is anything wrong with being vegetarian because it is ultimately the person's choice. However, I personally would raise my children eating meat for the reason that most of my childhood memories are similar to Foer's. I wouldn't want to deprive my children of those memories.

Getting a tattoo

     So yesterday I decided to get a tattoo. I was actually going to wait and get it this weekend, but I tend to have the patience of a child sometimes. It was also out of no where because it wasn't necessarily planned. Like I said, I was supposed to get it over the weekend but I was kind of just like "f*** it" and I got it anyway. I didn't tell my friends where I was going or that I was going to get a tattoo. I didn't tell anyone. I just went to a tattoo shop downtown by myself and it was so exciting. Once I got there and I was waiting for the tattoo artist to set up, I was on my phone. I had the urge to text my friends and tell them that I was getting a tattoo. As much as I wanted to I didn't because I felt that if I told anyone, the excitement would go away. One of the main reasons why I went yesterday and didn't tell anyone was because for once I wanted to do something that not every one knew about. I'm not sure if it's just me, but sometimes I feel like someone always knows what I've done, what I'm doing, or what I'm going to do and it just seems so dull to do anything at all. It's not that I have anything to hide because I don't, I'm just saying that it felt good to do something for myself, by myself, and I was the first to know about it. It was also kind of nice to go alone. I'm sure it would have been fun if I would have brought my friends along, but the whole point of this experience was to do something for myself. It was like having "me time" and it was nice.

     So about the tattoo! I got it on my right side on my ribs (yeah, it hurt), but I love it. To be completely honest it wasn't so bad. I was there for like an hour max and it didn't hurt too bad. Don't get me wrong, it didn't feel great but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. At first it felt like getting a shot and then it felt like a burning, stinging feeling. Oh god, so at one point Sam, the tattoo artist, grabbed my side to get a good grip and I laughed because it tickled and he ALMOST messed up. Almost had a panic attack, but other than that it went great. Check it out:

     "She who endures, conquers." is a quote that my cross country coach said to me my freshman year in high school. Ever since then, it stuck with me and I applied it to running. Then, I applied it to my life in general. Every one has a story and every one has been through some crazy shit and if you haven't, you will. I have struggled and have made mistakes and I'll probably make a few more before I get it right. I have been through a lot and have had a lot happen to me throughout my life. I have endured and I almost gave up at one point, but I got back up and conquered.

Writing Process and Goals

My writing process for college writing assignments differs from any other writing assignment because writing assignments for college are formal, but if I were to write a letter or type an email it would be informal. My writing process when writing an assignment is very organized. I like to brainstorm and write down all of my ideas down in order and make lists. It helps me keep track of my main idea and helps me get my point across easier. Something that I struggle with when writing is repetition. I tend to repeat myself a lot throughout a paper. Also, when I'm really interested in the topic that I am writing about I tend to write too much and go off track. I then have to go back and revise most of what I typed. I would like to improve on my problem with repetition because I would like to be able to get my point across clearly once without having to repeat myself. I think that by revising my paper more often and taking out information that might be irrelevant could help my problem.

Introduction

     Hi, my name is Alondra and I am a first year at Sac State. I am fluent in both Spanish and English and somewhat French. My major is psycholoy. I'm still trying to figure out specifically what I want to do with it career wise, but I am leaning towards social psychology. Human behavior and cognition devleopment fascinates me and it is something that I look forward to study in the future.
     I love to run long distance and I make it a habit of going on a run every day. I was one of those people that actually liked running the mile in P.E. (I was the only person that liked running the mile). I ran varsity track and cross country in high school and I always looked forward to practice and meets. My fastest mile time is 5:34, but I fractured my spine in July last year and wasn't able to run for Sac State. I believe everyone has some sort of stress reliever, for me it's running.
     I am eighteen years old and still trying to figure out everything that is going on in my life just like any other eighteen year old college student. I am an introvert so I like to keep to myself most of the time. I feel uncomfortable getting personal with people I don't know and I feel awkward talking about myself, like right now for example. I am doing this blog for English 5, but I hope to get a postive experience from it in the end.