Your final blog! Sum it all up–what has this blog meant to you, how has it affected your journey in this class and your understanding of rhetoric. Will you continue posting after this semester?

We did it! We are on our final blog! I can’t say I’ll miss it too much, but I am sad. This class has brought me closer to some people I’m proud to call my friends. Finishing this class is a huge accomplishment for me. RJ, you’re my favorite professor and I hope I can find some excuse to take you again, but if not – I’ll totally come bug you at your office. (That’s if we can ever see each other in person again.)

This blog was something I could just pull up and write on. I liked this idea way better than the journals from last semester because I lost it, not once or twice, but three times. I wasn’t panicking leaving the house, back when we were allowed outside, trying to find it since it was all on my computer.

My understanding of rhetoric is way better now than it was at the beginning, obviously. I’m not trying to sound cliche but I was really clueless and it just wasn’t clicking. I find it’s easier to find rhetoric when watching videos and listening to songs. Everytime I watch a show on T.V. I’m looking for hidden messages.

I can’t say I will continue posting in this, but if Erica and Mikey do I don’t see why not because let’s be honest. If they jumped off a bridge, I’m going with them. #RideOrDies #NotReally #IWouldTakeAVideoFirst

I am thankful for choosing to have you as a professor, RJ. If I had another professor, I would punch them in the face and come find you. Thank you for always working with me to be better and being honest about my work. I’ve come a long way since the first paper of last semester, and it’s all thanks to you!

Let’s revisit three or more of your classmates’ blogs. Has anything changed in the second half of the semester, particularly as we have learned to rely even more on our online communication? What kinds of things are you noticing? Maybe look at one or two that you looked at the first time I asked you to look at your classmates’ work, but also look at a few that you didn’t look at before.

In blog #5, we were asked to visit three other student’s blogs and leave comments on a post. I will be going back and seeing how their blogs have changed since my initial comments, as well as a few others that I didn’t comment on before.

Erica’s blog has been awesome since the beginning; but I think everyone in the class has improved from their first blog post. When we first started the semester, we learned a lot about analyzing rhetorics, whether from articles or music videos. Over the semester you can tell that Erica has gotten more comfortable with analyzing these rhetoric situations as the weeks go by and her mom jokes she includes get better and better.

I didn’t comment on Kayleigh’s blog for blog #5 but as the semester has gone on, we have became friends so I wanted to read hers and check them out. I want to start by saying her blog title is catchy, but the way she writes her blog is even better. Kayleigh’s blog posts are personal and very casual, kind of like if she was talking to a friend, and I love it! As the semester goes on, you can tell the lengths of her posts get longer each time! I also love how she titles her blogs; instead of using #1, #2, #3, etc. like me.

Han’s blog is very creative and caught my attention right away! The title cracks me up as well. Han’s blog, throughout the semester, is pretty awesome. He uses a lot of gifs and has the format of his blog down good. It’s very relatable!

I love reading Mikey’s blog because I feel like I can hear it in his voice. My favorite post, What to Expect When You’re Expecting (to die from COVID-19), shows how he can answer a blog prompt, but turn it into an attention-grabbing post I want to keep reading! It keeps me interested in what he is going to say next. I think he should blog for real.

Since we’ve switched to online communication due to COVID-19, I think everyone has gotten a little more invested in their blog posts. They’re longer, they’re hilarious, and you can tell every one is bored out of their minds. I’m glad that we had these blogs to write. It’s something to do and helps make light out of the situation we are in.

 Read the article linked here. Discuss how the skills of rhetoric can save lives–in other words, was the death in this article preventable if other messaging had occurred?

In the article linked above, it becomes known that an American got a hold of a drug President Trump said would cure COVID-19, and died. Our President used an app called Twitter to put out word saying:

“HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE & AZITHROMYCIN, taken together, have a real chance to be one of the biggest game changers in the history of medicine.”

Trump uses the Food and Drug Administration to help back up his claim that hydrocychloroquine and azithromycin together can be great medicines. Any normal person would immediately believe this since it’s coming from America’s president, and the FDA is mentioned.

Chloroquine, a drug that helps treat diseases such as lupus and malaria, was taken by an American couple to help treat themselves for coronavirus. They ended up in the hospital close after taken the pills where the husband died, and the wife is in bad shape.

I believe that two things could have happened to prevent this man from dying. Firstly, someone needs to approve our President’s tweets before they go out. It is clearly insane and dangerous to follow what most of this man posts. Second, people can’t just believe anything they read on the internet. Check for credibility. Dig deeper before deciding to believe something. Free speech protects people to say whatever they want, whether it’s true or not. It’s our job to look into it and not just believe everything we see. If this couple had minds for themselves; they could have not reacted in fear and did more research before taking the drug.

Google one of more press conferences, speeches, or public addresses from any of the following: President Trump, Queen Elizabeth, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Governor Andrew Cuomo, or Mayor Latoya Cantrell. Discuss the successes and failures of the rhetoric you examine. What is the central argument? How is it constructed?

For this blog post, I am using Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s press conference she lead on March 23th regarding COVID-19. You can find it here.

In this press conference , Mayor Cantrell touches base on the coronavirus and the need to stay at home during this time. She explains that it is of critical need to stay home except for essential outings. We do not know where our current curve is, and we won’t know until weeks to come.

The central argument of this press confrence to get people to stay home. You think it would be easy, but it’s not. Aside from the many people who are still considered “essential employees,” you have those who beleive that the virus is not a big threat since they are healthy and young. Latoya brings up that this virus can affect everyone; and if people keep staying out – the virus will remain out there.

Her argument is constructed fairly simple: fact bombs and referring to the guidelines that the WHO and CDC have imposed regarding COVID-19.

I believe she is successful in trying to get people to stay home. She brings up that this week defines our future. This is a life or death situation. She is telling it how it is and the reality of what will happen if we don’t stay home. She says it’s not just the city of New Orleans, but the surrounding region. The longer people don’t comply with the stay-at-home orders, the longer we will remain in this weird state of everything being closed.

She brings up countless evidence: essential guidelines from the CDC and WHO for banks, pick-up only restaurants , etc. She uses examples that we can relate to that make tune us in to everything she says.

I think some failures don’t have so much to do with what she’s saying, but how she’s saying it. Some times, I feel like she is speaking like a robot with no emotion. No emotion means it is less believable , kind of how it feels like when someone is reading off their powerpoint slide the entire time.

Right now, everyone is going to find something to be offended by. I honestly can’t take much more of it! The comments on her video were disgusting and she is just trying to do her job, as mayor, and keep us safe. It doesn’t matter if you’re left, right, up, down: we all need to shut up and stay home.

And you CAN’T change my mind.

 Imagine you could go back to the beginning of this semester and deliver a message to yourself. What would that message be?

If I could go back to the beginning of the semester and tell myself anything, I would say to stock up on toilet paper and Lysol wipes ASAP. I’m kidding, sort of. I would say a few things. Future Hannah would tell me to enjoy my life for the next couple of months because everything is going to change. I would tell myself to go try as many new restaurants as I could, stay out with friends past 4 in the morning, take your vacation now instead of waiting until spring break. I feel really far away right now if that makes any sense. I’ve distanced myself from reality as some kind of coping mechanism for understanding the reality of what’s happening right now. From yesterday to today, 700 deaths were reported in the United States. This is unlike anything we’ve ever dealt with and there’s nothing we can do but sit and home and wait it out. 

If I could go back to the beginning of the semester and tell myself anything, I would say, it’s okay to grieve. Everyone’s grieving process is different. Some were able to tackle this information head-on, others such as myself had multiple anxiety attacks while thinking what if this happens to me or someone I know. It took me a little longer to get to the acceptance stage of what’s happening. I live in downtown New Orleans and just moved to a house in mid-city to get away from my apartment building full of doctors. It is a lot of change all at once and definitely set reality in for me. Knowing that if I remain here for 2 weeks without leaving and not show any symptoms that I will feel more in control of this situation. 

If I could go back to the beginning of the semester and tell myself anything, I would say, “You’re going to be okay.” All we see on television and social media right now is coronavirus – You can’t escape it. I haven’t been able to keep track of the days anymore. I thought it was Saturday and really it was Tuesday. With all of the days blending together and the inability to go out and do the things we normally do; it’s this time of uncertainty and it is very easy to lose yourself, especially whilst thinking of worst-case scenarios. I am so scared every day that someone I know or I will get COVID-19. I sure hope it doesn’t happen.

I wish I had someone to tell me the future. It would kill a lot of the anxious feelings I have at the moment. To be honest, I am very sad. I wish I would have appreciated normal life a lot more. I wish that instead of complaining about my dog taking forever on her morning walk that I would have enjoyed it instead. I miss being outside. I miss hugging my friends. I miss what everything was. We will never go back to what it was like before. I feel that a lot of people aren’t taking this as seriously as they should be. 

What are the most pressing issues we should be debating in reaction to Covid-19, social distancing, and the state of healthcare in the US?

A month ago, I was shopping for my trip to the Bahamas that I’m currently supposed to be on. I was so happy with life. My GPA is a 3.8, I’ve met so many new friends, and the weather was just warming up in Nola and I felt on top of the world. All of this changed in an instant. COVID-19 has drastically changed our lives in just a few short weeks. “Stop the spread,” and “flatten the curve,” are phrases I’ve never been so familiar with in my life. Every day many more cases and deaths are reported. I was supposed to leave for my trip this week; however, the virus is so out of control, we had to cancel our trip. We aren’t alone as other people are doing the same all over the globe. Aside from cancelling schools and vacations, a lot of more serious problems are coming to light every day. Some of the more pressing issues include the following:

IN RELATION TO THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

We do not have a good enough system in place to handle a pandemic. Italy is falling a part as I type this. They’ve maxed out their hospital beds and are deciding who gets to live or die as soon as they come through the doors. They have a very low supply of ventilators. The United States is likely to be where Italy is in 6-7 days now. We are being told now to expect the hospitals being at max capacity. If you look at the graph I’ve included below, you can see the US cases becoming higher and higher than Italy’s was at that point in time. I hope that I am still alive and well when I make my blog post next week, because it is a possibility that people I know might not be.

IN RELATION TO SOCIAL DISTANCING:

One thing has been shown over and over again since this pandemic began: People are idiots! Have you logged into your Facebook lately ? NO ONE IS TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY. Some popular, but false, beliefs involve COVID-19 being a hoax, second-coming of Christ, famous people being arrested in secret (??? I had to delete that person because I just couldn’t even deal with it. A girl from school actually has coronavirus and you’re going to tell me that Tom Hanks is a predator? Bye.)

With people not taking social distancing seriously, the spread of this virus is continuing rapidly. They’ll say, “I feel fine,” but carry the virus and spread it until they actually get sick and then stay home. My dad lives in Tampa, Florida, and says they beaches are now closed due to how crowded and full of spring-breakers they were after the stay-at-home announcements were made.

With this mix of people refusing to socially distancing and our health care system being completely unprepared, we’re doomed. Well, not entirely . If you’ve listened to the warnings and have stayed home, washing your hands often, and keeping away from others you could be in luck. Getting COVID-19 is not a death sentence for most, but is for some. Once our hospitals are maxed out, more will die. We all need to be responsible for ourselves, and not feed into the panic media loves to bomb us with.

Stay safe, stay home, and for the love of God, WASH YOUR HANDS.

Refer to the following websites and post a summary based on verified facts only. As a bonus, discuss the spread of false information happening during this national emergency. Can you trust everything you see on social media? How do you verify what information is true and false?

If you don’t live under a rock, you’re probably aware of the current global pandemic that is happening. COVID-19 is an illness deriving from a recently founded coronavirus. Not much is known about coronavirus; therefore, there is no cure. The best way to avoid getting COVID-19 is to practice prevention. This includes washing your hands, staying home except for essential needs, and social distancing. Community spread is apparent in many cities at this point and the only thing we can do to help is to try and stop the spread.

Social media is going crazy right now. Tons of false articles are being spread all over Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. I believe that people feed into the panic. If someone posts some crazy headline that involves a lot of people dying or straight-up bad news, that post is going to thrive more than a positive one. I’ve seen some pretty crazy ones revolving COVID-19. For example, some people believe that Tom Hanks is a child predator and they are arresting him and a bunch of other celebrities that are involved secretly. Several questions here: Who is they? Tom Hanks???? No… Arresting them secretly? Another one I’ve seen a lot of is that once they declare martial law, all of our guns are getting taken away and we will be forced to live in a North Korea type environment? I will say that every time one of these has popped up on my timeline, I’ve deleted the person who shared in. I am not putting up with panic-inducing posts on my timeline about something serious like COVID-19. I feel that everyone needs to take this more seriously than they are. Someone from school has it and she’s young yet hers is pretty bad.

So no, you totally should not trust social media for information about anything, pandemics included. (Isn’t it so weird that we are living through a pandemic right now? I am still trying to fathom the reality of what’s happened.) Anyways, social media is a no go for accurate information. Verifying information can be difficult during this time when even news websites are posting exaggerated versions of stories. If you want to hear the truth and everything you need to know you should go to the CDC’s website. Everything is on there from prevention methods to what todo if you have it. They are legit, and I’m not listening to anything else. I just can’t believe that at this time people are trying to profit off of these crazy headlined articles instead of coming together to fight this pandemic. Ridiculous.

STAY HOME AND WASH YOUR HANDS PEOPLE.

After preparing presentation two, and witnessing your classmates presentations, what would you like to be your debate question? Why? Remember that the debate topic must be in the form of a question that has a debatable answer, rather than a statement of fact, and that the answer to that question must necessitate argument like a thesis statement.

Debate Topic: Does the health care industry value profits over their patients well-being?

While researching for our group project, the corrupt health care system stayed in my head – and I still can’t get it out. The health care industry didn’t become so corrupt overnight. It took years of unethical, money-hungry employees pushing the sales of pharmaceutical drugs. Managers of pharmaceutical companies created quotas for employees under them to fill. More drugs sold equals nice bonuses and recognition. Money drives a lot of people to do work, ethical and unethical. Family practices and doctors are funded by pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Cleggett from The Pharmacists is just one example of a corrupt doctor prescribing medication for monetary gain. Since everyone is money-oriented, a lot of problems arise.

The pharmaceutical industry is expected to reach $1170 billion in 2021. Do you believe they care about who is taking what medication? No. The industry marketing strategies normalize the usage of prescription drugs. They spend $30 billion into their advertisements every year. All of these numbers are so crazy to me. They know that their medications are highly addictive, and don’t spend near as much on addiction. They make so much money that they just don’t even care!

I think that some people will have a different point of view. Some could say well, look at other countries, it’s not that bad or that this is America and they care about us. They value their patients more than profits. (If you do believe this, you won’t after my debate.) This could be true; however, it all comes back to the health care system. I would like to look into WHY the U.S. sucks so bad compared to other nations. I think corruption in the health care and monetary incentives to sell are huge parts of this problem. Do other countries deal with this as well? What makes the U.S. stand out?

When I was in the Dominican Republic, I had to purchase some medication. The medication that I needed costed $3.99. In America, that same pill usually starts around $40. Is this because in America, we are so money-hungry that we up-charge medication way more than the cost it takes to make?

I think this would be a very fun topic to debate, and I already have 6 articles bookmarked. 😉

Find an example in the media or news where a Rogerian argument has been used or should be used. Explain why compromise helps solve the problem or alleviate the negative consequences of choosing an extreme position. BONUS: Also provide an explanation of a warrant that is present in this argument.

For this blog post, I have chosen to analyze this article about whether or not social media is making users more narcissistic. This week in class, we learned about Rogerian Arguments. A Rogerian Argument is made up of six components: claims, grounds, warrants, backings, qualifiers, and rebuttals. In this article, the claim is that social media makes a user more narcissistic. The author uses a popular example that applies to most of us social media users: looking at our own profiles and photo feeds. I know that I do it all of the time and I know that my friends do too. The grounds used for this claim involve a study from 2010 regarding students showing signs of narcissism on a diagnostic test. This article isn’t just about our selfie game though, but its lasting psychological effects that are becoming more and more prevalent in today’s society. We see attractive people all over the place on billboards and advertisements online with perfect teeth, hair, and bodies and feel like we have to look like them to be accepted. This can lead people into thinking that social media is the real world and will go to extremes to make their profile/personality well-liked. The warrant would be the unstated general assumption that these people who do post a lot of pictures on social media tend to be more self-obsessed and only care about how many likes they can get. The author goes on to back these warrants by stating that along with obesity, our egos are getting fat. A qualifier that was used in this article said “Millions of Americans exhibit symptoms, but still, have a conscience and a hunger for moral improvement.” This also goes into the authors’ rebuttal, the counter-argument being that people can’t help this narcissism since they grew up with social media. This is defending by saying, “At the very least, they really don’t want to be terrible people.”

I think this article did a great job when it comes to the claim, grounds, warrants, and backing; however, I feel like there wasn’t much compromise or room to give when it comes to not everyone that uses social media ends up being a narcissist. Some people only use social media to post vacation pictures or stay in touch with their family members. Compromise would help in this situation because this article comes off as it’s opinion is superior to others which can lead to people not taking it seriously. 

Visit three fellow students’ blogs, adding comments on at least one entry per student. For your own entry this week, compare and contrast the rhetorical styles of your peers.

For this blog post, we had to look into our peer’s blogs and figure out their style of writing when it comes to rhetorical analysis’. After reading through multiple blogs, I’ve discovered there are some things I can improve when it comes to analyzing a rhetorical situation. This includes getting right to the point and including fewer details and how I should be trying to connect all of the elements of a song/movie/article/etc., together. 

One thing that really stuck out to me when reading Erica’s rhetorical post is the amount of evidence she supplied while remaining clear and concise. Along with her main points followed solid evidence in an orderly, structured way. I found in some of the other posts that people would include too little or too many details with their main points. This makes it hard to follow along when reading because you can tell that some pieces would fit better in other places.

Something prevalent in every post I read is the amount of visualization students are using. I feel like as I read I am gathering bits and pieces to the music videos people are analyzing; some I’ve never even seen before. I think that everyone has a great handle on using broader vocabulary to describe things and incorporating this new vocabulary to grab the attention of the audience to establish credibility in an argument. If you paint an argument in a light where your side looks better, people are likely to believe what you have to say. 

Lastly, I think something I’ve noticed getting better and better is grammar and spelling! At the beginning of the semester, you could tell some student’s writing looked all over the place and not put together. The structure of these student’s writing has improved not only in the blog posts but on paper too. I think these blogs help get the writing side of the brain working, whether that be the left or the right, and helps us get comfortable with the idea of writing in general.

I want to conclude this blog post by saying that I really enjoyed this activity. Being able to go through and read my peer’s blogs and their rhetorical billboard posts really helped me figure out what I was missing when doing rhetorical analysis’. Now, when I analyze the documentaries for presentation two, I will be able to add more evidence and details that I never thought to add before. I also liked being able to engage with my peers and hear their opinion as well. Constructive criticism is crucial if you want to keep getting better in the writing world. 

Look for an example of a syllogism (see chapter 5) in real life and discuss if it is sound or not. Make sure you define the major premise, minor premise, and conclusion.

In this blog post, I will be discussing syllogisms. According to Google, a syllogism is an instance of a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from two given or assumed premises, each of which shares a term with the conclusion, and shares a common or middle term not present in the conclusion. Syllogisms are prevalent in our daily lives; however, one I think I see the most is the advertisement industry. The creators of products and these advertisements are after one thing: money. 

A lot of people crave likes on social media. Some people want nothing but acceptance from other people and feel bad when they don’t get many likes, or attention, online. One example of a syllogism I’ve seen on social media involves this:

Major premise: A lot of followers on Instagram makes you Instagram famous.

Minor premise: Victoria Fuller has over a million followers on Instagram.

Conclusion: Victoria Fuller is Instagram famous. 

I decided on this syllogism because it isn’t sound. Although it is valid, it is not factually proven and cannot be “true,”. It is a generally accepted truth that the more followers you have, the more famous you are. In this day and age, people have grown up along side technology and are very into having a presence and being well-liked online. Instagram famous people are typically making a lot of money on each post they make. Seeing this, a lot of people care about likes and views more than real life and hope to get on the Instagram famous train.

Even though the entire social media population believes this syllogism is correct using their shared sense of logic, it is not factually true. People’s opinions are very subjective. For instance, someone might believe that if someone has fewer followers on Instagram than them but receives more likes and comments per picture, that they’re more famous and popular since they’re receiving more attention. 

Using chapter two as a guide, specifically the checklist on page 71, write a question-driven annotation of the lyrics that are associated with the song you are using for your visual rhetorical analysis paper.

Jidenna’s song “Bambi” focuses on the issue where Jidenna’s love of his life is moving on with someone that treats Bambi better than Jidenna ever could. Jidenna knows that he’s messed up with cheating on and lying to Bambi. The song relates to his real life and includes deep lyrics that surround his insecurities with a trap-lullaby melody; but at the end of the day, Jidenna is singing to Bambi, whoever she may be. He admits his wrongdoings; however, he says he can’t be at fault due to what he’s learned in his upbringing. It is mentioned in the song that Jidenna’s grandfather was a chief and had seven wives. He grew up watching it be okay to be with many people at one time and you should never settle for one girl. The idea of only being with one person is extremely foreign to Nigerian Chiefs. Jidenna doesn’t have the ability to commit to just one person. He believes people will see his side once they understand that he’s supposed to follow in his family’s legacy. The purpose of “Bambi,” is to entertain his audience, his fans, and ultimately reach out to Bambi and explain to her that he deserves to have her back. Jidenna is so crazy for Bambi that he will go to the furthest lengths for her. This plays on people’s emotions, appealing to pathos when the audience realizes that he’s hurting so badly inside that he crashed her wedding. This evidence proves the thesis as he genuinely wants her back and that he is willing to do whatever it takes. The lyrics are easy to understand and relate to which makes the song catchy. Jidenna uses homophones in his song a lot to help reveal deeper meanings to what he’s actually singing. Most of the references he makes in this song are easy to relate to which makes them more credible to us as the audience, and especially to Bambi. 

I disagree with the points Jidenna makes in this song. I believe that cheating is wrong and you should only be with one person. Your upbringing doesn’t change the fact that dating multiple women at once is okay for someone who prefers monogamous dating. I understand where he is coming from but I think that anyone can change if they truly want to. If Bambi wanted to be in a one-on-one relationship then Jidenna should have changed the first time around.

Every day, driving home on the interstate, I pass a ton of billboards. At least half of these billboards picture Morris Bart, AKD Law and other injury lawyers. I decided to do my visual rhetorical analysis on AKD Law. When I look at AKD Law’s billboard, I take note of several things. The only colors used on the billboard are black and white, even the lawyers’ clothes. This to-the-point, minimalistic billboard is reaching out and grabbing attention from those that are injured from accidents and looking for lawyers by a combination of many things. In the center of the billboard is AKD Law’s logo. It breaks up the billboard into halves; one side containing the picture and the other with the text. A one-worded question jumps out at you right away: Injured? This word is bolded and bigger than any other text on the board. This is the attention-grabber. Underneath is their website, AKDlawyers.com, and an easy-to-remember phone number to contact them at. Even though this font is smaller than the text above, it is still easily readable. 

In the picture, the lawyers are portraying themselves as trust-worthy and attractive with a smile; the exact kind of lawyer you want on your team. These three lawyers’ names are underneath their pictures, but this font is small so it doesn’t take away from the picture. When you read the names, it becomes apparent that their last names are what makeup AKD: Alvendia, Kelly, and Demarest. To the injured people who are looking for injury lawyers, this billboard is perfect. They have all of the information needed to contact them and see if they are a good fit. People who want to sue others for being injured are looking for financial compensation and they want to go to whoever is going to help them get the most they can. These lawyers give off the appearance of the type of lawyer who will do that. The purpose of this billboard is to pursue the injured population that they can help them get a lot of financial compensation. They look professional due to being well-dressed and good-looking on the billboard, and sometimes that’s enough.

I decided to go to their website listed on the advertisement and right away it says “Experienced Injury Advocates in New Orleans since 2003,” with another nice picture of the three lawyers. AKD has attained credibility for being a major injury firm and has proven results of helping people. Sometimes people put too much on billboards but AKD Lawyers did it right by being smart: short and sweet. 

I’m not bossy, I’m the boss.

— Beyonce

Hello RJ, class, and whoever else stumbles upon this funny blog feed, although you might not think so. My name is Hannah but my friends call me Han. (Han with a long “a” sound, not like Han Solo.) I’ve had a personal blog for years that I like to post to in my free time who I feel has helped me become in-tune with myself. In my first school-related blog post, I am establishing my brand as a writer. A couple years ago, you would have considered me a spokesperson for the not-so-basic white girls who like to enjoy a PSL from time to time, who come with a constant sense of impending doom, and also believe they could be stand up comedians in their free time. (I could, I’ve practiced a couple of times in the mirror before.) A couple of my favorites that I really connect with are Sarah Silverman and John Mulaney. If you watch them, you’re in the right place. If not… 

All jokes aside, some things you can expect from this recovering people-pleaser are some real, honest blog posts. I’m clearly not here to write what I think will get me by with a passing grade. People who deal with anxiety, such as myself,  on the daily may look like they are detail-oriented, active and extremely loyal people; however, we are really just overthinking to the extreme, can’t slow down for anything, and have a problem creating boundaries. I am a panicky college kid who never knows what day it is or what I’m eating for dinner that night, and wants everyone to know that’s 100% okay. I’m pushing myself, and want to push others, to become a strong and independent woman who can take care of herself physically, mentally, and financially. I’m taking life day by day, standing up for myself more than usual and I’ve recently started telling people “no” when I know I can’t add any more stress to my plate. I know vividly what it’s like to have no one and feel as if you have to do everything for everyone so someone will acknowledge your existence – but I don’t have to do that anymore:

Han is strong, brave, and unstoppable.

Han is capable of self-love and taking care of herself spiritually and emotionally.

No one can get in Han’s way.

(The first Han related pun of many. I apologize for how many there will be this semester.)