Location. Or who i am.

Class discussion today was good, if a little off topic at times. But I feel that I learn more from class discussions than from lectures. We are all participants in the learning process and it keeps me interested. I can learn from 20 people instead of just 1 person, the teacher. The teacher only has one view and background while we have 20x that in one classroom. Our discussions on location have been very enlightening.

            Last class we talked more about our similar location as being students at Texas A&M University. Being an aggie comes with many preconceptions. We are portrayed as spirited fans of our university. Many people look at us as a pseudo cult. One of my high school teachers who graduated from A&M, told me that I was in the aggie cult now! I was a little weirded out at first. I enjoy the traditions but I am not that hard core of an aggie. I like the traditions and sports here but it is not the highlight of my A&M experience. It is definitely the people here. After the first year, I have found some friends who will probably be the best men in my wedding. There are a couple of guys who will stick with me for life. That is way more important than traditions or sports any day.

            So being an aggie, I get stereotypes thrown at me all the time. Even my parents throw aggie jokes at me. Such as that aggies are dumb. Most people think that being an aggie I am threatened with entrance to the Corp if my grades drop. I laugh at their misconceptions.

            The main topic of class was how our location impacts who we are. I feel this is true to some extent. My life would probably look very different if my house was located even a mile away from its current locations. It is crazy to think of all the possibilities that can happen. Being an aggie, my location impacts me in the people I hang out with, the friends I have, and the story I am currently telling with my life.

            I am from Plano, Texas and I think my story would be radically different if I was even from neighboring cities, such as Allen or Mckinney. It is interesting to think of one’s story and how location has been an integral part of it. Even if I had gone to a different high school in the same town, it would have led to my life telling a different story. I may have gone to a different college. I know my friends would have been different and I most likely would not have been able to play sports or been part of the activities I participated in. I don’t really think about alternative situations like this a lot because there is no point. Christ is in control of my life and I don’t need to worry about where I am going or where I could have been. I am where He wants me to be and that is good enough for me.

But my location does not shape my identity in everyway. I am a follower of Jesus first and an aggie second. Before Jesus changed my life, I was always afraid of changing locations or going where my location did not give me a secure identity. But now, I am loved my Heavenly Father wherever I am. My location does not affect who I am. The locations of this world will let us down. They are never permanent. If I put my most treasured identity as that of an aggie, it will destroy me. There will come a time when people will not care that I am an aggie. Many of classmates will be hurt emotionally when they leave college because they have placed their self worth in being an aggie or in some identity connected with this campus. So location can be a huge influence in people’s identities but the most important location someone can have is being located in Christ’s love because it will not change.

           

             

hello. this is a blog.

English class occurred as usual in Blocker 106. Which correlates with the main point of class that location is an important part of stories. Facebook was the main discussion feature of the day. It is interesting to hear how facebook affects all of us. Almost everybody in class joined in the discussion of how facebook as a location changes our stories.

            One of the best points of class was how people act different on facebook than real life. I agree with this statement. Facebook for some people is simply a place to take your image and mold it to how you would like it to be. For example, I have a friend who is constantly updating his status and profile pic on facebook. I love them dearly as a friend. But seeing her have a different profile pic every week is a little strange. It seems to me that she dearly wants attention and can’t settle down. So facebook as a location is part of her story of wanting attention.

            I deleted my facebook last summer and only recently got it back. The reason I deleted it is because I didn’t feel like I was being honest enough on facebook and spent too much time on it. It was nice in some regards to not have a facebook over the summer. I did not have to check it often. However, it was also difficult to not have a facebook though. Most of my college friends live fairly far away from me. Although I had the ability to call or text them, I did not keep in touch with them in the same I could have if I had a facebook. So facebook as a location in my life exists as a tool to keep in touch with my friends.

            One of the reasons I love facebook is because I enjoy the opportunity to get my thoughts out of my brain and out into the public. Most of the time, I use facebook as an outlet for what is on my mind. I like posting song lyrics, Bible verses, or what I am learning in my walk with Christ. Facebook is a pseudo blog for me. I don’t always get to tell people the deep things I am pondering and I use facebook for that purpose.

            I am interested to see if we continue this conversation on facebook and how it changes our stories. I think my life would have been a little different up to this point if I did not have a facebook in high school and leading up to now. There would have been many events I would have missed because I wouldn’t have been invited on facebook. Because I missed those events, I probably would not have met some of my friends and that would change things greatly. One of my closest friends I met solely through facebook. Without facebook, it is highly unlikely that I would have become friends with him.

            I also got to present my project in class. It wasn’t a very long presentation but I covered all the basics. As I expected, my Dutch pancake was very moldy. But Ms. Wheeler said she had a piece and I didn’t expect that. I didn’t try it because I wasn’t sure if it was edible. Guess it was though! I really liked Colton’s (?) project. He had a Corps’ shoe from his days spent in there. He explained how it represented him including how the metal plate on the heel was reminiscent of the plate in his arm now.

            People are really creative and this project shows it. Many people blew me away with their theorizing on their project. I think the next project will show the class more about their classmates. Some of the stories from the first writing project will probably show up on people’s maps. I am looking forward to doing it.

Presentation Day

Class seemed to go by really short today because many of the people had interesting projects and great stories to share. I would have never guessed some that some of the people had been through so much! It took a lot of bravery to share what they shared. I appreciate that they shared the amount that they did because they could have kept their stories short but we wouldn’t have learned about them to the extent that we did. I don’t know my classmate’s name but he shared a poignant story about two car wrecks in his life that have had a huge impact on his view of the world. You could tell his creation meant a great deal to him and he put a lot of thought into it. Bo also had a great story. I had read his paper already so I knew what it was about. His explanation of his OCD was interesting and extremely helpful to understand what it is like to be afflicted with its symptoms.

I also enjoyed Hammad’s presentation. He is a funny guy and one of the friends I am gaining in the class. His jersey was very creative and shared a great story about his love of soccer. The two international students in our class are very intriguing to me. I think they are cool people. It is fun to hear their stories of where they are from and how different they think Texas is. Their projects reflect how unique they are while still retaining a part of our shared cultures.

Unfortunately, I did not get to present my project. Which is bad because my creation is edible and I do not know if it will last until Monday. It is a little disappointing I didn’t get to present today. I loved hearing everyone else’s stories but some of them took a long time. So we will see how it goes on Monday. There were probably 10 to 13 other people who didn’t get to present. I’m sure that everything will work out though.

I am glad that the first writing project is out of the way though. ¼ of the way done! This project didn’t even seem like an English project, which was nice. I am wondering what the next project will be about though.

Michael’s (?) project was well done too. He had a cool poster where he placed pictures and contradicting words on it to illustrate major events in his life. He was in the military and served in Iraq. So he incorporated that into his project with pictures and maps of Iraq. He brings a different perspective to class, which is appreciated.

Everyone listened during the presentations, which was very respectful I think. It would be great if everyone had the chance to share more of their stories with their classmates. Texas A&M needs a class where the only thing that happens is people share their stories. I would definitely take that class. It would be sweet to learn about my classmates. Because I barely know the names of most of my classmates, let alone get to know them. I feel like I have a bond with some of the people in my English class because I know some of their stories. So if I every become the president of some university, you can count on a Share Your Story class being mandatory for all students!

I really want to ask some of my classmates’ questions about their stories. I want to know more details about their experiences. I also want some of the shy people to share more! They have great things to say if only they would get out there and say them. Some of the presentations by the more reserved classmates were really good! It is good that everyone gets to share so those people can share their stories too. Hopefully there are more good stories next class when the rest of the people get to share.

Monday, Sept. 20, 2010

Yesterday’s class was deep. Someone in my group correctly guessed that the “monster” question had to do with Ms. Wheeler’s disability research. It made me think more deeply about the moral dilemma of what to do with the “monsters.” It is interesting how people’s true sides come out during a discussion like the one we had. Some people say crazy things. Many off the wall statements were solely for shock value. People still had good things to say that were well thought out.

I was interested by Ms.Wheeler’s talk on her experience with her sister and how it affected her personally. I definitely have had not much life experience in this area. I do not know very many disabled people personally (if I know any at all). It is heartbreaking to hear of the atrocities committed against people simply because they have disabilities.  Many of things are easily preventable if people simply accepted that disabled people are people too.

The main thing running through my mind during class was how the answer to the mentioned dilemmas is simple but not popular. Jesus is the cure to the world’s problems. Without Christ there is no basis for advocating treating people with respect. I cannot see how someone can advocate treating disabled people better without having their basis grounded in Christ. Without Christ, the only foreseeable end is hopelessness. In Christ, human beings have their worth as created, loved beings, regardless of their physical or mental capabilities.  In a postmodern culture, where truth is relative, there is no rhyme or reason for being respectful of people’s differences and to me the logical conclusion is that people will lose their worth as beings created in God’s image.

Class also made me ponder why people would do and say such things to disabled people. I would classify some of the things as pure evil. I think it just goes to show how depraved we really are. We as humans are capable of some completely evil things. Me included. I am fully capable of treating someone as subhuman just as humans have done in the past. Most of the time, I think most of us are scared of the evil we know we are capable of so we hide in our illusions that everything is fine. But while that happens, other people are getting their rights taken away. What would happen if we all stopped letting these atrocities happen right beside us every day?

There are many different opinions in class on this subject and it would be great to have a discussion on this.

I was amazed that my group came to a consensus fairly quickly on the monster dilemma. I thought that we wouldn’t be in agreement when time ran out. Only one person disagreed with what the group thought which was a miracle. Coming up with a definition of a “monster” was way harder though. We honestly didn’t come up with a real team definition. I feel that we almost all disagreed on it. Everybody just has a different background and history and because of that they would come up with a different definition of a monster. I personally wanted to go with something more along the lines of an animal but the group did not agree. Which is ok as long as the group agreed on something.

Last class gave me a broader view on the issues surrounding our neighbors with disabilities. The most I hear about this in school is usually the Americans with Disabilities Act. But nothing more is mentioned. I will be keeping an eye out to see what kind of abuses I can see in my life and how I can change this epidemic through my life.

The Day of Peer Edit

In class peer review day was a joy to attend. I think most professors could learn a thing or two from Ms. Wheeler. I really enjoy English class because of how different learning styles are incorporated into the class. It isn’t all lecture and note taking. Usually I do not like having peers review my papers in classes but it was a good time today. Some of the stuff they said to me was hard to take but I swallowed my pride and respectfully considered what they said. I believe I will have a better writing project after the day.

            One person who was reviewing my paper took a different viewpoint than mine. Honestly, at first I did not agree with what they said. However, after a while I could see where they were coming from. So I will at least look at what they suggested I change about my paper and I might end up changing it. This incident humbled me because I realized I tend to think that the way I do things is right. Even though I spent a good amount of time on my rough draft, I need to humble myself and accept criticism. It will help me in the long run.

            The whole peer editing part was tedious. I’m sure everyone will have a more complete final product because of it but people were definitely sighing during class.

The two papers I edited were good papers. I enjoyed reading them although one of them was a little incoherent. But with a little work the author will get a good grade.  Underlining everything was annoying and it is hard to find people’s main points. It is most likely because this paper was not a research or commentary style paper.

            Along those lines, I really like this assignment because it is outside the box. I expected this class to be boring and accordingly have boring assignments. Well having an introspective writing project along with being allowed to create something is very interesting. I like writing about myself. I don’t get to talk about myself that much. So getting an introspective paper assigned is a plus. Presentations on the project should be very interesting next Wednesday.

            Having music being played during class is awesome. It makes class that much better. Plus the fact that students get to call out songs is out of this world. It just blows my mind that a teacher would be that cool and nice to us. It is very unusual to say the least. I love doing work and listening to music so having the music playing helped me do a better job on my peer reviews.

            I am enjoying making friends in the class. I got to talk with Bo for about 45 minutes before class today and he is a very cool kid. Because we talked so long, I got to peer edit his paper. We talked about his OCD before class and how it was the topic of my paper. Then when I read his paper I felt that I understood his condition more. Unfortunately I did not get to proof read Rahul’s paper. I hope that he has a great presentation next week.

            For my object, I am going to cook a Dutch pancake, which is a traditional German breakfast food. I have not cooked one yet. Hopefully I don’t have any problems with it. I feel that I made a pretty good connection with my object and the story about myself. I usually am not artistic and this is definitely a win for Nate. Now the fun part will be cooking it then hauling it across campus a week from today.

            I have found what I hope to be my seat for the rest of the year. The back left corner if your are facing the back wall. Marilea sits over there, as well as Hammad and Rahul. They are all fun to talk to. I like asking them how their days are going. Its looks like this might be my favorite class of the semester.

9/13

Today in class I learned the importance of taking into account the unexpected that occurs in life. I had done my rough draft on Sunday and thought I had my idea for my writing project 1 solidified. However, seeing the past projects in class changed my mind. I needed to make something that had a deeper meaning than the one I had planned. So midway through class I mentally changed the subject of my paper. Which means I will have to write a new rough draft but I am happy with that.

Originally I was going to do my story on a weekend trip to Houston I had with a good friend Zac back in 2009.  Along with telling that story, I was going to create a photo collage of memories from the weekend But after seeing the example projects, a photo collage seems a little elementary and shallow. It probably would have been an ok grade but I felt that I needed to create something with more depth.  When Raul mentioned that he had been all over the world, it occurred to me that I have a unique heritage. My Indian grandpa met and married my grandma, who is German, in Canada. I have a dark skin complexion because of this and people have trouble guessing my ethnicity. For my creation, I want to mix an Indian recipe or spice with a German recipe to illustrate my heritage.

I feel that I always learn something new in class. Seeing the past projects was really interesting. People can be so creative. However, that is usually not I. But I enjoyed how people took a part of them and transferred it to their creation. Some of the creations were not the best art I have seen. But the owners are probably super proud of it and it means something special to them. Even if I can’t make an emotional or aesthetic connection to it.  The ones that are unique are the ones that are remembered not the ones that are neat and beautiful.

English class has never been my favorite class. I am not naturally creative. I’m pretty cut and dry when it comes to art. I appreciate good art, especially music, but I can’t create it. This project is good for me. I don’t have to be super creative. All I have to do is use my life experiences or stories and connect those to whom I am using the bridge of something I create.  This is better for me because I am pretty good at making connections between whom I am and my life experiences.

This class is different from most of my classes because I get to learn about my classmates. Usually I will learn my classmates’ names and nothing more. However, in English class I get to learn about people’s backgrounds and feelings. During discussion we get to discover that the people around us are very unique and come from varying backgrounds. Two people in the class are international students and are the first international students I have met at A&M.  They have very different experiences from most of the other students, who are Texas born and raised. It just goes to show that life in America isn’t the only way to live life. Hammad is one of the international students. He is from Saudi Arabia. He is a very cool kid and he speaks English very well. So far that is one of the big things I have learned through class. The English language is now spoken worldwide. It is crazy to think that our language and culture has spread like that. It feels that we are over domineering as an American people and our imperialistic tendencies are spread further than we think. I hope our generation realizes this before it is too late.  Talking with Hammad has given me a unique perspective. I hope that this class continues to give me insight on cultural issues like this and how interesting the people around me are.

Stories

I found our class discussion on stories intriguing because I have semi recently read a book about how we as humans are stories and we should pay attention to the stories that we are living.  The name of the book is A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and the author, Donald Miller, wrote about his view that we all should consider how to live better stories. The book illustrates this through autobiographical stories from Donald’s life. Donald states that all good stories have a conflict where the main character wants to achieve or obtain some goal.  Personally, I find that the main idea of the book, that we are living stories, parallels the excerpts from King’s book that we read.  I was thinking of how these theories relate to my life. It made me think of some of the stories that I have told with my life. Some of the stories bring back a smile and a fuzzy memory. Others make me wince and feel regretful.

Freshman year feels like it was a bunch of stories that intertwined to create one big memory. Most of the memories involve my friends and I laughing. To the point of insanity. One particular story led to the big story of my 2^nd semester. This story occurs in the wonderful month of November on a normal weekday. I came back from class to discover my roommate Daniel and my friend Ziggy with tear soaked shirts. After a few quick inquiries, I found that they had uncovered the worst smell known to man. Apparently our suitemate had forgotten about a cookie tin full of muffins that his mother had given him back in August. And we were right in the middle of November. Ziggy had inadvertently opened the cookie tin and found out the hard way what happens when 3 months of interrupted decomposition is let loose on the nostrils. Needless to say, the stench was unbearable. A few minutes later, I arrived in the room and was told that it was absolutely necessary that I smell the toxic muffins. Several seconds later, there was a college freshman on the ground gagging.

Fortunately the story does not end there. While Ziggy was in the bathroom, I decided it would be hilarious to place the opened muffin tin in the bathroom and lock him in.  Screams ensued from the bathroom. Poor Ziggy couldn’t breathe the smell was so bad. So needing to salvage my reputation as a good friend, I attempted to put the cover back on the moldy muffins. However, I couldn’t get any closer than three feet without involuntarily gagging and retreating away. For 15 minutes we all attempted to dispose of the muffins while retaining our lunch. But the attempts were to no avail. By this time I was 40 feet down the hall from our room gagging on the floor because the smell was so bad. By that time, we were making quite a commotion and our RA came to our room. Being two years older than us and more mature, she quickly took the situation and remedied it by kicking the offensive muffin tin down to the hall trash can. Although the smell lingered in our room for several hours and half of a can of Febreeze had to be used to make our quarters livable again.

The story still makes me laugh today and I slightly gag when I smell Febreeze because it reminds me of that day. But this small, seemingly insignificant story played a large part in the 2^nd half of my freshman year story. Because of the muffin incident, I became better friends with Ziggy and joined his fraternity in the spring semester. I met some of my closest friends through the fraternity. That is why I like this story because it reminds me of my small stories will become parts of my big stories.

About Me

I suppose if I really wanted to let a person know about me I could spout some meaningless statistics. Like I am a 6’1 Caucasian male born and raised in Texas. I graduated number 6 in my high school class. I attend Texas A&M and am currently in my sophomore year.  Almost a junior by hours, I continue on my plan to obtain a degree in Finance from the Mays Business School. But the statistics are a mere shell of who I really am.

My name is Nate Mital and I am extremely blessed to be alive and attending Texas A&M. When I am not at school, I live with my parents in Plano, a Dallas suburb. I absolutely love my little sister and wish I didn’t have to go to school so far away from her. She is a senior in high school and recently committed to Southern Miss to play basketball.  That made me so proud and I am excited that Southern Miss plays the University of Houston every year so I can see her play. My parents are hard working people who are very active in my life. My dad graduated from Louisiana State University with a double major and currently works for the cellphone division of Samsung. My creative mom, a Texas Tech graduate, is starting her first year as a school teacher in the Frisco, Texas school district. Now that I am in college I love spending time with them and wish that I had spent more time with them when I was younger. But they are very enjoyable to talk with when I get the chance!

I guess since this is a blog about me I should actually talk about me. Well, my name is Nate. I enjoy listening to good music and working out. I recently have gotten into folk music and hardcore music at the same time. I know. It’s strange. But by far my favorite genre of music is Christian rap. My favorite artist, Lecrae, is coming out with his fourth album on the 28^th of this month. I am pretty sure I am a fan of Christian rap because I got tired of the meaningless lyrics of mainstream artists. They all sound alike. For the most part it’s the same message with different beats. In the same vein of entertainment, I do not enjoy movies that much. Now there are some exceptions to this statement. But most Hollywood movies are poorly filmed, acted, and have shallow stories, in my opinion. However, every now and then a movie like Inception comes out and gives me hope for the industry.

In regards to my friends, I feel that I have some great friends here and when I can hang with them I look forward to it. I am a introvert so I can spend much time reading books or spending time alone which isn’t bad but I have to balance that with social time. I was in a small Christian fraternity last semester but decided about midway through pledgeship that I was definitely not a frat boy. So this semester I will be branching out in different directions in regards to organizations.

I also have an inner nerd that doesn’t come out to play very much. Nonetheless, I enjoy playing video games and reading books. I recently read an 800 page book about 19^th century English magic. Which automatically qualifies me as a nerd in front of my jock friends. They laugh at me because I like to read but it hasn’t stopped me from reading for 16 years so I think I will be good the rest of my life. I used to read many books about history and classic books such as the Count of Montechristo. Now, I read different stuff but I enjoy books about life and people’s experiences. It is hard to say what my favorite book ever is but I have read the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia too many times to count. Seriously its probably more than ten times for the CoN.

I hope after reading this you feel like you can understand and relate to me a little better!