Vincent English Blog

Response: During the break, I spent most of my time trying to rest my body and my mind from the stress of school and college. The week leading up to the break had me crammed with many assignments that were overdue (much like all of my blog posts (sorry)), and I had to just take that week during the break to rest. When I did go out, it was usually to go get dinner with my family or my girlfriend, which would give me a chance to get dressed all nice and put some makeup on, which has become a recent hobby of mine. I've been experimenting a lot with the outfits that I wear when I go out, and this break gave me a chance to finally change my style and see how I felt about going out in public in these new clothes. Overall, the break was just a nice week where I got to rest and try something new. Summary: Today, we read "Still I Rise" in class. Reflection: February break has always been a nice break in the beginning of the second semester that I think everyone needs.

Response: The way I show love can be represented by a CD, a person's favorite food/drink, and a stuffed animal. The CD shows how much I think music connects me and that person together. I believe most people enjoy music, so when I am trying to show my love to someone through music, it's usually a CD. The food/drink shows how much I listen and observe what the other person likes and enjoys. The stuffed animal (which would be their favorite animal) shows how I pay attention to the little details, and give a physical gift to someone which they can hold and enjoy. Summary: Today, we finished up our Interactive Oral. Reflection: Expressing love to someone you care about can also mean you want to be treated the same way too!

Response: Out of all the texts we've read so far, Wild has been my favorite because of the deep personal connection I have to it. It's a story about loss and redemption, trying to discover who you truly are on the inside, and what it means to be fearless and wild. This couldn't be a better time in my life to read this memoir because of everything that is going on with myself and my identity. The hardest text for me to read was The Color Purple because of the harsh themes and topics in the novel. I thought that it was inspiring to read a book that was so raw in its writing, but it was definitely hard for me to relate to it. With Fences , it was definitely my favorite text to physically read, especially when we got to act it out. I remember that I was almost always the person who would play Cory in the play, and I felt like it was the perfect role for me. For future readings, I think these books have taught me that it's important to read ahead, but also to relate the sto...

Response: During the Interactive Oral, it was nice to see how all the groups carefully planned out their lesson for their chapters and the activities that they had planned too. They're enthusiasm made me want to answer questions and give input to the part of the story they were discussing. When I presented, I was so grateful that everyone in the class was so active and participating. The participation felt very validating, since it made me feel like we were doing a pretty good job. At some points, we had to improvise our discussions because we still had some time left, but everyone was passionate about our chapter that it didn't worry us. Summary: Today, we listened to groups present their Interactive Oral. Reflection: The Interactive Oral's were a new way for us to discuss a chapter to the class without summarizing it blandly in front of everyone. It gave us a chance to talk about the deeper meanings of our chapter and really understand why it was important to the story.

Response: For Valentine's Day, the perfect day that I would want to have with my girlfriend would go like this (assuming that I have a lot of money!!!). I would want for us to wake up next to each other, and then go make her food so she can have breakfast in bed. The day would be focused on us trying to get out of the house, since we've been spending a lot of time there recently. Once we get ready together, we'd take a drive to a nice park to walk around and talk for a little bit, discussing what we want to do today. After that, I'd want to take her to do some sort of activity, like painting, pottery, massages, or an arcade. Once we're done with that, we'd head over to Chili's to get her favorite meal there, the Triple Dipper, and then walk over to Bruster's to get some ice cream which is right next door. After that, we'd drive for a little bit to find a nice place to watch the sunset while listening to music in the car and just talk about life and l...

Response: The best piece of advice my mom gave me was when I recently was talking to her about god. My mom and her family are Catholic, and that's how I was raised as well. When I was at Pius, specifically during my Confirmation classes, I would say that was the closest that I have ever been to God in my life. I was doing everything right by the Catholic standards, but this was also one of the worst times of my life too. I kept wondering why it seemed that my life only seemed to get worse even though I was doing everything right by God's standards. Now, jumping to the present, I am the happiest that I could ever be in my life. I still struggle with mental health at times, but I actually know what it is that I am feeling finally. This time of my life can be described in one word, Love. Everything in my life is just filled with love. I can also finally say that I love myself. However, my relationship with God has dwindled over the years, and I've stopped doing the things I us...