The Normal Heart

I attended a community college before attending Howard University. One of my old math professors I made a promise to the class that if we were to get 10,000 retweets on the social media network Twitter that we will not have a final. We were able to get those retweets so the whole class was under the impression that there will be not a final. We finally reached close to the end of the semester, we were winding down after what we thought was our last exam. I professor handed us a study guide for a final and the class was confused because we thought that he was a man of his word. One of my classmates and I immediately went to the dean and told her about the situation and what had been going on. The dean was furious she could not believe that a professor was willing to give up a final due to a tweet going viral on social media. She instructed a professor to give us a final at once. When we met with our professor in the following class the professor explained he was a man of his word and how the study guide was only a joke. That if we would have read the study guide we would have saw that we were only playing a game for our final. However, now that the dean was involved we are all required to take a final. This goes to show that sometimes when you speak up about a problem the outcome will not always be the one you hope for. I think we got caught up on the fact of the viral tweet and the professor not keeping his word, that we didn’t take the time to read before we got other people of higher power involved.

We determine how other people see us with the feedback that we receive from them. Meaning how others react when we come around, if we get invited to social events and if we are included in planned events. People tend to act negatively towards somebody they do not prefer to be associated around. As human beings, we need to feel socially accepted and when we are isolated we tend to react emotionally. Those who are leaders or those who people gravitate towards relate to their beliefs. The behavior of a trait for someone good at recognizing how others see them, I relate to the big five personality traits. These are similar to the ones we discussed earlier in the semester but just a little more in-depth on behavior details. Those traits include extroversion, conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, Neuroticism. Extroversion describes how someone would interact socially with others and knowing how to control their emotions and comfortable with assertiveness for people in social environments. This is similar to being an extrovert; they thrive in social environments because they are not afraid to voice their own opinions. People with these traits gain energy from being around other people. Oppose to those who score low in extraversion are known as introverts. Conscientiousness is known to describe a person’s impulse control which allows them to engage direct behaviors and thrive in social environments. They have high levels of thoughtfulness, and able to think about how their behaviors may affect others. People who have the openness trait tend to be more open and adventurous. Having keen insight and a creative imagination they can have a broad range of interests. While also being open to new world experiences and learning new things. Agreeableness comes with caring for others enjoying helping, feeling empathy, and concern for other people. Making sacrifices without receiving anything in return. Neuroticism is a person’s ability to control their own emotions. Those who have low traits tend to be more emotionally stable. They have self control by having control of their own emotions. not acting on impulse allows them to be more socially accepted.

Back when I was in high school, my school decided to implement a new lunch schedule. The school decided to take away all periods of lunch and combined them into one. The new lunch was called “Charger Time” because our school mascot was the chargers. This new schedule combined all grades to eat lunch at one time for an hour. This was a good idea because it allows students enough time to visit with extracurricular groups, tutors, teachers as well as enjoy lunch. In the second month of the new school year, a food fight broke out during charger time. After the food fight, the school administration took away charger time and resumed the regular 30-minute period lunch break. This impacted the students who were able to have meetings with teachers and extracurricular groups that weren’t able to meet after school. Now that the charger time was taken away the students who had the time to meet during lunch were now forced to meet after school. Unfortunately, meeting after school meant that they had no way of getting home or any transportation. I wasn’t driving at the time, a few friends of mine and I were included with those students who had no way of getting home after school hours. We decided to start a petition with signatures of students in hopes to gain attention to the administration to let them know how negatively impacted we are from having to charger time taken away. We also put together a presentation about the positivity that came out of charger time. We stressed the fact that a few bad students should not be the cause to stop the progression of other students. From collecting signatures from the petitions I gained the support of other students and I was able to have a big support system behind me when presenting to the administration. The principal and the vice-principal liked my leadership and my ability to bring cause for a change. My speech and presentation went very smoothly, better than I expected. Even though I was very nervous they liked my dedication in the effort that was put forth. The following week charger time was reinstated.

In my high school at the end of the day before dismissal, the school would sell Chick-fil-A sandwiches for three dollars. If you didn’t get there exactly when the bell rang the line would be around the corner within minutes. Many students were missing their bus standing in those long lines just to get a Chick-fil-A sandwich. Of course, the administration took that away. Students were outraged, some of the students didn’t have any food at home so that was their afternoon snack. Since they weren’t selling sandwiches the next day I decided to sell Domino’s Pizza. A few friends of mine put our money together to have a delivery of 30 pizzas. We sold the pizza outside the school for three dollars for two slices. We made over $350 that day, however, we did get in trouble because we’re not allowed to sell things without permission on the school premises. In return, we begin boycotting spending money at vending machines or anything that the school was selling. We refused to give any of our money until the sandwiches returned. This went on for about 3 to 4 months and we gained a lot of student support. Until one day at a pep rally, the Principal asked us why we were not using the vending machines or eating school lunch. We all started to chant “Bring back Chick-fil-A” and we had sandwiches the following week. They came back with a better-implemented plan to make sure that students would not miss the bus during the sales of sandwiches. This reminds me of Lysistrata and the normal heart where they went on strike in hopes of change. The plan was not thoroughly thought out because we were didn’t realize how the budget affected us. The money that we spent in school was used for activities and school resources. When we boycotted we took away some of those resources that could have been used to help better our education.

I think that I have a better sense of right and wrong than those around me only because of my military background and experience. I don’t think that I am better than other people I just think that I am a little bit more advanced. I am not generally more willing to stand up and fight who was right in those around me due to my last story where when I open my mouth it turned out to be worse than when it was closed. I am a little discouraged in that area. I am not as critical as others as I am myself. I am more critical of myself and more lenient towards others.

The list of behaviors and character traits that get in the way of Ned being an advocate is his attitude. When people don’t move according to his time he gets upset and he blows up. I understand that there was an urgency for the need help for the issue at hand. However, if you talk to people in any type of way then there is no way that you can expect them to offer help. If someone does not fight for a cause a strong as Ned does especially when they’re engaging in some of the same activities as him he gets upset. For example, during the play, Bruce is a closeted homosexual and Ned is trying to get him to understand that those dying can easily be him. Ned expects too much of himself and he doesn’t let others help him. If they are not helping him and moving to his speed he does not want it. Ned is also Afraid of being portrayed as somebody weak because of some past traumas in his life. He feels the need to constantly fight anybody who challenges him and he never backs down from a challenge. I feel like Ned feels comfortable with being out of the closet however he won’t take disrespect from anybody who tries to him degrade him just because he’s a homosexual. Which is why he feels so strongly towards Bruce being a closet homosexual. Ned feels that how can you fight for a change of homosexuals when you can’t even come out of the closet. Ned cannot work with others who he does not respect because he sees them as a week. He feels weak people are incapable of causing change because they don’t speak up for themselves. He is strong-willed and sometimes has a barbaric personality that can seem disrespectful to others. Ned’s intentions are pure but sometimes in his delivery toward others seems harsh as if he was a bully.

Traits and behaviors that can get in the way sometimes are that we can think so strongly on a topic and we tend to get mad when others don’t have the same view as us. When our energy is not reciprocated through others who claim to have the same views this can be very frustrating. It’s also confusing because we don’t know exactly where they stand, they say that they care but their energy and actions show something different. That can get in the way of being an advocate for others because they may seem like we’re being mean towards them. I can relate to Ned by not being able to work with those who I do not respect. It takes a few things for me not to respect you, being weak and not having a mind of your own is only a few things but they are important to me which will cause me to lose respect for you. So if I have to work with somebody as simple-minded as that I find myself not being able to connect because the respect is not there. This causes me not to respect anything that they say towards me. I can improve and work on that by putting my personal feelings aside and tackling the issue at hand which is the most important. I expect too much of myself that sometimes when I don’t meet my expectations I get disappointment or critique myself so much that I get discouraged.