1st Play :)

I am working on my third monologue in theatre class. I am performing tomorrow. This monologue is about four minutes long. I am playing Libby from the play “Blue Window”. She is in her apartment cleaning her office and talking to a friend about a how her husband died. Libby starts off happy while talking about the good times she had with her husband, and as she gets closer to the sad part of the story she becomes more emotional.

Last week as we rehearsed in class, my theatre instructor pulled me, along with two other classmates, out of the classroom and asked if we were interested in being a part of a play called “Distasteful Relation” that will be playing at Mayan Hall Theatre on April 20^th and 21^st. All three of us were very excited to say yes. This is a very short play so I am afraid to say anything about it because I might give it away. I received the script yesterday and was told by the professor that I will be playing either the mom or the daughter. He asked everyone in the play to read it by tomorrow so we can schedule our first rehearsal. I read it as soon as I got home. I think it is a very interesting story and I am looking forward to start rehearsing. This is the first play I am involved in and that makes it even more exciting. 

What can you do to help?

Last week I, along with the rest of the class, attended to Men Against Rape speech by Jeff Bucholtz. Jeff Bucholtz is a violence prevention specialist and instructor at Southwestern College and San Diego State University. Jeff talked about sexual violence and rape culture. He used storytelling, examples, compare/contrast, cause/effect, and explications as his rhetorical strategies. I had Jeff for my communication teacher last semester and I always thought of him as a great public speaker. He is intelligent, funny, and very inspired by what he does, which is why he always fills up the room when he does these speeches.

Jeff shocked us with facts like 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime while 1 in 7 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime and only 5%-10% of sexual survivors will report the crime. 76% of all sexual assaults will be committed by someone the person knows. It is difficult to believe that 1 in 10 men will commit a sexual assault sometime in their life. Rape culture encourages male sexual aggression and violence against women. The media makes violence seem sexy.

In his presentation, Jeff uses the power point, pictures of real sexual violence survivors and their stories, writing board, and a small news script. In this script he pretend to be the news reporter with breaking news where he gives advise to women what to do to prevent sexual violence. It is a funny monologue Jeff performs where he advises women not to leave their homes at anytime, not to smell good, not to wear attractive clothing, and much more silly advice. At the end he explains that it’s not women’s fault the sexual violence occurs. Jeff advises the men to start standing up as well and to say something when they hear one of their friends call another women a disrespectful name. A simple comment like “Hey man, that’s not cool” can make a big difference in someone’s life.

At the end of his speech Jeff includes advise how to help survivors of sexual violence. We can start by saying three sentences: I’m so sorry this happened, it’s not your fault, what can I do to help? There is more information on www.weendviolence.com. Please be supportive and like their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/WeEndViolence.

Goals

One of the assignments we had last week in personal development was to build a dream board. A dream board is a collage of our goals. We were to be creative by using only pictures. Instructor asked of us to include academic and personal goals. Before starting this assignment I thought I would struggle with it. I thought to myself I don’t have many goals, just a few. Is that going to be enough?

It wasn’t until I sat down that I realized I have many goals in life. Some of them I hope to accomplish in 10 years from now and some in 3 months. I was surprised to see how much better I feel about accomplishing every one of them just by putting them on a piece of paper. I felt as if I was already closer to all of them. I think it might have something to do with organizing them. Somehow when I looked at them I realized they could all be accomplished with hard work and determination.

Similar happens to me when I write out my daily to do list. Yes, I write a do to list every day. The list usually includes homework assignments with the due date next to them so I don’t forget, things I have to do for work, and fun activities I want to do for myself. When I make this list I feel better. I take the pressure off myself by not having to memorize everything that needs to be done. This list motivates me. When I look at it I know that it has to be done, no exceptions. I also enjoy crossing off things as they get finished. It’s a great feeling. This makes me feel good because I can look at the list and I know where my time has been spent. I know that no time was wasted.

My first monologue performance :)

About two weeks ago each student in my acting class was given a monologue to memorize and perform. Oh I was so excited. I went home the same day and started memorizing it. My character was Mrs. Benjamin Pantier and the time period was 1860. Mrs. Pantier is dead, and she is explaining why she killed her husband. She never wanted to be married to him, he filled her with disgust, and that was a problem because he was the only man the law and morality permitted her to have the marital relation with. She claims she killed him because she couldn’t take it any longer. 


As the performance day came closer I became more nervous. I practiced each day, but I practiced the most the day before the performance. I was so terribly nervous. Even though I knew my lines my biggest concern was forgetting them in the middle of the performance. The next day when I came to class we first did our regular breathing and relaxing exercises. I volunteered to perform first because knowing myself the nervous would only get worse. I went up in front of the class and sat in the chair. The instructor allowed us to take a minute or two to relax and get in the character. During that time I remembered that Mr. Pentilescu told us the character is believable only when you convince yourself that you are the character and force yourself to feel his or her pain. I took all of the energy I had to do so. I imagined guilt and sadness Mrs. Pantier felt. After about 30 seconds of imagining her pain I started feeling her pain spreading throughout my body and then I started performing. 


 It was after the performance I realized I wasn’t nervous at all. I concentrated on myself only and for those two minutes I forgot I was in front of 20 other students and Mr. Pentilescu. I am pleased with my performance and I am looking forward to many more. The next one is tomorrow, March 5th. Yayyy, can't wait!!!

Personality

For the past couple of weeks I have learned a lot about my personality and learning style. Both my English and Personal Development class have focused on this subject. Along with my classmates I took a few tests that had to do with personality. I always thought I knew myself, but these tests tell me otherwise. After 22 years of my life I’m still learning new things about myself each day. 

I took a personality test this week and the results claim I am extravert 1, sensors 25, a thinker 12, and judgmental 39. Being an extravert means wanting to engage with the outer world and getting energy in that sense. I can work in groups but I don’t have a problem working by myself either. The second option would have been introvert and that is someone who needs time to process information. Sensors prefer to work with facts and figures, in other words they want proof. Second choice was intuitive personality and that is someone who likes to go with their gut feeling. 

It turns out I am more of a thinker than a feeler. Thinkers think about the overall picture and care about being logical. A feeler thinks about how his or her decision affects other people. I though I was somewhere in the middle. I always look at the overall picture and about the consequences before making a decision, but I also care tremendously if and how my decision will affect those who are close to me. 

Someone with judgmental personality likes to set goals and is very orderly. The other option would have been a perceiver. A perceiver is someone who is open-minded, doesn’t mind changing plans suddenly, is easily distracted, enjoys exploring, and likes to his or her options open. I for sure thought I was more of a perceiver. I do like to set goals for myself, make plans, and stay orderly, but I do think of myself as a perceiver as well. I enjoy keeping my options open, I don’t mind changing my plans in the middle of doing something, and I get easily distracted which is why I was surprised I scored 39 in judging personality. 

Learning Style ☺

Each week I learn something new about myself. This week in Personal Development class we took a short test on www.vark-learn.com and this test determines our preference of learning.

I have a strong preference for learning by aural methods. Aural learners learn most effectively by listening to information delivered orally in lectures, speeches, and oral sessions. Aural learners tend to gather their information by listening to a speaker; about 25% of the population does this.

Learners like myself best in take information by:

-attending classes

-attending discussions and tutorials

-discussing topics with others

-discussing topics with teachers

-explaining new ideas to other people

-using a tape recorder

-remembering the interesting examples, stories, jokes...

-describing the overheads; pictures and other visuals to somebody who was not there

-leaving spaces in notes for later recall and filling

Our notes may be poor because we prefer to listen. The website recommends reading summarized notes out loud and explaining notes to other aural learners. To perform well in any test, assignment, or examination, they recommend to listen to our voices and write them down, spend time in quiet places recalling the ideas, speaking our answers out loud or inside our heads, and practice writing answers to old exam questions.

I am glad I had a chance to take this test and learn this new information. I now know what way of learning best works for me. I would also say that this test is accurate because I can relate to it. Reviewing the material we covered in class with other classmates helps me memorize it. It also gives me a chance to hear how others put it in their own words. Reviewing the lecture with my fellow classmates often fills me in on information I missed; same goes for the other person/persons.   

Birth Order

In my PD class we talked about birth order, that is first born, middle child, and last born.  It seems as if our birth order has an impact on our personalities. Mrs. Williams handed out papers that consisted information on what the personality tends to be for first born, middle children, and the last born.

While parents of the first newborn are usually responsible and diligent, they are also tentative, anxious, and inconsistent-this makes them demanding, strict, and overprotective. It has been shown that first borns talk and walk before children who are born later. First borns get higher grades in school and have higher leadership and achievement traits. They are organized, have strong need for approval, they grow up pleasing people and taking care of others, they are high achievers, hard driven, tend to be perfectionists, don’t deal well with criticism, and are devastated by failure.

As each child is born, rules of the family become more relaxed. Middle children are usually the opposite of the first born. If first born is a loner, the next born will have numerous friends. It is common for middle children to feel squeezed out with the oldest or youngest getting more attention. They are very sociable, good mediators, they learn the art of negotiation and compromise, free-spirited, independent, and sometimes rebellious. They place great value on loyalty and are the likeliest to remain monogamous in their relationships.

By the time the last child is born, parents often let the child’s development proceed with more of a hands-off approach. Last born get abundance of attention and is often the target of jokes. They are accused of being spoiled, the ones that get everything the other siblings never had. They have tendencies to want things immediately. The last born child is often described as sociable, charming, loving, open, temperamental, irresponsible, and self-centered.

 Looking at this I must say I agree. I am the first born and I have one younger brother. We are complete opposites. I am happy to say I have always done well in school, but I can’t say the same for my brother. Every teacher he has ever had complained about his unwillingness to learn, disruptiveness, and unfinished schoolwork. He is loud and I am quiet. He has a million friends and I have a couple.  He is spoiled and wants everything his way, but he is very often loving and friendly. It is really amazing how much our birth order has an impact on our personalities.

Theatre

I love my theatre class. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first signed up for it, but now I am glad I did. One of the things I learned is that if you believe in your character and your relationship with other actors on stage, your performance will be believable. I am starting to realize that I would love to play roles that are completely opposite of me. I would love to play the bad guy, someone who is just plain evil. Not only would if be entertaining for me but I find it easier to play a role that is unlike myself than someone who is similar to me.

Music ☺

I love music. I listen to all kinds of music and I listen to it everyday. I particularly like Jesse J. I like her because she is very unique, she is a great songwriter, and has a powerful voice. One of my favorite songs from her is Who You Are. We often act, say, or do things that the rest of the world thinks it’s normal or right. This song is about who you are. It is about staying true to yourself and not worrying about what everyone around you thinks.

There is no need to please anyone else as long as you are happy with yourself.  

Jessie J - Who You Are

My first blog ☺

I am a student at Southwestern and it is my third semester here. I hate to say I am still undecided on a major, but hopefully I’ll figure it out soon. I am 22 years old and you can call me D. Exactly 11 years and 11 days ago for the first time I left my country and arrived to the US. I come from a small country called Bosnia with a current population of 3.7 million people. I came with my mom and brother and knew about five words of English.

“Are you planning to go back?” people ask me all the time.

“Just to visit,” I reply.

Bosnia is a beautiful country, but my home is here now. I feel comfortable here. My friends and family live here. Everything I need and want is here. Sometimes Bosnians get upset when I tell them this, but that’s just how I feel. Everyone is different, and that’s okay.

I have been hearing a lot about Bosnia on television and radio lately. That’s thanks to Angelina Jolie’s new movie In the Land of Blood and Honey, which won a Stanley Kramer Award and is nominated for a Golden Globe. The movie is about a war that took place in Bosnia in the early 90’s. I have not seen this movie and I am not a fan of war movies which is why I’m not sure if I will watch it. 

In The Land Of Blood & Honey Trailer Official 2011 [HD]