Empathy Tour

Deaf Culture 

Some people do not think that the deaf language is really a language. It is not the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of language. When you think of language, you think English, Spanish, German, French, etc. But the deaf language is important and a really fascinating language to learn! Also when some people think of the word, deaf, they think disabled.  "The neglect here is almost unimaginable- and it's not just neglect from the Beckley staff but from the world itself- the world that has carried on with its daily business while keeping all these men invisible deposited elsewhere, in a slew of the nation's most obscure corners." (Jamison pg. 148-149). Many, many people way back in time, thought deafness was a disability, a way of God punishing his children. The deaf children, adults, and older people were not allowed to read, write or speak! It was an awful time but now, the whole world is better for the deaf culture and they have learned to read, write and some speak. Even have their own language called American Sign Language or ASL for short. 

http://www.deafeyeseeit.com/2016/04/01/ag-bell-belittles-nyle-dimarco/ 

"I was awkward and gangly and self-conscious pretty much all the time, except when I was running, he wrote to me once. Running made me feel free and smooth and happy." (Jamison pg. 133-134). This is the exact same but with American Sign Language. At first many people thought their deafness was unfair and they wish they could hear but once ASL kicks in, they are proud of being deaf. This one girl named, Lauren, wrote a paper about her deafness and how it has affected her. She explained how signing had a lot of action and loved the amount of expression this language has. She is proud and she should be. Deafness is a special factor in deaf people's lives. It what makes them, them. 

I am not deaf but I took ASL for my first 2 years in high school and really enjoyed it. ASL is a thrilling language. You use your hands to sign in order to communicate. They do not follow the English grammar or even most of the language, it is a natural language. For example, " The dog is not  home today.", in ASL word order it would be, "Dog not home today", they do not have signs for "the" or "is". This is what makes the language easier than English and signing is fun, creative, and like Lauren said full of action! 

My favorite sign is "Why not". 

http://mindforums.com/the-psychology-of-deafness

25 Basic ASL signs, have fun learning! 

Works Cited

Jamison, Leslie. The Empathy Exams. N.p.: Audible Studios on Brilliance, 2015. Print.

Debbie Clason, Staff Writer, Healthy Hearing Debbie Clason holds a Master's Degree from Indiana University. Her Impressive Client List Includes Financial Institutions, Real Estate Developers, Physicians, Pharmacists and Nonprofit Organizations.Rea. "The Importance of Deaf Culture." Healthy Hearing. N.p., 22 Sept. 2014. Web. 08 May 2017.

"Know-the-ADA." Knowing Your Disability - The History of Deafness. Arizona Office for Americans with Disabilities, n.d. Web. 08 May 2017.

Gray, Lisa. "I’m Proud of Being Deaf." Listen to Our Stories: Words, Pictures, and Songs by Young People with Disabilities. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017 

Jay, Michelle. "Deaf Culture." Start ASL. N.p., Aug. 2008. Web. 08 May 2017. 

"Sign for WHY NOT." Signing Savvy. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2017 

Ashleyclarkfry. "25 Basic ASL Signs For Beginners | Learn ASL American Sign Language." YouTube. YouTube, 22 Oct. 2016. Web. 08 May 2017. 

Don't Know Much About History

Background of Mental Disorders: 

Mental disorders come in all shapes and sizes in the brain. It can trigger different parts of the brain, making us act or think that way. Mental disorders travel back all the way through history. Back then, everyone thought that a mental illness was a religious punishment or a demonic possession. Each culture had the same view on the mentally ill. "During the Middle Ages, the mentally ill were believed to be possessed or in need of religion." "In the 18th century in the U.S., the patients were treated badly. Leading to stigmatization and unhygienic confinement." (uniteforsight). Nowadays, mentally ill are treated with caution and care. Today's definition of a mental disorder is "a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a dysfunction in the psychological, biological or development process underlying mental functioning." (Psychology Today) 

sources: http://www.uniteforsight.org/mental-health/module2 , https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/rethinking-psychology/201307/the-new-definition-mental-disorder 

First page of the essay: 

Is a Mental Illness Just a Disease or is There More to it?

The way the world sees a mental disorder is not normal. There is something wrong and everyone knows that. They see it and observe. The history of a mental disorder is not a happy ending. It was a dark and cruel time for people who suffered from one. “The mentally ill were treated poorly and said to be witches. In the 1600s, Europeans began to isolate those with mental illness, often treating them inhumanly and chaining them to walls or keeping them in dungeons. The mentally ill were often housed with the disabled, vagrants and delinquents.” (Tracy). Back then, people were frightened of them and afraid of catching this outrageous disease. Heading to the future of today, we are no longer afraid and can have proper care. Still, mental disorders are one of the most confusing and challenging disorders to understand. A lot of the misunderstanding is the stigma acknowledging mental illness due to the judgment from others. People fear what they do not understand.

Understanding Borderline Personality Disorders is the first step to accomplishing the true meaning of it. This personality disorder is one of many. It is a tricky one to diagnose and can be a difficult path for the person living with it. Personality disorders have different types, there is obsessive-compulsive disorder, dependent, paranoid, narcissistic, antisocial and borderline personality disorder. “BPD is a disorder involving instability in many areas of life, including emotions, relationships, behavior, and identity.” (Chapman 19)

Sources:1. http://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/the-history-of-mental-illness/ , (Borderline Personality Disorder, A guide for the Newly Diagnosed, Alexander Chapman, pg.19) < Book source 

(My essay will also include many things on criminals, criminology, their crimes, how mental disorders made them behave this way, which treatment is best, and more. This will all be later in the essay!) 

Discussion Bored #4 "Why Bother?"

Question: Reflect. Inquiry Questions based on "Why Bother?": What is the problem? What should be done? POST YOUR ANSWER TO #4 TO YOUR BLOG AS WELL. Write a proposal--a long paragraph--to help resolve a problem that you care about. State how the problem impacts the reader and why the reader should care. Then, describe the solution and how it will make the work a better place. Make sure your proposal does the following (see pages 198-199) for typical features of proposals:

Answer: I know we have all seen homeless people out on the streets, especially in Minneapolis. Do you ever think, "why aren't they in shelters?" "why don't they want help for themselves, instead of standing on the street and begging for money?" Well, that's where I think we should make posters or ads around town to advertise shelters for homeless people. Get them back on their feet again! They may not want to go but we need to get them to trust that everything will be okay and not rip them off. Also, after they get the help and care they need and are stable, we should help them set up for jobs. Get them back out there and have them feel good.

"A Man and His Garden" final essay

Shannon Krenik

Professor Maltman

ENG 1101-03

February 13^th, 2017

A Man and His Garden

            Turning your passion into a reality is challenging but not impossible. That was my goal for this profile essay, I went out on a quest to find someone that did not think that their job could make it in this world but succeeded with his passion in hand.

            The man with a garden, has combed back white side hair, is about half bald on the top of his head and wears bland colored clothing. I noticed his nose is thinner from the inner ends of his eyes and extends down into an arrow shape. He also has dark blue eyes like the bottom of the sea. This man is Steven Ruse. He grew up in Deephaven, MN, graduated with a BA Degree from St. Olaf College and studied for a Masters Degree in Horticulture. When he was a young boy growing up in the suburbs of Minnesota, he had a passion for the outdoors. At just eleven years, he had his first job delivering newspapers. A couple years later, he started mowing lawns for profit. By the time he was fourteen, he had his own lawn mowing service, most of his customers were friends of his parents. Right then and there, Steve knew he had started something that he loved. When college rolled around, he got a job around some of the estates in Minnetonka, MN, and while working for them, he saw for the first time, the art of gardens. Later in college, he met people through the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum where he did his research and after talking with them, he came to the realization this was something he wanted to do and was passionate for.

            Any job you dream of having does not always come true to your liking. You may get close but not the way you hoped or you just give up all together and become stuck in a rut of disappointment in yourself and the job you found. Steve Ruse got the dream job he always wanted because he never gave up hope. People told him it would not  work and he even thought to himself it wouldn’t work out but he put those thoughts aside and made it a reality.  “I think the feathers in my hat, I gotten through the years the satisfaction of making a garden, being outside, doing what I really like to do and making a living at it, that’s a luxury, you just feel not only a luxury but a situation where you’re lucky to be in that. You can be in a job you like and be around people you like, just make a go for it.” His dream job was to be able to design gardens, so with his love for the outdoors and a little creativity, he made it possible and made the life he wanted come true.

            “I think a lot of people have the idea and over the last couple of decades that they don’t have a connection to the environment and they spend a lot of their time going to their jobs, back to their houses, looking at electronics, you know, they have no connection to their mediate surroundings and to have something of beauty where you can create to make an issue or reason for them to come out, open the door, step outside and just wonder at what is right there.” Steve Ruse explained this in a way that opened my eyes, that there is more to life than the normal setting. I agree with these words of wisdom because this is what our world has come too nowadays. Everyone gets up, goes to a job that pays the bills and comes back home to the electronics. Not many people have a connection with the outside world and what it is like to see something grow into such a beauty; we just let it slip through our fingers as days go by.

I had to ask him one last question. His response surprised me as he told the history and the meaning of the word. “I named my company after a plant that’s called Heliotrope and the reason being is that it’s a plant that doesn’t survive our winters so it needs protection which any business does and it’s very fragrant, I liked fragrant plants ones that have a sweet aroma. Heliotrope has a sweet vanilla like a cherry pie aroma you might say, but it’s also from a stand point of what the word means. It has a Greek root, goes back to two words that are Greek. One is Helios which is the Greek word for sun and the other one is trope. It’s a scientific botanical term and it’s a stimulus that, for example, why do roots grow into the ground rather than go up in the sky. So it’s a stimulus of something towards a plant that makes it survive. A heliotrope is a stimulus toward the sun and that is what gardeners are, they go out, work when the sun comes up, follow the sun and work till the sun goes down. That is the meaning of heliotrope.” Before I asked him, I did not know a thing about this type of plant. Now I crave to plant it or even just smell the sweet aroma of vanilla and cherry pie that he described. I want to be able to sense it for myself because I can only imagine that sweet fragrance.

            Steve Ruse has taught me many things. One valuable thing I learned was to never give up on the dream you wish to have. Instead of thinking about it and longing for it to come true, go out and experience that dream and tell yourself “I don’t want to be stuck doing the same old thing every day, I want to go out and be free!”, and do not listen to the people that think it will not work or your making a mistake, otherwise you will doubt yourself and it will never come true. Another thing I learned was the meaning of the word heliotrope, it fascinates me how that came about and the sweet aroma it gives. Though Steve Ruse is an outgoing, comical man, he is very professional when it comes to his work. He is very passionate in what he does and make’s sure everything is perfect in his art of the garden world.

            

Profile Essay Rough Draft

Shannon Krenik

Professor Maltman

ENG 1101-03

February 5^th, 2017

A Man and His Garden

            Turning your passion into a reality is challenging but not impossible. That was my goal for this profile essay, I sent out on a quest to find someone that didn’t think that their job could make it in this world but succeeded with his passion in hand.

            The man with a garden has combed back white side hair and is about half bald on the top of his head and wears bland colored clothing. I noticed his nose is thinner from the inner ends of his eyes and extends down into an arrow shape, he also has dark blue eyes like the bottom of the sea. This man is Steven Ruse, he grew up in Deephaven, MN, graduated with a BA Degree from St. Olaf College and studied for a Masters Degree in Horticulture. When he was a young boy growing up in the suburbs of Minnesota, he had a passion for the outdoors. His first job was at eleven years old delivering newspapers then moved on to mowing lawns. By the time he was fourteen, he had his own lawn mowing service, most of his customers were friends of his parents. Right then and there, Steve knew he had started something that he loved. When college rolled around, he got a job around some of the estates in Minnetonka, MN, while working for them, he saw for the first time, the art of gardens. Later in college, he met people through the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum where he did his research and after talking with them, he came to realize this is something he wanted to do and was passionate for.

            Any job you dream of having doesn’t always come true to your liking, you may get close but not the way you hoped or you just give up all together and be stuck in a rut of disappointment in yourself and the job you found but Steve Ruse got the dream job he always wanted because he never gave up hope. People told him it won’t work and he even thought to himself it wouldn’t work out but he put those thoughts aside and made it a reality.  “I think the feathers in my hat, I gotten through the years the satisfaction of making a garden, being outside, doing what I really like to do and making a living at it, that’s a luxury, you just feel not only a luxury but a situation where you’re lucky to be in that. You can be in a job you like and be around people you like, just make a go for it.” His dream job was to be able to design gardens, so his love for the outdoors and a little creativity, he made it possible and made the life he wanted come true.

  “I think a lot of people have the idea and over the last couple of decades that they don’t have a connection to the environment and they spend a lot of their time going to their jobs, back to their houses, looking at electronics, you know, they have no connection to their mediate surroundings and to have something of beauty where you can create to make an issue or reason for them to come out, open the door, step outside and just wonder at what is right there.” Steve Ruse explained this in a way that opened my eyes, there is more to life than the normal setting. I would agree with these words of wisdom because this is what our world has come too nowadays. Everyone gets up, goes to a job that pays the bills and comes back home to the electronics. No one has a connection with the outside world and what it’s like to see something grow into such a beauty, we just let it slip through our fingers as days go by.

I had to ask him one last question and it surprised me of the history and the meaning of the name, I never knew. “I named my company after a plant that’s called Heliotrope and the reason being is that it’s a plant that doesn’t survive our winters so it needs protection which any business does and it’s very fragrant, I liked fragrant plants ones that have a sweet aroma. Heliotrope has a sweet vanilla like a cherry pie aroma you might say, but it’s also from a stand point of what the word means. It has a Greek root, goes back to two words that are Greek. One is Helios which is the Greek word for sun and the other one is trope. It’s a scientific botanical term and it’s a stimulus that, for example, why do roots grow into the ground rather than go up in the sky. So it’s a stimulus of something towards a plant that makes it survive. A heliotrope is a stimulus toward the sun and that is what gardeners are, they go out, work when the sun comes up, follow the sun and work till the sun goes down. That is the meaning of heliotrope.” Before I asked him, I didn’t know a thing about this type of plant, now it makes me want to smell it or plant it, to be able to smell that sweet aroma of vanilla and cherry pie he was talking about. I want to be able to sense it for myself because I can only imagine that sweet fragrance.

            I learned many things from Steve Ruse, one, to never give up on the dream your wishing of having. Instead of thinking about it and longing for it to come true, go out and experience that dream and tell yourself “I don’t want to be stuck doing the same old thing every day, I want to go out and be free!” and do not listen to the people that think it won’t work or your making a mistake, otherwise you will second doubt yourself and it will never come true. Second, I learned the meaning of the word heliotrope, it fascinates me how that came about and the sweet aroma it gives. Steve Ruse is a very smart man and he is also a funny one but when it comes to his work, you can tell he’s very passionate in what he does and make sure everything is perfect in his art of the garden world.