This is just the beginning

My name is Anyes Kim also known as Anessa and I am full Korean American. I am the only daughter in my family, the middle child, currently engaged and learning my surrounding and boundaries as a soon to be step mother to my fiancé's thirteen year old daughter. Being the only daughter in my family, this comes with many responsibilities since it is the female’s duty to do everything and anything that helps support and take care of the family. I have taken and embrace this role at the age of 8 and learned to cook, clean, work, shop, and anything that involved taking care of the family due to my cultural background and tradition. The privilege of growing up quickly has taught me many things in life, giving me a new perspective on everything. I’ve learned to survive through poverty by hunting down scraps of food from dumpsters, finding clothing for myself, and doing everything and anything to bring something back such as food or money for my brothers and mom. My past life has broadened my perspective in life; it has taught me to cherish every moment good or bad and to take in each day as it comes. This knowledge, and experience of who I am as a individual, a sister, daughter, fiancé and as a soon to be step mother to my fiances daughter has helped me throughout this class when it came down to decision making, thoughts, and becoming a successful writer.

At the beginning of this class I knew it was going to be semi’ challenging, but did not realize how challenging it would be. The different assignments, group discussions, analyzing papers, and blogging has truly been difficult for me, but in the process it has also helped me grow to become a stronger, better, and a skillful writer. This class has taught me how to break down and analyze paragraphs, how to structure/ organize a paper, and to show not tell all. The three major themes throughout this class of identity, community and tradition taught me what my strengths and weaknesses were. Analyzing readings from our textbook, continuously deepening our thoughts in group discussions, and being able to intertwine my sense of knowledge from my past, cooperating it into my writing were a few of my strengths. Everything else involving in our English class such as structuring, organizing, grammar, spelling and whatnot I considered my weaknesses. I started this class with minimal knowledge about how to write a correct, interesting, arguable, organized/structural paper, and because of this class it has helped strengthen, understand, and polish most of weaknesses as a writer.

Reading all the short essays in our Remix textbook and being involved in our discussion board had brought back my past memories of what I went throughout my childhood and how I’ve evolved into who I am today. For example; two of the short essays that I truly enjoyed reading from our Remix textbook were author Queen Latifah, “Who You Callin A Bitch?” and writer Gloria Anzaldu, “How To Tame A Wild Tongue”. I really enjoyed reading these particular essays because I was able to relate to them mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. In Gloria Anzaldu’s essay, she was only viewed as a Chicano by the Americans and lived a difficult life because English was her second language and was shamed by Americans for speaking her native tongue, Spanish. I too, was given a hard time for not only having English as my second language, but for also having an accent and not being able to pronounce certain words correctly. I was bullied and beat up for being Korean and for speaking the Korean language. Queen Latifa’s life story of struggling through life, living in the ghetto but finding herself during the process thanks to encouraging words from her mother was inspiring to read as well. I was able to relate to her story in many ways from living in poverty, given encouraging words from my mother to discovering who I was as an individual. These short essays were not only motivating and inspirational, but it was also great for the fact that it was relatable to many readers especially me.

For that reason alone, I decided to pick these specific pieces listed below as my four choices of writing. I chose to use my group discussion from the identity chapter as my awareness of audience and voice because this discussion not only allowed me to share the voice and examples of the author but to share my own story and voice as well. This allowed others as in my peers to read, discuss, interact and share their stories and opinions as well.

Community as our second theme, I chose to use my community blog as my writer’s choice. I chose this particular work because it became a meaningful piece of writing for me while being able to show my abilities as a writer. I chose to write about the Breast Cancer Awareness group as my community piece because it represented everything wonderful in life. My mother was a breast cancer survivor and the love, support, encouragement, and faith that these group of people gave me during hard times, it helped me to stay strong for my mother. This type of commitment for one another in a community setting, there were no words that can describe this type of love for one another in this group. Without this piece in my e-profolio, I don’t think my work would feel
complete not just as a writer, but as an individual.
For my revision piece I chose my intermission timed essay inspired by the movie, “Edward Scissorhand,” because the piece itself felt incomplete since I was not able to fully present my abilities as a growing writer. This assignment was more difficult because of the fact that it was timed and even though I had practiced prior, I just knowing the fact that it was being time truly threw me off, which I was unable to successfully complete this assignment. I was glad to be given a second chance at this assignment, finishing what I had started and being able to complete this work, showing my improvements and skills.

For my final choice, I chose to use my tradition paper followed by our last theme in this class which was tradition. Reading many of the small essays for this chapter reminded me to look back at my past, present and future reminding me to embrace and continue on family traditions. This chapter was an eye opener because I was really able to look at today’s society and see how far we’ve come as a civilization, how far we’ve advance in modern technology, and how we are slowly forgetting simple tradition that’s been taught down to us by our ancestors. Simple tradition of personal interaction, communication, and family time. These reason inspired me with my tradition’s paper, which showed my ability of taking a problem and critically analyzing the issue. This paper I was able to break down the issue, show my analysis and come to a final conclusion.

All four of these writing pieces and the theme of identity, community, and tradition has allowed me to grow and become a stronger, clearer writer. Not only was I able to show my abilities as a writer, but I also was able to express my emotions throughout my pieces as well. Writing has always been a difficult subject for me, but the challenges of learning to blog, having group discussions, timed essay, and writing a clear, organized, structured papers has taught me to become a stronger, more focused and overall a better writer. I know I will be able to use this knowledge and experience to accomplish my future goal of one day receiving my bachelors degree as a RN nurse.

For my critical thinking assignment, I chose to use my Traditions paper because I felt this paper not only demonstrated my ability to critically analyze an issue but also showing organization and structure through the writing the best. This piece demonstrate the issue of how modern innovation such as the internet is threatening the cultural tradition of personal interaction. This thesis is supported throughout the paper with examples and quotes from authors in our Remix texbook.

Before any type of advance technology such as the Internet was invented, people were encourage to go out to mingle, greet and connect with people face to face, whether it involved finding a job, or just trying to make new friends. Personal interaction of having eye to eye contact while communicating with one another has always been a part of the American tradition. Having face to face and eye contact had become an important gesture because it gave the other person a sense of being heard, understood, but most importantly it showed respect and acknowledgment. Nowadays, people have the option of communicating, mingling, and connecting with people without having to leave the house and able to go about their business in the comfort of their own home. The modern innovation of the Internet is threatening the cultural tradition of personal interaction.

Personal interaction has always been a key factor/tool when it came down to surviving in the world. This particular skill taught people to get out of their comfort zone, get around, ask questions, and to build that confidence within themselves to interacting with people face to face. The American tradition of personal interaction is now being negatively impacted by modern innovation called the Internet. Ellen DeGeneres, author of “This Is How We Live,” states, “Everyone likes to talk about how advancement in technology will change the way we live forever. Frankly, I think modern technology is
hurting us. I really do…” (638). Modern innovation such as the Internet is negatively impacting the cultural tradition of personal interaction because it is derailing the importance of face to face communication. The importance of being heard, understood, while giving the person the respect, support and acknowledgment. People cannot get this type of satisfaction through a screen of an Internet.

For example, if someone was pouring out his/her heart through instant message, a friend might reply back… but is that friend replying back because he/she feel the need to or because he/she really does feel sincere and understand that person’s pain and frustration? In this particular situation the obvious answer would be yes, the friend would respond back regardless if he/she truly does feel sincere or just responding back out of friendship. With personal interaction this eliminates the problem of guessing or wandering if that person is listening because not only does it involve face to face contact, but the conversation itself gives the other person the chance to have a deeper connection. The Internet also encourages people to use the modern way of communicating, which means to be able to communicate within the comfort of a person’s home. This may be easier, simpler and more comfortable for most people, but communicating online cannot expand and build one’s confidence and skills when the time does comes down to face to face communication.

The cultural tradition of personal intercation is more beneficial in creating mental stimulation, then the modern innovation of the Internet communication. Before advance technology such as the Internet was created, face to face communication was benefical to most people. Being acknowledged and understood satisfied people because they were given the opportunity to express their feelings, thoughts, or concerns. This type of intense personal interaction can be mentally stimulating because the listener has to make the effort to concentrate, pay attention and listen carefully, while being able to connect the speakers words, with his/her emotion and after processing it responding back. Communicating throught the Internet reduces the person from using these efforts causing no stimulation at all. Steven Johnson, writer of “Everything Bad Is Good for You: Games,” states, “Think of this as the difference between acquiring information and exercising the mind… Those benefits are themselves amplified by the fact that society places a substantial emphasis on precisely theis set of skills” (462-463). The author’s quote above about the difference between acquiring information and exercising the mind is a great example of the benefits people achieve when using personal interaction, rather then reading a text on a chatroom on the Internet.

Modern innovation such as the Internet may be hurting the cultural tradition of personal interaction, but on the other hand it has created opportunities for those who are tempted to have that personal interaction, but does not have the skills or the confidence. Having a face to face conversation with someone can be intimidating for many people, and for those who are truly intimidated have the option to communicate with people in the comfort of his/her home. This allows people to build their confidence, while being able to mingle, meet and greet with people without having the feeling of being intimidated, judged, or scared.

In conclusion, the modern innovation of the Internet may have few benefits for those who are intimidated by face to face conversations, but the benefits of personal
interaction are greater. Personal communication does not only benefit the speaker, but it’s also beneficial to the listener as well because it allows both people to connect on a deeper,
personal, private level. No one can receive that type of personal connection through a Internet, only in face to face conversation. In order to continue this type of deep, personal level of communication, the cultural tradition of personal interaction must be courage to continue this cultural tradition, and to be passed down to the newer generation of society and not to be tempted by the modern innovation of the Internet.

For my writer's choice, I decided to share my blog from our Community chapter/theme. I chose this particular work because it was one of the more meaningful pieces I've written where I was free to express my emotions as well as showing my abilities as a writer. The purpose of this assignment was to demonstrate how the differences among an individual can test a group's ability to stick together as one. I chose to use the Breast Cancer awareness group for this particular assignment because I believed it demonstrated what was asked above. Without this piece in my e-profolio, I don't think my work would feel complete not just as a writer, but also as an individual.

Values, morals, interest, and the love for one to overcome cancer are some of many reasons why this group is considered a community. Giving one another the strength, faith, and the love to another are what helps hold this group together as one, regardless if you’re a stranger, a friend, or a family member. The most important need this community shares is for their love ones to overcome cancer, and to be given the second chance at life. People who are involved in this community shares similar feelings of pain, hurt, frustration, and stress because each person involved in this community witnesses their love ones battling and fighting for their lives.

Sometimes it can be so difficult because people come to realize that they cannot do anything and feel helpless… all they can truly do is have faith, believe, and show courage for their love ones. Depending on the situation, tension can either be good or bad. It can become a good thing because it encourage those supporters to go out and take action such as helping raise money for research, which is another step in one day defeating breast cancer once and for all.

The reason why I decided to be apart of this community is because I love what this community represent not only as an individual but as a whole. This Breast Cancer Awareness group represents strength, faith, courage, and love. This community is continuously supportive for one another regardless if you know them or not, each person understands what the other person is going through and how their feeling. My mother was a breast cancer survivor, and I know exactly what these people in this group is going through mentally, physically, and emotionally. As a community, a unit, and as one, the only thing all supporters have in common is one thing and one thing only. For our love ones to beat cancer and to be given the second chance to be with their love ones once again.

I chose to use my discussion board from chapter one Identity as my awareness of audience and voice because I felt this writing was public in nature. This discussion board had a clear sense of audience (my peers) and showed a clear voice on the issue discussed, which was to think about the ways in which language and identity are connected and how our language can affect the way we view ourselves and how we're viewed by others. I used examples from author Gloria Anzaldua's essay, "How To Tame A Wild Tongue" from our Remix textbook to help answer this question.

“If you want to be American, speak American. If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong” said a teacher to young Gloria Anzaldua in her essay, How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Gloria Anzaldua was one of many individuals who were given a difficult time for speaking/knowing a different language, having accents, and basically having English as a foreign language, which seem clear when her teacher told her to only speak English after being caught speaking Spanish at recess. The consequences of young Gloria for speaking her main language… getting “three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler… and being sent to the corner of the classroom”. It’s obvious how hard back in the day we tried to get other cultures to become proper Americans by trying to strip their own culture/identity away, rather then having them embrace the American life.

Even as Gloria aged, she was still given a hard time for having a simple accent. At Pan American University Gloria states, “I, and all Chicano students, were required to take two speech classes. Their purpose: to get rid of our accents… Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out”. I can definitely relate to this in so many ways, because I too had an accent while learning the English language. Not only did I had to repeat English multiple times, but I was hit with a twig on my calves every time I had even the smallest accents pronouncing the simplest words such as ; dog, cat, ball and etc. This only proves how far people are willing to go to basically shape and form other cultures to only become proper “Americans”.

At the end of Gloria’s essay she speaks within her heart, she states, “If you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself. I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing…I will overcome the tradition of silence”. This statement truly hit home with me, because at a very small age, I felt so out of place, lonely, awkward, and sad because I had an accent and the fact that I wasn’t a true American. I lost myself trying to figure out why I was so different, but the day I realized who I was and am was the day I embraced my culture. I was trying so hard to be someone I wasn’t and in the process lost myself. I’ve learned to embrace and balance both cultures, so I don’t even have that feeling of being lost again.

For my revision piece I chose to revise my intermission timed essay inspired by the movie, "Edward Scissorhand" produced by Tim Burton because it was the only piece of writing I was unable to complete. I was not only unable to finish this writing, but I felt I was not able to fully present my skills and abilities as a growing writer. I did not complete this work due to the pressure of being timed and glad that I am given a second chance to complete this work and be able to share it with my peers.

Tim Burton, producer of the movie, "Edward Scissorhands" shares a concept that people in today's society struggles with throughout their life. struggles involving one trying to establish his/her identity within a community, and what defines people
to become and insider or an outsider within the community/society. Edward being isolated from society and his unique appearance is what makes him the ultimate designated outsider of Suburbia in the movie.

Edwards' unique appearance automatically places him as an outsider. Suburbia is a small society full of lively people, and animal wearing lots of pastel color, whereas Edward being the complete opposite. Edward has very pale almost ghostly skin with many scars on his face, crazy, long, never brushed black hair, tight leather body suit with buckles and lastly sharp shears of metal for his hands. At the beginning of the movie
when Peg Bogg the Avon lady first encounters Edward in his home, she screams, "You just stay right there..." because she was shocked by his appearance. Throughout the movie Peg Bogg was not the only disturbed citizen in society that disproved of Edwards appearance such as, Esmeralda also known as the "old loony". When Esmeralda first sees Edward, she states, "do not get close to him for he is satan...". she automatically judges him as being evil because of his look. Edward struggled with alienation and trying to establish his own identity throughout the movie, because he was only trying anything and everything to fit into Peg Bogg's community. Eating the same food, clothes, allowing Peg to put cosmetic on his face and etc.

Edward's isolation from society throughout his life caused people to misunderstand Edward in many ways. The only human contact that Edward had was with his inventor, until he suddenly passed away, since then Edward stayed isolated in his home for many years, until Peg Bogg decided to bring him in into her home. Throughout the movie, it is clear how Edward's isolation from society causes him to get into trouble since he knows little acknowledgment about rules, cultural values, and social expectations. For example, when Joyce shows Edward around her working salon, she takes him to the backroom and ask if he would like her to demonstrate some protective clothes... Edward says yes, not knowing that morally it is wrong since she is a married woman and even though she was taking advantage of him at the same time.

Edward's isolation and appearance caused him to be misunderstood in Peg's community. While trying to fit into the community, Edward lost his sense of self during the process,
because he was trying so hard to fit into Peg's world and for once to know what it feels like to be normal and to be loved by someone else besides the inventor himself. During the end of the movie, when the community is chasing after Edward because they saw him as being dangerous, that's when he finally understood that Peg's community was not the
right place for him. Edward understood that he cannot live a normal life having metal shears as hands without accidentally hurting others, and also for the first time he was
able to experience true love with Peg's daughter. Peg's family was the only family that loved Edward for who he was, not what he could do. Edward's appearance, and living in isolation will always make him an outsider of Peg's community.

Tim Burton, producer of the movie, "Edward Scissorhands" shares a concept that people in today's society struggles with throughout their life. Struggles involving people trying to establish their identity as an individual, within a community, and what defines people to listed as an insider or outsider within the community/society. Edward being isolated from society and his unique appearance is what made him the ultimate designated outsider of Suburbia throughout the movie.

Edwards' unique appearance automatically placed him as an outsider in Suburbia’ a small knit community full of pastel color homes with neatly trimmed yards. Suburbia is a small society full of lively people, and animals wearing lots of pastel color, whereas Edward as the complete opposite. Edward had very pale almost ghostly skin with many scars on his face due to his shears of mental as hands, crazy, long, never brushed black hair, tight leather body suit with buckles and lastly, sharp shears of metal as hands. At the beginning of the movie when Peg Bogg, an Avon sales person first encounters Edward in his home, she screams, "You just stay right there..." because she was shocked and taken back by his appearance. Throughout the movie Peg Bogg learns to adjust to Edward’s unique look, trying to help him blend in within her society. Peg Bogg was not the only disturbed citizen in the close knit society that disproved of Edwards appearance… not as much as, Esmeralda also known as the "old loony". When Esmeralda first saw Edward, she states, "do not get close to him for he belongs to Satan...". she automatically judged him as being evil because of his unique appearance. Throughout the movie, it is obvious that Edward struggles with alienation while trying to establish his own identity as an individual and a person. He tried anything and everything to fit into Peg Bogg's community by eating the same food, wearing similar clothes, sleeping on a bed, and allowing Peg to put cosmetic on his face.

Edward's isolation from society throughout his life caused people to misunderstand Edward in many ways. The only human contact that Edward ever had was with his inventor, who suddenly passed during the beginning of the movie. Since then, Edward stayed isolated in his home for many years, until Peg Bogg decided to bring him into her home. Throughout the movie, it was clear how Edward's isolation from society causes him to get into trouble since he had little acknowledgment about rules, cultural values, morals and social expectations. For example, when Joyce shows Edward around her salon under construction, she takes him to the backroom and ask if he would like to see her demonstrate some protective clothing for the salon. Edward says yes, not knowing that it is morally wrong since she is a married woman, even though she was the one taking advantage of Edward during that time.

Edward's isolation and appearance caused him to be misunderstood by many people in Peg's community. Edward lost his sense of self because he was trying so hard to fit into Peg's world and just wanted to know what it felt like to be normal and to be in loved by someone else besides the inventor himself. He was so consumed trying to please everyone around him that he was easily taken advantage of by the few people who opposed him in the first place, causing him to become a target. At the end of the movie, when the community is chasing after Edward because they saw him as a danger, that's when he finally understood that Peg's community could never be called home for him.
Edward understood that he could not live a normal life as long as he had metal shears as hands and without accidentally hurting others. The one thing Edward was able to experience for the first time he was the feeling of true love for Peg's daughter. Peg's family was the only family that loved Edward for who he was, not what he could do. Edward's appearance, and living in isolation will always make him an outsider of Peg's community.

People struggle with the concept of trying to figure out who they are as an individual and how they fit into society daily. It’s a process that takes time to discover and understand. For example, when I first moved to Washington I knew right off the bat that I was considered and view as an outsider simply because of my ethnicity. Moving into a small knit all white community made things even worse and more frustrating because I was completely alone. Unlike Edward’s situation, everyone in the neighborhood wanted to meet and befriends with him because he was viewed as something new and exciting. That was nowhere near my case, if anything the complete opposite. But as more Asian Americans moved into the neighborhood, that’s when I finally felt there was some hope. After several months later, I no longer felt like an outsider but more of an insider because I befriended people with similar ethnicity and for the first time felt like I belong to a group. It’s surprising how much a community can impact you as an individual. Depending on the situation, anyone can easily be considered as an insider or an outsider. This movie easily proves this point when Edward first step into Peg Bogg’s community he is easily accepted and befriended by many of Peg’s neighbor, and just as quickly pushed out of the community because he is misunderstood through his action and seen as dangerous. It’s amazing how communities can either accept or deny a person depending on their appearance.

Anzaldua, Gloria. “How To Tame A Wild Tongue.” Latterell 77-83.

DeGeneres, Ellen. “This Is How We Live.” Latterell 638-643.

Johnson, Steven. “Everything Bad Is Good for You: Games.” Latterell 459-467.

Latterell, Catherine G. Remix Reading & Composing Culture. Second Edition. Bedford: St. Martin’s, 2010. Print.