Identity: At War With Yourself by Jeanette Alvarez

                                                                     At War With Yourself

                Keeping a balance on a day-to-day basis is a constant battle we face everyday. Has it ever crossed your mind that you can be at war with yourself? Most of us have experienced mild dissociation, which is like daydreaming or getting lost in the moment while working on a project. Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a severe form of dissociation, a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (previously known as multiple personality disorder) is a fairly common effect of sever trauma during early childhood, usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, and/ or emotional abuse. The latest research indicates that dissociative disorder is primarily among woman and less frequently diagnosed among men. Statistic show the rate of dissociative identity disorder is .01% to 1% of the general population. Still, more than 1/3 of people say they feel as if they’re watching themselves in a movie at times, and 7% of the population may have undiagnosed dissociative disorder. People with dissociative identity disorder may experience any of the following symptoms; depression, mood swings, and suicidal tendencies, sleep disorder (insomnia, night terrors, and sleep walking), anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias (flash backs, reactions to stimuli or “triggers”), alcohol and drug abuse, psychotic-like symptoms (including auditory and visual hallucinations), eating disorder, compulsions and rituals. Someone with this disorder may find themselves doing things they wouldn’t normally do such as speeding, reckless driving or stealing money, yet they feel compelled to do it. People with this disorder feel compelled to do these things because they have no control over themselves.

The theme of the article really caught my attention “multiple personality”. How many times haven’t you question yourself about your own personalities and of others at least I have? I always wonder about people’s personalities and the wide range of them. Can it be possible that one person can carry various personalities? After reading this interesting article, my curiosity was answered and the answer is yes! There are people who have multiple personalities. But what they have is a disorder? 

This article has very interesting facts and has a lot of information about dissociative identity disorder. One very interesting fact that I found in this article was that there’s an average of two to four personalities present when a patient is initially diagnosed but, there’s an average of thirteen to fifteen personalities that can become known over the course of the treatment. While unusual, there have been instances of more than one hundred personalities. While reading I thought I fit in with the characteristics of multiple personality disorder and as I continued reading, I realized that we all have different personalities but not necessarily a disorder. This article has great specific examples and details such as the percentage of people who have this disorder, what are the characteristics of someone with this disorder and the symptoms of this disorder.

We are in a constant battle to keep balanced on a day-to-day basis with ourselves while dealing with everyday circumstances of life. Identity is something very delicate and interesting matter to search.  Who would have known that dissociative identity disorder was something that people face?  

                                                                                                                                                     

Identity by Alexandria Chavarriaga

Pets can always make you feel better, no matter what mood you are in or what type of day you have had.  For anyone that has a genuine love for animals you can relate to your best friend.  Whether it’s a bird, cat, dog, snake, rabbit, pig, any animal they are there when you need them the most.  They may not respond to your as a human would, but they do respond.  Pets are intelligent, and they sense how we are feeling.  They are in tune with our emotions.  They are extremely loyal, and I give them the utmost degree of respect.

            Take for instance, my parakeet Napolean once I walk thru the door, he opens his cage and fliesto my shoulder and sings to me.  He has no idea what kind of day I had but, rests assure, he puts a big smile on my face.  I can feel his silky, smooth and fluffy feathers against my cheek while he sings and presses against me.  His gorgeous emerald green with strong bright yellow as the sun feathered body accented with fresh water blue.  In the fairy tale, I am the queen and Napolean is singing me the melodies.  He looks at me with his sparkling black onyx eyes with adoration and I, in return, look at him in the same adoration.  I love him and I know he loves me.

            Now, my English bulldog Augi on the other hand, is a piece of work.  As soon as I walk thru the door, he charges towards me like the running of the bulls in Pamplona with his strong muscular well proportioned body, almost knocking me over.  I can see his little tail wagging back and forth asking me to embrace him, I do.  He wants to be petted, his belly rubbed and most important, he wants his cookie treats.  I am exhausted.  All I want to do is to lay down on the sofa, and here comes Augi with his wet, slobbered blue octopus toy, he plops himself right on me, I can hardly breathe.  All I can hear is the squeaking of the octopus toy and Augi looking at me with his silly face, making me laugh and telling me in his eyes his missed me all day.  I have also missed you my dear.  As I lay there and run my fingers through his beautiful white marshmallow coat, I can feel his heartbeat.  He loves me and I, in return, love him immensely. 

            Usually in the morning, I do not like to get up but I do to take Augi out and I go back to sleep. If my alarm rings and I don’t get up, Augi begins to bark to wake me up.  I ignore him and get deeper under my covers.  He begins to pull my covers.  He knows the precise time when I need to be up.  Even my sweet Napolean will over to my bed and find his way under the covers to wake me.  He either nibbles on my ear or sings me a tune.  I begin to laugh and of course get up, I start my day thanking God to be so lucky to have these beautiful creatures he has made for me.

            They may not be able to hold a conversation with me, but they are aware of what goes on in my everyday life.  I don’t know what I would do without them.  Don’t get me wrong, they are both mischievous.  Take, for instance, the week of my recycling is being collected.  Well, why is it, the day before when I get home, I find all the plastic containers chewed up in pieces all over the floor and an arrangement of strings of newspaper hanging from the window.  They are aware that what they have done is wrong because they are nowhere to be found.  I scream their names “Napolean” “Augi”!  They are still hiding out.  I say out loud, “Well, since I have to clean up this mess all by myself, I will be eating all the cookie treats”.  Here comes Augi running from left field and Napolean flying right behind him.  They begin to help me clean up.  Augi putting the plastic containers back in the recycling bin and Napolean removing the strings of newspaper from the window.  I’m a little angry that I have to clean up but I’m also laughing on the inside because they are hurrying to clean up trying to get their cookie treats.

            I am on my way outside to the patio and I notice I’m being followed.  I keep walking and before I open the door, I hear a bark and a chirp.  I turn around and ask them “You two really think you deserve a cookie treat?” Augi puts his head down, and Napolean hides behind his ear.  I start to laugh, because they are aware of what they did was wrong.  I pull the treats out of my pocket and I hear Augi’s barking and Napolean’s chirping of happiness, a beautiful harmony.  They put a smile on my face.  They are my companions and I adore the both equally.

From the Animal Article:

            We can get through life without a few things, but we cannot get through life without our pets.  If these beautiful animals were not here, we would be the most miserable people on the planet, that is the truth.

As an animal lover, I agree completely because they bring joy to my everyday life.

6 Word Narratives

Sparked, most likely, by Ernest Hemingway, 6 word memoirs have become increasingly more popular as seen by this NPR feature :  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18768430.


After writing their narrative essays, required to be much longer than six words, students in this class also tried their hand at 6 word memoirs.

Here they are :

Told me she loved me. Smile!

Animals, Apple Pie, Icey, Let me draw!
 

Dreaming, debt free and going Mecca

All I Ask For Is Honesty

There is no good without bad

Getting too old for this stuff

Alway Firm Flexible Anytime Dedicated Forever

What is your six word memoir?

Blog Post Example

Blog posts are essays that you write on a certain theme. 
The themes are assigned by group in class.  
Each student will find an article on that theme and write a response to it.  

This is an example of a blog post.

Camden's Real Danger : a response to http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20110210_Camden_library_s_closure_will_create_a_void.html

While most media focuses on the police layoffs, it was refreshing, if not disheartening, to read The Philadelphia Inquirer’s article about the closing down of Camden libraries.  This is proof that not only does Camden not have the money to protect its community from the city it’s become, there are no funds to stop it from becoming that way.

            Ask most New Jersey-ians to discuss Camden and you’ll hear jokes about being high on the nation’s list of most murders, talk about turning down the wrong street on the way to see a concert or visit the Aquarium or, maybe, from more educated or invested residents, tales of corruption through the years.   If you wonder what those who live in the city think of it, you probably won’t  get an answer because few people ask them.  We forget that Camden is not just a sore spot for the state, or the nation, but also a home and a community for families, most who believe that their city has been corrupted more by outside drug deals and political corruption than by the community itself.

            And who can blame them?  In the current state of the United States where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and there is no longer a middle class, most politicians would probably like to sweep the town under the rug or let it fall off the map altogether taking its citizens with it.  Even Margie Salvante of the Philadelphia Theatre Alliance said last fall on WHYY that she worries about the South Camden Theatre Company.  Worried about theatergoers visiting Camden, Salvante said their location “is as bad as an intercity thoroughfare can be”.   (My guess is that Salvante never visited North Camden.)   If Salvante is saying this about one of her members - South Camden Theatre Company pay dues to the Theatre Alliance, an organization whose mission is to strengthen and lead the theatre community by promoting positive awareness - you can conclude politicians aren’t encouraging their constituents to promote economic growth in the city either.

            This is surely supported by the lack of funding to keep the Federal Street branch of the library open even though, as the Inquirer stated, every morning, when they open  up, library staff find sixteen people waiting in line to use a computer.   Say what you want about Camden but the people that come to the library, whether it be to search online for jobs, apply for unemployment, read a novel, play a board game or research landlord/tenant rules, aren’t on the streets.  And each of those people know other people:  friends, family, children.  Trickle down education works just as well as trickle down economics.  Seven miles away, the Cherry Hill Library’s mission states that the library recognizes its value and responsibility to the community as an educational, social and cultural resource yet if you don’t live in Cherry Hill, you have to pay an annual $75 fee to belong.  I would suggest that Cherry Hill open its arms (at no cost) to Camden citizens losing their library but let’s be honest, several Camden residents have no way to get there. 

            If you’re going to close the library and not allow access to the books, why don’t you just burn them?

            As an adjunct professor, I teach English Comp at Camden County College in Camden.  Every year, I meet hundreds of students who are invested in making their lives better through education.  They are eager and they are smart.  My class requires web time, not because (as I say in the beginning of the semester) I require them to go out and buy a computer or pay for web access but because I feel that digital literacy is important skill to have in 2011 and it would be unfair to send these students out into the world not being comfortable at a computer.  These students have access to computer labs and libraries – Camden County College students are allowed to use the library at Rutgers Camden- but they don’t feel as comfortable there as they do in their own community.  And don’t we want to send  Camden resident who invests the time and money in their education back into their community?  By closing the Camden’s libraries, we are shutting them out of sharing, encouraging and learning side by side with their neighbors. 

            You don’t have to be a bleeding heart liberal to agree that education and knowledge are necessary for growth and success.  Americans are really good at treating the symptoms instead of spending time and money on prevention.  (Look at health care.)  Now that we’re taking away the means to educate and share knowledge, it’s even more obvious that laying off the police force is only part of the problem.  We’ve also stopped allowing people to protect themselves.

CCC English 101 Section 92

 Course Description

English 101 is geared toward preparing you for academic and college level writing, which includes your ability to think critically, as well as read and write in multiple disciplines beyond English.  There are several strategies involved in producing well written work, some of which are developing ideas, preparing arguments that target specific audiences, pre-writing and brainstorming, organization and the utilization of outlines, gathering data through research, and the editing and revising process.

                Because this class emphasizes developing your writing skills, it is designed to teach you how to write using the above mentioned strategies while recognizing the connections between reading writing, specifically upon readers’ expectations about the structure of texts, writers’ reliance upon existing texts to produce new writing and ideas, and the process of collecting, interpreting, and disseminating information through writing.

Specific Course Goals

• Knowing and understanding your audience;
• Producing well thought out, college-level essays with clearly defined and supported theses that transcend routine discussion while engaging your personal interest;
• Using writing and discourse to navigate and interpret complex ideas based on assigned readings, personal experience and knowledge, and class discussion;
• Developing and refining writing techniques
• Considering and expressing the relationships between your ideas and those of others in a productive and respectful manner;
• Engaging in the process of revision/editing your writing in an effort to make it better by learning to critique your own and other’s work in a productive way;
• Gaining experience in producing writing on a computer, including researching ideas, gathering data, and drafting typed papers; and
• Eliminating major grammatical errors in your writing

Texts (Required)

50 Essays:  A Portable Anthology, Second Edition

Samuel Cohen

Dictionary