Week 4 Famous Last Words

Another week has gone by. I'm still waiting for a response for medical school. Some nights I sleep; other nights I barely snooze. Today is supposed to be the last day when all applicants hear a response, but I don't know what to believe anymore. Is it too much to ask for an answer? Whether it's a rejection or an acceptance, I'd just like to know. My patience is truly being tested this semester, but I'll continue to wait.

My classes are picking up the pace which is expected. I'm happy that I have friends who are willing to let me stay the night at their place. It's difficult trying to complete all my homework late at night just to be up before dawn for a long commute, especially for an 8:30 class. I believe my hardest class this semester is capstone, but it's nothing that I can't handle. We had a quiz last week, and it wasn't terrible (except I crammed the night before because I forgot that we had a quiz). Am I slacking off? Just a bit... Maybe more that I expected. I never expected to be the person who completed her homework the day it was due. I know for a fact once I start seeing a drop in my grades, I'll clean up my act.

Something that made me sad this week was how much little time I've been spending with my family. I saw my mom once this week which is crazy for me since I commute. Since my mom and I have opposite schedules, it's been difficult to make plans together. Last night I worked late, and she stayed up just to see me come home. I'm thinking that I should take off a day from work so I can spend a day with her and my dad. Oh! Weird thing that happened last night. I was saying good-bye to my mom because I was about to drive to Norman. Then I see my dad pass by in his car so I said good-bye to him (he was visiting his brother who lives a couple houses down from my mom's house). It was so insane to me that I saw my mom and my dad simultaneously. Ever since their divorce, I don't ever remember them being in the same room together.

Happy Valentine's Day! Source.

Week 4 Learning Challenge: Attention Memes

I'm a huge fan of memes and infographics so this week I browsed through the attention section of memes. The image that stood out to me the most was the "paradox of presence" as shown below:

The Paradox of Presence

THIS IS SO TRUE! And I hate it! Whenever I'm out with my friends or family, the first thing that they do when we arrive at the restaurant is connect to the wifi or text. What was the point of us going out if your attention is directed to a screen? I'll admit that I've done it before. When everyone is busy staring at a screen, I take my phone out and stare at it too. It's the worst. To change this habit, my friends and I decided that we would all put our phones on the table and whoever is the first person to pick up their phones has to buy the appetizers. It's a work in progress. It's funny because I would much rather have a nice time with my friends than eat free appetizers (and I love food).


Technology is a wonderful tool, but it could also be bitter sweet. While we're able to connect to the world instantaneously, I'm afraid that it's making relationships and friendships very virtual.

Week 4 Growth Mindset: You're Not Stupid

I was browsing through the articles in the growth mindset blog, and I found an article with an interesting title: You Are Not Stupid by Brian Koberlein. I thought to myself hey maybe I should read this just to feel better about myself, but I didn't expect to connect to the article the way I did. Brian Koberlein, an astrophysics professor, wrote an article about how there is a misconception about scientists being absolutely brilliant and above the common man. People assume that he's a genius because of his profession, but Koberlein's response to this was "Smart didn’t allow me to become an astrophysicist. Hard work, dedication and the support of family and friends did." I knew exactly what he meant! My friends assume that I'm "smart" because I study microbiology and chemistry. Honestly, I'm not smarter than the average person. Yes, I do like to culture microorganisms and learn about chemical reactions, but understanding these topics didn't come to me naturally. In fact, I had to study really hard and seek outside help from tutors. Also, there were days when I wanted to switch majors because I thought I was too stupid for the higher-level courses. Fast forward to today. I'm about to finish my studies in each science, and it's because I didn't give up on myself. If self-doubt ever consumed my mind, my friends and family pushed me forward. Without them, I would have probably dropped out of those classes and would have never found my passion.

 Another section in the article that resonated in me was the part about cultural biases and stereotypes. Being a woman and a minority, I have to battle against negative presumptions about race and gender. She's a girl so she can't do math. She's Hispanic so she's unintelligent. I've had professional people advise me to not pursue a degree in science because it was common for "my people" to become pregnant at a young age and drop out. There was another instance when a patient told me that I couldn't be a doctor because girls can only be nurses. I've never felt so degraded. How does the color of my skin or my gender define what I can or cannot do? How can someone look at me and automatically predict my "limitations?" It's an ongoing internal conflict that I'm slowly overcoming.

In short, I study science not because I'm smart but because I'd like to understand the inner workings of the universe. I'm not a genius. I'm not naturally intelligent. I'm Hispanic, and I'm a woman, but I'm not stupid because of it. In fact, I'm not stupid at all. I've been wrong plenty of times. I've failed even more times, and that's okay because through all the failures I'm learning. And learning is what I do best.

It's okay to be wrong. Source.

Week 4 Extra Credit Reading: Adam and Eve

For this week's extra credit reading, I read through the Biblical Unit of Adam and Eve. The specific story that I read was called The Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg (1909). The chapter that caught my attention the most was the Fall of Satan.

The Fall of Satan

In this chapter, God created Adam and asked for all the angels to pay God's new creation reverence and homage. Satan, God's greatest angels with magnificent wings, refused to give respect to Adam. Satan felt insulted that he, an almighty angel, had to pay heed to a naked creature made out of dust. To Satan, there was no reason for God to create man when he had so many angels surrounding Him. God demanded Satan to pay respect to Adam because Adam had more wisdom than Satan. I thought this next part was interesting. In order to test this theory, Satan challenge Adam into a contest of naming God's animals. Satan couldn't remember the names of the ox, cow, camel, and donkey. Adam, on the other hand, was given clues by God by hinting the first letter of the animal's name. In the end, Adam won. Satan was outraged and still refused to pay heed to Adam. He broke his promise, but God wouldn't have it. God forced Satan to acknowledge man's superiority over the angels. Satan lashed out on God in which God threw Satan out of the heaves, making Satan the fallen angel. From that point on marked the eternal battle between Satan and man.

God exiling Satan from heaven. Source.

Week 4 Tech Tip: Google site

I made my mythology storybook site today! I put more thought into this storybook than I did last semester since I'm more familiar with the process. My website can be found here: https://sites.google.com/site/mythologystorybook337/

I decided to base my storybook off of the Olympian goddess Hera and her troubles with Zeus. The storytelling style I'll be using will be through a bartender theme where Hera will spill all her troubles to the bartender. It's going to be so much fun developing this storybook!

Creating the website itself was simple with the instructions provided. Even without instructions, one could figure out how to customize their own storybook through a little bit of playing with the website. There are also pre-set themes for anyone who wants to make a website for professional business, church groups, school activities and more. I recommend Google sites to anyone who is a beginner of creating their own website.

Week 4 Storytelling: 100 Wives and Counting

Day 1

She betrayed me. After all that I have given her, she has deceived me. How could I be so blind? How did I not notice the distance between us... She disappeared for hours. I didn't think much of it. I thought she needed her own time for self-reflection, but there was someone else. Am I not enough? Did I not deserve the same love that I have devoted to her? That woman is now dead to me. From here on out, I shall marry a new bride every morning, and take her life by nightfall. Let the world take their anger out of me. They will call me monster and the devil. The people will say that I have no soul. They're right. I'm dead inside.

Day 2

I saw my new wife today. She was a pretty, youthful, and educated. Her skin was flawless, and her eyes were as large as a doe. There was something else in her eyes... Fear. Although she was beautiful, the fear in her eyes reminded me of the pain, and it angered me. Within the hour, I despised my new wife and wanted her dead. She wouldn't approach me. She was forced to have dinner with me. It was clear that she didn't want to be my wife. That wasn't a problem. By nightfall, she was beheaded.

Day 3

My bride to be today was an ignorant woman who wouldn't stop talking. She was bulbous with a mole size of Jupiter on her cheek. Her insecurities drove me insane. Am I too fat? Why don't you look at me? Tell me that you love me. She followed me everywhere. I tried hiding in the darkest corners of the palace, yet she still found me. I was glad when nightfall came. Her death was a blessing.

Day 4

I hated to see her go. My new wife today wasn't the most attractive person in the world, but she connected with me on a deeper level. She loved the same things I did. We loved cooking the same foods and reading traditional tales under the apple tree. She was sweet and gentle. What I loved about her the most was that she accepted me and her fate. She knew that was the last sunset she would ever see, and she was happy to spend it with me. We sang songs together. We laughed together. Tonight my world becomes darker as she departs it.

Day 5

All she talked about was her family, and how much she missed them. My new wife was a bit younger than I was. I could tell that she has been sheltered for some time now. She spoke of her loving mother and her wise father. Then she told her childhood stories about her brother and sisters. I was beginning to get bored of her until she accidentally mentioned her first love. I pried. Before she was taken away to be my wife, she was engage to another man who she claimed to be the love of her life. She shed a tear but immediately wiped it away and hid her face. She was in love with her fiancee, just as I was in love with my first wife. It's only fair that she suffered the same way I did.

Day 99

They're all the same. After sleeping with so many women, I've realized that they're generally the same person: a woman with a pretty face with hidden insecurities that would rather die than to spend the day with me. Well wish granted because every single one of them died. I never thought that I could feel so numb. I thought I was dead when my first wife betrayed me, but no it was just my heart that died. I feel my soul dying now. Today's wife? I don't even remember her face.

Day 100

What was it about her? I'm not quite sure. She had an exotic beauty, but her mind was different as well. She was...unique. Interesting. She had divine attributes. For starters, she actually volunteered to be my wife. That has never happened before. She cared for me. She was adventurous. The best part about her was her storytelling. She told the most fascinating stories about the world, and I couldn't help it but listen to her all night. That was the problem. Nighttime came. In fact, the morning sun rose and she was still alive. I didn't want her to go. She promised me that I could take her life once she finished her story. So I listened...

Day 352

My wife still continues her story to this day, but the best story is how she entered my life and revitalized my soul. I hope this one never ends.

Scheherazade and the sultan. Source.

Author's Note:
I decided to write about the sultan's perspective on his wife's betrayal from the Arabian Nights unit. In the story, the sultan realized that his wife has been deceiving him, so he married a new wife every day and killed her at nightfall. One woman named Scheherazade volunteered to be his wife in order to stop all the deaths. To break his "resolution," she told him stories every night which never ended. That's how she managed to save hundreds of women's lives. The changes I made in the story was that I said that his first wife was unfaithful to the sultan, but they story just said she deceived him (no specifics). When I first read the story, I couldn't believe that a man would want to marry a new wife every day. I thought about what was going through his mind as he met his new wife each morning and watch her die each night. That's why I decided to format my storytelling through journal entries. In this way, I can write about the sultan's thoughts for he wife that he married/killed. This story appealed to me because I couldn't imagine the turmoil that each father would go through for giving up his daughter to be the sultan's bride, just to be killed that night. It was quite a violent introduction into the story.

Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang (1898)

Week 4 Reading Diary: Arabian Nights Continued

I finished the second unit of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang, and it was all about Aladdin and his lamp. It was quite different from Disney's Aladdin.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp

First off, a magician was the one who urged Aladdin to go into a hidden cave and find the wonderful lamp. The magician demanded the lamp, but Aladdin refused to give up the lamp until he was out of the cave. Frustrated with the boy, the magician left and closed the cave. Aladdin was now stuck in the cave with the magician's magic ring (it was given to Aladdin earlier to open the cave). What was odd was that Aladdin rubbed the ring and out came the genie. I thought it would be the magical lamp, but in this story it was the magic ring. The genie appeared and promised Aladdin that he would obey him. Another twist to the story was that Aladdin had two genies, not one! He had the genie from the ring and the genie from the lamp! That's a lot of power for one man...

Continuing on with the story, Aladdin fell in love with the Sultan's daughter and wished to marry her. He wishesdfor a grand palace to win her father's approval. They become husband and wife after several months of bickering between the sultan and another person. The evil magician kidnapped Aladdin's lamp and his wife which reversed the magic. Aladdin used the genie from the ring to save her from the evil magician. The magician died. BUT! He had an evil brother!! I thought this was a dramatic bit to the story. It sounds like a random hook in the story line just to make another chapter in the book. After defeating the brother, Aladdin and his wife lived happily ever after.

Arabian Nights. Source.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Arabian Nights

For this week's Middle Eastern Unit, I decided to read the Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrations by H.J. Ford. The introduction began with a huge hook! The sultan's wife, who he loved with all of his heart and soul, had been unfaithful. Enraged with the deception and the betrayal, the sultan had the grand-vizir put her to death. The sultan could not bring himself to trust any woman ever again, so he proposed a ludicrous solution. He will marry a new wife every morning and by nightfall the bride's father would have to kill her. This meant every day there was a new bride and a new death. The entire town wept out of lamentation.

The one day, a beautiful woman named Scheherazade volunteered to be the new sultan's wife. She convinced her father that she could stop this horrendous torture. Of course her father refused to sacrifice his daughter, but she was determined. The sultan was quite happy to hear that he will be marrying the most beautiful woman in all of Persia, but it was a shame that she would have to die in the morning. During my reading, I kept wondering how Scheherazade would save herself in the morning. The clever girl told stories to her little sister and the sultan but never finished the stories. Because he wanted to hear the ending of the stories, the sultan would spare his wife's life.

I thought it was insane that the sultan would even think of punishing his wives in that way. Who would be so heartless to kill their wife, in fact kill a new wife every morning?

Scheherazade  and the sultan. Source.