Sweet Borage

Celebrate OPTIMISM with this Flower Essence that Helps Us Remember the Truth of Who We Are & Our Interconnection With All Life      -                          -OPTIMISM and encourages playfulness & spontaneity to help uplift your spirits when you are feeling disheartened and blue. Borage will help you to rise above sorrow and hopelessness, and instill fresh courage, enthusiasm and confidence in your ability to move through life's obstacles. -Borage officials (blue)

-Positive qualities: Ebullient heart forces, buoyant courage and optimism

-Patterns of imbalance: Heavy-heartedness or grief, lack of confidence in facing difficult circumstances; depressive behavior

Dandelion

Experiencing old anger and rage that turned outward towards others or inwards towards yourself. when you have difficulty planning in organizing your life and putting what you have planned into action. Deep cleansing of imprints on the physical, emotional and mental levels, liver, gallbladder, digestive, hormonal. Release trauma, trapped in the solar plexus. Perfect for meditation, tapping or regression sessions, it helps clear, stagnant energy patterns, dandelion essences help to clear and expel, toxic imprints, especially in the liver. The liver is known in Chinese medicine to be the seat of anger. Strengthens resilience. When in trouble times of trust, it asks one to go inward to release feelings of fear and overwhelm. Teaches trust in one’s ability to cope with challenges and obstacles in of life, turning “driven “energy, intercom strength and natural vitality. Help bring understanding to our emotions and the cause of our reactions, encouraging, gentle release of resentment while supporting the release of mental, emotional, physical tension. This physical tension often resides within the muscles. It is useful for those who tend to overstretch themselves, making them overly rigid tents or stiff in nature. This golden remedy offers the warmth and radiance of the sun, increasing energetic vitality so that we may move forward into the light with a stronger sense of groundedness in our purpose

Right Now

The biggest problem I had with the paper 3 was that my focus wasn’t stayed on my thesis throughout my entire paper, thus making my paper incredibly unorganized. There were many ideas in my head that I was not able to put it together in the paper. Though my teacher had given me the areas that she wanted me to cover, I didn’t stay completely devoted to developing my essay around those areas. Instead, I tended to drift away from my central thesis. But, in the end I was able to stay on track with the idea and have my peers to give me more ideas and revision. In my diagnostic essay, I did not put in effort into because I thought it was the beginning of the semester and the professor did not ask her to write the perfect essay format. But I still rethought the process back then on how would I start the paper. It makes think over and over again that what would be the best way to write this paper? If it wasn't for paper 2 assignment. I believed I would still be stuck at the same question right now. In paper 2 we went in depth the details of how to write a paper. We look at the words, phrases, analyze each paragraph. We even create a fable for the topic of our own. This assignment definitely made me a better writer when it comes to structuring my ideas.  
I was able to learned something new everyday in class. Caitlin always provides us with new activities that will not boredom us. I enjoyed the way she teaches that I can apply to real life lesson and helping others out. One assignment that I thought had the most impact in my life was the invisible narrative essay. I never thought about what is the true meaning behind the message that I've received, the pictures that I've once analyze and turns out to be a different idea. In society we have missed some of the real meaning because some people would not accept it. but in reality, for the long run we should defiantly a step into those ideas. We may have done wrong in the past but we are still on the way to fixing the problems and finding out the truth to many questions. If I was never aware of the situation. I would still sit here and be very clueless W

Reflection

Reflection on English 214 

By 

Nicholas Brown

   This semester of English was a revolutionary experience in my life. Though the transition of the

semester, English 214 has contributed to the ideologies that I have begun to develop concerning life.

My professor, Caitlin Field, introduced me to the invisible narratives in everyday society, but more

importantly the power they posses. I overwhelmingly enjoyed participating in this class and gained

much from the conversations with my peers as well as my professor.

  In the beginning of the semester I anticipated this class to be a reflection of the Eng 114 class I took

during my first semester at SFSU. Although, I did gain much as a writer from the course, I do not

feel it challenged or expanded my mind, like my other classes do. After just a few classes, I realized

this would not be the same experience.  My favorite topic or assignment that we focused on was

analyzing the different readings we had each week. Even if I did not participate in that specific

reading I could still guarantee that I could come into class and expect good conversation. This was

the best part of the class for me. The fact that I could come into an environment and openly share my

opinions, not having to worry about the outcomes, or anyone judging me. English 214, challenged

me to critically think about the built in perceptions we have about certain topics in the world.

   

  After reflecting on my diagnostic essay, I can see the invisible narratives I have accepted without

even knowing. Although, my beliefs might not have changed as much, I can understand the other

point of views. Some of my ideologies, such as my perspective on women in America, media

perception, and power within the US, have changed.  I now realized the way I thought about things

was not necessarily wrong, I just did not  have enough knowledge to come up with the conclusions I

did. Moreover, I know now to lesson the power of these invisible narratives, I need to educate more
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people like I have been. I do this by engaging in conversation and informing others of what I have

learned.

   I am glad Caitlin Field was my English 214 professor. Although, I do not know the specific 

academic guidelines for the course, I do know Caitlin challenged me each class to think from a 

different perspective. Also to analyze the power I have, and understand how it can affect people 

around me. The class also instilled more confidence in myself to speak out against the disparities 

within society, and how invisible narratives can potentially harm us individually. The teaching style 

in my 214 course, was majority of the reason I enjoyed class. Having open dialogue with my 

classmates allowed me to take in a different perspective on the topics introduced. Along with this 

each assignment given to us effectively pushed us to think deeper about English. 

I want to thank you personally Caitlin for the time and effort you put in the class. I have gained 

much as a writer and I have a better comprehension of how to analyze writing. Most importantly 

English 214 has made me a better person.   

   

Great Class

English 214 has been different than any other English class I have taken before. I have learned how to write in different discourses, from ones that I wasn't familiar with at all to exploring the discourse of my major. In a way I believe this class was created to tailor every specific student in their own way because we were always able to write about what we wanted and explore and question our own beliefs.

A major way we were able to learn about our selves was through metaphors and invisible narratives. Through Caitlin’s lectures and the readings I was able to learn a lot about how other people saw things and also made me reflect on why I saw the things the way I did.

I can honestly say learning about invisible narratives has had a direct impact on the way I view life, culture, metaphors and others. It has opened my eyes and makes me look past the obvious of things and wonder why those things are the way they are, the backstory.

At the beginning of the semester everyone had to write a diagnostic essay on something, no matter what, just something that they believed very strongly about. When I first got the assignment I just assumed this was the task to have something to write about, but now that I have seen how the class has unfolded I know that it was meant to look back on later and realize how invisible narratives have shape our way of thinking.

 In my diagnostic essay I wrote about the Hispanic culture. Specifically how Mexicans tend to take full responsibility of their parents when they get older, it is a ways of showing the ultimate respect and gratitude for all the sacrifices that were made to raise them. Versus Caucasian culture where when parents get to an age were they cannot care for themselves they are sent to a home.  Looking back now I see invisible narratives I did not see before. The most relevant being income, although there really is a tremendous love for family most Mexicans in America are hard working and get by while Caucasian people statistically tend to be more affluent and can afford an elderly home.
One time in class Caitlin said she hated culture because it was extremely oppressing. At first I didn't understand but I disagreed, I love my culture I was proud and it was part of who I was. But the more I thought about it I forced myself to look past what I had always believed. I tried looking at it from and outside( Non-hispanic) perspective and realized that culture does have the power to oppress because culture is tradition and language and people everywhere have already formed invisible narratives and stereotypes good or bad about such. If you are associated with a certain  culture, you are a certian type of person kind of thing. Crazy but people do think this way!

Another assignment that I really enjoyed was my final project presentation where I explored truths about the Rosies' of WWII and I found out it wasn’t all glory being a woman in the workforce of a man. How they had to struggle and fight to break the invisible narratives of what a woman should be. Struggling between expressing or suppressing their sexuality and how they would be portrayed (promiscuous or lesbian).

Ultimately I feel that I did a large amount of learning due to how engaging the class was. I can truthfully say I enjoyed the lectures because I would leave the class pondering what was said. I also enjoyed that is was interactive it was not a one way stream. Getting to share what I had to say on a topic and hearing what my class had to say back was a good experience. Either because I was standing up firmly for something I believed in or because I was not certain and wanted to hear other perspectives.

Now I See

In the beginning of this course we had to write a short paper on a strong belief that we hold. My strong belief that I wrote about is giving my best effort in everything I do. I always had this belief, but after a life changing event, my belief became stronger. After re-reading my diagnostic essay from the beginning of this semester, I realized that I also have some invisible narratives. Throughout this semester, we learned about the concept of invisible narratives and uncovered a number of different invisible narratives. We mostly looked at invisible narratives in other's writing, but we never explored the invisible narratives in our own writing.

An invisible narrative I found in my writing was that I depended on my father a lot. The man in the family is dominant and my family also believed this. I think this is why we, as a family, were so affected when my father left us. Although I was not especially close to my father and he was usually not there to support me, I found myself really devastated when my father left my family for his new family. When I found out the news, I automatically assumed that I would no longer be happy or have a happy family. The invisible narrative that a happy family should have a father and mother implies to my situation. I think media has shaped my narratives a great amount. I thought that a happy family is a family with both parents because on television when parents get divorced, the family starts to break apart and every family member becomes depressed. According to society, divorce is not a good thing and media emphasizes the effect of a divorce on children.

In the second piece of writing we did this semester, which was an editorial, I realized that I am attracted to free things like Ariely says in his article. For my editorial, I wrote about discounted or free bus fare for San Francisco State University students. Re-reading my editorial, I noticed that I used the word free about ten times throughout the editorial. Ariely writes about the word free and if the word free is involved we would give up what we actually wanted for the thing that is free. If San Francisco State University did decide to provide bus passes, then a certain price would be added to our tuition, but because the bus would seem to be free more people would chose to have bus passes.

After reviewing my past writing, I noticed that I have a lot of invisible narratives, personal and society inflicted narratives. In paper two I explored the invisible narratives in economics and one narrative of economics is that the master and servant relationship is the only way for a firm to be successful and efficient. I believe that there are still a lot of invisible narratives in my writing that I did not discover. I noticed that in class when we have class discussions about a certain narrative, new narratives always seem to make its way into the discussion. Because narratives have already been placed into society for so long, they have become norms and hard to uncover unless they are addressed. When I was still grasping the concept of invisible narratives it was a bit hard for me to understand and see the narratives, and this is the same way I feel about my writing. I have a lot more narratives that I have to uncover in my writing and I believe that over time as I experience more things I will slowly realize my personal narratives. This class also helped me open my eyes to back stories and become more open minded. Therefore, I think the only way to lessen the impact of invisible narratives is by experience and open mindedness. 

Dream Big Blog 4

Before this class, I knew some things about Invisible Narratives but not fully. After learning and writing a paper that included Invisible Narratives, I started to realize what it actually is. And for my writing, before this class I was extremely confident about my writing up until I started to uncover certain things in this class that replenished and helped me build as a writer. I honestly learned so much in this class in a way that was so interesting and fun that I did not know that I was actually learning. I was so caught up in the mix of having fun with the assignment while I was not knowing that I was gaining knowledge of writing by each assignment I was doing.

As for my diagnostic essay, I was talking about following your dreams regardless of anyone's opinions and thoughts. Also, I included that there will be some road blocks while pursuing your dream but persistence and faith will keep you going to accomplishing your dream. While reading my essay, I don't think that I uncovered any Invisible Narratives but just using different types of metaphors that is relevant in pursuing your dreams. One metaphor that really impacted me from this paper was, "A mind filled with fear, there is no room for success." Now with this being said this can definitely be something to carry out with in the future with almost anything and this can affect other people including myself.

Fear is basically a road block that is getting in the way for you to pursue your dreams. Now if you are weak, you let your fears get the best of you but if you are strong willed and have faith, you will overcome those fears and will continue to pursue your dreams no matter what the outcome is. And this is something that I truly feel strongly about and will carry it on to my career. I know that there will be times where I am scared or lazy to do something but perseverance will be the main asset in fixing that problem of being afraid to pursue anything. This is metaphor that I just described is what I carry inside of me and I know that I will never forget it because I feel so strongly about it.


I feel like the only way to lesson this narrative to others is to share the faith and perseverance to other people that lack it. Another thing that I feel strongly about is to share your knowledge that you gain because the knowledge that you have can spark another person's knowledge to do something incredible in the future. Everyone has to follow their dreams and everyone has a right to have a dream since we live in a society where its built to just survive. We need to start living our life and believe in ourselves to be something in this society to make a change.