Where Am I Headed

I'm a pretty indecisive person in general, so choosing a discourse community to study is being difficult for me. Its also even harder to think of what to write about without the prompt being based on a reading. I have a few ideas so far, not sure if I'll end up going with any of them. Being that I am a huge sports fan, I was think about choosing some type of team. I already wrote an entire blog about why a sports team is a discourse community, so in that sense I've already made some progress. One of my friends is on the club soccer team here at San Diego State, so I could narrow my community down to soccer teams and use his team to research. Having been on several basketball and volleyball teams, I know what being on a team is like. However, every group of people is different and I would love to see how the dynamic plays out when it comes to soccer, a sport I am not quite as familiar with. It will be very interesting seeing how they interact with each other and how the coach communicates with them, and then comparing that to my experiences. I have a general feel for this type of community but there is so much more to learn.

I just had an idea. Staying on the topic of sports, I think a pretty cool discourse community to look at would be intramural referees. I already know a ton about sports, but I have never had experience reffing. Everybody is quick to criticize referees, and not many people put thought into how difficult the job is or what preparation goes into performing this duty. A friend of mine is one of the head intramural refs, and he is always talking about something new that happened at one of his games. One of the refs cried today, I had to call security on some fans tonight, blah blah blah. It sounds interesting. Having viewed and played in so many games, I understand typical calls that are made, but not how referees communicate with each other or what procedures they follow. 

I understand that the focus of this paper is not to talk about how great the community in question is, but I think I will have a more enjoyable experience if I am interested in the topic. In order to research I will need to go the Aztec Recreation Center and watch several different games in order to study the ways referees communicate with each other. Look at their body language, gauge their emotions, and pay attention to what they might be talking about during timeouts or halftime. I can also interview my friend along with some of his coworkers. Obviously, these refs interact in ways far different from how everyday people talk. They must remain professional and stick with business at all times, but the moods they are in will probably depend on the score of the game and how they have been doing throughout the game.

In the prompt for this blog there are a bunch of questions about the discourse community, and I'm not sure if we are supposed to answer them in this blog or if they are just examples for us to keep in mind for the essay. I think its the latter considering I'm not going to know any of the questions without conducting further research. While I do have some knowledge of both communities going into this assignment, I still don't think its going to be easy. There are so many details and intricacies to focus on, and I don't think my prior knowledge will give me a huge advantage. Overall, I'm pretty excited to do this assignment. As indecisive as I am, getting to choose my own community that I'm actually interested in makes me that much more ready to put some serious work in.

Wardle and Work

Being that I am still not sure what I want to do with my career, this might be a tough prompt for me to write about. I am currently an accounting major but I'm thinking about switching some time in the near future. To what, I'm not sure. This being said, I'll just assume that I will have some sort of business related occupation. I'll start by talking about the internship I had this summer. At the beginning of break I was searching as hard as I could for an entry-level internship, but was having no luck. I don't have much work experience so it was being tough for me to get some calls back. I could have just applied for a restaurant or retail place, but I figured it would be a better idea to try to gain some experience in my field of interest. Finally, one of my friends told me that their dad was looking to hire somebody to be an intern at his consulting firm. This seemed like a great opportunity, so I jumped on it.

The office environment was completely different from what I'm used to. I had to dress up in business casual attire, stay diligent, and most importantly, be professional. As a person my natural instinct is to do things slowly. I talk pretty slowly and my movements generally are not as up tempo as a lot of other people. I soon found that sleep-walking through the day was not something I could do at this new job. I was a part of a system bigger than myself, and I needed to carry my weight. I made a conscious attempt to be more energized (with the help of coffee, of course), and tried to get as much work done in as little time as possible. The only problem with this experience was that I was pretty much only doing grunt work the entire time. This included scanning documents and copying/pasting stuff into excel. Not the most fun job in the world but I made some money and its something to put on my resume.

It was amazing to me how different my identity became once I stepped into the office. It wasn't like we were forbidden to talk or joke around every once in a while, but the intensity and pressure of pulling my weight definitely caused me to become a lot different of a person. I would get home from work and hang out with my friends, and every night I would feel myself decompressing and releasing all the stress from the day. I can imagine this is how a lot of people feel after a hard day's work. Once I get into the real world, I can see this new identity becoming an even bigger part of my life. More responsibilities, more stress, and more productivity. I think if I finally get in the habit of being productive and getting my stuff done early, that will free up a lot of my time and I won't have to worry about deadlines hanging over my head like a storm cloud.

If I do end up sticking with accounting, I will definitely have to adjust the way I naturally write. First of all, accounting is all about getting rid of all the fluff and getting straight to the point. Balance this, balance that, and what do we have. When writing reports to upper management, they aren't going to want to read a novel about the company's financial statements. They have too much on their plate to deal with that. They are going to want a short, to the point summary. This is something I'm going to need to get used to. In school we have been taught only the five-paragraph essay format, something that won't really help for being an accountant. Instead, I need to be able to pick out the main points, and organize them in a clear, concise way. Honestly, this is part of the reason I am thinking about switching. I want to find a business related occupation that also allows me to write in creative ways. This way, my writing preferences will be satisfied and I still get to fulfill my goal of making it in the business world. This may be a pipe dream, but in today's world there are so many options and routes to take that I think I will be able to figure it out somewhere along the way.

Waitress Lives Matter

Just to start things off, this prompt reminds me of that classic scene from Reservoir Dogs where Steve Buscemi's character is explaining why he doesn't tip waitresses. While Mr. Pink recognizes waitressing as a real, stressful job, his point is that only servers who do an especially good job deserve a tip. So it isn't exactly the same concept, but kind of similar. Having read a few other blogs, it seems as though everybody is on the same page: working in the restaurant business is no easy task, and these workers should earn as much respect as any other Joe Schmo working any other random job. While I agree to an extent, I guess I'll play devil's advocate for a quick sec.



My sister is currently a waitress, and has been for a number of years. While she is extremely qualified and knowledgeable, I don't think she is very happy doing what she is doing. Nor do I think she wants to be a waitress for the rest of her life. She is constantly unhappy with working conditions, pay, and management. Due to monetary concerns, her need to work two jobs has cut in to time she could be using to go back to school and earn her degree. I'm not saying she has to go to school to be successful and happy, but earning her degree in something that she truly enjoys has been her end goal for a while. Without diving too much deeper into my sister's personal life, here is the deal for her and a lot of other waitresses: Serving is not something they want to be doing for the rest of their lives, isn't always the most secure way to earn a living, and might be the only way for them to earn enough money to continue their education. I'm not speaking for all waitresses, just some. Being that many of these people have not had an opportunity to finish school, or simply do not desire to earn a degree, I think the assertion that some servers lack the education needed to be knowledgeable in many different fields is true to an extent.


Now, before I'm burned at the stake, let me explain. None of what I said above is a bad thing. Knowledge is relative, and any occupation that somebody wishes to hold is valid. While it may be possible that waitresses might not know as much about the stock market or business trends, for example, it is likely that they have a higher emotional intelligence than most and understand how to interact with people in intricate ways. Again, these are all examples (maybe there are a lot of waitresses who are good with stocks, I have no idea). Anyway, what I mean to say is that every job has its pros and cons. Its all about the individual in question. What is their end goal? What makes them happy? What skills do they value? That's all that matters.

I disagree with the idea that waitressing is an inferior occupation. This is not to say, however, that I am disgusted with and completely reject anybody who holds this idea. Just like waitresses have the right to serve and be happy, people have the right discuss the merits of certain occupations. If some guy tells me that being a waitress is less important than being a doctor, NASA researcher, teacher, or firefighter, I can't say I'm going to be up in arms. However, I do know that there is no definitive answer, and once again, it all depends on the person and their values. I also know that being a waitress requires extensive memorization, being able to handle extremely stressful situations, and maintaining a certain level of energy and emotion for extended periods of time. It is not easy to be a good server by any stretch of the imagination, and it requires hard work and practice. Just like all other occupations. Similar to many other current issues, this one can only be solved by acceptance. There is no right or wrong. Or maybe people will just have to agree to disagree.

My New Identity Kit

I still haven't gotten a new computer so I'm spending today in the library, once again. I'm not in a rush this time though, and I have 193 minutes left of access on the lib computer. That should be plenty. I identified strongly with Mrs. Flewelling's blog/prompt as I too am an introvert. I pretty much always prefer to sit back and let others do the talking in a large group setting, and I definitely still get a bit nervous in social situations. I used to be fine with this in high school, but college is a whole different world and recently I've been trying my best to step out of my comfort zone.

High school was a much more simple time. I had my set group of friends, and all I really cared about was food, video games, and getting decent grades. That's pretty much been my entire life up until college. I wasn't really concerned with who I talked to at school that day, what clothes I had on, or what party was happening that weekend. I was concerned with getting home before either of my parents so I could play Call of Duty and shoot virtual soldiers online with my friends (the rule was that I couldn't have any "screentime" during the week days as an incentive for me to do well in school). Once I heard the garage door opening, I would rush to turn off the TV and the Xbox, grab a snack, and head upstairs to do whatever homework I had. Once I completed the productive part of the night I would watch YouTube videos and text friends for the rest of the night. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Once I arrived at SDSU and got a feel for the how the social scene operates, I felt out of place. I wanted to have fun and meet new people, but this was hard for me. The introvert in me kept telling me to lay low and keep to myself, but the more social, practical part of me told me that I would be happier putting on a different persona and experimenting with actually talking to new people. It was time to mushfake it until I make it. I would try to pump myself up mentally everyday before leaving my dorm room, and make a conscious effort to be friendly and talkative. This worked in the sense that I made a decent amount of friends, and I am currently far more competent socially than I was in high school. However, I still don't really think I've "made it". I have not fully eased into that more outgoing side of myself, and recently I have been thinking about the fine line between being somebody I'm not, and actively practicing becoming more confident in social situations. I understand that I am introverted and somewhat shy, and I also understand that there's nothing wrong with that. But I know that I would be a happier, more fulfilled person if I worked toward building more meaningful relationships. I guess I've been struggling with this for a while now, but I only really became conscious of it as of late. I think this is something I will eventually figure out, but until then, I will continue to mushfake.

The great thing about the struggle I'm having with my new identity kit is that I have complete control over the outcome. As long as I continue to surround myself with people I like and utilize my support system (my family, mostly) I can find the actual identity that I'm looking for.

Another example of a time where I had to create a different identity was when I coached 8th grade girls volleyball. I had never coached in my entire life, nor had I been in a position of power that involves telling other people what to do. It took a while to get used to, and even though I didn't really want to assert myself and create the presence that a coach might have, I worked toward establishing myself as Coach Spoden, rather than the modest figure the girls would have seen me as if I had been a person they randomly encountered. It was tough, but I slowly grew into the role and it ended up being a very rewarding experience.

I wrote this blog about twice as fast as I wrote the last one. Damn. It's probably because I've been thinking about all of this a lot recently so its fresh in my mind. But it feels good to get it all out and clear my mind before I start on other homework. And hopefully meet with one of my friends who knows a lot about computers to discuss what kind of laptop I should get. Idk though I'm getting kind of used to these library computers.