English 1101

For my Freshman year at Georgia Gwinnett College I had Professor Arrington as my English 1101 Professor. Before the year started, I looked at a web site called “rate my professor” to see what rating professor Arrington got. Many of the comments were negative, and I started to worry about this class. I imagined Professor Arrington to be a mean old woman that shouted at people and gave them bad grades. My perception changed greatly throughout the year of Professor Arrington. She was a very energetic, helpful, and fun teacher. I honestly enjoyed coming to her class every day.

Although she was a fantastic teacher she did grade pretty tough. If you turned in a paper that wasn’t thought out, and wasn’t your best work you wouldn’t get the grade you wanted. Professor Arrington did this so that you would always write your best and give good claims, reason, Evidence, and the most important thing explanation. If you clearly explain these things, and just pay attention in class you will do well. She will also help you a great deal in “office hours” in the library if you are struggling with anything, and she will always try to give you good feedback on essays so that you would improve in your writing.

In conclusion if you want to get an easy “A” then professor Arrington’s class isn’t for you. If you want to improve your writing I strongly recommend taking professor Arrington’s class. Another thing, DON’T judge your professor by ratemyprofessor.com, people never have anything nice to say. I really enjoyed this class, and I believe that all of you should give professor Arrington a chance.

How did my adventure go?

What Did I do again?

For my “mental adventure”, I went Zip-lining in Historic Banning Mills in Whitesburg, GA on September 21^st With Alec Zavodny and Alex Brooks (student from different section Of Engl 1101) to see if I can be helped with my fear of heights.

How did it go?

Zip-lining went flawlessly! We got Banning Mills without any problems (didn’t get lost), and we managed to get checked in on time. For our first part of the tour we had the guides taught us how to put on and use the gear that we were given. The gear contested of: A helmet (protect your head), hooks (so you can be attached to the caddy, and so you don’ fall if something happens), Gloves (so you don’t get rope burn when you break), harness (all the hooks and caddy are attached to this), and lastly a caddy (which made you roll down the zip-line). The guides also taught us the proper way to break (by letting your hand slide behind you), and the callouts for when you are transferring your hooks to the wires on the trees or to the zip-lines. They made us say transfer one and transfer two; if you say transfer one and give your hook to your partner they will say transfer one when you are attached the same goes for transfer two. After about thirty minutes of them lecturing us we had to cross a 70 foot bridge. We had to attach our hooks to the wire above the bridge and walk across it. Walking across the bridge wasn’t that bad because we were hooked in and I felt really safe. After walking across the bridge we had to walk on top of a 100 foot tower where the very first zip-line was at. I was the very first person out of my group to go on the zip-line and I was very nervous.

I was very hesitant going on the zip-line, but I eventually gathered myself together and went on the zip-line. It wasn’t that bad to be honest… I was scared at first but I quickly got over it. We went on about 9 different zip-lines which categorized in three levels (there was a fourth level but we didn’t go on that one) there was: beginner, semi-intermediate, and intermediate. The zip-lines on the last two levels averaged about 1000 feet in length and we went about 55-60 mph on them, and in between getting onto the zip-lines we had to cross a bunch of very shaky and unstable bridges.  Overall this trip was well spent and the best part of it all was that we didn’t have to pay the full price which was $100 (the front desk people charged us $70 because they thought we went on only two levels).

Does my definition of a “mental adventure” apply to this one?

I think that all my definitions of a “mental adventure” apply to this. Here are my definitions and I’ll explain how they applied:

1)      A place where the adventurer is in a psychologically uncomfortable situation.

-          I was put in an environment which required me to be over 70 feet above the ground. I felt nervous even though I was secured in by the hooks.

2)      A “mental adventure” is the threshold that the adventurer has to go through to find a new understanding.

-          Going on this adventure is the beginning of my path to truly facing my fear of heights. After this adventure I started to feel a lot better about heights; I started to feel safe because I knew that there was always something keeping me safe (barrier, harness, etc.)

3) It tests the adventurer’s true will power; they must face their fears and challenges.

- This adventure truly tested my willpower. I had to cross those bridges and go down the zip-lines trusting that my equipment would keep me safe. I also couldn’t back out of it because that would be wasting time and money.

4)      A “mental adventure” is trial and error before the adventurer is full cured of his/her struggles.

-          This adventure helped me cope with the fear of heights. I was faced with many situations that made me uncomfortable, but I don’t think that this adventure truly cured my fear of heights. I think that I’ll need to keep going on adventures like this and I have to keep making them progressive more challenging (bungee jumping and sky diving).

Would I recommend this adventure?

I recommend that you guys go and try this out for your selves! Zip-lining is very safe and extremely fun. You just got to make sure you go to Banning Mills, because they got the best zip-lines in Georgia.

Mental Adventure: "Let's GOOOO!"

Definition: In order for an adventure to be consider a true “mental adventure it must”:

A)    A place where the adventurer is in a psychologically uncomfortable situation.

B)     It is the threshold that the adventurer has to go through to find a new understanding.

C)     It tests the adventurer’s true will power; they must face their fears and challenges.

D)    It is a process that the adventurer has to go through; mental adventures can be trial and error before the adventurer’s mind is unraveled from struggles.

The Adventure: Zip-lining.

When? Either on Friday the 16^th, Saturday the 17^th, or Sunday the 18^th of September.

Where? Lake Lanier Canopy tours.

Why Zip-lining?

I have phobia of heights; it gives me a sense of fear and hopelessness (if you fall its game over). Whenever I’m presented in a “high” situation, paranoia strikes me. I have thoughts of the worst possible scenarios that can occur, such as:

-          Tripping and falling to my death.

-          Someone pushing me off the ledge.

-          I accidently walk off and fall.

These scenarios are not likely to happen to me, but I just can’t help thinking of them. The first step towards facing my fear is by going zip-lining. I chose zip-lining because it isn’t too drastic, and it’s a good starting point to conquer my fear of heights.  This is also my first time doing something like this. I’m going to be very uncomfortable suspended 70 ft. in the air, and looking down and seeing the “face” of fear. My mind would tell me to look away from it, but I won’t! I’ll stare into the face of fear, and I will tell it to “f—k off”! If I don’t go through with this I’ll never conquer my fear of heights. I don’t want to be a coward who avoids stupid things that he is scared of, and I’ll never be successful if I don’t face my fears (this applies to all fears in general not just heights). Will this adventure cure my fear of heights? Probably not but it will help my mental toughness for further challenges to come. Just one step at a time will help you reach success. I was inspired to write about facing my fears from this quote:

                                   “Courage is not the lack of fear but the ability to face it."

-          Lt. John B. Putnam Jr.

Planning and Preparing:

-          I’ll need to get a reservation for the event.

-          I’ll need to finish all assignments before the weekend.

-          I’ll need to get directions to the event.

-          I’ll need to make sure that I don’t work on one of those days.

-          I’ll need to mentally prepare myself; I’ll need to tell myself that everything will be okay.

Documenting:

I will take pictures of the facility that I will be zip-lining on, and I will have pictures of me zip-lining (pictures taken by the employees). I’ll also bring a camera to record my reaction before zip-lining then after. I know that I will have a much different perspective of zip-lining after.  I’m excited about doing this, and also a little bit nervous. I know that I will have tons of fun as well (hopefully)! 

adventure

What is an Adventure? Whenever some of you think of an “adventure” you may picture a knight.  Why a knight? Very simple, a knight is a symbol of: A heroic, chivalry, and valor. A knight always characterizes these things and it is their sworn duty to protect and serve.  This is why we think of them going on these long epic journeys. These journeys start for a purpose and there is a goal in mind, whether this goal is to rescues a damsel in distress, to recover/destroy an artifact, defeat an enemy, or for the character to prove them self. In the middle of these adventures the character can come into conflicts that maybe internal conflicts and external conflicts, and in the middle of this adventures the character may learn new things whether it is about themselves or the world.

 My particular example contradicts this thought.  Some of the things that we may think of adventures are not the only types of adventures out there. We may have been raised to think these things about knights etc.  We never realize that ordinary people have adventures every day.  The definition of an adventure is very broad, and we limit a lot of things about this term. Whenever people go out for adventures I think of them going out to search for a meaning, this can relate to a scientist traveling down the Amazon to learn about the species of plants and animal to learn how they function and how they affect the environment, but this definition doesn’t work for a rock climber or a hunter, what meaning are they trying to search for?

Then there is the definition,” it is something out of the ordinary”, what is something out of the ordinary? A hunter hunting and a rock climber climbing may not consider what they’re doing as an adventure, but maybe as a hobby. A person who has never done these things can consider these events as an “adventure”, for instance a person who lives in the city in which none of these things are accessible to them would consider this an adventure, because where they are from those things are not offered and it is something out of their comfort zone, or out of the ordinary for them. So the definition can still apply to everyone because, there are plenty of things in this world that can be out of people’s comfort zones and there are also a lot of mysteries in the world that people try to search for meanings for.

Another of my definitions towards adventure is that the activity produces a rush, the scientist searching for meanings can be a rush because they are always finding out something new, and you never know what is going to happen to the hunter and rock climber so they are always paying attention to what they are doing, you should always expect the unexpected. Anyways, what I consider to be an adventure from my experience is white water rafting down the Oconee River, some people may not consider this an adventure, but I do because this is my blog and my opinion.  Here are some reasons why I consider this as an adventure based of my definition of adventure.

1)     1)  White water rafting is out of my comfort zone and it is something I’ve never experienced before till now. For all of those who don’t know I’m from Suwanee, Georgia. In Suwanee there is absolutely nothing to do. So anything new and fun for me I’ll consider that activity an “adventure”.

2)               2)    I may not be searching for a meaning when I’m rafting but it’s always interesting to know how the river works and why I’m enjoying this activity so much.

3)      

       3) white water rafting is a rush. The quick movement of the water, giant rocks, class four rapids, how can that not be a blast? Even our guide who does this every day didn’t expect the un-expected when we newbies flipped the raft (she hasn’t flipped in five years).

I consider white water rafting to be an adventure and nothing you people can say will change my mind!