Digital Narrative
By: Griffin Keys
It was the fourth of July weekend. We had plans to head up to the Sand Dunes in Moses Lake to go camping for a few days. At the time, our family was super into four wheeling. We all had our own four wheeler tailored to our desires. We went camping quite often, but this was going to be my first trip up to the Sand Dunes. The motor home was stocked up and ready to go. The four wheeler’s were strapped up on the trailer just waiting to get there and get ridden. I was just counting down the minutes until we would finally be on the road. The ride up always seemed like it took five times longer than it actually was, but I was only worried about getting there.
What seemed about thirteen hours after we started our journey, we finally made it to our camping spot. Right away we got the quads down from the trailer and went for a ride. It was probably already about midnight when we headed out. It was just going to be a short ride since it was already so late. We weren’t the only people out at that time though, tons of people are still cruising around at that time. We didn’t venture off too far, we mostly just got familiar with all the trails and miniature tracks around us. We ended up meeting the people who were at the camping spot next to us and they took us on one of their favorite trails. It was a blast and it seemed like it ended so soon. Trying to sleep that night was a struggle. People ride through all hours of the night, you have to fall asleep to the sound of a motor running all night. Also, the fact that I was so excited to wake up and go riding again certainly didn’t help.
The next day started off fast. My brother and I went for a ride just to explore. We were racing and hitting jumps, just having a blast. We had to of been out for at least two hours before deciding to head back. I don’t know about my brother, but right when I went back I was ready to go out again. Time went by so slow until finally everybody was ready to go for a long ride. We made sure we were all packed up and had snacks and water. The four wheeler’s were full on gas and we were officially ready to go. This time, we headed out a way that I had not been before. We were heading farther and farther away from our campsite, and we just kept going. I remember we didn’t stop until we got to this fairly steep hill. The hill was meant for you to ride on and drift your quad all while you were at a slant. My mom made sure to get plenty of pictures and videos, and of course she posted them all on Facebook.
“Did you see that?!” I shouted after the first time i went.
After all the fun on that hill, we stopped for a few minutes and had some snacks because we had already been out for a while. Once we were all fueled up and ready to go, next on the list was a bunch of little jumps. There were three tracks that were filled with small jumps one after the other, so of course we spent plenty of time there racing each other. I would say it was pretty even with who won, one time it would be me and the next time it would be my sister. After all the racing, we didn’t go too much further. It was getting really windy and the sand was starting to blow all over the place. The sun was starting to set too, so we decided it was time to head back. The only problem here was that I didn’t have a pair of goggles on and the wind was only picking up. It started off with every now and then a grain of sand getting in my eye and I blink rapidly until I get it out, no big deal. The wind was only picking up though, and we were still a ways out. At this point, I wasn’t even having fun. As the wind picked up I just got more and more sand in my eyes and I could barely even see at all. The stand storm was so big that we didn’t see anybody riding on the way back. We were getting within a couple miles of our campsite and I just could not see a thing. I kept taking breaks and rubbing my eyes. Really, at this point you couldn’t even see more than twenty feet in front of you. I remember trying to keep my hand in front of my face while driving with the other hand, but it didn’t help too much. Everybody else had their goggles so they were all just waiting on me and getting frustrated with my breaks because even though they could see they didn’t want to be in the storm.
“Hurry up Griffin!” Said every family member of mine every five minutes.
We were getting close and I couldn’t see much of anything, I had sand piled up in my eye just struggling to keep it open. I finally pushed through and just rode till we got back even though I could barely see. Once we were back I didn’t even care about what was for dinner or anything, I had one goal in mind and that was to clear my eyes out. I went inside and spent hours getting every little grain of sand out of my eyes.
That night, I learned to never forget my pair of goggles again. I had a terrible night sleep because my eyes were so dry. I didn’t let that experience ruin my weekend though. To no surprise, I was ready to go back out and ride some more once the next morning came. I went for a ride first thing after I woke up that next morning, making sure I remembered my goggles this time.
Reflection
Griffin Keys
Caitlin Feldman
English 101
March 19, 2019
At the beginning of this class my editing process was certainly not the best. I would write my rough draft, get it reviewed by a peer, and make the changes that they suggested. I still do that now, but that is just where I start. I now know that my papers always have room for improvement. I know that I can always add transitions between paragraphs or at least make them smoother and clearer. I can usually add explanations about my evidence and make it clearer and expand on it. A skill that was pretty much non existent for me was connecting the evidences and explaining why they work together, so there is always room to do that. Also, I can always make my conclusion smoother. After all of this, I now know there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially depending on what I am writing about. When we wrote our synthesis essays, I improved my skill of connecting the evidences together. I also improved my explanations of the evidences and transitioning between using said evidences. I think I will be able to use all of these skills from just the synthesis essay alone when I am writing in the future, even if it’s just a regular argumentative essay or just about any essay that requires me to cite evidence. Even when it comes to the real world, I think in some way I will be able to look back to these skills I gained from writing my synthesis essay and further bond my arguments together that are being made. I will be able to connect things together like I was never able to do before. When it comes to the digital narrative essay we had to write, I think I got the most valuable skill out of that essay heading out of this class. That was the essay that I truly learned that your writing can be broken up however you want it to be. Even in a typical five paragraph essay, you don’t have to write exactly five paragraphs. The most unique thing I find about that is the fact that you can add one sentence or even one word paragraphs in your essays. Really, before this class I had only ever written a couple essays in my life that weren’t five paragraphs exactly. Going through high school I was always writing argumentative essays and I just stuck to the five paragraph scheme. Moving forward, I think this will add flavor to my writing and overall improve it in so many different ways. The pop culture also helped me improve my writing skills. I feel like this was the essay that I really wrote freely, knowing that I could split it up however I wanted in any ways I pleased. I also improved with my evidence skills in that essay. I feel that I used a lot of evidence in a lot of different places and really tied it all together. All the evidence, in my opinion, was used in a good spot and completely necessary. When evidence was needed, I put relevant evidence there. All in all, I feel like this class was a huge help to my writing career. Even the small things like beginning the class each day with a free write really helped improve my writing skills. I think that each essay I wrote just got better and better because I was learning so many different things and so many different skills to incorporate into my writing. Moving on to other classes that I will have to write in, I feel that they will be pleased with my new fashion of writing.
Synthesis essay
Technologies effect
For twenty five dollars you can have an artificially intelligent machine in your home. That is all it costs to buy an Amazon Echo Dot and have Alexa anytime you need her. Some people may even buy more than one and have her in multiple rooms in their house. This is just the beginning of a rising problem. Today, people have too much technology in their lives because they are addicted to their phones, they rely on the internet, and they don’t have the same human connection as they used to. Instead, people buy Alexa and ask her for the answer to their question.
People are addicted to our phones. In the article “Just One More Game,” Sam Anderson says, “My wife, who had never been a serious gamer, got one and became addicted, almost immediately, to a form of off-brand digital Scrabble called Words With Friends” (Anderson). Sam Anderson is explaining how his wife bought an Iphone when they first came out, and became addicted to a scrabble game right away. Similarly, in the article, “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?”, by Jean Twenge, she states, “The trends appear among teens poor and rich; of every ethnic background; in cities, suburbs, and small towns. Where there are cell towers, there are teens living their lives on their smartphone” (Twenge). The author is saying that no matter what or where, as long as it’s possible, there are kids glued to their phones. In both of the sources the authors explain how people are addicted to their phones. Anderson explains how his wife is addicted to her phone and Twenge explains how just about every kid in America is addicted to their phone. No matter the age, young or old, a vast majority of people are addicted to their phone. This addiction is causing people to constantly go back and rely on advanced technology.
People rely too much on the internet. In the article, “Alexa, Should we Trust you?”, Judith Shulevitz claims that, “We’re all falling for Alexa, unless we’re falling for Google Assistant, or Siri, or some other genie in a smart speaker” (Shulevitz). The author explains how people are all hopping on the bandwagon of having some sort of artificial intelligence in their life. In relation, Twenge says, “ I call them iGen. Born between 1995 and 2012, members of this generation are growing up with smartphones, have an Instagram account before they start high school, and do not remember a time before the internet. The Millennials grew up with the web as well, but it wasn’t ever-present in their lives, at hand at all times, day and night” (Twenge). Twenge explains how after her research she has discovered that kids born in 1995, and after are creating a new way of life. Kids nowadays have such high technology and have the internet at their disposal. Between all the new high tech products coming out such as Alexa and Iphones, people are living in a new way. All the reliance on the new products is degrading our ability to interact with one another as people used to.
People don’t have the same human connection as they used to. Twenge conducts an interview that is about a young girl who seems to be really into new technology and the advances being made, Athena states, “We didn’t have a choice to know any life without IPads or IPhones. I think we like our phones more than we like actual people” ( Twenge). Athena is saying that her generation grew up with high tech phones and they’re on them so much it seems as if they like the phones more than their peers. Sam Anderson agrees with this to an extent by saying, “Before long she was playing 6 or 10 games at a time, against people all over the world. Sometimes I would lose her in the middle of a conversation: her phone would go brinnng or pwomp or dernalernadern-dern, and she would look away from me, mid sentence, to see if her opponent had set her up for a triple word score” (Anderson). The author is explaining how his wife changed ever since she got a high tech phone with games on it, so he suggests he invents “something called the iPaddle: a little screen-size wooden paddle that I would slide in front of her phone whenever she drifted away, on the back of which, upside-down so she could read them, would be inscribed humanist messages from the analog world: “I love you” or “Be here now” (Anderson). Sam Anderson makes it seem as if his wife is in a totally different world when she is playing on her phone. He feels the need to invent something just so he can keep her attention, instead of the phone taking it away. Twenge also argues that new technology is affecting kids by saying, “The arrival of the smartphone has radically changed every aspect of teenagers’ lives, from the nature of their social interactions to their mental health” (Twenge). The author states that not only are phones and the screen time affecting teens health, but they are affecting the way they interact with people face to face. All these articles agree on the line of technology changing our interaction with other people. Athena is living in the generation and says that she knows her and all her friends are insanely addicted to their phones that its to the point its not healthy for human interaction. Anderson writes about how he experiences the effects first hand too, his wife doesn’t pay attention to him like she used to before all of this technology. Once again, whether it is younger or older people, their minds are changing because of this new technology. Thus, the new technology coming out is affecting our interactions with one another.
Today, we have too much technology in our lives. We can still cut back on some items and some screen time every day to stay at a healthy amount of technology. With all the new products coming out and technology on the rise, it is just going to make it that much harder, but still it is something we can achieve. But at the moment, people are way too addicted to their phones, they will spend all day, everyday attached to their phones or at least some piece of technology. People rely on the internet an awful lot. At this day in age people will go straight to their phones whenever a problem arises, thinking Siri has the answer. Human connection is changing because of the high tech world we live in today. People just don’t interact the same and it may be different and ever changing for the rest of time.
Pop Culture Essay
Griffin Keys
Caitlin Feldman
English 101
March 3rd, 2019
LeBron James
There has been a huge debate when it comes to basketball and who is the greatest of all time, LeBron or Jordan? Just about everybody can agree though, LeBron James is spectacular at what he does. This is what the gear is focused towards when talking about LeBron James, but outside of the game he is so much more. He isn’t just playing the game, earning his money and staying under the wraps, he is speaking out on public issues and trying to make a change. He is also using his popularity for better rather than worse. With so many young kids looking up to him, LeBron is doing his best to be a good role model and is succeeding at it. He is also giving back to the younger generation and specifically his hometown of Akron, Ohio. LeBron James has promised thousands of kids a full education and has become very successful in his career while overcoming obstacles throughout.
In the summer of 2018 LeBron had officially announced that he was partnering with Akron’s public school system to open his “I Promise” school. In an article from People magazine, Steve Helling talks about how at the moment, the school is only teaching third and fourth graders, but very soon they expect to be teaching first through fifth grade. For now though, two hundred forty kids either in third or fourth grade are learning at this school. The kids were chosen at random, their names were put into a pool if they were below their grades reading level, and the first two hundred forty were accepted. LeBron and the school system were then rewarded to call the parents and give them the good news as long as they were apt to sending their kids there. For all the kids that attend, they are fed two meals a day plus a snack, given school uniforms for free, and have all school supplies plus a backpack provided for them. Along with all of schools necessities, the kids were gifted a bicycle, a gift inspired by one of LeBron’s prized possessions growing up as a kid because that was the only way he could get around his neighborhood and the city. As of right now there are only third and fourth graders attending the school, but they are promised free tuition at the University of Akron as long as they graduate from high school. As soon as 2022 they plan on having the school big enough for one thousand students, grades one through eight (Helling).
LeBron isn’t just making this school because he has the money and he wants to act like a good guy, he genuinely cares. Steve Helling says LeBron “Missed 83 days of fourth grade before mentors got him on track” (Helling). In response to this statement LeBron believes it’s all about giving students the chance he didn’t have. He simply didn’t have the motivation to attend school in just the fourth grade, but he got help and started the path to his very bright future. LeBron tells ESPN, “This is …where we get into the minds of the kids and let them know that we’re here for them. Kids just want to feel like someone cares about them,” ‘he told ESPN.’ “And that’s what we’re trying to do here” (Helling). He wants to give back, when he started to fall behind in school and he stopped trying, he was pushed back on track. Now, LeBron wants to do his part and give back to the kids starting with his hometown of Akron. Imagine if LeBron had fallen off track for good in the fourth grade, he would’ve never been given a chance and he wouldn’t be where he is today. So, LeBron is doing his best to make sure that that doesn’t happen to any kids now. He may be starting slow, but it is making a change.
As positive an idea as the school is, the president of the United States is not a fan. Not long after the school was announced, a reporter from CNN interviewed LeBron James and asked him all about his new school and why he is doing it. The interviewer, Don Lemon, is a well known and respected man in this kind of industry, But Donald Trump is not at all a fan of him either. In an article by USA Today by Erik García Gundersen, he restates a tweet exactly that went out by Donald Trump that says, “Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on television, Don Lemon. He made Lebron look smart, which isn’t easy to do. I like Mike!” (Gundersen). For some time now LeBron has not been a fan of the president either and he is “clear in his feelings about the President for sometime now, most notably calling him a ‘bum’” (Gundersen). Trump may be weighing in on the “GOAT” debate, suggesting how he likes Michael Jordan. The comment was not at all necessary, he just decided to hate on LeBron for helping out his hometown. This is just the beginning of the hate that LeBron has to ignore on a daily basis.
James started his basketball career by heading straight to the league right out of high school. He was one of the top rated high school basketball players in the country, in just his sophomore year he was already being talked about. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2003 nba draft. He started off his career as a star. He won the rookie of the year award for the 2003 – 2004 season. Not long after that he won the most valuable player award back to back years in 2009 and 2010. In 2009 he was still with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but the year he won it in 2010 he was with the Miami Heat.
The year that James went to Miami was the year that everybody started hating him. In an article from palm beach post by Alex Makrides, he explains how “Every team has that one guy in its history that other team’s and their fans just can’t stand” (Makrides). There was no real reason for anybody to genuinely hate the guy, he was just so good but also so annoying and for that everybody hated him. Makrides also states, “That guy for the Miami Heat was LeBron James and despite spending only four seasons in South Beach he was one of the most hated players in the NBA during that time” (Makrides). Despite all the hate LeBron was receiving. He wasn’t even fazed. He carried the Miami Heat to back to back titles in 2012 and 2013.
In 2016 James decided to go back to his home state, Cleveland. While he was there he was regaining back the love. He also ended a sports title drought in Cleveland and brought them home the nba championship. Of course though, LeBron will always be facing some kind of hate one way or another. The difference with LeBron James is that he uses the hate as fuel and does good.
LeBron James did good by promising thousands of kids an education and a future all while having a very successful career and overcoming obstacles along the way. Whether or not you are a fan of LeBron, it is hard to not recognize and respect what he has done on and off the court. Rather than just being a great player, he is impacting the world outside of the court too. Acting as a role model to kids, he couldn’t be doing much of a better job. It will be exciting to see the next chapters in LeBron’s career on and off the court.
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