My First Week...

I am currently in my bedroom at home, where my parents and older sister live, as I write my first ever blog. If I am being completely honest, I have not been dealing with this pandemic very well and it has taken a major toll on me. I tend to get very overwhelmed with trying to balance online school and work but I have been trying to establish a routine to get my life back on track. However, it has been difficult to find the motivation to do so, and the fast paced curriculum typically consumes the majority of my time. With this course, I am nervous and I feel unprepared for what is to come. This is mainly due to the fact that I have not taken any writing or English classes since high school and I fear that I will struggle to measure up to my peers. The only college writing I had to do, prior to this course, were two research essays in my Public Health courses. However, I hope that as the quarter goes on, I will become more confident in my writing abilities and that I will figure out my own writing style. I think my writing abilities (right now) are not as developed as I would like them to be and I would say it is average or maybe even slightly below average. I think that my scatterbrain contributes to this because when I get overwhelmed, I typically become unorganized and just wing my writing, rather than strategically planning it out. I believe I also lack the ability to make my writing flow in a way that is smooth and not so boxy (if that even makes sense). With this week's writing assignments, I found them to be engaging and they actually interested me. The topics that were discussed in the TIME articles that grabbed my attention were the ability of an animal's brain to process information and feelings, as well as the their ability to develop friendships with species within their group. The first article on animal intelligence discussed how humans view these creatures as species that don't have the ability to comprehend suffering like we do. The other article was on animal friendship and their ability to comprehend their feelings towards other species within their community. This article elaborates on how monkeys have the ability to process emotions such as loss and care for others, which is interesting because it proves humans wrong that they are capable of feelings of agony. I chose to mention these two topics because I found myself shocked that humans think animals' brains are not conscious enough to worry or feel love/care. It just makes me wonder, do humans think we are the only species on this world of processing such emotions? I also chose these topics to mention because I felt that they spark conversation and awareness towards animals and their rights.

Here is an image of me at Shaver's Lake from a couple of days ago when we went on a small road trip to Yosemite and Sequoia. We had just pulled up to the lake and as we sat and watched the ducks, they began slowly swimming our way. Eventually, around eleven ducks swam to our area and began following us around.