Ramirez 1

Emiliano Ramirez

ENC 1101

October 12, 2017

Paper 1 Final Draft

Changing my Life for the Better

Life changing experiences come across everyones lives sooner or later; these moments

can last as long as your life from the moment you first went through it, or they can be as brief as

a day is. A lot of people choose to go down the path of the liberal arts, and some others choose to

go down the path of, should I say; empirical studies (math, chemistry, physics, etc.)? But very

few people choose to go down both paths and this was the case for me, a very particular one.

Philosophy and history were always floating around as subjects of little interest in my education

but I was never intrigued by any of them, much less into math or sciences. All in all, I was never

a very aware of the value of literacy. I guess maybe because I came from an upper class society

and I had always been given everything that I asked for, which, as youll see later, comes back

and bites me in the rear. My parents and my elementary school teachers always saw potential in

me to become a scholar, but I would always seem as if I was working hard just to satisfy my

parents; or for the sake of a better word, I only saw school as a waste of time. When I was about

6 or 7, Dad would tell this to my brother and me every once in a while: When you guys finish

high school, Im going to send you off to either the U.S.A or England. Just so you can have a

better life with a degree from an English speaking country just so you can do what I was never

able to accomplish; graduate from college. Dating back to 2011, my family and I saw ourselves

forced to leave our country and come to the United States with the hopes of finding a safer place
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to live in and a land with greater opportunities for prospering. Now, you can imagine myself

pretending to be happy when my parents told us we were leaving the country I really wasnt. I

knew my dads wish would come true; to see us go to school in the greatest land of opportunity

and see us grow into educated individuals that would naively follow the American dream.

From this moment on, I knew my life would have to change for the better if I didnt want to let

my parents down, and I would have to live up to the potential everybody else saw in me. And

without any sort of self-motivation, I saw myself forced to get involved in the world of

educational machines while little by little, adding a piece of myself to everything I wrote and

read.

Id like to share this quote from Dr. Deborah Brandt from the her text Sponsors of

Literacy: Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or distant, concrete or

abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold

literacy and gain advantage by it in some way (Brandt, 72). Reading repetitively this quote

and committing it to memory was very important for me, now that since the moment I gained

some sense of the world, I began to look for a word that would describe the people I met along

the way and the vast amount of experiences that shaped me into the individual I am today.

As a first year student in the U.S. and a seventh grader, I was placed in the most basic

math course a middle schooler could ever take but nonetheless I still enjoyed it. Mrs. Fitzpatrick

was my teacher that year, and she was the first teacher I ever made a solid connection with in the

U.S. Acing every single test during school and giving tutoring sessions after school was one of

my major occupations at the time, due to Fitzpatricks persistent encouragement towards me to

stay and help her out with the rest of the students. Keep in mind that I was still very lousy and

felt very nonchalant towards academics. As my parents saw that I was getting myself involved
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more and more in the academic world, they bought me a lot of books so my lexicon would go

further than what was taught to me in Colombia. Reading then seemed so fun after doing it

repetitively, and writing seemed exciting, because I could take my very own thoughts and

compose them into whatever my mind and my heart dictated, also by constructing my mind into

a prolific one at the level that is socially acceptable. This means that writing triggers inside every

one of us the ability to come up with conversational topics and make better communicators out

of ourselves. However, now in college, we can take a much broader view at what the public

school system is doing to its students. Since everyone is taught to follow a certain blueprint to be

able to write effectively for the upcoming assessments, a lot of ideas that want to be put out there

are being suppressed. I, personally, am a huge advocate of free writing. Students should not be

limited to express their ideas in paper because of a bought system that is thought of to be the best

to teach students the art of literacy.

As I began to meet people in seventh grade at my new American school, I encountered

myself with people from a lot of different cultures. However, this one school counselor, Mrs.

Dominguez, was the first person who awakened my self-conscious potential with academics. She

was constantly evaluating my performance in ESOL and would always compliment my abilities,

which I wasnt very confidently possessive of at the time. I remember she once told me during

the last class evaluation (which took place the last day I met her before going off to high school)

that she saw that I was different from the other students I had a lot of potential, I just had to

let go of all the burdens of life. Obviously, being the unconfident boy I was at the time, I kept

on believing that my skills with English and other subjects werent valuable; or as you would

philosophically say, I wasnt virtuous. My classmates being from different cultures were the

deciding starting point of my literary journey. Hearing all of these different languages being
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spoken around me every day aroused curiosity inside me and led me to learn a new language on

my own Portuguese. At first, I only saw it as something to keep me busy during my immense

amounts of free time. Language learning was fairly straightforward at first, but when the

opportunity came to put it into practice (meaning to speak it with my friends), I would be held

back from doing so effectively a lot of times, now that the lingo used by the native speakers is

not what you are usually taught in a formal course. So that further aroused my curiosity into

looking for the common language used by native speakers so I could relate to them in a more

personal level and be able to share my experiences - consequently adding a little more of myself

to everything I read and wrote. As a result, I began to dive myself in deeper into the Brazilian

culture by watching movies in Portuguese and going to Brazilian-concentrated areas around the

city. The only reason I would ask my parents to take me to these places was just so that I could

put what I had learned at home into practice. Sometimes the feedback I received from the native

speakers was good, other times it was rather constructive. But what most helped me through this

literary phase of my life were my friends in school, which some of them moved with me into

high school. Even though they were the main sponsors of this phase of my education, it was still

quite challenging for me to adapt to the educational standards in Florida. Who wouldve

thought? Its impossible to have a clear opinion about something until you actually try it. I can

clearly remember the day I told myself to give an actual attempt to school, and from that day on

my life had changed forever; I had acquired new sponsors unconsciously, being myself (I was

promoting my own education and forcing me through it) and school.

Because I was so into this culture and its language, I became addicted to the game of

soccer (this marks an important turning point in my life as a student because of what Ill

explain). Now, once within the sphere of influence of the sport, I began exploring teams to see
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which of them I would root for. One day, I saw this very intense game from a black and yellow

team from Germany. I remember I could hardly pronounce the teams name but with enough

practice I was able to nail it. This team was Borussia Dortmund, and it was the team that changed

my life forever I would watch their games every single weekend religiously, and I would see

the signs and banners the fans in the stadium would put up. These were all in German, and I

remember myself trying to pronounce all of these complex words. Little did I know that this

would set me off in a new direction. In tenth grade, I decided to give the elective of German a

try, now that I was so into the language and the team. I was placed in Frau Witts classroom for

German 1, and I was able to build a great connection with her. My level of proficiency in the

language (written, spoken, and read) was the highest in the class at the end of the school year, so

I asked Frau if she would allow me to skip German 2 and be placed in German 3 my junior year

so I could take AP German my senior year. Frau agreed and she told me I have faith that you

will do just as well in German 3 that you did in German 1. Miraculously, I did even better in

German 3, now that I was reinforcing my skills independently at home; practicing every day and

pushing myself through the challenging pronunciation of these twenty-four-letter words. Id like

to share this poem called Vereinsamt that I presented as an assignment in class. Its written by

the famous German philosopher, Friederich Nietzsche (have philosophy in mind). The

translation to English is also included:

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Die Krhen schrein

Shrill shriek the crows

that to the town in whirls roam:
Und ziehen schwirren Flugs zur Stadt: soon come the snows -
Bald wird es schnein. - weal unto him, who - has a home!
Wohl dem, der jetzt noch - Heimat hat!

Now you stand still,

Nun stehst du starr, look back, alas! how far unfurled!
Schaust rckwrts, ach! wie lange schon! You fool! You will
Was bist du Narr escape the winter to the world?
Vor Winters in die Welt entflohn?

The world - a gate

Die Welt - ein Tor to thousand deserts, mute and chill!
Zu tausend Wsten stumm und kalt! Who lost his fate,
Wer das verlor, as you have lost, stands nowhere still.
Was du verlorst, macht nirgends halt.

Now you are pale

Nun stehst du bleich, and cursed to wander winter's rise,
Zur Winter-Wanderschaft verflucht, like fumes prevail
Dem Rauche gleich, that always seek the colder skies.
Der stets nach kltern Himmeln sucht.

Seek, bird, and shriek

Flieg, Vogel, schnarr your desert-bird-song, worn and torn! -
Dein Lied im Wstenvogel-Ton! And hide, you freak,
Versteck, du Narr, your bleeding heart in ice and scorn!
Dein blutend Herz in Eis und Hohn!

Shrill shriek the crows

Die Krhen schrein that to the town in whirls roam:
Und ziehen schwirren Flugs zur Stadt: soon come the snows -
Bald wird es schnein, - woe unto him, who has no home!
Weh dem, der keine Heimat hat!
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This poem marked another great checkpoint in my journey, as I was intrigued by the author and

what his exigence was behind the poem. After a lot of research, I found out that Nietzsche was a

very recognized philosopher. So prominent in the world of moral philosophy, that many people

including political activists, philosophers, politicians, and several authors - have based their

ideologies and political movements from. This deepened my curiosity into a whole new world

that I had no experience in whatsoever.

It wasnt until my AP Language and Composition class in my junior year of high school

that I was able to give a valid (in my opinion) insight on paper of everything that came to my

mind. I chose to go through the struggle that this class was just to test the waters, and see

whether I really was into literacy or not. Mr. Wall was a very particular teacher; I always

mentioned to him that he should be teaching at the university level, now that a lot of the students

found his lectures very complex but vague. Meaning that he based his lectures on material that

he assumed we already knew. In this class I composed my first ever (what I would formally call)

essay. Coming from writing quick-writes about my week (because I was in the most basic

English courses and I never decided to challenge myself in the field until this class came along),

to writing a formal essay talking about how the story of a book develops over time and what the

significance of the characters is with regards to the plot and each other. Im endlessly thankful

for deciding to take this class. Through Mr. Wall, I learned that it doesnt only take guts (as in

dedication) to write a well-structured argumentative essay and about analyzing books. What

mostly impacted me was a phrase he said one day in class, which was: The author of a book

goes deeper than just the book itself. It is up to the reader to determine which direction the author

went. Ive kept this in mind ever since and applied that very thought process to every book Ive
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read. This led me to get my tippy toes in the pool of rhetoric and (at the time) fill myself with

confidence that I knew rhetoric and its significance in literacy. Now in college, is where I come

to realize that I never really understood the art of Rhetoric. This changed until I took ENC 1101

in my first college year. But I digress, now that it is another story that is still under development.

Going back to high school, reading and writing werent the only things that I carried with

me through the years. Math and science played also a very big role in my life, because I became

intrigued by how things worked and why they worked through my first ever physics course with

Ms. Figueroa. I became so affectionate of the field of physics that as the months passed, I aspired

more and more to one day become the person to explain how all machines and human inventions

work and how they did so. This was a funny situation, because being once a kid that had no

aspirations, I know had big dreams to become someone. Having said that math and science

followed me throughout my remaining years, I began exploring the subject of metaphysics,

which is considered the abstract part of physics; the what ifs and hows of the existence of

humanity and the universe. Merging writing, reading, and metaphysics, and my liberal thoughts

wasnt hard. I found enjoyment in the field of philosophy, and this is the point where I had to let

go of all the sponsors I had in high school and move on by myself. Philosophy found in me a

way of expressing and questioning myself how no other sponsor had done in me before. This

allowed me to really dive for the first time into real autobiographical reading and writing.

Everyone is an active philosopher, people just dont realize it. Just think about when you are

deciding what to wear to school will you be dressing up to good look to others or will you be

dressing up for comfort?

The first book of philosophy I read was Nietzsches The Antichrist during my junior year

of high school. I chose this book because I wanted to explore more about his theories, now that I
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had a very light idea of what they were. Mr. Wall was extremely surprised I had chosen this book

for the project now that it is an exceptionally complex essay to understand for a high school

student, as well as that it might draw special attention from a lot of my classmates because of the

things Nietzsche argues. Nonetheless, I read the book in its entirety. It took me a very long time

(as in weeks) to decipher what its deeper argument was and how it connected to his ideologies,

as well as how it would be placed in context with the situation that Europe was going through at

the time. The presentation resulted in a successful grade (an A), and a deep feeling of self-

accomplishment. Mine was, however, indifferent in the eyes of my peers from any other

presentation that had taken place before me, now that all they cared about was their grade and

not learning what these poems had to offer with regards to German culture.

Studying liberal arts develops your sensitivity towards the circumstances of life and

towards individuals. Not to mention that as you are growing up you become more mature and

more able to understand life. Until about two years ago, at the age of sixteen, I found myself

writing just for fun. In my spare time I would write poetry; this was very important for me

because for the first time, I had complete liberty on what I was able to write, no blueprints to

follow and no standards to meet just a piece of paper and me. Today, I am constantly

philosophizing about life, but I havent dared to write my own theory. Whenever I come across a

situation that bothers me (with regards to philosophy) I tend to talk it out with my father, or write

it down myself just so I can get my thoughts structured properly. Heres something I wrote about

two weeks ago for my own interest with regards to a debate that was taking place in my

philosophy class. The subject of the discussion was morality. Disclaimer to the reader: Its not

what you would expect as in a very philosophically worded text but its just my own thought

process:
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The question of whether things are good because God mandates so or they are good

because they are good in their nature is where you are able to define yourself as a mere

disciple or as an individual human being. It is up to ourselves to determine what is good and

what is bad; we must not lose that individual essence by which we build our own selves from, not

by obeying what a certain god says, having in mind the vast amount of gods that claim to be

supreme over this human race. Those who decide to live under a gods hammer of morality have

condemned themselves to renounce to the freedom that was given to them by nature. If the

individual who is weak and must, by self-obligation, live under the gods hammer to support its

existence will begin to see individualists who choose to live by the societal contract Thomas

Hobbes bases his works on become evil. As Friedrich Nietzsche mentions in his essay Beyond

Good and Evil in section 201: Everything that raises an individual above the herd and causes

other to fear is stigmatized as evil. (Nietzsche 201)

You can clearly see my evolution from a young ignorant and greedy boy into a more educated

adult that is able to properly articulate his thoughts into words. Having this in mind, let me tell

you that I always grew up with the idea that you could learn anything from anyone at any time,

meaning that life is just an un-ending journey of learning.