ENGLISH 110C DRAFTS

Jasmine Barnes
Professor Bennett
ENGL 110C
01 February 2018
So You Think You’re Busy
“I just do not have the time to do that Jasmine, UGH! I have a lot to do today” says Ebony. I
instantly rolled my eyes as my cousin tells me she does not have time to meet up. Everyday it is
something new, she cannot make it for our play date, or she does not have time to go to church, or she
does not have any time for herself. I ended our conversation by telling her I love her and that I would talk
to her later. I sit and drift off thinking about busyness.
Adults are consumed with filling their day with so much that they are stretched to the maximum
without being able to enjoy life. It is almost like they enjoy being busy or maybe enjoy making it seem like
they are busy. Has becoming busy become a new life aspiration? Is it another level to complete prior to
fully becoming fulfilled in life?
According to Tim Kreider in “The Busy Trap”, he proposes that Americans use being busy as a way
to boast about their lives and disguise it as a complaint (Kreider 982). He gives example of people that
are overworked and use their day to commute between three jobs and how they generally never tell you
how busy they are because they are tired (Kreider 982). Everyone has their own agenda, bogged down
with things they chose to fill their day with. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t working or
promoting their work (Kreider 982).
Kreider extends the idea of busyness to children. He explains that children are scheduled down
with classes and extracurricular activities and are as tired as a working adult (Kreider 983). He gives an
example of how he grew up as a latchkey kid and had three hours to do as he pleased (Kreider 983). This
allowed him to set a standard for how he wanted to live the rest of his life. The ultimate goal for
everyone is to reach retirement and not have to work after. He states that the goal of the future is full
unemployment, so we can play (Kreider 985).
Kreider states that busyness serves our life as a kind of existential reassurance (Kreider 982). By
this he means that working and being busy consumes us and without it we feel like we are nothing or too
idle. Has American placed an unknown requirement on its people that without being busy they cannot
achieve being successful? He writes about being idle and how essential it is. Idleness is not just a
vacation, an indulgence or a vice, it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body (Kreider
984). If being consumed with busyness is a necessity then being idle is too. He explains that being quiet
and idle provides a moment to step out of busyness and evaluate the time spent busy (Kreider 984).
My cousin Ebony and I spend a lot of time on the phone despite that she constantly tells me that
she is busy. Her life consist of social work with elderly clients and caring for her family. My life consist of
going to school and caring for my family. As simple as that may seem we both have used the excuse of
being too busy. But, are we really? She cannot seem to fill her day with enough task. Every single minute
is calculated from work, school, extracurricular activities, family time, more business ideas, and college. I
however, am not too busy.
For example, I use to be in the military. I worked from the hours of 6 am to 5 pm. I would wake
up everyday by 4:45 am to have myself and kids up and ready for daycare and work. I would then come
home and start a number of different activities like making dinner, setting up for the next day, play time,
bath time and then bed time for my kids. After all of that I would stay up and either watch television,
workout, or do pending online college courses. On a different day I would even squeeze in meeting up
with a girlfriend so our kids could play.
 I was not ever busy maybe a bit tired, but never busy. Anything that intrigued me I made time
for, even if it was only for thirty minutes. Now my days consist of me going to school three days a week
while I purposely fill the other four days with never ending task. Somehow not working full-time has
made me apart of the busy crowd. Once I read Tim Kreider’s “The Busy Trap” I could instantly relate.
Kreider says that the present hysteria is not a necessary condition of life, instead it is something
that we have chosen (Kreider 983). So he does not promote quitting your job and filling your time and
life with idleness and luxurious vacations. He raises awareness to a busy and boastful America. He allows
room for relaxation or allowing yourself to have a coffee with friends or taking a break to enjoy a movie.
This will have you step back and analyze what is going on around your life. He suggests that you allow
yourself to take some time to enjoy your life instead of rushing through it.
There is this silent stipulation that taking up space and residence requires you to be busy in
America. That if you are idle and not consumed with being busy that it is related to failure or
unsuccessfulness. The key is not to stop being busy, it is to be less busy so in return you are able to enjoy
your life. I was able to go from unknowingly living a packed but fulfilled life by consciously making time to
do the things I would find joy in. I now know that I can continue to make those same conscious decisions
without the guilt of not being busy.

Jasmine Barnes
Professor Bennett
ENGL 110C
Exodus
A Plea for Help
Within the first five minutes of the movie each concept is shown. The families crying for their
loved ones and fleeing for their lives along with the changes to the music, images of explosions and sad
stricken faces wet from tears help to intensify the message of the movie.
Hassan, Isra, Terek, and Alaigie are all characters portrayed in the film that are used to give
examples of Ethos. Each person’s story helps to instill trust into the audience by giving a little insight
from each person’s background. Isra and her father Tarek’s prior life was good in Syria. Tarek owned a
restaurant and sold falafels and shawarma until the Syrian crisis started. After the crisis he moved his
family to Turkey. He provided for them and tried to save money to get to Germany. Hassan openly tells
us the truth about the human traffickers and how they portray the information for traveling falsely.
Alaigie’s mother solidifies his credit worthiness by openly praying for him and showing the audience that
her and her family trust that Alaigie will make the journey to help his family.
This information is used to show us each person is trustworthy enough to take us along on the
travel of a refugee. Each story about the characters are told either in the beginning of meeting them or
after they are introduced to the audience. These help us understand and trust that the stories each of
them show us are authentic. Once this is established the audience is capable of believing the stories
without thinking that they are over exaggerating. It also subconsciously allows for the other two concepts
to be received without doubt.
During each person’s story they share bits and pieces of information with us that lead us to
Logos. Hassan tells us about how easy human trafficking in Turkey. He uses this information to get the
audience to think and strike a chord for alert. He continues with practice swimming, tracking the water
levels, and temperatures to see which day would be the best day to travel. Tarek and his wife argue
about whether they should stay or go. This family problem alerts not only the audience that fear and
logic play a role in the decisions that are made for the characters families. Refugees fled, not because
they were poor but, because they sought after safety for their families. Tough decisions and discussions
arise within the film to show us that each situation is presented with a dilemma and logic has to be the
answer for each issue.
 “The duty is on every human being to help each other in this crisis. Put religion to the side.
Humanity is more important.” Said Tarek.
Pathos is a major factor in this film. The play on emotions strikes fear, sadness, and anger in the
audience’s heart. The feeling and questioning of what can I do to help? It draws out sympathy for the
characters and hatred for the lack of care from the enemies doing the harm in each crisis. Exodus uses
music, dramatic footage, and monologues to illustrate the need for action throughout the movie.
Music is key. Music is used to entice the emotions of joy, sympathy, and anger. Throughout the
film music helps the viewer realize that the refugees are taken through many trials before they are able
to be truly joyful in the safe havens that they seek. Music helps us reach the conclusion of how the
characters are personally dehumanized. The footage of the bombings, shooting, crowded streets that
people are forced to live on provoke sadness.
Hassan and Isra both have to travel by boat to Greece. Their stories contrast one another and are
similar as well. While Hassan is aware of the life jackets drowning the passenger wearing them, Isra and
her family either sell them or talk about wearing them. The music is used in Hassans story in a sad tone.
He speaks about death the footage of refugees shows dead children being pulled out of the sea. An
upbeat tempo is played in the background while Isra shares that refugees sell the life jackets and flotation
devices to other refugees seeking them.
Happiness is shown in the footage when the refugees reach each country. They are excited, even
through their hectic travels, that a milestone was reached. The clips with Austria portray happiness and
kindness. The music is used in a delightful way to show families being reunited and the natives of the
country being kind to the refugees. This gives the refugees and the audience hope and a brief taste of
peace.
Each refugee left their home country due to hardships and on their seek for asylum they each
faced hardships as well. Hassan was left by his friends and ended up being alone. Throughout each of
him trying to get into the United Kingdom sad music plays as he gives his monologue on how he is lonely
and how difficult his transition is. Alaigie is captured and ransomed for money during his travel. The
footage used is of him walking away with intense music playing in the background. This allows us to
connect with the family and with Alaigie. He was captured and ransomed, which shows us the inhumane
part of the film. Isra is faced with a tragedy of seeing a death of a child while waiting in the cold at the
border. The film shows the viewer fires that are used to stay warm and a body covered by trash that is
signifies the death of the child.

Exodus S34 E14

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/exodus/

Jasmine Barnes
Professor Bennett
English 110c
30 March 2018

Access to Birth Control

The access to birth control varies widely across the globe. There are parties that are fighting for
both access and non-access to it. Military service women, teenagers, women of all ethnicities, and are at
risk to unintended pregnancies if access is limited or taken away from them.
 Wilkinson, Tracey A.; Miller, Courtney; Rafie, Samantha; Landau, Sharon Cohen; Rafie, Sally.
“Older teen attitudes towards birth control access in pharmacies: a qualitative study.” Contraception, vol.
97, no. 3, 2018, pp. 249-255.
Increased access to contraception through pharmacies was greatly appreciated. This study was
for young adults that have graduated high school and at least have finished one year of college.
Participants of the study were supportive of the access level to contraception. Some had concerns about
privacy from parents and insurance disclosures. Participants liked that they could still have access to
traditional ways like with a PCM, but also valued the access straight from the pharmacies.

Smith, Peggy; Novello, Gabrielle; Chacko, Mariam. “Does immediate access to birth control help
prevent pregnancy? A comparison of onsite provision versus off-campus referral for contraception at two
school-based clinics.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 48, no. 2, 2011, pp. 107-108
The access to contraception and it’s polices within mostly Hispanic communities was studied
throughout to high school-based clinics. Two school-based clinics were studied with a few different time
periods. One school offered on campus help while the other utilized a referral based system. The results
for each clinic varied in the different types of contraception offered and used along with the percentage
of pregnancies.

Grindlay, Kate; Grossman, Daniel. “Contraception access and use among U.S. servicewomen
during deployment.” Contraception, vol. 87, no. 2, 2013, pp.162-169
Argues that service women either have limited or no access to contraceptive devices while
deployed. Shows that the number of unintended pregnancies are relatively high while deployed. This is
due to not having access to refill prescriptions, not having the methods preferred by service woman, or a
military provider was not spoken to about contraception prior to deploying.

Overall I plan to utilize the information that I have and will collect to argue that access to contraception is
valuable and important to whomever tries to use it. It should not be viewed as a one size fits all garment
and one decision made by people that are either not affected by it or view it as unnecessary.

Jasmine Barnes
Professor Bennett
ENGL 110C
Birth Control
Women’s Access to Birth Control
Birth control is a method which a woman uses to prevent pregnancy. There are several methods and reasons
that are used by women in order to do birth control. It is one issue today that is widely practiced and has both
proponents and opponents. Pregnancy and the whole process of giving birth affects women more than it
could affect men. They feel the baby in the womb more and to a good extent are affected both physically and
emotionally. Richards says that any time women for any reason are allowed to practice birth control, they are
free to do their planning on when to conceive or not, what time to take before the next pregnancy, can help
them keep good health for both the woman and her household (801). It is observed that giving birth nonstop
can be detrimental to a woman’s health. Examples of conditions developed by several of pregnancies in a
short period of time are gestational diabetes and also increases chances of caesarean.
 So many women are able to pursue career the moment they can practice contraception. There are
employers that find it hard to employ women for fear of frequent maternity leave. From this birth control,
women can be engaged more in the career jobs hence participating in the growth of both the economy and
the nation. Birth control has led to significant reduction in the pregnancies among the girl adolescents in the
America.
There should absolutely be no debate of whether or not women should be allowed to use
contraception. Firstly, the constitution allows adults to do whatever they want so long as that it is legal and
that one can be held accountable. Some women’s lives are in danger as a result of contraceptives and so
when they are able to access the birth control mechanism, will be of help to them until the time that they
could be ready for pregnancies.
Women should be able to find available all forms of contraception so that they can be at liberty to
choose the one that they feel will work for them may be according to the demands of their body. Some of the
examples are the use of condoms, contraceptive sponge, pregnancy prevention pills, vaginal ring among
others. Whenever a woman is comfortable with the method of birth control that she uses, then there is high
likelihood that she will go for the same over and over again. This makes it absolutely hard for a woman to
conceive against her wishes. The ultimate consequences are that there would be no dangerous practices like
abortion. Again it leads to avoidance of psychological and mental torture resulting from unwanted
pregnancies. It is right to say that the use of contraceptives is part of the bigger women’s health care.
The women access to contraceptives for controlling birth faces a very big challenge from powerful
people in the society. Americans witnessed new fight against women health among them the use of
contraception by the political elites both at state and federal level in 2013. There are members of the political
class that have even attempted to cut down funds, equipment and medicine that are used on women health
(Richards 802).
Scientist view birth control in women as more of medical than it is to the sexual life of women. Taking
for example female condoms, they are used mostly by women not because they want to enjoy sex, but in
order to prevent pregnancy and also prevention of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Even though
birth control is used by women to prevent pregnancy, women using the contraceptives must accept the ones
that they are using (Higgins et al. 417). It is therefore upon the manufacturers to make these methods be as
appealing and attractive as possible to the women without sacrificing safety to the health of the users. This is
the only way that will encourage a good number of them to use them because truth be told, so many women
would want to do birth control for their own reasons.
Unfortunately, contraception has not done well in several cases because of failure to follow
instructions by some of the women who use them. For instance, most of the contraceptives that failed in the
America were oral contraceptives which could be pills that were not well taken according to the prescription
by the professionals. It would be write to argue that the failure of these oral contraceptives is not because
they are dysfunctional and are failing to serve their purpose but is due to negligence and irresponsibility on
the side of the women users.
A woman’s sexual addiction could lead to birth control that she could use continuously, otherwise she
may end up conceiving and giving birth to many children against her wishes. Contraceptives have changed
women’s view on sexuality. A good number do not fear getting pregnant any more since they have a way of
preventing it. Women use sex for many reasons with some practice it for connection with their spouses, some
for leisure and enjoyment and some for the feeling of being a woman. With birth control possible, they can
go ahead with their sexuality without problems. Contraceptives allow women to make decisions about their
lives, determining every bit of the happenings in their sexuality and pregnancy. A woman does not just get
pregnant against her wishes.
Generally, women access birth control for very many reasons. It could be about family planning
because the financial resources that could be used in the family to raise the children is limited. Women can
also do birth control courtesy of sex education that they have received. They can do some timing within their
reproductive health. A good number of parents from struggling families have benefitted from family planning.
It helps them have kids that they can comfortably raise. Findings have it that kids whose mothers have
practiced birth control are more likely to benefit from their parents’ income.
Whenever women are allowed to do family planning either by law or generally in the society, there is
an effect in the economy of a country. Advice from experts are sought and this leads to circulation of cash.
Some people buy pills and any other substance needed for the same. The women themselves also prevent
conception and therefore have good time to do their jobs, be it office work, business or farming contributing
massively to the country’s GDP.
In the United States, there are so many women that have experienced unwanted pregnancies,
miscarriage, induced abortion and bir th control. One in every two pregnancies are unplanned and this is
very alarming. Therefore, women’s access to contraception can reduce these unintended pregnancies a great
deal. (Steinberg et al. 240). Birth control, abortion and unplanned pregnancies have a connection to one
another. That nearly 43% of the unplanned pregnancies arise from the fact that birth control is not done well
and around one in every two of the unwanted pregnancies are due to complete failure to involve the use of
birth control (Steinberg et al. 240).
Pregnancy requires the mother to be ready psychologically to have a child because it is one thing that
leads to so many implications in the society. There are so many issues that arise due to pregnancies whether
or not a woman is married. Some of the examples of these are financial support, medical check-up, social
issues like people talking about it in the neighborhood, career etc. It is therefore important that a woman gets
pregnant when she is prepared to tackle all these. Women access to birth control can play a very big role in
preventing unintended pregnancies.
There are considerable side effects that the women experience after using these birth control
mechanisms. Off course people’s bodies would react differently to different methods. Some women are
affected a lot by taking the oral pills as a way of prevention. Understanding that the pills contain some
amount of the female hormones that help in prevention of pregnancy like estrogen but in synthetic form.
The side effects are that some women feel like they want to vomit while others have unpredictable
periods as a result of the pills. Some have reduced urge for sex while some feel headache. Others become
moody while some have changes in their weight. Some have difference in their breasts either being tender or
enlarged and sometimes the feeling of pain of the breasts. There are families that birth control has
threatened to make them torn apart because of misunderstanding between husband and wife over the issue.
May be the woman wants to practice but the man finds it hard. All these side effects are often down played
by the proponents of birth control.
People today have been positive about birth control and the use of contraceptives generally. Women
are encouraged to use contraceptives by both the government and NGOs (Klaus et al. 283). There has been
emphasis on the positive effects of the same. Due to feminism and women empowerment, many women are
going to work and many employers are against women that ask for maternity leave every now and again. And
so the women must have a way of solving this problem and this is controlling how they give birth.
 Works Cited
Richards, Cecile. "Protecting and expanding access to birth control." New England Journal of Medicine 374.9
(2016): 801-803.0720707414
Steinberg, Julia R., and Lisa R. Rubin. "Psychological aspects of contraception, unintended pregnancy, and
abortion." Policy insights from the behavioral and brain sciences 1.1 (2014)
Higgins, Jenny A., and Nicole K. Smith. "The sexual acceptability of contraception: reviewing the literature and
building a new concept." The Journal of Sex Research 53.4-5 (2016): 417-456.
Klaus, Hanna, and Manuel E. Cortés. "Psychological, social, and spiritual effects of contraceptive steroid
hormones." The Linacre Quarterly 82.3 (2015): 283-300.