Rhetorical Analysis link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM8azoZjI4U

I will be doing a rhetorical analysis of this Super Bowl commercial from 2015.

20 min blog #5

Working retail is quite a commitment.  I have a part-time job at Victoria's Secret/Pink which I started last year.  You have to have a patient mind and happy demeanor your entire shift.  In my job, we get commission, so it's super important to make sure each customer you talk to knows your name.  This way, there is friendly competition within coworkers as well to gain incentive.  It takes teamwork and some sacrifice too because everyone has to share customers equally and determine who's already talked to who, etc. Depending on what your strengths are, your title could be a generalist, a processor, or a seller.  If you're a seller, you are out on the sales floor your whole shift, selling people the items in the store.  You have to be nice, easy to talk to, and make people feel comfortable with you.  If you're a generalist, you would most likely be up at the cash wrap working registers. There, you have to have great customer service skills because you handle many different transactions to handle and things can get complicated.  You're also the last experience a customer has with the store before walking out the door. If you're a processor, you handle all things in the background.  Processors make the store look nice.  They organize all the clothes, switch floor sets around, and other jobs in the back hat keep the store running.  It is always nice to be a seller and be able to call on a processor in the back to check stock for a customer so you can get an answer immediately.  Sometimes, your patience is really tested when you get the crabby Sunday customers.  I don't know why but usually on this day people seem to be more impatient than most.  When someone is extremely rude to you, being an employee and always needing to at your best, you have to just smile and ask if they want anything else.  Dressing rooms get crazy during the busy hours.  "Go back" piles get stacked up and hard to put away because everyone is so busy, and customers are always needing your help for something when you're trying to get someone a room.  Luckily, we all have a walkie talkie system so our team can all communicate with each other to make sure everyone is getting the best service and attention possible.  I love my coworkers and my job, and even though retail is hard work, it's been very rewarding.

20 min blog #4

Last year in March, I went on a spring break trip with my high school band.  We flew across the ocean to Europe, where our destination tour would be through the countries of Poland and Hungary.  This trip was absolutely amazing.  I had the chance to be with a bunch of my best friends having the time of my life in Europe.  I've always had a desire to travel the world, and I am glad I had the opportunity to see these beautiful countries.  We went to Krakow first and got to see their main square market.  We also went on a tour of Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps.  That experience alone was one of a lifetime.  Standing in the watch tower of the famous Birkenau railroad tracks where actual Nazi guards stood was surreal.  So was seeing the barracks and the gas chambers that the Jews suffered with for so long.  The other part that hit home was seeing all the suitcases, glasses, prosthetic limbs, and piles and piles of shoes.  Next on the trip we moved on to a happier note and traveled to Zakopane, Poland.  There we got to climb to the top of a mountain and overlook the beautiful city nestled in the mountains.  It was absolutely stunning.  There we got to have a nice polish meal in with this amazing scenery to go with it.  After that we traveled to Budapest and got to explore the city.  It was so fun venturing off and seeing all the things this other part of the world had to offer.  I was lucky and found that they still make lattes over there.  There were lots of vendors at a cute little Easter market on one of the main streets of Budapest.  While in this city, we also got to take a boat tour on the Danube river and see all the beautiful city lives from the water.  This trip was marvelous exposure for me to open my mind.  I know now that I want to see more of our beautiful world and everything in it.  I was fortunate enough to have the resources to make that trip possible, and I pray that in the future I can expand my knowledge and experience level of other fantastic sights that are out there waiting.  My next adventure may not be with a big group of people with chaperones and an itinerary planned by a tour company, but it will sure be a thrilling highlight of my life.  Traveling is something important to me, and I want to make sure I will have the opportunity to do so when I am older.  Life stuck in one spot seems so dreary to me, and I'm can't wait to see what the future holds for my travels.

20 min writing #3

Self esteem.  It's such a big issue when teens start branching out and becoming independent.  When teenage girls become young adults, we strive for this self image of ourselves that we can be proud of.  I think everywhere there are girls struggling with self esteem issues.  Our society nowadays is constantly telling us we need to be thinner, prettier, shorter, have longer hair, perfect skin, be smart, be perfect.  The big focus is mainly on our outward appearances and what we present to other people.  Most girls that are searching for their identity though, need to start looking inward.  I've realized that outward appearance matter, yes, but not nearly as much as the inside.  I've found that my identity is in Jesus Christ, my father, and that not flesh nor any mortal thought can get in the way of that.  I am made in a perfect image, and for that I need not worry what other people think of me.  I don't care if people don't like my hair, my clothes, my decisions.  No matter what I do I will always have the abounding love of my father shining through me and any mistake I will make.   I desire that other girls searching for their identity stop judging themselves based off of what a boy thinks of them, or what society thinks of them.  We are loved daughters of Christ and we need to start paying attention to worth that's measured in a whole different way.  Society tells us that we aren't good enough.  That's a lie.  We see suicides every day from struggling teens tormented by bullying, or by feeling like they aren't worth it.  It pains me to think that there are people my age all around me that are not content with who they are or what their circumstances may be, and that sometimes it can lead to the taking of their own life.  The pressure to be like by our peers is there.  I feel it every day just like everyone else, but I've also found peace that if someone doesn't like my choices, there is nothing I can do to change that.  And that's not my problem.  I am confident that I am and am becoming everyday exactly who God made me to be.  That's not to say I don't struggle with being content.  I do.  It's just that I am also at peace and trusting that those doubts have no power of me.  They won't last forever, and I can easily escape them.  I hope that someday I can reach girls in their soul searching time of life and deliver them the good news- that no matter what, they are loved.  Our culture needs to stop shaming girls who aren't under 150 pounds, and that love eating pizza and cake.  I hope one day our society can value a person based on what they see when our eyes our closed.

20 min blog #2

This weekend has been very influential in just a few short days.  I came down to Minneapolis with my Christian Ministry, Chi Alpha, for the annual SALT conference.  The hotel were sitting in is very nice, and right now were playing a game that I've never played before.  It's fun making a bunch of new friends and seeing a bunch of college kids coming together for once purpose- to praise God. I've met a lot of cool people, been prayed for, prayed for people, and made stronger connections with friends I already have.  Granted, there have been ups and downs but I really am grateful for everything that's been happening this weekend.  I am so passionate for this campus ministry because of the wonderful things its doing in students lives.  I will also finally get to see my brothers tomorrow since my family lives in the cities, so they will have the opportunity to take me out to lunch.  I'm growing as a person this weekend, and I'm also seeing big changes in the people around me.  Coming to college felt risky and was initially pretty scary.  Chi Alpha was a great outlet for me to find friends that accepted me.  College has been a whirlwind, and I've been through a lot already this first semester.  Fortunately, I wouldn't trade any of my trials.  They've made me a better person.  I am loving being independent.  College is definitely what I was waiting for.   High school was fun and all, but it was tough because I never felt like I was truly fulfilled with my calling in life.  Coming to college and finding this group of friends that will always have my back has opened my eyes to what good friends are, and also what it means to be a good friend.  Sitting here now, just listening to the conversations, makes me so happy.  I've found a home, in Christ, my great community.  My family would be so proud of me and the choices I am making because I am truly striving to love and live for Jesus.  And right now, I couldn't be happier.  I will keep walking in the path God has set for me, just like my brothers did in college.  I want to follow their examples because they have been so successful and I know that they will always be a great influence on me.  I've found who to follow and what to strive for.  This group of friends I've met is the first step to becoming that person I've always wanted to be.

20 Min Blog #1

Bad softball coaches are something I could definitely be an expert in.  Throughout my 14 years of playing softball, I've had two coaches I can confidently say had my best interest at heart, one of them being my own father.  All the others wanted to do was play mind games with young teenage girls at a sensitive time in their life.  I've been through the ringer when it comes to adversity in sports.  Starting when I first started playing fastpitch for my community team, I wanted to start pitching.  I was so excited to start, but I was already being told to give up because the coach's daughter was a pitcher, so I would have to be pretty great in order to get time on the mound.  I didn't care.  I started pitching anyways, and the coach hated that I was just as good as her daughter.  When i was recruited by an elite team,  my community team had a fit when i decided to leave. I started traveling to places all over the country.  The first elite softball program I was in, I was dragged through the mud. I had talent, but I understood I was not the best player in this new elite world.  Although I was not the star of the team, I did deserve to play, to get better, and to grow.  My coaches only had the interest for me to be an insurance player. They would give me bits and pieces of playing time, telling me my time would come.  Then, my family and I would spend all this money to travel around the country just to sit on the bench.  My coach played mind games with me once I did get recognized and became a starter after waiting patiently for my shot.  I think he had little man syndrome.  He wanted to feel powerful, but he wasn't a very tall man so maybe that impacted his ego. Jesus was what I was focusing on when I was constantly overlooked, and played with.  The next elite coach I had was wonderful.  After switching elite programs to a team that was many levels more enjoyable than the first program I was in, I found my softball family.  I had learned many things about the game during my bench time, my waiting time. When I was finally given a chance to thrive and show off my skills, I had so much fun. I finally had a coach that wanted me to grow not only as a softball player, but in my character as a person.  I got three and a half great years of softball.  Throughout that time, I had started being recruited by college coaches.  My high school season came along each spring, along with the coach for it. Throughout my high school softball career, he was rude, played favorites, strung you along, and altogether, I started in maybe 5 games in my 5 years being on Varsity- I was the only one on the team with a college scholarship to play softball.  And he didn't play me.  I am so grateful for this though, because this experience has developed me as a person.  I have a patient character because of it, and I soon became content knowing that not even a coach could get in the way of God's plan for me.  Bench me? So what.  I know I deserved more, but I didn't complain.  I waited, and I set an example for younger kids.  At my senior banquet, my parents and I had a family come up to us afterwards in tears because of how unfairly I was treated.  Everyone else knew it, we knew it, but it didn't change that I was happy about it. I was setting an example for the younger kids that even a big bully coach can't stop me. Jesus is always the answer.  Bad softball coaches have proven that to me, and made me so confident in that.

This is Caroline Meyers, and I am in Mrs. Ruhland's English 120 class at 9 a.m.