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| Thread: Describing Your Community | |
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted October 27, 2005 11:29 AM |
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Describing Your Community
Describe one of the communities that you belong to. How would you describe it to a stranger? What misconceptions might people have about your community? What makes it a community to you; that is, what is it that you all have in common? What part do you envision yourself playing in this community in the future?
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Go Red Sox!
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted October 27, 2005 12:10 PM |
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The first thing that comes to mind when I tell a person I'm going to WPI is that I'm going to a good school. The second thing that comes to mind is that I go to a tech school. Tech schools definitely have their misconceptions. The first is that girls don't go to tech schools.
That is incorrect. Many girls go to tech schools. It's just that a far greater amount of guys go at the same time. It sort of like those optical illusions where you put two identical circles a distance apart from each other. One is surrounded by tiny circles, one is surrounded by much larger circles making it seem like one is larger than the other. So girls do go to WPI just not of the proportions that the average male would like their to be. It could be worse tho. WPI could stop offering biology-related majors and then we wouldn't have any girls go to this school.
But there are other stereotypes that come with tech schools such as geeky kids who sit and play computer games all day long never socializing with anyone face to face. Again all of us are not like this. There is probably a good portion of our male population that does meet this category, but there are still plenty of normal people who go to this school as well. There are as many as ten or eleven fun, interesting, outgoing people, who go to WPI. This is a very diverse school and there are so many different people you can meet of various countries, races, ethnicities, interests, and hobbies.
But all of those different people come here to learn about math and science, because that is what they want their future jobs to be. There are some majorities of race, gender, and personality, that come with any community. Men seem to take a greater interest in math and science than that of women. And the local area around WPI has a greater population of caucasians, so there are naturally a majority of caucasians that come here as well. For some reason the people interested in math and sciences tend to be a bit geeky and so that is also a bit of a trend that you'll see when you go to WPI.
But even to describe a single community such as a college only scratches the surface. There are communities within the WPI community. Because with each person and all of their different interests, hobbies, races, and ethnicities, there are sports teams, clubs, and numerous other organizations. And then within all those clubs and teams there are groups of friends that overlap and interconnect linking all the sub-communities to each other until you start to see the community called WPI, but even then the groups of friends overlap outside of WPI and into other cities, schools, and workplaces.
It is the friendships that truly make a community connected to one another. And that is what WPI is to me. A group of people who are friends with a common interest. Some of my best friends go to WPI and that is why I continue to be a part of it all. Had I never made a single friend at this school, I wouldn't feel a part of WPI and I would have likely transferred after the first semester.
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Go Red Sox!
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Jebus
Promising
Supreme Hero
TheJester akaJeebs akaJebfoo
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posted October 27, 2005 07:10 PM |
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Edited By: Jebus on 27 Oct 2005
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What my community isn't...
I live in Ottawa, Canada and this is what my community DOES NOT resemble.. 
No I don't live in an igloo,
no I don't go to school, work by dog sleigh.
no I don't eat whale fat (unless it's in my hotdog).
We don't tend to ice fish or hunt for food.
No we can't go skiing in July.
I live in the Capital of Canada,
no it's not Toronto.
It might be cold in the winter, but
no, it's not THAT cold.
Yeah we love hockey.
but no, we don't skate to get around.
actually Im buying a house in a resdidential suburb of Ottawa, Orleans. It's a french community of Ottawa.
We'll be living in a Town house. With grass and everything. We'll have a man made lake in the middle of the community. Im not there yet but I assume that we'll be surrounded by new starting families, or retired couples looking to get out of the busy city.
I don't know much about suburb stereotypes, but I hope that we have them there and that I become one!
I just hope we get nice neighbours.
what I hope it will be...
I hope I'll live in a nice area with kids playing in the street or parks without fear of reprisal or harrassment. I hope to see new couples on evening walks with kids or their dogs, not affraid to stop and chit chat with the neighbours.. I hope to stand in my laneway bbqing with a beer in hand, chatting it up with my neighbour while he's standing in his laneway bbqing with a beer. I look forward to my kids playing with other neighbourhood kids, knowing full well that like me, the parents are looking out for our children. If we can get a game of street hockey going, I look forward to that to! Im looking for piece but not necessarily quiet. I want to be laid back but always busy, always social. I look forward to having friends only a stone's throw away, I look forward to caroling in the street. I look forwared to community sports, tournaments, and parties.
I look forward...
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"You went over my helmet??"
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Wiseman
Known Hero
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posted October 28, 2005 09:51 AM |
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I live in Belgrade.
Yes, we do have electricity.
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Truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted October 28, 2005 12:54 PM |
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Here's another interesting topic...
What issue or problem in your community concerns you or even makes you angry? Give an example of a specific time it affected you or someone you know. Go into as much detail as possible: when and where it happened, your feelings at the time, how you look back at it, and how it's affected you since then.
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted October 28, 2005 01:07 PM |
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Growing up when I was little, I was much ahead of most of the kids my age. Entering Kindergarten, I could read, write, and do my all my times tables up through 10. I almost skipped a grade, but I wasn't ready socially to do so. When Middle School started, school sports played a major role in my extra curricular activities. Had I skipped a grade I would have been at a great disadvantage, because of my physical development. Conversely those who either started late or stayed back, were then at a great advantage, because they had developed one more year then everyone else. But this sort of thing wasn't all that common at my age.
However after completing middle school, several of the people who were once a year ahead of me, had stayed back at some point and so I found myself in competition for playing sports like, baseball and football against people a year older than me. There were several students who had even been held back by their parents, so they would have more successful sports careers in High School. Believe me there is a huge difference between a 15 year old male and a 16 year old male. I gained 25 pounds of muscle between my freshman and sophomore years of high school. Imagine entering high school and trying out against people who were a year older than I. So the opportunty to get quality playing time, also benefits their improvements to their fundamental skills of that particular sport over their four year career. To me this is extremely unfair that I get fewer opportunities to play sports, because other people stay back an extra year in school.
But it doesn't just affect the students in the same school, but also in other schools as well. The football team that I played for at Deering High School, had well over half of its starters and nearly every key player to that team a year older than they should have been. My junior year, they lost in the second round of playoffs. That year all those people should have graduated and gone off to college. But that did not happen, instead all of them had that one extra year and the following year, they won the state championship.
One would say that it balances out, because other schools have students stay back too, well that simply isn't the case at all. It was something very particular to Deering High School. Halfway through my junior year, I moved and went to another school. This school did not have any students stay back or start late for any reason. There might have been one or two in my entire graduating class. It is a fact that Deering High School, won the states my senior year, because they had numerous players who should have been freshman in college. All of them had an extra year to be in the weight room. All of them had an extra year to develop physically. And they way they beat their opponents was mainly from the fact that they could man handle they opposition. When I left Deering my junior year, and saw them again my senior year, most of them had appeared to have put on 20 or more pounds of muscule.
I feel strongly that something needs to be done about this situation, because it isn't an isolated incident. I know of a state champion Bangor football team that also had numerous players at the age of 19. Holding a student back must be forbidden unless warranted by special circumstances. When schools give scholarships out for playing sports, there shouldn't be 19 year olds playing High School Sports. Better restrictions on age must be put into place, because people are exploiting the public school system.
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Go Red Sox!
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UndeadRSF
Hired Hero
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posted October 31, 2005 09:41 AM |
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RedSoxFan3
Admirable
Legendary Hero
Fan of Red Sox
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posted October 31, 2005 10:14 AM |
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A Revision of My Last Post
Young children and even teenagers, need to stay in their own grade level in order to have a consistant athletic, social, and academic background, but many parents feel that pushing their children a year ahead, or keeping them back an extra year to mature is the best thing for their child. I feel that pushing a child ahead a year, because they are very intelligent, would have short-term as well as long-term affects in their lives, both socially and athletically. Keeping a child back, I think is also a bad idea for the same reasons, in compensating for athletics, maturity, or intelligence, you throw the other two important aspects of youth out of proportion. The answer is not to change that child's grade levels, but rather give what our youth needs in other ways.
Growing up when I was little, I was much ahead of most of the kids my age. Entering Kindergarten, I could read, write, and do my all my times tables up through 10. I almost skipped a grade, but I wasn't ready socially to do so. When Middle School started, school sports played a major role in my extra curricular activities. Had I skipped a grade I would have been at a great disadvantage, because of my physical development. Conversely those who either started late or stayed back, were then at a great advantage, because they had developed one more year then everyone else. Academically by the time I was in middle school, I feel that I was being dramatically held back academically in math. My level in Math could have easily been at the High School level, yet socially I was still far too immature to be in High School.
After completing middle school, I began to notice that several of the people who were once a year ahead of me, had stayed back at some point and so I found myself in competition for playing sports like, baseball and football against people a year older than me. There were several students who had even been held back by their parents, so they would have more successful sports careers in High School. Believe me there is a huge difference between a 15 year old male and a 16 year old male. I gained 25 pounds of muscle between my freshman and sophomore years of high school. Imagine entering high school and trying out against people who were a year older than I. I feel that my opportunty to get quality playing time were hurt, because other students had that extra year to grow. Meanwhile these older students are getting more improvements to their fundamentals over their four year career, because they were able to play more often or at a high level for much longer than I had. To me this is extremely unfair that I get fewer opportunities to play sports, because other people stay back an extra year in school.
But it doesn't just affect the students in the same school, but also in other schools as well. The football team that I played for at Deering High School, had well over half of its starters and nearly every key player to that team a year older than they should have been. My junior year, they lost in the second round of playoffs. That year all those people should have graduated and gone off to college. But that did not happen, instead all of them had that one extra year and the following year, they won the state championship.
One would say that it balances out, because other schools have students stay back too, well that simply isn't the case at all. It was something very particular to Deering High School. Halfway through my junior year, I moved and went to another school. This school did not have any students stay back or start late for any reason. There might have been one or two in my entire graduating class. It is a fact that Deering High School, won the states my senior year, because they had numerous players who should have been freshman in college. All of them had an extra year to be in the weight room. All of them had an extra year to develop physically. And they way they beat their opponents was mainly from the fact that they could man handle they opposition. When I left Deering my junior year, and saw them again my senior year, most of them had appeared to have put on 20 or more pounds of muscule.
I feel strongly that something needs to be done about this situation of holding students back or having them skip grades. Perhaps the system of grades in public schools is altogether a bad idea. Because it didn't work for me. I feel that I could have done much better in school had I not been held back academically, and not had so many students stay back making it harder for me to compete athletically.
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Go Red Sox!
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SirDunco
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted October 31, 2005 11:45 AM |
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I live in bratislava, the capital of the Slovak republic.
For those of you who have seen the stupid movie Eurotrip it is nothing like it...actualy the movie was shot somewhere else...
I live in neighorhood overseeing Austria and Hungary. This neighborhood lies on the top of one of the hills surrounding the old town. With the danube valley underneath it is a plesant place. Not even 2 minutes from my appartment is a large forest spreading as far as behind the austrian border.
The only thing I disslike about this place is the architectural style.
In the 1980 witht the communists still in power, there was a mass consturction of appartment blocks. These quite horrid structures were no cherapar then the regualar bricj build appartments, but were built because they were a part of the Socialist Realism theory.
Still my neigborhood is one of the better looking ones. It was originaly until the 80's a area of small gardens a vineyards and a few blocks from me, around the small houses you still can find a couple gardens where older people go to spend their time...
From my room window I can see the small park between the blocks of appartments, where childerne usualy play...on the other side of the appartment I can see Hungary and Austira and even as far as the old town Bratislava.
Oh yeah you wonder.
We have electricity, plumbing, cars, toilets, mass transport...
We don't eat our dogs and so on...Just in case you were unsure
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Lord_Woock
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Daddy Cool with a $90 smile
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posted October 31, 2005 02:41 PM |
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When I was in France two years ago, I have been asked if I have ever heard of Britney Spears. I have never thought much good about french people since then.
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Yolk and God bless.
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My buddy's doing a webcomic and would certainly appreciate it if you checked it out!
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vlaad
Admirable
Legendary Hero
ghost of the past
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posted October 31, 2005 04:40 PM |
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Quote:
The only thing I disslike about this place is the architectural style.
In the 1980 witht the communists still in power, there was a mass consturction of appartment blocks. These quite horrid structures were no cherapar then the regualar bricj build appartments, but were built because they were a part of the Socialist Realism theory.
Still my neigborhood is one of the better looking ones. It was originaly until the 80's a area of small gardens a vineyards and a few blocks from me, around the small houses you still can find a couple gardens where older people go to spend their time...
Same here, in Zrenjanin, Serbia.
Fortunately, some other sights are preserved...
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doomfreak
Famous Hero
The Crispinator
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posted November 02, 2005 01:35 AM |
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I live in Adelaide, Australia
Yes, it is summer here when most people have winter.
No, we don't ride kangaroos instead of horses or instead of driving cars
No, most people don't have kangaroos as pets, but we do eat them
No, we don't talk like the Crocodile Hunter
No, Australia is nothing like that simpsons episode
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Holden means a great deal to Australia...
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Wiseman
Known Hero
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posted November 02, 2005 07:58 AM |
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Quote:
I live in Adelaide, Australia
No, we don't talk like the Crocodile Hunter
Now I seriously doubt that. 
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Truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.
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Jebus
Promising
Supreme Hero
TheJester akaJeebs akaJebfoo
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posted November 02, 2005 02:00 PM |
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DF,
nice to see you follow in my "negate all stereotypes of our countries"!!
lol
Oh and I love sarcasm...
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"You went over my helmet??"
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