Vincent English Blog

Response: As someone who is also from Puerto Rico, I understand what Cofer is saying that the Island "travels" with you wherever you go. Everywhere I go, people will still look at me the same way based on how I look. Not just my skin color, but also by what I wear and how I carry myself. No matter how much I feel like my identity has changed, I will still be the same person no matter what. The best example I can give is when I moved schools to Lakeside, I found that most of the friends that I was making were asking the same kind of questions as the people at my old school were. They would ask why I talked to so "white" and why my interests were so different from where I was from. They would call me "whitewashed" or say that my parents failed to raise me by not teaching me Spanish from a young age. They all had good intentions to make me laugh, but there was still some truth behind it. I will never be able to escape the stereotypes people make about me beca...

Response: When I was hanging out with my old friends after school one day, there was a basketball court in the direction we were walking. I have never been good at basketball, let alone having never played it before at all. I just don't have any interest in the sport. All my friends who were hispanic, asian, white, and also black really wanted to play basketball. I decided to sit out and just watch them play, to which they asked me, "Aren't you supposed to be good at this game, Vinny? It's in your blood after all." Just like my dad, I never learned how to play basketball or really any other kind of sport, for that matter. It's just a norm in my family that we're not the most athletic or sporty people. I responded by saying, "I just don't like to play basketball, that's all, bro." They kept pestering me, asking to play, but I just kept denying their requests and went on my phone. I think the way that I handle conflicts like these is to jus...

Response: I will never truly understand what this world has planned for me in the future. I feel as if I am always trying to predict and change the direction in which my life is going to go, but no matter what, my fate seems to stay on this same unaltered and inevitable path. I don't think this path is a bad one, but I do believe it is the plan that I am supposed to live. I think that everything that happens to me happens for a reason, and I usually believe it's for a good reason too, even if something bad happens. Summary: Today, we presented our cultural poem and visual representation poster Reflection: Presenting in front of the class and showing everyone this very personal poem that I created made me feel very excited and honored to share something like this with others. I love presenting to a crowd of people.

Response: I wish I had more money. As basic as it sounds, I have my reasoning. I feel like at this point in my life, I have been granted everything I could have ever wanted. I have a girlfriend who is just perfect for me in every way, only have 4 classes, get home from school at 11:45 AM, love my job, and just feel like life is perfect right now. The only thing that I wish I had more of is money. I've never been a greedy person or someone who would be corrupted by money, but I have always struggled with money in my family. Both my mom and dad are terrible at saving money and spending it, too. I'm the only one who knows how to properly budget my income and spending, but I just don't get paid enough at my job for the things that I want to buy for myself. I get paid $10 an hour and only work about 20 hours per week, which is around $170 every 2 weeks for my paycheck. I want to buy better guitar gear, like amps and cabinets for my sound, and better-sounding guitars with expensi...

 

Response: The most creative thing I have ever made was a video summary of my entire year for 2024. It had videos of me and my friends, random events from school, pictures varying from friends to geckos, and lots of videos of me playing guitar. All of these clips were put over the song "Welcome to Paradise" by Green Day, which was one of my favorite songs at the time and reminded me of the 2024 year. I was working on this video for about a week, which I was planning to post to Instagram once it was New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve though, I had work from 1-10:30 pm, and right after, I went to my grandma's house to celebrate the New Year with all of them, like I do every year. When I finally got home, I realized I had to finish this video tonight. I stayed up from 1 am until 9 am working on this video, which I finally got done and posted to Instagram. I was so proud of myself after making this video because it was the longest, strenuous, and highest quality project...

Response: A question that I have been asking myself since I was little is, "Where do we go when we die?" Others around me would always say we go to heaven when we die, but I found that hard to believe with no evidence of heaven existing. I've grown up Catholic all of my life, still am (sort of), but I've always had my doubts about if heaven is real or not. Ever since I was around 8 years old in my 2nd-grade classroom, my mind has always thought that life ends after you die, and it is just nothingness forever, which is terrifying to think of. I don't want this to be how it is when you die. I hope that when we die, there is some kind of life afterwards, whether it's reincarnation or heaven. Another question I've had is, "Who is God and is he even real?" I like to believe and have faith that there is some higher power in this universe. Our world was made in such specific conditions and settings to create life on Earth that if even one of those condi...

Response: I started dating my girlfriend in March of 2025. When my girlfriend first told me where she wanted to go to college, my mind started racing at the very near future we would soon be facing. She had told me she wanted to study abroad in Barcelona, Spain. For a while, we put off this conversation about where we would go for college until this school year started. Now that our senior year is starting, we've talked about our possible future more frequently. She told me that she was dead set on attending a university in Spain to get out of the US, and that I was faced with a choice. She told me that if she were to go to college in Spain, she feels that long distance wouldn't work out. So my choices are either leave my entire life in Georgia behind, all of my dreams, my career, and my family, or stay here to go to college and never see this girl again. I still have no idea what to do. I feel so lost and so fearful of where I'm going to be a year from now, and I don't...

Response: This course requires you to prove your strength in integrity and dedication by having daily prompts to complete every day. While they are simple, these daily prompts are there to prove your dedication to the course, which I have adapted my strategy and behavior to comply to these demands. I feel like this daily dedication to a prompt will prove to be a strength of mine throughout this course. One challenge I feel I will face will be meeting the deadlines of assignments, which I have had trouble with in the past. Summary: Today, we worked on our cultural identity masks. Reflection: I feel like this course will test my abilities to keep a consistent schedule and flow. I consider this a good thing though, as it will prepare me for more rigorous courses in the future.

Response: Through the influence of gender roles in my life, I carry myself and my responsibilities like how my father does with his. I take control over most things around the house without being asked to, but also without complaining about it. I have to be more responsible and aware of my actions throughout my household. Compared to someone like my sisters, I have a lot more responsibilities and tasks I have to do around the house, and when I do them, I do not expect praise or a reward. I do these things because that is what I have seen my dad do for our family throughout my life. These gender roles in our household have been passed down to me and shaped me to be who I am today, and who I will be for my future family. I'll be like how my dad was. At first when I was getting older, I tried to avoid and deny these reponsibilities seeing them as "not fair", but as time has gone on and I have matured, I have learned to accept this to be the norm in my family. I depicted this...

Response: On Sunday mornings, my family will get up to clean the entire house to get themselves ready for the week. We will start blasting Hispanic music throughout the house to get us moving, and then clean the house until all of the dust is gone. In "Girl" the mother describes to her daughter how to clean a corner, and then to clean a whole house, as if she is just expected to learn how to learn and do these things for her future husband. The difference between their culture and mine, is that everyone in the house is helping out with cleaning, even the men. However, in "Girl" the mother makes it seem like only the woman should know how to clean the house. Summary: Today we took pictures for picture day and we're given time in class to finish our critical thinking questions. Reflection: "Girl" has really made me realize the differences that a young girl in this culture has for her expectations, traditions, and ideologies. Their culture is much stricte...

Response: Because of the way that I grew up in my culture, my expectations in life are shaped by the way I was raised. As the oldest son, I am expected to take care of myself throughout the day, not relying on anyone's help but my own. I am expected to drive all of my family where they need to go, and also take myself to work and school. I am expected to have dinner with my family every night at the table. I am expected to find my own food around the house, without having to rely on someone to make it for me. This is all shaped for me to become like one of the many men in my family's culture Summary: Today, we read "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid and discussed critical thinking questions as a class. Reflection: Reading "Girl" made me see how different others' lives can be based off of the culture they are raised in, and the differences of expectations between my culture and the girl's culture.

 this is only a test