Where was I when I heard about 9/11...

Like most kids on September 11th, 2001 I was in school, fourth grade to be exact. At around 8:45 that morning my mom checked me out of school to go to an dentist appointment. As soon as I got in the car my mom told me that something had happened in New York City and that some building had gotten hit by a plane. I had no idea what she was talking about, nor did I know what the world trade center was so I brushed it off and didn't really worry about it.

Once we got to the dentist office and we walked back into the back room where I was going to have my teeth cleaned I caught a glimpse of the news coverage on TV. I saw the second tower get hit live on TV. It was surreal, I couldn't quite understand the magnitude of the situation but as I looked around the room and saw the horror on the faces of adults all around me I figured out quickly that it was serious.

I had a short cleaning and my mom decided to keep me at home for the rest of the day and not send me back to school. I, of course, was ecstatic that I didn't have to go back to school.

I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do all day and I turned the TV on to watch some cartoons. The TV clicked on and the first thing I saw was the news coverage of the towers collapsing. I was completely taken back. There were news anchors speaking and they just kept looping the same clips of video over and over again. My mom and I sat there for most of the morning watching the news and taking it all in. It was surreal.

I understand now that I did not fully grasp the magnitude of this event. I find myself lucky and partially unique because I heard about 9/11 as it was happening. After I went back to school the next day, everyone was talking about the attacks and I found out that most of the teachers in the school didn't even tell there students what was going on and so most kids didn't find out until they got home after school. I can see the reasoning behind that logic, but I partially disagree with the decision to hide it.

My Least Favorite Teacher

In seventh grade I began to realize how easy math was becoming for me. I was finishing all of the homework assignments in class while the teacher was lecturing on the material. When my parents took notice of this they decided that I should get a book for eighth grade math problems to work through once I finished my actual homework. For about half of the year, I went through the same routine every day in math. During the lecture I would finish the homework and then during the homework time I would work problems out of my advanced book. At the end of the year I took a test and ended up skipping eighth grade math all together and going straight into algebra one. It was in algebra one that I encountered my least favorite teacher ever.

Her name was Mrs. Jones, and while she was a nice person I couldn't learn from her at all. Every day that I went into that class I felt frustrated because I couldn't understand the material she was teaching no matter how hard I tried. For the longest time I felt that I was the problem and that I just wasn't smart enough but then I noticed the countless other students that were struggling just as much as I was. We had lengthy homework every night in that class, ranging from forty to fifty problems a night, the worst part was that it was graded for accuracy. At the beginning of every class we would grade the previous night's homework and turn it in.  I remember that I was incredibly frustrated by this because I felt that I shouldn't be penalized for not retaining the information immediately. Almost always, our homework that night was over the new material we had learned in class that day. I don't feel that I had enough time to actually understand the material before I was graded on it.

It took me until nearly winter break before I began to figure out that I simply could not learn from her teaching style. The unfortunate part though, is that she wouldn't teach any other way. It was her way or the highway. I would ask her during class to explain things different ways and she would just repeat what she had said before.

I struggled through that class and it was by far the hardest class I had taken up to that point. She is only my least favorite teacher because she did nothing to help me succeed. The only reason I passed that class was because I went out and learned the material in other ways on my own. She never took the time to even consider that the way she was teaching wasn't working for everyone sitting in her classroom.

A Transitional Event

There I was, a skinny, tall, awkward freshman in high school. It was nearing the end of summer, and I had no idea what I was about to get myself into. The transition to high school was something that I was not looking forward to. Change is not my best friend; in fact change and I don’t like to meet often. Regardless, there I was packing my bag for a 4-day trip, a 4-day trip that would change my life. I was terrified. I was about to embark on the Technical Entertainment Crew’s (TEC) leadership retreat as the only freshman.  I had been asked to go by our faculty advisor, Mr. Poole but I had never really looked at myself as a leader before. I mean I had been a captain on a few sports teams and lead some small school group projects before but nothing that I thought was to extraordinary or exceptional.

I went out on a limb and put my trust in my parents and Mr. Poole and showed up anyways. I didn’t really know anyone and wasn’t quite sure how to act or what to expect. As I arrived at the school that fateful morning I was immediately asked to help finish putting labels on to dividers in the binders that we were going to be given for the week of meetings. I noticed something as I slid those seven labels into 11 different binders. First, these were the tasks we had to complete in the 4 days; second there were nearly 100 pages already there with space for notes, comments and even more notes. I was starting to realize that this might be a bigger deal than I had anticipated.

We went out to the van and loaded up all the gear, TV, duffel bags, backpacks, food, coolers, binders, practically everything you could think of. We all piled into the van, every seat was filled, the gas tank was full, the stuff was packed away and off we went on the 45-minute drive to the lake house that where we would be staying for the weekend.

That weekend I sat in countless hours of meetings, threw the football on a dry lakebed, sat out on a lake dock until the wee hours of the morning and many other things. At the last meeting on the first dayeverything started to click for me, I started to understand more about what was going on. I felt I could take on some responsibility and be a useful member of the organization. I was making friends with many of the people there and was starting to feel the “love” in a way. I was actually able to contribute to the conversation and understand those acronyms that were being thrown about. I noticed something else; I wasn’t using the mirror. Instead I was able to look everyone in the eye and pay attention to the meeting in first person rather than third person.

That night we played a game of Apples to Apples which was a tradition started many officer retreats before the one I went on. It was such a great time. We didn’t even play the game by the rules though, we made up our own rules, going for the funniest responses and just having a good time. I laughed so hard that my stomach felt as if it was going to explode. I was one of the guys; there was no more awkwardness, no more exclusion but now total inclusion. 

That trip was one of the experiences in my life that I will never forget. I know that sounds cliché but its true. There is a good reason for that, sure I made some good friends and had a fun time but little did I know at the time that the entire trajectory of my life had been altered.  Instead of following the path of the typical average high school athlete that I was, I found myself loving other things in life. TEC is the reason for my love of technology, photography, video, and leadership today. All of these are staples in my daily life. I can’t go a day without my iPhone, computer or camera. TEC is the only organization or association that I have ever bled, cried, screamed, or tired for and yet was happy every minute of it. I spent thousands of hours working with and for the Technical Entertainment Crew during high school, I was an officer all 4 of my years and elected president my last 2 years (something that has only been done twice before). I poured all of myself into that organization and got just as much out.
 

A Christmas I Won't Ever Forget

6:30 am: It's the early hours of Christmas day. My brothers and I are gathered in my room counting down the seconds, trying whatever we can to make the time go by faster. Matt is playing cards with Cade and I am sitting on my bed reading a book. 7:00 am is a magical number come Christmas time in the Favaron household, for as long as I can remember this number signified the earliest moment that my brothers and I could wake up my parents to open gifts on Christmas.

6:55 am: As the magical time nears my brothers and I grow anxious. Cade is running around upstairs with so much adrenaline that he can't stop moving. We get ready to knock on our parents bedroom door to wake them up.

7:00 am: The second we see the clock hit 7:00 am we open the door and rush into my parents room. Matt wakes my dad up, I wake my mom up and Cade stands giddy with excitement in the back of the room.

As we head down the stairs the lights are all off, my mom leads the line of children and my dad brings up the rear. Matt and Cade both have huge smiles on their faces. The moment of truth comes, my mom turns to flip on the light and as soon as the room is illuminated I see exactly what I was hoping for. Sitting in a corner of the room is an unwrapped Dell computer. I scream in excitement and run over to see it. It is an amazing desktop computer, monitor, keyboard and mouse and I can't believe it is all mine.

I give each of my parents a hug and thank them for my first computer. I can't wait to turn it on, in fact I set it up right there in the living room. Everyone around me was still opening gifts and I couldn't get beyond my computer.

I don't remember any other gift I received that Christmas. I am sure I loved every single one of them but let's be honest, it would be hard to top a computer. This was a special Christmas for me because looking back I realize that it was the beginning of a long journey to who I am today. Today I love computers and are fascinated with them,  had I not gotten that computer on that day I don't know what my interests would be today.

Conversation Partner: Meeting Number 3

Yesterday I met with Mansour, my conversation partner again. He brought me a picture of all of his brothers and I was taken back as to the size of the family. We spoke more about why we think the 'need' for big families has gone away in the US but not yet in Saudi Arabia. He told me that he sees a coming change in Saudi culture where they will start trending towards smaller families because of the housing situations.

Mansour also explained how different the housing market is now compared to just 15 years ago. When his parents got married they built a large home that is bigger than most average US homes. Now Mansour says it is normal for a family to get an apartment instead of a home because of the cost of land and homes.

We also bonded over video games and talked about FIFA and Call of Duty, I learned that Mansour's 4 year old nephew is allowed to play Grand Theft Auto, a game that you can't purchase until you are 17 years old in the US. Mansour has a self-proclaimed obsession with FIFA and plays for hours on end, even showing me the his callous hands from the controller. While I don't play nearly as much as he does, it was interesting to me to see that even in two completely different cultures video games can be enjoyed in the same fashion. It also surprises me that Call of Duty is as popular as it is with Saudi Arabian youth. It seems like a game that often makes your culture the 'bad guys' wouldn't be popular but apparently not.

Our meeting this time was cut slightly short because Mansour was sick and felt he needed to get home and get some rest. Hopefully by our next meeting he will be feeling 100% again.

The Lottery

I had read "The Lottery" before and I thought it was a great short story back then. Starting the class off with it this year was interesting for me because I was surprised with myself about how much I remembered after 4 years had past.

I thought this was an interesting story because of the dark twist at the end. The title is misleading and the reader believes throughout the whole story that winning the lottery is a good thing. Then you start to see right at the end that the lottery is a bad thing when Mrs. Hutchinson begins challenging the decision as soon as she finds out that she wins.

This story is interesting to me because I can't imagine what the reaction must have been when it was initially published. This is such a progressive story, detailing human sacrifice and essentially showing that everyone in the story agrees with it. Today, I think there are some people that are disturbed by the ending of this story and find the idea of it appalling.

Overall "The Lottery" was one of my favorite reads this semester. It was unique story that was fairly easy to understand but also had a great twist for an ending.

Cathedral

Cathedral was the short story that I chose to do my lead respondent project on. There was no specific reason that I chose this story other than the fact that the title seemed like something I may be interested in reading more in depth about. Once I read through this story the first time I thought that it had a great message, sometimes the sighted are blind.

I connected with this theme because I strive in my daily life to not be short sighted and to look beyond the superficial and try and understand the reasoning behind things. I think that it is important to do this because some of the greatest innovations in human history have come from critical thinking and imaginative thinking. I don't want to find myself stuck in a single track of unimaginative thought for my entire life.

Another part of this story that I really enjoyed was the realness of it. It was true, nitty gritty, non-hollywoodized reality, something Carver is known for. I found this style of writing to be refreshing and intriguing. Due to the minimalist and real nature of the writing, a reader could take this short story in both a superficial manner and a deeper meaning manner, but either way the story was enjoyable. I feel like this is where Carver compares most to Hemingway.

Cathedral was a nice change up from the short stories we had been reading up until that point in class. It brought the stories from way out there,  like The Yellow Wallpaper, back down to earth for me.

Conversation Partner: Meeting #2

I had my second meeting with my conversation partner the other day. Unfortunately time got away from both myself and my partner and it took nearly three weeks for us to meet again since the first time we met. We met again at the bookstore and unlike I expected, our second meeting wasn't awkward at all.

We talked about his family and life back in Saudi Arabia and specifically focused on the difference in school systems. I found out that his younger brother will be coming next semester to begin studying english here. I learned more about the english program here at TCU and feel much more informed about it than I was before. I didn't realize how detached from TCU it is and how differently the schedule is structured from our class schedule. They have one level of each class per month and then change classes at the end of the month. This would be hard to get used to.

One of the most interesting things we talked about was the difference in the "weekend" here as opposed to Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, Saturday's are equivalent to our Monday's here. There weekends start on Wednesday nights and end on Saturday mornings. Mansour said that it is hard to get used to the difference here because the basis of his reference point for time has changed. I know that if I had to change something as integral and second-nature to my life as when the weekend is, I would be lost.

Overall, our second meeting was excellent and I can't wait to meet with him again.