college Writing

Bringing It All Together

At the beginning of this semester I walked into English 101 with a lot of doubts. I know writing isn’t one of my strong suits. I have a tendency to struggle with proper grammar and being able to stay on topic. I found myself to really struggle with argument and research essays because I found it hard to find reliable sources with good information. Each of the five essays I had to do have helped me grow in a certain way. The Memoir and Ethnography essays helped me get a better understanding of how to write using my perspectives much better. The argument essay helped me get a better understanding of how citations and finding the proper sources that are trustworthy. The strengths I do have is if I feel passionate about the topic I can write a lot about it and making strong comparisons to help make my point of view stronger. My true expectations going into this class was to get better at writing and try to achieve at least a B average.

The first essay I put into this portfolio was the i’m adding into my portfolio is my argument essay.The argument is about Medical Marijuana being a better pain reliever than Opiods and why the NFL should not keep marijuana banned, This article was the hardest for me to write due to the amount of research I had to do. Finding quality sources is somethings that’s hard to do as it is never mind when it’s about controversial topics. Every person has there beliefs and a valid argument for both sides. Once you read the essay you’ll understand that I side with making cannabis legal in the NFL and banning opioids. Even if you agree or disagree with my opinion you’ll understand where my thought process comes from. The argument essay was the hardest for me to write but the to me the one i’m most proud off because of the work I put into it.

The second essay I decided to put into this portfolio was the memoir. It was our first paper of the school year. Fresh off all long summer vacation of living life and not thinking about school. It was tough getting back into reality but I knew it was time to get it together. I had sat down and thought of a important time in my life that helped shape who I am today. In this essay you hear talk about my former AAU coach Clayton Timas. Throughout the essay you hear me talk about all the motivation and life lessons he taught me and how the game of basketball shaped who I am today. The essay talks about how I felt before I met him and how I was not in the best places mentally. I’ve never written anything before that talked about my mindset when I was younger. I was in a dark place for some until I met him and managed to switch my whole mindset around. The memoir to me is my best essay because it talks about my story a little bit. I wish I could have written more but i didn’t want to stray off topic.

The final essay i’m adding into my portfolio is my ethnography piece we had to write. The assignment made us as students attend an event that related to our themes. My topic was sports and how it brings people together so I decided to attend a unified basketball game.This article was fun to work on because working with special ed kids is a hobby I really enjoy doing. I was member of the team last year who helped out with all the kids so I had some insider knowledge of how the event works. Choosing this event for me was my best choice to show how a sporting event can really bring so many people together. Being able to use my previous knowledge and what witnessed while watching the game really gave me a solid essay to write and mature as a writer in terms of paragraph development.

English 101 has helped me improve as a writer by working on many essays and learn how to do proper citations and organize my train of thoughts in a more organized say. I believe english 101 is a very good course for first year college students to take to help us get a better understanding how college life feels.

Why Medical Marijuana is Safer than Opioids for Pain

Many famous sports athletes throughout their careers have acquired injuries such as muscle spasms, groin pull, and torn ACL’s. Along with these major injuries NFL players frequently suffer from muscle pains, fatigue, and exhaustion on a daily basis to which they are prescribed opioids to heal the pain. Although opioids do help in relieving pain in athletes they are highly addictive with an estimated 2 million people in the United States suffering from opioid addiction as well as causing 115 deaths a day opioids are causing an epidemic across the United States.  While opioids do help in pain relief their consequences of addiction make them a highly risky drug to be used on NFL players unlike their counterpart Marijuana which has no threat of addiction and virtually no side effects.

            The opioid crisis in the United States has affected millions of people of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds. It started with doctors over prescribing opioids such as Vicodin and Percocets to patients suffering from injuries and physical pain. Recently the discovery of the consequences behind using opioids such as addiction has pushed many people to self medicate using medical marijuana to relieve their pain. However unlike most citizens in the United States who can freely medicate using medical marijuana in the 32 states where it is legal NFL players do not have this luxury. The NFL refuses to prescribe marijuana to athletes and instead prescribe opioids to 51% of their athletes with 71% suffering from opiod addiction. What makes opiates so addicting? Well when opioid drugs travel through your blood they attach to opioid receptors in your brain cells, the cells release signals that weaken your sense of pain and boost feelings of pleasure. These splurge of pleasure that helps make opioid a great pain reliever equally make it dangerous because many people begin to psychologically crave that boost in dopamine that opioids provide leading to serious addictions. When taken in the right doses opioids make you a little drowsy but higher doses can lower your breathing and heart rate causing death.  Also the overuse of opioids leads to a physical dependence on the drug causing addicts wishing to quit to suffer withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, nausea, difficulty breathing,vomiting, diarrhea, twitches, and insomnia.

Although opioids are stronger medical  Marijuana has the same pain relieving effect with very little side effects. When you smoke marijuana it calms your body down and relaxes your muscle and has scientifically proven to help with pain. It’s not addictive even though some people tend to disagree with that statement because they themselves have never tried it. People can state their opinions with how it’s dangerous just like any drug you can overdose off of but looking at overdoses in the last 20 years, not a single person has died from smoking weed. More people have died from eating romaine lettuce, shark attacks,getting hit by lightning then dying from marijuana usage. Also there are no physical addictions while using marijuana and there are no withdrawals for patients trying to stop taking it. So the main question is. Why are sports players facing suspensions every time they test positive for marijuana use but it’s ok to get drugs that literally kill people. It’s sad to say it’s all about the money.  

Former NFL running back Mike James  stated in a CNN article on April 30th, 2018  who injured his ankle badly in a football game said that marijuana was the only thing that relieved his pain and let him be functional. He was initially given pain killers and actually became dependent on the drug and marijuana was the only thing that saved him from being addicted. The bad news is that in the NFL  marijuana is a banned substance. Players can face fines, suspensions and even bans if caught enough times. Former NFL player josh Gordon actually got kicked out of the league for 2 years because of his usage.the only way to get around the NFL’s fierce grip on the marijuana ban is to get a therapeutic use exception which means the patient requires the required the product to treat the doctors diagnosis. Mr. James tried to get one but got denied by the NFL.   Another example of NFL players supporting the use of medical marijuana versus opioids in the league comes from Baltimore Ravens player Eugen Monroe who is the first active player to publicly support the leagues switch from opiates to marijuana. When speaking of the matter he stated “I have to manage it somehow. Managing it with pills was slowly killing me. Now I’m able to function and be extremely efficient by figuring out how to use different formulations of cannabis.”  Eugene Monroe is a perfect example of how cannabis can be used to help relieve the pain of NFL players without ruining their mental and physical health. It is the responsibility of the NFL to realize the major defects associated with prescription opioid medication and the benefits of marijuana which causes no addiction or physical withdrawals for players.

Citations

Krieger, Carrie. “What Are Opioids and Why Are They Dangerous?” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 21 Mar. 2018, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/prescription-drug-abuse/expert-answers/what-are-opioids/faq-20381270.

“NFL Player Makes Medical Marijuana History.” Google Search, Google, www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/04/30/health/nfl-marijuana-mike-james-profile-exclusive/index.html.

“Opioid Overdose.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 Aug. 2017, www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/prescribing.html.

Patients.” Patriot Care MA Medical Marijuana Dispensaries, patriotcare.org/medical-marijuana-safer-alternative-opioids/.

How sports changed me 

When I was a kid I never really had that much. I wasn’t the wealthiest kid, but I always had a basketball. Whenever I wanted to clear my head I’d go outside and shoot around for hours at a time. The game always brought me peace regardless of whatever I was going through it helped me forget about it. The game taught me so many life lessons and motivations that I still follow till this day. I had some good coaches, but nobody taught me more than a guy by the name of Clayton Timas. 

I met him in 7th grade and at that time I wasn’t really in the best place. I was kind of failing some of my classes. Not really motivated to do anything and didn’t have many role models. The first practice I ever had with him is something I’ll never forget. He walked onto the court said his name and then right after he told us to run 5 laps. Then after we finished, he told us to get on the baseline and we started running suicides. If you don’t know what suicides are its when you have to run to the end of the court and touch the line then you go back touch the other team teams free throw line, then go back to half court and the last lap is to your side free throw line and you’re done. In that first practice we did 10 of those and it was 95 degrees out. I almost dropped from heat exhaustion. After that first practice, I went to the hospital and almost thought about quitting. While sitting in the hospital room I asked myself if i gave up at everything when it gets tough what am I going to be. I stuck with it and little did I know that making that decision would change how my high school experience would change. 

I ended up joining my first travel league where the competition was better than anything I’ve ever seen. There were freshmen in high school who were dunking and were already above six feet. Our coach didn’t care he told us if we wanted to win, we had to work harder than them.  Told us that we couldn’t win games if we play selfish because individually, we weren’t the best but as a team we could compete. That’s what we did. We won a very good number of tournaments and qualified for nationals every year. One year we made it into the playoffs and were ranked in the state. We ended up winning the state championship for division 2. 

No matter the success we had every time we bragged about how good we played hes get mad and make us work at practice. Then after working us half to death he would sit there and tell us all of our flaws. Always told us that in life if you don’t push yourself and never take the opportunity that are given to you, you won’t get to the goals you want to achieve. “Every time you get knocked down you have to bounce back up”. That quote stuck with me the most. I had a lot going on in my personal life and every time I got knocked down, I just kept myself going. I surrounded myself with good friends and focused on school.  I went from getting C and D’s to getting A’s and B’s. 

I was 16 years old and I was working 30-40 hours a week. Going to school and managing playing sports. I was exhausted but I knew it was going to be worth. I had a goal. I wanted to make money so that I can afford to pay for college and get my dream job of being a teacher.  That’s still my goal to this day. I keep pushing myself to do better and every time I get down, I just remember the things he told me. I don’t want to settle for mediocrity and every decision I make I know it’s good for me. I don’t let people’s opinions affect what I do because at the end of the day I know what’s best for me. I learned all that from a basketball coach. Sports can teach you many life lessons that you may not even see coming. It becomes your second family that helps you escape all the problems in your real family. I met some of the greatest people ill ever meet in a lifetime and made so many memories that I’ll never forget. I hope one day my kids will play sports and can take all the lessons I learned and use it to better themselves. 

Together were unified

Recently I had the pleasure to attend a unified basketball event hosted at Dartmouth High school. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the unified athletics program It’s a sports program for the special education kids were many schools across the state participate in. The events bring the community and other towns together to take joy in watching so many special education kids have the time of their life’s. Last year I was a part of the team as a partner who would help direct the kids what to do on the court. It was a very fun experience and my biggest regret was not doing it my other three years of High school. 

I personally had a first-hand experience in this event because I got to referee the game. I saw many familiar faces and some new faces on the Dartmouth team and was happy to meet everyone. The game finally began at six pm on a Thursday. I tossed the jump ball and watched Dartmouth score on its first possession and the crowd burst with excitement. The Game was back and forth to begin and neither team was going to let the other get the edge on them. going into the half Dartmouth was trailing 25-23. then going into the second half all the kids came out firing. one kid named Donald hit back to back three pointers and the crowd started going crazy. then the following possession on defense one player named Jonathan blocked a kid and ran down the court and scored a layup. The Dartmouth bench was going crazy and so were the fans. everybody loved it and so did I. Dartmouth turn a two-point half time deficit to a 20-point win. all the kids were scoring buckets even the kids who weren’t as talented as the others got in on the fun and that was the best part. A kid named Michael got his first basket of the season and his I saw how happy his parents and everyone around him got. He got so happy and full of energy after the bucket, I think everyone got a tear in their eye. 

The game was over, but the excitement continued. after they said good game to the other team and showed complete class everyone started jumping and cheering on the kids and told them how great they did. I could see the happy faces on all the parents because they were happy to see their kids so excited. Even though they won it doesn’t really matter about winning or losing during events like this. It’s about making connections with kids in your community who are given certain disadvantage that most don’t have and making them feel like there a part of something huge. To the average eye it’s just basketball game but to them it means something to go out and compete in front of their friends and families. It truly shows how sporting events can bring people together for a great cause. 

The greatness of an event like this is that the game itself is the really the least important thing about the event. Unlike most high school sporting events winning is not everything for the unified teams. It’s about having fun with your friends while your family is watching. I was able to talk to one of the players on the team named Charlie who’s a partner and he’s been a member since his freshman year, and he told me about how much fun the kids have on the bus after the games. there singing, jumping around and just having a blast. I Know that any other high school team would not be jumping around happy after the loss. the coaches use the game of basketball to help build connections with the kids so their classroom behavior can be improved so that the long school day doesn’t really feel so wrong. 

As a former player on the team I was very happy to see the direction the program was going in. A few weeks after I heard great news. the MIAA which is the main sports program that runs throughout all of Massachusetts recognized the unified athletics program as a real sport and gave Dartmouth High a banner. I couldn’t be there in person but watching the video of it happen was a special moment for every unified team in the state of Massachusetts. Being able to get out and be a part of an event so special is really eye opening to all the things we as people take for granted in this world and I hope one day that more people go out and support these events because it really is something special to watch.