COMS Speech

                                                         












Short-Version of Commemorative Speech:
Imagine being involved in a war torn country, murder strikes everywhere, and you’re wondering at such a young age why and how all of the violence going on in your area is occurring. Worry, shock and fear seem to come after you in all directions, and the question running through your head is, What am I supposed to do? I am referring to the beginning of the upbringing of Professional African ballerina Michaela DePrince and commemorating her for how much she has inspired me. I have done my research about DePrince through her autobiography of her novel “Taking Flight” that discusses her life as a child before she became a world-class ballerina. my commemoration to Michaela DePrince connects with how I am able to relate closely with her history as another African  before she got to where she is today.

 Michaela DePrince came from war-torn Sierra Leone, West Africa and lived a very challenging life at the beginning of her childhood. Before she had the name Michaela DePrince, DePrince was born with the name Mabinty Bangura on january 6th, 1995. DePrince also has the disease Vitiligo that causes her to have different spots of pigmentation on her skin color which caused her to face a lot of discrimination growing up from other African Children in schools and her own family, such as her uncle

When people think of ballerinas, they think of these graceful, elegant, and swift dancers that use music and their bodies to evoke certain emotions out of people watching them. But when I think of Michaela DePrince, I think of all of that too, yet I see her like a chinese bamboo tree as well. Michaela DePrince is like a Chinese bamboo tree in which you may not see the prosperity of the tree and growth if you’re not paying close attention, but through time, the proper foundation and hard work is what stretches the strength and growth of the tree and that is Michaela. It takes years for a chinese bamboo tree to finally sprout into the 80 feet wonder that makes it one of the most tallests plants in the world. I commemorate Michaela DePrince in hopes to cultivate and be successful to succeed like her and a Chinese bamboo tree.

         

Update on Exploratory Essay:

Update on exploratory paper:

Modern Day Slavery according to the scholarly article is a worldwide global issue. It’s a problem and injustice to the whole human race. But what is being done about it? What is being done to stop the relentless, life-ending cycle, of the stripping of basic human rights from slavery? If countries were to work together to stop this global problem, would slavery actually end or is the problem too deeply embedded into the culture of our world that there is damage beyond repair?

Could explaining the value of appreciating your own life and the lives other people be an adequate approach on potentially solving the issue of modern day slavery? The solution of the collaboration of other cultures could be an effective method of tackling slavery today, but my concern would be who would be willing to take the risks that come with trying to stop modern day slavery.

I worry that since modern day slavery isn’t an issue that we all as humans are going through therefore, not much effort would be put in to fix it. I wonder if the fear of standing up for the cause of stopping slavery would bear undoubtedly more weight than the courage to face it and try to solve it head on as humans?

Exploratory Essay (Small Portion)

Synthesizing Slavery in Society:

Slavery. The system of entitlement and ownership that has everlasting wounds in areas like the United States. The concept that humans constructed to build this superiority-inferiority complex to tear other human beings down that’s still happening to this day. I always try to put myself in the shoes of other African Americans, regarding the effects of slavery on them. I am African American too, but my parents came from another country, so I have the privilege of knowing my ancestral roots and not having to do DNA tests to get an idea of where I come from. Besides reading it and learning about it in school, I have always had this desire to do more research on the reason for the foundation of slavery, the effects of it, and how the concept of slavery is still heavily prevalent today in our society since it comes in many different forms.

 Slavery is still a real, troubling issue that is currently going on in countries all over the world and in the United States through different forms like human trafficking, the controversial slavery concept in professional sports, and the way most of us know it from the textbooks through captivity. I’m curious to seek out more knowledge of why slavery is still going on and why it hasn’t ended. Even if I didn’t live during the time slavery was heavy and more out in the open, it still has its generational effects on me, other African Americans or black people, and on the people surrounding the system and institutions of the society we live in today.

Reflection on Personal Essay

Personal Essay Reflection:

When I was listening to how the personal essay is supposed to be constructed, I was going for a vulnerable yet honest approach on my life, where I started, where I am now, and how I want to be in the future. I wanted to follow the characteristics that was shared in class on how the personal essay should be constructed. I wanted to follow the steps of having intimacy, confiding with the readers, unity, conversational, added dialogue, honestly, confessional, forgiving, and reliable. I remembered to embrace the concept of showing my story not just telling with my words, showing how the development of my identity has evolved as I have grown up.

Thoughts that I had during the process of writing my personal essay was what message am I trying to give? How can I deeply connect with the readers in a way that helps them see the lens of life from my perspective? Can I be outspoken, passion-driven about what I stand for inside my personal essay without coming off as aggressive or vague? With these questions I was allowing myself to still feel free in my writing but also learn how to properly use rhetorical knowledge to connect my personal essay to a problematic concept. I also didn't want my personal essay to come across as a sad, pessimistic, story that holds empty invaluable promises to the people reading the paper. I used story telling, dialogue and the mindset of sharing my experiences in my identity as a black woman to guide me in only talking about how I was affected based on my race solely. I loved the freedom I had to share a piece of myself with people who do or do not understand what I had gone through, but can also feel the encouragement of learning how to overcome any obstacle they have in life and to grow by any means necessary in life.

Overall, I really had a lot of fun with this writing piece. It felt so nostalgic, sad, overcoming, empowering, and in a way it was a form of closure of some demons I still felt like I had locked up in my head. It helped me truly see how much I have grown as a woman, a black woman, and first generation American. It expanded my horizons in using rhetoric in my life and making it my story.