Jaiden DeBoe

Author: jdeboe (Page 4 of 4)

Freedom

October 14, 2024 /

Autonomy is a word that starts getting thrown around when a teenager begins to reach the point of adulthood. As kids, we are taught to rely on our parents to make tough decisions and to call the shots. Nevertheless, as we start to age, and we are given more responsibilities, we start yearning for something more: freedom. We want to be able to make choices on our own without the input of an adult. One of the first steps in this journey towards independence is getting a car. While receiving a car may not be so world changing in the long run, since it eventually becomes a necessity for most adults, it is a major milestone in a teenager’s growth. This point is best illustrated by a photo essay published by The New York Times, known as “The First Car”. 

The first image of the photo essay perfectly demonstrates one main aspect of teenagers having their own cars, that is the ability to create a safe space for them and their friends. Before getting a car, most teenagers do not have an environment that is strictly ‘theirs’. At home, teenagers may have their own room, unless they share one with a sibling, but even then, their room is still inside their parents’ home. Even at high school, while they may be away from their parents, the kids are still surrounded by teachers and fellow students. Not to mention that the pressure of class work does not exactly make for a relaxing environment. A line from the introductory paragraph of the photo essay sums it up best: “For many young people, their first car grants them a freedom to explore their city on an intimate level, with their windows down and music blasting – and away from the prying eyes of parents.” Being free to drive around and go wherever you want with your closest friends allows for bonding time, not only with your friends, but with your environment. Whether that environment be a small suburban area or a big city, having a car lets you familiarize yourself with your surroundings in a more comfortable setting. However, that was not the only point that the essay had to make about the autonomy of getting your first car. 

There are multiple perspectives of the impact of first getting a car explored throughout this essay. One that stands out among the rest is the idea that a car can act not only as a means of getting to a destination, but also as a second home. The feeling of having controlling parents is a common ground for many teens across the country. But when a vehicle is introduced into the dynamic, it can give kids a taste of freedom that they have never experienced before. The independence these teens are seeking is not always just from parents either. With the internet and social media playing a crucial role in our daily lives, the world is more stimulating now than it ever was before. Many high school aged kids are looking for a release, a space they can have where it is just them and their closest friends. The photos in this essay perfectly illustrate this concept. Each one of them shows a group of teenagers laughing and conversing either in the back seat of a car or just outside one. The phrase “It is not about the destination, it is about the journey” is true for these kids. The reality of the situation is that most kids do not want a car just so they can go to faraway places, but so they can just go on a drive and leave all their worries behind them. Upon taking a further look at these images, one can tell just how important driving is to adolescents. 

Besides having the similarity of containing multiple teenagers in one shot, these photos also do a wonderful job at showing the surroundings. For having such a passionate desire to get a car, one would expect the teens to be going to various places, like the movies, or a nice restaurant, but that is not what these images display. Many of the images just outside of a car are taken on a hill, by a sunset, or near a body of water. Additionally, they all seem to take place right next to an open road. These are places that many adults would drive past daily and not give a second glance to. It appears that, despite what adults may think, these teens are acknowledging their surroundings and taking them in as if it were their last time seeing them again. “‘I want to hang on to this as long as possible.’” In a time when the most fulfillment that people get on a day-to-day basis is seeing how many likes their post on Instagram gets, it is refreshing to see that there are still kids out there who are capable of living in the moment. 

Besides the meaning that the pictures in this photo essay are really trying to display, the images are still impressive on an artistic level. Not every picture shown is taken inside of a car. Many of the images attempt to highlight the places that a car could take you. The mountains, the hills, the beaches, they all truly exemplify the creativity behind the photographer. The photos also go along great with the quotes in the essay. For example, 20-year-old Ankha Cros-Roig explains: “‘Growing up in L.A., it’s such a big city and the public transportation is so terrible. Getting a car I felt like I could actually do anything and go anywhere.’” This idea perfectly matches the feelings set forth by the creative images. The writer and the photographer both knew exactly how to make the images match the text in a way that invoked the same emotions. 

Overall, this photo essay does an excellent job at highlighting one main story in two separate ways. From the ideas given through the quotes, to the imagery displayed in the pictures, every point managed to correlate with one another in a way that could make the reader truly understand the impact of receiving your first car as a teenager. While there were other photo essays in the Where We Are series that had some depth to them, this one truly stood out as a piece that was both relatable and insightful. If I were to create a photo essay about a topic that was important to me, I would look back at “The First Car” as inspiration on how to make a cohesive photo essay. 

Where I Am Now

October 14, 2024 /

Throughout my time in high school, I had written several essays and given multiple oral presentations. While my presentation skills did not improve much until my Public Speaking class, my writing skills had constantly progressed. However, I always knew that my essays and speeches could have been better. I was not exactly sure what to change, but with college slowly approaching, I started to believe that there was more I could do to further develop those skills. Now that I am in school again and enrolled in a Transdisciplinary Communication course, I have a list of goals I want to reach during my time in this class. 

The English classes that I took in high school helped me learn how to effectively communicate my ideas through papers and essays. Unfortunately, finding creative ways to display my knowledge has never been my strong suit. I often found myself repeating the same words or phrases throughout a single paper. So, my first objective would be to widen my vocabulary in a way that allows me to show my understanding of a certain subject without sounding bland or repetitive. I want to be able to write a compelling argument or illustrate a talking point in a way that shows my full understanding of the issue at hand. But my goals for writing do not just stop at the writing itself. 

Another issue I came across in high school was finding the right sources for accurate information. I was told early on that Wikipedia was not a reliable source when looking for facts. When I reached my junior year of high school, I was also told that the Google search engine, as a whole, was not the best place to look for dependable data. After that, I started using the school search engine for information on essay topics, which was even more difficult since the school search engine never had enough sources to write an entire essay with. As a result, my essays began to feel emptier, like I was just filling the gaps in info with long, drawn-out sentences. I know now that I will need to discover better ways to find credible sources for college essays. Whether that be through finding more educational search engines or exploring the Lovejoy Library. Either way, broadening my number of sources will be beneficial for me going forward. Along with that, being able to communicate newfound knowledge with others is also a skill that I will need to further develop. 

Learning new things and developing them into my daily life has always been a great skill of mine. Sharing those topics with others has never been my strong suit though. I often feel unqualified to teach others on a subject matter that I just recently learned about. Even though I know on the inside that I have enough knowledge to share my newfound information with my peers. My hope is that being a part of CODES will help me learn to engage in conversations with a group of people who have a similar knowledge base as I do. So that not only can I teach others what I have learned, but so that they can in turn teach me things that I might not have known previously. Moreover, I am also hoping to be able to take charge of many of these discussions. 

I have never been the kind of person to take the leadership role during group discussions in high school. Part of that goes back to my fear of being too inexperienced to lead a group in certain conversations. I have always wanted to be the man who speaks up first and is able to represent a small number of people in front of a larger audience, but I was just used to standing in the background throughout high school. However, CODES gives me the perfect opportunity to develop these skills. One of my goals is to start speaking up more when a topic that I have some knowledge about is brought up. Overtime, this will give me the confidence to take charge in a group setting, even though I will not always have the answer. I want to be able to assume a leadership role inside and outside of the classroom. This brings me to my last main goal for my time in CODES, which is to be able to not only think like a leader but talk like one too. 

I would say that I have always been a good writer, especially in high school. The one thing I have struggled with in English classes is giving oral presentations. One thing my Public Speaking class taught me is that the way you draft a paper is different from the way you give a speech. However, I still spent most of that class trying to give speeches as if they were an essay I was writing. I want to adapt to different techniques of presenting to perfect my speaking skills while I am in college. Once again, the CODES program is my chance to improve on those skills before I need to use them in my regular adult life. 

My abilities in writing, speaking, and collaborating were constantly improving throughout my high school years. Even though some of those skills did not develop to the level that I had wished for, I still have time to work on them. No matter what kind of job I get, I know that it will involve sharing ideas with people through writing or speaking. Which is why I am excited about the CODES program. This is my opportunity to practice my abilities and learn what exactly I need to improve on before my time in college is over. Thankfully, I already know exactly where to start. 

Power of Persuasion

September 23, 2024 /

The article I chose was “Why The Super Rich Are Inevitable”, which uses real world scenarios to correctly explain how money distribution works. The arguments given in this piece perfectly describe the way money naturally moves around in our economy to an audience that ideally does not fully understand the statistics of trading money. The author mainly wrote this piece in a modern-day context where the rich continue to get richer as everyone else continues to lose money. In order to get this point across, the author uses several different methods to persuade his audience, such as implementing different styles, creating symbolism and appealing to rhetoric. 

The highlight of this article is how it transitions from creating a hypothetical situation to diving into true statistics and economics. The beginning of the article consists of many different pictures that all work together to show a hypothetical situation created by the author to allow the reader to truly understand the concept he is trying to explain. This is followed by charts, which serve the same purpose, and several paragraphs in which the author explains how the metaphor connects to his main idea. Along with that, the piece contains several interactive points that allow the reader to manipulate charts and modify decisions made in hypothetical situations. All these pieces together make it possible for anyone to understand money displacement and its effects on our modern society. 

Besides the obvious parts of the piece, there is also an underlying layer of symbolism contained throughout it. After explaining the relevance of the metaphoric scenarios, the author continues to tell the reader that every game involving money distribution always ends with one very rich person. The author goes on to relate these games to real life, and how there is often an abundance of poor people with only a handful of extremely wealthy individuals. It is eventually explained that the interactive game came straight from the Yard-sale model, which was published by physicist Anirban Chakraborti in 2002. The author also references several other people who have made contributions to this study. But the most important aspect of these references is the Yard-sale model, which allows the interactive tools to represent the real world. 

Another key component that adds to the effectiveness of the piece is the author’s methods of persuasion. The author mainly uses statistics and former studies throughout his piece to persuade the reader into believing his claims. In explaining how money distribution naturally occurs, the author does not blame or elevate any one side, since it is almost impossible to evenly distribute money throughout a population. With rhetoric in mind, it is obvious that the author clings to Logos appeals. As stated earlier, the piece is littered with statistics and results from further studies that the author uses to back up his claims that equal money distribution is impossible. In particular, the author uses a rhetorical fallacy known as Stacked Evidence. This is where only one side of an issue is explained in depth. While the author does do a great job at using the Yard-sale model to represent real life economics, what he doesn’t discuss is how taxes and income classes can change the dynamic of wealth distribution. However, this decision helps the reader grasp that this issue is unchangeable. 

All together, these methods allowed the author to ultimately persuade his general audience of the truth about money distribution in our modern world. Many people, before reading this piece, would assume that taxes caused this issue. However, the author perfectly mixes interactive hypotheticals with real-world studies to prove that this effect is only natural. Along with his rhetoric, the author truly knew how to persuade his audience in a way that also taught them a lesson in the end. 

The World Through My Eyes 

September 21, 2024 /

In our modern world, there are many different belief systems and ideals shared by people across the planet. These beliefs tend to be centered around a religion or teaching, while some of them come from a personal understanding of how the world works. The challenge is figuring out which beliefs are the most “morally correct”. It is easy to think of yourself as the good guy in these situations, what is not easy is questioning your own ideals and putting yourself in the position of someone else. Since I was a teenager, I was always curious about why people made certain choices. I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the people around me. This formed one of the most important parts of my identity: my morals and ideals.  

Growing up, we are often taught to run to an adult when we need help solving an issue. The concept that all adults are intelligent, level-headed individuals is practically engraved in our minds. However, when I turned 18, I started to question the decisions made by many adults around me. Working at Taco Bell for a year also made me rethink what my parents had taught me as a kid. I worked as a cashier at the Taco Bell in Fairview Heights for a year and a half. In that short time, I noticed a lot of adult customers making irrational decisions, such as directing their anger at a high school kid or being impatient when there is a long line of cars behind them. While Taco Bell customers are not a good representation of the average adult, it still opened my eyes to how unreasonable some adults truly are. Despite what we are taught as kids, not every adult is as “grown-up” as one would expect. In fact, many of the people that we consider adults in society are 18–19-year-olds who are fresh out of high school and are not sure where to go next. Many of our “grown-ups” are just children who have not fully matured yet. Besides not every adult making rational decisions most of the time, adults around us are often unable to see things from another person’s POV.  

The fear of other people’s opinions is common for most late adolescents and early adults. People nowadays are so afraid of what others will think of them if they act in a certain way. This often leads to many people hiding their true opinions and putting on a mask around certain individuals. Obviously, this is a major issue for those in that age range, however, one could argue that the opposite side of this problem yields even worse results. Contrary to popular belief, people are not focused on the mistakes and shortcomings of others. Most adults are too consumed with their own lives to worry about the lives of others. An example of this that I noticed from my childhood years later was when my parents split. From what I was told, my dad had a hard time cooperating with the terms of child custody. This led to him disappearing from my life for years at a time. When I was younger, I used to think it was something that I did. As I grew up though, I started to realize that everything my dad did was because he was focused on getting what he wanted, and when that did not happen, he decided to leave. Many young people are just like that, only worried about how an issue affects them and not concerned about how it affects those around them. While I know I cannot blame or judge them, since I can be the same way sometimes, I also know that there must be a point when people start to realize how wrong that self-centered mindset truly is. That point for me was when I graduated high school, I knew that I was an adult at that point, so I had to start acting like one. The first step to that is changing the little choices you make every day. The unfortunate aspect of this is that not many people want to change, which brings up the whole concept of morality. 

I would like to believe that my sense of morality developed when I was an early teenager. Ever since the age of 14, I knew I wanted to be a good person. Despite all the bad circumstances that I was involved in, I never wanted to “get even”, I just wanted to be able to make people happy. To this day, I still think like this. While I may have moments where I wish bad on people or hope they go through some sort of struggle, I always go back to trying to help and support people. My belief is that people should want to be good or to be nice, but the reality is often very different. Many people in our world are just heartless, they act based on their own emotions and have no reaction to how it negatively affects those around them. These people usually have a core reason why they are the way they are, whether that be because of a traumatic event from their past or because they need to compensate for other aspects of their life. Either way, the common explanation for many is “I was hurt in the past, so I am going to hurt others now”. Drawing back to my last example, my dad’s father was never there for him as a kid, as a result, he never knew how to be a father for me. I do not fully understand why, but I have never thought like that before. A motto I like to live by is: “Never let the negative actions of others change who you are as a person”. Through every bad situation I went through with either parents or friends, the first thought on my mind was what I would have done differently if I was in their position. It is sad to look around and see that not many other people think the way that I do. 

These three issues may seem unrelated at first, but the correlation starts to reveal itself after a while. The irrationality, mixed with a self-centered logic, gives many adults a twisted sense of morality and “justice”. Sadly, most of these people know how messed up their ideals are, but they are too stubborn to change. They are stuck in an endless pattern of anger and pain. I have seen the patterns too. I have noticed how certain trends tend to stick around in my family or with my friends. Along with being a good person, that has also been a major goal of mine, to end the cycle and work towards something better. That is what I am doing now, looking for new ways to make sure that I never go down the same path as the ones that came before me. If everyone else wants to stay the same, I will be the one person to look at myself outside of my bias and make a change. 

Learning Contract

September 18, 2024 /
What concepts are you going to learn, or skills are you going to develop? How will you learn the content/develop the skill? What evidence will you add to the portfolio to demonstrate your learning? How will you and I assess the evidence of your learning/skills? 
15% 2C (Using multiple sources) I will read articles from the sources provided in class and do more research on my own outside of class I will add the different sites and sources that I have used to gain more information for the Multimodal Compositions We can assess how credible my sources have been throughout the semester 
25% 3A (Analyzing core beliefs) I will assess what my core beliefs are and how I would apply them to solving wicked problems I will add excerpts from my Source Analyses to show how I view the different attempts to solve wicked problems We can determine how good my understanding of other’s core beliefs is 
30% 3B (Understanding multilayered issues) I will analyze the different systems that wicked problems are involved in and what components play key roles in each system I will show pieces of my Multimodal Composition as evidence of my understanding on the complexity of wicked problems We can evaluate my knowledge on systems and their components 
10% 13C (Writing skillfully) I will learn from comments on prior writing assignments and improve my writing each time I will add a rough draft of an MC and right next to it, the final draft, showing my improvement We can evaluate how my MC’s and Source Analyses have improved over time 
20% 6A (Seeing through bias) I will learn to understand situations through another person’s POV I will add pieces from my Source Analyses to show my views on certain issues We can determine how well I have been able to assess solutions without bias 

Impact of Flash Flooding

September 18, 2024 /

Sustainability challenges have long been a problem that many communities worldwide found to be difficult to solve. These challenges are also known as wicked problems since these issues can never truly be resolved. One common wicked problem many people in the St. Louis or Metro East areas face on a daily basis is water equity. Due to their close proximity to the Mississippi River, people in the community often face problems revolving around flooding, clean water, and river transportation are often. Granite City, for example, has a massive problem with flooding after storms. So much to the point where almost every street is covered in water after it rains. While this issue may not seem like it qualifies as a “wicked problem”, once you start to examine it more, it is clear that this problem is not one that can be easily solved. 

Many people who live in Granite City would consider the flooding to be a consistent problem in the town. “Granite floods” is a statement well known by the people who live in the city. However, while the people may agree on this being an issue, the city might not have the same view on this matter. While efforts have been made in the past to prevent flash floods like the ones that happened in 2019 and 2022, nothing major has changed since then. One family even filed a complaint against the city, pinning the blame for the flood on poor sewer systems and drainage ditches. Yet, the same problem arose in 2021 and 2022, with reports of 9 inches of rain covering streets and flooding homes. Aside from the fact that the flash floods do not have a clear problem definition, there is also no evident solution for this situation. Granite City does not exactly have the best track record for resolving issues on their roads. One case of this is a pothole in the middle of Maryville Road. For years, the road has periodically been blocked off for repairs. But no matter how many times the road is “fixed”, the issue always seems to come back. Even if the city puts all their effort into improving the sewer and drainage systems, there is always the possibility that future flash floods will continue. Whether the city decides to act on this wicked problem or not, the fact that there is no definite solution to the flooding will always be an obstacle in their path. 

Through deeper examination, the long-term effects of this problem also impact how quickly the issue can be fixed. If the core challenge at hand is the sewage and drainage systems in Granite City, the solution might not be as simple as one would think. Even if the sewage systems were removed and replaced by new ones, there is always a possibility that this replacement could be done wrong. If that were to happen, it could cause sewage to leak out in the wrong places, creating an entirely different problem throughout the city. This creates the whole concept that many solutions for wicked problems could often cause irreversible affects even though they were originally implemented to fix the problem. These solutions cannot be quickly applied in case they are to backfire. At the same time, the urgency of these problems also requires quick attention. There have already been multiple flash floods throughout the past few years. In each case, the water has seeped into people’s houses and soaked most of their belongings. If it has happened in the past, it can easily happen again in the future. The city needs to make efforts to combat against a future flood before it happens again. These two traits make this issue even more difficult to solve, since the problem needs to be solved soon to prevent an incident from occurring again, but not too soon because that could also result in the solution creating unintended side effects that could be irreversible. This is why it is crucial for people to understand the complexity of wicked problems, so a simple solution is not applied to an intricate issue. 

The flash flooding in Granite City is only one example of the wicked problems related to water equity in our communities. East St. Louis is another prominent area that often experiences flooding after storms. While solutions applied to Granite City could also be applied to East St. Louis, it is important to realize that every city is different. The resources that are available to help Granite Citizens may not be accessible for people in East St. Louis. Along with that, water equity does not just apply to flooding. Clean water and transportation on the Mississippi River are other topics often discussed in areas closer to St. Louis. The fight for fixing water-related issues in our communities is an ongoing battle that will take effort from everyone to start resolving. 

Brannan, Dan. “Granite City Battles Flash Flooding Issues with Improvements, Mayor Says More Work Left to Do.” RiverBender.Com, 26 July 2022, www.riverbender.com/articles/details/granite-city-battles-flash-flooding-issues-with-improvements-mayor-says-more-work-left-to-do-60187.cfm.

Koziatek, Mike. “Her Basement Flooded Again. Now She Wants Granite City to Fix Its Drainage Problems.” Belleville News-Democrat, 18 Aug. 2019, www.bnd.com/news/local/article234117542.html.

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