Journal # 4

Tattoos
When my brother first came home with his tattoo, my entire family flipped out on him. It was seen as taboo. No one in my immediate family had a tattoo. For him to come home with tattoo upset my father and mother so heavily that they almost kicked him out. For one it was the name of an old girlfriend. You don’t tattoo someone else’s name on you that isn’t family because what happens if you break up with that person or worse they dump you. Now you will look like a sucker for having their name on your body. It will be a constant reminder of your stupidity. It wasn’t until my brother starting promising my mother that he was going to get her name on him that she let up on him and started supporting his addiction. I say addiction because to date my brother has about seven tattoos, not including the original of his ex-girlfriend which is now covered up by another tattoo. Personally I like the idea of tattoos. Its personal expression of whatever you want permanently portrayed on skin canvas. But discretion must be used. You can’t just put anything on your body because you’re going to have to be willing to look at it every day of every year until the day you die. You must take time to find the perfect picture, find the perfect artist who will be sticking a needle in your skin for the next hour, and a sentimental meaning behind what you have picked otherwise your just getting a tattoo just to have one. That’s where the problem is, everyone gets tattoos so to be unique with one is hard. There are people with similar tattoos. But to one it may hold value to a loved one as opposed to another who just like the way it looked on them. I feel that if you don’t have a legitimate reason to get your tattoo that you will end up regretting for the rest of your life.

Don’t be like him

Cosmetic Surgery

Journal #2
Explain why you would or would not have cosmetic surgery at some point in life?

As I believe, cosmetic surgery is defined as a way to improve upon someone’s appearance by repairing their bodies based upon their insecurities. Plastic surgery has come a long way from humble beginnings from just helping those in need to anyone in general. I feel like cosmetic surgery has become an alternative for any problem one might have with themselves. A visual the person perceives as an imperfection that needs to be changed. If someone has wrinkles on their face they can go get them removed, if someone wants bigger breasts they can have silicon implants put inside them. This is just a waste of time for the medical field. Doctors should not care about what is the new best way to make people more appealing they should care about people who are truly sick and need serious medical attention. There are thousands of children and adults who don’t even have a government healthcare plan. But in the United States you can go any doctor and come looking any way you want. That type of surgery is a luxury not a necessity and yet it is one of the fastest growing businesses in the world. People are becoming too superficial. Caring excessively about ones own physical appearance that it overshadows daily living. They only care so much because Cosmetic surgery is advertised so much and is becoming so common that any small flaw gets turned into a gigantic problem. People should be happy with what they were given because that is how you define yourself. To take part in surgery means you are not comfortable with yourself and means you never truly will because once your first flaw is gone you will find another. I will never take part in cosmetic surgery because I feel that to change myself would only be hiding me of who I truly am.

Journal #2:
What were your impressions of culture and ethnicity growing up?

Growing up in a Hispanic home; Culture and the appreciation for where my family came from was very strong. Both sides of my family came from different perspectives of Hispanic culture as my father is from Puerto-Rico and my mother is from Peru. Both grew up in their respective homelands. Coming to America was hard for both of my parents to do as immigrating is for anyone who does it. But, to this day I see that American culture has not made my family conform to its traditions. We celebrate the same holidays as everyone else but do not allow for our traditions and culture to conflict. Everything from food and language to movies and music is different in my family. We eat traditional Spanish food like cow-cow and listen to music incorporating salsa and meringue. Having to grow up in these conditions I built a deep appreciation for my culture and would look forward to holidays where my whole family would gather together for parties; bringing home-cooked meals and homemade moonshine. This is my favorite tradition from my family. In Puerto-Rico me and my uncles would go out and find whole assortments of fruits come back and cut all the fruits up. We would stuff the fruits into the bottom of empty wine bottles and fill the bottles with homemade rum. My uncles would ferment it for as long as needed until it stunk up the back shed. When it was done we would take out one bottle pass a shot to everyone who helped make it and start to drink. They call it Pituro( Puerto-Rican Moonshine). Now that I am more of an adult I see now that all of ethnic-specific traditions weren’t just based out of where my parents came from but were showing me and my brother that this is also where we came from. I believe that you can’t know where you’re going unless you know where you came from, and my family literally force feeds it to anyone in their vicinity. I will have to take all of the lessons and recipes that I was taught growing up and have to pass it on to my children; this will not just keep my culture alive but the memories of my family alive.