Martine M. Parisien

Dear portfolio readers

My beginnings at Bristol Community College (BCC) were not easy, especially because of the reading and writing classes. I was faced with a lot of problems because people would speak very quickly for me. They had to repeat everything twice so that I could catch the idea. My problem with the pronunciation was really a big challenge. When I talk to a person, it was difficult for that person to understand what I say. Sometimes, it made me feel sad. Often times, I felt lost in some courses such as reading and writing. However, things were going was better with the writing class thanks to the help of my professors and their encouragement. When I am discouraged, they encourage me to continue reading in order to write better. To me, the argumentative essay was the most difficult one. It took me hours to get my ideas organized. With the application of all the advice from my professors, I think that my writing has improved because after taking advanced writing, I registered for English 101.

The first assignment is about an essay. As regards this essay, I wrote about a part of my life. Initially, I had some difficulties finding a topic. But, finally, I said to myself: talking about self must be easier. I wrote about the most tragic period of my life. I was diagnosed with brain cancer during my adolescence. There are no sophisticated equipments to treat my complicated medical conditions in my country, Haiti. Finally, we found a doctor who lived in the U.S. and then decided to return to Haiti to establish his private practice. At first glance, he asked an excessive amount of money for treatment. But thanks to our intense prayer, we almost had nothing to pay for treatment. At the end, after one and a half years of treatment, my brain was tumor-free and the headaches were Gone. When I began to write the essay, the ideas came up easily as if I was going through that experience again. The organization of the sequences was not easy for me. Finally, with the help of my teacher, I ended up classifying different sequences.

The second assignment is about ethnography. I spent hours and days to write this essay. I had had some difficulties deciding whether I could establish some comparisons and contrasts, but my professor guided me through it brilliantly. It was very challenging for me. My professor gave me the option to write about any topic that connects to our theme. As my theme was centered on family and relationship, I had to go to a place where I could make my own observations. One day, I happened to hear a group of four fellow Christians of my color say that African Americans are more spiritual and more worthy of God’s blessings than White people. Afterwards, I decided to think it through and examine the spiritual focus of those brothers and sisters by observing that church whose Senior Pastor is my husband’s best friend for three months. At last, that has helped me develop my observation skills and gave me the opportunity to ponder over certain ethnic groups, trends, and other behaviors.

My last assignment is an argument essay. I spent hours reading over and over this 15-page article based upon relationship and its title is faux friendship. The text has very complicated grammatical structures, which made the task ​​very difficult for me. After doing the summary, I gave my opinion on faux friendship. And then I looked up another less orthodox point of view than that expressed by William Deresiewicz, the author of “faux friendship”. Fortunately, I came across a comprehensive article written by Frédéric Joignot, the writer of Le Monde (The World). The focus of the latter in his article helped me put everything in perspective and caused me to embrace the potential and the upside of relationships or friendship cultivated on the social networks.

Finally, this class has helped me organize better my thoughts, develop my sense of observation and allow me to improve my writings.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading these works as much as I have enjoy writing and developing my ideas.

Some events in life are like a furnace where the best gold is tested through fire. During my teenage years in Haiti, I was diagnosed with brain tumor on the occasion of a visit in search of response to recurrent headaches and from that moment I went through some serious suffering. It came as a real shock to everyone in the family in spite of my complaints days earlier. The diagnosis revealed some small tumor scattered in my brain and we were all devastated, aware of the fact that we were in an impoverished country like Haiti, with no sophisticated equipment to treat this complicated medical condition. My family did everything that was in their power to take me to see a specialist from the United States, but the efforts were unsuccessful. Engulfed in sadness, I remembered my dad, the last words he said to me before he died and his gift: the bible .

Two years earlier,  when I was fourteen, my dad died. Before he passed away, he gave me a bible. As I walked silently that evening into his poorly lit bedroom, my father lifted his head in my direction and he showed a timid but reassuring smile while signaling for me to sit next to him with his visibly weak arms.  Then, he started to talk about how important it is to trust God anytime. All of sudden, an abundant stream of tears was rolling down his cheeks and he said the following: “I give you this book because you’ll need it your whole life”. As a matter of fact, my late father had a strong belief in God. He would often times tell me there is a living God in heaven that can do everything. Since that day, I’ve prayed every morning and every night with my Bible together with my mom. That book my lovely late father gave me, allowed me to know about the love of God, to trust him and to find out about his omnipotence.

Before I get further, I should point out that I was living in Haiti back then and such diagnosis was like a death sentence. Just my late father, Haitian parents always talk to their children about what God can do. Therefore, my relatives started to pray so that they could find a way for me to be cured. All the efforts were in vain but one day they happened to talk to someone coming from the capital, Port-au-Prince who told them about a Haitian doctor trained in the US. He would travel every other month to Haiti in order to give back a bit to his beloved Haiti. Despite hardships we may come across on the road, we remained hopeful. All my friends were crying, thinking I was going to die, but I clung to hope, to the Christian teachings, the principles that my father had implanted in me before he passed away.

In the end, we arrived at his private practice in Haiti. He had a big office with a large yard. I was with my mother and my big brother, Daniel. My heart was beating fast because I was worried.When I saw the doctor, he said he was not sure if he could save me. He said he did not have all the required equipment with him in Haiti to take care of it adequately and I couldn’t get a visa to fly to the US. In the face of such circumstances, he started off with the equipment he had and then he brought along more and more sophisticated medical equipment to crush the lumps and get me to be tumor-free. He decided to go back and forth once month. It was amazing because we saw the answer to our prayers in those changes and through this greater interest the Doctor showed. In the beginning, he was a serious, insensitive and money hungry doctor because he asked for $5 thousand for every two consultations due to the cost of some bulbs and devices and he also frowned upon how much my mom was making a month. He became a sensitive and caring person. At the end of one year and half of treatment, my brain was free of tumor and the headaches were gone. It was the end of a chapter of deep pain, of missing classes, of not going to church or family reunions. My teenage life was nearly spent in endless prayer sessions and fasting.

In conclusion, people say that faith may help you achieve great things in life. As John 6:63 goes: ^“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life”. To me, faith was my irreplaceable remedy and relief amidst all this suffering. It gave me my life back. Without faith, I would complained, blame it on people or gave up instead of pushing through without knowing what comes next, how or where we’d find money. Consequently, I was prematurely mature because of all this. As a Pastor’s wife, I became a speaker, a motivator for many people back in Haiti, giving lectures in my church and other places teaching how important it is to be creative and hopeful no matter what because the Lord is a living God and still works miracles in our lives to date. By God’s grace and thanks to the transformed doctor, I held out and came out of all this stronger, wiser and ready to shine as the gold tested through fire.

According to several experts, healthy and lasting relations are fed by and have started with friendship. Besides, we are social creatures by nature and, therefore, we have this compelling need to be associated with someone we can care for, share with and rely upon in different moments of our lives. William Deresiewicz has touched upon several historical periods in order to give his own views on friendship along the following paragraphs.

William Deresiewicz examines in the framework of his article “faux friendship” the evolution of friendship by going from Jacob and Esau to contemporary people calling each other friends on my space,  facebook,…, twitter in the wake of a random encounter in most of the cases. He argues that in our current days “friendship can be everything and nothing at the same time”. Mr. Deresiewicz reports what was aired on New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth Wednesday, December 16 at 12:40 p.m: “… [a] numberless multitude of people, of whom no one was close, no one was distant. …”. Therefore, it seems that the modern social networks have brought about the fragmentation of friendship even before the latter is brought into fruition.

Far from being up for grabs like nowadays, friendship was rare, significant and earned over time throughout biblical times until the era of industrial development. David’s love for Jonathan surpassed his enmity with the King Saul to an extent that he stated: “my love for him (Jonathan) was more wondrous to me than the love of women”. It was reported that Achilles refused to live without his friend, Patroclus and there is no room for homosexuality here. It is just about friendship, the writer upholds.

According to the author of the article, the decline of the classical ideal of friendship is evidenced by the rise of Christianity. However, Jesus Christ, the Founder of the Christian movement, was mainly surrounded by men- the twelve Disciples- and his friendship with Lazarus was so strong that he wept when he learned his beloved friend had passed away. Besides, he turned out to be so kind to and understanding of a man, a tax collector called Zacchaeus, who was despised by the people of his community.

As upheld by Deresiewicz, today’s friendship is deprived of its classical value. It has evolved from the form of alliance or oath as the basis on which it must be cultivated among the Lords and vassals into the expression of godparents and godchildren through the Roman Catholic Society.

The boom of commerce in our societies has changed the realm of personal life and paved the ground for the emergence of modern friendship, which is based upon something more informal and spontaneous. Faced with moral weaknesses of our days, friendship has evolved into a new kind of idealism to meet the humans’ deepest need and the group friendship or friendship circle which reached its apogee in the 1960s and was later revealed on the TV screen in Seinfeld (Jerry and George), Sex and the City, and, of course, Friends (Ross and Chandler).

In this regard, the virtual effect of proximity creates the illusion of being emotionally attached to that person with whom we communicate. Facebook was the explanatory element the author brought up. A study found that one American in four reported having no close confidants, up from one in 10 in 1985. Moreover, It seems that we are really so hungry for validation and so desperate to prove we have friends nowadays.

In conclusion, Mr. William Deresiewicz argues that friendship becomes, on the basis of all above, a kind of alternative society, a refuge from the values of the larger, fallen world. He added that when all the marriages are over, friends are the people we come back to.

On the other hand, the writer Frédéric Joignot of Le Monde (The World) shows in his article “L’amitié à l’épreuve de Facebook / Facebook-Tested Friendship” a less orthodox view about the use and potential of network in how it molds our relations. As a French man, he is more open-minded about the latter than Mr. William Deresiewicz. He brought to our attention the remarks of A British anthropologist Daniel Miller who, however, appears to agree with the defenders of social networks. According to Daniel Miller and the author of the article, social networks have escaped their creators and now belong to the communities by overtaking them and proving them wrong when they said that the friendly and collective relations would deteriorate due to consumption of high tech and individualism. For instance, he stated that facebook has helped enhance friendly exchanges between young people living in Santa Ana, a remote village of Venezuela plagued by neighborhood tensions. They check their coursework and play online.

Being convinced of his viewpoint, Mr. Joignot upholds his argument through the phone, which is a good example according to him. He coincides with Stéphane Vial and they argue that many people found- at first- the use of telephone rather misleading, disruptive or frivolous, and hated to use it. They added that the fact that it could facilitate the harassment and police tracks did not stop it from changing radically our way of living, working, loving, and so on. Since then, “talking without being seen” has become a” natural “part of our culture. This new practice has enriched the ways we communicate and the same thing will be happening on our entry into the digital world, although many refuse to embrace it.

In conclusion, Frédéric Joignot, the author of the aforementioned article, believes that sentimental and erotic friendships are not the only ones to take other forms through social networks and interactivity. Friendships between supposed enemies, even among peoples of different countries, follow suit. Thus, he cited: “the Israeli, Pushpin Mehina (real name Ronny Edry), created in March 2012 a Facebook page where you can see him along with his daughter, smiling and right above it read as follows: “Iranians, we will never bombard your countries. We love you”. To date, the “Israel loves Iran” page has 116,479″ likes, he added.

In my opinion, I agree that we have given our hearts to machines, and now we are turning into machine. Friendship is so informal and exclusively centered upon self-gratification and recognition at the present time. Consequently, it seems to be difficult nowadays to live out a time-tested friendship due to the superficiality and the virtual illusion of social networking. Or, it is probably the lack of adaptability of many of us that prevents us from getting accustomed to the new forms of friendship and relationships in the face of the ever growing networking technology. However, the saying: “a friend in need is a friend indeed” remains relevant for identifying a real friend.

Works Cited:

Deresiewicz, William.“Faux Friendship. The Chronicle Review of Higher

Education.” December 6, 2009. Web

Joignot, Frédéric. “L’amitié à l’épreuve de Facebook” or « Facebook-Tested

Friendship ». February, 4th, 2014. web

Mathilde Aubier. “Le monde culture et idees” or “World culture and ideas”

AND IDEAS.” January, 2014. web

An increasing number of public figures and ordinary people have claimed to be spiritual and good people but not religious in the media. Actually, it seems to be a trend. Therefore, I wonder whether there is a certain status about being spiritual and not religious or vice versa. One day, I happened to hear a group of four fellow Christians of my color say that Afro Americans are more spiritual and more worthy of God’s blessings than White people. Afterwards, I decided to think it through and examine the spiritual focus of those brothers and sisters by observing that church whose Senior Pastor is my husband’s best friend for three months.

At the end of the period of three months of observation and interviews with some of the most active church members, I was overwhelmingly stricken by some spiritual aspects of the gospel. First of all, that church was so crowded, which clearly indicates that the rate of baptized people is a lot higher than that of the White church located 5 miles away. During the praise time, people seem to be in a spiritual trance, serving the Lord with all their mind, soul and heart. Young adults ranging from 17 to 25 years conducted the praise time. Loud and lively music like Gospel was booming in the middle of worship service. Afterwards, soft and melodious songs from the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal were performed while all generous hands were extended to drop their tithes and offerings from their humble salary in most of the cases in token of their faith and gratitude towards our God.

Some people may argue that the need of those Afro Americans of God comes from their hardships, especially economic problems. However, those brothers and sisters repeat data from surveys released by specialized magazines that alleges that the low rate of suicides and depression among Christians and especially Afro Americans is due to their joy in the Lord. A female member proudly added a quote by Barbara Cameron: “worrying is arrogant because God knows what He’s doing.” Hence, they say they show faith at all times and rely on each other to push on through. They seem to be truly generous because the temple is huge, beautiful with all the red and white drapes in the backdrop, flower pots on either side of the church and on the altar or platform. The church is located in a nice neighborhood.

On the other hand, I took a closer look at the youth in that church and asked them some private questions. As a result, I found that most of the young people were not as conservative and zealous for the Lord as their parents claim to be. They revealed that there is a certain rate of divorce I did not expect to hear and half of them had a girlfriend / boyfriend outside their church which the parents utterly oppose. Besides, a small of the teenagers were dressed like their earthly idols they see on TV and it was shocking to see that some of that group wear their pants down like Justin Bieber. The others were formally dressed but most of them try to wear designer clothes or fancy ones to go to church.

Nowadays, spirituality is just being a “good person”. Steve Maraboli would put it this way: “One of the most spiritual things you can do is to embrace your humanity. Connect with those around you today. Say, “I love you”, “I’m sorry”, “I appreciate you”, “I’m proud of you”…whatever you’re feeling. Send random texts, write a cute note, embrace your truth and share it…cause a smile today for someone else…and give plenty of hugs.” Nonetheless, from a biblical perspective, spirituality is opposed to worldly or secular things. Then, being spiritual means a close connection with God who is Spirit and a life that reveals the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Nevertheless, all the Christian churches you can find in Latin America and the Caribbean were planted there by White Americans who love God so much and, therefore, show commitment and great care toward their fellow human beings through very important sacrifices. Most of those White Americans built schools and clinics / hospital in order to cater not only for the spiritual needs of every child of God, but also for his / her physical needs. Those are undeniably historic facts even though you may find now a great deal of white people with a more scientific attitude than spiritual. Most of them would share that quote by Albert Einstein: “Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe- a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble” and go on with their lives without having to delve deeper in the holy scriptures or conforming to the latter.

In conclusion, being a good person – in my opinion- is about living in harmony with your neighbors, cultivates inner peace and wisdom every day. It comes from within. To me, being religious or spiritual is rather linked to the consistency between the theoretical aspect based upon the truthfulness of the bible through conscious reading and the practical dimension centered upon being faithful to God while showing His love toward others no matter what. By the way, I have seen a good portion of the church members drift away from this concept of mine, dress and dance like any other person or white person I could meet elsewhere.  In light of the above, I cannot dare to say who is more religious than the other or who is a better person than the other.

   Work cited

Steve Maraboli. “life, the Truth, and Being free.”  September 2011.web