Well, a semester is a pretty short time to be honest. I feel like it flew by. It was only a couple months. I definitely did learn a couple of things.

Writing is definitely important going forward. I’ve come to learn that any professor will ask for a paper from you. Whether it’s a speech class, math class, biology or anything hands-on.

            During the semester if I had to share my favorite topic it would have to be propaganda. Propaganda is a topic I learned to love after reading Orwell’s “1984” in my senior year of High School. I loved that book and the dystopian culture they were living in along with the absurd propaganda was everything. I learned that the types of propaganda or rhetorical device used in 1984 were glittering generality and using fear. The term “Big Brother’s watching you” comes from this book. The use of phrases like “Freedom is Slavery” and “Ignorance is Strength” were very important to the story.

The idea of rhetorical devices was used throughout the entire class. I don’t think there was a class when I didn’t hear the words. Rhetoric came to be very important from the middle and toward the end of the class. Some were simple, some I’ve never seen, others I’ve read about or witnessed and didn’t know the name. Whether it was Romance, Sex, and Gender appeals, Scarcity appeal, allusion and analogy and glittering generalities.

I can rattle off anything I wanted to learn how to be a better writer. I’m not the best writer and I know that. Professional writers never publish the first draft, but I assume theirs’ are somewhat decent, at least if it’s a simple paper. Maybe I need to go to the writing center and see how my writing could be read. Maybe I’m being harsh on myself, I don’t know. I want to be a better storyteller. I want to further my vocabulary and be able to tell people stories, ones they could and enjoy, a story so entrancing the reader feels like the story is real. I want to entertain with my writing, I want people to love the writing I produce and understand it for what it is. It’s my emotion poured out on a piece of paper. Artists draw their feelings, Writers write their thoughts out, they are one and the same. In the future I hope to become a better writer, one that can entertain and bring a smile to my audience’s face depending on the topic.

If I’m being honest, I reread my papers and can’t find one that I would majorly like to change. It’s not that they are perfect, but I can’t spot certain things the way another writer would. You’re asking for a drastic change in writing, and I can’t see myself doing that in any of my major papers. When I write, it is solely based off of how I’m feeling or what comes to mind, I might reword a sentence or two, but until my perspective has changed, I can’t make that great revision to the paper. I’ve reread the pieces and I don’t see much wrong with how I express my ideas. I want paper to be the paper I want it to be, but I can’t change much because it already is.

Steroids have been used for decades now and I still don’t know specifically why. I’m aware it’s a drug that’s supposed to enhance physical abilities so why is it hated so much? If they are so bad, why do when athletes take them, they are a terrible thing, but when a body builder uses them it’s not as bad. What is the deal with Steroids? Why does it appear that everyone hates them?

“Anabolic steroids are drugs that help the growth and repair of muscle tissue. They are synthetic hormones that imitate male sex hormones, specifically testosterone.”

Testosterone was initially synthesized in Germany in 1935 and was used for medical use to treat depression. German chemist Adolf Butenandt was the first to perform in-depth research into the creation of anabolic steroids. It all started with isolating the male hormone androstenone from thousands of liters of urine. Before we get into the steroids, who was the man behind them?

 Adolf Frederick Johann Butenandt was the son of a businessman who studied Chemistry at the Universities of Marburg and Göttingen. He was a scientific assistant at a few schools after his graduation in 1927 until he became a professor at the University of Berlin and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry until 1960. Although he started the studies on steroids, he will always be best known for his work with sex hormones. He recognized with a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1939 along with Leopold Ružička, a Croatian-Swiss scientist. Throughout Butenandt’s life he was awarded several medals and prizes from Germany, France, Sweden, and England. He earned the Grand Cross for Federal Services with Star in 1959. He holds six honorary doctorates from Munich, Graz, Leeds, Madrid and two from Tübingen(schools) and is Freeman of the city of Bremerhaven. He is an honorary life member of the New York Academy of Sciences, honorary member of the Japanese Biochemical Society, the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Halle, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Anabolic steroids were created in the early 1930s when Butenandt “isolated the male hormone androstenone from thousands of liters of urine. Following the success of those early experiments with androstenone, several teams of scientists, backed by pharmaceutical companies, worked to synthesize the more powerful male hormone testosterone.” During the same year Butenandt was recognized for his Nobel Prize the science world was already experimenting with testosterone injections on human subjects. “During the 1940s and 1950s experiments with steroids continued and it’s use widened among athletes and body builders, especially in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries. The overwhelming domination by these countries in weightlifting events at the 1952 Olympics, prompted U.S. Olympic Team physician Dr. John Ziegler to begin issuing steroids to his athletes. Dr. Ziegler recruited the help of chemists to develop a compound that would achieve the same results for strength building as the Eastern Bloc countries steroids but with fewer side effects. The result was the first FDA approved steroid Dianabol” (Dbol). 

I’ve come to realize that the use of the drug was all in pursuit of fair competition. I still can’t see why steroids are bad now, it still looks like a tool used to just level the playing field for athletes everywhere. Testosterone was already legal so why would it be okay when prescribed for a patient, but not for an athlete?

“By the 1960s and 1970s, steroid use by Olympic athletes prompted the ban of its use. A study by BYU faculty member and former world record holder for discus Jay Sylvester, showed that over 68 percent of the athletes at the 1972 Olympics were using or had used steroids. And in 1976, East Germany further created controversy with its women’s track and swim teams when it was discovered that their Wonder Girls (as they came to be known) were taking steroids given to them by their trainers who told them they were vitamins. The heavy use of steroids at these games created new rules and testing procedures for Olympic athletes.”

By this time in history there still wasn’t a clear answer as to why steroids shouldn’t be used. I could only assume people thought steroids were ruining the authenticity of the competition. There were tests where the anabolic steroids would be “having little to no effect on the body because patients who were given a placebo showed no different results than those who were given real doses of steroids.” Studies were beginning to show that the body was being affected by the consistent intake of the drug, which is why it was being banned. “The results of this study were widely cited as fact for almost two decades, despite the fact that the study only used low doses of steroids in people and had zero control over such aspects as diet, weight or health of the subjects involved.”

As the use of steroids declined in the Olympic scene it was only escalating in rising body building community and amongst athletes in a range of sports. The use of steroids was short-lived in professional sports leagues such as the NBA and NFL. As athletes began using them, regulators and officials banned them from the leagues quickly and administered rules and screening for the drug. 

“In 1991, the government stepped in and made steroids a Schedule III controlled substance, making their non-prescribed possession and distribution illegal and punishable by fines and prison terms. Public backlash to steroid use continued to grow throughout the 1990s, fueled by reports of doping scandals in America’s Pastime Major League Baseball. As reports of baseball’s biggest stars using steroids came to light in the press, the world learned more and more about steroid use and its many new forms.” 

“Anabolic steroids work by imitating the properties of naturally occurring hormones. They have a similar chemical composition to testosterone and are therefore able to activate our testosterone receptors. Once the receptors are stimulated, a domino effect of metabolic reactions takes place as the drug instructs the body to increase muscle tissue production.” The drug is a short cut or an advantage that the body isn’t supposed to have.”

People find the use of anabolic steroids embarrassing in a competitive setting because you need an advantage over your peers instead of managing to win with your own talents. The use of steroids is wrong for the right group of people. There are those who have gotten away with using steroids and have probably never told a soul. Some people want a win so bad that steroids are the only way for them to go.

What worries people the most are the side effects of anabolic steroids. The idea that “There is no safe level of drug use” has become popular amongst many communities. In the body building community, to be completely natural is the most impressive thing to do, especially when you reach an aesthetically pleasing physique. Many competitors today still take steroids and supplements when preparing for shows. Many professional lifters advocate for not taking steroids after taking the drugs themselves, but many young bodybuilders are chasing an ideal physique. 

When taking anabolic steroids side effects can include water retention, which causes facial bloating, acne and facial scarring, mood swings, heightened aggression and violence, frequently suffering from colds, an increase in sex drive and having difficulties sleeping. Those are only the minor effects. Long term effects include liver damage, kidney or prostate cancer, high blood pressure, depression, cardiovascular complications and tendon or ligament damage. The testosterone affects men and women differently as well. Men can lose sperm, shrunken testicles, baldness, gynaecomastia (developing breasts) and involuntary long-lasting erections. Women suffer from sudden facial hair growth, irregular periods, deepened voice, smaller breasts and enlarged clitoris. The stigma that follows the idea of steroids will always be there, but it won’t matter to the many that feel they need it. Lifters from thirty years ago would say they didn’t know the effects they could have on them, but it’s about the now for those who use steroids today.

Are steroids really bad? It’s up to you to decide. It’s all about perspective. Do you need them? Do you want them? Is it worth it? There are legal steroids that still have side effects that no one would want to experience either. It’s not about the drug, it’s about the person who wants to use it.

   The Umbrella Movement. What was it? The Umbrella movement was a protest for universal suffrage that Hong Kong was promised in their basic law after election of their Chief Executive. It was the constitution that laid out how the city was to be governed after its return from Britain to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

     It was the first time in five years since Hong Kong had a mass protest. Street demonstrations began in 2014 and arose again. The protest in 2014 was initially an emancipatory social movement for democratic reform. The umbrella movement started once it became a part of China after the British left. According to Holliday & Wong (2003), the constitutional principle, one country two systems, guaranteed that Hong Kong maintained its democratic currency systems, as well as freedom and human rights. Government decisions concentrated on financing their ventures resulted in criticism of the higher ups in Hong Kong. The government’s economic policies created disturbance among people in society, leading to the expression of citizens’ grievances and frustration. The name came about from the use of umbrellas as a shield for resistance to the Hong Kong Police’s pepper spray against a crowd during a 79-day occupation of the city demanding more transparent elections for the Hong Kong Chief executive in 2017.

     The region began to move together as a unit. They used passive protests and banners and symbols to show that they are standing up for themselves, but without and cause of violence.

     There was the Class of 2014 Hong Kong boycott campaign that supported the Umbrella Movement. Many secondary/elementary/middle schools established political reform concern groups for supporting student protests and the Umbrella Movement.

      “I want real universal suffrage”. That was the grand message behind the movement. A giant banner saying that were hung in Hong Kong universities such as University of Hong Kong, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, Lingnan University, City University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong secondary schools such as King’s College, Queen’s College, Immaculate Heart of Mary College, St. Paul’s College had small copies of Lion Rock banners hung.

     The movement became something that wasn’t just politics anymore. It seemed like everyone had the same ideas, not everyone was going to rallies or at the front lines of it all, but they supported it. It’s so easy to identify with someone if you think they are the same as you. For the people of Hong Kong being a part of this movement was like something you had to do as a people. To go to someone who looks just like you is probably the most effective way of finding help.

     On October 23rd at the peak of Lion Rock, rock climbers hung a giant banner “I need real universal suffrage”. This action flipped another switch in Hong Kong. The Lion Rock banner was taken down by the government the very next day. Since then, the people launched the idea of “demolish one, hang ten” on each of the Hong Kong mountains and islands banners read “I need real universal suffrage”. The Lion Rock had banners hung many times during and after the occupation. There were other little things like short films or grand things like protests of thousands of people.

     Sometimes it takes a grand gesture to initiate an uproar in energy towards a cause. It can be climbing up a mountain and hanging a banner. Joining a political reform concern club at school. Petitioning from a completely different country or going to rallies and risking your safety for a greater thing than just yourself. I think what brought this together was the feeling of togetherness. No one was told to not show up uninvited or something. The umbrellas represented self-respect and many respected that. This movement had nothing to do with gender, color, or identification, just self-respect that’s something universal, an idea people worldwide can get behind.

The name and symbol were something so unique, and the idea behind it was something so relatable that it couldn’t be hated or looked down upon. The people of Hong Kong truly had a solid argument that many couldn’t argue with.

  For my entire life I have participated in the catholic faith. As a child I was brought to church every Sunday. I was forced to go to Sunday school, attended a Christian middle school and attended a catholic high school. Religion has been forced down my throat as long as I can remember. I became very bored and uninterested with it very early on. Yes, I was learning, but that didn’t mean I firmly believed in what I was learning. I know all these Bible stories and different lessons, but I don’t really care about them. I remember going to church and not being able to fall asleep in those tough wooden benches. The sermons I had sometimes resonated but that was a long time down the line. It took me around the time between the ages of ten and thirteen to understand, but I remember going to church with my sisters when around four or five years old just walking back and forth across the benches waiting for us to leave. I started going less and less and made my return a few years later and started Sunday school.

           Sunday School. It was a place I dreaded. I had to wake up at 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning to get to the church’s Sunday school at 9 o’clock. For the most part it was like regular school except every class was about Catholicism. The school operated by grade, so I was with kids around my age. What I hated was that I never made friends that easily, but I’ve always been bad at that. A lot of the kids already knew each other, and I was the odd one out. It was always difficult for me to open my mouth at times but its not that I couldn’t, I was just scared to speak up. I was already tired of going to church, having to go to a class and then having to attend a mass right after was awful. The thought of the end of Sunday school was amazing was what I thought.

          The adventure of a confirmed catholic can be long. In my experience you have to formally experience your first communion. Communion is believed to be the breaking of bread as the body of Christ and the wine as the blood of Christ. During a mass you are allowed to come to the altar and take part in communion. In my and many other churches children aren’t allowed to take communion until a certain age. Try to understand that I went to Sunday school for a few years just to eat a piece of bread that was blessed. That’s only the halfway point to confirmation. It took me three more years before I could be confirmed in the church.

          I remember when I went through the most important time in a Catholic’s religious journey, Confirmation. I was finally confirmed in the church! I remember when my Sunday school teacher told me at 13, “Now that that you’re confirmed you can decide when you want to come to church”. I haven’t been to that church since. It started off as a break from getting ready every Sunday, to “do I even believe in anything they are saying?” Catholicism is completely faith based. Believing in Jesus is like having a blindfold on and doing a trust fall with someone who walked away and believing they’ll come back to catch you. I remember learning a few of the technicalities of Catholicism in school and it is not for the weak. To believe in something with barely any concrete evidence is difficult. Many historians believe Jesus was a man recognized for miracles, but he was probably doing modern science, or he had really good luck when in front of the right people. It is confirmed that Jesus was a man that walked on this Earth thousands of years ago but hasn’t been acknowledged for anything else the Bible has said about him.

          In high school I had a religion or “theology” class my freshman year and I realized that I’m not really sure about religion. I remember learning about the Holy Trinity, let me explain it to you to the best of my memory and ask yourself “How much does this make sense?” God the Father, God the son and God the Holy spirit make up the trinity. They are all God, but none of them are each other. The father is not the son, the son is not the father, the spirit isn’t either of the two, but they are all God. The reason they aren’t each other is because they allegedly came into existence before time itself had begun but before one and the other. That’s the reason one is the father, one is the son, and one is the spirit, because they appeared in a certain order. Now that you have heard about one of the few concepts that Catholicism has to offer do you understand why you must need 100% faith? I sadly can’t put my all into that.

          Lately I haven’t been believing in anything. My sisters still go to church while I spend my Sunday like any other day. Sunday is just the second day of the weekend or the first day of the week to me. I think my belief in God is tied to who I am as a person. Being someone who takes things literally it’s hard for me to believe something that solely takes faith. I have come to realize that I’m not a true believer in God, but also not unaware that there is a God out there.

          I don’t want to be one of those people that cry out to God when they are in trouble. I think it’s hypocritical. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. To me “Oh my God” is a popular saying, In the church they say don’t say the lord’s name in vain. My belief in God is faint, its not something I always think about. Without prayer or God in my life I find that I’ve never really relied on him to begin with. There weren’t many moments when I thought I need to pray, it was always initialized in a controlled space. I am not a true believer in God. I don’t know what I believe in. I live life day by day. To those who believe in baptizing their babies at birth I think they should wait, let them decide if they believe in this or that. I think religion is something sacred, something someone should truly believe in.

          For me I’m not sure if I’ve ever believed in Catholicism, at some point I definitely did, but the belief in God kept fading as life went on. Prayers just became a routine and nothing I actually meant. There was no sincerity in my words or sincere thoughts through my actions. I stopped taking part in communion and finally, the idea dawned on me, “Am I really firm in what I believe?”

Hi I’m Marques. That’s it 🙂