Blog #4 - Sense of Belonging

 The sense of belonging is something everyone is seeking. Whether it is finding a place where you can express yourself or just trying to figure out where you belong in society. We are in a crazy world and finding these areas are sometimes harder to find. Little do we know, having a space where you feel you belong matters. I have 3 places that I am and was lucky to feel like belonging to. The first place is my church that I attend and participate in currently, second is my video gaming time or area (whatever you want to call it), and lastly the kindness crew I participated in that was an extracurricular activity in high school. Although the kindness crew isn't really much there anymore, the time spent there will forever hold a place in my heart. It was a part of my journey in high school and I was able to cross paths with many different people and for that I'm forever grateful. What all these places have in common is the exact sense of belonging but also the amount of openness and connection they hold. Whether each place has a different meaning to, they are and were special to me. Belonging in an area makes you feel welcome and comfortable around your peers. You can be yourself and not have to worry about putting a fake version of yourself out there. It's no judgment area and you don't have to have your guard up. I know I chose my 3 but everyone is different and that's okay because it makes us who we are. With the song “Breathe” from In the Heights, she explains how the sense of belonging she was trying to seek while away in a new school and environment was difficult to do so. She finds her hometown and peers is what made the sense of belonging better for her and that's what she missed the most.. We all just have to find that area that you feel you can blossom in. 

 P.S. I don't know if anyone has noticed, i have a thing for butterflies 🦋

Blog #3 - Values

When we think about values, there is a lot to choose from. The hard part is choosing what really sticks out and true to oneself. My values as a person are important to me. It is something that will carry on with me and will make me stand out from others. My five values I choose to write about are Commitment, Forgiveness, Leadership, Patience, and Trust. Now you may ask why I chose those 5, simple, because they apply to me the most of all but mainly people see these 5 right off the back when they meet me. I know my explanation will share how I see things in life and still learning to working with them. If any of my values apply to you also, then it means we have a lot in common more then you think.

1. Commitment: Consider me as the yes person. When someone asks to do them a favor or to attend an event, I would go even if I'm late because I'm a person of my word.

 

2. Forgiveness: Too easy to let it go and move on, when in certain situations that shouldn't be the case. I see it as there's more to live than to dwell on something unnecessary that we will later laugh at. 

3. Leadership: Being able to take charge and advocate for whatever it is but also being the light in the group. I use this in my daily life with friends and at work, I am alway and will continue to be the leader in the group. 

 

4. Patience: can be too much, because I’m too calm and able to take in a lot. Going back with forgiveness, in certain situations once again, I shouldn't be so quick to forgive because when I do that it leaves room for me to allow for it to happen again and that's where patiences comes in, I'll be able to deal with it again. 

5. Trust: Many tend to trust me with a lot of secrets and information. I guess it's the aurora I give off. I also tend to struggle with trust because at times, I’m too easy to trust people without really finding out if they are trustworthy. Still today, this is something I'm working on. 

Blog #2: Color Blindness or Color Brave

 Watching the Ted Talk from Mellody Hobson on Color Blind or Color Brave, was interesting and informative. I personally feel I learn and understand topics better through TedTalks. As she spoke, I took some notes on some points she said that were fire and true. Starting with imagining the big company meeting “around the board everyone is black, you would feel weird”... but if she walked into a different company and “everyone around the board is all white males, when will that be weird too.” I was glazed when she said that because why is it so true especially in today's society. The first thing you think of when you picture a big company, you automatically think it's run by all white males. Which is sad that our mindset goes straight to that because can’t successful business women also be able to run big companies too. And leading around the question her mother asked her after she came back from a birthday party “how did they treat you?”. When we think about why her mother asked that, it was basically preparing for the color blindness society still faces. I also love how she ended it saying this, “Time for us to be comfortable with the uncomfortable talk about race” because I feel no matter who you're around whether you're close or not, the talk about race is considered too much to talk aloud but what happened to freedom of speech, though? In order for society to be comfortable talking about this topic we need to bring awareness and highlight this topic on color blindness. Instead of colorblindness, “we need to be color brave so that every kid knows that their futures matter and dreams are possible.”

Now when we think about this class YDEV 150, where we are trying to be comfortable with the topic on race and identity, the ted talk is related to our identity maps because it shows we all come from different backgrounds, and environments. Everyone has a different story to tell and different ways to show it. Linking both of them together, is giving us more knowledge to back us up but also shielding light on encouraging others to not hide who they are.

With this ted talk, I wanted to make another connection with it on another TedTalk that I watched in one of my classes before. Is my skin Brown because I drank Chocolate Milk? By Beverly Daniel Tatum. I decided to include this because it goes together with the other TedTalk from Mellody on being brave and encouraging others but also Beverly highlights how her son questions if he drank milk, why his skin is brown. Beverly goes on and explains how she had to break down such a big topic on 3 years old, that questioned how he looks.

Blog #1 - Who I Am

After reading Anti-racist by Jewell and Durand, It made me think more about my identity and who I am. I already know and have a general view on who i am but activities like this give you more reason to look deeper. It makes you think beyond just your name but more on race, ethnicity and how society views you. Reading basically explained how everyone has different views on how they categorize people in society. Regardless white or black, we are always put into categories, without doing so. It’s sort of automatic. Our neighborhoods, social media, the school we attend and the friends we have, typically make us all unique in our own way because we all come from different areas. 

As the saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover. We do it without trying. We as humans have some many labels without even wanting them. Little do we know these titles or labels, make us who you are. In the reading, it stated “Your identity grows and changes just like you.” It’s 100% true, meaning there’s always room for change and to become the better version of you.

 

There was an activity at the end of our reading about taking some time and thinking about what makes you who you are. All the labels and words that are used to describe you. I did a similar activity back in high school. I will attach it to this. I told myself I'm going to do something new for this activity but also looking back at it and seeing what changed and what didn't. 

High School Activity 

As I look at the new one and compare it to the old portrait, I see nothing has changed but also since I'm an adult now, I have bigger words to add to it. Little activities like this, I love to get creative and make it into an art piece. So here it is!

My Self Portrait/ Identity Map 

Original Picture to go base off

All About Jadelyn aka. Jade

Well, where do I start. Isn't this supposed to be easy to talk about yourself :) I guess I'll start now!

My name is Jadelyn Santos and I am 21 years old. I live with both my parents and brother. My brothers name is Orlando, who is somewhat not little anymore. My family's background is that we are mix with Puerto Rican and Dominican. I always say, i have the best of best worlds because they both are not that far off from each other but different in there own way. I also have 3 puppies named Jazi, Max and Rubi. They are literally the life of the house, making sure they are the first ones to see who's coming inside. For hobbies and outside of class, I usually go and participate in church and play video games. Along with that, I also do photography and as you read you will read more about it. 

Mi Familia 

My Puppies 

To kick off my summer, i learned how to make buffalo chicken dip, which everyone ended up loving. Shortly then I went to my first ever soccer game at Gillette Stadium with my boyfriend. We saw New England Revolution vs. CF Miami and by the way our team won. I mean of course we did because it was a home game on our turf so we had too. In the beginning of July, I saw Drake in concert along with my boyfriend and his friends, which was so much fun. I am a really big concert person. I like all the craziness that comes with it. So that was an experience on it's own.

Picture from the concert 

First Soccer Game 

Drake Concert 

 Then towards the end of July, I attended Anime Con for the first time. That was amazing. Me, my brother and some other friends, we decided to cosplay our favorite anime. I decided to do my anime twin Akame from Akame ga Kill. Which i exactly looked like her, hair and outfit in all. I also got my 2 Funko pops signed by Bryce Papenbrook, who is the voice actor of Inosuke from Demon Slayer. I highly recommend if you haven't watched Demon Slayer yet, go do so. You will Thank me Later :) 

Anime Con 2023

To sum up my summer, I had the opportunity to be the main photographer for a sweet 16. This also was a great way for me to expose myself to photography jobs and to put name my business out there. My photography business is called Everlasting Jade, which originally started as a family business and the daughter decided to take over and that was me. You can follow us on Instagram @ everlasting.jade to see more of my work. 

The face of Everlasting Jade

Well, This is me. Hope you stick around for the journey.