New Aspect of Genres.

When we think of genre, what do we initially think of? Or in other words, what do people define genre as? A literal meaning of genre from dictionary.com, there are many meanings of genre, but two definitions will help me define the purpose of genre for this post. The first one is “a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like”. There are other definitions of genre, but the definition that pertains to this blog is the “ genus, kind, sort, and style”. For most part, people tend to say words that they seem to take for granted. Ideally, I do not necessarily mean people taking advantage of words, but I feel that when someone has a conversation with someone, they seem to have the wrong word choices or seem to truly understand the meaning of a word. Genre seems to be a great example of genre. With the definition of “genus, kind, sort, and style”, I say that this can explain what the broader meaning of genre.

            The way someone chooses to express him or her, I feel that the first definition of genre seems to fit well with the purpose of this blog. With our new movement with technology, blogging is a new way of expressing ourselves. The idea of blogging is a way of expressing yourself based on your personal interest.

            The idea of a genre is a still a bit vague the way I explained it. If you think about genres being a “style” of expressing yourself, then it would it would make sense that a genre is something that portrays to your personal interest. Blogging is a way for many individuals to express him or herself, and it also is a choice for people to express how one feels about a certain topic. When a person defines a genre of a blog, what can a person say? Putting the idea of a genre and a blog, there is no true definition of this. We can come up with many definitions of a genre of a blog. Some people may define blogging as its own genre; while others may see blogging as a way of expressing one’s feelings through the World Wide Web based on their personal interests. For me, I believe is a combination of both.

 When browsing on the internet just for leisure or writing research papers, looking at other people’s opinions about something truly helps a person expand on ideas that either had no idea about or did not know much about. A great example for how genre of a blog can be seen is if someone was interested in how to put on make up, they can simply look up blogs from people who are experts on putting on make-up in order to get tips of what products to use and how to put the make-up on. For the most part, you can say that blogging can be personal, but let’s say that person wants to look up what certain make-up products are made out of. Then, that person can look up blogs from doctors and see reviews about how certain ingredients in make-up can affect his or her skin.

As you can see, genre of a blog can be looked at two ways, but of course, other people may see it another way or possibly many ways. However, the way you choose to see it, the idea of genre of blogs can be interpreted any way you perceive it to be.  

Tis the Season to Love?

It is that special time of the year where people fall in love during the cold days in winter, grab a bite to eat at a local coffee shop, and maybe sneak a kiss under some mistletoe. Question we should ask ourselves is that really love? In our society, we tend to see more people get married at a younger age and get divorced at a younger age, as well. Why is it that we tend to fall for someone so fast? Were we even in love in the first place? Or maybe how does society portray love to be like? Perhaps maybe it was all about the lust of it all, never really love. For many people, it is hard to find that special someone that you fall in love with; and for many young folks still in college, that is probably the last thing that they are thinking of. When that time comes to find that special someone, how do you know if that love is “real”? In the article “Is it love or lust? ”, the writer talks about looking at the ideas of love and lust in perspectives to help readers differentiate the two ideas.

 

 “ There are different emotional and physiological components to both love and lust. Romantic attraction and feelings of love for someone elevates our dopamine and serotonin levels, which causes feelings of elation and loss of appetite. When we get to the point of feeling attachment and a more long-term phase of love, our bodies generate more oxytocin (known as the "hormone of love"). Lust, sex drive and an appetite for sex can visit during this process and is generated by increased testosterone levels in both men and women. Heightened levels of testosterone inspire a feeling of focused attention and sexual arousal.”

This article also talks about the idea of infidelity and why men and women do it. To put it in a biological perspective, it seems to be similar reason to why animals have multiple mating partners, which is basically the idea of survival of the fittest. When a man, or woman, have more than one partner, he or she has a chance to have more genetic diversity with their DNA. But of course, I am sure for many people who have cheated are most likely not thinking that. There are probably other reasons for people cheating like loneliness, domestic violence, etc.

When we are with our significant other, have you ever thought about what brought you two together in the first place? Was it how attractive one was to the other? Maybe the idea about how if you are with your significant other for a long time that the looks fades away and the personality seems to stand out more. When it comes to lust, we can think about short-term relationships or about marriages that do not work out in the end. In the state of California, the divorce rate is about 75%.

Some Advice from the Professional

Have you ever wondered about if a certain career path is the right one for you? Or have you ever questioned yourself why you chose a certain career path? From what I hear from my friends and classmates, they choose to have certain career paths because of the salary and who will offer them a job first. Personally for me, it will effectively drive people to go into certain career paths for the wrong reasons. My personal reasons for going into the medical fields help motivate me into becoming a doctor. Now, many of you reading this may think “Wow, that is going to a long road ahead to finishing school”. Yes, I would agree, but if you think about it realistically, will this path ultimately make me happy in the end? My answer is yes. Just like everyone who is struggling to finish school, I, too, want to get out of school as soon as I can, but there is nothing I can do about getting my classes. It is technically out of my control whether or not I am able to get the classes I need. Otherwise, I would be on track to graduating next semester.

If I am truly passionate about my career choice of becoming a doctor, specifically a naturopathic doctor, then I have to be able to set certain checkpoints in order to be successful. With this kind of economy we live in today, everyone in the real world say people that are in school right now are lucky to be there. I would concur with that statement, but in a sense, those people are right in some ways. If we want to have a job that we will be satisfied with in the long run, it is better to continue our education rather than rushing out of school with a typical office job sitting in a cubicle eight hours a day. My advice for people who are serious about pursuing their career in the medical field, I would hope you are doing this for the right reasons besides money.

Unfortunately, I wish I was graduating on time, but I just have to take it as is and just go day by day. For those who are thinking about being a doctor or nurse, I would definitely say DO NOT DECLARE YOUR MAJOR AS A NURSING if you are attending a state school. Intially, the career path I wanted to pursue was becoming a nurse. Nursing programs are heavily impacted and very high demanding, so I would suggest taking an alternative route by choosing a different major. Realistically, there is not only one-way to get to something in life. There are many alternatives. For me, I have decided to declare my major in Biology with a concentration of Physiology.  I figured that if I wanted to be a nurse, I was not going to wait 5 years to apply for the program when I can be doing something more productive, such as volunteering at the hospital or applying for internships.  As in my previous post, I talk about becoming a doctor, which what I truly wanted to be. There are millions of people who want to be nurses, but how many people want to become doctors? Do people want to take that extra step to get to that next level in the medical field?

I know for most people, people do not want to become doctors because it is a very stressful job. I do agree it is stressful, but like I said earlier, if that is the career you want to pursue, go for it! If you decided to declare your major in physiology, I would definitely make sure that the science classes you have to take for your major are also in the same category as your general education requirements. This is a good way to kill two birds with one stone! A lot of classes you will have to take are mostly biology and chemistry courses. Some classes include introduction to biology 1&2, general chemistry 1&2, organic chemistry 1&2, anatomy classes, etc. If you would like to check out more courses for my school, you can check out the  SFSU bulletin (road map). For every year, the bulletin changes, so this link is to the bulletin of 2012-2013.

When you are ready to apply for medical school, it definitely depends on what doctor you want to specialize in. Unfortunately, naturopathic medicine is not as popular right now, and the only way if I would want to practice naturopathic medicine is if I get my license out of state. What I did to find this out was to search and call a local naturopathic clinic and find out some information about what is required for schooling. Since I live in the East Bay, a place I called was Tara Natural Medicine clinic located in Lafayette and Oakland. The people who work in the clinic were very nice and informative about naturopathic medicine career paths. I talked to a woman named Gabriella, and she suggested some schools that I am able to get my license in order to practice this type of medicine here in California. A couple of states she mentioned were Washington and Oregon. I am surprised those are the only two places to get your license, but I will do more research on that in the near future.

For those who are reading this and are in another state or country, I would also suggest by signing up some of the pre-med programs and meetings they have at your school. I get emails telling me about certain representatives from different schools that will be going to my campus, and this is a great way to start thinking about what medical school to go to. Last week, I got an email that a representative from University of South Florida was going to be on campus, and I was glad I went because it opened my mind about medical schools that I can possibly go to on the East Coast. I know everyone have different approaches to doing research on schools, but I hope this helps people who are stuck to what steps to take next going into the medical field.

Discovery of Human Sexuality Studies

-->

This would be my fourth year attending San Francisco State University; and so far, most classes have been for my major but also some of them are for my personal interest. A lot of times, I feel that there is not a point to taking certain classes, especially if you are not personally interested in it.  Since most colleges are overly impacted and are cutting the classes students need, it leads to students to taking classes that are not necessary and delay the time they graduate. Just like everything in life, there are always pros and cons to taking classes that do not pertain to your major. If you look at it through an optimist's perspective, it gives students more knowledge about certain subjects they were not initially aware of before. When students have more knowledge about things that interest them, it gives them a chance to explore the world based on what they learned in class and apply it to the real world that potentially can lead to more opportunities to their career. 

Having to deal with impacted classes at SF State, I had no idea what classes to take. Just like a majority of students, we all just want to get out school as soon as we can; so we can either try to start new careers or continue to go to school. As I was trying to search for classes to take during my second fall semester, I thought to myself, what classes can I take that will benefit me to pursue my career goal but was also had interest in? Searching for hours and hours for classes online, I finally encountered a class that sounded interesting to me. The class that I found was a human sexualities class called “Sex and Relationships”. At first, I assumed that the title of the class was the main ideas talked about in class. It turns out it was not just about the “sex” or exclusively on “relationships” but how to maintain relationships and why some people’s relationships fail or succeed based on certain statistics studied. Towards the end of the semester, I really enjoyed the class, and wanted to see if there were similar classes.

Spring semester comes along and I find out that the sex and relationship class counted towards one of my general education requirements, so I decided to see what other human sexualities courses I could take. When it was time for me to register for classes, I luckily found two more human sexuality classes that will help me finish a huge part of my general education requirements. The two classes I took were called “Variations of Human Sexualities” and “Human Sexualities”. Both classes, we learn the evolutionary perspectives of certain behaviors and also the social perspectives of sexual orientation, gender identity, and how all those aspects play a role in different cultures (or societies depending on what part of the world you are looking at). After I was done with the semester, I was disappointed that I was not taking more human sexualities classes. I think the main reason why I was so intrigued with these courses was because of the how the professors taught the course. The human sexualities studies program has professors who are very passionate and know how to explain certain concepts very well, so that students are able to understand the material.

I believe that the reasons classes are interesting because of who teaches the course. If a student takes a course that interesting because of the topic but finds out that the professor is not great, then that will make the student less motivated to go to class. I personally had a few of those kinds of classes for my general education requirements, such as  history and critical thinking.The professors that teach these course made me not interested in taking these kinds of courses again. The professors were monotonic, boring, and fell asleep in almost every lecture. It sucked because I chose the class because the topic seemed interesting, but if you have professors who are not as motivated as you to teach the material to you, then it is wasting your time and energy to even strive to get a good grade in the class.

People always say things happen for a reason, whether it is good or bad. A lot of the courses that I have taken were a lot of eye openers for me to seek out new opportunities that I would have never thought of; however, for some courses, it made me realize to never take those kinds of classes again because I realized those topics did not really interest me. For all the human sexuality classes I have taken in the last few years had made me realize I want to continue studying it and that is the main reason why I decided to minor in human sexuality studies.In the end, I found something that will help benefit my career goals by not only looking at just physiological perspective, but now I have another study that can focus on how people develop their idenitiy. 

October's Current Issues in the Medical Field.

            As we try to figure out what careers we want to pursue, we should try to keep up with the current issues that are happening in the world. From politics to something that is not so popular, we should definitely be kept in the loop of what is going on in our field. In the field of medicine, there is not one exact problem they are working on, but there are always issues that the medical profession is currently working on. Whether it is an issue that is very complex, like cancer, or an issue that will affect our daily lives, such as the food we eat,  it potentially affects all of us in the long run.

            There is a lot going on in this month of October. One big thing that is going on this month is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). NBCAM is an organization that helps promote awareness, spread knowledge, and provide great service about this type of cancer. This organization has been around for over 25 years, they have gone a long way of being successful with helping women improve their breast health and treating former patients. According to cancer.org, Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that starts in the cells of the breast that are able to spread to different tissues of the body.” In my biology class, I just learned about what cancer is and whether it can be inherited or not. About 90% of cancers are newly acquired from our environment, such as smoking or being in an environment with dangerous chemicals. The other 10% is inherited. Without a doubt, everyone and anyone are prone to getting cancer. There are many types of cancer that people can acquire. If you would like to read more about cancer or learn about the different types, you can go to www.cancer.org. 

Another current issue happening this month is Proposition 37. You may wonder how this proposition may have an effect in the medical field, and it actually has a lot to do with your health. As a student who is trying to pursue a career in naturopathic medicine, having the right to know what companies put in our food, whether if it is genetically modified or if companies put certain ingredients that would affect our health. People who are for this proposition say “Consumers who believe in the harmful effects of GMOs want to make sure companies are not sneaking them (GMO) into our foods. Some concerned mothers don’t want these products anywhere near their kids.” With every pro about something, there is always a con. People who oppose to this proposition say that the reason they do not want this proposition to pass is because there would be an increase of pay when grocery shopping.

 Dansereau’s has great evidence with why people should vote for proposition 37. “According to No on 37: Stop the Deceptive Food-Labeling Scheme, Prop. 37 would cost families an extra $400 per year in groceries.” I believe that this reason for opposing this law is not much an effect to how our health will be in the long run. She lastly makes a great point to finding about more information about proposition 37 by looking into the money backing each side with who financially supports or opposes this proposition.

Overall, i know those are only a couple of issues happening this month, but it is always good to be knowledgeable about what is happening in your field of study. being aware with what is going on in your field will only benefit you with what you may have to face in the future. 

Expanding Knowledge Through Literacy Activities

-->

            It is funny how we wonder why we learn certain things at school, such as math or English. A lot of times, we have to take classes that are not even for our major, so why even bother taking the courses? Even though we all think that there is not a point of taking certain courses, there is always a reason for everything. For me, English is not my favorite subject. It seems to me that there was not really a point of having English classes since a lot of courses look at the grammatical part of your writing. As I have learned on my fourth year of attending San Francisco State that now an actual purpose of taking an English course. When I first started out the semester, I thought that my writing was pretty good. As we started to write our blogs, I definitely realized that my writing was not as good as I thought it was. This course has taught me that writing is a continuous practice of always trying to improve. When having to reflect on certain readings, I look at how these literacy activities will benefit me in my career.

            With my previous blog, I have interviewed Dr. Autumn Drouin. I did not elaborate too much on her literacy activities because it was more of a complex subject to write about with what she does during her day. When she has mentioned that she had a lot of personal time to herself, it was not very surprising to hear that she does a lot of personal writing. Many people do not have time to write what is on his or her mind. In the current English class that I am enrolled in, every class starts with a free- write where we have free range to express what ever is on our minds for 10 whole minutes. I think when having this type of writing activity in my class helps my classmates and I clear our minds. I think the main idea my professor wants us to get out of the free- writes are seeking personal experiences and having to relieve ourselves with what we are going through personally. Who would have thought that personal writing would help someone who is in an older age range? At times, I do not like writing my feelings out just because it can be hard to reflect on exactly with what is on my minds. It comes to say that there is no limit to as what do, as long as it benefits you.  

            Reading and writing is an essential part to how we communicate with others in the world. Even though many of us are not planning to become famous novelists, it is important to practice literacy activities because it helps us practice analyze what messages or morals that people are trying to convey in their arguments. When writers read their own writing, it helps them see what their readers understand the purpose of their writing. After the college life, we all never stop learning. Whether we learn something that is school related or not, we all learn something new everyday. Dr. Drouin has told me when she became a licensed naturopathic doctor (ND), that people in her field never find a way to get around reading and writing since it is essential part to research. She told me that she is required to go to conventions every couple weeks and each convention is different. During our interview, she mentioned that she was in San Diego for a couple conventions. The one she attended was about different professions, such as neurology, recent research fields, including endocrinology* (study of hormones including diseases) and cardiology* (diseases and abnormality of the heart). Another convention she attended while she was in San Diego was about the history of alternative methods and trace back to the main roots of how alternative methods have originated and compare it with new methods used today’s society. Of course when we go to meetings, we all have to do some required readings and note- taking in order to retain what we have learned. Doctors, just like Dr. Drouin, have to do the same thing.

In the words of BruceWightman, Literacy promotes “basic scientific knowledge [that] can be imperative and is able to function in an increasingly technological society. Citizens need scientific knowledge to make better decisions in their lives.” I use some evidence that literacy is important in science, but if you think about it, medical research is based on scientific research. Practicing to have good habits of literacy activities will enhance our way of learning things and being able to understand how certain things in the world works. Without reading or writing, we would not be able to learn about things in the past. In order to become better readers and writers, it takes practice just like everything in life. I believe that the younger we start literacy activities, the more they are able to engage and explore with what they are interested in. Literacy is not important just for me or people in the medical field, but it is important for everyone.

*meaning that they are not exact definitions of what these fields are but are articles with current articles about the subject.

The Day As a Naturopathic Doctor

 From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, everyone starts and ends his or her days differently. Many people that are not in the real world, may assume that people that have careers have similar ways of starting and ending their days. For me, I would fall into that category because I thought all people who had similar career paths would all have the same daily routines.  When I interviewed a naturopathic doctor, it opened up my eyes to how every person starts and ends his or her day differently.

            Since I plan to become a naturopathic doctor, I thought it would be a good idea to initiate on establishing myself to a naturopathic clinic near my house. For my interviewee, I interviewed Dr. Autumn Drouin who is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and a Holistic Veterinarian. She was originally from Canada where she obtained her degrees in veterinary medicine and naturopathic medicine. She moved to Lafayette because of her four children, whom she is very close to and talk to on a daily basis. As a doctor, I would assume that a ND would not have time to themselves to do certain activities. Dr. Drouin changed my perspective on how NDs start their days.

            Dr. Drouin starts her day by waking up early in the morning and meditates for 15 minutes or longer. After her meditation, she writes in her journal. In her journal, she writes about what is on her mind that is either personal or things that apply to work. She then eats fresh fruit for breakfast and at the same time prepares her lunch and sometimes dinner for the day. When Dr. Drouin is done with eating her breakfast, she said she likes to go on long walks everyday and goes to Tai Chi or dance classes 2-3 times a week. As I was hearing her explain the start of her day, it made me realize that she actually has a lot of time to herself, which surprised me because as a doctor, when do you ever have time to yourself? Dr. Drouin then tells me about the start of her work day, which is around 12:00pm-1:00pm. She initially goes into work about half an hour to an hour early to review the patients she is seeing that day. Dr. Drouin has a pretty nice schedule because she did mention that she takes naps when she is at work. Depending on when she arrives to the office, her work days end at about 6pm-7:00pm. Because Dr. Drouin has been in the industry for so long, she works at the clinic 3 days a week and switches with being at the veterinary clinic.

            Originally, Dr. Drouin started Veterinary studies in 1973 obtaining her pre-vet credits. Her thesis was to apply acupuncture treatments to animals. At that time, that method of alternative medicine was not well-known, so she decided to study naturopathic medicine. I asked Dr. Drouin why she preferred being a ND instead of a MD, and she said “The reason why that I decided to become a licensed ND instead of a MD is because I had an interest of curing people through the power of nature. I feel that the MD only finds ways of manipulating biochemistry.” She also mentioned that when she was growing up, her mother would use household items to help her neighbors feel better. With the reasons why I want to pursue naturopathic medicine as a career is based on the same reasons why Dr. Drouin became a ND. I believe that most of the answers to curing one self is infront of our faces. I want to also help people overcome the challenges of what is wrong with them. 

            Just like all careers in the medical field, there are always successes and challenges that doctors have to face. For Dr. Drouin, she considered challenges as a positive impact to her job, which I would have never thought about it in that way. She believes that the challenges she faces makes her a better ND since it makes her think of each problem as a global thing, meaning there is more than just one answer to everything. Thinking in these perspectives give her patients different options to curing them as a healthy individual.

            Talking to Dr. Drouin has helped me open my eyes to how doctors do not all have the same daily routines. Depending on what field of medicine you study, they are have different ways of starting and ending their days. I always would have thought that all doctors were stressed out and never had time to themselves. Dr. Drouin has proved to me that in order to live the life that you want to live, you have to make time for yourself and you have to be passionate for the career you choose. 

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Autumn Drouin or just learn about naturopathic medicine, you can click on the link below: 

http://taranaturalmedicine.com/