Psychoanalytic Theory and Subjectivity †Free Samples to Students

Question: Examine about the Psychoanalytic Theory and Subjectivity. Answer: Presentation Perusers are educated regarding how Esther made a captivating and convincing image of a young person experiencing her most noticeably awful bad dream. This is on the grounds that she was battling against the personality of being called Esther. In view of certain pieces of novel, for example, I am not Esther. Im Kirby and in the second statement Im Kirby, I shouted. Im not Esther, for Gods Sake. At the point when her mom educates Esther that she is leaving and that she is going to leave her with family members that she has not heard off, she becomes disillusioned particularly when she discovered that they had a place with exacting strict religion (Beale, 2004). Her obliteration emerges from the way that she is compelled to change her name from Kirby to Esther and she is likewise compelled to stick to an extreme arrangement of social principles which have been set up by the peculiar faction. It is very obvious that there are rules which Esther should adhere to and among them is rule number 10 which cited here A Daughter regards her older folks. She is humble. She doesn't cause to notice herself Through this citation, it is evident that Aunt Naomi was telling Kirby (Esther) new guidelines to guarantee that she lived by The Rule. This is obviously opportunity of both personality and articulation. About Uncle Calebs affirmation that The ladies of our confidence consistently dress with unobtrusiveness (Sly, 2004). This is an unmistakable pointer that Esther is compelled to wear the pieces of clothing that she isn't happy with. In view of the above perusing, it is very evident that the issue of personality has profoundly showed itself. References Beale, F. (2004). I am not Esther. Disney-Hyperion. Guileful, C. (2004). Re-membering oneself: psychoanalytic hypothesis and subjectivity in juvenile fiction. Papers the board: Explorations into Children's Literature, 14(1), 40.

Definition of Principal Energy Level

Meaning of Principal Energy Level In science, the main vitality level of an electron alludes to the shell or orbital where the electron is found comparative with the molecules core. This level is indicated by the important quantum number n. The primary component in a time of the intermittent table presents another vital vitality level. Vitality Levels and the Atomic Model The idea of vitality levels is one piece of the nuclear model that depends on a scientific investigation of nuclear spectra. Every electron in a particle has a vitality signature that is dictated by its relationship with other adversely charged electrons in the iota and the emphatically charged nuclear core. An electron can change vitality levels, however just by steps or quanta, not constant additions. The vitality of a vitality level expands the farther from the core it is. The lower the quantity of a main vitality level, the closer together the electrons are to one another and to the core of the particle. During concoction responses, its increasingly hard to expel an electron from a lower vitality level than from a higher one. Rules of Principal Energy Levels An important vitality level may contain up to 2n2 electrons, with n being the quantity of each level. The main vitality level can contain 2(1)2 or two electrons; the second can contain up to 2(2)2 or eight electrons; the third can contain up to 2(3)2 or 18 electrons, etc. The main head vitality level has one sublevel that contains one orbital, called the s orbital. The s orbital can contain a limit of two electrons. The following head vitality level contains one s orbital and three p orbitals. The arrangement of three p orbitals can hold up to six electrons. In this manner, the second head vitality level can hold up to eight electrons, two in the s orbital and six in the p orbital. The third head vitality level has one s orbital, three p orbitals, and five d orbitals, which can each hold up to 10 electrons. This takes into account a limit of 18 electrons. The fourth and more elevated levels have a f sublevel notwithstanding the s, p, and d orbitals. The f sublevel contains seven f orbitals, which can each hold up to 14 electrons. The all out number of electrons in the fourth head vitality level is 32. Electron Notation The documentation used to show the sort of vitality level and the quantity of electrons in that level has a coefficient for the quantity of the primary vitality level, a letter for the sublevel, and a superscript for the quantity of electrons situated in that sublevel. For example,â the documentation 4p3 demonstrates the fourth head vitality level, the p sublevel, and the nearness of three electrons in the p sublevel. Working out the quantity of electrons in all the vitality levels and sublevels of a particle delivers the electron arrangement of the molecule.

You Cant Make MIT Love You If You Dont

You Can’t Make MIT Love You If You Don’t… So on the MyMIT Admissions site, the 2005-2006 undergraduate application has been posted. You can request a paper copy, download a PDF, or view an online version. I sent my printed-out-PDF application via snail mail, but that was back before MIT had the technology in place for online applications. (What???) Im hesitant to dole out reams of application advice, but there is one thing that I am confident in recommending to you. (And you just thought I was quoting yet another song ruined by American Idol for fun.) You cant make MIT love you if you dont [write a good essay] You cant put on your resume things that you dont [do] Here in 3-107, in these final hours They wont like your essay if they dont feel the power, But you wont No, you wont What do I mean? Well, first, there are the basic things: + use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation + make it legible (neat handwriting or normal font) + address the topic + stay reasonably within the word limit Also: + write about something that truly matters to you, no matter how nontraditional it may seem + take risks + be truthful + be fearless + you are awesome! be yourself And with a wheelbarrow full of salt, I remind myself of the wise words of My So-Called Lifes Angela Chase: People always say how you should be yourself, like yourself is this definite thing, like a toaster or something. Like you can know what it is, even. But every so often, Ill have like, a moment, when just being myself in my life, right where I am, is like, enough. So go forth, 10 applicants, and best of luck! (My sincerest apologies to Bonnie Raitt, Tim Berners-Lee, and Marshall Herskovitz. It was for a good cause.) 7/29 EDIT I dont think the admissions office has a strict rule about word limits. When I applied, I made sure all of my essays were within word limits, and yeah, it wasnt great to cut out phrases or clauses just to save on words, but I did it and felt like my essays were still meaningful. I know other people who didnt want to sacrifice meaning for a word limit, so they went over some by 5 words, some by 105 words. Unfortunately, theres no real answer to this question, but if you think its too long, its probably too long. As for the relative importance of the essay, theres no exact answer, but in my opinion, we care *a lot.* MIT doesnt assign each component of the application a specific weight, and then calculate your grade. Rather, we consider an entire application at once, which helps us evaluate you as a person and not just the sum of your parts. I personally feel the essay is the most important part of your application, since you have the chance to open up about something that matters to you. Also, you can share with us something special that would add to your application file but wouldnt fit or would be under-explained otherwise. Dont stress out about your essay, since we dont have a standard type or model that we look for when reading them. Yes, the essay is important, but its hard to make your writing more heartfelt and personal if you revise it to death. Be yourself (the toaster, remember?) and let the words flow.

Beck s Hybrids As A Regional Family Owned Seed - 953 Words

Beck’s Hybrids is a regional family owned seed corn company that serves farmers in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Southern Michigan, Kentucky, Iowa, Tennessee and Missouri. The main headquarters is located in Atlanta, Indiana. Beck’s has been in business for over 78 years. The business started in 1937 with just the family planting and harvesting the first six acre crop. At the time, Mr. Beck didn’t realize this launch was going to be a huge success for the second and third generations of the Beck family. Over time, the company expanded to the owner, his wife and a few farm employees. Today, Beck’s Hybrids has become the largest family owned seed corn business in the United States by recruiting and selecting talented people. In 1990, there were 15 full time employees and six of them were Beck family members. By 2006, there were 80 full time employees. Currently, there are over 500 full time employees. In the summer that number grows to over 700, that in cludes interns and summer help. Since 1990, their corn and soybean sales have increased 20% each year. I am going to identify the critical success factors that have made Beck’s Hybrids successful. People Attitudes and Actions Beck’s Hybrids employees are committed to the mission and attitudes and actions of the company. People with the wrong attitude are tough to manage; they consume tremendous amounts of management time and distract you from more value-adding activities (Murphy, M., 2011, p. 33). Bethany Gremel, HumanShow MoreRelatedThe Best Talent Will Ensure Future Success1936 Words   |  8 Pagesthe right team at Beck’s Hybrids has led them to recruiting and selecting the right people. Beck’s Hybrids is a regional family owned seed corn company. The main headquarters is located in Atlanta, Indiana. Beck’s has been in business for over 78 years. The business started in 1937 with just family planting and harvesting the crops. At the time, Mr. Beck didn’t realize this launch was going to be a huge success for the second and third generations of the Beck family. Over time, the companyRead MoreExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 Pagescrack-down: If they say ‘we’re going to kill you’, you know what you’re up against. But the threats [from London’s East End drugs gangs] are much more sinister. The word is fed back that if the business is cut off, they will follow you home, go for your family, stab you or murder you.2 But Palumbo persisted in making his club a safer, cleaner environment. During the 1990s, he campaigned nationally against the use of drugs in youth venues. Thus the Ministry of Sound led in the transformation of club cultureRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesMarketing Manager: Nikki Ayana Jones Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Production Project Manager: Becca Groves Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Operations Specialist: Cathleen Petersen Senior Art Director: Janet Slowik Art Director: Kenny Beck Text and Cover Designer: Wanda Espana OB Poll Graphics: Electra Graphics Cover Art: honey comb and a bee working / Shutterstock / LilKar Sr. Media Project Manager, Editorial: Denise Vaughn Media Project Manager, Production: Lisa Rinaldi Full-Service

Cyberbullying Are Social Networking Websites The Cause...

On average, people spend over 700 BILLION minutes on Facebook in one month. (Facebook) In todays day and age, social networking sites have taken over the internet. Sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr have linked people together in a way that was never thought possible. However, from all good comes bad, and from social networking sites the act of cyber bullying - bullying and harassing someone through the internet was born. Now, whether or not the websites are the cause of cyber bullying has become a rather controversial topic. Abraham Foxman and Cyndi Silverman, both part of the Anti-Defamation League, vehemently feel that these social networking sites spawned cyber bullying. On the other hand, Kate Harding, blogger and†¦show more content†¦While Harding’s writing style may appear unprofessional, once you actually read through the article, her style of writing is actually very appealing. She connects with a reader in a way that makes the article rela table and keeps the reader intrigued. Even though her writing isn’t formal, it still rings true. When addressing the thought that online websites can be used as a scapegoat for bullying, Harding is outraged, declaring that this â€Å"erases the underlying problem, which is kids treating each other like crap† (Harding). She continues to write that â€Å"online or off – a bully is a bully† and they will continue to harass their peers, whether it’s online or physical. Kids and teenagers have always been picked on; the introduction of social networking is just a new place to bully someone. Because Harding is extremely opinionated and critical, she fully addresses the opposing side of the argument. Harding repeatedly stresses that social networking is not the CAUSE of cyber bullying – but rather a simple medium for the horrible bullies of the world. So, yes, it does play a role in cyberbullying, but not to the extent that Foxman and Silverman say it does. All this she does with the intricate use of scenarios, real life instances, and her own opinion, convincing the reader of her argument. While she may be a blogger, Harding uses this to her advantage, proving to be a credible author. On the other hand, Social Networking Sites Can Be Forums For CyberbullyingShow MoreRelatedKids and Social Networking: Danger at Their Fingertips? Essay1141 Words   |  5 PagesMost people in the world have some form of social networking such as Facebook Twitter, Instagram, etc. In today’s day, kids are getting more and more attached to these types of sites, especially kids under 16. It even seems like an average teen or pre-teen has to take a â€Å"selfie† every 5 minutes. Some of these teens say it is good to have such a reliable way to connect with friends over social networking websites. Is this an accurate statement? Is this true without any complications or flaws? DoesRead MoreSocial Network1015 Words   |  5 Pages4/8/13 essay - Causes and Effects of Social Networking Causes and Effects of Social Networking Navigation Home #1: Bullying #2: Self Expression and Creativity #3: Sharing Knowledge From Around The World Audience Potential Causes and Effects Sources cited Thesis essa y Sitema p Se ar c h t hi s si t e essay The Effects Of Social Networking Jenna King per. 4 4/5/12 Every day, thousands of people are logging on to social networking websites. Some play games, some chat with friendsRead MoreThe Effects Of Social Media On Youth Essay1016 Words   |  5 PagesThe Effects of Social Media on the Youth of Today Studies have shown that the average person now spends more time each day on their phone and computer than they do sleeping according to Nick McGillivray (â€Å"What are the Effects of Social Media on Youth?). Social has become part of our social society, especially for the many youths. There are positives to being on social media and also equal amounts of danger that come with using social networking sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etcRead MoreOverview of Social Networking1393 Words   |  6 Pagesgrades, job stability, cyberbullying, sexting, and it can harm college admission. I have known a family friend that has experienced social networking in a horrible way, which has messed with his dreams and life goals. Social networking has a negative influence on our lives, causing many various problems in our community. Social networks are internet sites that help people interact with each other, and help deliver information such as pictures and videos. Social networking started in 1971, whichRead MoreFacebook : The Negative Impact823 Words   |  4 Pages Facebook is a popular social networking website that connects and updates families, friends, and colleagues. This site was supposed to have a positive impact on our lives, however, it also came with consequences. Facebook has caused our lack of ability to communicate and connect with others. This type of social media site has been an integrated part of most people’s life especially the young adults. Facebook has affected the divorce rate for married couples, cyberbullying for young adults, our mentalRead MoreA Brief Note On Cyberbullying And Other Types Of Traditional Bullying1138 Words   |  5 Pages Before one can understand cyberbullying, he or she must first know the signs and characteristics of traditional bullying. According to Na nsel (2001) and Olweus (1993), bullying is characterized by intentional behavior that is meant to cause pain, both physical and emotional, to another person due to an imbalance of social or physical power. There are two forms of traditional bullying: direct and indirect. Direct bullying is characterized by physical attacks, such as hitting and kicking; it isRead MoreSocial Media And Social Networking966 Words   |  4 PagesSocial networking is the use of dedicated websites and applications to interact with other users, or to find people with similar interests to oneself (Oxford Dictionary). Social media includes the websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking (Oxford Dictionary). The world has seen an exponential growth in social media within the past decade that has truly transformed the way people interact. This originated from Compuserve in SeptemberRead MoreSocial Networking: Is It Really What We Need?757 Wor ds   |  4 PagesSocial Networking has become a daily part of the lives of teens and adults everywhere. Now, it seems there is no one who cannot be found on Facebook, or followed on Twitter. Social Networking does contain positive aspects, such as being a way to connect with far away friends and family, as well as well as negative, like cyberbullying. However overall, Social Networking has become a dangerous, manipulative, negative influence in the lives of the people today. There is no such thing as privacy inRead MoreEssay on Social Networking Causes Cyberbullying and Suicide506 Words   |  3 PagesRoosevelt Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Myspace have gained a widespread audience across the world. Although the original intentions of these social sites were positive, these mediums of social interaction now have negative effects. Young adults aged 14 – 26 are the demographic which make up the vast majority of social media users and thus are the most effected by social media. Social media has negative effects on young adults. The use of social media by youngRead MoreSocial Media Negative Effects On People1255 Words   |  6 Pages Social media negative effects on people psychology paper Research Question: How Social media has negative effects on people? Review of literature: Social Media may seem positive and safe, but they affect our daily lives more than you can think of. If someone is sad or mad it could be because they have just used social media . It’s true people’s emotions can change because of social media. Due to this fact I got curious and

How to Write Book Review Free Essays

How to write a book review Perhaps the best way to offer guidelines on how to write a book review is to give you an example of the kind of instructions and guidelines we (i. e. the academic staff) would be given by journals who invite us to review books for them. We will write a custom essay sample on How to Write Book Review or any similar topic only for you Order Now So, here are the instructions given to authors by the ‘Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders’. â€Å"A book review should be an objective and tactful evaluation of a book. The review should offer logic and fact in support of its evaluations.Without being just an abstract of the book, the review should indicate the nature and scope of the book’s content. It should indicate the goals of the author, the techniques used to achieve those goals, and the success of those techniques. You may also discuss how the book relates to its field and how it compares to other books in the field. It is important for your review to discuss what audience the book or other media best serves and to state whether the reviewer recommends it.The review should attempt to place the book within a context (e. g. , Is this a new approach? One that builds on an earlier one? ). Reviews should attempt to convey a flavor of the book overall (i. e. , not just summarize the table of contents. Quotes (see below – AQ: are there examples to be provided? ) can often help in this process. If you feel that the book does not merit a review in the Journal please let us know – there is no requirement that we review every book received and it is perfectly acceptable to do a negative review! † †¦. nd here is an example of an actual review written by Dermot Bowler and published in the European Journal of Disorders of Communication (Volume 31, pp 210-213). Note, however, that this review is somewhat longer than your word-limit permits. SAMPLE REVIEW (reproduced with permission of the author): Review of Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind. Cambridge, MA. : MIT Press. The integration of a range of theoretical perspectives to provide a coherent scientific account of a natural phenomenon is an easy task only for those who have never had to do it.In this volume, Simon Baron-Cohen has attempted such a difficult exercise by integrating currently fashionable modularist cognitive science accounts of the social dysfunction found in people with autism into neuropsychological and evolutionary frameworks. In the first three Chapters of the book, he aims to persuade us firstly that the explanation of the behaviour of other people using the mentalistic language of folk-psychology (John took his umbrella with him because he thought it might rain) is both highly efficient and evolutionarily advantageous to a species such as ourselves that relies heavily on social organisation for survival.In Chapter 4, he generates a model of development which can account for the emergence of the capacity to mindread in non-autistic children and, taking the well documented deficits in autism of lack of protodeclarative pointing, lack of symbolic play and the failure to understand that another person can act in accordance with a belief that the observer knows to be false, their failure to develop in children with autism. His account draws heavily on Fodor’s (1983) notion that the mind is made up of independent domain-specific modules, the outputs of which interact to yield mental life and behaviour.He also develops earlier accounts such as that of Leslie and Roth (1993), which posit a specific modular mechanism that enables people to understand minds. Specifically, Baron-Cohen outlines four modular systems that are necessary for the process he calls ‘mindreading’. The first of these he terms an intentionality detector (ID) which is triggered by stimuli exhibiting self-propelled motion and computes desire- or goal-based dyadic representations. The second is the eye direction detector (EDD) which is fired by eye-like stimuli and generates representations of the contents of agents’ visual fields.Mechanism number three is called the shared attention mechanism (SAM) which takes input from IDD and ED to compute triadic representations of the kind ‘Daddy sees I see the cat at the window’. Finally, there is the theory of mind mechanism (ToMM), a term borrowed from Leslie’s work, which takes inputs from SAM and knowledge of mental states and their consequences which can be used in a hypothetico-deductive way by someone possessing a full ‘theory of mind’. I n Chapters 4 and 5 of the book, Baron-Cohen marshals a considerable body of evidence in support of the existence of these modules and of their selective breakdown in autism. Briefly, he argues that ID and ED are functional in autism, although he acknowledges that there are still considerable gaps in the evidence. By contrast, SAM and ToMM are severely impaired. In Chapter 6, he draws together evidence from neuropsychological and neurological studies on humans and other species to attempt to localise these modular systems in the brain.In the final two Chapters, he develops the theme that the capacity to read minds depends crucially on the ability to decode information from the eyes of others, and returns to the theme that this capacity can best be understood within an evolutionary framework. As I said at the outset, Mindreading is a tour de force, in that it draws together evidence from a variety of fields with the aim of providing a coherent picture of the phenomenon of how homo sa piens can account for and predict the behaviour of her conspecifics by means of reference to hypothetical internal mental states.Baron-Cohen’s account is worthy of our admiration not just because it describes the current state of scientific play, but also because it permits us to generate propositions which, when tested against data, will refine and improve our understanding. Nevertheless, admirable as this attempt at integration of a range of perspectives might be, a reviewer is duty bound to point out unstated assumptions, weaknesses in analysis, un-expressed counter-arguments and problems of interpretation in an author’s exposition.To this end I will now try to clarify what I see as the three major areas of weakness in this book. The first concerns Baron-Cohen’s overall modularist orientation. Although accounts of psychological functioning that see behaviour as caused by discrete mental processes that are self-contained, domain-specific, automatic, impenetrable to conscious analysis and localised in specific brain sites has a respectable history, it is not, as its originator, Jerry Fodor would have us believe, the only game in town.It is quite possible to argue that the relationship between the categories we use to analyse behaviour and categories of brain state may be more subtle and more complex than a simple one-to-one correspondence, and that localisation of function may be the result either of anatomical happenstance or may not be a serious contender, given the global and integrated manner in which some neuroscientists think brains work. Readers who might be tempted to call a child ‘SAM-impaired’ or ‘IDD-but-not-EDD-impaired should read Bates et al. s (1988) critique of modularism, as well as of what she termed in a 1993 talk ‘thing-in-a-box neurology’, before forming such opinions. My second problem with the book concerns the way in which evidence is presented in support of the argument. Baron-Cohen draws on a wide range of evidence to support the four main planks in his argument; evolutionary, cognitive, neuropsychological/neurological and cultural. Evolutionary evidence is notoriously difficult to assess, since it inevitably has a post-hoc element to it.This is all the more true of the evolution of behavioural adaptations, since they do not leave fossil records that can allow us to detect non-advantageous changes that have died out. I am also worried by arguments that infer survival value and evolutionary success on the basis of the widespread use of a particular behaviour. Baron-Cohen attributes the survival of Homo Sapiens to the fact that we have developed mindreading skills. But many other organisms – from a-social HIV through bees to the social great apes – are evolutionarily successful without mindreading skills. Moreover, I am suspicious about evolutionary accounts that argue that increasingly complex social organisation in primates led to the development of mind-reading skills. This is as if the behaviours called forth by the survival demands of living in complex societies produced a gene that coded for a brain structure that made a particular social behaviour possible. In my view, there is a worrying circularity about all this, not to mention a whiff of Lamarckianism. On the cognitive front, there is undoubtedly an impressive amount of evidence that supports Baron-Cohen’s case, evidence which he presents cogently and skilfully.Indeed, this is the strongest and most closely-argued section of the book. However, there are worrying instances where counter-evidence is either glossed over (e. g. Ozonoff et al’s, 1991 evidence on the possession of mindreading skills in high-functioning individuals with autism) or relegated to footnotes (Ozonoff et al’s, 1991 failure to replicate Baron-Cohen et al’s, 1986 picture sequencing task). There are other instances where evidence appears to be presented where none exists – for example in his discussion of non-autistic people’s use of mental state terms when describing Heider and Simmel’s (1944) cartoon sequence.At the time the book was written, no published data existed on the use of this instrument with people with autism (but see Bowler ;amp; Thommen, 1995), although a less than careful reading of this text might lead one to conclude that there had been. My third set of reservations centre on often inconsistent or imprecise use of terminology. For example, is it justifiable to speak of a module such as ID as ‘interpreting’ stimuli, rather than just generating output when such st imuli are present and not when they are not?On pp126-127, the discussion slides from ‘psychopathology’ to ‘neuropathology’ without explanation. In this section also, I am certain that blind people would not welcome being labelled as having a psychopathology. Examples can also be found of references cited in the text but not in the reference list at the back. All these shortcomings suggest a hasty compilation of the volume. A little more time spent on reflection, exposition and the more technical aspects of production would have paid dividends here.Most of the reservations I have expressed so far all seem to stem from the most major problem of this book, namely its length, or rather the mis-match between its length and the aims the author has set himself. Baron-Cohen acknowledges that he faced a difficult task in trying to write for experts in biological and cognitive sciences, students of psychology and the general reader. Trying to please this four-faceted audience is a difficult enough task; it is even more difficult when the debate has to be engaged at several levels of academic discourse. It is well-nigh impossible in an essay of about 120 pages of printed text.Its very length constrains the book to contain a little, albeit very important, knowledge. However, a little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing. Although I would recommend this book to anyone with a personal, scientific or clinical interest in autism, to avoid danger, I would also recommend that it be consumed with some complementary material. The best I can suggest is a paper by the author himself (Baron-Cohen, 1994), which is accompanied by several commentaries and a reply by the author that gives a better flavour of the subtleties of the field than does the volume under review here. How to cite How to Write Book Review, Papers

My Cell Phone and Hard Work Essay Example For Students

My Cell Phone and Hard Work Essay Throughout the years, my phone was always my crutch. In awkward situations I found myself looking for things to do on it. It becomes a way of not having to communicate. If I am bored or unsure of what to do in a situation, my phone comes out. Even if I am not even doing anything at all, I will go look at Instagram or Twitter in order to avoid circumstances that I don’t feel like dealing with. Dinners with my family that used to be a friendly, family affair, centered on an actual conversation, now were meals that look a little more like everyone staring at their gadgets. Then it’s over. The conversation, the atmosphere, the food, the entire experience were just things I did in between checking my phone. Awkward silence? I pull out my phone and pretend I have an email or a text to check. At a party where I don’t really know many people? Not to worry, I now have my electronic toy to hide in the corner with. It’s no wonder many of us suffer from anxiety if our phone is lost for even a few minutes. My phone has become a crutch. But, even more significantly my phone became my source of pride. After I had my first phone for a while, I got tired of it. The spoiled brat came out, realizing she needed the next best thing. I am one for technology, so when the new iPhone came out, I had to have it. My dad refused to buy it for me so if I wanted it in my possession; I was going to have to pay for it. This was the first time I had to provide money for something. My parents always got me what I wanted; I never had to pay for anything myself. When the time came that I desired an upgrade from the ragged and slow flip phone, I had to use Christmas and Birthday money that I saved up. The next time I found myself in need of a phone, this time because I left it in my short pocket and it went through the dryer, I had myself a job. My mom was a close friend with the owner of a restaurant two minutes from us. He had been looking for a busser, but my parents did not want me to get involved with a job. I needed to be â€Å"focusing on my grades and schoolwork. † It wasn’t the time for me to have yet another distraction other than my phone to keep me from excelling from my schoolwork. Eventually, they decided that having a job might end up being a good thing for me. It has been almost a year since I started working at Bocelli Restaurant on the Gwynedd Valley train station. The people working there have become my second family. I love that I can say to people that I truly enjoy working at Bocelli. It gives me a sense of confidence that I have my own job and make my own money. Without my job, I would constantly be relying on my parents to take care of me and buy everything for me. I recently turned 18 and the coming of age milestone is an important one, but can also be a difficult transition as I find myself hesitant to leave childhood behind. Broken hearts, disappointment, finding my own identity, and the challenges of increased responsibility all for the first time are all scary fragments of growing up. For me, coming of age seems exciting as I separate from my parents and create my own life. This is the first time that my phone, being my crutch to get me out of awkward situations and giving me a sense of accomplishment, has allowed me to see that it is also a sign that hard work and dedication pay off.