During her time at Penn State, Adichie said, “I would say, do different things. And I guess I would also say, listen. And I mean that in all kinds of ways. I think that this is a culture and a generation that doesn’t do a lot of listening, and I would say, if possible, listen more than you talk,” when asked about advice to give current freshman students. And I think this is such crucial advice. Firstly, college is a time to reinvent yourself, try new things, and put yourself out there in ways you never even imagined before. This speaks to what she said about doing things differently. You also get the opportunity to meet so many new kinds of people and you can either judge them and dismiss your differences, or embrace them and learn from them. This plays a lot into the second thing she said about listening rather than speaking. This is definitely a huge problem that our generation has, and the first step to overcoming any large issue to recognize it. Next, we have to collectively actually do something about it.

Another thing Adichie said that stuck with me is when she said: “In general, I don’t think any work of art is perfect. Nothing is ever really finished. Creative work by its very nature is unfinished.” Now that I’ve heard it, I completely agree with this statement, but would never have thought of this myself. Art has many forms: drawings, paintings, poems, songs, essays, novels, etc. But each of these things is unique and was created with an equally distinctive purpose. All art forms are subjective and not one can be marked “perfect” or “finished” because beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. There is a free domain about art; anyone can add to or change any painting or song or story, but doing so never actually changes the original piece.

Lastly, Adichie said, “People would say things to me like, “How did you become like that?” I don’t know I’m even like, this is who I am. If I had to invent an answer to your question, it would be my upbringing, my parents. There’s a sense, growing up in a space where you feel safe, loved, and you’re given… And I think there’s something wonderful about just having the space where you can be who you are. And I think that’s what it is. My sense of self, I think, is very deeply rooted in family, and also, really, in a certain sense, in culture, as well.” This stuck with me because it’s very reminiscent of what I wrote my Common App essay on for college applications! I chose the general prompt and proceeded to write about the people and experiences that have shaped my views and personality, which largely connects to what Adichie says here. I also strongly attributed everything to my parents and the upbringing they gave me, and it was really cool to see Adichie do the same.

The first time I heard that we were going to have to give a TED Talk, panic set in. I’ve always been very anxious regarding public speaking, and this took it to a whole new level by being the longest and also the only completely memorized speech I’ve ever given. Somehow, don’t ask how, I pulled this together in a relatively short amount of time considering how long we’ve had this assignment on our radars, and I think it actually turned out pretty well!

After watching the video, I think that the talk itself went well. I did do a one thing slightly out of order because I had forgotten it in the place it should’ve gone, but other than that, I managed to get everything out. I realized that I did use a decent amount of conversational crutches such as “like” and “um,” but that can only go away with practice and more experience. In conversation, I tend to talk with my hands, and now looking at it in a presentation setting, it looks kind of awkward. Pointing at the screen and highlighting things on the powerpoint were fine, but the smaller random gestures I made while speaking look a little uncomfortable and almost distracting. But this also is something that just needs more time and experience to refine.

Going first was absolutely terrifying; I hadn’t seen anyone else’s official talks and had no idea how mine would stack up after the fact. But after presenting, it was so nice and I was able to relax so much more than I would have if I had gone later in the list. To be completely honest, put off picking a topic for so long because I just didn’t know what to do. This was the first idea that really struck me as a big shift that would have substantial facets to talk about. Through this, I found that I was able to talk about the origin, current state of, and even extrapolate to the future of this shift.

Check it out for yourself if you’d like!

Stasis, as defined by the RCL textbook, is the ancient theory of planning, executing, and resolving an argument. There are four pillars of stasis that help support and define any given issue or argument. The first is known as Conjecture, which asks about the given situation and what happened. The second is Definition, which explains the meaning behind the event. Third is Quality, which questions the morality of the issue, and fourth is Policy, which asks how to go about resolving the problem at hand. By answering these questions and compiling the knowledge about them, not only can a better understanding of the article be reached, but also a better solution can be achieved.

For the history of a public controversy project, my group has been considering exploring the morality of gun rights as well as the lowering/withholding of the drinking age. Both of these topics are very relevant, not only to today’s society, but also to us as young adults in college. Their societal prevalence provides ample information for the project as well as personal opinions that we all have going into the project as well. Between all of the resources available to us, including each other, we will definitely be able answer the four questions of stasis and come up with a full and thorough argument and project.