Author Archives: Sadie Willett

A trip to California

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Tensions are high, the sun is rising above the horizon, and the clock is striking just after four in the morning. It’s time to go to the airport. This time, we were going to California. My emotions were through the roof. In my eyes, California is the best place in the country. Besides speculations that it will fall into the ocean in a few years, there is nothing that could be bad about it. The cities are spectacular, the beaches are beautiful, and the weather is fantastic. In southern California, such as San Diego, it is sunny about 360 out of 365 days of the year. Like “are you kidding me?” I’m a girl who’s a sucker for some sunshine. In addition, I was born in California, so emotionally it gives me strong ties there. I was born in San Francisco, one of the best cities in the state. However, in this blog, I will be writing about my travels to Los Angeles and other parts of southern California.

It was my first time in Los Angeles, and my sister and I were ecstatic. We had dreams of living like superstars for a couple of days, hoping that we would run into a celebrity. We did not, although, we had the best time. We went shopping on Melrose Ave and experimented with famous food places, such as coffee shops and In-N-Out. We probably got In-N-Out about five times this trip. We walked down Hollywood Boulevard, stopping at each star, and stopped to take a picture at every Instagram wall we could find. We also explored farmer’s markets, and you can’t forget hiking up to see the Hollywood sign. It was honestly like a dream come true. 

Growing up on the east coast as an avid goer to New York City, everything was so different. I loved the change in the dynamic. Exploring a place that you have wished to go to for a while now was something I will never be able to forget. After touring Los Angeles, my family and I toured Warner Brothers Studios. We also stopped by the Santa Monica Pier. I still have a vivid image of walking passed a scary man with a teardrop tattoo under his eye. After frolicking around in the Los Angeles area for a couple of days, my family and I went to Carlsbad, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, and Coronado Island. The beaches as well as the family time made it one of the best weeks of my life and created moments that I will never be able to forget.

Laguna Beach | California, United States | Britannica

A Special Place in my Heart for Fenway Park

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Dear blog, 

Today, I will be writing to you about one of my favorite places to visit. This place isn’t a vacation, or a luxury experience. Rather, a daylong trip. It is located in the Kenmore Square area of Boston. This place is known as the oldest stadium in Major League Baseball and is known for its famous hot dogs. It is no other than Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. To me, Fenway Park is the Godfather of all Major League Baseball parks. The energy is unmatched, the commodore is welcoming, and the spirit is insane. Something you have never seen before. The sparkling sun shines amongst the green outfield grass in the middle of the day, while it gleams a brilliant orange vibrance into the night at sunset. Its 37,731 seats are each filled with a pumped fan, whether or not they are an opponent or proponent of the Red Sox. As you sit in the stands, you will immediately notice the Green Monster, a 37-foot high wall in left field. As the batter is up to bat, Pesky’s Pole, a right field foul pole that is only 302 feet from home plate will catch his eyes.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve had a love for this baseball team. I would beg and plead with my dad to bring me to a game. When he would finally say yes, it felt like a fever dream. Being present in Fenway Park that day would give me a feeling like no other. I knew all of the players; their weaknesses and strengths. I knew the commentators, the general manager, and even baseball players on the opposing teams. I specifically had a love for their right outfielder, Mookie Betts. I grew an obsession with him for a while, but when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020, I lost all hope.

The Boston Red Sox have a very special and sentimental place in my heart. They won the World Series in 2004, the year I was born and in 2007, the year my younger sister was born. My father’s side of the family used to travel to the field for family reunions and spend our hot, summer Saturdays watching the game. My dad always tells me the story of how the Red Sox won the World Series when I was only three months old and my dad cuddled me in his arms in emotions of relief and happiness in front of the TV as the crowd cheered. The sport of baseball is something that will always have a special place in my heart. My dad and I have bonded over it for years and it is always something that will bring us together, on a good day or a bad day.

RCL Blog: My Favorite Ted Talk

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https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_harris_the_benefits_of_not_being_a_jerk_to_yourself

Above is linked my favorite Ted Talk that I watched this morning from their website. The presentation was moving, informative, and intriguing. Not once did I become distracted or shift my listening from the speaker. I admire the speaker, Dan Harris, for what he says. First of all, he acknowledges every criticizing comment he has ever received. He then elaborates to say that he has never shared it publicly before this speech. It takes an immense amount of courage to be able to share and reflect every negative comment you’ve ever received about your work to a worldwide audience. His fans laugh, but admire him for his storytelling as well. He reveals his years-long mission to strengthen his relationships with everyone during his speech, which he delivers in a wise, humorous manner (starting with himself). He even makes fun of himself by saying, ” I thought we weren’t supposed to applause authoritarians here,” as the audience claps for his remarks. Harris shares what he has done and the types of programs that he has involved himself in in order to better himself. He advocates for meditation, explaining that his silent nine day meditation retreat was the only thing that led him to stop being selfish and boost his capacity for warmth, which is love and kindness.

Harris’s main point of his speech was that if you want to stop becoming a jerk to others, you must stop being a jerk to yourself first. He says that this was the ideology that began to spark his kindness to others. Harris focuses on mental health and participating in activities that root towards your own happiness. He emphasizes that strategies such as meditation, talking to a professional, and thinking to yourself can be a big help. The reason why I admire this Ted Talk so much is because I am a strong advocator for mental health. Like Harris, I believe that in order to be kind to others, you must be kind to yourself first. This can be proven with bullying. Studies have shown that most bullies aren’t confident in themselves and don’t love themselves, which is why they take out their anger on others. Harris delivers a purposeful message in a witty, sarcastic tone, where he can get his point across successfully while connecting with the audience. He shares his own story in order to impact others and enact a change amongst the audience.

For my Unit Two project, I am thinking that I can research a Ted Talk of modern medicine. I will pursue research by indulging in the change of medication over time as well as access to healthcare worldwide. I will craft arguments discussing the change of modern medicine, healthcare, and vaccines and how its change impacts our world today as well as the future of it.

 

Traveling with an Element of Surprise

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Dear blog,

 

Usually I discuss my experience of the trip. The good parts, the bad parts, the sightseeing, and the memories. However, today I thought that it would be intriguing to write about an experience of even making it to the airport. Traveling can be extremely stressful. You must stick to schedule in order to make your flight in time and arrive at your destination according to plan. However, many obstacles will arise. Family, friends, and anyone else you may travel with will certainly add to the list of stress.

 

The element of surprise can come out of nowhere! An unexpected layover, a disastrous, long line of TSA, or even a delay in your flight. I’m going to tell a story of my unexpected obstacles in the amidst of traveling to México. It all started with my senior trip to New Jersey immediately after graduation. The car ride back to Connecticut from Wildwood, New Jersey lasted for a duration of nine hours. I was leaving for México the next day. My friends and I departed our lovely AirBnb in New Jersey at eleven in the morning, under the impression that we would be making it home in the late afternoon hours. Nope. We were wrong. After we finally crossed the New Jersey border into New York after driving for three hours, we were forced to turn around to go rescue our friends whose car had broke down. Obviously we knew that it was the right thing to do, we were just exhausted and deprived of energy. My friend driving, Ryan, attempted to make the best out of the worst situation by cracking sarcastic jokes here and there and involving the car in karaoke. We had to wait at the tow lot for a little over an hour when we finally arrived back in New Jersey to salvage our friends. By the time we got back on the road, it was around 3:30pm. We stopped at Chick-fil-A in a New Jersey mall and suffered through hours of rush hour traffic. It was around nine o’clock when we made it home. All of our energy was drained, our eyes close to shutting, and our moods hanging on by a thread. The story does not end here, however. The next day was one of my best friend’s birthdays that I would not be there for, so I went out to dinner with her and other girls to celebrate. I felt that it was an obligation of being a good friend to make it to her dinner. By the time I got home, it was eleven o’clock at night. We were leaving for the airport at 4 in the morning, so I had approximately five hours to pack for a week-long trip and get some minutes of sleep. Great! No problem at all, I was not stressed. I ran around my house for hours grabbing any bathing suits that came into sight, searching for my passport, Covid-19 vaccination card, and only a few tears of worry slipping down my cheeks. Somehow, I made it. I was walking through the JFK terminal with most of my stress relieved. I did have one problem left, though. Season football tickets dropping in just under thirty minutes. My dad came in clutch that morning, which I will forever thank him for. He was able to secure my season student tickets on the train on his way to work. Moral of the story, whenever you are doing anything, traveling or not, multiple setbacks will always arise. However, they never determine the outcome. It’s what you make the most out of that foreshadows your ending.

RCL Blog: Civic Artifact Speech Analysis

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In terms of my speech performance, I feel that my strengths were definitely the analyzation of the image. I was able to point out the commonplace and discuss it, rhetorically analyze the image, and discuss the purpose of the author. I talked about how the author drew emotion within the audience, how she used a woman of color wearing a hijab and the intent and importance behind it, and how the woman expressed vulnerability. In addition, I discussed how the author engaged the audience in wanting to change and reform. I mentioned the smaller text below with the main message and how the author used civic engagement by women who want to stand up for themselves in this generation rather than silence their voices. Lastly, I analyzed how the author used ethos, pathos, and logos within her civic artifact. The weaknesses of my speech were that I could have been a little repetitive in my speech and I could have got to the point quicker so that I would’ve had more time to discuss more of the analyzation of the civic artifact. My introduction was a little lengthy, but this was because I wanted to make sure that the listeners of my speech knew what I was talking about and knew the backstory of what they were listening to. What I learned in terms of strengths and successful approaches from my peers’ speeches was that they gave a lot of backstory about their civic artifact as well. For example, Ben’s speech. I learned so much about the analytics of the duck-and-cover tactic and I found his speech to be super interesting and informative. Every speech that I watched included a great analysis of the rhetoric appeals and how the author incorporated ethos, pathos, and logos. In addition, every speech that I watched, the speaker made sure to include commonplace, exigence and purpose as well. I thoroughly enjoyed watching all of them, it made me learn a lot about their civic artifact as well as my speech.

Sadie Willett’s Travel Passion Blog Post: Portugal

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Dear blog, 

Last night my roommate and I were a couple floors down hanging out with our friends from our dorm. We were discussing fascinating places amongst the United States. A conversation I started, no surprise due to my love for traveling. My friend Paul then asked me the question, “Have you ever been outside of the country before?” I responded instantly with “Yes.” I began to list the places I have been before that are outside of the United States. The first country I told him that I had been to was Portugal. This made me realize that it is probably one of the best places I have been to before that is still fresh in my memory. Today’s blog will be discussing my trip to Portugal and how it impacted my life.

My family and I traveled to Óbidos, Porto, Lisbon, Algarve, and Lagos last summer. We were out of the country for approximately nine days. Each destination was unique in its own way. Óbidos was a small town on the country that reflected aspects of Greece, while Porto and Lisbon are major cities in Europe that are very much European. Porto was the first place we stayed in. The city was crowded, as everyone was on holiday. Portugal is definitely an extremely popular attraction for Europeans in the summer. The city was amazing. People were everywhere, the sightseeing was beautiful, and the atmosphere of the city is so inviting. Everyone we met was so kind. My only complaint was that the food was not the tastiest. However, I have an acquired taste for certain foods and I was definitely able to still appreciate their culture. 

After Porto, my family and I traveled down the coast to Lagos which is a town in Algarve. We stayed in a resort with shops everywhere, restaurants in every other spot, and the most gorgeous beaches that I have ever laid my eyes on. The first thing I remember from being in Algarve was the sunset. We arrived to our AirBnb at approximately 8:27pm, just in time for the sun to set. Our room overlooked a marina with millions of sailboats and the downtown of Lagos on the other side. The sunset was a bright orange beam of brilliance. The sun dipped below the horizon, the last gasp of beauty before the death of the day. You could see the reflection of the silhouette of the boats gleaming down on the merky, blue water. The sight was truly something I will never be able to forget.

Everything about the excursion was so amazing that it actually made me want to live there in the future. It was an amazing exploration of new culture with my favorite people in the world and I am looking forward to going back someday. For the next month after my family and I came home, I still had the word “obrigada” engraved in my everyday vocabulary. 

Sadie Willett’s RCL Civic Artifact Rough Draft Essay

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In 1869, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1926, Freida Kahlo made her first self-portrait that aimed to provoke deep thought and self-realization, especially amongst women. In the 1960s, Audre Lorde began publishing her poetry in magazines and anthologies to fight for everything she was able to achieve towards women’s rights. In 2012, Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the former Pakistan Taliban spokesman for her campaign to educate girls. In 2020, Kamala Harris was elected as the first female vice president and the first woman of color vice president, making history. All of these tremendous women have made historical impacts in efforts to advocate for women’s rights. Although, sadly, not much has changed. Living as a woman this day in age, your rights are not protected. This summer, the Supreme Court on Friday eliminated the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, casting aside 49 years of precedent that began with Roe v. Wade. The eradication of Roe v. Wade has determined that women barely have the rights to their own bodily functions in the United States. A vast majority of the world has stripped women of their rights. This civic artifact highlights the reality of women being suppressed in the 21st century in an extremely rhetorical method.

My Travel History

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Dear blog,

After reading a couple of my posts by now, I’m sure you know that I love to travel by now. But, I haven’t told you why. Why do I love to travel? First of all, I grew up in a family where traveling was extremely emphasized. My dad lived overseas as a kid, where he lived in Taiwan, Denmark, and South Korea. I have heard an endless amount of stories regarding his experiences. My mom backpacked through Europe immediately after graduating college where she slept on trains and lived off of one singular bag. I had my first grasp of travel at a very young age. I always heard the story about how I vacationed to Hawaii in my mom’s belly. My parents think that this story is awesome, but it doesn’t count as actually going for me. My childhood is solely based on traveling to one place – The Bahamas. One morning every spring I would wake up and catch a JetBlue flight from JFK to a dinky little airport in Eleuthera, Bahamas. There was one bathroom in this airport and approximately seven planes that flew in and out of it. Because it was such a small airport on such a small island, we took a connecting flight from Nassau, Bahamas. As soon as my family and I would arrive in Eleuthera, the sun was brighter, the air was more humid and smiles were bigger. Everything in life was perfect in life. We would hop in a van and head to our family’s house. The place was a blue cottage house on a road in the middle of nowhere with about nine other houses on the street. On one side of the house, it was grass with a yard and a tennis court at the end. On the other side of the house, the beach was right there. The water was clear, the sky was blue, and if you looked far enough, you could see cliffs in the distance and the line where the sky met the sea. The house was not glamourous. There was no air conditioning, chips in the paint, and one time there was a cockroach in the shower. However, this did not matter. The seashells, sea glass, and beach aesthetic throughout the house made it feel like home. Being with my family in this magical place made it feel like home. I will forever treasure these memories in our house in Eleuthera. Traveling here made my world go round. Unfortunately, my dad’s family had to sell the house a couple years ago due to high maintenance, so I don’t know when I will get the chance to be there next. But, a girl can dream. Every once in a while, my mom and I will crack open the photo albums and find us on the chair swing when I was a little girl. It feels nice to reminisce on a time where life was so peaceful and nonchalant. The place is so magical to me because it has nothing but happiness attached to it. Hopefully, I will get to go back some day.

Sadie Willett’s Essay Introduction

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It is the day of your 18th birthday, you wake up with excitement as it is a huge milestone in your life. You can vote. In other words, you have the right to participate in the democratic process, a right that should be exercised by everyone. You have the freedom to vote for the next leader who will represent your ideas and beliefs in society. In 1848, the circumstances were different. Women did not have the right to vote in elections. Women did not have a voice. Until, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was introduced. Stanton was an American leader in the women’s rights movement who in 1848 formulated the first concerted demand for women’s suffrage in the United States. She advocated for the equality of men and women’s rights, specifically a woman’s right to vote. She worked alongside other activists fighting for gender equality, such as Susan B. Anthony, where they worked together for another 50 years after the initial convention. The two powerful figures organized campaigns, testified before lawmakers, and addressed crowds in lyric symphonies, conferences, and public places. By successfully securing rights for women and slaves, Stanton altered the social and political landscape of the United States of America for all time. Her unrelenting commitment to women’s suffrage led to the Constitution’s 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.