Megan’s Mind

      As of recently, scientists have been able to bring back the dire wolf back from extinction. This animal roamed our Earth over 10,000 years ago, and has now been brought back due to genetic engineering. But why? They say that this was a great achievement for science, but many are curious about what will happen forward? Does this mean that we can bring back any animal from extinction? Who's in charge of this powerful science?      Well let's start off from the basics. For those who do not know, genetic engineering is basically "the direct manipulation of DNA to alter an organisms characteristics in a certain way." On the surface, this can be seen as something that would be great. Not only can scientists enhance our food quality, but diseases such as cancer and defects can be treated all through genetic engineering. But with most things, it's sounds too good to be true. Many are skeptical of using genetic engineering. Since it's such a new invention, thi...

    As Pocahontas says, "you think you own whatever land you land on, the Earth is just a dead thing that you can claim." Yet there's so many things about our Earth that prove that it's alive. The dead trees in the winter, reclaiming their leaves by the time Summer comes, the chirps you hear in the morning, the fresh animal footprints in the snow. These are all characteristics to show that our Earth is in fact alive. Yet us humans, are killing our Earth. Humans were never meant to be driving gasoline fueled cars that pollute our air, we were supposed to be wild animals, surviving with other wild animals. And those same wild animals that we were supposed to be living with, are now being trapped in enclosed cages by us, treating them as fun attractions instead of a sign of life.      For example, in The Clan of One Breasted Women. In this passage, it entails on how the government in the l960s were testing out nuclear weapons. The people living around these test si...

 I think almost every immigrant kid who speaks a different language at home has experienced those dreaded yearly WIDA tests. And if you don't know what WIDA is, it's basically a series of English language proficiency assessments for students in kindergarten though grade 12. In order to stop taking these tests, you have to quote on quote pass these tests with flying colors. Because apparently, if you don't know the difference between their and they're like every other child at 6 years olds, you can't pass. For me, I had to take the WIDA test until 5th grade. By that age, I was perfectly capable at reading and writing in English, but according to them, I wasn't. This was just one, of many things that I noticed differentiated me and my peers.       Another thing that has always stuck with me was whenever someone tried to pronounce my full name. They would always quickly and fluently say Megan as if it was second nature to them, but whenever it got to my last name N...

      My article choice from The Onion is this article called, " Tips For Supporting New Parents ". This article is basically what the title entails, an article dedicated to help new parents full of helpful advice for their family and friends. It offers great tips such as letting "them practice changing diapers on you" or even better, "offer then a bit of normalcy by refusing to acknowledge their newborn and acting confused whenever they bring it up." Just kidding, NEVER do these things.       The purpose of this article is to actually bring light to the fact that society often fails to provide real support for new parents. This article achieves this by using satirical strategies such as irony and exaggeration to get their point across. For example, suggesting to gift a mother a basket full of "kitchen knives, and Tide pods" is absurd. Instead of gifting something thoughtful and meaningful, the article suggests gifts that are harmful and useless....

        Society likes to create stereotypes for almost everything, including genders. Girls are suppose to be delicate and like dolls as well as the color pink. While boys play rough, like toy cars, and the color blue. Growing up with these standards, I thought I could only ever like the color pink. Which is why as I grew older and got to the age where I could form my own opinion on things, I despised pink for the longest time. I felt as though if I were to like pink, I would be agreeing with societies stereotypes. But what's funny is that, the color pink didn't always represent femineity and associated closely with just girls. Dating back all the way to the 18th century,  "little boys and girls of the upper classes both wore pink and blue and other colors uniformly,"  according to Valerie Steele at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NY. Not only that though, but it's said that because red was associated with the color of the mother, pink was the c...

         Tell me why, that as kid I thought it was my role to be the smart, friendly, and dependable Asian kid. I think it all stemmed from the fact that any type of Asian representation I would see on TV would be just that. For example, take Glenn from the Walking Dead as an example. He's known for being the brains of the group, nothing else. So no wonder I always thought that I had to fit into this mold of being "Asian". It kind of relates to the piece Disability that we've recently read.  Nancy Mairs talks about her experiences and lack of accurate representation of disabled people have altered her life.  I believe that society tends to sort people into certain categories by just judging their looks. I know this because I can catch myself also doing this to a fault. But what Mairs argues is that there is more to someone than just their disabilites. And I totally agree. Yes, someone may have more physical advantadges than others, but that does not ma...