TOW #16 - IRB - The Glass Castle

Nature vs. nurture, a controversial theory in psychology, contemplates whether the way one is raised determines who someone is or if their genes determine their characteristics.  Although Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle does not explicitly mention this theory, Walls’ life reflects ideas from nurture, rather than nature.  Her life consists of sporadic adventures with her family and they never had a permanent home, instead their home was wherever they went.  Although as a child Walls enjoyed her unusual upbringing, approaching adulthood opened her eyes to the dissatisfaction she felt in her life.  By the time she was 18, she moved away, went to college, and became a reporter.  Stabilizing her life, Walls married and moved into his home in New York.  But talking with her parents as an adult changed Walls, she’s not comfortable with who she is now.  By contrasting stability and instability in her memoir, Walls connects to the theory that the way one is raised determines who they are.  As a result, Walls relies on the ever changing lifestyle she grew up with.

After graduating college and becoming a reporter, Walls moved into a home and married a man names Eric.  However, after speaking with her mother and the death of her father, Walls moves into a new apartment and changes her life.  Before changing her life, Walls felt that “life with Eric was calm and predictable.  I liked it that way” (272).  Walls thought that turning her life into one completely opposite of her childhood was what she desired.  Instead she found herself, “wanting to be somewhere other than where I was” (280).  The life she thought she wanted turned out to be not satisfactory: if she “was at work, I’d wish I were at home.  If I was in the apartment, I couldn’t wait to get out of it” (280).  This discomfort she found in her current life led to her leaving her husband Eric and finding a new apartment.  Additionally, she “took up ice-skating” and “felt best when I was on the move, going someplace rather than being there” (280).  The stark contrast between her stable and normal life into one that is unpredictable and always moving reflects the way she was raised.  Always on the move, her family never stayed in the same place for too long.  Taking up these tendencies play into the theory that nurture affects who you are.  More importantly, Walls is led to realize that sometimes change isn’t always beneficial.  Instead, going back to what makes you happy and healthy in life is essential.  Just because your life strays from the normal of others’ does not mean it’s wrong and needs to change.

TOW #15 - Finding Myself Through My College Major

Joshua Kam, a junior in college born to Malaysian-Chinese parents, often gets questioned on his origins.  Clearly looking foreign due to his ancestry, “Where are you from?” is a question he is all too used to.  But what he isn’t used to, is an answer.  Kam was born in Montana, raised in Malaysia, and is going to college in Michigan.  But explaining this to others left his audience in a flurry of various places with no clear answer.  However, after two years in college, Kam finds himself answering this question with newfound ease.  In Joshua Kam's, "Finding Myself Through My College Major," Kam shows progression in answering questions about his ancestry through anecdotes.  By displaying progression, Kam highlights his comfort in his background and attributes it to his life in college.

            Kam’s piece starts out with an experience from his freshman year in college.  While in church an old man asked him, “So you’re from one of those Oriental nations, right?” (1).  Kam had heard questions like these before, but as he tried to explain the multiple places he has lived, the mans “eyes were glazed over and I was fumbling for the door” (1).  Kam found it difficult to accurately explain where he came from and this left his audience confused and him desperate to leave the situation.  But as time progressed, Kam found a simpler way to answer this question.  Instead he now says Montana and thus sparks a delightful conversation about the state and all its wonders.  Although he found a way to please his interrogators, Kam still dreads the questions, and wonders if he is even answering it fully to himself.  This is where his education in college comes to the rescue.  Through “studying history and the classics” (11), Kam learns the background behind his ancestry and sees how he is who he is because “an 11-year-old leapt onto a schooner in South China and landed on British Malaya to work the fruit orchards” (10) and he has “two sets of founding fathers who carved forth from their great continents new nations” (10).  By studying in college, Kam has his eyes opened by past stories and experiences about his ancestors.  Without his education, his answers to the question, “Where are you from?” may not have come so easily.

TOW #14 - I Made My Son Cannabis Cookies. They Changed His Life

Legalizing recreational drugs seemed like fantasy talk until California allowed medical use of marijuana in 1996.  Following California’s lead, Colorado and Washington then legalized it recreationally in 2012.  Many far right conservatives oppose marijuana due to the fact that it is a drug and categorize it with others such as crystal meth and heroin. Contrary to their beliefs, marijuana is one of the few substances that is not fatal.  Due to its positive effects on certain diseases, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, mother of a child with a gut disease and autism, decided to use it for her child.  In her piece, Lee details the problems with finding the right way to treat her son, from cookies to oil, and her struggles in finding the right type of marijuana and provider.  With more problems becoming evident each day, Lee struggles to maintain her supply of medication to keep her son safe without breaking the law.  Her emotional story emphasizes the fact that marijuana should be legalized for medical use in more states.

Lee’s son has had medical problems since he was young.  By including anecdotes on her son’s struggles, Lee appeals to other parents who struggle with similar problems.  Lee’s son, “was consumed by violent rages.  He would bang his head, scream for hours and literally eat his shirts” (2).  At one point, her son “put his head through a window and cut his face in a frenzy of pain” (18).  Not only was it hard to prevent these violent flare ups from happening, but it was difficult to stop them when they started.  Lee resorted to cannabis cookies and oil to calm him down and prevent harmful actions.  After throwing his head through a window, cannabis oil was able to calm him “down enough that we could bring him to the ER” (18).  Tugging at other parents’ heartstrings, Lee’s own problems emphasize the parental need to keep their child safe.  No mother or father wants to see their child hurt themselves in fits of anger and pain.  Unfortunately for Lee the only way to curb the fits is with an illegal substance.  By including painful memories of her son, parents sympathize and are shown the beneficial effects of medical marijuana. Marijuana is able to treat many peoples's problems when it comes to health. When there is no other option to take, it is essential for those struggling to take medical marijuana to relive pain and suffering. With laws stopping those in need from having better lives, many are advocates of legalizing cannabis. Lee's story brings to question, to what extent does one's political views on drugs stop others from achieving a more safe and painless life?