Premium Essay

Personal Narrative: Boundaries

Submitted By
Words 603
Pages 3
I am an 11th-hour person. I am always running behind schedule by a few minutes or rushing to make appoints/meetings in the nick of time. I have tried everything from setting my clocks ahead, to setting multiple reminders and alarms on my phone. Presently, my phone alerts seem to be the most efficient method.
The book Boundaries lists several reasons as to why people suffer from chronic lateness such as omnipotence, over-responsibility, lack of realist anxiety, and rationalization (Cloud & Townsend, 1992, p. 218). Occasionally, I tend to rationalize my behavior by blaming traffic or minimizing the importance of the event. Other times, I miscalculate how much time it will take to get ready or misplace my keys. However, two main reasons behind …show more content…
According to my husband, Ryan, I am good at creating ideas and making plans but not so great at execution. Ryan feels as though I lose interest in things rather quickly. I would say this is partly true, as I do tend to jump from project to project often leaving things unfinished. However, I also have a tendency to become overinvolved.
A few months ago, my husband was showing an elder a painting I made him as an anniversary present. As a result, I was asked to paint a wall mural in our church nursery. Initially, I did not desire to do it because I knew the amount of time it would take; however, as they continued to press me I felt obligated and accepted the offer. I should not have taken on that responsibility because so many other things are consuming my time. It only needs a few final touches; however, it is still incomplete.
Unfinished afghans, paintings, crafts, and sewing projects fill my guest room. I not only underestimated how much time it would take to complete these projects, but I toiled in perfectionism. I will go over something a million times until I feel I have given it my best effort. As a result, I become overwhelmed with the time spent on my efforts that I end up putting the job on the

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Personal Narrative: Broken Boundaries Of Child Abuse

...Can you see where the disease to please began to take root in my childhood? Let’s start with the broken boundaries. When someone abuses you in any way you begin to feel powerless, whether its physical, emotional, or verbal. In my life I learned submission as a coping mechanism to get through to prevent more abuse. I had no rights, so I thought. Being threatened I learned to just hold my pain on the inside. I learned to smile through the pain. The abuse paved the way for me to allow others to overstep their boundaries in my life. Since “NO’ never mattered anyway, why bother using it. This spilled over into my adult life. My relationships one sided. While they were being satisfied and pleased (both attributes of the word nice) I was dying inside....

Words: 304 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Tom Brennan Speech

...Catalysts act on obstacles an individual faces which assists in overcoming personal and social boundaries. This is significant as it induces growth and transitions which bring new insights and understandings about themselves, others and the world around them. The bildungsroman novel “The story of Tom Brennan” written by J.C Burke and the speech ‘From Death Row To Law Graduate’ by Peter Ouko both follow the transitions of young men who face personal and social boundaries, challenging beliefs and attitudes of both protagonists and the situations they are in resulting in growth and new perceptions. An individual’s personal and social boundaries have an impact on the perceptions of themselves, others and the world around them. The ‘Story Of Tom Brennan’...

Words: 1001 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

The Trauma of Gender

...The Gender Politics of Narrative Modes I want to challenge two linked assumptions that most historians and critics of the English novel share. The first is that the burgeoning of capitalism and the ascension of the middle classes were mainly responsible for the development of the novel. The second is that realism represents the novel's dominant tradition. [note 1] I want to propose instead that, as surely as it marked a response to developing class relations, the novel came into being as a response to the sex-gender system that emerged in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. [note 2] My thesis is that from its inception, the novel has been structured not by one but by two mutually defining traditions: the fantastic and the realistic. [note 3] The constitutive coexistence of these two impulses within a single, evolving form is in no sense accidental: their dynamic interaction was precisely the means by which the novel, from the eighteenth century on, sought to manage the strains and contradictions that the sex-gender system imposed on individual subjectivities. For this reason, to recover the centrality of sex and gender as the novel's defining concern is also to recover the dynamism of its bimodal complexity. Conversely, to explore the interplay of realist and fantastic narratives within the novelistic tradition is to explore the indeterminacy of subjectivities engaged in the task of imposing and rebelling against the constraining order of gender difference. ...

Words: 5434 - Pages: 22

Premium Essay

Family Interview

...Introduction In this essay, I will discuss my experience of interviewing a family and constructing a genogram guided by their narrative. For this task, I purposely chose a family that is very different from my family of origin in terms of their cultural heritage. I will reflect on differences and similarities between our families as well as my prejudices and hypothesis that I inevitably constructed before and during the process. To identify this family, I had to approach some colleagues proposing to them to participate in the interview. Fortunately, one of them introduced me to her friend. Francesca had an interest in psychology, and since she was free and not much committed, I did welcome her with a cup of coffee to share more about the interview. After I formally introduced myself to her, I laid down to her the framework of the interview, and she agreed to participate with her husband, Matteo. Family context The family I interviewed comes from Italy, but they moved to the UK 3 years ago. I noticed that knowing these few details I was already constructing hypothesis based on stereotypes. I was dreading the interview because I was expecting to have difficulty in stopping them talking since I was concerned about getting enough information to construct the genogram. I also hypothesized whether being new to the UK makes them consider participating in projects like mine to increase a sense of belonging. Another hypothesis where I imagined them to have very firmly attachments to...

Words: 2003 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Essay

...Lady Gaga and Madonna for example could be identified as post feminist icons as they exhibit the stereotypical characteristics of both the male and female strength, courage, control and logic but also are willing to be sexualized for the male gaze. This control element of their own representation is crucial in understanding the theory". Baudrillard Hyper Reality: "Some texts are difficult to distinguish in terms of the representation of reality from a simulation of reality e.g. Big Brother. The boundaries are blurred as codes and conventions create a set of signifiers which we understand but in fact the representation is a copy of a copy". Uses and Gratifications Theory: "Different audiences gain different pleasures from a media text e.g. Gravity can be enjoyed via diversion or escapism, it can use surveillance to give information to audiences and can also be discussed on forums and blogs as a form of developing personal relationships(common also in video games). Personal identity can be developed with audiences who relate to certain characters more than others". Blumler and Katz (Audience Theory) Carol Clover...

Words: 2075 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

To What Extent Are Your Chosen Texts Typical to Their Tv Genre?

...Genre is a way of classifying and then categorising a particular text, they are made up of their own codes and conventions for example narrative, characters and themes which standardise the way in which a story is told. In T.V and Film these are often subverted to produce hybrid genres or to give a social realist aesthetic. This is explicitly obvious within the Crime genre. Although the genre progresses in a linear fashion, it often relishes upon nostalgia and gritty realism to attract the audience. Vladimir Propp’s narrative theory of, order - disorder – re-establishment of order: is standard within the crime genre. It enables channels to fulfil their Public service Broadcasting (PSB) remit whilst not committing to commoditisation, therefore maintaining the realistic aesthetic which the genre relies upon. Appealing to a wider audience and creating universal appeal. The narrative seen allows the audience to view the programme within the boundaries of space and time, whilst maintaining a neutral point of view. The hybridisation between an open and closed narrative allows for an ensemble cast. The use of an ensemble cast/recurring list of characters allows the programme to maintain a set structure, some characters appear in all episodes such as Nick Stokes in CSI, allowing the audience to gather ‘evidence’ on the characters and depict their lifestyles. The focus of the audience is maintained on a main character either from episode to episode or series to series. Understanding...

Words: 881 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Slavery Narratives

...Describe the genre of Slave Narrative in his essentials on the basis of an example. What was the role of the genre for the abolitionist movement? Anti-slavery literature was very important for the abolitionists` fight against slavery. The Slave Narratives took a special importance because of the fact that slaves reported from the personal perspective. They described autobiographically how the life in captivity looked like. Consequently, they disputed the description of slave keeper, which were played down and romanticized. Frederick Douglass, one of the former slaves, wrote his story on his own, whereas some who couldn´t write and read (who were illiterate), dictated their stories to abolitionists. Those wrote and published these stories. Moreover, the Slave Narratives always were authenticated in preface and epilogues from whiteness. In the following part, I will quote many a time from the autobiography of the mentioned Frederick Douglass‘ “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass“ “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an overseer to affect him. He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers...

Words: 1435 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Warhol's Effect on Shirin Neshat's Career Path

...installation motion picture art, and then feature films. Perhaps artists like Warhol have always been best at pushing the limits – they are not afraid of breaking the rules, trying something different or shocking, and taking a risk upon exhibiting the results. Linda Yablonsky in her contribution to ARTNews credits Andy Warhol as the specific artist, and reason, that has convinced current artists to make their way into film; this movement is surprising audiences with the compositions produced. Yablonsky compares and contrasts such artists' work from before and after this transition and states that generally, “their movies are extensions of their usual work, with one difference: the films are based on screenplays that have a fairly conventional narrative bent” (Yablonsky, 1). Warhol's...

Words: 1760 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Xfiles

...The X-Files is one of the brilliant examples of television series, originated as a cult show and dawned into the renowned show among a wider range of audiences, including the academia. For nine seasons, the show ran for about ten years. After becoming so popular, The X-Files developed two films for dedicated fans across the world. One may wonder what is it that makes a long running show consistently interesting to the general audience, fans, scholars, and even critics. A possibility is the usage of metaphor and genre in order to explore wider themes that are not immediately apparent to the viewer regarding subject matter. To put it simply, The X-Files goes beyond the limitations of horror and sci-fi. The creation of The X-Files emerged when a new and upcoming company called Fox joined network competitors such as NBC, ABC, and CBS. Fox, as a forerunner in showing television where viewers could not find anywhere comparable, embraced the unusual and controversial series based on the paranormal and bizarre phenomena. The show follows two FBI agents who investigate the paranormal from two different viewpoints, a believer and the other a skeptic. The X-Files on the Fox network was beginning nightly hour-long shows directed towards the teen to middle-aged viewers. In order to become popular for such a broad range of viewers, the series needed to attract these masses using a language they understood and meeting their expectations, such as desired genres. The mixture of the target viewer’s...

Words: 2787 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

Langston Hughes

...Phillip Woods Sandra Simonds ENG102 April 26 2016 Langston Hughes and The Weary Blues Langston Hughes was recognized as a significant literary figure during the 1920s, a period known as the "Harlem Renaissance" because of the number of emerging black writers. After graduating from high school, Hughes went to Mexico to visit his father, in hopes to convince his father that he should pay for his college education at Columbia University in New York City. On his way to Mexico on the train, while thinking about his past and his future, Hughes wrote the famous poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." After arriving in Mexico, the tension between Hughes and his father was strong. Hughes wanted to be a writer; his father wanted him to be an engineer. After Hughes sent some of his poetry to what was known as the “Brownies” Book and “Crisis” magazines, it was accepted. his father was impressed enough to agree to pay for a year at Columbia University. It was there at Columbia University were he begin releasing more poems that he had written. Hughes embraced crafting blues music into his poetry because it expressed the worries of the common man in a simple and direct manner. Blues songs feature heavy repetition, and singers often seem to be laughing and crying at the same time. One of his best works was the poem “The Weary Blues” which came in first place in a section of a literary contest in an Opportunity magazine published in 1925...

Words: 1157 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Personal Theory Exploration

...Personal Theory Exploration Sarah Haeck Bowling Green State University Growing Awareness “Knowledge is power.” -Sir Francis Bacon Knowledge is indeed powerful. It allows one to see things in more comprehensive ways. Knowledge doesn’t let one settle. It molds and evolves within someone. Knowledge pushes one to betterment. It can come from outside sources but always is processed and implemented within. As a counselor, knowledge is vital to the wellness and development of the client. Knowing who we are, where we come from, what influences us, and what makes us who we are, these are just some of the questions that help us discover ourselves. I have spent a great deal of time and effort understanding who I am and what goes into that. As well as how the situations and people around me have made impressions on my life. Then beginning to dealing with the issues that have come up because of these things. At the end of the day, I believe a few things to be true: relationships mold our existence, our spiritual lives affect us, and a holistic view and self-awareness are keys to growth. As I have traced the steps of several theories, one sticks out as primary to who I am – Existential-Humanistic Theory. Taking the essence of this theory and combining it with aspects of Developmental Counseling Theory and Family Therapy, I hope to have a comprehensive fit to my personality as a budding counselor. Adaptable and Practical Being highly spiritual makes Existential-Humanistic...

Words: 2374 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

The Faithful Bull

...Labovian Analysis of Ernest Hemingway’s The Faithful Bull Ernest Hemingway and his love of bullfighting require no formal introduction, however his short story, The Faithful Bull, is less well known. It is essentially a fable having been written for the child of a friend and published in 1951. Twenty-one years later, the famous linguist, William Labov laid out a framework outlining the progression of oral narratives in a six-part structure. The advantage of this Labovian method of analysis is that it can also be applied to literary narratives in general, not just to oral versions of personal experience. Using Hemingway’s 700-word fable, written in his inexorable, economic style and applying Labov’s six-part model (abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result, coda), I intend to confirm the suitability of this form of analysis for the short story. The abstract of the narrative announces the initiation of a narrative and can, in effect, report the entire sequence of events, outlining the story. An abstract is not however an essential part of a narrative and can be omitted. A true explanatory abstract has no place in The Faithful Bull, it being a short story, but it does have a title. This three-word title does actually tell us very briefly what the story is about; a specific bull who is faithful and in this way, the title fulfils the norms of an abstract, albeit in a very transient way. It stimulates the addressees’ curiosity and focuses their attention...

Words: 1394 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Critisim for Yellow Wallpaper

...steadily growing) body of criticism to the story, very little of it explicitly addresses its importance as a tool to facilitate learning or various ways in which to make use of the text in the classroom” (3). As a collection, Weinstock’s The Pedagogical Wallpaper contains informed, detailed, and diverse analysis that attempts to shore up the absence of “pedagogical possibilities” concerning Gilman’s transgressive short story (9). Among the contributors are a MOO space specialist, a Gilman scholar, a queer theorist, an existentialist, a formalist, and several reader/student-response theorists. Because each essayist presents a distinct critical perspective on Gilman’s text, each essay is likewise concerned with “how the narrative teaches and how to teach the narrative” (5). Thus, it seems to me that Weinstock’s The Pedagogical Wallpaper resonates with Pedagogy’s conviction that teaching is central to our work as scholars and educators, no matter what our particular perspective. Indeed, Weinstock’s commitment to diverse and instructive pedagogical prompts is persuasive and liberating, affording ample avenues for new...

Words: 2869 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

The Makings of an Outsider

...accepted participant. While the outsider identity may be thrust upon the individual, the individual himself/herself may hinder his/her assimilation and therefore be the cause of his/her own isolation. In both Margaret Atwood’s poem collection Journals of Susanna Moodie and Maria Campbell’s narrative poem, “Jacob,” protagonists Susanna Moodie and Jacob struggle as outsiders in their respective Canadian environments. Both protagonists are outsiders as Moodie is an outsider to the wildlife environment of the Bush and Jacob is an outsider to his Indigenous community; however, Moodie’s outsider status is a result of her personal fear of the unfamiliar, while external societal forces create Jacob’s outsider identity. Both outsider identities, while differing in causation, illustrate the negative impact Western ideology has on the new settler and Indigenous populations as the former’s preconditioned Western beliefs turn Canada’s natural environment into an adversary and the latter is pressed to abandon its unique cultural traditions. Through strategic word choice, both Susanna Moodie and Jacob are established as outsiders in their respective natural and social environments; however Moodie’s personal barriers cause her outsider identity, while Jacob’s outsider status is forced upon him by societal factors, providing a commentary on the destructive impact of Western ideologies. Atwood manipulates words to situate Moodie as an outsider to nature as she writes, “The moving water will not...

Words: 2126 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Internet and Identity

...Samuilau Writing 1200-A 01/07/2008 Internet Internet entered our lives only a couple decades ago; however, its popularity and influence has been growing at an astonishing rate ever since. In many ways Internet has redefined communication and become “an essential medium at personal, business, and professional levels” (Farilli 237). Email and instant messaging help communicate people who are thousand miles away from each other; videoconferencing enables business contacts without the necessity of physical presence; chat rooms bring together people and make acquaintances which could never otherwise emerge in real world. These are just few examples of how Internet reshaped our everyday lives and as a new means of interaction. However, it cannot also be denied that computer-mediated communication, which is a basis of Internet contacts, goes much further bringing traditional understanding of “self” and community to the new levels. For many people today Internet represents a tool in negotiating their problems by developing their own personas online as well as bringing people together in the communal sense. One of the main Web trends that have a profound impact on personal expression and, therefore, identity quest is blogging. John Dvorak studied the phenomena of online diaries and stressed several reasons that made them so popular. Among those reasons are: a) ego gratification through belief that what one is writing maybe important to others; b) antidepersonalization...

Words: 957 - Pages: 4