About a whole month has went by since college started. Till this day I still can’t process that I’m in college already and that my journey has begun. Never in my life did I imagine that I would have a semester long online-college experience. I’ve learned so much already and can’t wait to learn even more. College has taught me to think over the box and go explore the many opportunities that are offer. Also, while in college I’ve been able to be more organized since that was something I lacked before going into college. I’ve always been that individual that has been disorganized and college has fixed that problem. Being in college, you’re the one responsible when work is done and given, and its up to you to stay in task and complete such assignments.

Even the classes that I’m taking have been very useful in my learning experience, especially this psychopathology writing class. I really enjoy this class and I don’t regret taking it at all. I would definitely recommend for others to take, since it allows you to learn about mental related issues in famous literature readings that were written by impactful writers. This class, isn’t just a normal writing class since we are introduced to a variety of ideas, themes, and much more that allow us to express our thoughts and ideas when we write.

As for this week, we were ask to summit our first drafts of our personal narrative and I really like the idea of writing one. It allowed me to incorporate a personal experience that in some way connected to one of the pieces of literature that we had read since the beginning of the semester. This was my first time writing a personal narrative and was something completely new to me. With the guidance and help from the professor and other students, they have guided me into this direction that has allowed for improvement of my personal narrative. I really liked the idea of writing a personal narrative because it helped me explore a new form of writing.

As for this week, I really enjoyed it and as for the upcoming days I hope to read more interesting stories in this psychopathology writing class.

During this week, I was introduced to Shirley Jackson and was able to read some of her most influential and famous readings which included “Colloquy” and “The Daemon Lover”. Both short stories gave us more of an insight of mental disorders and an image on how they are depicted in the views of society. We see how women in society when they bring about their problems to others, they tend to get ignored or brushed away. This leads them to become more crazier and get into this stage of insanity and insecurity. I really enjoyed both readings because it gave us a more of a perspective of how abnormalities can be seen strange in society. As for the works of Shirley Jackson, I hope to read more of her works and see what important notes she makes across her many published readings. Jackson, is an author who writes and is able to get more meaning across and makes the reader see many of the things she is discussing abroad each point.

Another story we were introduced to was Bananafinish and was weird and interesting for me to read. The ending of the story was very unexpected and shocking for me. I didn’t expect Seymour to kill himself because throughout the text there was nothing mention about it. However, we can see that Seymour presented many signs of PTSD after coming back from war. There was no one that appeared to help him, not even his wife, Muriel. We see how such innocence and pureness was taken away from him at war since he looks upon Sybil, and attempts to lock back in such pureness and innocence he lost. I like how the author, J.D Salinger incorporated both characters as a way for the reader to realize how each character’s interaction, Muriel and Sybil have an effect on the way Seymour acts and feels.

As for the week, I really enjoyed both readings and it allowed for a better understanding about the many effects of mental disorders and the way society deals and help those that might be suffering from it. This week was a very interesting week that included a lot of many intriguing readings. I was asked to do a personal narrative based on the readings I had previously read and I look forward for it.

During the second week, we were able to get more familiarize with readings such as “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, which brought us into the minds and experiences of individuals experiencing mental health related issues. We can see how people can go into this type of insanity in where they might lose contact with reality and lose themselves in their own existent world. I like how both stories were written in a narrative way in which helped the reader see more in sight of things that go along in the mind of individuals that might be experiencing the effects of a mental disorder. It gave it more of a real feeling since it is able to capture the attention of the reader, that allows one to better understand the effects and aftermath of a mental related issue.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is the short story that I enjoyed reading most about in this class because it gave us more of an insight of things that might happen in a stultifying marriage, in where the narrator has to stay calm and obey anything told to her. Through this we can see how her condition gets worse as she is depressed and is going through such chaotic moments in where she feels trapped and has no one to help her. We see how women are marginalized in such society in where they are oppressed and this in a way can affect women to a great extent. Through “The Yellow Wallpaper”, we see how Perkins was able to give this trajectory of insanity, meaning that the author of the text was able to bring us closer to things that might lead women to suffer and feel hopeless. I really liked reading this text because it brought upon many of the issues not verbally spoken during such times and helped pave way for the feminist movement. It’s interesting how one’s action can have an effect on others depending on the mindset and experiences of other individuals.

I feel like “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” gave us an idea of things that might lead people to act a certain way and feel a certain way as well. It helped gives us an idea of the many things that mental disorders can lead to an individual to do. As for the upcoming weeks, I would like to read more texts related to what we read and discussed during the week.

Never would I had imagine starting college in front of a computer. My first week of college came and left, without me realizing. Based on what other classes have discussed on what they expect from their students, has been a big shift of what was expected from students in high school. There isn’t any time to be wasted and much of your time is consisted of working hard and doing things required by your professor. I’ve like my experience in college so far, but I am aware that this is just the beginning and things are to get more complex as we dive in through the semester. Based on what is expected from college students, I realized that it’s time to adapt to a new environment and get myself away from my usual comfort zone. I now see that college in a way wants to push students a step ahead so they can get prepare of the many things students will encounter on their path through college.

I’ve always been an individual that likes knowing more about the many mental disorders there is and anything psychology related by taking courses if available. Since High School, I’ve taken psychology classes and were classes that allow myself to get more into depth by studying mental disorders and psychological theories. When I first heard about CCNY offering this course, I was pleased and decided to take it. In a way I took such class because I wanted to learn more about mental disorders and found it interesting how we were going to read different pieces of literature that discuss and related to mental disorders.

So far this week, Professor Nicholas Otte has made us analyze an article that discusses a type of mental disorder and made us get known toward our fellow classmates. Based of week 1 , the class in my perspective went very smoothly and was quite interesting on how things went. We were able to interact and discuss with other classmates through the use of something completely new to me known as “blackboard discussions”. Through blackboard we are allowed to share our opinion or add on to what others have to say about things we are ask to write about.

As for this class, I expect many more things to come and learn more about psychopathology. I feel that this class would be one of the most interesting classes, I am taking this semester. I look forward towards learning and reading texts and other literary pieces that portray psychopathology through them.