Jonnalyn

My name is Jonnalyn Gates I am 19 years old and currently a student at Wayne State University. I am majoring in Nursing with the goal of becoming a psychiatric nurse. This is a very important goal to me as my mother was Bipolar and did not seek the help that she needed. She passed away in 2005 from Alcohol poisoning at just 42 years old. I have a very close bond with my two sisters and even though we all live in different cities we stay connected. Right now I am a freshman at WSU I intend to go to Wayne County Community College in order to get ahead on my classes for the summer. I feel like there is never a time when we stop learning and I love being in school as long as I’m learning something that I feel will be relevant to my career as well as my life. Because of how my mom passed away I feel very strongly about human rights. I know without proper laws and a competent government to protect human right they can be denied as well as neglected. Therefore we result in regions where children are starving and dying from diseases that can be easily prevented and or treated. I think as a society we have simply gotten so involved and overwhelmed with ourselves that we have forgotten how to care about others.
My writing is influenced by the things I experience every day. Life is extremely interesting when you belong to more than one minority group. Being a African American Woman going to college, raised in the suburbs, was academically successful throughout my k-12 school career and being overweight in a society that is obsessed with skinny has led me to experience some interesting situations. Being observant has also led me to write. I am very interested in religion and religious freedom because of my own experiences. As a child I was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. My grandmother was very proud of her religion and was very strict on her children and grandchildren to follow it. I was 13 years old when I discovered that other religions even existed. It would take me another three years to find enough courage to research these new found religions and only a few months after that to claim atheist. The Buddhist belief has always fascinated me and I took some ideas from this belief and incorporated into my own ideas on life and beliefs. I find myself confused often about where I stand as it related to choosing just one belief. It is because I was denied the freedom as a child to make my own decision based on how I felt about religion that I felt everyone should be entitled to religious freedom. Religion should not be forced upon you ever. The way parents force their ideals and religion on their children is sickening to me and many find their children rebelling against these forced ideas when these children get old enough to base their feeling on their own beliefs. In my writing I try to convey my ideas on religion and religious freedom.
I think sometimes that some may view my writing as an atheist attack on the religious structures. I try to implement my perspective on the subject I’m writing about which may make my work a bit biased. Many issues I write about and am passionate about writing about are controversial and people see the issues as a elephant in the room. You know that it’s there but you try to avoid it none the less. I enjoy writing about subjects that I am passionate about and I think my writing reflects this. I know that as I mature and experience new things my writing can only get better and hopefully more interesting to an audience.
I love the wave of all the new ways people can publicize their opinions and knowledge of subjects. I think blogs are great because they allow you to voice your opinion to an audience and you can do it as openly as you want. You can remain anonymous and therefore not be as victim to others scrutiny as you would be by doing it in person I think blogs have made people feel more comfortable with their own opinion . It’s comfortable knowing that you’re not the only one who feels a certain way or have fallen victim to a certain situation. The new media is allowing more people to communicate. People who never will have the chance to meet don’t have too they can simply chat or email back and forth. Groups can reach more people on the internet than in person. The new media is excellent. With everyone’s opinions it will be much easier to come up with diverse solution to problems that affect us all but no one can seem to pin point the right solution.