Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Me, Myself and English 111





Nevin Finnie
English 111 D45B
Assignment 1
27 August 2009



My Best Job



It was July 30, 2001; I remember being seated on a plane nervously awaiting its departure to Great Lakes, IL. I was about to embark on a journey that would take me to the best job I ever had. After graduating high school and not having the motivation to go to college, I felt as if I was at a lost on a new path for my life. After being hounded on a daily basis by my mother on what I was going to do with my life, I had to come up with a plan. I had to find something that would stimulate my mind as well as fulfill my passion of being an engineer. At that time, I had a cousin who had served two years in the Navy. I asked her what she thought of it as a career choice for me, and for insight into the pros and cons of enlisting into the military. After much thought, I enlisted and soon after headed off for boot camp.

I clearly remember stepping off of the bus into one hundred degrees of pure heat. That day was the first day of a long eight weeks of training. Boot camp really was not as hard as I thought it would be. In fact, in many ways it helped me grow. I got a quick lesson on being independent as well as working on a team. The days and weeks seemed to fly by and in no time I was graduating for the second time in one year. I was graduating boot camp!

After boot camp, I had to get some valuable training I would need for my new job. So I was off to Engineman class “A” school, where I learned a lot about diesel engines and other equipment I would need to know about to effectively complete my job. I learned to break down the engines and to rebuild them, make fresh water from salty sea water.

January 2002, a set of orders came in for me. I had been assigned to my first duty station, the USS Porter (DDG-78), home ported in Norfolk, VA. The Porter was a guided missile destroyer that had a crew of 350 personnel. Starting out on such an amazing structure, I finally got to see in person what I have always seen in books and on television. There were steep stairs, small passage ways and pipes everywhere. The work was hard at times, but the friendships and the different ways to pass time on long under ways over shadowed the workload. Everyone on the ship had different ways to stay entertained, but when duty called we had to respond.

In February, 2003, we were called to surge deploy with the Theodore Roosevelt battle group to the Red Sea to carry out orders. We traveled through the Mediterranean Sea and through the Suez Canal to get to our destination. We arrived March 20, 2003, to await the arrival of a high ranking Admiral to embark our ship. It was then I learned my ship was going to make history. The next night my ship was the first to attack Iraq. Guided missiles lit up the night sky. I knew then that I had seen and been a part of something that only one could wish for. Upon returning back to Norfolk Naval base, I manned the rails with the rest of the crew and felt a sense of pride as I saw and heard all the cheering families as we approached the pier.

During my time on the USS Porter and my time in the Navy I have been too many countries and have seen different cultures. I made a lot of friends and experienced things that I will never forget. Being in the military made me feel proud of my country and respect my history. I decided to get out the Navy in 2007 and start a new journey in life, but when I think back on my Navy days I know without a doubt that was the best job I ever had.



My Best Job


It was July 30, 2001; I remember being seated on a plane nervously awaiting its departure to Great Lakes, IL. I was about to embark on a journey that would take me to the best job I ever had. After graduating high school and not having the motivation to go to college, I felt as if I was at a lost on a new path for my life. After being hounded on a daily basis by my mother on what I was going to do with my life, I had to come up with a plan. I had to find something that would stimulate my mind as well as fulfill my passion of being an engineer. At that time, I had a cousin who had served two years in the Navy. I asked her what she thought of it as a career choice for me, and for insight into the pros and cons of enlisting into the military.After much thought, I enlisted and soon after headed off for boot camp.


After boot camp, I had to get some valuable training I would need for my new job.

So I was off to Engineman class “A” school, where I learned a lot about diesel engines and other equipment I would need to know about to effectively complete my job. I learned to break down the engines and to rebuild them, make fresh water from salty sea water.


January 2002, a set of orders came in for me. I had been assigned to my first duty station, the USS Porter (DDG-78), home ported in Norfolk, VA. Starting out on such an amazing structure, I finally got to see in person what I have always seen in books and on television. There were steep stairs, small passage ways and pipes everywhere. The work was hard at times, but the friendships and the different ways to pass time on long under ways over shadowed the workload. Everyone on the ship had different ways to stay entertained, but when duty called we had to respond.


In February, 2003, we were called to surge deploy with the Theodore Roosevelt battle group to the Red Sea to carry out orders. We traveled through the Mediterranean Sea and through the Suez Canal to get to our destination. We arrived March 20, 2003, to await the arrival of a high ranking Admiral to embark our ship. It was then I learned my ship was going to make history. The next night my ship was the first to attack Iraq. Guided missiles lit up the night sky. I knew then that I had seen and been a part of something that only one could wish for.


After we played or part in the war we began to serve as an Ambassador Ship and visit many countries around Europe. The first place we stopped at was Spain. I was so ready to hit the beach because I heard they were nude beaches. Indeed they were. I was young at the time so that excited me. Well it still excites me. Besides the nude beaches in Spain, The country also has a lot of culture. The people there were nice and loved Americans. After leaving Spain we headed up to Northern France. It was cold!!! It was nothing what I expected. As my shipmate and I walked down the street people gave us awkward looks and did not make us feel welcome at all. But as sailors we did what we do best, which was drink. We hit up the clubs and turned them out. We did that in most of the countries we visited. As my ship was out to sea we were a part of a team of ship from different countries like France, Italy, England, Greece and Chetz Republic.


Upon returning back to Norfolk Naval base, I manned the rails with the rest of the crew and felt a sense of pride as I saw and heard all the cheering families as we approached the pier.


In 2005 I transferred duty stations. I went to a command that worked with small boats. As I got to my new duty station I learned that life was going to be easy. It was a shore command so I did not have to worry about being on a ship and going out to sea all the time. I did missions on high speed attack boats that acted like the enemy to our Navy ships. On one mission which was my favorite was when six of or boat sat out in the Willoughby Bay and waited for one of the carriers to leave port and head out to sea. Once it got it the channel where we needed it to be we began our attack. Six high speed boats coming from six direction from over five miles away at an aircraft carrier is crazy. But I was a part of it. Our mission was to act like we were attacking the ship and were going to run into it. The ship needed to know what level their force protection was on and if they were ready for an attack. The crew on the ship did not know of the mission, only the officers. All six of our boat approached the ship at the same time. They were not ready for how fast we approached them. If it was a real attack, that ship would have been history. We broke off the attack run at one hundred yards from the ship and returned to base. We did many missions like this and another amazing thing was our boats were also remote control. This was my last command but my most favorite, too bad they decommissioned.


During my time in the Navy I have been too many countries and have seen different cultures. I made a lot of friends and experienced things that I will never forget. Being in the military made me feel proud of my country and respect my history. I decided to get out the Navy in 2007 and start a new journey in life, but when I think back on my Navy days I know without a doubt that was the best job I ever had.


My Time in English 111

As my first semester in college comes to an end I look back on this class and realized how far I have come with my writing. I’m not at the level I need to be on but I have learned enough to get me on the path to success. I am a student in Mr. Paul Gasparo’s English 111 class at Tidewater Community College. Mr. Gasparo seems to be a little different from what I expected as an English instructor. He is younger and has a sense of humor. Although at times I did not know what was going on in class on a day to day basis things still fell into place. I feel it would have helped if we did more in class writing and them critiqued by our peers as well as Mr. Gasparo. The peer critiques were a great idea but more critique from the instructor would have helped. One of my classmates said it best by saying “peer critiquing is like the blind leading the blind”. I would have to agree with him because I have no business critiquing someone else’s writing. It did help me with seeing how other people write and what I need to look for.

Some of the videos we watched in class I feel were pointless and did not have anything to do with helping with my writing skills. There were a lot of reading assignments that were posted on Blackboard that were required to read as well. A lot of those I felt were pointless too. I understand they may have been meant to get our critical thinking up to par but I need more exercises to help with my writing skills. When I started out this semester I thought English was going to be much harder than what it was. I thought I was going to have most of my time taken up by writing papers and doing research. We’ve had roughly ten assignments that involved us writing. Most of them were short papers. Well compared to my roommates English class they were all short papers. My favorite assignment of them all was the Resume and Cover Letter assignment simply because already knew how to write a resume and that every resume can be different. Although I knew how to write a resume I did learn something new. I also had a few grammar errors I needed to fix. One of my least favorite assignments is the Blog. It’s something I never done and I feel I will never get into as far as a hobby or job. It is a great idea on behalf of Mr. Gasparo because our advance in technology will require many people to use the internet. Also having my writings posted on the internet for anyone to see also scares me because I know my writing level is not where I would like it to be. The Argument paper was not my most favorite but it was the most effective. It was the main assignment that helped me get into a writing state of mind. It challenged me to meet the criterion which was required from my instructor and the standards of a research paper. Although the topic I chose was a lot different than most of my classmates, I feel It was a good topic and may gain the interest of some people. Now I’m just dredging the Argument presentation. I do not like talking in front of people.

I do not regret taking Mr. Gasparo for my first college English class. If anything I needed him as my instructor. If it was a person who was hard and had a lot of work I probably would have switched classes. Once Mr. Gasparo gets more organized and a feel for what the students want and need, I believe he will be a great instructor. I encourage anyone to take Mr. Gasparo for Enlish 111 at Tidewater Community College. For anyone taking Mr. Gasparo in the future, come in with an open mind, be patient and be willing to have a little fun.