when i heard our course assignment was to go to one of New Orleans cemeteries i was really excited. being a native from new Orleans i have been to a few and knew what to expect:broken graves, names and words that i don’t know lol and learning about of my cities history. cemeteries have always caught my eye ever since i was little, not that i weird or anything lol but you can find out a lot about a place by its cemetery and spending some of my summers and lil opelousas and going to a church with a cemetery right in its backyard, little kids get nosey sometimes . i had a lot of fun at the cemetery, i think more fun then most how was complain so much that they missed out on a great experience. if you look past the dirt , beaming sun, wordless tombs and killer ants then you would see the most of the tombs there were a piece of art and history that you have to opportunity to look at for FREE. what i got out of going to the cemetery was a new friend, a free tour with a great tour guide, a taste of the past , and an experience of a lifetime. going to the cemetery made my see that new Orleans is like no other place, we are a true melting pot and you can clearly see that in our cemeteries with the integration of races, languages and culture. i love my cities and i so glad that i was about of trying to save a piece of our history at the st Louis cemetery.
Experience at the cemetery Saturday, May 2 2009
Uncategorized 12:38 am
When i found out that we had to go to the cemetery i was very socked and scared. Growing up i was very afraid of cemeteries, but as i got older it decreased with the funerals i attended. I never liked to walk through cemeteries because i always thought something was going to POP out at me. Going to the cemetery for a service learning project was a good learning experience. I was much more comfortable walking through the cemetery than i expected. Our job for the day was to update the cemetery plot map. I was so mind boggled by the fact that a lot of the names i was trying to find in my row were not there. I realized that over the years people didn’t keep up with the map. I had trouble trying to match the plots with my paper, so i know people who tried to find their love ones had trouble too. Looking back on my experience there was not as mad as i intended. I actually felt like i accomplished something when i finished my row of graves. It felt good to know that by me helping fix the map, it makes it a lot easier for people to come visit their love ones. The map will make it a lot easier to find people, and to help others maybe finish their family tree.
Do you believe in heaven? Friday, May 1 2009
Entry 2 9:36 pm
The question is do you believe in heaven. My answer to that question is yes of course I believe in heaven. I was brought up in the church and to believe in God. This is one reason that I believe in heaven. Many people believe in many different things. Some people believe in reincarnation. Reincarnation means to be made flesh again. According to certain beliefs a new personality is developed during each life in the physical world, but some part of the self remains constant throughout the successive life. Some other people believe that nothing happens to you when you die. Some others believe that nothing at all happens when you die, when you die that is it your just dead. Me, I believe in heaven. Growing up I was taught that heaven is a place for eternal life. I was also taught to make it to heaven you have to live right while you are alive. You can also make it to heaven if you cleanse yourself of your sins before you die. Heaven to me is a sacred place where you will be happy and content all the time. Heaven is a place where you would hope to go when you die. In “heaven” it is said that there is no pain, suffering or misery. So heaven is a place that I hope to reach when I die. I too hope to be in such a sacred place and not to have to deal with all of the misearable things that goes on in other places besides heaven.
Letter to a Xavier Teacher Friday, May 1 2009
Entry 6 9:00 pm
Dear Ms. Gafford,
I would never think that I would actually like to go to class. I enjoy going to your sociology class on mondays, wednesdays and fridays this semester. You are a very gifted teacher. I like the way how well you relate our discussions and topics in class to things that we can relate to as young students. It is refreshing to have a teacher still understands what it is like to be in school. I really enjoy going to a class where I don’t fall asleep during your lectures or feel the need to text or play around with my phone throughout the class period. One of my favorite things we did this semester in your sociology class was when we had to act out something we learned in the book. I found this very interesting and I know that most teachers on the college level would never do this. Not only it was a very unique style of teaching that worked extremely well for me, but it was also very entertaining and i grasped the concept of what you was teaching that much better. Ms. Gafford you also make it very comfortable to speak to you about the class. It is good to have a teacher that is very approachable because most teachers aren’t that way. Ms. Gafford I wish that you taught other classes besides sociology because I would probably be the first person to sign up for your class. Ms. Gafford you are probably my favorite teacher not only in my short college career but you are my favorite teacher in my educational career period.
From: Brandon Higgins
Write about your experience at a cementary. Friday, May 1 2009
Entry 8 8:14 pm
I can remember the first time i went to a cementary with my cousins. It was on Halloween and the scariest thing in my life. I was very young and just trying to go trick a treating. Well my cousins decieded to play a evil joke on me. We all stopped at the cementary and walked around. They told me we had to ask the dead people if it was ok to go because if we did not they would come back to get you. I was so scared, but i went right alone with it. As i was crying and walking asking the dead was it ok, my older cousins all ran back to the the car and drove off. I almost lost it. I jumped the fence and ran all the way to my Aunt house. When i became older i became very intreged by cementaries. I thought it would be a great idea for younger kids to understand about cementaries. They should not be scared of them, but they should see the beauty of them. They need to know that this is your final resting place. You know longer have to experience the hardships of life and school and all the other worldly problems. Most of the time you here about someones experience at a cementary it is always like my first one…bad, but i have had good experiences at cementaries. When i was a junior in high school i would go to church on sunday and when i felt like i could not talk to other people i would go to the cementay and talk to my dead realatives. I knew they could not talk to me back but it felt good to get all my problems off my chest and to me that is all that mattered.
Most Memorable Funeral Friday, May 1 2009
Entry 1 8:13 pm
Although I havent been to many funerals, one funeral that stood out to me was my Uncle’s funeral. My uncle name was David and he was my mother’s twin brother. My uncle david fell off of a thirty feet ladder while at work. He then remained in a coma four about nine months. His birthday is on Christmas and he died four days after his birthday on December twenty-ninth. This was about five years ago. His funeral was memorable to me because it was the first funeral that i ever been to that was someone very close to me. The funeral was held about two weeks after his death. My uncle david funeral was at Corpus Christi Catholic Church on St. Bernard in the seventh ward of New Orleans. Before the funeral started it was the viewing of the body. I was very sad in seeing his body just lying their without any sort of movement but I did not cry or anything I just held it in. I had to seem strong for my mother because out of her other five brothers and sisters she took my uncle death the hardest because it was her twin. She always tells me it felt like a part of her had died when her brother died. The thing I most remember about the funeral is the final b
Letter to an Xavier Professor. Friday, May 1 2009
Entry 6 7:59 pm
Dear Ms. Pounds,
Thank you for all your help in English. You have help transfrom my writing and I greatly appreciate that. You have given me much guideness through all the hard times. You have made English fun for me again. I have learned so much more and it made me think about changing my major. You have made writing become an everyday part of my life. This will only take me farther in life. If i can write good and put in detail my thoungts i know i will have no problem with making all my dream comes true. I also want to thank you for showing what i need to improve on in my writing. I know it is not the best yet, but i know that if i keep doing what you said, which is going to the writing center and really proof reading and allow others to proof read, i can acheive those goals that i plan to reach sometime in my future. You helped me realize that writing can take me anywhere in the world i am willing to go. You also made reading fun for me again. You helped me find books that grabes my attention. I know now what is in my intrest and i can now read books that are not to my liking. You taught me that you can always find something i a book that you can relate to or you know that happened to someone else. So i would just like to say again thank you and i hope i can contuinue to come to you for guideness.
Interview an upper-classperson at Xavier and ask them what Xavier’s mission means to them. Friday, May 1 2009
Entry 4 7:30 pm
In a interview with a Xavier student, I ask him what did Xavier’m mission statement ment to them? He said that creating a more just and humane society ment equal oppertunities. He believed this ment doing and giving back to the community. To him the mission statement means hard work. To go out in the world and make a difference. He said that the only way to make a more just and humane society was to go to school and get a higher education. To have knowledge and give back to the community will show others that there are still people out there in the world that care about others and is willing to show their concern for the world. If we show that we care. Maybe in reture it will make them want to do better. Showing love for one another can put a end to a lot of the violence and crime that we have in the world. Having a just humane society will show the leadership skills people have recived during the years they have gathered going to Xavier. In all this he said he believe that Xavier’s mission statement to him means to become a leader in society. To go out into the world and take charge of your life. Just be mindful of what is happening around you. Be a leader and not a follower and learn how to listen. Xavier’s mission statement is teaching you have to grow and live in the socity and helping you make a differnce in it.
the society of the cemetery Thursday, Apr 30 2009
Entry 7 7:38 pm
what do u learn about a society from a cemetery? well you can learn a whole lot actually. you can learn what significant events went 0n during that time that changed a society or you can learn how the culture was set up like if it had private cemeteries for certain people due to there involvement in a social club, the church, or ethnic background. you can see what year the society had the most deaths and what kind of people lived during that time, like in the new Orleans cemetery we can see that many French people lived during the period of their death. you can lean if the society had a long or short lifespan and what was the cause to their short of long lifspan. you can see what types of illness that went on during that time. you can tell how where you are and how the enviromnet around is through the a society gravegard, life if they bury the dead underground or have above graves like New Orleans due to us being under see level. a cemetery can tell you what time era it was built in by the word on the tombs and the symbols and make of them also.
My Experience at the cemetery Thursday, Apr 30 2009
Entry 8 5:53 pm
I think that my experience at the cemetery was enjoyable. At first i thought that it was going to be very boring and I was going to have to walk around in the hot sun all day long. I also wasn’t to happy to be up early in the morning on a Saturday Morning. Once we got on the bus everyone was laughing and talking so it wasn’t that bad. Once we got there the ladies who talked to us were very nice and I learned the reason we were there to document the names. We we helping to make a database of the people who were buried there. She told me that families could search for their love ones, historians could also search information. My group and I did really well. We finished sort of early with our names. I thought that it was pretty cool how there were ten and eleven people buried in the same tomb. It was also interesting that the same common last names kept popping up. I saw tourist walking around looking at the tombs also which was new to me because I never knew that people toured cemeteries.Again this experience at the cemetery was very fun and I would love to do it again.
