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Only having been a part of this class for a day i have already learned so much. Talking about my gender was never a problem for me because i am cisgender, but for my younger sister it is different. Not knowing about the gender spectrum, I labeled my sister; who has always loved Spiderman, always played the boy when we used to played dolls, and loves basketball shorts, as a tomboy, and when she got older and still dressed like a "boy" I thought: welp, shes gay, but im okay with that. Being so young, she herself may not know her sexuality, but for me I realized that just because she dresses and acts a certain way, reflects nothing about her sexuality. Maybe she's just a girl who likes to dress in "guy" clothes, maybe she will perfer the personal pronoun he, maybe she wants to wear makeup and baggy jeans and Jordans and a dress on occasion. I never looked at gender as something that could be fluid, but I am so glad I now know, not only for my own understanding, but to help my sister love herself for who she is, and know that I love her for whoever she wants to be.

While reading Henig, I kept being struck by the fact that they were only examining play in children. Of course, psychologically I suppose it makes sense, because of the relationship between brain growth and play. But play does not stop once you reach puberty. For many people I know (including myself), play is still a huge part of our lives. We get together to play (informal or formal) sports, board games (which are in fact often made specifically for mature people, not just children), video games... The list goes on. It just seemed astonishing to me that the article did not mention that play does not stop when the brain is developed.

Bloomberg's article on the other hand reminded me of the Statistics class I took last year, when we learned about the algorithms used to personalize things like Amazon suggestions and Facebook ads. I thought then, and still do, that it's a good idea, at least for ads. Companies are more likely to sell things if, for example, they advertise shoes instead of football gear to me. But doing the same thing for newspapers? I'm not quite sure I like that idea. One of my favorite things about newspapers is that you get a combination of all the news that's happening, not just one narrow field that you already happen to be interested in. I would never learn new things about the world if the newspaper only showed me articles on feminism or fashion, because I already keep up with those on websites made specifically for those topics. Newspapers should stay generalized, just to keep the world informed. It's what they're made for, after all.

Play defined my childhood. I remember playing “restaurant” in middle school; I would invite my parents up to Restaurante de’Ellen, where they would sit on my bed and enjoy the fine gourmet cuisine of plastic food. I drew a stovetop on my dry erase boards and played soft music in the background. I rearranged lights and set out books as a “table”.  I made menus and designed a store sign. I played the waitress and the cook, making up a background for each of them and putting on a fake accent. This play of mine was necessary to my development, and while reading Henig’s article, I was again saddened by how long it’s been since I’ve looked in my “fake food bin”.

I completely agree with Henig’s assertion of the importance of play. I think my particular background with fake food falls into the “play as preparation” hypothesis. That’s not to say that I aspire to be a chef or waitress, but I think it shows how I became so outgoing. Greeting my parents with different identities, each one outgoing and welcoming has helped me to become the person I am today. 

I love playing. Playing makes me happy, relaxed and imaginative. Even if the playing is too dangerous, it still owns advantages. But, different kind of games maybe can lead to various results. I really can’t recall some experience about playing time when I was little but I know the playing is completely different now. Like it said in “Taking play seriously”, many kids nowadays are addicted to computer games and other games only needed the fingers to move. I never liked playing the video games. It is exhausting for me to sit on the chair and stare at the screen whole time. I think it’s true that video game is not a playing benefited to people. People are not evolved in the game by just moving their fingers. Also, playing the video games is more dangerous, for it’s unrealistic and violent sometimes. Playing is a natural process, no matter it’s beneficial to the brain development or not, it is people’s right to follow their instinct and explore the real world during participating.

While reading "Taking Play Seriously" by Robin Marantz Henig, I started to become very frustrated. The psychologists in this article were taking all the fun out of playing.

I plan on majoring in Psychology, so at first I was very intrigued about the motivations behind playing. But as I realized that the psychologists were zooming-in so close and nit-pickingat every small detail, so much so that playing no longer resembled playing, I stopped wanting to read the article. I know that when it comes to psychology, if there's a behavior there's always going to be someone investigating the why. But trying to place a definition on an act that is so innnate and child-centered seeems to detract from the very nature of the word. Playing is playing. It's having fun and exploring what's around you. It's done for the exact reasons it appears to be done- to socialize, stretch the imagination, and, most importantly, because it makes people happy.

Sometimes I wish psychologists could just let some things be. I'd rather not know the chemicals involved in love or the steps involved in grieving. Some actions and emotions are just natural and they make us who we are. So please, don't take play too seriously. 

Like Henig, I am uncertain of the benefits of play. However, when I worked at a summer camp this year, I was assured that there are benefits. Having a variety of campers with mental and emotional disorders, the campers in my group were very sensitive to each other's energies. If even one person got rambunctious, the whole group would start screaming and tossing pieces of clay in the air. To avoid this, we began to have dance parties in classrooms, incorporate songs into work time, and take breaks to play "Big Booty." This playtime greatly improved my campers' attitudes. They would have more fun and be more productive because they weren't affected by or creating a group-wide temper tantrum. My happiest memory from this past summer is when my campers were building robots and laughing in between every song lyric that was blasted out of the radio.

The essay of Henig totally recalled my memory of family times, when my father always complains how technologies have been ruining my childhood: I have never climbed trees or catched an insect in my childhood----but these were never anything I would love to do. I spent time with my childhood friends playing card games or acting plays, we enjoyed pretending to be someone in the TV series. But there was little time for playing since I was attending preschool classes and take piano, drawing, handwriting, taekwondo at the same time. They don’t want me to be left behind by other kids, and arranged a busy schedule for me.

And the serendipity essay by Sunstein, I have to say the only reason I buy magazines and newspaper is that those wide range of random messages cannot be replaced by online surfing. I want to read something I have no previous experience or knowledge of, and want a little surprise for life. I always read through the whole paper---even the name of the editors on the back, which is like an exploring experience.

It was interesting to hear what struck other people about my writing; I heard several comments on the vividness of my imagery, and the transition from general to personal. I was very pleased and amused to hear that “extravaganza” was among the most noticeable words in the paper; it seems fitting that “extravaganza” was the center of attention. The feedback I got made me feel pleased with my work; nothing quite so active as happy, but well contented, which was a marvelous change from immediately after I originally submitted my paper, by which point I was tired, stressed, and worried about other things. I hope to take from this exercise a renewed appreciation of the vividness of words, and the confidence to use them artfully.

When you taste something for the first time, your tongue seems a lot more sensitive as it tries to taste every ingredient in whatever you're indulging in. The tongue wants to know exactly what it's tasting in order to decide if it likes it or not. It can't judge the food based on one ingredient, your taste is based on the overall food experience. Same goes with the overall experience of a city, you can't judge it based on one distinct area of it. I believe you have to really dedicate some time to get to know the city well all around, the good, the bad, and the ugly. In order to understand how well a certain city functions, how it's structured, and what it holds for its people, one has to involve itself with the city and explore past the known and recomended areas of the city.