What I learned at the Mid-Year Symposium

1. The first presenter, Jeremy, presented a paper on stereotypes and how they effect people. I learned that just taking the time to talk to someone can eliminate stereotypes completely. He brought up an example of a former KKK member who, after speaking with a targeted group, changed his ways.
2. Melissa, the second presenter, read a paper about factory farming and organic farming. I learned that organic farming does not force chemicals on animals and is better for the animals.
3. The animals' schedules on organic farms are also not strictly scheduled like factory farming. Animals in factory farming also suffer physical and sexual abuse.
4. I also learned from Melissa that babies of factory farmers have an elevated risk of being born with birth defects. I personally wonder if this is due to physical exposure to the chemicals or the consumption of factory farmed food with a lot of chemicals.
5. Bridgette was the last presenter and she read her community paper about her old dance school. She said that the school is based on relationships and that it helps set the framework for future healthy relationships for the kids.
6. Dr. Emmons responded to Bridgette's paper by remarking that she agrees that relationships are the real building blocks of success, not your IQ. I personally agree with this comment and I think Bridgette's paper helped support it very well.

Essay Update

I have had a very rough time organizing my thoughts for this essay. I started out with the thought that the idea of love is entertainment, but the feeling is not. After a lot of struggles attempting to find sources to back up this argument, I decided to narrow down my thesis. Instead, I am going to argue that true love is not entertainment. I believe this to be true because true love is a feeling and an emotion. Emotions are dictated by events and actions that occur in everyday life. Entertainment is also an action that causes enjoyment. In entertainment being an action, true love cannot be entertainment. I hope to organize a survey and an interview to help back up the argument. I have also found one psychology article to help define love. I think that once all of my sources are in order and I have all of my evidence, my argument should work.