Bipolar Depression

Bipolar Depression

Do you sometimes feel beautiful and other times feel hideous? Can you be irritable or easily angered? Do you suffer from severe mood swings? Ever had periods of tearfulness and crying and other times when you laugh and joke excessively? Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder, is a mental condition in which a person alternates between feelings of mania and depression (Sommers 1). These feelings are extreme opposites, and therefore create magnificent mental and physical stress on the person affected.

Some of Hollywood’s favorite stars suffer from a bipolar disease, and being on the big screen does not make their life any easier. Stars like Robin Williams, Ben Stiller, and Jim Carrey who are known for their humor have experienced a bipolar disorder (McManamy 1). When we see celebrities with similar issues as us, it erases the stigma of it. Not many diseases in society change lives, affect relationships, and can be suicidal all at the same time (Eyers 23). Everyone tends to have ‘off’ days and better days than others, but if you’re suffering from a bipolar disorder, then it can become a bit more serious.

Approximately 4 million Americans will suffer from bipolar disorder in their lifetimes (Sommers 4). If bipolar disorder is not treated, it can lead to serious illness, longer treatment, and even death due to suicide or risky behavior. The disorder is characterized by alternating periods of excessive moods. A person with bipolar disorder experiences cycling of moods that usually swing from being overly ecstatic to hopelessly sad, and periods of normal mood in between (Miklowitz 23). For those who have this disorder, it can be extremely stressful and disruptive.

It’s not simple for patients to come to terms with themselves that they have a bipolar personality (McManamy 1). Comedian Robin Williams was not openly acknowledged of his illness, and thought to be a victim of bipolar disorder has resulted in his creativity and impulsivity. In this situation, bipolar disorder may be a positive side effect because it has allowed Robin Williams to function in society and make a significant role in terms of comedic and improvisation. Whereas, Ben Stiller was the opposite. He was openly acknowledged that bipolar disorder has affected his life with episodes of angry outbursts leading to conflict and media attention (McManamy 1-2). The symptoms of people with bipolar disorder are likely to involve irritability, guilt, unpredictable mood swings, and thoughts of restlessness. People with this disorder also have a tendency to move and speak slowly, sleep a lot, and gain weight (Eyers 88). Additionally, they are expected to develop psychotic depression, a condition in which they’ve lost contact with reality and experience major disability in work and social functioning (Miklowitz 103).

Bipolar disorder typically begins in adolescence, or early adulthood, and continues throughout life (Sommers 57). Young people under the age of thirty are at greater risk than older people for developing bipolar disorder (Sommers 57-58). Bipolar disorder is hereditary; therefore, if someone in your family has suffered from it, you might as well. Ben Stiller realized there were possible signs of bipolar disorder on his mother’s side; his grandmother committed suicide (Read and Purse 1). It is often not recognized at first as a serious disorder, and people who have it may suffer needlessly for years or even decades. It is a serious mood disorder that affects a person's ability to function in every day activities. It affects one's work, one's family, and one's social life (Eyers 22). The earlier bipolar disorder is diagnosed and treated, the better the chance of getting the disorder under control. The longer a person goes without treatment, the more difficult it can be to effectively treat the disorder and improve the person's quality of life (Miklowitz 110). Without treatment, 25% of people who have bipolar disorder attempt suicide. Up to 60% of those with bipolar disorder who do not seek treatment develop drug and alcohol abuse problems, which then makes it difficult to successfully treat their bipolar disorder (Sommers 86). There is no cure for bipolar disorder. However, bipolar disorder can be effectively treated. The best treatment for people who have bipolar disorder is a combination of medication and counseling (Sommers 84).

Some patients benefit from taking an antidepressant or a mood-stabilizing drug, both which have been used to treat bipolar disorder for several decades (Miklowitz 8). Jim Carrey believes medicines are not the answer because he wasn't getting to the bottom of his anger and frustration from the medication he was taking (Davis 1). In some scenarios, the medication is not enough for the patient and further therapy is needed. The main goal for therapists with a bipolar patient is to educate them about their disease, try to increase agreement with medication, and help them deal with the psychosocial impact that the disease has had and will continue to have on their life (Eyers 100). However, the most imperative aspect in treating for bipolar disorder is to make the patient be aware that they have a disease, and that they will require medication for the rest of their lives (Maj 193-94).

There are several types of bipolar disorder; all involve periods of depression and mania to a certain degree (Sommers 3). A bipolar disorder patient may go through mixed episodes or hypomanic episodes. A mixed episode contains characteristics of both manic and depressive stages occurring at the same time. Mixed episodes are the most difficult to solve, because different types of medicines are necessary for different episodes. A hypomanic episode is characterized by less severe and less restricting symptoms of mania. Doctors often overlook hypomanic episodes, which often leads to misdiagnosing (Maj 1). When a person goes through full manic or mixed episode and goes through episodes of complete depression, it is called "Bipolar I Disorder." When a person has had at least one hypomanic episode, and at least one complete depressive episode, yet never goes through a full manic or a full mixed episode, it is called a “Bipolar II Disorder (Maj 2)”. During the rapid cycling stage, a person with bipolar disorder experiences four or more episodes of mania or depression in one year (Sommers 34).

Though the effects of bipolar disorder can be dreadful for all involved, the doctors continue to improve treatments. Therapy and current medicine may solve the essential causes of bipolar disorder and be able to eliminate them. Until then, people with bipolar disorder must do their best to accept their disease and take responsibility for their treatment. This disease can affect anyone; it is not a rare disease. Many famous people had it, all the way back to the 1800's, and still, today; it’s difficult to cure. Normal people have it, handicapped children have it, and even some of the highest-paid movie stars have it.

Works Cited

Davis, Tom. "Coping with Life." Jim Carrey. 20 Mar. 2008. Web.

Eyers, Kerrie. Mastering Bipolar Disorder : An Insider's Guide to Managing Mood Swings and Finding Balance. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2008.

Maj, Mario. Bipolar Disorder. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2003.

McManamy, John. "McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web." Comedy's Fab Five. 3 Jan. 2004. Web. .

Miklowitz, David J. Bipolar Disorder : A Family-Focused Treatment Approach. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Publications, Inc, 2008.

Read, Kimberly, and Marcia Purse. "Bipolar Disorder." Ben Stiller- Comedian & Actor. New

York Times Company, 4 Aug. 2007. Web. .

Sommers, Michael A. Everything you need to know about bipolar disorder and manic depressive

illness. 1st ed. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 2000.

Profile

Reflective Memo

The goal of my profile is to tell my fathers job description as a funeral director. This is a unique career and not many people know what the job entails. I want my audience to think how demanding it is to be a funeral director and how you need to be a very dedicated and hard working person, just like my father.

In order to complete my profile, I had to do some research on an actual funeral director. Since my father is a funeral director, I decided to spend a day with him and took notes on everything he did around the house, within the office and during an actual arrangement. After I spent the day with him, I started writing out my information in an outline. I wrote down a lot of information, so it was difficult to narrow down what was important and what was not. Once it came time to put it altogether in an essay, it was actually very easy. I had all my thoughts already, so the only thing I had to do was reword some of the phrases into complete sentences.

The problems that I encountered while writing my outline was I didn’t get enough information on a specific topic. Therefore, my father emailed me some funeral home documents that he uses so I can get a better understanding of making arrangements. Some problems that I encountered while writing my draft was I didn’t know how I wanted the beginning, middle, and end to all go together. After talking with Dr. Simon, I decided to start the beginning with my father, and the middle will be about what his job entails as a funeral director. Then, the end will tell about my father’s background and my personal thoughts and experience of having a father as a funeral director.

This writing has compared with other writings in the past because it is a profile on my father’s occupation. I never realized how much time and effort he puts into his job when he is actually in the funeral home. I believe that being a funeral director is not a common or normal profession, but it was very interesting learning about what he does with families to help them cope with their deceased loved ones.

During the drafting process, my peers have helped me improved my writing. Everyone in my group agreed that I need to condense my essay and make it shorter. Natalie and Brittany thought I should try to make my conclusion stronger and more forceful. Dr. Simon helped me rearrange the order of some of my paragraphs to make it flow better by adding some dialogue into my essay.

After receiving the comments back on my second draft, I decided to go to the writing center for another opinion on my essay. The writing center was very useful because Lily helped me take out any unnecessary information and add some descriptive language to make my father sound more interesting. However, Lily and I did not agree with some of Dr. Simon’s comments. We agreed that the dialogue added humor into the essay, so we decided to leave some of the dialogue and take some of it out. Lily and I also worked on showing what happens, rather than just telling it in the story. Lily was very beneficial at the writing center, and I will definitely go back to her for another one of my essays!

Funeral Director

On the wee hours of a Saturday morning, I hear my mother’s footsteps as she descends the stairs. In frustration, she goes to the front door and yells out to my father.

“Bruce, it’s three o’clock in the morning. Where are you going?”

I hear his faint reply.

“Just got another death call. I need to go pick up a body in Somerville.”

Thirty years in the funeral business is like fifty years in any other business. If you are willing to work at all times in an atmosphere of grief; if you are willing to be “on duty” 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year round; if you are willing to be called in by police and firemen to care for the disfigured victims of accidents or violence at any time of the day or night; and if you are willing to work always under the pressure of split-second timing, then being a funeral director is the answer.

Being the daughter of a funeral director is irritating because all you ever hear about is death, and nothing else. My father runs his own business with the help and support of my mother. I have watched them in action ever since I was a little girl. It is clear that a funeral director will not be successful if he or she cannot learn to compromise. Because morticians are workaholics, they have to accept reality and change their plans if they have to. With a business like this, it is nearly impossible to be able to play golf, see a movie, or even go on vacation for a few days. In another words, my dad is married to his business phone. He sits around and waits for the phone to ring every minute of the day. On a typical morning, I come downstairs and all I hear my parents talking about is who just died and who is waiting to get embalmed.

As I’m having breakfast, later that day, my dad returns from the morning house call. My mom’s sitting across from me at the table, and calls him into the kitchen.

“Bruce, you’ll never believe who I saw at the food store today,” exclaims Linda.

“I don’t have time for your nonsense right now, I am busy and I need to call back the hospital.” Bruce replies.

“Well I saw that lady, Mrs. Morris, that was diagnosed with stage five cancer and she seemed to be just fine!”

“Well good for her, but what a waste of my time. I could have been out on the golf course,” he responds.

My dad returns to his office to make the call and tries to finish the paperwork that’s piling up on his desk, and adding to his stress. On a regular day, my dad first gets the phone call that someone has passed away. Once the death has occurred, the family may demand immediate assistance for the body to be picked up or they may want to spend more time with the deceased to say goodbye. Then, my dad will take the deceased to the funeral home to begin the preparation for embalming. The restorative art needs to be finished after the embalming as well as the dressing of the body, hairdressing, and cosmetology.

While making arrangements, my dad tries to conduct a complete consultation with the family members to gather necessary information. It’s his job as a mortician to guide the family in the cost consideration of a funeral, and not allow anyone to go beyond their financial means in the selection of a funeral. Of course my dad suggests having a funeral with visitation hours, but many people choose to have cremations because they are cheaper. However, funerals help families deal with the grief process and allow them to see the deceased for one last time. During arrangements, my father will show the families a selection of prayer cards, caskets, vaults, and gravestones to choose for the deceased. He will additionally ask the family to bring in any pictures to be included in a picture slideshow during the visitation hours, and to choose an outfit for the body to be dressed in. At last, my dad will compile all the information that the family has given him and put it into an obituary that will be placed in the newspaper.

For my dad Bruce, it all started with one part time summer job at the family funeral home. In 1977, Bruce took the experience he had and the college credit he gained at the University of Maryland and enrolled in the Mercer County Community College Funeral Services program. In 1980, he graduated with an associate degree in Science. He subsequently received his state license as a Practitioner of Mortuary Science at the age of 20, and then began working full time as a funeral director. After twenty years of working at the family funeral home, in 2000, Bruce opened Somerville’s newest funeral home and continued to provide for the needs of families in the Somerville and surrounding neighborhoods. Lastly in 2005, my father’s dream came true. After five years of renting a funeral home, he was finally able to build his own state-of-the-art funeral home.

It is crazy how much stress a funeral director is under on a daily basis. Should we have the family come in the morning or afternoon? Wait, the other family isn’t going to be out in time. The flowers are not here yet. Can you call the florist? Is the death certificate signed yet? The phone is ringing, why is nobody answering it? Since my father is an undertaker, I hear him say these things or ask these questions constantly. I’m not even in the business and after spending a day with my father; I tend to have a massive headache.

I am embarrassed sometimes to admit what my father does for a living, though I should not be. People may think of my father as a creepy man that only wears black suits and loves being around dead people, but in reality, he touches lives when people need it the most, offering guidance, and support to those making important end-of-life decisions for their loved ones. In today’s society with all the devastating news stories about people being murdered and children being kidnapped, sometimes it’s safer to be around dead people opposed to people that are alive.

Personal Narrative

Reflective Memo

The goal of this paper is to tell my life story of being a gymnast and how my life changed after getting injured. After reading my paper, I want the audience to realize how your goals and dreams might not come true, but you will still be happy in the end. The writing strategy that I used to write this paper was making a brief outline of my passion for gymnastics and how I felt before, during, and after my injury. I did not go into detail on my outline; however, I just wrote bullets of what each paragraph was going to be about.

My essay has changed throughout the drafting process because I ended up making drastic changes for every draft. For my first draft, I went back and took out some information that was repeated or wasn’t important. Then for my second draft, I decided to start my essay off with my injury and then explain the events that led up to the actual injury. Lastly, for my final draft, I took out all the information about cheerleading and mainly focused on gymnastics and my injury. The part about cheerleading was just addition information that I could have used for a whole different paper. Some problems I came across while writing this paper was that I did not know how to word some of the ideas I wanted to write about. I knew in my head how everything happened, but I thought it was more difficult to put my ideas in an actual essay.

This writing has compared to other writings I have written in the past because it was a true story about me. I believe that it is so much easier writing about something that happen to you because you can write your feelings down as you write the paper. Also, while I was writing this paper, it brought back some great memories and made me realize how much I loved gymnastics and how upset I was once I got hurt.

The lesson that I learned while writing a personal narrative is that you don’t know if you’re going to have enough information to write about, or maybe even too much information until you actually start writing. At first, I had to switch what I was going to write about because I knew I couldn’t talk about my old topic in an essay. I could sum it up in a few paragraphs, but it wasn’t long enough. Then once I had my new topic, I realized I had too much information. The skills that I need to sharpen when writing a personal narrative is trying to use different describing words and write more about my emotions and feelings. When writers do this, it makes their writing more descriptive and gives their readers a better understand of how they are feeling.

The comments of the people that read my paper in class were very useful to me. Danielle, Giovanna, and Dan all agreed that I needed to go into more detail on my injury and how I felt after it happened. Also, they told me that I should try to grab the audience’s attention more in the beginning paragraph. Dr. Simon gave me an idea of starting off with my injury and doing a flashback, which I thought was a great idea. I believe that my second draft of my personal narrative is much better because of my classmate’s comments and thoughts.

After visiting the writing center, Megan helped me improve on the areas where my classmates and I thought needed work. She helped me with some grammatical errors, as well as making my conclusion sound more forceful. In order to do so, she made me free-write about my feelings after I got hurt and then we discussed it, and tried to add it into the conclusion. The writing center was extremely helpful to me because I was able to get another person’s opinion on my paper. After my first experience at the writing center, I know that I will definitely be going back there!

A Broken Dream

Bam! There I was, face planted on the floor, looking like I just fell from the Empire State Building. At that moment, I knew I had thrown away everything that I ever worked for. My fingers were shattered, and they were starting to swell up to the size of a tennis ball. I knew right then that I dislocated my finger bones. When I landed the trick, I hit my head so hard that I could not even move it if I tried. All the other girls in the gym, looking like blurs, came running up to me asking if I was okay, but I was in a state of shock and in excruciating pain. I had no idea where I was. I felt lifeless. My gymnastics coach kept asking me if I was okay, but I was not responding to him. He tried to help me up, but I was not moving from that mat. I felt as if my head was not attached to the rest of my body.

Once my coach gave me ice for my fingers, they started feeling numb. My head was still pounding, and I was trying to sit up. I kept seeing little stars shooting out the corner of my eyes. I knew something was not right, but at this point I didn’t even care. While I tried recuperating, I asked my coach if this was going to heal in time for Nationals, which were only two months away. The look on his face did not seem too promising. I lost it. I started hysterically crying. I had just thrown away my dream.

Every little girl’s dream is to go to the Olympics. It was my dream as well. At the age of five, I entered the gymnastics world and fell in love with it. I remember how I felt at my very first gymnastics class: excited and scared, with visions of myself in the distant future as an Olympic gymnast in a sparkle leotard. I continued to do gymnastics, advancing slowly by levels each year, and working twice as hard during the weeks. I lived and breathed gymnastics; it was what kept me happy and I didn’t want to do anything else. My family room couch was used for doing flips off of and practicing what I had just learned at practice. During my spare time, I would watch gymnastics movies or even taped episodes of Shawn Johnson, who was my Olympic gymnast idol. I was going to be an Olympic gymnast, and I would do anything to achieve that goal.

When it came time for high school, I had no idea that being on the varsity high school gymnastics team was going to be so much more competitive and stressful. The team practiced everyday after school, and we did everything together. The first day of practice the coach told us our life consisted of eating, sleeping, and gymnastics. She was not kidding. Sometimes I thought I was with the gymnasts more than my own family! We came in first place in almost every meet, being known as the best team and everyone’s worst competitor. It was the best feeling anyone could ask for being on a team with great benefits. All of the hours spent working out in the gym paid off at every meet by landing our tumbling pass or even simply by not falling off the balance beam.

During the year, I was working on perfecting a skill that I never even thought I was going to be able to do. Every night at tumbling, I would get closer and closer to mastering it as if I just learned how to do a cartwheel, except this move consisted of being upside down and twisting in the air all within a split second. I would make little mistakes each time, and I would get so frustrated with myself. Therefore, one day, I was feeling confident in myself and I decided to go for it with no help, no spot, and most importantly no coach being around to catch me if I fell.

The doctor walked in and showed me my x-rays. I didn’t even hear what the doctor was saying, I just knew. I was out of commission for four months because of my broken fingers and head concussion. I could not do gymnastics anymore. I was still a part of the gymnastics team, along with my broken fingers that were useless for the team. It was so hard going to practice watching the girls practice on the same blue mat and me not being there right along side of them. That small injury of mine actually ended my career as a gymnast. I thought I was going to be able to get right back into the skills where I left off before I got hurt, but I wasn’t able too. It was so much more difficult and I didn’t want to relearn skills I learned when I was ten years old. There was nothing I could do except try to keep my head up high.

I would watch gymnasts collapse all the time on TV and wonder what they felt like. Now I knew. I wish I didn’t. But gymnastics is a challenge. Gymnasts are always falling and getting hurt in the gym. It's nearly impossible to learn and master a new skill without falling. I know I did not achieve my goal of going to the Olympics, but I did achieve numerous medals at high school gymnastic meets. My injury was reality and it was a price I had to pay. I could have gone back out on the mat, but I knew my body wouldn’t feel the same. All I would remember is falling flat on my face, and I wouldn’t want that to happen to me again. Sometimes it takes more heart to sit out and really recover than it does to race back onto the mat and end up on a stretcher.

Diane Wilson Essay

Reflective Memo

The goal of this paper is to try to determine the difference between Diane Wilsons book, An Unreasonable Woman, and when she came and spoke about it to Fairfield University’s freshman class of 2013. After reading my paper, I want my audience to think that Diane Wilson is a better writer than public speaker. Also, a lot of the information mentioned in the book was repeated in her speech several times.

The writing strategy I used to complete this paper was making a chart comparing her speech to the novel itself. Once I completed that, then it was easy to put all of the information into paragraphs. I started this paper with the body and then I went back to do my introduction and conclusion. I believe that this is an easier method for me because the body is the main part of the paper. My essay changed through the drafting process because after I finished it, I went back and made a lot of corrections. I had to switch some paragraphs around and correct my grammar and punctuation. The problems that I encountered while writing this paper was trying to not say all the negatives in her speech, but also some of the positive points. The lesson that I learned after writing this paper was that its a lot easier to make an outline before writing a paper where you are going to be arguing two different topics. However, I believe that I still need to work on going into more detail in my outline so when it comes time to writing the paper, it will be even easier!

The Diane Wilson paper has compared to other writings I have completed in the past because this was the first time I was able to listen to an author speak about her novel. It was very interesting to get a different viewpoint of a book after seeing the author in person. Also, after hearing the author speak, it made me enjoy listening to her talk about her life journey, rather than reading it in a 300-page book.

After discussing with the class about Diane Wilson, I agreed with other classmate’s ideas that I didn’t even realize after reading her book and listening to her speech. I was thankful for Tucker to check over my paper and give me some ideas to make my paper even better. He helped me take out unnecessary information, change any incorrect grammar, and make suggestions that I could add to my paper.

Diane Wilson Essay

Diane Wilson is an extraordinary woman that many individuals should look up too and admire for her wonderful achievements. Diane Wilson is an astonishing writer, but lacks as a speaker. The difference in her writing and listening to her speak to an audience is almost like comparing two different people. Her writing seems to make the audience understand her story better. Whereas, her speech seemed to be unorganized because she repeated the same topics over and over again. Speaking to an audience may be painless for her, however Wilson should, without a doubt, continue her life as a writer.

It was amazing to see how she defeated one of the world’s most powerful industrial polluters because at the same time, she was a mother of five children and the captain of the shrimp boat. She overcame her goal to hold the corporate polluter Formosa Plastics to a “zero emissions” policy for dumping garbage in the bay in Seadrift, Texas. Wilson started shrimping at the young age of 8 years old on a shrimp boat. During her oral presentation, Wilson kept saying that she was very shy growing up and avoided many people. Wilson started calling meetings together to argue what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and to try to solve the problem of living in a very polluted area. She believes that this problem helped her open up to reality. Wilson had an objective and no one was stopping her, regardless of what others said. This had begun her life as an environmental activist to try to stop the industries from throwing chemicals into the bay.

An Unreasonable Woman and Diane Wilson’s speech were extremely similar, but also exceptionally different at the same time. In another words, she just retold her whole story as if we didn’t even read the book in the summer. The book was more of a story because there was a plot and it was in chronological order. While Diane was making her speech, she didn’t have any guidelines and was going off on some tangents that were not even important in the book. In addition, in her book, she went into depth with some of the important people that helped her along the way. Whereas in her speech, she did not mention any people, except her husband who divorced her and her five children. Furthermore, I thought she had poor grammar in her speech and even used some abbreviations instead of actually saying the words. I felt that Wilson had more passion in her speech, but overall, she is a better writer.

When I first heard Diane Wilson speak, I was genuinely shocked along with everyone else in the audience. First off, I knew she was from Texas but I didn’t realize she was going to have a southern accent. It sounded different to hear her telling her story in that tone of voice. If I had heard Diane Wilson speak before reading the book, then I would have never thought she wrote it as well. I believe the way that she writes and speaks is from two totally different viewpoints. In person, she seems to be a very outspoken country girl from the south and I didn’t get that vibe while reading the book. While I was reading, I just thought of her as any ordinary woman trying to fight for what she enjoys.

Despite her southern accent, I actually enjoyed listening to her tell her story compared to reading it. When Diane Wilson came to Fairfield University, I had a clear and better understanding of her life journey. She has inspired me to never give up and if I have a passion, then I have to do what I believe inn. Wilson knew that living in a polluted area would affect her life as a shrimper. Wilson made it obvious that even if no one supports you, you must do what your heart is telling you to do. She knew that no one was going to take her bay away even if it meant she had to break the law. After learning that she didn’t get any support from her friends or family, I did not believe this because usually your immediate family stays by your side whatever the situation is. Yet, while listening to her speak, she couldn’t stress it enough that she only had herself and integrity by her side. It was sad to hear that not even her own husband supported her, but he sided with all the reporters that thought she was acting like a crazy woman.

In order for Wilson to prove that she was serious and not just any other activist, she decided to start a hunger strike on a shrimp boat. Everyone thought she was ridiculous and no one visited her on the boat, except chemical company’s that told her how stupid she was acting. Wilson put that behind her and actually had 3 different hunger strikes. Each and every hunger strike led her into the right direction to try to help stop all the toxins that were going in the bay. I agreed with the chemical company’s that thought she was crazy because I personally know that I would never go on a hunger strike over a bay. Though, after hearing her elaborate on her passion for the bay, I probably would have done the same thing she did. Shrimping was not a hobby for Wilson; it became what she lived for. She did not care that she had little in common with the rest of the world. When Formosa ignored her after she questioned them about the toxic discharges, she decided to sink her shrimp boat in the area of the illegal discharge. As a result, Wilson was able to get Formosa and Alcoa to drastically reduce the amount of toxins they release into the bay.

Being a shrimper on a boat was what kept Diane Wilson happy. In the end, it was depressing to hear that Wilson lost her job at the fish house, divorced her husband, and lost her boat all within 5 years. Numerous people disliked her for her actions, but Wilson was proud because she kept fighting for her rights. Wilson had clear commitment, intent, and was willing to put herself at risk. Even though Diane Wilson lost some things throughout her journey, she is still pleased of herself and wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. She is a unique woman because her obsession with pollution overshadows the rest of her life. It made such a difference actually listening to her in person than reading what she wrote because you get a greater feel for what she went through in her life as an environmental activist.

Classmate Story

Vote Jordan Freeman for the next president of the freshman class! He is from Hamden, Connecticut and is currently living in Regis Hall at Fairfield University.

In Jordan’s spare time, he enjoys learning about the recent news in politics, playing video games, and watching sports with his friends. Some of his favorite sports teams are the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Los Angeles Lakers. In addition, Jordan was a member of the basketball and football team at his high school.

At Fairfield University, Jordan is majoring in politics and studying finance as his minor. After graduation, he is planning to attend law school to pursue a career in law.

A Lawyers Life by Johnny Cochran is Jordan’s favorite book because Cochran inspired him to become a lawyer. He also enjoys reading Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy and The Audacity of Hope by President Barack Obama.

Jordan’s goal in his lifetime is to travel the world and become more familiar with other places around the world. He hopes to become a successful lawyer after attending many years of law school.