my writing...

My writing over this semester has changed a lot. I learned how to express myself more and describe how i'm feeling in a more understandable way. I also learned how to research and read more and get more into my topic. I also learned how to organize my thoughts and my writing. This semester I think i improved my writing so much and i am very proud of myself.

Next semester i hope that we have more free writing, maybe more blogs on random things reflecting our life and personal experience. Also writing prompts that we are actually interested in. Not that some of the topics weren't interesting, I just think more creative writing would be really fun. Maybe if we watched a few movies that could be fun, and then after the movies we can reflect on them. The group projects were pretty fun as well.

College Students & Blogging

I think it is really interesting to read other college students blogs. Especially ones that are older and more experienced then myself. Especially in one blog this girl talks about housing off campus, which i am very interested in. A lot of my friends have houses and apartments off campus so it is good to hear about them. Me and my room mate are in the premium plan so we have another year in the dorms but or junior year we are planning on living in a house so reading this article showed some good and bad things about her living experience.

You can tell she is an older student because her writing is more matured, flowing, and keeps my interest.

There is a World to Explore

There is a World to Explore by Pamela Gardner is a very good paper. It was some what lengthy but kept me interested. All in all i would give it a five. I say a five for various reasons, this blog will contribute to all my reasons.

I like how she wrote the paper I think it flows very well. She started the paper off describing why she picked the topic she did in a non obvious way, meaning it didn't start off by saying my paper is about this, and this is why. The way she introduced her paper made me want to read more and see what it was a bout.

I like how she decided to back track in the second paragraph to show what she was talking about in the first one. It cleared up a lot of the past so i could get what was going on. She also talks about it in a lot of detail giving names, locations and dates sets the stage very well.

through out the paper she talks about how much you learn by traveling. She gives great detail and you can tell how much she cares about traveling. The only down fall is that in the middle and towards the end I feel like she looses her structure and how well she details so my attention gets some what lost. I feel like in the middle she could organize her ideas a little better and maybe in the introduction bring up how she visited Argentina as well.

She had a great paper, she should've just organized her paper more at the end that is why i gave her a 5

one on one

Meeting one on one really helped me out. For one it was a better time of day. Usually at 10 in the morning i am still waking up meaning i am not ready to listen and talk about my writing, especially infront of the entire class. Meeting one on one made it a lot easier for me to talk about my writing and be more open about. I really appreciate how Karen is very open minded and actually listens and tries to help instead of putting her students out there on a lim. GOOD JOB KAREN!!! :)

book list

Surprisingly I actually read one of the books on the list. Smashed: A story of a drunken Girlhood. I thought this book is a great book. One reason is because if your expecting a whole class of freshman to read a book, it needs to be something they relate to. In college a lot of people will start drinking, and not only that throughout the story the girl goes through different transitions of her life. I just loved this book because I have alcholism in my family, and also she went to similar places I've been before, so i might have a bias opinion but i thought it was a terrific book. Seeing it on the list actually wanted me to go home and get the book. This book also shows how she goes through a lot of situations teenagers go through.

Why I Hate Writing Video

The video put together all the reasons why students hate writing. Ofcourse all the reasons in some way related to me. It's not that I hate writing, it's that if it's something i cant really relate to or understand I just find writing to be a burden. Especially when pages are assigned and I cant seem to think of anything else to say. Writing is just some times agravating especially when I think I did such a good job, but only to find that it was just like any other paper I wrote. For instance on project three I cant even find that many interesting articles on a dance major, so I don't have that much information to go three pages about. The timed writing had me completely lost so i just went with what i thought we should write which I dont know if its correct.
Sometimes however I disagree with some points in this video. If it is a good prompt I relate to or i'm interested in writing gives you time to relax and reflect on yourself and your thoughts. I'm not going to lie though, these blogs stress me out because i have such a busy week sometimes I forget all about the blogs, and now feel like i'm failing english. As an example I am more calm now because I wrote my feelings.
I just hate writing when it's something that doesn't draw my attention and instead of having writing as something to enjoy and reflect on, it turns into a chore.

A Long Way Gone

Our assignment was to pick something from the chapters and reflect about it. I chose the first paragraph because it stood out to me the most. This really stood out to me because I think childhood is extremely important in ones life. A childhood is when you learn right from wrong, life lessons, love, and having innocent fun.
Having your child hood taken away like the boy soldiers would be horrible. I am so suprised Ishmael Beah is still able to go on with a normal life after this. After being a boy soldier I would think that there would still be a life of crime, and not knowing what is right or what is wrong any more. I'm guessing there are boys who were effected by this war earlier in their life, and I am guessing that it was a lot harder for them to learn what happened to them is wrong.
It's also sad that on the same page Ishmael Beah was excited to see his friend, not to catch up and play around but to hear about how many people he has killed. In a way it really shows how his child hood disappeared. Instead of being concerned with school or things kids his age should've been interested in he wanted to hear his friends war stories.

Writing Center

Today we went to the writing center for the end of class. I had no idea there was even such a thing. My only class I have in the Robert Bell building is my math class. So i would have never thought the writing center would be in a building were math classes are being held.
I was really excited when i discovered the writing center. I feel more comfortable with someone that really knows what they're talking about edit my paper. This is because i get more of a professional response, I also get shy about my writing so it's better when someone who does this a lot reads and corrects and makes comments about my paper.
The only thing that worries me is that I feel like there will never be any time for any one to correct my paper because it's so busy. The girl showed us all the appointments and there isn't even an opening for three days, So i feel like i will never get time to make an appointment.

Wrong Due Date/ being absent

Sadly I couldn't make it to class two classes in a row, and because of this I forgot when our paper for project two was due. I realize skipping class is extremely irresponsible and i now i learned my lesson.
Reason number one/ Day one: The night before this class i felt extremely sick for some reason and i couldn't sleep that well. I was tossing and turning all night and kind of woke up at seven, I remember seeing my room mate getting ready for work and i fell back asleep. Then later on i apparently woke up to my friend austin getting me for class. We always walk together to our first class. I must have been sleep talking because i don't remember getting up and telling him I already went to class. obviously I didn't already go to class considering it was nine forty five and class doesn't start until ten. So thank the lord I woke up in time for my second class of the day.
Reason number two/ Day two: Thursday night I decided to go out to eat and rent a few movies with my girls and stopping by some friends house for an hour or so. When we finally got back to the stadium to park it was pouring down rain. By the time we were there the buses weren't running any more. We weren't that worried because we would just call charlie the charter. They weren't answering the phone, but we didn't understand because it was within their working hours, it was only eleven at night. We weren't about to walk in the pouring rain so instead we decided to take the chance to park in the parking lot right by my dorm. I was driving my mom's jeep so we were going to use a visitor excuse if I got a ticket. This was a great idea that night. When I woke up the morning after before class I realized how this might not work. So i thought i need to move my car and i needed to see if I had gotten a ticket and get that taken care of. I got to my car luckily I didn't get a parking ticket and i was thrilled but I still had to move it. By the time I moved it and got on the bus back to the room and got ready I was already way to late to go all the way to the library.
Because of all these absences I forgot when our paper was due. I asked Mark what all we missed and he told me. I asked when the paper was due and he thought i meant the paper we worked on in the library. He said it was already due but i could turn it in the next class. So i stayed up until twelve thirty last night working on this paper that isn't due until friday. Hopefully this will give me time to perfect it and now i know i should always go to class.

my nose piercing

A few classes ago karen told me to blog about my nose piercing so here i go. Sadly when i first got it pierced it got infected. Then after using sea salt and water for a week a so it healed. It was perfectly fine for awhile, then randomly last week i believe it started becoming sore. I didn't understand why so I thought maybe i hit it some how during my sleep, so i tried leaving it alone. Days later I woke up and a black bubble was right next to it, filled with blood. It was also swollen all around the piercing and it was an stunning pain. It was so swollen that half of it was out of my nose. So i tried putting it back in all morning even as I was sitting there in english. So there was no other answer, I had to take it out.
My nose ring was my favorite piercing. It looked good and there was so much behind it. I loved it because I got it the same day I got my tattoo. Those were the things i first did to distinguish that I was 18 and didn't need my parents approval. It showed that i was now independent and I went through a painful hour or two that day to prove it. It always my bestfriends gift to me. We always said she would come with me to get my nose pierced and my tattoo. Next our plan is to get a best friend tattoo.
I plan on getting it repierced when it is fully healed. I also added to my collection of piercings and I now know to take better care of it and not touch and play with all the time. I also should listen to my boyfriend and how he knows how to clean piercings to keep them from getting infected.

art museum :)

We went to the art museum today. I was so excited for this, I have never been to an actual art museum and i've always wantekid d to. I love every type of art; paintings, sculptures, music, dance, theatre. Art is the perfect way to express you emotions. It's also one of those things that doesn't have a set answer, it truely shows that everything is not black or white.
There was one piece of art work that stuck out the most to me. It was the last one we saw. The lady giving us a tour asked students what they thought it was but I couldn't quite answer because I thought there was a lot more behind it then what met the eye. I noticed most the same things that the rest of the class noticed but somethings stuck out to me. A kid mentioned that it looked like something was sucking a person down. I thought this too but I also noticed that the colors weren't just a bunch of random colors but they were earthly tones like shades of brown and green. I connected that to of course the earth, but then I connected how we live our lives on earth. So I felt like this artist was trying to get the feeling that life sucks you in. Then the tour lady said the title was something warrior and i realized life is about fighting every day not just fights with people but every thing; fights with your self, fights with health, etc. I really connected with this painting because I have been stressed and this picture in a way pointed out that thats how life is and there is nothing you can do about it.
Thats why I love art, it makes you look deep inside your self and realize things that aren't blind sight.

My connection

What i got from this weeks prompt for the blog is that we should make a connection with the read chapters in the book to myself. When i read the chapters in the book one thing popped up in my head and it's something I will never forget and will always be hard for me to get out of my head. One night i was at a party, i know tsk tsk. Everything was going normal and out of no where my friend was being pushed outside and i ran after to make sure nothing bad was happening. Sure enough he was about to get in a fight so i tried to break it up. Little did I know it wasn't only just them fighting but a lot more of the boys were fighting in the side yard inside a truck. I saw my friend and my friends step dad being pushed out of this kids truck and the kid was highly intoxicated. As the step dad and my friend were running back towards the house the kid ran over the step dad's leg and while all my other friends were helping him towards the house, the kid in the car kept ramming into cars and tried running into the house. If this one car wasn't in front of me in front of the garage I would've been ran over.

Witnessing all of this really kind of connects because all Ishmel saw was chaos and madness and inhuman actions, which is exactly what I saw. The sad thing is about Ishmel is that it was anger and hate that drove all those cruel actions instead of angry drunk testosterone. I just remember watching my friends step dad limp over by me, me watching him in shock, not being able to move and almost getting ran over by this huge truck. So i just picture how much worse it had to be for Ishmel seeing not just a broken leg or crashed cars, but his friends family and people he saw every day die brutally. I don't think I could handle that.

my goals for english

English has always been one of my favorite subjects. I love to reading and thinking and reflecting about what I just read. Especially if it is something that I am very interested in. If I'm not interested I'll still read the material it just wont be as clear to me. One of my goals this year is to read everything thoroughly and understand everything i read even if I am not interested because if we're reading it in college it is obviously important.

I love writing, if it's something that i feel strongly about I could write for pages just trying to explain my perspective, or trying to tell a story. Sadly in school no matter how hard I try I just can never get good grades on papers. I will put my whole heart and soul into the paper and no matter what i never get a good response. Another goal for this year is understanding and fixing what I've been doing wrong for all my years in school.


Hopefully this year I will achieve my goals so I could move on and actually get amazing grades in one of my favorite subjects. How ever no matter what my grade is in english I will always love it and it will always be a favorite. English is one of the times during the school day you can actually reflect to yourself and I love that about english.