End of Week 5: Final Reflection

While being in college for the short summer semester I have had a lot of new experiences. I was surprised to hear that people actually go out and party till the early hours of the morning when they had a test or exam the next day in class. Another thing that surprised me and surprised me the most was how dirty and uncaring people are in the dorms. They leave trash everywhere and live in a pig sty. Ants and other bugs crawling around on the floor, and clothes in a pile on their desk. I just don’t understand why someone would want to live that way. I haven’t had too many challenges here, but I have had definitely a lot of stress. The stress to go to class, turn in work on time, making good grades and trying to have a life was the hardest and most stressful of all. I’ve had it pretty easy compared to other students though. I don’t do my laundry, or feed myself and I have to be home by eleven on school nights because I live with my granny. I don’t think I have learned anything about myself because I still haven’t gotten the chance to live on my own. Although I have learned that I try a lot harder to good here in college, because how I do in college determines what my future holds. I would say my study habits have definitely held up under the pressure. During the day there is nothing to do here in Tally except sleep and study. So I think my study habits have gotten a lot better, because I don’t ever really feel like sleeping, so I study a lot.

End Of Week 4: Process of Writing

I don’t really feel like I have a process for my writing. Most people read the prompt, draw an outline or prewrite, and then start writing from the notes they have down on their paper. I don’t do that. I guess it’s because I have a really good memory. I normally just read the prompt, brainstorm a little and then just start writing. Then when I’m done writing, I reread my paper, fix anything that needs to be fixed and then give it to one of my friends to help improve my paper. I hate prewriting, I feel like it’s a waste of time, and it certainly doesn’t help me. My process of writing truly hasn’t changed since the first day of class. I have done the same process in college that I have done in high school and middle school.

End of Week 3: ART

Does anyone actually know what art is? Most people I know think of art as painting a picture, or making something crafty. My definition of art would have to be the way someone expresses their emotions or feelings in a creative way, like pottery, music, or dance. I love art; it relieves stress, and says stuff that words can not describe. The most creative and rewarding piece of art I have ever constructed was a vase that I made by hand out of clay. I was in the tenth grade at the time, and it took many long hours of hard persistent work to get my pot perfect for firing. I had to cut out a stencil of the shape of the pot and the clay had to line up exactly to the stencil. When it finally got fired I had to create a design to paint on the outside of my pot. It was very hard to choose a design to put on it because I wanted to have a design that no one else would have. I wanted my pot to be unique and perfect. Eventually I thought of the perfect design to go on my perfect pot. I chose an optical illusion design and three colors, white, light blue and dark blue. I had to paint three to four coats of each color on my pot. And with a steady hand I made my pot as perfect as it could get. My teacher fired it again and it looked amazing! In fact, it looked so great that my teacher took my pot and put in the county art festival. My pot won second place in the festival, and I got an A in my art class. My pot is the best piece of art I’ve ever created.

7/27

Today I feel like it should be a lazy day. It's very cloudy and rainy out side, which makes it the perfect movie and chill day. I'm also tired, because of late night studying and eight o'clock morning classes. I just don't feel as motivated to go to class and do work like I did a few weeks ago. It's the end of the summer term and I just want to have fun for the rest of my summer. No more school, just chilling on the beach with my friends getting a nice tan and just doing crazy stuff. So I guess I'm a little home sick as well. I'm just ready for this term to end.     

In class 7/25

The genre I plan to write in is fiction, preferably a ghost/horror story. When I was a little girl, every night before I went to bed my dad would always make up and tell me stories. I liked ghost stories, or stories that were interesting and could make my imagination wonder as I grew sleepy and fell asleep. Ghost/horror stories are normally based on real life experiences. Even though I never personally experienced anything horrific I have seen enough movies to make my story believable. You cant rattle the chains too early or too late in the story you have to do it at the prefect time. My story is about a kid who goes into what looks like an old abandon, decrepit house, but its not abandon. There's a monster living in it, that chases the kid trying to catch him. The kid dodges all the obsticale the monster put out, and the monster ends up falling into one of his own traps and dies.

Obituary

On July 14th 2070, Taylor Chenoweth died because of an illness. She left behind a son and daughter, that were both happily married. She accomplished many great things in her life, helped many people, and always had a smile on her face. She was one of those people that if she came into your life, she would make your life better and you could never forget her. She left an everlasting impression on everyone she met. She loved having fun, helping people; making them feel better and she was really good at it. She was very outgoing, got along great with others and always had something funny to say. She accomplished her dream of becoming a doctor, and she was a very good well known doctor at that. She touched many peoples lives and she will be truly missed by everyone in this community. Rest In Peace.

7/14 My Watcher

My watcher is a little voice inside my head that comes from a very intelligent little guy. My watcher looks normal, and dresses normal but is like an undercover cop. He catches all the bad things and makes everything better. He tells me to continue writing when I'm on a roll, and tells me to stop writing and read what I just wrote to make it sound better. He keeps me on topic when its a topic he likes. Other times he prevents me from writing, because he doesn't feel like doing it or doesn't like the topic or know what to write for the topic. He lives in my brain, and eats all the bad ideas that try to pass through on to my paper.

7/12

The people back in Jacksonville have fake accents, and are just fake people in general. Although some people truly have an accent most don't. For example, The rednecks are just truly white trash, in that they don't have anything going for them at all. Its like when a little dog thinks hes all big and bad, but when it really come down to it, it's nothing, and cant even do anything.

Crot Picture Description

The bowler stands on deck with her fourteen pound solid blue ball, staring at the ten bleach white pins at the end. She takes a deep breathe as she takes her approach and throws her ball. You hear a loud thud as the bowling ball lands on the lane. The ball looks like its going in to the gutter, when all of a sudden it whips back in towards the head pin. Hitting the head pin just right with the high speed of the ball sends the pins flying, as they clash together, making all the other pins fall, creating a very intense strike.

Sensory Description

On my walk to the Williams building I see a lot of things. I see green grass, healthy trees, giant brick red buildings, a lot of construction on the roads and buildings, and students walking to class. I hate all the construction, the tools and machines constantly making noises, the trucks beep as they back up, it smells like old men sweating and nothing looks pretty. Everything looks dirty, and gross. Mud and slim on the roads and sidewalks, old filthy machinery is blocking the way to class along with fences and tape.

End Of Week 1

In the first story, "Shitty First Drafts," by Anne Lamott it mostly discussed about how everyone's first draft is bad. Even authors that write books all the time have a bad first draft. And that its okay to have a bad first draft because in the end the bad first draft turns out to be an amazing story. Plus no one ever sees the writers first draft, because its just all the writers ideas trying to become one. In addition, you always end up throwing away the first draft, because you end up writing a better second draft.

In the second story, "How To Become A Writer," by Lorrie Moore was mostly about failing at life. That if you fail at an early age then it makes you a better and smarter person, but this is not true all the time. Throughout the story the main character, Francie, kept making the same mistake on her papers every time she wrote. She never had a good plot or a plot at all, but she was always very descriptive.

In the third story, "The Watcher at the Gates," by Gail Godwin was mostly about the watchers at the gate. How the watcher always makes you put writing off, or to finish it another day because the watcher thinks that if you are on a roll then he doesn't want you to run out of all the good ideas. The watcher only does this to the writer because the watcher is only helping the writer, and because the watcher does not want to see the writer fail.

All three stories are similar in that they are all explaining how to become a good writer. so if you put all three stories together you will no how to write pretty good stories. All three stories also share the same idea, failing. one way or another failing either helps you, even though failing is what everyone is afraid of. In addition, all three stories are scared of what people might think about the writer or the piece the writer wrote. In conclusion, do not be afraid of what others might think of you or your writing, if you enjoy doing it, then you should not care what others think anyways.

Digital Self

When it comes to computers and stuff online, I'm not very handy. Most people spend a ton of hours a day on digital communities, and internet. I truely dont spend that much time on the computer, and I'm only apart of one or two digital communities and networks. I dont shop online or pay my bills online, but i do connect with my friends on facebook all the time. It makes it easy to communicate with people you are friends with, but dont get to see that much. I think our digital selves are lazy, and dont make people think as much. Therefore the socially awakard people in real life, are very social on the computer. And it makes it seem like they are someone they arent.

First Week Emotional Responses

Arriving to FSU was unbelievable for me. I just couldn't believe that I actually got accepted, and that I have offically started. Getting used to the campus and Tallahasee area was easy for me because my granny lives here in town. So I pretty much no where everything already is. Arriving at FSU was also very sad for me, my friends and family. My best friend and I have been besties sense elementary school where we first met. We have been through everything together, and now I no longer go to school with her but I dont even live in the same city as her any more. It was the hardest thing to let her go and move on.  My family was also sad but very proud of me at the same time. I'm the baby of the family, so my parents have a really hard time letting go. I know that I will miss everyone and meet knew people, but I need them in my life. Although I am very excited to finally be attending Florida State University, and can't wait for what the future has in store for me!