For my final reflection for my English Composition ll class, I will be writing about everything I have accomplished throughout the course, and what I have taken away from this class. In our last day of class, we were asked to create a Top 10 List of our accomplishments throughout the course. I decided to include mine in this last blog post.
1. I have completed my very first vlog, and uploaded it to Youtube. 2. I have created and constructed my first website. 3. This class forced me to improve on my time management. 4. I have put in more effort in this class than I have in any other course. 5. For the narrative project, I wrote a very personal paper about my sister, which was very hard for me to write. 6. After completing the paper, I felt much better about myself, and that I had the ability to get my feelings out on paper. 7. Logging about the three good things was something I really enjoyed, and it definitely made me think about the simple things I am grateful for. 8. I have written over 10,000 words for papers and blog posts. 9. Really enjoyed when we would share our scenes with each other. It made me realize exactly what I needed to work on, and improve. 10.
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For this blog post, I decided to take one of my “three good things” from last weeks blog post, and write a scene about it. I picked a day that I went shopping and walked around Suburban Square; an outdoor shopping center in Ardmore after a long week of being sick. Happiness is not hard to find. It can simply be nature all around you, your favorite spot to go to when you were little, or even your mother cooking your favorite meal. After a rough week of being ill, I decided to give myself some “me” time. It was a beautiful, fall day. The sun was shining, and there was a light breeze. Warm-colored leaves danced in the air. I browsed the clothing stores, and of course spent the most time in my favorite makeup store, Sephora. Everyone around me seemed joyful. There were couples drinking their lattes outside Starbucks, and families walking together into restaurants. The vibe of that day was just peaceful and relaxing. I was happy. For this week's blog post, I chose to write about The Happiness Quiz, to further my research for the research project. This quiz asked 13 personal questions about how much you value your life, and determines just how happy you may be. The Happiness Skills Quiz measures your happiness skills or habits. Based on each individuals answers, you receive a brief report with guidance on how to improve your score. I have scored a 59 out of 115. This means that I am practicing a few life skills that contribute to my happiness.
This quiz measures life skills related to one's happiness, and to learn how you can become happier. It also focuses on lifestyles and habits that strongly relate to long term happiness or psychological well being. The quiz also refers to The 7 Habits of Happy People, which are Relationships, Acts of Kindness, Exercise and Physical Well Being, Flow, Spiritual Engagement and Meaning, and Strengths, Virtues, and Positive Mindset. Many studies point to a specific way of thinking and acting that can strongly impact our sense of happiness and peace of mind. After taking the Happiness Quiz, I realized something about myself that I wasn't too aware of before. I don't think too positively about my future, and instead I stress about issues that haven't even happened to me yet. After reading The 7 Habits of Happy People, I realized in order to be as happy as I can be, I need to work on being more positive about my future, and to not stress about things that I don't need to worry about (yet). In this week's blog post, I wrote about three good things that I did each day for the past week. What is Positive Pyschology & Why Is it Important? (Positive Psychology Program), Greater Good in Action: Science-Based Practices for a Meaningful Life (UC Berkeley's Project Home Page), and Three Good Things (Greater Good in Action)
Dr. Martin Selgiman, father of positive phychology, came up with the PERMA model. PERMA stands for positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments. I have took notice and counted how many times I used each building block for happiness. Positive emotion- 8 Engagement- 3 Relationships- 3 Meaning- 2 Accomplishments- 6 For this Blog post, I will responding to questions based on rewriting our narrative project. What is Fan Fiction -- and why is it making people nervous? (Stephen Downes), Rewinding and Rewriting: The Alternate Universes in Our Head (Hidden Brain Podcast) In Blog post #7, we discussed what found poems are in our English class. Are assignment was to create a found poem using descriptive language from our first draft of our Narrative project. A Painful Childhood I gripped my hands so tight around my head, trying to protect it. My knees were crushed into my stomach, My shoulder blade pierced into the floor I was crying out in pain I felt the physical pain in my back, and the aching pain in my heart I was her punching bag, her stress reliever She wasn't a sister to me then, just a monster I was terrified of I felt trapped, I was embarrassed that only made her stronger, and more dangerous to me I could have done more I will never forget the feeling I had, and the terror I dealt with. Do you think the narrative provides enough descriptive language to create a compelling found poem? I believe the narrative contains enough descriptive language to create a compelling found poem. Do you think the descriptive language more so creates a setting or delivers the subtext of a theme? I think the descriptive language creates a setting, but I could always add more to enhance the scene. In revision, will you focus on using description to develop more of the setting or more of a theme? I will focus on using more description, especially in the end of my narrative. My hands were shaking as I dialed my dad’s number.
“Dad, I screwed up, I really screwed up. A car hit us. I am so sorry” He could automatically tell I was drunk. My heart was racing as I stared at the thick, black scrape and dent all along the side of my Dad’s Audi. I must have been shaking like crazy, because Christina laid her hand on me and told me to sit down. So many thoughts were rushing through my mind; why did this happen? What is going to happen? Everything happened so fast. I walked over to the passenger door and sat down inside. I started to cry, probably because I was very intoxicated which is why Christina drove. Should I be mad at her? Was it even her fault? I didn’t even see it happen, I was too busy searching for my phone. The noise was what I couldn't get out of my head; an ear-piercing, screeching sound. None of this would have happened if we just stayed. My mind kept replaying everything that happened earlier that night. “Dad, can I please drive your car down to Temple tonight? I can park right outside Christina’s apartment.” I asked my dad, hoping he would say yes since I had no money for an Uber. “I guess so. Be super careful.” I arrived at temple, but the spot I had in mind to park on was full. I ended up parking a couple blocks away, but the only problem was I had to move the car by 7am the next morning. As the night went on, my friends and I became very bored. Our plans fell through, and we all ended up going home pretty early, around 12am. Christina and I were not tired at all. We stayed up for a couple hours more, watching netflix and making all sorts of desserts. Around 3am is when the night took a turn for the worst. “Hey christina, since were still awake, and we have to leave in a couple hours, why don't we just drive home now?” I said to her, not thinking about the possible outcomes. “Ok sure but I’ll drive since you had a couple drinks.” Christina said as she got up and starting packing her bag. “Okay but be really careful.” We ended up on this shady street, still in North Philly. All of a sudden I heard a painful screeching noise. I felt the car jolt, and I looked the the left and saw a large black car colliding with ours. As soon as the other car realized what happened, he took off. In shock, I told christina to pull over. I jumped out the passenger door, and instantly started to panic. In this blog post, I have rewritten a scene from The Yellow Wall-Paper (Charlotte Perkins Stetson). Also, I have written a short personal scene about a negative decision that I made that had impacted my life.
As John walked out the door, I thought this is the day. I am going to get out of this room with the yellow wallpaper. I quickly gather my notebook and pen and stuff them into a bag. I dart out the door and down the stairs. Before I reach the bottom step, I heard a voice. It must be Mary! She usually takes the baby out around this time, I was not expecting her to be here. I hesitate on what to do next, but before I could, I see Mary go out the side door off the kitchen, with the baby in her stroller. Now I am alone, and it is safe to go. As I swing open the grand double doors, I realize I did not have much of a plan after this point. I can’t get anywhere by foot due to the house being in such a desert location. I slowly sit down on the gravel. I can feel a lump in my throat as I am trying to hold back tears. Why did I think this would work? How stupid could I be to not think about how I would escape this house? Several minutes go by, and I here voices again. I quickly duck behind a column on the side of the house. I am watching and waiting frantically, but I can’t see anybody. All of a sudden I feel a light hand on the back of my shoulder. I jolt around and see mary. “What are you doing out here?” Mary says in a curious yet frightening tone. I didn't’t know what to say. I was frozen. “Mary, you have to help me. I am not ill! I need to get out of here.” “OK, follow me.” I quickly follow Mary down an old path in the woods. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Dad, can I please drive your car down to Temple tonight? I can park right outside Christina’s apartment.” I asked my dad, hoping he would say yes since I had no money for an uber. “I guess so. Be super careful.” Since I didn't have my own car yet at that time, my dad was very lenient on lending me his. I was always super careful when I drove, especially since it was a leased car. I arrived at temple, but the spot I had in mind to park on was full. I ended up parking a couple blocks away, but the only problem was I had to move the car by 7am the next morning. No problem I thought to myself, Ill just set an alarm and go home early. As the night went on, my girlfriends and I became very bored. Our plans fell through, and we all ended up going home pretty early, around 12am. Christina and I were not tired at all. We stayed up for a couple hours more, watching netlfix and making all sorts of desserts. Around 3am is when the night took a turn for the worst. “Hey christina, since were still awake and we have to leave by 7am, why don't we just drive home now?” I said to her, not thinking about the possible outcomes. “OK sure, but how about I drive since you had a couple drinks.” Christina got up and starting packing her bag. “Okay but be really careful.” About ten minutes into our drive, our GPS kept rerouting. We ended up on this shady street, still in North Philly. I rolled down the window to get some fresh air, when all of a sudden I heard a painful screeching noise. I looked the the left, and saw a large black car colliding with our car. As soon as the other car realized what happened, he took off. In shock, I told christina to pull over. I jump out the passenger door, praying the damage wasn't too bad. But in fact there was a large, thick black scrape all along the driver and back door. None of this would have happened if we just stayed. In this blog post I will be creating a new scene in the short story Bullet in the Brain (Tobias Wolff). Also, I will be writing a short scene from my life that includes symbolism. As Anders is staring up at the ceiling, having flashbacks on his childhood, he wonders is this really it? But the robber brings his gun down from under Ander’s chin. “If you say one more smart thing you're done old man” The robber says as he stares Anders down. Anders slowly nods his head. The robbers make their way over to the tellers. “I want every one of these bags full of cash!” The tellers quickly do as the man with the guns say. What the robbers didn’t expect, was there to there to be an undercover policeman in line. He was waiting for the perfect moment, for the robbers not to notice him. The robbers focus is one the tellers, so the cop takes his chance. “Drop your weapons now!” says the undercover cop, showing his badge to the robbers. The robbers hesitate, but they dont drop their weapons. One of them raises his gun to the cop but before he can shoot, the cop shoots first and kills the robber. The second robber shoots the cop right in his chest, and he instantly falls to the ground, and is bleeding out. Now there are two dead bodies on the ground, and the second robber looks a bit uneasy. “Come on, move it! Move it! All the cash you got now!” The tellers continue to stuff the money into the bags. About five minutes later the robber is out the door, with all four bags of stolen cash. In this blog post, I read and linked What is Creative Nonfiction? (Lee Gutkind) | Making Scenes in Memoir (Lee Martin . My professor asked us to take a present scene form our lives and write about it. Most of my time is spent at my job... As I park my car outside our storefront, I think to myself, what will it be today? What customer is going to make me want to climb over the counter and shake them to death after I answered the same questions five times? This is not an exaggeration because in fact I probably feel this way at least once a day. As I am clocking in, I can already tell by looks of the store that this will be one hell of a saturday. The sales floor looks like a clothing crime scene. There are hangers on the floor, all sorts of clothes thrown over racks, and a half finished milkshake thawing into the shoe shelf. How wonderful! But as my duty as the manager, I put on my painful 24/7 smile, and go about with my day. “Maia, this customer wants to know if she can get a refund for these clothes. I told her we don’t do refunds, but she’s insisting on speaking to the manager.” My co worker Gabby whispers to me, as a middle aged women glares at us from across the counter. I walk over to the stubborn women. “Hello Ma'am. As Gabby said, we don't do refunds, but I can happily help you pick something else out, or give you a gift card instead.” “What kind of store is this? Is this a joke? I want my money back now.” She reaches into her purse and slams her credit card on the counter. “Put it back on my card” She barks at me. This is that kind of moment when I wish I could jump over the counter and scream back in their faces. “I am so sorry for the inconvenience but these are our policies, and always have been. Now I would be happy to refund you a giftcard if you don’t have the time to shop today. What is your first name for the return?” My fingers are on the keyboard, waiting for her to respond back with her name. “F*** this store! F*** you! All I want is my damn money! I am going to have you fired, you b*****.” She gathers her clothing, stuffs them back into her bag, and storms out the door. “Enjoy the rest of your day Ma’am!” I reply back, with a giant smile of my face. 8:30 pm comes right around the corner, which means it’s time to clean up for closing. I look to Gabby, she looks at me, and we clean and conquer the store like we were competing for one million dollars. Gabby vacuums, I count the registers, and at 8:55 we are locking those doors, not phased by the fact that we have to do this all over again in 12 hours. |
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