Becoming a Writer

Becoming a writer has mainly forced me to read differently, but I also look at the world differently too. After reading George Orwell's theory on how words and slang are used incorrectly, sometimes I think the human race can be extremely unaware and naive. We hear certain phrases and words and use them without fully knowing what they mean! I've also realized that people have the capability to create really interesting and moving images just by taking the time to pick the perfect word instead of using abstract language and cliches.

When I read now, I know why certain sentences, paragraphs, passages, etc. are so effective. Instead of thinking, "Whoa! That was cool" I'm all, "Holy moly. That shortened syntax really added to her voice there." I specifically remember the article we read on the word "evil." It started with a sentence like, "The word is evil." I read that sentence and realized she could have been just referring to the word itself, or saying that the actual word "evil" is evil...this is just because she left out the quotations around the word! I read more carefully now and can see the author's messages/meanings not just by what they write, but how they write it. 

Free Blog: To-Do List!

I don't know why, but I LOVE making to-do lists. I think it makes me feel organized and the things I need to do are more concrete. It's great when I complete a bunch of stuff on my to-do list, because then I get to put a big huge SLASH right through them. It's also cool when there are fun things on my to-do list.

So, here is what I plan to do tonight:

1. Stay home. There's a lot to do, so for the love of Pete please don't hang out with friends. Even though it's Friday.
2. Put together a few blog logs.
3. Post free blog.
4. At least start the CRJ.
5. Attempt to complete the Gone With The Wind packet for American Lit.
6. Start the hw and studying for chemistry. Remember, this test is on your birthday...you don't want a bad start to your day.
7. Enjoy the spaghetti dad is making for dinner. Yum.
8. Shower. Enjoy the warmth and the fact that it's not a school night so you don't have to rush so you can get to bed early.
9. Pack dance bag for meet. Review the dance!
10. And finally...t.v. Watch New Girl and Parenthood. And The Office.

Wow. A lot to do in one night, but I'm confident I can do it. For the rest of this weekend, I would like to:

1. Watch a Christmas Movie. Possibly It's A Wonderful Life.
2. Make chocolate salted caramel cookies.
3. Go to Eastview for dance invite. Yay!
4. Work on revision paper. Somehow figure out a way to incorporate Brad Pitt into this paper because the topic is on beauty, and he is a beautiful man. I'm being a little sarcastic. But not really. So beautiful.
5. Look for more images on feminism. Girl power!

Word Definition: Chunky

Chunky. You're not skinny, but you're not fat. You're chunky. Average. In fact, you're chunkiness has probably lead you at some point to eat too much food, and then you started blowing chunks. But even after that, you are still a chunk yourself. A chunk. You sit there and do nothing. Chunks are incapable of doing anything which requires talent. When I hear the word chunk, chunky, chunkiness, or any other version of the word, I can't help but to associate it with being average or having a connotation for gross feelings (as I previously stated with "blowing chunks"). Nasty. Although the word chunk can really contribute to imagery, it also evokes an uncomfortable feeling.

Rhetorical Modes: Answers!

1. Definition
2. Classification
3. Narrative
4. Example
5. Process Analysis (although after we discussed this in class, this might not make sense!)
6. Description

Rhetorical Modes: Luck

1. Simply stated, luck is good fortune. It brings success. Where luck comes from, exactly, is unknown. Luck is also considered to be chance. If something happens to someone by chance, and that something is a good thing, that is luck. It is also looked at as one's overall circumstances or conditions in life. Luck can be viewed as something that happens randomly, or something that we can bring upon ourselves.

2. Luck appears in several ways. For instance, if someone were to win a game the first time they had ever played it, the other players would blame it on the fact that they had beginner's luck. With sheer dumb luck, something happens accidentally and not on purpose (but ends with a good result). When Harry Potter and Ron Weasley knock out a troll by themselves in their first year, Professor McGonagall says it was because of sheer dumb luck. Luck can also be used as more of an adjective, as in happy-go-lucky, describing someone who is carefree and optimistic. Fortunately, for people like me, there is the luck of the Irish. People of Irish heritage will be lucky in their endeavors. Unfortunately, there is also bad luck. This is when everything decides not to go your way.

3. I love lucky days. I mean, who doesn't like things to turn out in their favor? Especially when your chances seemed really low to begin with? I remember towards the end of the summer, I was hanging out with my friends Jessie and Maddy in the afternoon. We wanted our chill sesh to continue through the night, but they both had to work. Poop. I sat at home feeling lonely. Kaylee and Kasey, my neighbors/BFFLs, were also busy. *buzz buzz* My phone got a text-Jessie: "Hey! Rush Creek was slow, so they don't need me. Still wanna hang?" "Heck yes!" I respond. Jess makes her way on over when I get another text-Maddy: "I got off work early!" "No way! Come over, Jess is too!" YES. A night of Emily listening to music and watching YouTube vids by herself turns into a friend-hang-sesh with pretzels and nutella. In other words: Luck at its finest.

4. Inside The Ralph hockey stadium at the University of North Dakota, a quote on the wall says, "I find the harder I work, the luckier I get." This can be seen in many different ways and through many different people. The students who study and work diligently earn the cliche "straight-A-student" title. Athletes who train, condition and push themselves to the highest level are the varsity-starters and even professional sports players. Both of these scenarios result in favorable outcomes, which is what luck is supposed to bring you to.

5. Some see luck as an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome. In this sense, luck is just sprung upon us randomly, we do not control it. Luck is chance. Others, however, like the anonymous quote above from UND, believe that we can create luck ourselves. These favorable outcomes are a result of the time and energy we put forth into achieving them. Luck always ends in good fortune, but the rest of the exact idea of luck can be your own philosophy.

6. Your math teacher makes the two hardest problems on the test extra credit. That English assignment you didn't do? Your teacher didn't even check it. The kid at your lunch table has extra cookies from his APUSH dinner party, and you get one. Whatever the scenario may be, your conscience goes YES! Or maybe you even stand up and exclaim "YES!" to everyone around you. You may begin to wonder if you're in a dream because everything is going your way when you least expect it to. You feel cheerful and optimistic. You own the world.

A Family Story

My sister and I were one year old and it was mid December. My mom and dad were invited to a "Multiples Parents" holiday party. Parents of twins, triplets, etc, brought their children all dressed up in matching outfits (well, at least my mom did) and probably gushed over how cute and look-a-likeish everyone was. My mom had the two of us dressed and ready to go and put us down for our naps. My mom was off to the party and my dad was going to come later. All he had to do was wait for us to wake up and then come to the party (and bring us, of course).

A few hours later, my dad arrived to the party with the two of us. My mom looked at us and exclaimed, "Paul! What happened to their cute outfits? Why did you change them? Ugh...and what's that smell?"
"Well..."

My dad had walked into our room when he heard we were awake, and to his surprise, we were covered in poop. Natalie had taken off her diaper and thrown it into my crib. It landed on my head. My had to quickly bathe me and changed both of our outfits.

Thanks to my sister, I was the smelly one for the rest of the night. My parents tried to avoid letting people hold me at the party so they wouldn't have to suffer my stench. Twin sisters. They'll get the best of ya. Even when you're one.

Visual Argument: Reese's Peanutbutter Cups!

Agent: Reese's Peanut Butter Cup company. They're excited about this new product. You can see this from the exclamations, "new!" and "actual size!" This informs the customer of the new twist on the product, with the intention of showing how convenient it is. you can see the convenience again from the "actual size!", and also "unwrapped mini cups."

Act: Reese's has come out with a new version of their original peanut butter cup product. These are more convenient because they're already unwrapped, saving you time to eat them and are smaller, making it easier to eat since you can eat it in one bite! The "Perfect Popable & Resealable" (it's hard to see, but it's in the top left-hand corner) also shows how the bag is user-friendly and the cups won't go bad. The words "actual size" are small, further getting the message across about the new, smaller size of the peanut butter cups.

Agency: The bag the product is in. The bag is supposed to be convenient and easy for customers to use (Perfectly Popable & Resealable), which can then extend to the actual product itself. This can accompany the "unwrapped mini cups" and the "actual size!". These words also accompany the picture of the multiple Reese's cups since they're shown as the actual size and unwrapped.

Scene: Wal Mart while grocery shopping. Reese's company assumes their customers appreciate low prices everyday, while the text assumes that customers are looking to have a treat this is easy/less time consuming to eat. This text evokes positive feelings. They use exclamation points and the font for "minis" and "actual size!" is short, wide, and almost 3-d looking, making a bubbly/happy feeling, opposed to a tall, thin font with no character.  I feel excited when I look at this product because of the exclamation points, font and bright colors. The white color of the "minis" contrasts well with the orange background, helping that feature to stand out. The word "New!" also stands out because instead of just being on the orange part of the bag, it's on a yellow rectangle. The words "Milk Chocolate" and "Peanut Butter Cups" are a standard font, showing that it essentially is still the same product. This standard font then makes the font of the new features stand out, showing the new twist on the product.

Purpose: This conveys that Reese's new product is user-friendly and easier to eat than other products. Reese's does this to make their product stand out amongst others. The shopper will think, "Hey, this looks way easier to eat than Milky Ways-I don't have to unwrap them and take multiple bites!" This makes the customer excited to purchase and, of course, eat Reese's Unwrapped Mini Cups.

Extended Language: X2 113

• Words I mess up:

beginning: I used to always put in 2 "g"s!
weird: the old "i before e except after c" rule. Gets me every time.
tomorrow: I was never the kid who wrote, "tomarrow", but I would mess up if it should be one "m" with two "r"s or 2 "m"s with one "r". Darn tomorrow.
A common problem is figuring out if it should just be one letter or 2 of the same letter!

• Ol' spell check. I was about to say Ol' reliable, but that's clearly not the case. Whenever I write a paper, spell check will "complain" about the name of the teacher I write on the top of my paper or different authors I mention. Many times though, it says, fragment: consider revising. What the heck? What does that even mean? My sentence was totes not fragmented. It was smooth and beautiful. It also doesn't notice the difference between affect and effect (similar to their, they're, and there). Spell check needs a friend. This friends is grammar check. 
• If there was no uniform spelling, our world would be bonkos. My sister was a Y.E.S. student for a kindergarten class, and they all wrote her letters at the end of the term. Luckily, the teacher wrote underneath some of their "words" so my sister would know what they were trying to say. So, if there was no uniform spelling...Imagine a world filled with kindergartners. Yikes. 
• Even though these "misspelling" are incorrect (obviously), the fact that it's spelled differently makes it seem as if it's an entirely different product. The name gives it its own identity, rather than it just being the commonplace, general object. Misspellings can also add character to a product or store. Toys R Us, for example, is clearly a children's store. Misspellings are common among children, making Toys R Us a kid-friendly environment. Misspellings are also used because that's how the word actually sounds, making it very easy to know the name of the product or store.  

Free Response Blog: Term One. Needs. To. End.

Holy. Schnikes. I'm so ready for this four day weekend! Words cannot describe my excitement. Whenever I'm doing my homework, I drift off into thinking about what I will be doing with all of my free, non-project working time I will have over break. This is what I day dream my weekend will consist of:

1. Parenthood! I'm pretty sure I have 3 or 4 episodes to catch up on.
2. Glee...not gonna lie, I've totally forgotten about this show.
3. KAYLEE! My neighbor/BFF is probably coming home from college over the weekend. I haven't seen her since she left for school in August!
4. Movies...I actually have a long list of movies I need to watch sitting on my dresser. I've been on a Matt Damon/Brad Pitt kick ever since I watched Good Will Hunting and Troy at the end of the summer. Who's gonna be watching all of the Oceans and Bourne movies over break? This girl.
5. Of course...sleep. I can't wait to wake up and not think about the pile of projects sitting there waiting for me. Peace.

Overall, I'm pumped for this weekend so I can do nothing. Absolutely nothing. I will not be mentally straining myself. But until then, I must finish the term strong!

6. I almost forgot! I need to go on Pottermore over the weekend...yes, I'm a hard core HP fan.

Peace out AP Compers.

Nickel and Dimed Review

Thomas Randall, Allison Young, Emily Coon, Reilly Johnson

10/27/11

            Barbara Ehrenreich, a journalist, undergoes a social and economic experiment to evaluate the conditions and life styles of low wage workers around various locations in the United States. She goes under-cover as a low wage worker herself in order to gain information and inform her audience about how employees survive on low wage salaries. By the end of the book, Ehrenreich’s purpose extends to increasing awareness on the low wage work force and the rights they deserve. This started off as an assignment for her job, but turned into a personal challenge to survive.

            Ehrenreich’s book is primarily directed toward middle or upper-class working adults who are unaware of the conditions of low wage workers. It is apparent that this is her intended audience because she uses common jargon and colloquial terms so the majority of her audience can understand it. This audience is appealed to by Ehrenreich’s conversational tone and her authentic portrayal of her thoughts.

            She does a good job giving information to the audience about the logistics of low wage workers. It is clear and easy to understand and she also provides a good balance of personal experience and general trends so that it isn’t solely an opinion piece. She includes qualitative and quantitative observations that provide more information and a clear image. The clarity aided her in revealing information which was her original goal; to express the conditions of low wage workers.

            Although informative and eye opening, Ehrenreich’s disrespectful attitude and stereotyping distracted from the overall issue of the low wage workers conditions. She provided a clear depiction of the lower-class lifestyle but included unnecessary and rude comments along the way. These comments make the reader less compelled to empathize with her.

            We would recommend this book to working adults over teenagers and low wage workers. It will be informative and eye opening to working adults who haven’t been exposed to this kind of lifestyle.

Halloween!

Halloween. The biggest thing I remember is that my best friend/neighbor, Kasey, would get a new Halloween costume every year. That's what every kid does, right? However, she didn't do what every kid looks forward to the most...trick-or-treating!! She was too frightened of everyone else's costumes to go outside and get candy around the neighborhood. She would put on her costume and hide under the table every time her doorbell bang, for fear of seeing someone in a "scream" mask, or more specifically, my brother, who decided to be Darth Maul one year. I swear, I don't think she came trick-or-treating with us until late elementary school or middle school. Kasey, her older sister Kaylee, my sister Natalie, and I are kind of a bff quartet, but every year on Halloween we would just have to be a trio!

When I was little, I remember being the following:

A Bride (with very messy lipstick..I obviously wouldn't cooperate with my mom)
A flower
Jasmine (every girl has to be a disney princess at some point in her life!)
A random pink princess

More recently...
Hannah Montana (I'm really hot as a blonde)
A siamese twin-I wore a XXX large jacket with my sister!
Thing 1 and Thing 2-again, with my sister of course
An angel accompanied with my sister, the devil!

Every year I'm always stunned to see what people come up with for their Halloween costumes. That's my favorite part-people watching on Halloween!

Blog Response: 2 Million Minutes, For Once, Blame the Student, and "I Just Wanna Be Average."

In the article, "For Once, Blame the Student," Patrick Welsh claims, "What many of the American kids I taught did not have was the motivation, self-discipline or work ethic of the foreign born kids." After watching Two Million Minutes, this makes so much sense. The students in India and China were already decided on their careers in highschool. They had their highschool courses based around their career choice and were applying to some of the most prestigious schools in the world. Knowing their career path in highschool is probably a huge motivator for them. They are taking classes that interest them and will help them with their careers later in life, whereas most American students are undecided at this point in their lives, and are taking standard math, science, english and social studies classes that are required to graduate. The movie showed the Indian and Chinese students studying for multiple hours everyday, and then showed an American study group-they were preparing for a test while watching Grey's Anatomy.

Although I do agree with Welsh that teachers are not entirely responsible for the motivation of their students, Mike Rose describes his incompetent teachers in "I Just Wanna Be Average." His civics teacher was a football coach who could hardly read the textbook, and his English teacher was barely even trained in English. It would be difficult to be motivated when your teacher doesn't know any more of the subject than you do. I don't think student motivation even applies in a situation like that. There are strong teachers, however, who connect with their students very well and teach effectively. In prime situations like these, students are responsible for motivationg themselves. I think there needs to be motivation from both ends (student and teacher), but it is mostly on the student.

Free Blog...Class not trash! Plus a dash of celebrity too.

Someone posted this on their facebook page a few days ago. It was late at night and I was finishing homework, but I totally needed a mental break. So what do I do?...facebook.

I was scrolling through my news feed when I came upon this, and i was all, "OMG it's Emma Watson I have to look at this because I love Harry Potter and she's Hermione Granger who is awesome and performs magic and she likes fashion plus she's smart, which is basically the epitome of everything I love."

I didn't think it was possible For Emma to get any higher on my "People I'm obsessed with" list, but I think she did after I read this:

I find the whole concept of being ‘sexy’ embarrassing and confusing. If I do an interview with photographs people desperately want to change me – dye my hair blonder, pluck my eyebrows, give me a fringe. Then there’s the choice of clothes. I know everyone wants a picture of me in a mini-skirt. But that’s not me. I feel uncomfortable. I’d never go out in a mini-skirt. It’s nothing to do with protecting the Hermione image. I wouldn’t do that. Personally, I don’t actually think it’s even that sexy. What’s sexy about saying, ‘I’m here with my boobs out and a short skirt, have a look at everything I’ve got?’ My idea of sexy is that less is more. The less you reveal the more people can wonder.

-Emma Watson

I feel like celebrities today are expected to reveal everything. Not just their bodies, but their personal lives too-who they're dating, what they do in their free time, how/where they grew up, and even their health habits. Paparazzi are constantly snapping pictures when celebrities are just trying to live their everyday lives and do normal things. There is definitely pressure for them to look perfect as well as to show off their bodies in magazines, photo shoots, etc.

It's so cool that Emma doesn't cave in to this pressure! She likes being modest, and she's not going to change herself for the public eye. Child stars are exposed to such an adult-world at such a young age, but she has managed to keep her head on her shoulders and she favors class over trash.

"The less you reveal, the more people can wonder."

That's definitely going on my ceiling. I'll look at it everyday when I wake up in the morning. Kidding!

p.s. She does magic and she's modest...people don't get much cooler than that.

Possible Speeches

I was gone Friday, but apparently it's my job to find presidential speeches! Here are some of my options:

FDR's First Inaugral Address

http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrfirstinaugural.html

FDR's Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation

http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrpearlharbor.htm

JFK's Cuban Missile Crisis Address

http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkcubanmissilecrisis.html

Lyndon Baines Johnson's Address to a Joint Session of Congress on Voting Legislation

http://americanrhetoric.com/speeches/lbjweshallovercome.htm

Obama's Back to School Speech!

• He wears a suit and tie, indicating that he looks at this as a formal event. He is taking it seriously and wants his audience to know that as well.
• He waves and smiles to the students/staff as he walks in. This puts him on a closer level to the students-he isn't trying to be superior to any of them. This makes him more like he's just one of them.
• He uses emphasis on the word "great" when he says, "It is great to be here", showing he's excited at this opportunity.
• He increases his ethos when he lists some of the students responsibilities (tests, sports, etc.) because he is relating to them. He knows what the average American student goes through everyday!
• Throughout the entire speech, Obama uses a lot of parallelism and anaphora to emphasize his points. He says, "You've got to wonder, you've got to question, you've got to explore", "You'll be the ones leading our businesses and leading our government, you'll be the ones making sure are next generation gets what they need to succeed, you'll be the ones that are charting the course of our unwritten history."
• He pauses multiple times throughout his segment of the girl who taught herself chemistry and is now working with cancer researchers. This really made her story sink in and showed the significance of how hard she worked, and shows how everyone has the potential to do the same.
• He says, "More than sixty percent of the jobs in the next decade will require a highscool diploma. More than sixty percent." He repeats "sixty percent", and uses inflection when he says it, pointing out the importance of earning a highscool diploma.
• He talks about how the proportion of young people with a degree in America has dropped and says, "We now rank sixteenth. I don't like being sixteenth. I like being number one." His inflection here emphasizes the change of our ranks and how he cares about getting the ranks back up.
• Throughout the entire speech, he has slight hand gestures. They don't really seem planned. They are maybe more of a nervous habit/something he's doing subconsciously.
• He had a few "uuhs" and "aaands", but it didn't really bother me for some reason. To me it just made him seem more real. He wasn't robotic and it didn't sound like he was just reading off of a piece of paper!
• I noticed his sentences usually start at a slightly higher pitch, then tend to get lower as he finishes each sentence. I think this helps him to emphasize cause and effect or to compare/contrast things.

Jim Crow Laws

Textbooks: Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall be continued to be used by the race first using them.

...WHAT? I mean, all these laws are ridiculous, but after I saw this one I'm pretty sure my eyes actually popped out of their sockets. But wait, according to Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana in the 1960's, I should probably make sure the doctor who fixes my eyes is white, 'cause if he's a different race he'll probably screw it up...PSYCH! There are sooo many extremely successful black people today who absolutely blow away white people. This is because race doesn't matter. There is no gene that automatically comes with your skin color that makes you smarter or dumber.

Back to this whole text book law...what did they feel could possibly happen out of sharing textbooks among white and black students? Did they seriously think there was something bad and/or evil and/or life threatening that would transfer from a black person's fingertips onto the textbook? Did they think if a white person then used that textbook it would transfer to them? I can't even fathom how people possibly thought like this at one point in history. There must have been something in the drinking water.

Food for Thought

I usually have the same routines on Saturday mornings. I wake up, lay in bed for a while, go downstairs for a bowl of cereal, sit at the counter for some time while I ponder random thoughts, and then I finally snap out of it and brush my teeth. This Saturday, however, I walked downstairs into the kitchen to find a piece of paper laying in front of my chair:

Thought for Today & Everyday :) 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous. Actually, Who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Author-Marianne Williamson

Here is the craziest part...NO ONE KNOWS HOW IT GOT THERE! It just randomly appeared!!

I'm totally kidding. This is what actually happened.

"Hey, did you like my thought for today?"

"Yeah dad! It was nice. Did you copy and paste that from a website?"

His head whipped toward me faster than I could say whiplash. Slightly offended, he said,

"No...It's from the book I'm reading. I typed it up myself!"

Now my sister shows up.

"What!? Dad are you serious? You came up with this yourself!?!?!?"

"No, no, no. It's from my book; Rediscovering Catholicism. Trust me, you'll know when I start coming up with my own one liners."

 Even though this passage was an entire paragraph, not one line, I knew he was right. If my dad thought of something this brilliant, he wouldn't just leave it on the kitchen counter!

"I even emailed it to John Michael's account at St. Thomas. Do you think he'll like it?"

The three of us sat in silence for a few seconds. Then we laughed.

Well, I thought I'd just give everyone a snap shot of the things that happen in the Coon household--and maybe some food for thought!! (Or as my dad would say, a thought for today and everyday :) ).

Why I Write: Past, Present & Future

Hmm...why do I write? If you asked me this question in second grade, I would simply say, "Writing is fun!" This is what made my writing so good. It was pure and innocent. There was no pressure. I wasn't writing for the sole purpose of getting the best grade or to impress other people. It was something that came easily to me, I was good at it. So naturally, I enjoyed it. I wrote stories of princesses, mermaids, magical kingdoms, and, of course, there was always the happy ending. This is what drove all of my writing. I was the little girl who fantasized of being a princess and falling in love with Prince Charming. Everything ended perfectly. "And they all lived happily ever after. The end."

In a way, I'm still that same little girl. I like to think of what my happy ending will be, coming straight out of the fairy tale books and movies. Writing gave me the opportunity to play things out the way I wanted to. I wrote to give people their own fairtytales and happy endings.

As I got older, writing became more academic and less creative. It was all essays and research papers. No more happy endings. No more writing in my free time.

Now, I write to keep myself organized. I write lists of things I need and want to do. It makes my to-do list more concrete and real; writing it down brings it to life. That is why I put my needs and wants down on paper. They are no longer just thoughts or things I can only fantasize about. The simple act of putting pen to paper makes it into something I can see and hold. My thoughts are acknowledged and no longer trapped. Now I know what I want and I know they are possible. I write to make things become reality.

But now, I want to bring "for fun" back into my writing life. Reading the stories I wrote when I was younger makes me realize those stories are a time capsule of my young imagination. I want to write what happens to me and the small things that make my day for the next two years of highschool. I want to capture these small details so I can look at them later in life and remember them as if it were yesterday, to know that it was real and it actually happened, just like my stories from elementary school. I want to write for the pure enjoyment of it!

Alexie & my literacy narrative

After reading the Alexie piece, I have thought of two angles I could take for my literacy narrative, both being slightly similar to Alexie's. Alexie was considered an outcast because of his Indian heritage, and was stereotyped as being unintelligent at a very young age. My experience from my youth is not nearly as dramatic as Alexie's, but it still reminded me of a time in kindergarden when a boy at my table told me "You can't read Emily, you can't do anything." Ahh, the things I had to face as an innocent 6 year old. Don't worry, I proved him wrong the next day when I brought in my book and read it to the class. I could also take the more sentimental angle and talk about a book my dad read to my sister and I every night before we went to bed. I remembered this because Alexie shared how he loved reading because his father loved to read, and he looked up to him more than anything. I loved when my dad read me this book and I always looked forward to it!