Reflection Of My First Five Weeks

My first five weeks at Florida State having been amazing, I love it here. At first I was scared that I would get homesick and hate being so far from home. But, luckily, that never happened, I have made a lot of new friends that have helped me through my summer here. College homework is much different then in high school. I wasn’t use to doing work outside of class, but I was able to manage this change. I spent a lot of time studying and doing homework in Strozier Library; I found it easier to study there without the distractions in my dorm room. Since the summer is so short and everything is due so fast, I was stressed at first. I learnt really fast that procrastinating was a bad idea. Feeding myself wasn’t bad since I have a meal plan. Even though the food is not too great, it’s easy enough to just walk down there and get something to eat. The first time doing my laundry was a challenge. I had never done laundry at home except washing sheets. I was grateful that I had my roommate there to help me; even though the washing machine did overflow the first time. The first few weeks we went to bed really late and paid for it the next day. We soon learnt that this was not a good idea and taught ourselves to fix our sleeping schedule. I did find out that being around friends all the time, lets you see the real them. One of my good friends didn’t adjust as well to college as I did. Being here let me see the real her and I realized that I can’t be around her for a long time. This was an unfortunate start to my summer, loosing a good friend. But, I’ve meet so many new people that I didn’t let this bring me down. I am now so excited for fall and I know that coming to Florida State was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Today I mostly feel sleepy and not fully awake yet. I feel as if I could fall right back to sleep right now. This morning when my alarm went off and I rolled out of bed and felt like I had been hit by a truck. All of my energy is completely drained from my body. My eyelids feel like they weigh ten pounds and I can barely keep them open. Right now I’m just getting over a cold so I don’t feel one hundred percent, but having a good night sleep did help. The summer semester is coming to an end so I’m busy with school work and just ready to finish up all my courses. I am trying to work on a better work motive because lately, all I’m feeling is lazy and undetermined. Hopefully this will all change soon and I will be back to my normal self.

Paper 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_nonfiction

For my third paper, I want to write a creative nonfiction. This link tells how a creative nonfiction is a true story written in a way that reads like a fiction. Writing a creative nonfiction lets me write about a true event, but allows me to be creative with it. I plan to tell a story about a day from my past but change it up a little to make it more interesting and easier from the reader to read. A day trip that I took a few weeks ago stands out to me. I think I am leaning toward writing about it and how it effected my perspective of life.

Reflection

When I first walked into this English 1101 class, I was nowhere close to the writer that I now am. This English class has taught me many different skills and techniques. One of the first things that I started doing is prewriting. When teachers talked about this in High School I didn’t think that it was important and would usually skip over that step. Now since in college we are assigned lengthy papers, prewriting is an important step to writing a paper. Before I start to write, I now, write down all my ideas on a piece of paper, usually in cluster form. I look back to this paper for help during my entire writing process. The story that we read in class “Shitty First Drafts” helped me a lot because now I know that my first draft doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s easier to write down everything first and then revise later and decided what to keep and what to take out. In high school, I usually only wrote one draft and that was the one that I turned in. I was never taught before, that writing multiple numbers of drafts could help you. This has definitely helped my papers. I now rewrite parts of my paper over and over until I’m sure that it’s perfect. Once I finish writing and am close to being complete, I go through the entire paper once again. I check each individual sentence to make sure that the structure is right and if there is anything that I could change to simplify. I had never heard of simplifying my sentences before this class and taking out unneeded words has helped clean up my compositions. After I do this, I then ask a friend to go through the paper and check for any grammatical airs that I might have missed. My paper is then complete! This class has helped me so much with writing, which I know will help me in all my future classes here at FSU.

Recent Death of Stacy Lynn Putnam

Stacy Lynn Putnam, age 84, passed away last Sunday, July 17th, peacefully in her sleep. Doctors think it was a heart attack which killed her. She was a beloved sister, mother, grandmother and wife. She was the mother of three children. Her funeral will be held this Sunday at 11:00am at First Baptist Church of Naples. She was an accomplished Lawyer who helped many people during her career. She worked at a large firm in Naples, Florida for 35 years. She will be greatly missed, but her memory will remain in the hearts of many. Condolences will be gratefully received.

My Masterpiece

As I sat on the potters wheel, I was finally ready to start my new project, which I had been putting of for days. I threw down the perfectly weighted piece of moisten stoneware. After centering the clay, I brought up the walls and the shape of my vase started coming together. I continued to perfect my piece of artwork for over an hour. When I finished, it was exactly what I pictured. It was about seven inches tall and five inches wide, making it the biggest thing I had ever thrown. I cut the foot of the vase and left it overnight to dry. The next day I came back to the pottery room and saw my perfect vase sitting there ready to be fired. It being stoneware meant that I could gaze the vase instead of painting it. I chose the most beautiful colors to dip it in; sea mist and fog. I, personally, set my piece into the kiln, not trusting anyone else to put it in there. The firing process took a few days so I had to be patient and wait. A few days later I came into the room and saw my vase. It was the most exquisite thing I had ever seen and I loved it. It never thought I would have been able to make something as beautiful as I did. I couldn’t wait for my family to see it. This was artwork. I think of art as something that you create from nothing. Something that comes from inside of you. Art means so much to me, it’s a way of expressing yourself other then by using words. By looking at someone’s art you can tell much about a person because the art came from deep inside them. Art allows a person to be as creative and open-minded that they can without anyone judging them. Some people live their life through art. The world would not be beautiful as it is without artists.

The Monster In My Head

Silently hiding in the back of my head is where my monster lives. He's waiting there, anxious to criticize my writing. He is a monster that I can't get rid of. He looks like a troll with crazy eyes, which i am frightened by. Sometimes he is kind enough to sit back and not bother me for a while. This is his way that he helps me, leaving me to write what I think and make up my own ideas. When he tries to "criticize me" it prevents me from writing. His help is not wanted from me. He is a brain eating monster that I want out of my head.