Thought process for the week of April 28

This weeks class was very interesting. I never really knew anything about dialogue summary and I was excited to be able to learn something never to use in my writing and short stories. I really think the lesson will come in handy and I was really excited to experiment was it and use it a bit in my story. I am sure that I have used it before, but I never really knew what I was doing or how exactly to go about writing it. I am also sorry to report that I had to miss another class on Thursday after landing myself in the hospital. It makes me so sad that I am missing so much class toward to end of the semester because honestly this is pretty much my favorite class and I feel like I am always learning new interesting things or processes to use in my writing. Hopefully I am done with my line of bad luck and won't have to miss class any more for hospital, docotor visits or car accidents. Can't wait for class this week! It's sad for me to think though that it is our last week of class :(! I am looking forward to hopefully finding some more english classes I can take with you in the future.

In class excersize for the week of April 28

I chose to use the excersize for Tuesday invovling summarizing dialogue. I used the character Leigh from my short story and put her words and point of view into a summarized paragraph of dialogue as an experiment for the excersize.

She was so hysterical that night. She was yelling, screaming, her body was even shaking. She told me she never wanted to see him, talk to him, or even hear his name ever again. She has many choice words for him too. I had never seen her so angry. I tried telling her that everything would all work out in the end and that she was over reacting and just need a night to sleep on it and think about what she was really saying and what she actually wanted. But these words didn’t please her as I thought they would. Suddenly, she took all of her angry toward him and directed it on me. She accused me of taking his side and never really being a true friend. I would never understand how she felt that night, or was possessed her to slap me, but if I got this much steam blown at me, her best friend, I was afraid for any sorry bastard who ever chose to cheat on her.

Prompt for the week of April 25

What I consider to be my first REAL kiss was as corny and cheesy as it may sound, at a barn dance. It was in 9th grade with my first longer than 2 week boyfriend. A first kiss is one of those moments in time that I can remember every detail of that night. The boys name was Brian and we had been sweet on each other for months. We had been "going out" for approximately a month, which in junior high was considered a long time. He invited me to this barn dance which was an activity through his church. I remember the vehicle we went to the dance in, the outfit I was wearing and the song that was playing. It was a beautiful spring day in the middle of April. It was about 11pm on a Friday night and we had ben dancing for like two hours when we went outside because we went getting hot. Aerosmith's song "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" came on and we could still hear it from the right side of the barn. We were just walking around outside and both loved the song so he brought me closer to him and we danced. Before the song had ended, he leaned in and gave me the sweetest, most romantic kiss I could have ever imagined for the first time. I never thought the moment would come and I don't remember ever being nervous about it. I just remember it felt so natural. To this day when I hear this song, I cannot help but think of that night and that first kiss. Obviously since it was a junior high before, there has been other boyfirends since then and many other kisses. I can however saw though, that Brian and I have remained friends since we broke off our relationship our sophomore year. He is now in a very serious relationship and I actually think he has asked the girl, Alicia to marry him. Even though I am currently single, I could not be more happy for him. I will never forgot my first kiss with my first boyfriend and even more possibly, my first love.

In class work to the week of April 18

Well, again I must say I can't really do an in class excersize for a class that I didn't go to this week. So, I decided that I would just publish a poem of mine that I wrote.

Summertime

Summertime is almost here,
There is so much about it that I fear.
My friends will leave,
Relationships will change.
Yet as everyone leaves,
In Vermillion I shall stay.
This is my home now,
But I fear it won't be the same.
Home is very the people you care about most are,
Home is where the heart remains.
In Nebraska, there is a part of me,
Yet here a bigger part of my heart has grown.
I don't know what to do,
I don't know whether to stay.
If only summertime would just go away.

Thoughts for the week of April 18

Well, this week I was not able to attend class because I was involved in a car accident trying to come back to school on Monday and I had to go to the doctor for back pains so it's a little bit difficult for me to say what exactly I thought of class that I didn't attend. I would have to say though, that the reading was rather interesting and I enjoyed learning more about the different points of view. The reading kinda helped me think about when to use what type of view and which views work stronger when. I even learned somewhat more about the different points of view and some of each of their strengths and weaknesses. It made me look at my story to try to think if it could be more effective if I wrote it in a different point of view. I even became curious enough that I decided once I have finished the third part of my story, I may go back a rewrite the entire thing in a whole new point of view, just to see what happens. Other than that, I really don't have too much else to write about this week. I am excited to get back to class this week!

Prompt for the week of April 18

The only time that I can recall taking any type of political position was when I was president of a club in my highschool. I started participating in the club in 8th grade in the junior high and stayed it in throughout high school. In tenth grade, the members from the junior high had to go to the highschool where this particular group did not exist. With the help of our spouser and teachers, we were able to create a new older level group at the high school. It was in this year that I became the presient and kept this position for 3 years. The club was called the Octagon Club with is a division of JOOI which stands for Junior Optimist Octagon International. These groups exist throughout all of the United States and parts of Canada. The purpose of the group is to better the community, help people and have a great time doing it. I became very close to everyone in the group and was so excited about all the different activites and events I was able to lead my group through. In my junior year of highschool, I was even elected a higher position in the group; governor. With the position, I was not only responsible for my group, but I was also suppost to help bring our district our groups together and make sure that all major activities went smoothly for each group. My time in this group and holding these positions were very worthwhile for me. I didn't only learn alot about the people in my group and community, but I learned about myself. I think I became a stronger person by holding these positions and being able to make the world a better place by helping one person, one community at a time.

Though process for the week of April 11th

In class this week, I enjoyed the additional work on characterization. I really thought the excersize we did was extremely helpful to show exactly how a character is. I know with me, if a person were to go through my purse, they would be able to learn a ton about me. It was also really fun for me to think of different types of things that other people would keep in their purse. When doing this, I thought to what I all kept in my purse, and of a game I once played at a bridal shower where people got points for having certain items in their purse. I would say that I enjoyed this excersize and had quite a bit of fun with it. The next excersize I also had fun doing, because I got to relive pieces way back in my childhood. I think this excersize helped show me how I can relive points in my life and make stories out of them. It also surprised me how much I could remember from way back when and the random pieces I could remember. I would say that I may even use the piece I did for this excersize for some other piece later in my writing career. I really like the time that we have spend so far with characterization and the various activities we have done to strengthen our creative minds when coming up with new characters for stories.

In class excersize for the week of April 11th

The excersize I choose to do was the characterization one in which we made up a character and described on object of theirs. I decided to make up a character named Susan and describe her purse.

Susan has always been the fashionable one. She always kept with the latest trends and always had the cutest accesories and purses. I've always loved her purses. Now that Susan has been taken from all of us, I find myself going through her latest purse. It is mint green, she always loved green. I carefully dumped out all the belongings. Out fell nail polish, lip gloss, ibuprofen, post it notes, millions of various colored pens, a nail file, perfume, hand lotion, gum, a hair bursh, and her wallet. I open the wallet and find all her various cards-a debit card to US Bank, and credit card through that same bank, a credit card to Maurics, the Buckle, and Target. She also had giftcards to American Eagle, Aeropostal, and Walmart. In the next slot over, I noticed her carefully folded money. There was 83 dollars, they looked perfectly neat and the only thing perfectly organized in her purse. I then started flipping through the photos-13 in all. Susan was always weird like that. She always liked having objects in 13's when possible. She said that because 13 was so unlucky to everyone else, it was her lucky number. She had a photo of her friend and husband at their wedding, she has pictures of her and her fiance, she had a family picture, a picutre of her dog, Maggie, and other pictures of friends. Beyond the photos were Susan's checks. They were dogs of course, Susan loved dogs.

Propt for the week of April 11th

Throughtout my life, I've had many friends but none as long and faithful as my friend Leigh. She has been my friend since Kindergarden and my best friend since third grade. Sure, we've been through a lot together but we will always be friends, BEST FRIENDS. Throughout my life, I have also added a couple other friends to my "Best Friends" catergory of friends. Once Leigh and I got to junior high and high school we never had any classes together so we didn't get to see each other nearly as often. In the eighth grade I met my next best friend, Lacey Schroeder. She has been here for me every day ever since, even though now she lives 1000s of miles away from me in Honolulu, HI. I would definately say that Lacey and Leigh were my two best friends of high school, and still today. Now that I myself have gone away to college, I've had to make new friends and of course another new "best friend" to help fill the abesence of Leigh and Lacey. My first week of college I met Laci Paul, who I would definately say if my best friend here at college. We are always with each other, we go to parties together and we are planning on living together this summer. Laci has definately helped me during my first yeat of college and has helped me through a lot. Through Laci, I also met my now boyfriend, Matt, whom I would also now consider to be a best friend to me. I can tell Matt anything and he is always here to cheer me up and brighten my day. Throughout my life time, I cannot say that I have really had any huge enemies. I would say my biggest enemy has always been myself and not being good enough to please everyone else, or failing at something.

Thoughts of class of the week of April 4th

This week we only had one class and we discussed characters. I really enjoyed the challenge of having to make up a character and give him various traits and a personality and so on. It was rather difficult for me at first, but once I got going the character came more to life for me. I think this process would be helpful to do before writing each story because knowing the character more yourself before you are writing about him would make the story come easier. I really do think this was a very helpful excercise and I plan on doing this now with each main character in the fictional stories I write in the future. I also really liked hearing what characters other people in the class came up with. It's always easy for me to get more creative ideas by seeing pieces of the minds of others around me. I always find sharing ideas one of the most helpful things we do in each class. I can't wait to see where else we go with characters and our short story unit.

In class work for the week of April 4th

The excercise I am choosing to do is the one in which we had different scenarios and had to write how our character would react to each.

1. Imagine your character is driving along a highway and sees a turtle in front of his path. What does he Do?

My character, Danny, would not stop for the turtle. He cares too much for himself and his car that he doesn't want to be in an accident. He is sure that the cars behind him would not stop in time and could damage his new car or he may get injuried and loss his track scholarship. He sees that no cars are coming on the other side of the highway so he speeds up and go into the oncoming lane to miss the turtle.

2. Imagine you character accidentally witnesses or eavesdrops upon a horrible argument between close friends of his. What does he do?

Danny oftentimes gets in the middle of fights between friends of his because he has friends in so many different areas. Danny always tries to act as the peacemarker, but always ends up telling his friends that if they cannot get along, he doesn't need them as friends.

3. Imagine your character learns that a friend tested H.I.V. positive. How does he react?

Danny has lots of money and cares very much for his friends. At the same time, he sees himself as very mucho and would not show much emotion toward the friend. He would find varies ways to help raise money for medical costs for the friend, but may not be next to him all the time. One major fundraiser Danny would do is a Triatholan. He would charge participants to enter and he would charge people to watch the event. He would then give all the money to his sick friend.

4.Imagine your character comes home to find that his place his be robbed. How would he react?

Danny is very much in love with all his personal things. He loves money and everything that he has bought with it. Having the most expensive stuff to show off and have is very important to him. If Danny were to be robbed, he would quickly become very irrate. He would call the police and demand to know who took his stuff and how he can get it back fast. He would also demand that whomever took his stuff be punished hard. Danny would be a very angry person in this situation.

5.Imagine your character had to entertain a family member he did not like for the weekend. What would he do?

If Danny had to entertain a family memeber he did not like for the weekend it would be his aunt Tasha. He would be irritated that he would have to spend time with her, but would open up his apartment anyway. While his aunt was there, he would only order food or go out to eat so that he didn't have to cook for her. He would also be sure to spend an extra amount of time at the gym so he didn't have to spend as much time with her. Bascially- he would do the least amount of work he could, but still try to make his aunt happy.

Prompt for the week of April 4th

A religous event that really brought me closer to God was going through TEC. TEC stands for Teens Encounter Christ. This event took place from a Friday morning until Sunday night. There was also a reuion the following Sunday. During the weekend, I learned a so much about myself and different times in my life that God was really there for me. I learned more of the power of God and how he had greatly effected others that I knew from school. Attending this event helped me find a more positive circle of people to surround myself with at school in order to have a more religous lifestlye. I was very, very moved after the weekend. I started reading the bible more and more. I took off Sunday mornings from work so that I didn't miss a church service. I also started encouraging other friends of mine to go to church and go through TEC so they could also feel the power of God's love and learn how he wishes you to live your life. I would definately say that this event was the biggest event I had ever attended to bring me closer to God. I am so glad that I had to change to go to something so amazing and hope that sometime in the future I will be able to work a TEC so that I can help others see God's light and bring God into more people's lives.

Thought process for the week of March 28

Well, this week I really enjoyed out guest speaker Jim Reese. Right away I felt like Jim was going to be a great speaker. He looked very presentable, and to top it off, he was from my home state. Jim seemed to be somewhat nervous while talking about writing and the importance that writing has in everyone’s life. I think he did a great job explaining about each of his pieces, and about the real stories that inspired them. Another great thing that I noticed about Jim and his speech was that he shared a variety of different works so that everyone in the audience was likely to be able to relate to parts or all or a piece of pieces. He collected together serious pieces, humourous pieces, silly pieces, love pieces, family pieces, sad ones, and pieces that were not really much like poetry at all. In addition to all his poetry, Jim also had a small collection of short storied; a couple of which he did share. The interesting fact that I learned about his short stories was that most of them started out as poems and he later decided he had enough information and events to make them into full stories. The most unique piece I remember him sharing was one that was in the form of definitions and instructions. He wrote a survival type of piece able visiting or going to a farm in Nebraska. Also being from Nebraska and having relatives that live on a farm, I was able to really get a kick out of some of the information and advice he gave to "city folk" trying to live it up on a farm. Jim seems very proud of his Nebraska heritage and writes about it very well. Being able to hear someone so talented in an area that I wish to excel speak about writing and his writings really gives me hope in that some day I will make it too. All in all, Jim Reese did a wonderful job speaking and sharing his poetry and stories. He had a great voice, spoke clearly and with a great amount and excitement. He also really related to a wide variety of people and kept that audiences attention the entire time. He had a way of speaking that just made everyone excited to be able to hear what he was going to say next. I would definitely enjoy being able to listen to Jim speak and share some of his stuff in the near future. Jim Reese made me feel proud to be a Nebraskan and is proof that even small city, middle of nowhere people can make it big in the writing world.

Prompt for the week of March 28

One of the biggest events I can really remember pursuing was going through Confermation in my church. I had been going to church my intire life and I had been in Sunday School since I was old enough to walk. Confermation was when I finally got to make a difference in my church. Back then, my church still waited until 9th grade to do Confermation. Therefore, I was about 14/15 at the time. Classes to learn about the church and that started counting toward credits to get confermed started in 7th grade. We had to do so much community service and various activities in different categories to get confermed. In the end, the points never really counted toward anything, they were just an ensentive to do more in the community and church. I didn't really care if they counted or not, I felt that I really should earn all the points. Odviously they must be there for some reason. I think by pursuing to learn all I could from taking confermation classes and earning all the points I could, I not only learned about my church and community, I learned about myself. I'm really glad that I put in all the time and effort into getting Confermed. The day and celebration finally came. I felt really proud that I went through the ceremony. It was like a right of passage for me; something that made me become more adult and important.

In process work for the week of March 28

Well, this week you said we could do a freestyle if we wanted to so I decided to do that. I had some very strong feelings a few nights ago and tried to write them out. This poem isn't really perfect, but I don't know if I want to change any of it because I want it to remain just as I felt that night. Here it is...

Eyes of Mine

These eyes of mine,
Once bright and joyous,
Now filled with tears and pain.
This heart of mine,
Once filled with love and happiness,
Is nothing but a pile of shattered pieces.
The hope that I held from such a thin strand,
Now falls to the floor in two.
You always kept me happy,
And made me feel glad,
Only now all I feel is mad and sad.
I trusted you,
I cared for you,
I’d go as far to say I loved you.
I poured myself out to you,
Knowing that I could get hurt.
The risk is worth the pain.
And then you did it,
You broke my heart,
I fight just to stay sane.
I know you didn’t mean it,
You didn’t know what you were doing,
This I understand.
However this does change what happened,
And the pain will now remain—
In these eyes of mine.