Reflection

This freewriting blog assignment has helped my writing. It’s so easy to stop and overthink what you are trying to write and with this assignment, I feel like I have been able to just write. The only problem I really feel like there was was it was public and I didn’t feel comfortable sharing a ton of stuff on a page so public so I feel like I had to hold back on some of my thoughts for somethings. For any other English class I have had, I have never had to make a blog, we kept it all in a journal which I feel is a little more private to express my thoughts. Also before this class, I had never heard of freewriting. I think it is a fun approach on how to teach writing without forcing the students to write a ton of papers. Another part of this was everyday I went to the page on Ms. A’s website that had all the writing prompts and randomly chose one. Some that I got were really fun and some made the think about things I had never even thought of before. I also liked that we had free range on what we wrote about, most of the time my teachers have given me writing prompts and I had to write about that. In this case I got to go to that page and if I didn’t like the one it gave me, I could choose another one. The freewriting was definitely a different experience that I’ve never done in any of my other English classes. After this class is over I will probably try to continue to freewrite just to keep my writing at a good rate and continue to work on it.

7/17/2015

Entertaining myself

My writing prompt today was write about how you would entertain yourself if you didn’t see a soul in six days. I probably couldn’t handle being by myself for that long. But thinking right now I would probably watch some tv, since I hardly ever have time to sit down and actually watch a movie or something, that would be really nice. I would try to catch up on things I needed to get done, such as homework and things around the house. If I was done with everything I would really like to catch up on some sleep, since there’s hardly any time for that now days. I always wish that when I was little and had to take naps, I would have actually taken them. I would also try to pamper myself, as much as I can without seeing anyone, probably take a nice long bath, do like an at home facial, or do something really special with my nails. I would probably also go through all of my clothes and decide what I really need. I have a ton of clothes that I hardly ever wear that I would like to go through and give to charity, but I never have time to go through all of them. There is five things that I would do if I couldn’t see anyone for six days. A bad thing that I would probably do is eat a lot because I’d get so bored. I wonder if I could still call people and talk to them or if I can’t have any sort of contact with people. This was a really interesting writing prompt. What is one thing you would do if you couldn’t see anyone for six days?

7/15/2015

Taking Risks

My writing prompt today told me to write what I think this quote means, “If you don’t risk anything, you risk more.” To me this quote is saying that you should take risks or you will be losing more than you would by not taking the risk. For me this is applicable in my choosing a college. It’s nothing super “risky” as in dangerous, but for me it is an opportunity that could change a lot of things in my life. If you’ve read any of my past blogs, you would know that I got an offer to cheer, but at a college pretty far away from home. For me deciding to go and cheer in college has in a way been a risk. I am risking growing apart from all of my friends back home, not feeling as comfortable as I do in my own home, and really just having to fend for myself. But I know that if I was to stay home I would be missing out on the opportunity to continue cheering and making new friends. It will also be a really good chance for me to learn how to be on my own. This quote just says that although you may be scared, it will be worth it in the end rather that not going for it and not making any changes in your life. I enjoy taking risks, nothing that could put my life in danger, but something that’s going to make a change that I might be a little frightened of at first. Any risk you take could end in failure, but you still got that experience and if you wouldn’t have taken that risk, you would have lost that experience and probably wouldn’t have learned some good lesson while doing it. Stepping out of your comfort zone is pretty much the best thing you could do for yourself, even if you may not want to.

7/14/2015

A Story

Today I am writing a story using certain words given to me. Plastic bottle, hockey puck, dirty handkerchief, crumpled note.

There once was a guy named John. He was a great hockey player and today was the day he was going to have the biggest game of his life. There will be lots of college scouts there to watch him. The only thing is, he has to remember to go clean the rink before he could play. He was suppose to be at the rink at 11 A.M. to start. John slept through his alarm and didn’t wake up until 10:50. He got up and got ready as quickly as he could and got to the rink, immediately he started practicing so that he would be ready for when the scouts were there. Towards the end of the showcase, John was going up to hit the hockey puck, right as he swung for it his skate hit a plastic bottle that was on the rink because he forgot to clean it. The scouts didn’t know what to do, as one of them blew on his dirty handkerchief and watched John get back up, he decided to walk down to the ice and make sure John was okay. After making sure he was, the scout went back to his seat and continued to watch. Later that day when John got home, he noticed a crumpled up note that his mom had written him to remind him to clean the rink before he started. He thought he wasn’t going to need a reminder. He realized then that maybe if he had seen the note he wouldn’t have fallen down in front of all the scouts.

7/9/2015

Challenges

Today my writing prompt was asking me about a challenge I have faced in the last three months. A big challenge that I am thinking of right now is choosing a college. I recently got an offer to go cheer in college, but it is a very expensive school and even with my scholarship I will still have more to pay, and it is far away. I always just figured I would get my general education classes out of the way at OTC since they are free because of my A plus. Then transfer to MSU for my bachelors degree. But ever since I got this offer I have had to make a really hard decision. I’ve thought about it for awhile and still am not able to make a decision. I would like to go so that way I can get a little taste of being on my own, without really “being on my own” but I also don’t want to be so far away from my friends and family. They mean the world to me and I don’t know that I really want to leave them. Another thing is it is really expensive and even though I would be getting scholarships, I’m pretty sure that it probably won’t cover the whole expense. That’s a big thing for me because I have free college here at home. So I am still looking at this challenging decision and working towards deciding soon, weighing the pros and cons. I know whatever I choose will be the best for me, but right now the issue is going to be a very stressful decision. No matter what I choose though, I am very much looking forward to my future and all that I hope to accomplish.  I can’t wait for this new chapter of my life.

7/8/2015

My biggest fears

I am going to write about two different kinds of fears here, physical and mental. A physical fear of mine would be spiders. They may be little but they are probably the scariest thing in the world to me. I don’t know what it is about them but they are just so creepy. I was going to kill one one time, and right when I went to smack it the stupid thing jumped, I still to this day have no idea where it went. That was the scariest event that has ever happened with a spider. A fear I have about killing them is when I smash them it could be pregnant and the babies would go everywhere, that happened to one of my friends once. My biggest mental fear would be that I won’t accomplish any of my goals. Like I have said in previous posts, I want to go to graduate school. Everyone is always talking about how hard it is to get in. I may try my hardest, but what if that isn’t good enough to get me in? That is for sure one of my biggest fears. But I also have enough confidence that as long as I try my hardest, things will just fall into place on how they were suppose to. I don’t know what else to say about my fears, they are pretty upfront. I’m not sure I really enjoyed the topic I randomly chose from that website we got, it was kind of a sad topic to talk about.

7/6/2015

What to do when the power is out

The power hasn’t been out in a while at my house. But I do remember way back to the ice storm when the power was out for weeks and we had to find something to do with our time. Even though it was cold and our water wouldn’t work, and our stove wouldn’t turn on, a lot of things weren’t working because pretty much everything takes electricity now. But it was one of the most fun times. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my family, which hardly ever happens because we are all so busy, but since we were all trapped in our houses there was plenty of time. Way back then, I think I was around nine or ten, and my favorite way to pass time was playing my Nintendo ds, I know, I’m a loser. That was the coolest thing back then. Another one of my favorite times was when my family and I would gather around and just talk. That’s probably what made the ice storm bearable. It was so much fun to actually get to talk to my family and hear stories from them about past ice storms from when they were kids, those stories from my grandparents and my parents. We found a way to make being trapped in the house with absolutely nothing to do fun. I don’t really know what else I would do when the power is out. Now that I’m older, if the power was to go out I would probably grab a book that I’ve been wanting to read but I haven’t had time to. Reading would be a really good pass time during a power outage, as long as it’s a good book. I’m curious, what do you do when the power is out?

7/4/2015

My last $20

What would I do with my last $20? This question really made me think. Really, if I only had $20 left, I would probably try to save it for as long as I could. But if I really needed anything I would have to go buy any necessities that you could with only $20. That amount of money won’t get you a lot nowadays, but it can get you some. I would buy the things I absolutely have to have, like groceries or deodorant, stuff like that. I would definitely be trying to find coupons though so I would be able to buy more on my $20. I wouldn’t be spending it on anything that I don’t absolutely have to have. As much as I would probably like to go shopping, when buying clothes, $20 doesn’t get you very much. I would really hope that all of my bills would already be paid, otherwise that my be an issue. I don’t know of any bill that is $20 or less. I’m not really sure how else I would spend my last $20. I really probably wouldn’t spend it unless it was an absolute emergency. In that case I would try to spend as little of it as I could so that I would still hopefully have some left over until I got paid again. This question really made the think about what I would do in a situation like this. It made me wonder if there are other things that are more important that I need that I’m just forgetting while writing this. So, feel free to comment about what you would spend your last $20 on.

7/2/2015

Procrastination

“Things you do whenever you procrastinate” I thought this was an interesting prompt today because I usually get my blog done first thing in the morning but I’ve been procrastinating until now. Usually when I procrastinate I get on Twitter or get distracted texting my friends. There are some subjects that I really hate, like math, that I will find any excuse to not do. Even though I know I need to get it done. Then I’m usually up all night trying to figure out what I’m suppose to be doing. Most of the time I get stuck in a marathon of Friends and just don’t feel like doing anything else. I have seen every episode of that show countless times, it’s my favorite. Another thing that really distracts me is when my friends text me while I’m trying to do homework, talking to friends is way more interesting than doing homework. I usually try to set my phone away from me when I am doing my homework. Twitter and Instagram are really good distractions while doing homework too. I will always be on them and be thinking to myself “I really should get my homework done” but that usually doesn’t happen and I will just stay on my social media sites. Even when it doesn’t have anything to do with homework, I procrastinate with everything. I just went on vacation last month and didn’t start packing until 30 minutes before we were suppose to leave, needless to say we were late. I am probably one of the biggest procrastinators ever, I usually try to get my homework done pretty early so I have time to do other things, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. Getting ready to go somewhere is another thing I procrastinate on. I will wait as long as possible to have to get up and get ready to go somewhere and usually end up being late.

7/1/2015

Learning New Languages

Everyone wants to know another language right? Or is that just me? My writing prompt I got today was “List reasons to learn a new language.” I’ve always wanted to learn a new language just because I thought it would be cool to speak different languages. Some people do it because they are traveling to a different country and want to be able to communicate with the people there. Some learn a new language just because they want to. I always wanted to learn French. Partly because I’ve always wanted to go to France. It’s the shopping capital of the world, of course I want to go. And the Eiffel Tower is there, I’ve always wanted to see that. I don’t really know any other reasons people learn another language. Maybe if their job requires it, I know some nurses and police officers that have to learn Spanish because that is another largely spoken language in America. If you learn a language you have to start learning their culture and some people are really interested in the culture of others. There’s four reasons, thinking it’s cool, so they can communicate with others, for a job, or for learning the culture. People learn different languages for all sorts of different reasons. Some people are raised learning two different languages because those are the ones spoken in their house. My time is about out and I’m slowing down on being able to come up with reasons people want to learn a new language.

6/30/2015

My Ideal Place

My ideal place would be like my own little planet. It would have only my closest friends and family. It would be like a huge resort. A beach, with roller coasters and water slides. I would have tons of my favorite restaurants where I could eat for free, like Mexican Villa, Olive Garden, Auntie Anne's, Arby’s and many many more. There would be a HUGE mall with every store there is and I would go everyday. I would get to spend it with my favorite people in the world. It would be my own little paradise. There would be sweet little puppies and horses all over the place. I don’t really know what else I would include in this place. My time is only half way over and I’m not sure what else to write about my ideal place. A house. I would build my own dream home. It would be like a palace. Everyone I love would get their own wing, so it will be like we have separate houses but we are still close enough to each other that we can still spend time together. There would be a big pool in the back yard, with a hot tub. Even though we would be right on the beach, it would still be nice to have a pool. There would be an amazing, huge living room that everyone could gather at. There would be huge gorgeous windows so we can look out at the ocean. My closet. It would be HUGE it would be as big as any room in the house and I would have a separate closet for shoes, because the mall is right next door so I can go shopping all the time. This ideal place sounds pretty expensive. Think there’s any chance I could win the lottery and be able to maybe have this? I doubt that, but a girl can dream right?

6/29/2015

Rainy days..

“List what you usually do on a rainy day.” That was my writing prompt I got today. Usually on a rainy day I like to lay in bed and listen to the rain. Or I do ridiculously long marathons of movies or shows, like Harry Potter or Friends. On our last rainy day though I had to go to practice and it wasn’t really what I wanted to be doing that day. What I really hate doing on rainy days is going to school. Rainy days make me tired and being at school just makes it worse, especially walking from my car or if I have classes that I have to go outside to get to, that really sucks too. What’s even worse is if there is ice/snow on the ground and you’re just trying not to fall in front of all those people. That was totally off topic of my rainy days. Sometimes when it’s raining I like to go outside and play in the rain, I know I sound like a little kid but there is just something so fun about going and doing things while it’s raining. As long as it is only rain and there’s not any lightening or a risk of a tornado coming, then I really like to stay inside. One thing I really hate are storms, but I love the rain. I don’t know what else I really do on rainy days beside the things I have to get done like school or practice or something like that. I like to relax while the rain is hitting the roof of my house, it’s such a peaceful sound to me. I would like to hear what some of you like to do on rainy days and maybe I’ll give it a try the next time we have rain, which seems to be almost everyday here recently.

6/28/2015

My ATM

On the creative writing prompts link I got the prompt “If an ATM could be custom made for you, what would it spew out instead of money.” As I am sitting here writing, I would say it would probably have to give out candy. It would be all kinds of candy, anything sweet, it can’t just be one kind because then that would get boring. It would have kit-kats, Snickers, Milkyway, M&M’s, Sour Patch Kids, Butterfingers, I can’t think of anymore candies off the top of my head right now but there would be a lot more in my ATM. Although, if I had an ATM that gave me nothing but candy, I have a feeling I would start getting pretty overweight. I would for sure have to start working out more. Having a candy ATM probably isn’t the best of ideas. It would be good for awhile but I would probably get sick off of it because I wouldn’t be able to stop eating all of the candy. I have a serious sweet tooth. And as I wrote that sentence my thoughts trailed off to ice cream. That sounds really good right now and since I’m going to be in town today, I think I might stop by Andy’s maybe and grab some. That totally went off topic of my candy giving ATM, but there’s really only so much you can say about an ATM and I think I’ve run out of things. I would be interested in hearing what other kinds of ATM’s people would like to have, so comment what your ATM would give out instead of money.

6/27/2015

The Best Thing in Life is...

So I had to go to Ms. A’s website to find a writing prompt to write about because I lack any sort of creativity to come up with something on my own. I chose a random number and this is what I got “The best thing in life is…” To me the best thing in life is..how can you pick from so many choices. I am so fortunate to have so many great things in my life. But right now as I am writing I would say the best thing in life is family. Without my family I don’t really know who I would be. My family has shaped me into the person I am today, and I would like to think they did at least a decent job, although others might not agree. My favorite thing to do is go on a short trip to Branson with my family. It’s pretty close so it’s not a bad drive and there’s so much to do there. My favorite thing to do when we go down there is go shopping and maybe to go Silver Dollar City for a little bit, we get season passes every year. Family is important because those are the people that will always be there for you, even if they don’t really want to be in that moment, they have to because they are family and that’s what family does. I know my family always has my back. I don’t have much longer left to write and I don’t really know what else to say, I feel like I’m just repeating myself over and over again. To anyone reading this I think when you are done you should call or text you parents, or grandparents or both and just let them know you love them, it will make their day to get to hear from you.

6/26/2015

My Comp 1 Class

Coming into my Composition 1 class, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew we would be reading a book, The Heart and The Fist by Eric Greitens, because that was on my book list for this class. But I wasn’t sure what we were going to do with it, beside the obvious, reading it. In previous English classes that I have taken, all of which have been at my high school, when we would read a book, it would be with the class, we would all have to follow along and then answer questions at the end of the class period about what we had read. Since this was an online class I didn’t know how that would go because it’s a different setting. But we pretty much do the same thing each week as we read a little bit more and have a discussion over it. Something I thought was pretty cool about this class was we set up a blog. That was something I didn’t expect because all of my classes have been in the classroom so there’s really been no need for that and we usually keep a journal or notebook in the classroom where everyday we would have a writing prompt to answer. I really like the blog idea. Something from this class that I think will really help me as a writer is the freewriting project, which I am doing now. I think it will benefit me a lot in how quickly I can come up with ideas and put them into words. Especially having to do it everyday, I know that is something that will help me become a better writer and probably help me better be able to bring my thoughts onto paper, or computer, whichever. I think it’s a pretty interesting project, for sure something I’ve never done before.

6/25/2015

I believe I will accomplish my goals

In my life I will set many goals for myself, whether they be long term or short term. Such as, I will get an A in all of my classes, I will get into graduate school, I will help those in need. Those are some of the goals I have set for myself right now. Currently, I am working towards getting an A in my Composition 1 class. Getting into graduate school is something that will take awhile because I have to get through a bachelors degree first, but my first goal of getting an A in all of my classes is a great start to getting into graduate school. When doing research on how to accomplish your goals you read a lot of setting "SMART" goals and putting your goals in writing. I know for me, writing down my goals has never been helpful, I'm sure for some it really helps, but I usually just lose the paper I wrote it on, so it doesn't help much.

Getting to Know Your Audience

I think the "Getting to Know Your Audience" project was great. You get to know your classmates better and sometimes in an online class that's difficult to do because you're not sitting in a classroom together and getting to have different conversations with all of your classmates. Sometimes it's hard to picture your online classmates as actual people, being that you don't ever see them or really talk to them one on one and have a conversation, like you would in a seated class.

One of my favorite questions from this project was "What are your biggest pet peeves?" I liked this one simply because some of the answers were somewhat humorous, although probably not to that person. While reading through some of the answers I realized that those were things that bothered me too, but was something that I never really thought about. It seems that a lot of people have pet peeves related to driving, but I think everyone gets annoyed with driving sometimes even if they don't want to admit it.

Another thing I liked reading about was what peoples plans are for the future. Such as in Lynn's question, "Why are you taking classes at OTC? What is your goal?" I liked hearing everyone's answers about what they want to achieve in the future. I guess I'm just one of the weird people that love listening to other peoples thoughts and plans for their life.

I feel like I have learned a lot about my classmates through this project. I've learned that driving is a big pet peeve for people, that family is a big thing in everyone's life, majority of us have grown up in the Springfield area, and that we all have some crazy ideas of what super power we would like to have. Overall, I think we have a very interesting class that have will a lot of different perspectives on anything we do in this class.

This I believe

1. This I believe I am a good student.
2. This I believe that I will be successful
3. This I believe that I will work hard
4. This I believe that I will accomplish my goals
5. This I believe that through my struggles I will always keep my faith
6. This I believe I can make it through graduate school
7. This I believe there is good in the world
8. This I believe people are good
9. This I believe I can do anything as long as I put my mind to it
10. This I believe anyone can achieve greatness if they tried
11. This I believe hardships make people better
12. This I believe everyone deserves a chance
13. This I believe nothing will stand in the way of my dreams
14. This I believe anything is possible

Graduate school. One thing that I see in my future. My fear is not getting in. Getting into graduate school is very difficult, you have to have the right grades, pass this crazy hard test, and you're still not guaranteed a spot. My fear is that my grades won't be good enough no matter how hard I work for them, or that my graduate school test, the name of it escapes my mind at the moment, the score wont be good enough because I'm not the best tester. But I believe that I am passionate enough about doing what I love that I can get through it and beat my fear. I'm not sure what else to say about this topic. Ive pretty much explained my thinking about it but I still have a few minutes left. Passing school has always been a fear of mine. I always work really hard and try my best and so far I've been pleased with my grades in life, but I always am worried that something will go wrong or I've missed something jand its going to completely bomb my grade. Especially in math, math is for sure not my best subject and I know for graduate school you have to at least pass College algebra and a higher math class is recommended but I am worried about my grade in that class as it is. I kind of just tangented, I dont think thats a word but oh well, about math and I'm really stuck on what to talk aobut now becuase I still have a couple of minutes left and I've pretty much mentioned everything about my topic. Although I am worried about getting into graduate school, I am also very excited about it. I know I am years away but it is the start of something I love and I can't wait to get that experience.

Word count: 316

Jung Typology Test

My Jung Typology test seemed to be pretty spot on for me. I got a 44 percent in the Introvert category. I didn't realize I was that unsocial but I do prefer to be with my group of friends than be in a huge group of people I don't know. I got a 25 percent in Feeling over Thinking. That seems to be pretty accurate in my life, I am more of an in the moment type person, but I think when it comes to school and writing I for sure over think things and try to make everything perfect. I got a twelve percent in Intuition over Sensing. I definitely go with my instinct in everything I do, which usually just gets me doing things I'm familiar with doing. This test has made me start thinking about my personality and why I do the things I do. My results are going to be something that I remember and the next time I catch myself doing something I'm going to think back to this test and wonder if the test was correct in deciding my personality.