Writing 3

For my last entry, I want to talk about my final decision before I changed my major this semester from Theatre Education to English.

I have had this document on my flashdrive for many years now, and it had a story idea that I never expanded upon, or resolved, or threw away. I wasn't sure why, but when I actually did access it in January, this stupid story changed my outlook.

This was one about a soldier that just couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut. No matter who he met he argued with and he was able to make an amazing case. He went to war and was captured and talked his way out of captivity. He was a soldier, but he was meant to be a lawyer. He wanted a different life so badly that he couldn't see the obvious.

This story idea actually inspired me. I was in a very bad mood, and felt like getting some frustration out, so I wrote a 2 page story based on this idea. Afterwards, I felt slightly better, but I was still frustrated. This frustration wasn't from anything related to writing or who I am as a person, but was about some work matter that got to me. I went back through a lot of my old writings, including Clockwork, my journals, my reviews on plays, and I came to the conclusion that I wasn't happy with my major and what I wanted to do with my life.

Writing always had made me happy, while theatre was something that just came easy to me. I remember how much passion I had when I was free writing, how it was super difficult but I loved the challenge, and how my head hurt after reading a hard section of a book but my heart was lighter. I love writing, I love english, and I also love theatre, but I can't do that for the rest of my life. I then wrote something for myself, which related to the short story that I had written about the soldier. I was wanting to be a director and teacher so badly I forgot that I was meant to write.

My Nature Journal 2

I started another journal at the start of august. This journal was a bit different than my first nature journal in the sense that it is more about the stars. I've started to get more into the ideas of astrology, and the movement of the planets, stars, and moon and how that affects us everyday, and how it determines what kind of person we can be. I already spend a lot of time outside at night, but after starting this I paid more attention to the sky above us.

This helped me out a lot because I was able to relate myself to the stars, and give some kind of explanation for my weird habits and bad feelings. I loved connecting my writing to the world in this sense that I haven't before.

Reading 3

I started a list of "books to read" shortly after graduation. I felt like I wasn't reading enough and so I decided to make that list. One of the first few books on the list was something that I had already read, but wanted to reread, and that was "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which was a book about a black slave in the american south.

This book was perfectly intense, and it was extremely hard to read. I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to get through the difficult text.

Another book that I had gotten from the library was a collection of multiple books called "The Complete Works of Shakespeare". This of course had everything Shakespeare had ever written and was about 2000 pages long. My favorite thing to do was to go through his sonnets and try to understand what he meant. Still my favorite love poem is Sonnet number 138 (which mainly speaks about how one can lie without realizing it, especially when it comes to love). This goes back to my enjoyment of the challenge when it comes to reading. I realize that I'd rather spend a lot of time and energy on something that pushes me to my limit.

Storybook 2

Later on, during my senior year of high school I began to write this play. This play's rough draft title was "Clockwork". It was a play about bullying, and it was based on stories I had gotten from my parents, aunt, and friends. I enjoyed this type of writing because I was able to combine the skills and knowledge I had from theatre with my love of writing. On paper, (or off paper I should say) these skills together would have made for an amazing play, not the dumpster fire that I had created. This was one of the first things that I had created for theatre that I wasn't proud of. The story part had matched up but the way that it was delivered was confusing, and my teacher told me that it was hard to understand why the bully was doing what they were doing.

Writing 2

Last semester, I was given an assignment in my play script analysis class. We were to analyze an entire play, and write a five page essay on it, with our notes involved. The part of this assignment that I remember the most is the amount of the assignment that I could handle. Many people were struggling, and did it slowly, few hours at a time. I was able to do marathon sessions, which I had never done before. I had 3 sessions of 6 hour increments where I just wrote. Afterwards, I always felt energized, and wanted to go out and do things and have fun, while my Theatre Education counterparts were exhausted, and took a nap before coming with me to celebrate.

The writing parts came so easy to me, and the analysis was even more fun. I used to think that it was because this was theatre, but as I looked at the reactions from my peers, I started to think that maybe it was just me, and what I enjoy doing. My mind started to shift at this time, from thinking about theatre and directing, to maybe writing plays, and having fun with those.

Writing 1

Another thing that I distinctly remember was all of the poems and stories that I had written about a cat that I had when I was younger. Monster was a bit of an oddball, and we always found him getting into all sorts of odd predicaments. One of the things that I had written about him was an ever-evolving poem about how we had gotten him. I stopped rewriting it when I was in 7th grade, but I remember exactly what had happened from that day.

This is because that day I had written down as much as I could. Later on I was able to go back and look at it, and see details that my memory had erased. I kept rewriting this because this was the first time I had journaled about a semi-significant event in my life. My memory isn't perfect, but writing doesn't exactly go away that fast. Days that don't mean anything to me nowadays I can look back upon, and remember that life used to feel harder in different ways, and appreciate that I am happier nowadays.

If you'd like to hear more about monster, here's a google doc where I spilled as many "two sentence" stories about him as I could think of: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FYkoRcRkIg9IACdEz_QtB_6Ydu5t8iDuH9l5czOmlWs/edit?usp=sharing

Storybook 1

   What kick-started my writing experience was when I was tasked with making a 5 page short story. Younger me still had many issues when it came to writing, but this was the first time I was given a lot of freedom in what I was creating. I worked many, many hours on this project. Most others worked solely during in-class workshops, and made simple things, but I had a much more complicated story cooked up.

    I decided to do a weird story about abandoned house-cats, based on the greek gods.

While I don't remember much of the story, the thing that stuck with me the most was the passion that I had felt while writing this. I was so strong and confident in what I put down on the page, and for the first time I had this emotional feeling of intellectual competence.

Reading 2

Later on in my school career, I was assigned a few readings in my literacy class that stuck to me. The first one of these was Fahrenheit 451, a book about a dystopian (Messed up Utopian) future. This one specifically was about books. It was a perfect world where all books were prohibited. Firefighters actually were the ones that went around burning them. This book had so much depth and meaning. It really spoke to me in a number of ways, and inspired me.

One of the things that spoke to me was the idea that without books, the people were left with boring entertainment to turn to. Without writing the world was lame, and too simple. I related this directly to my struggles with writing. It was something that I always enjoyed but never came easy to me. I drew inspiration from the bland world that Ray Bradbury created. I think sometimes the struggle is worth it. Without challenges, and without writing, our world is colorless.

Reading 1

When I was in 5the grade, I had this teacher. His name was Mr. Hagerman, and he told me that he'd seen a lot of potential in me when it comes to writing. He used to give me all sorts of books that got harder and harder. One of my favorites was the first one he gave me, which had just come out.

At the time, The Hunger Games surprised me with it's amazing storytelling and challenge of a read. I loved reading, and started to read more and more as time went on. It became one of my favorite pastimes, second only to writing.

My Nature Journal 1

When I was little, I liked to fill notebooks with all kinds of things I saw in my life. For a time, it was mostly people, and places. Once I got my first official journal, a gift from my mom on my 10th birthday, I started writing about other things.

I would walk down to this small park right by my house, and sit in the shade of a tree while I watched people walk their animals and play in the field. I wrote down all the different kinds of dogs I had seen, and drew replicas of the clouds in this book, but I got bored pretty quickly.

I started paying attention to the familiarities I saw in each of the trees. Each one mimicked the other, but yet was so different. I would pick up fallen leaves, and write down how the patterns that went through them made me feel.

I found that I loved being around plant and animal life, plant life specifically. While this book started as one to write down all my observations, it turned into one of reflections. I would describe how these leaves looked but I didn't think that I was telling enough. I started to include my thoughts about them. Why I just liked to sit and trace over the textures on the tree trunks over and over. I was only fully satisfied when I put myself into my journal. 

The journal my mom gave me was green and leather, and I had filled it up with images of rainy days, and drawings of rose bushes. So I decided to make it my nature journal, and I tried to write in it as much as possible. 

As a 12 year old boy though, I got bored after a few months and moved on to other things. I don't know where my nature journal went, but I wish I still had it, so I could go back and see what kind of naturalist I used to be.