| My topics were transcendentalism and my memoir. For my nature essay (transcentdentalism) I was trying to relate my thoughts to Emerson and Thoreau and how they felt about nature. Although that wasn't all too hard considering I agree with most of their theories and basic principles. The main idea of my memoir was to just describe the scare we had at the alligator pitt on my beach trip a year ago. During both pieces I learned using specific examples and brush strokes while writing like its the present tense is very important to connect readers to your peice. I learned the more personal and descriptive you make it the better it is. I had to go back and fix some of my comma's in my pieces and I also had to fix some spelling errors! For instance, I had an awful time with the word lay and its tense in my nature essay. Who I learned from: Jessica Garner (http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhn2ck7j_3dszqqc&hl=en) did a wonderful job of using figurative language! I just love the way she describes things! "Mysterious and all-knowing, the woods beckon you under it's cool and shady undergrowth as if to reveal to you its secrets." I thought this statement was not only incredibly true but very descriptive like you could almost envision a GINORMOUS forrest when you read it. Anna Statsny had a very funny voice in hear writing! It wasn't at all boring and that is an important thing if you want people to actually read your piece! "The air was filled with excitement and the smell of guys who had put on too much cologne." That statement really gave me a little chuckle I ain't gone lie to you. http://annabananacabana.blogspot.com/ Hunter Burgess' Scarelet letter piece has a very creative and interesting beginning by relating such a common thing in such a clever way. After all its important for you to get the readers attention first thing when their reading your piece. "Letters are everywhere. Whether it be on Superman's chest or in you alphabet soup. The human language is made up of twenty-six different letters. Letters make up words, words make up sentences, and sentences make up stories." http://hunterburgess.blogspot.com/ |
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Reflection
My Memoir
| Huntington Beach 2006 Imagine your at the beach with the salty ocean air and the sand between your toes. You've spent all day with some of your best friends and things are going well, the gang's all here. This is pretty much the way my beach trip was last year. Okay so before I tell you the story, there are some things you need to know about my friends further known as "The Gang." Now I know what your thinking, "A GANG!! WHAT?!?!" No, its not that kind of gang, you see there is this big group of us from the ages of about fifteen to eighteen.who all go to this same place every year at the same time. It’s like one big family and we all are just fun, crazy, abstract people. We all stay for about 2 weeks every year around the fourth of July. This campground is really cool because not only does it have a castle (Atlaya) but, it also has marshes with alligators in them! Staying some where that has alligators may sound scary, but they don't bother anybody, and it's kind of cool being able to go hang out on the overlooks at the marshes. Well one day last year on my annual trip to the beach, I got up as usual, and I called everyone to see where they were at. We all decided to meet down at the over looks and hang out for a little while. So we met down at the marshes and we were just all hanging out lying around talking when all of a sudden Will is like "OH MY GOSH!" Of course, every-one's like "WHAT!?!?! WHAT'S WRONG?" So I walk over there and at first I don't see anything so I’m like "What?" and he goes, "MY HAT!" Sure enough I looked down at the marsh and there was his beloved hat. He turns to me and says, “I have to go down there and get it.” I said, “EXCUSE ME?” Well there was no talking him out of it he loved that hat too much to just leave it. My heart was pounding as he climbed down there and went out to get the hat, I just knew an alligator was just going to come up and eat him! But, everything goes well and he gets back his hat. And he’s getting ready climb up a huge wood pole to get back on the overlook. I knew this was going to be a chore because there’s nothing to hold on to in order to get up it. Will starts struggling trying to climb the pole and I look off a little ways and there is a GINORMOUS alligator just watching us. Now I was trying to make sure that Will didn’t panic and luckily he hadn’t seen it yet. So the other guys Matt and Aaron are trying to help Will get up, while I’m watching this alligator slowly move toward us. I am just standing there watching this alligator inch toward my friend and I was just praying that it wasn’t hungry! After about 15 minutes Will was back up on the overlook and that alligator was right there looking at us. It must have been hungry but it wasn’t going to get brunch today. Once I showed everybody the alligator they were freaked out and relieved at the same time because we all knew he made it just in time! |
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Quotes
- Our hearts are drunk with a beauty our eyes could never see. ~George W. Russell
- Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
My Nature Essay
"But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars." Ralph Emerson made this simple statement and I agree a hundred percent. Nature is an outlet of peace and serenity if you just take the time to breathe it in. Have you ever just laid in the grass and stared at the clouds above, its like a cold drink on an August afternoon, refreshing and needed but not well appreciated. Life is fast pace, hectic, and always changing, but nature although always changing is peaceful and calming. Emerson and Thoreau have the basic philosophies about the importance of nature. Nature is something that can be a wonderful part of your life or just part of it with no true relevance to who you are. But whether we admit it or not we are all connected to nature. For instance, just about everyone I know has a favorite place to be and nine times out of ten they will relate some of the reasons they love that place to nature. I have a love for the beach because there's nothing I like better than to have the sand between my toes and the salty ocean wind blowing through my hair. Its a layed back place where you can be as you are and those are my reasons for loving it there.
Nature is a place of free thought and self reliance as believed by Emerson and Thoreau. I have had personal experience with this. You see I love my front porch swing, its where I go and sit just to think and a lot of times for no reason at all other than just because. In my yard there are trees, and birds the usual nature stuff. The kind of things you see in the south. In fact we even have a creek right down the road and its absolutely beautiful. All of these things create an atmosphere where its almost like time stands still, and I can just think and be to myself needing nothing from anyone else. Here is where I find strength and knowledge. Every time sit out there alone with nothing to think about but maybe the song that's stuck in my head I always feel like I find out a little bit more about who I am. "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society." Emerson couldn't have said it better. Going out into nature alone gives you more of a sense of who you are and what you want to become, and once you get out there and just sit for a few minutes its not hard to forget everything that ails you and just be as you are. Its a place of new found confidence because there is no rejection and no judgement. You can be anyone or anything and its still okay. In my experience nature gives freedom with absolutely NO limitations! "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what if had to teach, and not when I came to die and discover that I had not lived." (Thoreau) It truly changes you and in my opinion helps you to become a more well-rounded person because it gives you the peace to clearly think about the different aspects of your life. As fast pace people we tend to focus on certain assets of our life and leave the other ones out to dry. This is also part of the reason that some people are faced with regret when they look back on their lives. because they feel they only have one thing to show for it. Whatever they focused on is who they are but they know they wanted more than that all though they neglected the other aspects of their lives. Ive found if I just slow down and breathe for a few minutes and take my time on decisions I make and the things I want to do I end up much happier with the result and nature has been a big part of helping me do that. Sometimes when I'm over whelmed I just go outside and sit, clear my head, and then its when I make my best decisions whether its about what I need to do that weekend or what college I want to go to, the peace and serenity of nature is part of the reason for my contentness of my decisions. Your not promised tomorrow so make the best of today and go outside a sit on your front porch and just think, trust me you'll be glad you did.
All in all, no ones life turns out the same, there is no rule or rhyme to it. Some people will find outlets in botox and chemical peels things of this time. Although, there will always be those people who find their outlet in nature, they maybe just a little old fashioned but its who they are and that's okay. If you've never tried just siting in the grass and breathing in who you are, I suggest you try it, you have nothing to loose other than a few minutes so just try it. More than likely I think you'll figure something out you wish you had found sooner. Life is full of twists and turns and no one knows exactly where their road is going to lead, so buckle up and hold on tight because its going to be a wild ride.
Nature is a place of free thought and self reliance as believed by Emerson and Thoreau. I have had personal experience with this. You see I love my front porch swing, its where I go and sit just to think and a lot of times for no reason at all other than just because. In my yard there are trees, and birds the usual nature stuff. The kind of things you see in the south. In fact we even have a creek right down the road and its absolutely beautiful. All of these things create an atmosphere where its almost like time stands still, and I can just think and be to myself needing nothing from anyone else. Here is where I find strength and knowledge. Every time sit out there alone with nothing to think about but maybe the song that's stuck in my head I always feel like I find out a little bit more about who I am. "To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society." Emerson couldn't have said it better. Going out into nature alone gives you more of a sense of who you are and what you want to become, and once you get out there and just sit for a few minutes its not hard to forget everything that ails you and just be as you are. Its a place of new found confidence because there is no rejection and no judgement. You can be anyone or anything and its still okay. In my experience nature gives freedom with absolutely NO limitations! "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what if had to teach, and not when I came to die and discover that I had not lived." (Thoreau) It truly changes you and in my opinion helps you to become a more well-rounded person because it gives you the peace to clearly think about the different aspects of your life. As fast pace people we tend to focus on certain assets of our life and leave the other ones out to dry. This is also part of the reason that some people are faced with regret when they look back on their lives. because they feel they only have one thing to show for it. Whatever they focused on is who they are but they know they wanted more than that all though they neglected the other aspects of their lives. Ive found if I just slow down and breathe for a few minutes and take my time on decisions I make and the things I want to do I end up much happier with the result and nature has been a big part of helping me do that. Sometimes when I'm over whelmed I just go outside and sit, clear my head, and then its when I make my best decisions whether its about what I need to do that weekend or what college I want to go to, the peace and serenity of nature is part of the reason for my contentness of my decisions. Your not promised tomorrow so make the best of today and go outside a sit on your front porch and just think, trust me you'll be glad you did.
All in all, no ones life turns out the same, there is no rule or rhyme to it. Some people will find outlets in botox and chemical peels things of this time. Although, there will always be those people who find their outlet in nature, they maybe just a little old fashioned but its who they are and that's okay. If you've never tried just siting in the grass and breathing in who you are, I suggest you try it, you have nothing to loose other than a few minutes so just try it. More than likely I think you'll figure something out you wish you had found sooner. Life is full of twists and turns and no one knows exactly where their road is going to lead, so buckle up and hold on tight because its going to be a wild ride.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)