Prompt 1

I have never thought of myself as a good writer. Throughout high school, I considered myself mediocre – writing without talent and without any strong desire to do so. However, my small, all-girls school challenged my writing. The fall semester of senior year English consisted of creating a senior narrative, something we could use for college essays if we so desired. My first weakness – I used my narrative for EVERY college application. I somehow wiggled my way into making the essay fit for every question on every application. I had no interest in writing any more than I had to. That’s so bad! Don’t get me wrong, the essay managed to mostly work for each university, but I definitely could have written something to better fit each question. I just could never motivate myself to create something new. So that’s my first weakness – no motivation. However, coming to Penn State, I knew that my lack of motivation was something I definitely wanted to improve.

Each year throughout high school, we were assigned research papers. These papers pretty much were the worst homework we could ever receive. All of the girls dreaded the springtime because we knew that soon we would be bombarded with notecards and outlines. I was always very consistent with my due dates and research. Therefore, I consider my organization an important strength to my writing. Keeping organized, especially when writing such a large paper, is extremely important. Because of this, I always had correct citations – important especially when plagiarizing can get you expelled from school. I feel prepared for college research writing, simply because of my experience in high school.

Though I have enough preparation in the “research writing” department, I certainly don’t feel ready for writing outside of that genre. In school, I was assigned many literary analyses, but rarely anything similar to this blog. As I said earlier, I had to write a college narrative used for our applications. I have never been so self-conscious about a piece of writing. This brings me to my second weakness – being nervous to share my writing. As I’m writing this blog, I’m so concerned with the fact that quite a few people will be reading this. I don’t necessarily feel embarrassed, but I certainly feel like people will judge my writing abilities. Through the peer reviews that this class requires, I am hoping to move past my weakness.

For my final strength, I’d like to elaborate on my love for art. I am not a fan of visual art. I do appreciate it and its beauty; however, it is certainly not my favorite medium. My creativity is focused more on the performing arts, but this can lend itself to creative writing. I am constantly thinking of new concepts for a play or a musical, which gives me many ideas to work off of for a writing piece. Though I have never acted on my ideas, I am eager that my love for theatre will lend itself in this class. I hope to increase my skill in creative writing, since I don’t have much experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZDcSrODALQ
This particular link gives me chills. I had the privilege to see this show live last year. I am pretty sure I experienced every emotion possible during it; I cried, I laughed, I got chills. Though it was not the same actors (obviously) that performed, the current performers were just as fantastic. What amazes me the most is that the whole performance is live. The set looks so realistic, especially when they are traveling on the boat. It is unbelievable to me that in reality, they are only on a stage and not water. Because it is live, I feel like I am a part of the show. I am right there experiencing it all – I see the love, the joy, and the sadness all play out in front of me. Because of this, live performing deserves the title of art. Not everyone has the ability to evoke emotion out of people; those actors simply have talent.

I hope my life at Penn State leads me to an ability like that – arousing emotion in others.