See ya WRI 100

Our last class was Wednesday, and I could not be happier. I did not hate the class, I just am not a fan of writing papers. The class was not awful, I really enjoyed The Glass Castle and the documentary we watched was entertaining to say the least, but I am just not the best writer,so the class really stressed me out. I constantly had weight of the papers hanging over me, and now I am free, and it feels great. This course made me learn a few things about myself though. I got a 90% on my second paper, so I am not as bad of a writer as I had assumed I was. Jocelyn at the writing center is the best, because without her help I definitely would not have done as well. For next semester, I would say to get rid of the readings from the first paper, because it was just tricky to connect those, for a lot of people. The Glass Castle was amazing so keep that. That book has made it to my list of my favorite books. Well WRI 100, its been swell but I am happy to say "see ya" and I am moving onto better things. BYE!

Researching Research?...

Last week I was assigned a research paper *a single tear rolled down my face*. Clearly I do not like research papers never have and probably never will. Being the person I am though I just flash a half smile and go on my merry way. I went to the library to start my research, unfortunately I ended up changing my mind about 10 times as to what I wanted to write about and the research part ended up taking 2 hours....go me and my indecisive ways! Part of my hate for research papers stems from high school because we forced to do multiple a year every year and they crammed all this knowledge as us on how to write a research paper. But wait it gets better! Once I got to college, I learned that everything I once thought to be true about research papers was complete lies. LIES! So I guess what I learned about all of this is that I still do not like research papers and high school is full of lies.

R.I.C.H.

Last week we watched a documentary titled Queen of Versailles. The documentary focused on the mother and wife Jackie. Jackie was different to say the least. Although she grew up more the poor side, she definitely took every advantage of being rich as an adult. The film portrays Jackie as a person wanting everything nice in the world. She has a 10 thousand dollar pair of shoes and a fur coat just as expensive. One scene that sticks out in my mind is when she is going to the store to buy gifts for her kids for Christmas. Jackie buys everything but in multiple copies. I know she has 8 kids, but each child does not need the same board game. Board games are meant to be played together not separately. I feel like she is wasteful. She was never supportive of the dad either , when he was trying to cut back spending when the market crashed in 2008 and it hit their family pretty hard. He was a little mean to her, pretty much an ass, but considering the stress he was under its understandable.

2nd time around

I just completed my second paper for my WRI 100 class, and let me say I feel much more confident in this paper. Part of the confidence comes from me. I actually enjoyed this book and was emotional invested in it while reading. Having that connection really just made writing this essay so easy. I had a little bit of passion behind this paper compared to my first so I just enjoyed it more. I also took use of the writing center at school, they approved of what I was writing and helped me make my paper more formal and grammatically correct. Having that back-up and boost to my confidence really helped me finish my paper. I approached writing this paper definitely different. I made an outline, found quotes to back up what I wanted, and then just put my opinion in to sum it all up. I was much more organized.

Are we normal? Are you normal? Am I normal? So, whats normal?

I stared at my computer for a long while today, before writing this blog. It was hard for me to come up for a "normal" family to compare my family to. What is normal? Of course I immediately thought of Full House, but that was the example Prof. Brummitt used and I wanted to be different. Ultimately my mind thought of lots of shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy and even reality shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians. At the end, I decided on Here Comes Honey Boo-Boo, and here is why.




Honey Boo-Boo!?!, you may be thinking, are you kidding me! They are the farthest from normal. And maybe you may be right, they may not be "normal", but they sure are real. Unlike normal families today, being weird or unique or different tends to be left in the shadow, and everyone must follow some cookie cutter version of what they think they should be, and that is where HoneyBoo-Boo and the rest of her family are different. They don't care what they do or how they do it, as long as they are enjoying themselves they are happy. If you look at a family like the Kardashians, they always look prim and proper, but if you have even watched 5 minutes of any Honey Boo-Boo episode you could make any of the following assumptions: this family never showers, how do all 5 of them fit in a 2 bedroom house, their clothes never match, why did the youngest daughter cover herself in butter and slide around the house, Well, because they are THEMSELVES!

My family most certainty relates more with Honey Boo-Boo. Now I don't want you all to think that I don't shower or I personally slide around my house in a puddle of butter because I don't, my mother would have a cow, but my family is more related to Honey Boo-Boo. I never have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, my parents make enough money to buy me new clothes and food and to pay for the house and the bills. I won't come home one day after school and find that we are moving to another town after only being in the current one for a month. I have a stable and stationary family. We have lived in the house I live in for 10 years. Honey Boo-Boo and her parents have a house, where they have lived in forever, they eat three meals a day, maybe not the same things we eat. I remember one episode where they ate noodles, mixed with butter and ketchup and hotdogs. Thinking about that makes me want to puke, but hey to each their own.

At the end of the day, no one is normal my family isn't, the Walls family isn't and neither is Honey Boo-Boo's family, because normal doesn't exist. There is that cookie cutter version of what a family should be and how they should act, but no one should be forced to act or behave like that. "Just be yourself", which I have heard more than a hundred times from my mother.And these days, I am starting to believe it more and more.

My First Paper Reflection

Writing my first paper for my WRI 100 class, was very nerve racking. Being that this was the first paper, I was unsure of how my professor grades papers. Sure there is a rubric and I reviewed it, but it is writing, not a math equation and everyone has a different style. The steps I took to complete my essay included, making a mental outline. I knew what I wanted to focus my paragraphs on, it's just making my incomplete thoughts in my head, into coherent sentences that sometimes isn't my strong suit. Yes, I know how to write a sentence, but sometimes I think of so many things at once, that my writing tends to be choppy and bounces around. Next I write topic sentences for each main paragraph and attach bullet points to each main topic, making kind of an outline. I turn my bullet points into sentences, and add a few transition words, adjectives, a conclusion/introduction and BAM! I have myself a paper.

I definitely have negative thoughts when writing. Sometimes I feel like I don't write enough like a "grown up" and don't always use large professional words. So after thinking bad about my writing. I throw those thoughts out of the way, and start to tell myself, "Tori, your writing is good and you will get a good grade." I also make sure to sit somewhere that is a little populated when writing a paper. For some reason, the background noise and people watching almost gives me ideas of what to write. That probably doesn't make sense to many people, but it works for me.

After writing this paper, I am a little more confident in myself. Writing is a lot easier that I had thought it would be. We all have our own unique writing style that works for us. With each paper we write and complete we increase our confidence level when writing and will do better on the next one.

Was it educational?

I attended Emmaus High School, where I did receive a good education, but I thought the teaching style was boring. I feel like the teachers followed the book to the t and just regurgitated information at me. Critical thinking is very important for the rest of your life, and sometimes I feel a little behind other people who had a big experience with critical thinking in high school. I had teachers that asked you a question, and you answered it with a straight-forward answer, usually found in the text you were reading. I just feel that teachers should be more open with learning styles, and as long as students are learning what they are expected to learn, they way they learn it should be a more open.

Interview with Tara!

It is interesting today, the way someone perceives themselves versus how we perceive them. I met Tara Irvin at college orientation in August and since then I have had the pleasure of getting to know her. I asked Tara how she views herself as a person. She responded with shy, quiet and friendly, while I agree with all of these, I see Tara as a different person than she sees herself. I see Tara as selfless she is always trying to help people before herself, I see her as a determined person. She may start out as a quiet person, but once you get to know her she opens up and let's you see the real her.

I asked Tara who her biggest motivated was and she explained that she used guidance from her both her mom and her dad, and some self motivation to go to Cedar Crest College and pursue a nursing degree here. Cedar Crest was a good fit for her because she got a good scholarship to attend school here and the campus is also small, and since she isn't good with directions a small school and a small campus is the best fit for her.

Some random things I learned about Tara during this interview is that she fears the unknown. Both personally and for others, She also fears drowning in an ocean. She is an amazing singer, and you can listen to her sing in the link here ==>  Tara Singing

If she had the chance to meet anyone in world dead or alive, she would choose Hennrietta Lacks. Lacks passed from cancer, but her cancer cells are currently being used to help create a cure for cancer. Tara would asked her questions about what is it like knowing that her cells are making a difference in the lives of people everywhere.

Welcome to my blog!

Hi, I'm Tori. I am a nursing student at CCC. I'm a commuter, but still on campus pretty often. In my free time I like to read, watch youtube and go riding on my four-wheeler. I am using this blog for my writing 100 class. I hope you enjoy!