My Favorite Narrative

I enjoyed Mike Roses' "I Just Want to Be Average" the best, from the narratives we read. The piece was interesting to read. A little humorous at times, which I found to be quite charming. I also liked how he wrote details about characters: "There was Ted Richard, a much-touted Little League pitcher. He was chunky and had a baby face and came to Our Lady of Mercy as a seasoned street fighter." It shows how much he remembers about the experience and, in turn, how important the whole thing was to him. He wrote it to try to explain a moral, not make his audience want to be average, as one may assume from the title. Another thing I liked from his piece was his use of dialogue. It made it seem even less formal, in a way. Which, in my opinion, is in no way a bad thing. I would much rather read an informal piece of writing then something resembling an essay. He is a compelling author. I found the narrative rather easy to read. Not because it was a simple story, but because it was pleasant to read. I hope I can write my narrative to be just as pleasurable his.

Differences in Narratives

All the narratives talked about learning something. The were all slightly different though. Obviously in what the authors had learned, but also in how they told their experiences. Malcolm X's and Rose's narratives are told like a novel or story with a moral, while the bloggers seemed to be teaching us how to do something straight forward. The titles of Malcolm X's and Rose's also were different then the bloggers, which all began "How I Learned to..." The blogs are, also, all split into sections, unlike the narratives written by Malcolm X and Rose, which were one constant piece of writing.   

The blogs were also different form each other. Cate Huston's was a lot of information with a little bit of story sprinkled throughout, while Joshua Romero explained his journey in removing Google from his life and ways you can as well. Feross told his as a story with a lot of information mixed in. None of the blogs are very open to interpretation. The other two narratives, however, are deeper, in a sense. 

I found that I preferred Malcolm X's and Rose's style of writing over the blogs. They were more enjoyable. However, there were parts in the blogs that I enjoyed as well. The blogs were shorter and more to the poin, which can be refreshing to read sometimes. 

Educational Experience

At first I tried to teach myself to play the guitar. I was discouraged after a few months of feeling of as of I was accomplishing absolutely nothing. Although I believed I could accomplish the task of learning to play an instrument on my own, I agreed to take lessons because I really wanted to be able to sit around the campfire and strum a merry tune of someone else's adventures. During my first lesson my instructor asked me how I learned, or rather what subjects in school came easy to me.  I responded with science and math. He would then tailor the lessons to teach me in a way I could understand. He asked for songs I wanted to learn to play or artists I enjoyed listening to. I told him of my favorite artist. Before I left for the week he showed me all sorts of different strumming techniques and played a few difficult songs. I was fascinated. After a week I came back, guitar in hand. He had letters and lines written down on a paper with the title of one of my favorite songs at the top. On the other side of the paper was the neck of a guitar with hand written numbers in different places. I recognized these as chords, some of which I could already play. He was only teaching me four chords. The important lesson, however was the pattern in which the were played, and deeper then that the way each chord was strummed. After only two weeks I could play a song. Not only that but along with teaching me a song he taught me other chords and scales. He wasn't only trying to teach me how to play songs but also write them. Now I can play many songs many of which are a bit complex.

"How I Learned to Travel Solo" Narrative

I found this narrative pretty interesting. Possibly because I really want to travel. I liked the stories she told in the explanations. They weren't long, but they were an insight to her own experiences. They were compelling and kept me interested.

This narrative was definitely set up to teach. It wasn't meant to be a story of just one experience she had traveling. She wants to share how she gets the best out of a trip when traveling alone. It was personal, though. She mentioned what she prefers to do, not what you should do. She actually kind of inspired me. Now I want to try to travel alone in the future.

Scrolling down to the comments there are multiple discussions going on about the article. Some about costs. Others about some choices she made. But the article was open for discussion. I think this is an important thing for a blog to have.

Cate wasn't trying to say she is the best solo traveler in the world. I think she just wants other people to travel on their own and see what it's like. She seems to like it a lot and wants people to know it isn't as scary as it may seem.

Pre-writing

I must admit I am not one to typically pre-write. I have before and usually can write slightly better. When pre-writing I prefer to use free writing.  Usually stream of consciousness. Something simple to get ideas flowing. Pre-writing isn't something that's easy for me to do. I don't like having to figure out multiple ideas, and often that's what's expected from a pre-write. That's why I enjoy free writing. You just write anything about the topic at hand. The beginning of my writing experience included a lot of cluster pre-writes, so often when in doubt I fall back to that. However the more visual pre-writes are not something I typically use. I feel restricted when using them to write. I usually don't have enough space and by the end I can't read what I have written. After reading the pre-writing examples I found some pre-writing tactics may try in the future. An example would be looping. It seems like a great way for me to narrow down exactly what it is I'm trying to get across. Pre-writing is helpful to quickly eliminate ideas that don't have enough information or are not interesting.  Although not a favorite pass time of mine, I can understand the importance of a pre-write.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X's narrative "Learning to Read," was very different then the first two narratives. Of course there is the difference in experiences, Malcolm's had nothing to do with computers, while both Feross and Joshua's did. However, I felt the style of writing was very different between the two sets. Malcolm told his experience as a story, which I found much more interesting to read then the other narratives, which were more explanatory. I will probably take my narrative in a direction similar to "Learning to Read," rather then "How I Learned to Program Computers" or "How I Learned to Live Google Free," because I found it much more interesting to read. I felt it connected better with the audience. One reason being that everybody reading it has learned to read, but the important thing for me, as a future education narrative writer, to get from it is the style used. I still plan to use aspects from the first two narratives. I hope to come up with a more creative title then all three of the narratives. Hopefully one not including the word "learned," but if it comes down to it I will. Even so, I refuse to have "How I" in front of it.

Procrastination

I sit here hours before class writing this post. Erasing idea after idea of what to write about. Mentally kicking myself for waiting until the due date to start writing. Starting something only to get preoccupied with other things on the trap that is the internet. I knew yesterday that I needed to start, but here I am. Trying to string together sentences that may sound halfway intelligent. Reading and rereading the small amount of words on the screen. 

This is a dilemma I frequently find myself in. I feel I have above-average intelligence, but I can't seem to grasp the concept completing things in a timely matter. There are the odd assignments I finish days before I need to, however. I am a stubborn person and I'm not one to except much less than perfection. So, I'm not the most pleasant person to be around when I have projects that must be finished. 

I obviously am well aware of my problem, yet I do little to correct it. "Is there really a need?" I'll ask myself. Of course I have a good point. I don't remember the last time I've had a late paper and I've had great grades my whole academic career.  I get so stressed, though. So I believe in the long run it is worth it. From this day forward I will work on my problem with procrastination. So I'll start my pre-calculus homework due tomorrow evening. Or maybe I'll search for ways to temporarily dye my hair.