I'm ChillAs I sat down on Monday to write my essay on theme (previously mentioned in week 5 post) my mind was as blank as my screen. That's basically how it stayed the entire class period. Well that's okay, I thought, I mean I have the entire week. When my week started running up though, I found myself writing entire pages in 20 minute time frames, and good ones too, with minimal revision needed. This week I learned, or realized I guess, that I really work better under large amounts of stress, and for good reason too. Now, if you expect this to be a post bashing the public school system feel free to exit the page, because I'm not going to complain about free education. On what it has done to me though, yes. Not to be overdramatic, but I've been busy since about the seventh grade. There was always something that needed to be done- papers, worksheets, studying- I was always trying to finish something, and it always seemed as if there weren't enough hours in the day. This has caused constant stress for me. It did not take long for me to realize that to be successful in this hectic school system, I would need to operate at my best under large amounts of pressure. I only realized this subconsciously, I never actually put any pressure on myself to be better in these situations, but it has worked very well. I guess you could say that I've just been training myself all this time to work this way. I think out of all the lessons I've learned through public schooling, this is probably the most important- to be cool (and successful) under pressure. While we're on the topic of stress however, here are some stress relief tips I found immensely helpful (as I said, I never learned how to get rid of stress, just how to operate under it) https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/relaxation-techniques-for-stress-relief.htm
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Creative writing who?I feel like I always learn the wrong lessons. Or the lessons that stick with me are far from the things my teachers prepared. Anyway, I’ve noticed that all these blog posts are quite ironic, and I’m sorry to say they aren’t changing. I’m sure my teachers would love to read a long post about my new creative writing abilities, but what I’ve really learned from AP Lit this week is the importance of keeping a journal.
First off, let me just offer some explanation for my poor instructors Schoenborne and Ben (who I’m sure by now are shaking their heads and curious to when in class they’ve ever said the word ‘journal’) and some general milieu. Since the first day of class AP Lit, we’ve been given time in class to work on creative writing. Now, it may have started off as creative writing, but as I’ve gone back and looked at my work from the last six weeks I’ve realized that my writings slowly got less creative and more real. I’ve concluded that I’ve been using this time to talk about my busy life. This fact became obvious when we were asked to present one of our creative writing pieces to be graded and I had to scramble to find something appropriate to share. This project was also a wakeup call, and I’ve promised myself to focus strictly on creative writing in creative writing. …. But I did really love keeping a journal. Not only did I get to work on my writing ability, but I now really appreciate being able to write about my life. In some respects, journaling is a coping mechanism. I love being able to recall the stressful events in my life and get them down on paper. I write them in a pretty way, go back and read them, and suddenly my stress is angsty art. Magic. Actually, now that’s sounding a dash unhealthy. Point of the post, when done in the ‘write’ way (ha), journaling is very beneficial. I found a link that I very much agree with on the topic and will post in the comments. A Lesson From My MistakeThis week my group chose the elements theme and point of view. I was assigned point of view, and chose the short story, Everyday Use by Alice Walker to study. I swiftly settled into the anecdote and was rather pleased at the number of examples I found to support my thesis on POV. I enthusiastically began highlighting and taking notes- this would be the easiest paper I ever wrote! When I was done I went back to the webpage to read the hyperlink. That’s when I realized that Everyday Use was under the element theme, not point of view.
This account goes to show (somewhat ironically) just how important point of view is. I looked for examples for point of view and that’s what I found. After, when I went back and read the story searching for indications of theme, I discovered them just as easily. Although this story of mine is rather short and silly, I can honestly say this is the first time this class has taught me a lesson I can use in something other than literature. You see, I’ve been having a very hard time being happy this school year. I have demanding classes with extensive homework, swim practice every day after school, and a part time job lifeguarding at the waterpark. Lately, with constant stress on me, it’s been very easy to look for the negatives. And boy, once I was searching for them, it was even easier to find and dwell on them. But this experience taught me that the positives are there, so why not pursue them? I for one cannot think of a single reason putting priorities on the negatives is beneficial (but if you can, feel free to comment below). A lot more is possible with a positive attitude. Not convinced? Check this out https://www.successconsciousness.com/positive_attitude.htm |
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