Summing It All Up!

1. Throughout this course, I have seen myself grow in many different ways.  One important area of growth is in my writing.  Writing was never a strong point for me; I always needed guidance and knew what I wanted to write but I had a problem putting it down in words.  My wording would also be awkwardly phrased and I was unsure of how to modify it to make it sound right.  After gaining more experience in writing, these problems I faced lessoned.  Now, I have an easier time with my wording because I have had to write about several different topics which taught me how to correct myself and broadened my scope of vocabulary too.  When I have a writing assignment to do, I first make an outline to organize my thoughts and then put them into sentences that focus more on expressing my thoughts rather than proper phrasing.  Finally, I go through my thoughts and change the phrasing because usually the phrasing that I want comes from reading over my previous thoughts.  By repeating this process every time I do a writing assignment, I have increasingly strengthened my weak points.

               This class also taught me how to use my resources more.  I enrolled myself in English 5 and my tutor was very helpful.  In our weekly sessions, he helped me with problems such as picking and narrowing my topics, phrasing, and vocabulary.  However, sometimes I found that this was not enough to revise my papers because they were only 35 minutes long.  I wanted to reach out for more guidance in my writing.  Therefore, I looked up places that offered free writing tutors.  After finding this information, I found myself to be a commoner at the Bouke Building.  I have always gone there for math but it wasn’t until I took this class that I started to go there for writing.  I also went to tutor sessions at the Pattee Library.  I truly believe that using my resources at Penn State helped me improve my writing.

               Even though I am a freshman, I never knew that Penn State offered so many cultural events/readings until I took this class.  This is another way I learned to use my resources.  The cultural events not only catch my attention but they are free to all Penn State students.  Getting an education is not only about getting good grades on exams, but it is also about learning about different aspects of the world and broadening your horizons.  The first cultural event I attended was the Gallary Talk at the Palmer Museum.  The speaker talked about the history of the circus.  I was never curious as to how the circus was originated to begin with, but after listening to this lecture, I was intrigued by the topic and happy I went.  The second cultural event I went to was the reading the Mary Rolling Reader Series presented in the Foster Auditorium.  At this reading, two popular poets, Nicole Cooley and Julia Kasdorf, read poems of their life experiences.  Nicole Cooley’s poems inspired me because she went through the challenges she faced living through Hurricane Katrina.  I have never known anyone who had gone through Hurricane Katrina, so it was really interesting listening to her detailed descriptions of her experience.  By attending these two cultural events, I have learned to expand my knowledge outside the classroom.  In the future, I plan on taking advantage of these resources to explore about different aspects of the world.

               Overall, I have improved my writing and learned an immense amount about the resources Penn State offers students.  I plan on deepening my knowledge to learn about things other than what is taught inside my classes and use free tutoring for the rest of my college career.

2.

http://kevinbeebie.blogspot.com/2012/03/penn-state-as-party-school-fourth-blog.html

http://mariahcarey1216.blogspot.com/2012/02/when-i-first-heard-about-blogging.html

http://voiceoflaurenrhoden.blogspot.com/2012/03/so-what-we-like-to-party.html

http://nobigrushh.blogspot.com/2012/03/welcome-to-college.html#comment-form

http://shainamelnickenglish15.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-am-very-new-to-whole-blogging.html#comment-form

http://welcome2myworld-2015.blogspot.com/2012/04/4.html#comment-form

http://alexbentz.blogspot.com/2012/02/first-time-for-everything.html#comment-form

http://meeten3.blogspot.com/2012/04/aron-ralston-artculture-event-1.html#comment-form

http://keepyourweightback.blogspot.com/2012/04/cultural-event-2-essence-of-joy.html#comment-form

3.  I completed my SRTEs!

The Unknown Muck

Have you ever gone to a bathroom in which the gruesome wooden floor transformed from light brown to wet spots of unknown muck?  Let me broaden the scope more, do you know that feeling when you really need to use the bathroom but you are afraid to open those doors and see what is inside?  As Penn State students, I am sure many of you have gone out on weekends to just hang around with friends, party at a friend’s apartment, or a fraternity house.  There have been multiple instances in which I have needed to use the bathroom at a fraternity house and it has been quite the utmost petrifying and repulsive experience ever.  Better yet, I have never been to a fraternity house bathroom that has been acceptably sanitary ever.  Here is a taste of what it’s like to use a fraternity house bathroom:

First, I patiently wait in a line of other anxious girls.  I finally get in a stall to use the bathroom and my feet are splattering the filthy sludge below the soul of my shoes.  I try not to move my feet around much to prevent this sludge from getting on my shoes.  Now that I am in the stall, I am uncertain as to where to leave my cellphone in fear of the millions of contaminated microbes in the stall, mostly on the walls.  I decide to hold it in my hand. I shortly ask myself an unusual yet challenging question; where is the toilet paper?  As I look around, I realize that the toilet paper is laying on the wet floor with one side dipped in the unknown muck.  I attempt to multitask and remove the dirty side of the role while holding my cellphone.  Thankfully, I am successful! But what do I do now with the toilet paper role? Well, I figure, there is nothing else to do with it except to leave it where I found it.  I flush the toilet with one foot as I balance on the other and not touch the other parts of the stall.  I walk out of the stall, grateful to finally wash my hands.  My friend offers to hold my phone as I use warm soap and water to lavish my hands. Finally, I dry my hands with paper towels and gladly walk out of that monstrosity.

Is this what a bathroom experience should be like? I never thought that going to the bathroom could be such an obscene and unsanitary activity until I witnessed a fraternity house bathroom.  Of course, what is my recommendation for using fraternity house bathrooms? AVOID ALL POSSIBLE MEASURES FOR USING ONE AND USE WITH CAUTION!

Cultural Event #2: Mary Rolling Reader Series presents Nicole Cooley and Julia Kasdorf

                On Thursday, April 5, I attended the activity in the Foster Auditorium hosted by the Mary Rolling Reader Series.  Two popular poets were presented, Nicole Cooley and Julia Kasdorf.  I typically describe myself as having an interested in poetry.  In fact, most of the time I think it is boring if it isn’t used to describe romance. However, in class Miss Squillante mentioned that Nicole Cooley survived Hurricane Katrina and was reading poetry on her experience.  This caught my attention and intrigued me to go.  I figured; why not give it a try?

Between Nicole Cooley and Julia Kasdorf, I was more interested in Nicole Cooley’s poetry because it explained the difficult situations she faced as she survived one of the most destructive hurricanes known.  I found Julia’s poetry to be more about her daily life which didn’t catch my attention as much.  Nicole used specific and very vivid detail to portray her constant combat. 

In her poem, The Evacuation, she explained day by day dreadfully yet descriptively through her tone and comparisons.  For example, she went through the process of how she had to file a missing person report or update for of her lost parents.  Also, she compared the sky in New Orleans to the ‘911 Sky,’ which left me when a sense of melancholy, cloudy image.  

                My favorite poem Nicole read was Write a Love Letter to Canilia Grill.  Canilia Grill was one of the popular traditional family restaurants in New Orleans.  The grill was closed because of destruction from the hurricane.  After it was closed down, people put posted notes on the door and wrote about what they loved about the restaurant.  One day, Nicole walked by and copied down all 500 posted notes.   This poem contains many of the notes that Nicole copied down.  People wrote about their memories of having been in that restaurant and traditions such as eating their after getting married or going on their first.  Others wrote about their feeling of being lost without this traditional hub or how they wished to bring their future children there.  What I loved about this poem the most was the idea behind it.  Nicole expressed how not only the restaurant was lost, but most importantly, the tradition was forever gone.

                 By listening to Nicole read several poetic memoirs of her traumatic experience, I really got the feel of how gloomy and lost New Orleans was after Hurricane Katrina. She left me with rich imagery by describing New Orleans as the “tour of the gone” and how houses were marked with an X if it was already inspected or a number to represent how many people were found in that house.  Overall, I am happy I went because I really got to broaden my perception of poetry nonetheless listen to a firsthand experience of surviving Hurricane Katrina.