Thesis

   It is clear that our poor choices in not recycling and polluting has slowly caused negative effects to our water supply and nature in general. If we do not take initiative, we could quickly spiral into an irreversible future where we may not have any clean water at all. It only takes one person to make a difference and there are many ways to help.

A Person

     He wakes up every morning and quickly gets ready for work. He tries to decide if he can squeeze in some time for chess. No, it'll have to wait. He quickly drives off to the studio and as he enters the building, blinding lights surround him like stars. He takes out his camera and begins to think where to start. He doesn't rush it. Filmmaking is like chess. He even said so. " If chess has any relationship to filmmaking, it would be in the way it helps you develop patience and discipline in choosing between alternatives at a time when an impulsive decision seems very attractive." He focuses on every detail. On every strand in his work. He obsesses to get everything right. Like chess, he must not make a hasty decision. It must be perfect. He thinks. What if I use this? What if I do this? He takes a risk with every scene, like every move in chess. And it's worth it. As he yells cut, in the back of his mind,  he can hear his own voice saying, checkmate. 

Water and Life

   "Water is the driving force in nature," Leonardo da Vinci once said. It's true because without it, we're cut off from one of the most important resources we have on earth. It's similar to the blood in our veins that pump life into us. Seeing the picture of the bird's carcass, I couldn't help but think that we're slowly killing ourselves. Piling on the trash and infesting our waters. Pumping loads of gas into our cars and consuming tons of unnecessary products. It's slowly leading us down a scary path and I wouldn't be surprised to see us leading a similar fate as the one the bird did.

   

My Identity

   I discovered my love for writing when I was in forth grade. With writing I was able to gain the confidence I never knew I had and be able to say what I wished I could've said. I was given the liberty to express my thoughts on paper when we were assigned journal assignments during that year. The teacher graded on the substance of our ideas, not the basic rules most teachers zoom in on. There have only been two other instances where I have been given that freedom. When I was in eleventh grade and presently in my English 95 class. As a disgruntled junior in high school, I had lost a lot of faith in writing. The teachers weren't passionate about inspiring the students or giving them the will to write freely. But I was assigned to a teacher who broke that mundane mold. He inspired me to write and never cease that dream. I was also given the option to transfer to an AP English class, but I refused. I knew I wouldn't be given the same freedom in that class. And I will never regret it. I probably wrote the best essays I was capable of and improved significantly as a writer. But three years passed until I could receive the same inspiration and freedom to write and learn to improve as a writer. This happened when I entered my English 95 class and I was asked to explain my identity as a writer.

   When I am given the freedom to write what I want and how I want to, my motivators are largely intrinsic. I write to feel better and express myself. A grade should be the least of my worries because writing exists to not only to inspire others, but most importantly ourselves. I always try my hardest to hand in an essay that not only reflects the effort but the sincerity of my ideas. I don't just write to meet each guideline in an assignment. My ideas aren't watered down to meet the requirements. Instead I always try to give a piece of me in each writing. I want my voice to be heard and writing has always been the only form that allows me to get an idea across. So it's the truth when I say that writing does give me a sense of purpose because you have freedom to write whatever you want to and there's always an opportunity to improve. That's the beauty of writing. I know there's always room for improvement.If you're bad at something, most of the time you'll convince yourself that you will never get better. But writing allows you to make mistakes and always lets you jump right back into it and learn from those errors. And I believe that I am an imperfect writer that's willing to try and learn from my literary mistakes. 

   In the next four years, or even beyond that, I hope to grow as a writer and always stand firmly in my beliefs towards writing. Writing shouldn't be a chore or a ticket to the next class, or job, or step. Instead I want writing to always be a passion and something I can always improve on. I want to inspire others through my work and I'm fully aware that there is inspiration everywhere, especially inside ourselves. My identity as a writer has always mirrored what stage of my life I'm in. I'm continually growing as a writer but also as a person. The magic of writing is that we can always go back and relate to past work and see how much we learned or didn't learn. It's overwhelmingly powerful how much writing has helped me. I owe a great deal of thanks to writing and will never give up on my dream to one day inspire others to write. In the end, the most accurate statement that can sum up my attitude towards writing is that is absolutely saved my life.
  

Courage to Share

   As I reread my first draft of the composition I wrote, I was hesitant to share it with anyone. Although I enjoy and benefit from criticism (positive or negative), I felt that having to read my words aloud made things all the more daunting.

   I have always written and revised in silence, but after sharing my work verbally, I was able to dissect the paper even further and find specific areas I have to work on. For example, I found that one thing I commonly did was use an abundant amount of run-on sentences. The feedback from my sister, who I shared my work with, was very helpful. She had many questions about the class and said I should be more specific when I give examples. She was also quick to point out that I should work on developing a more thorough introduction. And after explaining the terms intrinsic and extrinsic, she said I should have examples of how those terms weave into my writing.

   All in all, I felt that sharing my work verbally helped me understand the areas I need to work on. I should also be more inviting towards feedback and criticism, even if it's negative. I want to be a more articulate and especially confident writer and I feel that sharing my work will help me to do so. I can't be afraid of what others think or say about my work because it's only going to help me improve. One of my favorite quotes on literature says it all: "Writing exposes what the heart refuses to acknowledge," and I feel that's the beauty of writing. It envelopes all the words we can't speak and all the feelings we can't describe. It's a miraculous gift to be able to sit down and write whatever comes to mind; and an even bigger gift to share it with others. And the outcome of exposing your feelings and relating with others is the biggest award of all. It's simply magic. 

"Never be bullied into silence. 

Never allow yourself to be made a victim. 

Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself."

Sharing

   I've always felt writing is a way to express myself. If I couldn't find the words to say aloud, I'd write them down. I'd hope my writing would touch other people who feel this way. People who are wallflowers, taking in their surroundings quietly; and rather than being social butterflies who can confidently walk into the room and say what they feel. I'd want the underdogs to feel like they can relate to me when they read my writings. It would benefit sharing my ideas because they would see that they're not alone and other people go through the same things as them. Sharing is a way to connect with others when speaking or actions isn't enough. And that's the beauty of writing.
  
    I've always leaned towards oddball characters like Carrie White from Stephen King's Carrie or even Alex DeLarge from Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange. They were the outcasts, the social misfits, the delinquents, the nobodies. These are the characters I could relate to because I never was the prom queen or the perfect "A" student. And I assume that not everyone is. So these are the characters and some of the writings that I've benefited from reading. I don't agree with a lot of their actions or even with them in general, but this is what I loved most about these novels. The characters in them weren't perfect either.

An approach to writing

   Reading Peter Elbow's book, "Writing with Power" I could relate to how personable his approach to writing was. I never felt like I was reading a strict guideline with endless rules. His approach helped me understand that not only is writing suppose to be fun and easy, but also with a good method like his, the rules can be also simple and enjoyable.
   What really stood out to me was the part that talked about creative writing versus expository writing. The best quote from this part was "a good essay or biography requires just as much creativity as a good poem; and that a good poem requires just as much truth as a good essay." You can't have one without the other. If an essay states all the correct truths and tons of information without having a bit of creativity, it falls flat. Yes, it will be accurate, but who wants to read a boring mess? But this also goes for a piece of writing stuffed with tons of creativity. It can be imaginative, but if it's lacking basic structure or any form of facts, it can be brushed aside as nonsense. I guess what I gained from reading that part was that I must find a balance between the two. I can be as creative as I want to, but I should also remember that I have to make sense and also follow a basic outline to have a creatively accurate paper. And that is the best of both literary worlds. The creative and the formal one.