After reading this assignment, I went through my photos and came across this picture I took a few years ago in Nevada. This picture does not have any filter or was ever edited, which is hard to find these days. Looking at this picture, it makes me feel relaxed instantly. I came across this quote and thought it fitted well with this assignment. “Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under!” ? C. JoyBell C.
2. Changing Fortunes (80’s theme & 3 stars)
I picked this writing activity because I like reading fortune cookies. Most of the time, I believe they can pertain to one’s life in some aspect or another. I am connecting this fortune to our class theme, the 80’s. The fortune is “Embrace change, don’t fight it!” If people did not embrace change from the 80’s we may still be carrying around phones that look like bricks or perms still being in style.
3. To my mom (4 stars)
Mom, I can’t thank you enough for that that you have done for me. You always know how to make me laugh when I am sad and calm me down when I am mad. Thank you for always encouraging me to be my best whether it’s with sports, school, or relationships, you always know what to say. I hope to be like you when I group up! You wear 100 different hats every day and make it look so easy. Love you!
4. Extra Extra Read All About It (80’s theme & 3 stars)
For this assignment, I watched 25 minutes of Full House (S1:E1.) The directions were to pay special attention to the extras in it. Note their acting skills, what they’re wearing? How many extras did the show have? Did any of them talk? What were their ages? The show started in the Fuller house where there were no extras or people in the background. After 15 minutes, a woman rang the doorbell. She was tall with blond hair and was dressed up looking for Uncle Jessie. I’m not sure if I would consider her an extra but she is the only person who appeared in the show who was not living at the Fuller house. I thought there would be more extras in this episode but, I was wrong.
Every day I go through my regular routine of work, classes, and rehearsals. However, the days that I stop and go outside for a couple minutes are the best.
I sit under a tree and observe all the nature around me. The smell of the grass I sit in refreshes my brain from my constant busy life. I look at the various critters and creatures in the grass crawling around in their home. I hear the birds in the sky traveling to their next adventure. I see my peers and others with their pets on their way to the next activity.
While all of this is happening, I am for once just sitting and relaxing. Before I have to get back up and begin my busy life again.
Nothing to me is more relaxing than observing some of natures gifts to the world. As a child me and my neighborhood friends used to film almost everything around us. At that time I had no appreciation of the outside world that surrounded me and because this a lot of what brought me warm memories, is now receding. I can attest this to many factors one possibly being global warming while the other being I lost value in what I saw. Looking back at those videos we filmed summer after summer, left me puzzled as to how I managed to let everything slip away.
The street I grew up on had an almost perfect mixture of city life and nature. During the height of the summer towering trees would canopy over the entrance of one side of the street so the searing pavement was nothing to worry about on our bare feet. Within a big plot of land there was a mini forest which we dubbed the “black forest” during the dormant months. On the right side of the forest there was a hilly field center pieced with a withering stump. That side of the street wasn’t as built up compared to the other half and because this we basically did whatever we wanted. That forest was a place we would all gather and play little games here and there. The other side of the street was where me and all my childhood friends lived, which wasn’t any less green than the latter, but our time here was usually where we split as a group. The boys of the neighborhood would go play football, while the girls would go on their own and do whatever they did when we weren’t all together.
I would consider the people who grew up on the same street some of my closest friends. In retrospect we might not have even become close in the first place without our streets. On our side of the street we might have stayed divided, possibly only talking in our public school situation. The forested area provided a place where we all enjoyed the company of one another and found common ground. Just how nature shapes the world around us holistically, the small plot of woodland we played in shaped how I go about my life to this day.
Unfortunately as I’m writing this more of that area is being bulldozed to accommodate a massive gravel driveway that cuts through my street to the one above it where all the rich people happen to live. A family that moved in the neighborhood later leveled the whole field area for nothing in the end, only to leave piles of dirt. I don’t know what the forest will look like when I return home next, but I do appreciate all the times my tiny plot of nature gave me.
This is the original link to this assignment. I chose to pick my favorite spot when it comes to going outside at my house. This is the view from my screened in porch on the front of my house. I love this view because there is so much to see in just two acres of land. The black-eyed susans just died because summertime is over, but usually there is fresh mulch and beautiful black-eyed susan flowers in the flower bed shown. I also love this location because I can hear all the little birds, squirrels, and other animals talking and singing to one another. It is just such a peaceful place for me. I love going out there and sitting on the porch to enjoy the nature and to get away from doing homework. It is a nice break of fresh air and a reminder of how grateful I am to have this view.
I also love my country so having the flag there always makes me happy and feel at peace. Today is actually 9/11 so this post is a good reminder for all of us to not forget about the tragedy that happened. We live in a beautiful world regardless of the bad events that have happened. This view reminds me that I am fortunate to live in this country with the animals reminding me of how free I actually am when sometimes I forget that I am free. Freedom is the most precious thing that we were given and the most forgotten also. When I step onto this porch, I instantly relax, and remind myself that I am fortunate for this view and nature itself.
We often as humans get so busy with our schedules and routines we forget to enjoy outside nature. It sounds kind of cheesy but if you think about it we don’t get enough time to appreciate mother nature. On one recent Friday evening I was watching netflix because who doesn’t love to netflix and chill. My eyes eventually got really tired of looking at the TV, so I decided to go outside and check the mail. When I stepped outside, not realizing it was sunset time. When I looked up the sun was setting and the sky was filled with three to four different colors. I’ve seen many sunsets but at this moment the sunset looked absolutely amazing. The birds were chirping loudly finding their way back home, the light breeze the trees gave off was a peaceful moment. I sat on my front steps to continue watching the sun set. At that moment I remembered that when I was in elementary school I would be play different sports or would do different activities putside after school with my friends. I thought to myself that my life has been so busy with school, family, and technology that I don’t get to go outside much anymore.
As part of my writing assignments for this week, one of the prompts I have chosen to write about relates to reminding yourself about the beauty in the world. After all, I’m sure most people could agree that it’s easy to get bogged down by negativity in news, politics, world events, and more.
So the prompt challenged me not only to think about the beauty of the world that I was missing out on, but also to go outside to take part in it. Although I’m back inside writing this now, I did go outside to do a little reflection (along with my dog, Kate, pictured below for people’s enjoyment).
Anyways, my walks to the dog park with Kate almost always end up being a time of peace for me. I’m normally alone, and it gives me the opportunity to sit back, calm down, and think about things.
Awareness is key.
This is something I was taught by my grandfather, and it is a lesson that I have carried with me ever since. Awareness demands good listening skills above all else. In every scenario, when practicing awareness, it’s necessary to listen and observe rather than to speak and critique. To me, this means being at peace with whatever is happening. It’s more important to simply be observant and aware, rather than to critique and always have an opinion about something.
So how does this relate to the prompt?
As mentioned before, it’s so easy to get bogged down by noisiness and negativity. But when I went outside, I challenged myself to slow my breathing, calm my mind, and simply listen and be aware.
What did I see?
I observed my dog, Kate, at first. And the bench I was sitting on. Then, the nature around me. The weather was inoffensive, much cooler than previous days. And it was fairly quiet aside from the occasional bird chirping or car driving on the nearby road. I didn’t need to be there long to already feel more relaxed, less stressed, and happy.
I felt present in the moment, and the feeling was beautiful! I would certainly encourage this to anyone else who is feeling stressed or overwhelmed. It’s a simple medicine!
This week I tried out the assignment, Another Day from the writing category. The details for this assignment is as follows:
“People often forget about how beautiful the world is, the way the trees blow in the wind, how flowers bloom in the spring and how amazing the grass feels on our feet. We come from a generation where the only beauty we actually see is over an electronic. Go outside every once in a while, smell the fresh hair and the flowers, lay down on a blanket in the grass and look up at the sky and see how the clouds look, We dont really live in a bad world, you are just blinded by what you see. Show me what you see.”
I was inspired to write about “another day,” when I read Maddie ‘s post, Another Day With The Dogs. Being a dog lover myself, I started formulating a response to this prompt. It’s so easy to get caught up in our daily lives, our computers and smart phones, that we start to dismiss life (and ignore our furry companions). What does “another day” look like when you are consciously trying to remember the details of a day as they occur rather than pushing them away? I decided to tell this story in two parts. The first part shows how we speed through life, and the second part is when we stop to smell the flowers.
Part 1: A Power Walk Past Life
My neck hurts.
The first thought that enters my mind each morning. I sleep wrong and never wake up right. I had set two alarms the night before (the chicken is set 5 min. later than my phone), but I’ve already hit snooze on both of them 3 or 4 times. My mind feels heavy. I remember dreaming about throwing knives at my computer. Why did I do that? ‘I have to get up,’ I tell myself. ‘I have 2 quizzes and I need to get my Major Declaration form signed. I’ve been putting it off.’ I struggle awake and get ready. I choose a pair of jean capris and a Homestuck shirt. Vriska’s symbol, because I need allllllll the luck. The dogs are barking at the loft window like they do every morning. “Oh, they’re here,” my mom says to no one as she rushes downstairs. I look out the window and see a white van in the driveway blocking my car. I’ll have to take the mustang to school. Luckily, I checked the tires yesterday. They don’t hold air for long. “The garage door guy is here. He’s been here before. Man, that guy can talk.” Mom says. “Great.” I say. I check to make sure that I have my phone on me. It feels heavy in my pocket- a reassuring weight. I pour some coffee in a thermos, grab my bag and keys, and I’m out the door. The coffee is never hot by the time I take my share, but I don’t mind. I cross the threshold of the garage where an old guy with long stringy hair has a workbench set up. The first thing that hits me is the smell of cigarette smoke. I don’t usually mind that smell, but this… I power walk past him as he tries to engage me in conversation. He only gets out a “how are you” before I make it to the car. I throw all of my bags in before I realize that I need to run back in the house for a forgotten item. Do I risk it? I do, and as I leave the house for the second time, I get caught by Smokes-a-lot. “How many daughters your mom got living here? She wanted me to program the cars.” “Me. Just me.” “That your car too?” “Yeah.” “One car for cruisin’ and one for business, ‘eh? ehehehe. “uh…sure.” (How do I leave?) “I wouldn’t take this nice car to school either, they’ll ding it up. This one time….” (ugggghhhh, I don’t care, let me go). “Uh huh.” “…and that’s probably why ya got this car, for when ye start havin’ kids? ehehehe.” “Nope!” I make a dash to the mustang that’s parked on the street and peel off towards school as though my life depended on it.
‘C’mon, c’mon, walk faster or move out of the way,’ I silently seethe as I weave in and out of the throng of people bottle-necking the covered walkway at school. I start thinking about how this is probably my biggest pet peeve. When I walk slow, I stay to the right. Why do groups of people insist on taking up the whole middle of a path? I jet past a stand on the left that says ‘Voting Registration,’ and one on the right that is for who-knows-what. I only notice the drink dispensers. I make the mistake of glancing over at the table to try and figure out what it’s all for. “Hi, how are you today?” “Hi, good.” (Sorry, no time). I walk past. I huff and puff up the stairs of Trinkle and catch a breath inside, pressing the ‘down’ button on the elevator. (I’m so out of shape). I step off the elevator and take my Major Declaration form out of my bag. A couple of feet down the hallway is a cluster of offices where professors hold hours. A guy sits on a teal couch just inside, staring at his phone. I gently knock on the wall as I peek into Ian’s office. “Hey, Ian, I think I need this signed by you.” “Yeah, no problem! Glad you’re declaring!” Ian takes my form and I take my leave. I have a few minutes before class starts, so I sit down at the tables facing the elevator. A group of 3 students are chatting next to me. I overhear bits and pieces. “I spent $99 on it. I splurged.” “Yeah, I played the beta. It was good.” “Smash Brothers tournament is Thursday.” I try to focus on my notes before the quiz, but I can’t think over the conversation. “You should wear pink again to the tournament just to mess with them.” “Why?” “To get into their heads.” “Why?” “To win again.” I get up and make my way to the classroom. I either know this, or I don’t.
I look at the clock on the wall. I still have a whole 5 min. left to finish up my second quiz of the day. Only 2 other classmates are still working on the quiz. Everyone else has already left. I can’t decide whether the cardinality of this set is 3 or 1. Oh well. I get up and hand the piece of paper over to Anewalt. “So, how’d you do, Miss ‘haven’t done high school math since 2004?’” “Oh, I think I did OK. I had a quiz before this and I bombed it. We only had 10 min. to do the quiz” “Oh man. Yeah, it can be hard getting back into the swing of things.” “I think he was in a hurry to get his lecture in.” “Yeah, we try and get in as much as possible in an hour. You should talk to him about it. Maybe he’ll move his quizzes to the end of class.” I hadn’t considered talking to my professor about the quiz, but now it was all I could think about as I emerged into the bright light of day from the dark depths of the Trinkle basement. I make my way to the mustang parked at the other end of campus. ‘I mean, I know the concepts. But I didn’t have time to read it carefully. 10 min.? I couldn’t tell you my name in 10 min. Never mind do long division.’ I formulate what I will say in my email on the drive home. The radio is playing that new T-Swift song.
? You are somebody that I don’t know But you’re takin’ shots at me like it’s Patrón And I’m just like, damn, it’s 7 AM ?
‘I don’t want to make a big deal about it. But I have to say something. maybe I can make it lighthearted.’
? So oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh You need to calm down, you’re being too loud ?
‘I’ll poke fun at myself for being slow. Am I overthinking this?’
The song changes to Barenaked Ladies’ One Week and I sing along as I pull up to my house.
Part 2: You need to Calm Down
My babyyyyyyyy!!!!
I am showered with puppy love. I say ‘hi’ to all of my dogs by the stairs. I joke with them that they are ‘in jail.’ Gretel licks my face furiously. Each member of our household has a favorite Schnauzer, and Gretel is mine. The feeling is mutual. (We all love the Doodle equally). “Dinner will be ready in 15 min.” Mom says. I sit down at the kitchen table and finish the rest of my coffee from this morning. I never have time to drink it all before heading to class. “Geez, that garage door guy can talk. He caught me on the way out,” I say. “Yeah, he kept me outside for hours! I finally told him I had to go start dinner.” “What? that’s crazy.” “Yeah, and he had some stories! He told me about this one neighborhood with pineapple flags in front of all the houses. Pineapple flag, pineapple flag! The guy thinks it stands for peace and happiness, or something like that. He finally asks one of the owners, hey, what’s with all the pineapple flags?” “yeah?” “Swingers! It means they’re swingers. And if the flag is upside down, it means they’re having a swingers party and people are welcome to join.” “What?! Seriously?” “Yes! And he said one time while working in one of these neighborhoods, he saw a woman sitting in a lawn chair in the driveway, naked from the waist up. She moved her chair closer to the guy to see what he was doing. The husband was there working in the yard. He didn’t care!” I listen in astonishment to the story that came from Smokes-a-lot. I somehow think it would have been less interesting to hear from his mouth. Dinner is ready and I fill up my plate with noodles and sauce. I add lots of Parmesan cheese and grab a piece of bread off the pan that’s resting on a glass cutting board. I stare out the backdoor window as I eat. Light is playing off the leaves of the bushes and trees. Inside, the dogs have calmed down and are spilled out on the floor. Kitchen talk puts them to sleep.
“C’mon, let’s go outside!” I say as I take the stick out of the backdoor and undo the locks. A flurry of motion happens as all the dogs rush outside. Vi always barks in excitement. The bells tied to the door handle jingle as I slide the door open. I pull on it with effort- the door doesn’t slide as easily as it used to. I walk down the patio steps and take in the sights. I always did think that our yard looks like a jungle. Banana trees with their huge leaves dot the landscape. Birdbaths, sculptures, flowerpots, tools, and rugs are placed haphazardly. Potted plants with flowers are still in bloom as Summer winds down. I hear a buzz near the willow tree and stoop down to find its source. A bee is flying around the purple flowers at the base of the tree. I try and take a good picture. ‘Stay still.’ “Gahhh!“ I swat the mosquitoes away from my legs as I stumble backwards. I look at my phone ‘gallery’ to see if I got the picture. ‘Hey, not bad. It’s not as close-up as I wanted, but at least I got ’em.’ (I aspire to take good bug close-ups). Doodle is nipping at the long-leafed bushes. She’s still young and has her puppy ways. She chases the other dogs around. Vi and Gretel run under the bushes and play ‘keep away.’ I notice Zoey is not out with us. Our polite senior. She prefers to stay indoors and rest. The dogs mill about the yard for a time. Doodle sniffs at the air and looks towards the neighbor’s yard. She hears something that I don’t. Vi pants and licks her snout. “Time to go in!” I say as I head up the stairs. Some of them have already gone in via the doggy door. Vi follows me in. She’s the ‘needy’ one and likes the reassurance. I lock the door back up and take note of my new bug bites. “Another day in the life of me, huh?” Happy dog faces look back at me. I wonder if my professor has emailed me back yet.
“People often forget about how beautiful the world is, the way the treese blow in the wind, how flowers bloom in the spring and how amazing the grass feels on our feet. We come from a generation where the only beauty we actually see is over an electronic. Go outside every once in a while, smell the fresh hair and the flowers, lay down on a blanket in the grass and look up at the sky and see how the clouds look, We dont really live in a bad world, you are just blinded by what you see. Show me what you see.”
For this assignment I took to the outdoors. Not too far from home though, I sat on my back porch
I love writing and so I just let this flow naturally and observed and wrote what I saw and felt around me. For this I didn’t need any special tools, just my head and heart. The original assignment can be found here and below is what I wrote…
The painters that worked on the apartment painted the porch french doors while they were closed. Because of that, my apartment doors stick and need a little push to open them. Usually I turn the handle right, lean in, and knee it. With a little force the right door unsticks and opens outwards to the small cement porch. On the porch we have two chairs stacked in the left corner. We've stacked them because we really don't have that much space in this little rectangle and trying to fit four steel chairs out around one small round table makes things very cramped. I put my notebook down on the steel table that had little diamond shape holes in it, and positioned the porch chair cushion where I was going to sit. The chair caught on the rope rug we have beneath the table and I had to reposition it and lift it to set it back down comfortably. By the time I sat down I took a moment to observe my surroundings. There is a large tree out within the grassy space between our building and the communal pool, which was now covered and closed, and I peered up to look at the top of it. The leave rustled as the wind blew through it. We had stormy weather pass through so the air had finally cooled off that day and the heat spell that we were all so used to finally broke.The weather was comfortable. The type of weather that you didn't feel sticky in after sitting for a period of time. If I moved, the back of my knees nor the insides of my elbows made any sweat droplets, and when I pulled my hair back the underneath of my ponytail wasn't warm. This type of weather makes it feel as if the Earth is just taking a break and put itself in neutral. I looked back up to the tree where a new rustling sound was heard unlike the one made by the wind. Three birds all flocked to the same branch and were interacting in what seemed like a very intense conversation. Lots of head bobbing, some tweeting, some wing flapping (but not enough to fly away). The conversation seemed meaningful. I continued to look around and noticed a tiny bug balancing on a part of the table around one of the small diamonds. The table is small but I've already moved two of my plants off of it since the last rain storm. They're both succulent type plants that don't need much water, but since the storm was unexpected, they were drenched the morning after it passed. I moved them on the the concrete further under the cover of the porch above us so that they were still outside but covered from the rain. The bug on the table didn't seem to be going anywhere in particular. I just continued to watch it chose to go left or right and wander around. I questioned how it even got up here to this second floor porch from the ground. Did it climb the building? Did it climb the tree? Or had the wind brought it up here? Would it remain here? Or would it somehow find it's way down? While I was lost in thought the bug walked out of my sight line. It was too small, I could not find it again. I decided to pick up my pen, and begin to write.
So, for those who don’t know, I have a plethora of dogs. Four in actuality, six to be technical. Four are mine and live with me, two more are my brothers, but he travels quite a bit so I watch them for him.
Anyways, I always walk my dogs. Usually just around the neighborhood or to a park. Simple, but they enjoy it. Recently, however, my oldest dog was diagnosed with cancer. Not to sound harsh, but he’s going to die. I am extremely devastated by this, but it’s pushed me to up my game of the walks he goes on. He was always an extremely energetic dog, and loves his walks so I have to spoil him, right?
Every walk for the past two weeks have been different. I walked him in downtown Frederickburg because he loves the attention he gets (plus The Italian Station always gives him a puppuccino), I walked him to a friends house to play with their dogs, I took him on a nature hike, and I even took him to the beach.
These walks made me realize something; that dogs live a life of enjoyment of the simplest things. Something I think humans need to embrace. My dog, Murdock, stops to smell every flower (literally), sits in the grass under some shade and just lays his head on me when he needs a break, he get’s excited when it starts raining and does a cute dance trying to catch the rain. He may be dying, but he is enjoying the simple things in life. He is taking in the world for what it is and making something of it. The walks are peaceful, beautiful, and most importantly, good for the mind.
Murdock loves his walks and I’ve decided to love them too. Murdock is a good boy and always will be.
For this writing assignment I decided to do another day. (This is a 4 star writing assignment). So as many of you know I play tennis for the school and am constantly competing. However in my free time I love to play golf. Golf is one of those sports where you can get lost in yourself and your mind and just relax. Looking at the assignment details I saw how we had to describe a place that is beautiful to us and a place that shows us the world isn’t so bad.
This leads me to talk about Winged Foot Golf Club. This is a country club in NY where I got my first job. I walked in and the history and beauty of the site was comparable to none. I loved how well kept the course was and how friendly the members were. Of course I saw the beauty and loved how it all felt when I was working but nothing could compare to it when I finally got my chance to play and not work.
I walked up to the first tee and thought of all the great names who have played this course in the past. Everybody from Tiger Woods to Jack Nicklaus had stepped where I was stepping. I remember being so nervous but thinking how cool it was that I was getting to do this. Overall I played very well but I was in such amazement at how something could be so beautiful. It was a moment I’ll never forget and I look forward to coming back when it holds the US Open in 2020. (Below are some pics)
