I don't get very personal. I am not one to share my experiences or my feelings... in fact if anything, I believe that this is one of my personality flaws. Over the past four years I have really begun to understand how easy it is for me not to become emotionally attached to situations, people, or places. If I do become emotionally attached, I supress the feeling. It isn't that I see emotional attachments as a sign of weakness, perhaps I am just afraid to confront them.
Ever since the first day of class, when we were told we had to write a personal essay, I have not stopped thinking about what I want to write about. When I found out it was going to be on a blog, for everyone to read, I began to freak out. I know I have personal experiences in my life that I want to share- or need to share- but I am not so comfortable about going about it this way. This is exactly what I need though.
I really have one topic I want to discuss, but it is so cluttered in my mind I am having difficulty figuring out how I will be able to get it out of my head and on to paper in an organized way. My six months in France was the first time I ever had an overwhelming swell of emotions and I have never confronted everything I went through. This is the perfect opportunity to let it all out. The reading in Telling True Stories about creating the "I" character intrigued me. Hell, I can write for hours about my experience in France but how can I make the reader understand how meaningful it was to me? How can I give the reader a glimpse of my personality and character so that they can completely understand and share my experience? For the first time I can honestly say I admire those that are capable of bearing their souls and I want to take a step in that direction.
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2 comments:
Lindsey, I'm totally with you on the experience abroad idea. I've been planning on attempting to organize my thoughts about my experiences in Germany and try to convey them in a way that the reader might have a chance at understanding what I went through. Like you said, I could write for hours about Europe but writing about the feelings I had from my experiences abroad is a whole other ballgame.
Hi Lindsey. It's Aaron. I graduated last year. Marin invited me to join in the blogosphere for the class so I am jumping in.
Study abroad is ripe with stories, and I think it is a good place to start thinking about the personal essay. But what I want to is how you changed on study abroad. When you got back to the gloom and doom of March in Kalamazoo, what was different about you? What is different about you?
Start there. Be creative with time and start at the end. Then work your way back into the study abroad experience. Pick a story from France that illustrates the change with which you started.
Best of luck with the writing.
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