Class Reflection

This class is perhaps my favorite English course that I’ve taken over 4 years of high school. I say this because it is the only one where I’ve been able to write how I want. Last semester for example, I was in Media Literacy, and all of the writing that we did in there was very formulaic- intro paragraph, three body paragraphs, conclusion. The same goes for almost all of the other English classes in high school, sadly enough. I really feel like this class has helped me shake off the whole AP style of writing, which is absurdly boring, not to mention the fact that it generally causes bad writing. I feel like this class has really helped me hone my ability to write with my own voice, rather than the weird, abstract academic voice that I have to write with for other classes. The things that I found most interesting were the projects that we did at the beginning of the semester, and at the end, namely, the memoirs and the final satire project. I enjoyed these because they were the most open ended assignments, and because I enjoy casual writing more than I do formal writing. Other than deadlines in general (woops), the things that I had the most difficulty difficulty with were the short story and the poetry projects. For one thing, I’m not very good at thinking of original ideas for a story or the like, and I also was never a huge fan of writing poetry or fiction, but I do think that learning how to do it and actually writing some of my own poems and a short story was an interesting experience, though they may not have been the best pieces I’ve ever written. I’d say that my favorite assignment that we did was the very first one- the Ten Things About Me assignment. I really enjoyed this assignment because it really gave me a feel for the type of class that Creative Writing was going to be, and how it was going to involve the sort of writing that I enjoy. It was also pretty amusing to hear everyone’s favorite curse word in a classroom environment, seeing as that’s something that 99% of teachers simply wouldn’t tolerate, not to mention assign and give points for. Overall, I’d say that I really enjoyed this class because it was a nice break from standard English classes, and it was also a good time to get better at the sort of writing that I like. In addition, the other people in the class were all really cool, which made this class even more fun.

Final Satire Reflection

Dean of Students Enjoys Sending Kids Home for No Reason

            In an effort to make his otherwise uneventful life slightly more interesting, local dean of students Randy Richard stated that he sends students home for almost no reason as a means of entertainment. “I mean, its not like it’s the end of the world if that student that I just sent home wasn’t wearing a belt underneath his sweatshirt,” Mr. Richard explained, “Its just that I enjoy the looks on their faces when they realize that they now have to drive all the way home just to get a belt that no one but me will notice.” Many students, thinking that he won’t notice, don’t come back to school for the rest of the day. “Its even more fun when I see them the next morning, and they just look at the ground and try to avoid me. That’s when I tell them they have a detention for skipping class.” Local sources report that the dean secretly enjoys the power he has over these students. “There’s nothing like sending a student home for having a skirt that’s a quarter inch too short,” said Richard, “Its really quite a rush.” Sometimes, the dean decides which students to target before he gets to work in the morning. “I usually think of the first few students that I’m going to send home before I even get in my car.” Most of the time, Richard explains, the same students come to school without the exact uniform requirements almost every day.  Lying in wait for the students all day, the dean, stalks his predetermined prey relentlessly, attacking on sight. He was last seen with a dull disposable razor forcing a student to shave off his hardly noticeable peach fuzz.

Reflection
I really, thoroughly enjoyed writing this final part of the satire project. I'm a very sarcastic person, and satire is pretty much the only sort of media that I consume these days that isn't exclusively about Donald Trump, so this assignment was right up my alley. I modeled my story after the Onion, or really any other satirical news source, because that's the kind of satire that I read the most and find to be the most humorous. As a process of write this, I simply read a few Onion articles (not the ones we read for the Onion journals), and then tried to think of an issue that is prevalent at this school. Seeing as I am the only guy in the class, I hear a lot about uniform violations and people taking issue with the rules, so I figured that writing about this issue could be both fun and... direct (I might also add that I really did cut myself with that dull disposable razor in sophomore year... I may be slightly salty). After I picked my issue I wrote the report in the same style that CNN or FOX News might write an article about a major event, except my article was about Coach Richard. As a final note, I'll say that I don't have any beef with Coach Richard, I just thought it would be amusing to have a negative approach to him for the sake of the article.

Literature Circle Reflection

For my literature circle, I was in the satire group. We looked at all sorts of satire, including Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal”, various pieces from The Onion, and David Sedaris satire. I chose to work in the satire group because my favorite type of literature is satirical. Also, I’m generally a pretty sarcastic guy, and since satire is based in sarcasm, I thought that this project would be right up my alley. We talked a lot about the different types of satire (for example, the Onion’s blatant sarcasm versus Jonathan Swift’s more serious tone but overall comical message). We also discussed the fact that almost all satire seems to be trying to make a point, or send a message to the audience. Overall, my group was pretty functional, and most of us seemed to really enjoy the genre.

Mini-Memoirs Reflection

Poetry Reflection

Rolled two 2’s= 4 lines

Line 1= 3+3=6 words

Line 2= 5+5=10

Line 3= 3+2=5

Line 4= 1+2= 3

My pal since the sixth grade

Has a big golden statue in his own back yard

As golden as his heart

Aaron Micah Posner

Farewell

Friends, I bid you farewell.

For seven years I have accompanied you,

Relying on your kindness

I shall carry with me the hope, that

you, my friends

the ever-favorite object of my heart

will invariably be models of courage and fidelity.

After 18 years of my life, I can say that

With friends such as you,

I will never cease to view

These latter days

as my days of prosperity.

Adieu, my friends. Would I could press you all to my heart.

The above poem is a mixture of two historical speeches, those being Washington’s Farewell Address and Napoleons Farewell to the Old Guard.

(P.S. I left the last poem that I had at home, it’s a hard copy. Sorry!)

Short Story Reflection

The Fall

It was a chilly winter evening on January 2. The year was 1947, and tonight was a turning point in the life of the Don. He was driving down a dimly lit Washington street. In the passenger seat was his longtime friend and political ally, who he had known since his high school days. They had just gone out for a drink at a local bar, as they often did on nights before Congressional assemblies, and the senator had indulged a bit too much. “You‘re drunk,” the Don had said, “go home, get some rest.” Though the intoxicated senator thought that he was the mobster’s most trusted ally, he was blissfully unaware that he had become a liability, just as he was blissfully unaware of the pill that had been slipped into his drink. He was talking now, his words growing more slurred, but the Don paid him to no mind. The car pulled up to the apartment complex; the mobster guided his friend to the elevator and took him up to his penthouse. As his friend’s steps grew more staggered, the Don grew more focused, thinking only about the moments ahead.

He opened the door, motioned his friend inside, offered him another drink. “I’m not feelin’ so good,” the senator mumbled. “Some fresh air will clear your head,” said the Don, as he opened the door to the balcony. His friend continued to speak as he stumbled through the door; the Don didn’t hear him. They both stood at the edge of the railing, looking out over the city. The Don felt nothing, heard nothing, saw nothing but the dark road below, the soft glow of the streetlights shining back up at him through the blackness. His heart pounded in his chest; his face remained passive. A small shove was all it took. He watched as his former friend flipped over the edge of the railing.

The senator’s life was the first that the Don had ever personally ended. Sure, he’d been behind the deaths of several individuals, but he had never actually done the deed himself. It was no different than he’d imagined. He remained by the balcony, for a no more than a moment, lost in thought. He remembered times gone by, before he had become involved in the ‘family business.’ If somebody had told him then about what he would become… if only someone had warned him. No, he said to himself, no remorse. No looking back. Only forward. The Don took a step back, turned, and left the balcony. He made it to the door before he heard the dull thud of the senator striking the concrete fifteen stories below. 

Before this assignment, I had never really written an entirely fictional story, and that is something that I’d like to be decent at doing in the future. It actually occurred to me to write about corrupt individuals while I was watching House of Cards, and the story was originally going to be about a corrupt politician who pushed his colleague off of a roof. However, the next night I started rewatching The Godfather, and I realized midway through the film that a story about a mobster would make for a better plot. My first draft (when the story was still about a politician) was actually pretty close to the final product in terms of length of the story. However, my peer reviewer pointed out to me that I had hardly developed the main character at all in terms of backstory or after the actual crime had been committed. Honestly, the short stories that we read prior to this assignment didn’t really help me out that much when I was writing, except for “The Lottery.” This was because I liked the cliffhanger ending, which I was originally going to use for my story. However, in order to develop the character, I chose to tell the entire story of the Don’s first kill, rather than leave it at the final moments before the deed was done.