REFLECTION...

Part 1
In my first piece of writing it was a memoir. We had to tell a story that stuck out in our minds or that was significant to us. In this selection of writing I was trying to tell my readers just exactly how much fun state meet was. I was expresses my love for my team and for my sport. In the Scarlet Letter essay, I was trying to show how in today's society there is a certain person that we always blame everything on. The last and final piece that I have written was the Crucible essay where i was comparing Abigail to a potato chip. During the course of writing these pieces I have learned not to tell, but show the reader what i want them to see. During these pieces i have learned that, you should look at something more then once. First to see what is on the inside but then to see what it really stands for. Like with my Crucible essay it took me a long time to figure out what Abby could be compared to. In today's world people have a tendency to judged before they really get a chance to know.
More along the writing stand point, i have learned that when you use big words, it confuses people. It also makes you sounds like you know what you are talking about even if you really don't. I have learned that when you use metaphors and fancy language it makes your piece more fun to read, and makes it more appealing to the audience. I have realized that in a lot of my papers i put stuff that refers to something only i or only a few other people would know about. In my writing i need to make it more open to everyone so that everyone can understand what i am talking about.
In class i have learned that when you use more descriptions it makes you piece fuller. It allows the reader to get a better idea of what you are talking about. Also I was taught that when you start a paper off in past tense it needs to stay in past tense for the entire time you are writing. The last and final thing i have learned is to use brushstrokes. These jazz up your writing. At the beginning it felt really stupid because it was out of the original and i did not know what i was doing. I still don't completely understand but i use them in my writing when it seems appropriate.

Part 2
The first revision i did was actually going back and completing my Crucible Essay. On my first writing where I told about the state meet, I had to go back and fix alot. Brooke edited my paper and so i had quite a few corrections to make! I had to show my audience what i was talking about and not just tell them. Only Brooke would understand what i was talking about so i had to go back a changed all the parts that only that certain group of people would understand. I went back and made it more appealing to the people that had no idea what swimming is REALLY about. Then on my nature essay i had alot of comma errors that I tried to go back and fix, but I don't think I got them all. Also on that paper I had to go back and continue to explain my quotes by Emerson and Thoreau.

Part 3
While I was reading my classmate's papers i realized that, THEY CAN WRITE. The people that I thought had no poetic inspiration once so every really surprised me. I really want to remember how to use commas directly. I have realized now that when the commas are in the wrong place it really bothers me. So now I am going to try to use them correctly from now on. I also want to remember how to use big words that beef up my writing instead of just the little one. My story sounded like elementary school. Now they sound like an honor student. The last and final thing is the ability to connect with the topic. If you don't know what you are talking about then you can't write a paper. Also if you don't connect with the topic you can't put emotion into your writing and it's just BLAH. Writing can be fun, when you know what you are talking about. If you don't know about your topic, pick a new one!

Chlorine, our PERMANENT perfume!!

Everyone has those times where just one certain event stands out in their mind. My time would have to be the swim meet that I, as well as my team, went to when our High School Swim Team qualified for state. The Hanna Swim Team Girls A Team for the 200 Individual Medley Relay and the 400 Free relay qualified to go to the state meet in Rock Hill, SC. I know I don’t remember everything that went on at the meet but times were definitely crazy and unforgettable.

Our adventure started off as we left on a Saturday morning at 5:30 am. With my mom driving and there were five teenagers girls cramped into a Yukon. The plaid club pulled out of the parking lot of the Shell gas station and that is when the times began. We call ourselves the “PC4L” (Plaid Club 4 Life) because we all wear our plaid PJ pants for good luck. The total car ride was two hours long. The ride was miraculous! I was in a car with my four best friends, what else could be better? We took so many crazy photos and we ate an entire box of Cookie Crisp Cereal. Meredith Hermeston was the leader of all of us just because she was a junior and we were freshmen. We had tons of sing-a-longs everything from Rap to Kid’s Bop. I think my favorite would have to be Sexyback by Justin Timberlake; CLASSIC. I think the most fun though was when we got lost. We had to be in Rock Hill, dressed and ready to swim in 30 minutes, and the pool was no where close. We ended up being in some little random town that wasn’t even on the map! We did make it to the meet on time, just barley getting in the warm up pool before it closed.

The 400 free relay was the last event of the day, so I had a total of about four hours until I got a chance to swim. So, I took more pictures. Elizabeth Emanuel, Meredith, Brooke Oxendine, and Kelly Mullane were my main focus for these pictures. I had to change my camera battery twice because I took so many photos. Sam Parkinson and Maly Taylor are my teammates on Anderson Swim Club, but they swim for Westside so they are the enemy! They are still my friends though but our schools are rivals. When it finally came time for me to swim, I was a nervous wreck. I did my usual 300m warm up and then I got behind my lane. My hands started shaking and I got a major case of the butterflies. The odd thing was that usually when I swim I never get nervous, why should this time be any different? I was the third leg of my relay, and on a 400 free relay each person swims 100m which is a total of four lengths. Meredith Hermeston swam the leg before me, she made the turn going into her second 50 and my stomach dropped. It was my turn next. I put my goggles on, made sure they were tight on my face, stepped on the block, and took my starting position. 20 yards left, 10 yards, 5, and she touches the wall, I’m off! I swing my arms back and jump as far as I can, making a faultless entrance into the water. I move my arms faster and faster making sure not to go too fast so I can turn it up on the second 50m. My feet actually started kicking. Usually when I’m swimming my feet never move and my arms have to do all the work, but the first time in, well EVER, my feet were kicking. I breathe and prepare to go into the first turn. The walls are different then what I’m used to practicing to so I miss the wall on my flip turn. I manage to barley graze the wall with my toes and try to push off. At this point I can see the girl beside me pass me. That does not work with me. I regain my self-assurance and catch up with her. Here came the second and I nailed it perfectly! The third wall and my turn was once again good! The last leg, I couldn’t let my team down! I gave it all I got, I kicked with all my might, I got to the wall and Anna Sams dove over me. She was the last leg in our relay. I couldn’t even get myself out of the pool when I finished. I gave that relay everything I got to the wall and Elizabeth had to pull me out. Our relay ended up coming in twenty-ninth out of thirtieth. We didn’t care we dropped time and every one gave it all they had. That is all that mattered!

The ride back was just as much fun as on the way there! We were all so hyper because we were trying not to fall asleep. We stopped at an Applebee’s where times are always crazy when we are together, and the most fun of all being the Cha Cha Slide at a rest stop. This is where Brooke fell off a curb and almost broke her leg! I took a video of the whole thing, and to this day it is still hilarious! My swim team is my family, they mean the world to me, without them, I would not be who I am today. Whether we are swimming in a meet, or at Hudgens, or at practice, or even in the State Finale, my team will always be there and we will have memories that will last a LIFETIME!

A Day To Remember...

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." These wise words spoken by Emerson lead me to realize that every experience I have in nature does not always have to be the same as everyone else. I need to live my life how I want and not travel on the road most taken. This quote can relate to my life as well as my experience in nature. I had a very eye opening experience when I was in 3rd grade.

When I was in third grade, my family took a day trip to Table Rock. The whole experience started at 7 o'clock in the morning. My brother and I sitting in the back seat of my mom's van, arguing as usual. It was a long drive and it seemed as if the mountains kept getting farther and father away. Once the eternity of driving had ended, we reached the parking lot for the mountain. Then I saw it, the mountain that we would be hiking up. As I looked up, it seemed as though the top was already in heaven and God was standing there saying "Welcome home Elizabeth." I looked at my mom and said, "You want ME to climb THAT!!" Shocked by the words that came out of my mouth, she nodded and began to the long hike, up to heaven. Thirty minutes or so had gone by, and I was plum-tired out. I am not much for walking or appreciating nature. It seems as though the leaves were taunting me, and the trees laughed at how slow I was walking. The top never came into view, and my legs started to hurt! My brother then began throwing rocks at me to make it all worse. So as every normal eight year-old would do, I began to complain. Whining and sighing really loud so my parents could hear me. I could not take it anymore. I no longer had feeling in my legs, and I started to sneeze from all the plants. I didn't mention that it was also the middle of November, and the leaves were falling, which made the ground slippery and hard to walk on. It seemed as though my life, could not get any worse, and what could possibly be at the top of the mountain that I needed to see.

After a long hike of about an hour and a half, we reached to top, and I had to take off my jacket because I was no longer cold. To be honest, I though I was dieing. Nature was stupid, why should I be at the top of this mountain? Why did my parents drag me all the way up here for nothing? My mom called me over to the drop off. I did not want to get off my rock. I was resting after all the torture she had already put me through. I finally went over to the edge, and there it was. Possibly the most beautiful site I had ever seen. The fellow mountain in the distance, sitting there as if it was waiting for someone to talk to. The clouds were low to its peak and looked like fluffy little marsh-mellows over an open fire, since the leaves were changing colors. This site took my breath away. "Wow," I thought to myself. I did not want my parents to know that I had been wrong about having to hike up the hill. I sat down and just stared at this site for at least an hour, while we ate lunch. How could God possibly make something this beautiful and not brag about it? How did I not know that this was here? In the words of Thoreau, "It is never too late to give up your prejudices." My prejudice was given up. I now had a new out look of nature and on life.

As I look back on my experience, I realized that I never really gave nature a chance. I always just thought it was there, nothing to look at, nothing to know, nothing important. Life has meaning. Everything was created for a purpose. We are all God's creations, and no matter how moronic something may seem, we should give it a chance. Someone could look at us and think that we are just normal, nothing special. I judged something before I got to know it. It was wrong of me. Nature is special, nature is important, nature is beautiful.