Famous Last Words for Week 14

Well everyone, here it is - my last assignment for this class. It has been so much fun to use this class as my creative outlet this semester. As a science major, most of my papers are research based. This means making a structured paper with an obvious INTRODUCTION title, PURPOSE, METHODS, and - well, you get the point. Yes, this course has been a bit demanding in terms of the workload, but the fact that I could work ahead, could do extra credit, and could miss an assignment here or there without worry completely made up for it! My grammar still may not be the best and I may not always know exactly where my commas and dashes go, but this class has certainly improved those areas of my writing.
Not only has this class been a creative outlet for me, but it has also enhanced my writing in other areas. Over the course of this semester, I have been filling out secondary application letters to various medical schools that include many short essays. I truly believe that my essays would not have been as good as they were without the help of writing stories for this class. I think that my creative spin to those medical school essays helped to make my application stand out. So far, I have received two interviews and one acceptance into medical school and am still expecting more to come!

(Mock lab at Campbell School of Osteopathic Medicine. Web Source: The Sanford Herald)

Reading Diary for Week 14: Italian Tales

The Fair Angiola:  I find it interesting that in many fairy tales, the antagonist always asks for a fist born child in exchange for something they will give (i.e., a pardon or a magical gift). I was very surprised to discover that Angiola is the same character that I have grown up knowing as Rapunzel. I was impressed that this story had a far happier ending in which the witch is forgiving and allows Angiola to marry the prince.
Italian Tales

 Sire Fiorante, Magician: I found this story to be incredibly strange. I guess love won out in the end, but it had to go through a very strange route to get there. I was not expecting drugging someone with opium to have ever been a part of a fairy tale!

The Man, the Serpent, and the Fox: This story reminded me of the song from wicked that goes as, "no good deed goes unpunished." It is sad to think that some people truly believe that there is no point to doing good things for others. I love the ended in that the fox used his trickery to save the man by placing the greedy snake into his original bonds.

The Language of Animals: I think that it is interesting that the teach chose to teach to boy the language of animals versus normal courses that are thought of when you think of school. It could be fun to write a back story on how the teacher herself came to know the language of animals.

The Cock That Wished to Become Pope: Well this was a sad and morbid ending to the unit. I could not find much of a moral lesson or interesting plot line to this tale, which made it almost even more interesting to read. This is the sort of story in which you can let your imagination run wild with why a cock wanted to be a pope, what the witch had to do with anything, and why the sexton would eat something that he had a conversation with!

Famous Last Words for Week 13: As the Semester Gets Closer to an End

Wow. I have to say that each semester of college seems to go by faster and faster! This one has been particularly busy causing time to just slip right past me. This semester I am enrolled in 18 credit hours and work 25 hours a week. Between the two of those things, I spent very little time at home this Fall and many hours in the Bizzel and Second Wind Coffee House with my nose in a textbook or 10 inches away from my laptop!

It is crazy to think that in just two short weeks, this semester will be wrapping up and winter break will be upon us. Until then, I still have five finals, another medical school interview, three midterms, a research project, and six assignments standing in my way (yes, I spent the two hours on D2L procrastinating studying to figure those numbers out)!

I'm almost there and then I will only have one semester left of my undergraduate! Crazy! It's incredible to think that a new chapter of my life is coming so soon and I am terrified and excited to greet it!

(Bizzel Memorial Library. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Essay for Week 12: The Future of Writing

When I think about the future of writing I often thing of it in the form of technology. People are becoming more used to reading their book from a kindle, iPad, laptop, etc., and less from actual physical books. I don't know about any one else, but I guess I am pretty old school when it comes to enjoying feeling the pages of a book as I flip each page. I also love seeing the bookmark travel further and further into the book (until it gets closer to the end and I want to just stop moving so I can enjoy the book longer)! Technology has sort of stolen that aspect of reading away. I will say though, that when I traveled to Haiti this summer and had very little packing space, my parent's kindle came into great use for bringing multiple books with me without having to force them all into a tiny carry on!
Another aspect of writing that I believe will decline because of technology over the years is the ability for students to write professional emails to their professors or to potential employers based on the way we write in text messages. Texts, Facebook statuses, Twitter updates, and Instagram captions can all be so informal by using abbreviations and acronyms. I think that young adults who overuse these social media platforms will have more difficulty with understanding how to write professionally.

(Technology Possessing the World. Image by: Pj93)

Storytelling for Week 12: The Harper

(Harp. Web Source: Wikipedia)

Alawn shouted with glee as his father handed him his first harp. It was beautifully crafted with a strong wooden backbone and perfectly strung tight strings. Alawn's father had been a harper for years in his town and had been teaching Alawn his skill ever since the boy could sit up on his own. Today was the day that Alawn finally received a harp to call his own.

He practiced and practiced for hours each day. Eventually Alawn became not just the town's, but the whole countries most talented musician. His beautiful melodies could calm the hearts of the most troubled souls or be the excitement of a festival.

One day, the wicked prince of the land heard of Alawn's talents and of course wanted to have them for himself.  That very morning, he sent out many of his guards to go to Alawn's home town and bring him to the prince.

Alawn's beautiful wooden harp was torn from his grasp as he entered the palace and was given a solid gold harp in its place. This new harp was strangely shaped and very foreign to Alawn's grasp. The guards dressed the young man in palace appropriate attire and brought him before the prince.

"Ah! So you are the harper my people talk of so highly," said the prince. "I have heard many stories of your talents and decided that I want you to be my personal musician. You shall play for me whenever I call for you and you shall be the sole entertainment at all of my parties. You should count yourself lucky to be given the opportunity to leave your filthy town and live in my palace for the rest of your life!" the prince said with a boastful tone.

"Your highness, I am grateful that you find such favor in my music, but I must decline this offer. Where my family is is my home," Alawn replied.

"Oh dear boy, your presence here is not by request! It is my demand," the prince said viciously.

***

Fifty years later, poor Alawn was no longer the youthful happy boy who loved music. He stood mournfully in the prince's party dreaded the moment that he would be once more commanded to play the cold golden harp for the prince's guests. He crept towards the corner of the room and sunk to the floor with a frown.

Just then a bird fluttered into the room and whispered, "Vengeance, vengeance," and then flew to the door.

Author's Note: My storytelling post this week is based on the tale Bala Lake from the Welsh Fairy Book. In the original story, the harper is nameless and we are not given any sort of back story on him. The tale starts with talking about how cruel and proud the prince is. God warned the prince that "vengeance shall come" if he does not change his ways. Of course the prince ignores this warning and continues on with his evil ways. One day during a party, a bird whispers into a harper's ear, "vengeance, vengeance," and then flies to the door. The bird does this multiple times as a way of beckoning the harper to follow it. The harper follows the bird out into the wilderness where he becomes lost. In the morning when he finds his way back to the castle, he finds the Bala Lake in it's place. His life had been spared and floating on top of the lake was the harper's harp. My tale is about the back story of the harper. I gave him the name Alawn, because it is the Welsh name for harmony.

Bibliography
"Bala Lake" by Jenkyn Thomas from the Un-Textbook Unit: Welsh Fairy Book. 1908

Reading Diary for Week 12: Welsh Fairy Book (Thomas)

Welsh Fairy Book


The Red Dragon:  I found it very interesting to have a peak into Merlin's childhood and discover that even there, he was a master of magic and quick with his tongue. I have always been curious about why the Welsh display a Red Dragon as their emblem on their flag, but have never taken the time to look it up. So, it was entertaining to read about it's origins from a mythological stand point.

March's Ears: I thought that it was funny in the introduction that King March had all the physical possessions that man defines as wealth and what constitutes happiness, and yet he was still troubled by his physical features that kept him from true happiness. I also really liked that the secret in the story was given personification that tormented the barber. I very much enjoyed that for once, no one actually died in this myth even though the threat was certainly there!

Bala Lake:  I thought that it was interesting that the harper was sparred from the destruction of the palace with all of its people. I think that it would be interesting to give the harper a back story for why he was in the palace and why the bird chose to save him. Maybe the king heard of the man's talents when he was a young boy and had been forced to be the king's personal performer ever since.

Owen Goes a-Wooing: This was a very interesting story that sort of reminded me of Narnia in that the time Owen spent in this strange underwater land went much faster than time above the lakes surface. It is a very imaginative story!

The Bride form the Red Lake: So the ridiculous ending to this story made me laugh. Imagining the wife with clay on her chest dramatically and hysterically running into the lake is a very humerus image! I wish that I knew more about the significance of why her father said that she could not be hit by her husband with clay.

Hu Gadarn: This was a very interesting tale of how Whales came under the protection of Britain. The story was a little hard to follow and not as easy to understand the flow the author had created.

Famous Last Words for Week 11: The Creative Mind

As the end of this semester draws closer and closer, I have discovered that this course has rekindled my ability to write creatively. As a science major, I often get very caught up with the facts and statistics of my topic that will go into my papers and lose a lot of the creativity. Having the ability to use this course not only as a way to let my imagination run wild, but also as a way to practice putting my imagination on paper (figuratively speaking). I have noticed that doing this each week through this course, my creative writing has spilled over to my other classes in a very rewarding way. I often receive compliments from my professors saying that my writing style is refreshing to read and a nice break from the generic bland scientific papers that normally read. Being able to add my personality to my papers makes them far more interesting for me to write and more enjoyable for those who have to read them. It's been interesting to come to the realization that the learning process is far more important than the letter received for my efforts. When that finally clicked for me, classes became more interesting and I retained more of what was being taught, thus still obtaining the grades that I previously crammed and procrastinated for. I am very grateful to have the opportunity to be in a class that pushes me to be creative, but does not grade on her definition of imagination. It's a really amazing way of running the class, that if taken advantage of as a student can be very rewarding.

(Open Mind. Web Source: Openclipart)