Before
In my Vision essay I am writing, it is partly fictional and also partly non-fictional. My goal is to write a letter to my mom at home even though in reality I commute and live at home. My hometown is only about ten minutes away or less from IUP depending on how fast you drive. I will be using my autobiography as my image and I hope to show my audience how important it is to me. Also, I hope to give a good example about what my autobiography is visually like without people actually seeing it. I also hope that I organize my essay well.
Dear Mom,
How are you doing? I hope everything is going well with you and the family; I miss all of you so much. I absolutely dread this weather we’ve been experiencing lately. Every time I talk to dad he always brags to me about how warm it is out there in Arizona. I can’t wait to go out there on vacation this summer it will be so much fun! It will be so wonderful to finally be able to relax and not worry about classes and work. But aside from wanting to know how you were, I guess I’m writing to you because there is something very special that I would like you to have. I’ve sent over my autobiography that I made my senior year in high school along with this letter. As you very well know, I had spent a lot of time working on this autobiography, up until the very morning it was due. I know you have to be so thrilled to see the final outcome of it. In order for you to understand it a little better, I’ll explain to you how I organized everything and what I wrote about. As you will see, I have also dedicated my book to everyone who has ever made a difference or touched my life in some way.
All together there are ten chapters I created. The first one I titled “Who I Am.” In this chapter I talk about when and where I was born, a description of both you and dad, descriptions of bubba and pap pap and gram and pap, and special memories I have with some of my family members. I also talked about myself of course. I wrote about all the activities I was involved in my senior year such as Student Council, Future Business Leaders of America, and Health
Careers Club. I also discussed some of the honors I had received like being the April Kiwanis Senior of the Month, the Women’s Club Girl of the Month for January, Whose Who Among American High School Students, and Homecoming Court. After this chapter I put the song “Who I Am” by Jessica Andrews. I’m sure you remember how often I used to sing this song when it first came out but I think it really describes who I am.
The second chapter I wrote is about the good ole’ town of Homer City, Pennsylvania. Even though we live in such a small town, I’d say that I had quite a lot to say about it. I talked about our town’s yearly functions such as the Hoodlebug, and our Church’s big festival we have every year. I talked about how our school, Homer-Center, is notorious for its hard core fans and everyone looks forward to the Friday night football games under the lights and the basketball games. I had to include the song after this chapter, Miranda Lambert’s “Famous in a Small Town.” This song describes our town perfectly to me. Even down to all the drama we go through because you can’t EVER do anything without someone finding out about it. I know I’ve personally learned this numerous times,
The third chapter I wrote about dad moving away as a memory that has stuck out in my mind over the years. I wrote about how the day he actually told me he was going to be moving and how he had took me to my favorite camping spot for the weekend before that. I described how I felt after he told me he was moving out to Arizona.
The fourth chapter I did was by far my most favorite. We had to write a grade school letter to our younger selves about things that we should’ve done and shouldn’t have done. It was
kind of a chance to be able to give ourselves advice on how we should live our life growing up and about things and people we would have to watch out for along the way. This is where I got to talk about my relationships with my friends and of course . . . boys. You have been through the ups and downs of these relationships so I’m sure you’ll find a lot of what I said humorous. I basically just told myself to live life to the fullest though and to have fun because time goes so extremely fast. I used Trace Adkins song “You’re Gonna Miss This,” as a perfect song to describe my life.
The fifth chapter I wrote consists of my “Interests.” Here is where I described what I normally did on a day to day basis. I’m sure you can guess the obvious one, which would be shopping. I also talked about how I really hope to do a lot of traveling in the future to different places around the world.
I think my sixth chapter will probably be your favorite one. This is because it’s a letter that I wrote to you. I won’t get into too much detail about this one. Basically I just wanted to show you how much I appreciate all the things you have done for me over the years and apologize for those times when I was difficult to put up with. Knowing you, I’m sure you’ll end up crying to when you read it just like you do with everything I write for you, but that’s alright.
I think my chapter on my personality was one of the most interesting ones. This is because I had you write a letter describing everything about me which you went into full detail. You talked about from the first day I came into this world, all the way up to the new styles and trends I was into at the time. I also had one of my friends write about what it was like to meet me for the first which was really neat.
Another chapter I thought was really fun to write would definitely be my letter to my future child. I talked about all the “popular” things that were in at the present. For example some of the items were iPods, Guitar Hero, and Blackberries. I also talked about historical events that went on such as September 11, Saddam Hussein’s execution, and Hurricane Katrina. It’s kind of strange in a way because when I first wrote this letter it was about having our first African American running for President. Of course and now, he actually is our President.
The final chapters I did for my autobiography were of vacations I had gone on and my friends. Of course I had to write about our numerous trips to Arizona since we go about every year to visit Aunt Cindy and Uncle Ed. The past few times you haven’t went out though because I just went out to see my dad. But we always have such an amazing time out there. I also wrote about California and going to Disneyland. Of course, how could I forget our trip we took to Disney World with Aunt Cindy? That was one of the most memorable times of my life so far. It really was a place where dreams come true, other than the fact that Aunt Cindy broke her arm.
Even though some of the trips we went on and the memories we shared were from years ago, I have included numerous pictures throughout my autobiography that help me remember them all so perfectly. It’s almost as if the pictures take me back to a different time and place and come to life right before my eyes. As A Natural History of the Senses author Diane Ackerman explains, “The eye works a lot like a camera; or rather, we invented cameras that work like our eyes.” I really hope that this book touches you like it has me; I know you’ll appreciate it. Well I hope to see you soon. I love and miss you very much!
With Love, Danielle
After
After writing this essay I think that I have fulfilled my goals. I did write a letter to my mom and described my autobiography very well. I feel that I have given a good example of what my autobiography is filled with. I hope that I have organized my writing well. I described every chapter chronologically in my autobiography which I think was a good idea.
Revision
Dear Sammy,
So I finally just finished my autobiography! It felt like it took me forever to complete. Thinking about what I would use to create it was probably the most difficult out of all of the steps. I wanted to be very creative with mine because it represents who I am as a person. So let’s just say I went a little overboard with my Michael’s and Jo Ann Fabrics trips. I ended up having ten chapters in my autobiography total. For each of my chapters I wanted to associate themes. For example, for my letter to my future child, I used a baby background that had lots of pink and blue tones. I wondered why we always associated blue for a baby boy and pink for a baby girl and found in Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses, she explains that, “dressing baby boys in blue and girls in pink has a long history. To the ancients, a baby boy was cause for celebration, since it meant another strong worker and the carrying on of the family name. Blue, the color of the sky where the gods and fates lived, held special powers to energize and ward off evil, so baby boys were dressed in blue to protect them. Later, a European legend claimed that baby girls were born inside delicate pink roses, and pink became their color” (255).
While I was organizing the papers in my autobiography, I noticed that I chose a lot of backgrounds that were paintings of the outdoors with trees around. While I was reading A Natural History of the Senses, I came across a passage that discussed why trees hold such significance to us visually. “Trees conduct the eye from the ground up to the heavens; link the detailed temperatures of life with the bulging blue abstraction overhead. In Norse legend, the huge ash tree Yggdrasil, with its great arching limbs and three swarming roots, stretched high into the sky, holding the universe together, connecting earth to both heaven and hell. Mythical animals and demons dwelt in the tree; at one of its roots lay the well of Mimir, the source of all wisdom, from which the god Odin drank in order to become wise, even though it cost him the loss of an eye. We find trees offering us knowledge in many of the ancient stories and legends, perhaps because they alone seem to unite the earth and the sky – the known, invadable world with everything that is beyond our grasp and power” (Ackerman 240).
Have you ever seen the little 3D designs you can put in scrapbooks? Well I used PLENTY of those through out my book. I think it gave it a lot of added character and zest. Not to mention I organized a ton of picture pages in my autobiography. Although I think the pictures really help give my readers a good sense of what my experiences and adventures were like; it’s not as good as actually being there. I was doing some research on the sense of vision and found something very interesting that related to why seeing real life experiences are better. According to Dr. Diane M. Szaflarski, “The various images and colors that you see update constantly as you turn your head and re-direct your attention. Although the images appear to be seamless, each blending imperceptibly into the next, they are in reality being updated almost continuously by the vision apparatus of your eyes and brain. The seamless quality in the images that you see is possible because human vision updates images, including the details of motion and color, on a time scale so rapid that a “break in the action” is almost never perceived. The range of color, the perception of seamless motion, the contrast and the quality, along with the minute details, that most people can perceive make “real-life” images clearer and more detailed than any seen on a television or movie screen. The efficiency and completeness of your eyes and brain is unparalleled in comparison with any piece of apparatus or instrumentation ever invented. I think I really made it an interesting thing to look at and I’m really excited to share it with everyone.”
When I started writing about our town of Homer City, I was wondering how I was going to be able to write two pages on it. After all, all we do is complain how there is nothing to do around this place. However, to my surprise, I ended up thinking of quite a few things that I love about our town. Watching our Friday night football games under the lights were of course one of my favorites. Who could forget our hard core fans since Homer – Center did start that. J I also mentioned our annual Hoodlebug Fest where we always end up seeing people from all over the county for some reason.
My favorite to write would have to be my Grade School letter. The purpose behind it was to write a letter to the “younger me” and forewarn myself about everything I would be experiencing and what I would have to watch out for. After my sweet elementary years came the big bad high school. I actually loved my first year in high school. I thought it was loads of fun and I got along with just about everyone. Who could forget Shaun too? I’ve definitely learned that almost four years in a relationship while your still in high school is a BAD idea. During those years I know I definitely didn’t get to enjoy my high school experience as much as I would have liked to. Besides I was very shut off from you and all of the rest of my friends. I definitely learned a lot out of that relationship though. Of course about six months or so after that ordeal, I get into another relationship with the guy we both know as the biggest asshole on the face of this universe, so we won’t need to mention any names there. J I also had to talk about our Homecoming because that was one of the biggest drama periods during high school. I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with so many fake girls in my entire life until that period. I know both you and I weren’t concerned with being on the court a whole lot, however, I think we were both pretty happy when we found out we got on it. Don’t worry, I did write about how most of the girls in our grade turned into huge bitches after that whole experience and how a lot of us quit talking to each other as much. It was alright though, you win some and you lose some!
My autobiography that I have made is extremely important to me. It will not only help me to look back and see my life; but to also see what my views on certain situations were when I was younger. The autobiography will also be very useful to show my children when they get older. It is without a doubt a keepsake that I will treasure for the rest of my life.
Hope to see you soon!
Love,
Danielle
In my first draft, I think I made it very boring and difficult to read. Since we still had to use the same image as we did in our first draft, I still wrote about my autobiography that I made. Instead of writing a letter to my mother, I wrote a letter to one of my friends. In my revision, I think I explained a little better about the actual progress of creating my autobiography. In my first draft I only went through and described each chapter and it seemed more like a table of contents, rather than a letter.
I only touched on a couple of chapters I did this time and wrote more about my favorite one. I think this time around, I added more explanation to what some of my chapters were about than in my first draft. Also, I only used on source in my first paper and now I have incorporated two different sources into my paper. I think they really helped give some outside information to my essay so I hope they flow nice with my paper.
Works Cited
Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Random House, 1990.
Szaflarski, Diane. How We See: The First Steps of Human Vision. 20 February 2009
< http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/vision_background.php>
