Response to McElwee

McElwee's Time Indefinite gives us a look into the life of Ross McElwee. The movie captures some of the happiest and saddest moments of his life. He starts off with the wedding between him and his wife. He keeps the camera running through rehearsals, dinners, and all the other activities involved with having a wedding. He even rolls tape on his wedding day. He captures what its like to start a new life and begin building a family. We learn that his wife is pregnant and the two are ecstatic until she has a miscarriage and loses the baby. Later they have a successful child and he shows us his experience as his wife gives birth. He gives us raw footage of his life. He shows us the details of what hes doing as well as his thoughts provided by his narrations throughout the film. He shows his visits to his parents and you can see how fragile they are and later he tells you that they have passed away. The film isn't over more than a few years of his life and in that time so much happens to him. I feel like I have a good sense of who John McElwee is.

Mendel is right in saying the past changes with the present. Your memory is relevant and you are the one who remembers past event and experiences. Teh way I feel today about something that happened years ago might change. I could be an entirely different person than I had been just years ago. When you think about a past event the emotions you feel are in the present. You may recall what you felt at the exact time of the occurrence but, looking back into your past affects your current emotions. That old memory may bring up entirely new feelings that you couldn't comprehend when it took place. Your feelings and thoughts are very important parts of memories. A happy memory of my grandparents might become a sore subject for me after they pass away. Events you once thought were life changing may start to seem insignificant, bland, and uninteresting. I remember being a kid and buying a $5 pack of Pokemon cards and being so excited seeing a holographic card seemingly dropped in my pack by and act of god. Now looking back I should have saved that $5 for a pack of smokes.

Response To Short Takes Essay

Winter wheat was an interesting essay to me because I never had a grandparent tell me stories when I was younger. I never heard any war stories about my grandfather although he was in Korea and most of the things I know about him came through other people. He died in February 2005 during my freshman year of high school and he was the first close relative I've ever had pass away. Most of the stories I heard about him were at his funeral and funerals of my other relatives. My great-aunt told a story about how my grandfather would come home from work, take off his jacket, grab a beer, and then go jump in the pool outback clothes and all. I heard how he loved Cancun and how he requested his ashes to be scattered there. I learned from my father of my grandfather's love for fine scotch and cigars. He was a man that everyone loved but I can't really tell you much about him.

Response to Scott Russell Sanders

Sanders points out the one truly obvious thing about the personal essay that nobody truly wants to admit. It takes alot of arrogance to write a personal essay. The author realizes that they are speaking to the entire world in each line that they write, just like the example of the soap-box orator that Sanders writes about in his opening paragraph. I don't want to admit that I'm arrogant but to an extent I am. However, arrogance isn't necessarily a bad thing, its what will drive an author to get published and learn intricate ways to captivate readings. It gives the author a chance to bring someone into their essay and say "This is who I am, This is what I have gone through, I hope you like it." Through the essay Sanders demonstrates his love for the personal essay. Its true that non-fiction can be harder than writing fiction because the characters are real and the story actually happened. Poets don't often write thousands of words for just one poem, novelists create a story, and journalists quote others without often saying anything about themselves. Essays make the author vulnerable to the public opinions but I believe that that vulnerability is what makes the essay good. People will read your essay and hopefully they will get a feel of who you are, how you think, what you've been through. Reading an essay can let you know the person who wrote it.

Essay #1

Heath Urbaniak
English 394
I am a child of the earth and I feel most at home in the presence of our dear mother. I can spend time sitting in the grass gazing at clouds passing over my head or watch the bees busily collect the precious nectar from each mesmeric blossom. The peacefulness overcomes me and allows my thoughts to flow-freely. What I truly enjoy about nature is the sheer simplicity it expresses. The busy little bee goes from flower to flower collecting pollen with the sole intention of making food. The goals of a honeybee are simple; get nectar, deposit nectar, eat nectar. Can any of my goals be so simple? Go to school, get a degree, get a job. Is it really so easy? I can’t possibly filter my life’s goals into three simple steps. To accomplish each step takes time and involves more steps in themselves.
Go to school. First I must apply to many different schools while keeping in mind how prestigious each university is. My chances to complete my goals would increase if I were to attend an Ivy League school. Then even if I were to be accepted to a high ranking college I would need to find a way to pay for it all. My parents don’t have the kind of resources to put me, and my siblings, through four years of college. I then have to get a loan or a number of loans. One simple step can turn into a time consuming struggle that is sure to leave you in debt and turn your hairs gray.
Get a degree. What on earth do I want to spend the rest of my life doing? I don’t want to sit at a desk for eight hours a day for the next forty years. I don’t think there is a single thing in my life that I can honestly say I would enjoy doing eight hours a day, five days a week, for forty years. So I have to make a sacrifice. I have to choose a major that I will be able to tolerate. Though once I choose my major I have to take different classes in order to get my degree. If I wanted to be an accountant for the rest of my life I still have to take an art class in order to obtain a degree. If I want to write romance novels for a profession I would still have to take a math course. Something as simple as getting a degree can turn into years of hard work trying to piece together an education you are unhappy with.
Get a job. Now that I have spent a good number of years pursuing a higher education I now have the privilege of applying for numerous positions at different companies hoping that I have a superior resume. Then hopefully I can get a job I enjoy but can also provide for me and the family I may choose to have.
Truthfully everything is simple at first glance. That bee may only have to build its hive, or tend to young, or project the hive. That little bee has to survive everyday in fear that it may be its last. I will long outlive the bees I saw yesterday, I have more time than they do. I have the time to think, and when you think about anything for too long it will lose its simplicity and become a complexity.

My Brother

Geoff never took his schooling seriously. His grades started slipping around his 7th grade year. He would come home with D's and F's on his report card while explaining to our parents that these poor marks were not his fault but in fact were due to the teachers antipathy for him. Which was true not many teachers took a liking to my brother. He always came to class and interjected frequently with a smart comment. One of his teachers even gave him in-school suspension because he insisted that mitosis occurs at the "g-spot". He told my mom that he was referring to the Gathering Spot on the Marietta campus(g-spot for short) but still he had to spend the day in Alternative Learning staring at the wall and cursing his biology teacher. Geoff still made friends with some of his teachers and developed a close relationship with his 10th grade english teacher Mr.Rabenne. One night Geoff helped him with a few task so he took him to dinner and brought him home. He told my parents how great Geoff is and how he would adopt him if they ever needed to get rid of him.

8 Words and a Line

bears, beer, Philadelphia, flip, hotdog, stone, superhero, hi

"I hate to ask, but are you high"