Metacognition: The College Essay

When I write essays there are many ideas flowing through my head. It is sometimes hard for me to focus my ideas into one complete product. For the college essay it is easier for me to focus my ideas.

Before I write a college essay I make a resume of my accomplishments in high school and life. This acts as an outline for what I want to include in my essay. Also I can focus an essay around one accomplishment on the resume. I have found this process to be effective because it helps me focus my ideas on one specific thing, rather than rambling on about many things.

One thing that surprises me about my thinking is that, writing is something that comes natural to me but finding personal things to write about is difficult. This is another way a resume helps me, but even then it is difficult to just pick a few things to write about. Once I do find something to write about, the writing comes really smoothly. It just takes a while to get there. Because of this, I want to work on focusing my ideas more. Also, I need to work on making my essay more appealing to a college admission audience. I don’t have much experience with writing to that kind of audience, so I need to improve on that.

Best of the Week: Creativity

During this week I read an article in class "The Sea of Information," by Andrea Barrett. This article gave me new insight on what creativity is, and what it means to be creative. The author of this article related her creativity to her writing, whereas I am very creative when it comes to music. Even thought there was a slight difference between the two disciplines I was still able to relate to the article and gather ideas from it. One idea I gathered, was the ability to follow a spark of interest and make something whole out of it. The author emphasizes how she "learned to follow were the spark of interest leads me" (Barrett 11). There are many times were I have an idea or a phrase in my head but I don't know what to do with it. In the future though, I am going to make an effort to carry a notepad with me where I can write my thoughts down, so I can make something whole out of them. This article also brought to my attention where creativity comes from. What I got out of this article was that creativity is based on other peoples ideas and things around you. There are many other things that come into play when trying to make a piece "original" but for the most part, it is based on other examples around you. This theory has never occurred to me before until after reading this article. In all, this article inspired me to pay more attention to my creative side and to think more out of box about life. For the most part I was very narrow minded and didn't give myself many options to be creative and inspired but now, I am going to open my mind to the creative side of life and make an effort to see more arrows on FEDEX trucks.

It Matters: Safety of America

The safety of America is something most civilians are pretty confident about. They have the perception that America is a safe place to be and harm will not find them but will find other countries. After recent events in the NEWS, it has come to my attention that we are not safe. Safety, in fact, is far from America. On September 15th a two pipe bombs were found near a school, Click Here to read the full story. A decapitated body was found near one of the exploded pipe bombs.Close by was another pipe bomb, not extinguished, near a school. Events like this give knowledge that our country is still under attack by terrorists and civilians. After the 9/11 attacks occurred, there were vast improvements to the safety of America, especially in airports. Also, the people of America got a taste of their own medicine, getting attacked by another country.. America will never be perfectly “safe,” but there are ways to prevent certain events. I personally would like to see more safety inside our country to prevent events like the one that occurred September 15th. Our country now focuses a lot on making airports safe to the public, to prevent events like 9/11. But the time has come now to focus on energy on safety within neighborhoods and towns to prevent future bomb and homicidal incidents.

Change of Mind: New Yorker Essays

I never was able to vividly picture myself in a plane right before it collided with a building, until after I read the collection of “New Yorker Essays.” The “New Yorker Essays” are essays written by people right after the 9/11 attack, they describe emotions, feelings and lasting impacts the attack had on them. While reading the essays my mind opened up to feelings and reactions people had after the attack. I also learned more about the long lasting effect the attack has on people.

By reading the “New Yorker Essays” on the 9/11 attack my perception on the attack has changed. When the 9/11 attacked occurred, I was too young to understand what was going on and what it meant for our country. Even before I read these essays about 9/11, I still didn’t quite understand it. One thing I really understand now, is how it changed the way people live today. For many, a simple plane ride is a frightening experience because of flashbacks with scaring memories of 9/11. Along with lifestyle changes, 9/11 taught many to not take America for granted. Many view America as a “safe haven,” a shelter where nothing goes wrong. After 9/11 people realized that America is just as endangered as any other country out there.

To be honest I always believed that America was a place of safety and solace. I now perceive America as any other country, not more special than the rest. We may be a land of opportunity but we are no longer a “safe haven.”

By reading the “New Yorker Essays” I was able to relate to one essay in particular. I was able to connect with the essay by Dennis Johnson. He wrote about how people all over the world view America as a different country than the rest. Also, how people don’t expect to encounter danger and terror while in America. Both of these beliefs were very similar to mine, before reading the essays. But now I view America very differently. I realize that the 9/11 attackers hated America so much that they killed themselves to kill us. It is hard to comprehend how much hate that must be, killing yourself to kill others. It is outrageous and disgusting to picture what was going through the pilots heads, when they carried through the 9/11 mission. Now after reading the essays and thinking through the effects of the attack there is one thing that has more meaning to me now than it did before. I’ll never take safety and life for granted anymore, because you never know when your life will flash right before your eyes.