Personal Narrative: Mrs. Jones's Apple Stories

I have always loved to tell stories. When I was six, I would gather all my stuffed animals and recite lavish stories to them. Tales of warrior princesses, ferocious dragons, and handsome knights would pour from my lips as I talked for hours on end. As I grew, I began to write my stories down on the backs of old coloring book pages. Though my penmanship, grammar, and spelling made the stories illegible, there was still something magnetic about manifesting the words onto the page. I wanted to turn the ideas in my head into something tangible. Throughout middle school, I filled dozens of notebooks. My mother was constantly running to the store to grab me yet another set of marble notebooks. Everything from plot outlines to poems were crammed into those lined pages. Though I eventually switched from paper to a keyboard and computer screen, my writing did not stop. As I transitioned into high school, writing became my solstice. I could pour every ounce of stress, happiness, sadness, and exhaustion into a blank word document. The highlight of my day came when I could just sit down and type until my fingers began to protest.

Every person is uniquely different than another individual and this even includes their type of writing style. Now this leads me into my story of a girl who use to struggle with reading and writing. She is uniquely different than the rest and has gone on a great journey to where she is today. By looking at her today you may not know that in grade school she was in Title 1 to assist her with reading and writing. Allison Gion joined Speech and this helped her immensely. Her writing is very creative and she definitely likes to tell original stories to many.

“I’ll always remember the good deeds Mrs. Jones did to help get back up on my feet. I used the ten dollars she gave me to buy my blue suede shoes shoes, to slowly become a doctor. I have a good life now, all of it because of what Mrs. Jones did for me when I was a little boy.”

My altered views of personal writing and self-disclosure have changed the way I read, write, and teach personal essays. I’ve gained a heightened awareness of the power of personal essays that disclose – the way we can gain valuable insight and access to empathy, the impact of voices that may otherwise be silenced, the true connection that comes from identification and understanding when we read the words of someone who has similar experiences, thoughts, hopes, dreams, or pain. There are long-term – and likely very important – effects of the personal writing that we will be writing today and reading tomorrow. At a time when personal narrative holds such power – power to persuade, to illustrate, and to garner traffic on websites – it’s vital that we start having a different conversation about the personal essay. And in the new conversation, I argue, we have to start with disclosure.

All the stories and essays I had written for my creative writing and English classes in college were kept in a wicker basket in my small apartment room. One morning, I went through everything to try and part with some material. I picked up my portfolio from a writing class I had my junior year and began reading the story I submitted as my final piece. I knew that reading it now meant I would be cringing at the young, flawed writer I was. Except I wasn’t focused on the writer as I read it but the person.

Throughout the years, reading and writing have had an impact on my life unlike any other. Specific writings teach me how to live my life. These pieces of literature include, Chinese Cinderella, Life’s for the Living, Forever in our Hearts, an autobiography written by my great-great-grandfather, the phrase ‘Mind over Matter,’ and Project Semicolon. Chinese Cinderella, Life’s for the Living, and Forever in our Hearts have influenced me to be strong. The autobiography inspires me to work hard and never give up. Having hope is encouraged by ‘Mind over Matter’ and Project Semicolon.

Growing up I struggled to complete simple tasks such as approaching people when I needed help, being so afraid of everything was difficult. I was anxious of what others might think of me and what they might say to me. I was a normal child on the outside but on the inside I was fighting a whole new battle with myself to find my voice and to

Writing is not an easy task. Writing is strenuous, and requires more than mental focus. Successfully portraying a character takes a toll on both the mind, and soul. The author could spend a lifetime describing the physical, and mental attributes of a person. Writing opens the door to a parallel universe, and sheds light on aspects of life we never knew existed. Throughout the dark times in my life I have found myself creating far off worlds to remain happy. I grew up in a drab home with parents whose passions seemed to revolve around their abusive relationship. Instead of bowing to my circumstances, I accepted the abuse that came with the pen. As I wrote enchanting tales of underdogs overcoming, I felt that I too had conquered life-altering battles within my own circumstances. While devoting all my time and energy on writing my words created a reality that I could bare to live in, by teaching me to become the ultimate overcomer. No matter what transition of life that I have faced, writing has consistently revealed that there will always be something consistently strong inside of

Throughout sixth grade I wandered the school halls glancing at other students smiling and laughing. All I wanted was a friend to associate with in those times of need. Low self-esteem was a result of me being alone. Many times, I struggle with classwork and homework due to not having the courage to ask questions. My grades were slowly decreasing and what I thought I knew became blank to me. Not having confidence in what I knew affected me.

Storytelling helps other people to emotionally connect themselves to the author so that they know they are not the only ones who are experiencing a painful or exciting experience, and are able to share the same emotions. It often helps other people to know what they should do in order to get over it when it comes to a painful experience. Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings explores the life of Maya Angelou and the struggles she has been throughout her childhood to her adulthood. Richard Wagemese’s Indian Horse explores the life of Saul Indian Horse and the struggles he has been through after departing from his family. The power of storytelling can unfold questions which ask the audience of how and why are the events are unfold the

I started writing about six years ago, but I never seriously thought of becoming a writer until last year. When I was younger, writing was always more of a hobby, something I did that other people said I did well, and I thought, “Cool, let’s run with this.” I liked writing, but I thought I needed to feel something more than “like” to be a real writer. But now that I’m older I’ve found that the act of writing isn’t the most rewarding, it’s the stories that have tethered me to this profession. Whether they’re my own or others’, the finished concerto is what buzzes in my chest. Hearing strings of assonance, the harsh grate of dissonance, the vibrant characters, the sunlit settings, the raw truths; every time I’m left speechless and heartbroken by someone else’s story. So many people can’t see the beauty. But I know it’s there, and it’s something I will spend my whole life pursuing.

As a young child I was a non social person, and did not like to participate in anything. I liked to be an individual person, and do things on my own. I was shy and not outgoing like all my other friends were. When I enter a situation for the first time, I have a hard time speaking up until I feel comfortable. As being as shy as I was, my school work was affected a lot because I would not raise my hand to ask questions if I did not understand something, or go to the teacher for help. It was hard to transition from that stage to being more outgoing and talk more with my peers. It was difficult to communicate with others because of this as well, i was not able to be the person that i really am.

In high school I spent a lot of my time writing, whether it was poems or just notes to friends, I never stopped. I loved writing but I never realized the impact of my words until I had to write a paper for my speech class. This is the time that I had changed not only my life but the lives of others in my class.

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to be a writer. There is simply no greater sense of fulfillment than being able to move someone by the words on a page. I have found my greatest strength to be in brief journal entries, often times in response to things that make me happy, sad, or just downright angry. Still, I have always aspired to write a novel. A more ignorant version of myself even committed a whole summer to starting this much-anticipated novel. To make a (not very) long story short, it climaxed at chapter three. Soon thereafter, I resolved that my novel was missing a key piece to the puzzle: experience. Through the collected essays from the New York Times Writers on Writing Volume II, a number of well-known authors answered my call for help by explaining that with experience comes the inspiration that drives captivating stories. Many times, these experiences reflect hardships within one’s life, and only writing is the remedy that heals.

Coming back to school after a ten-year break was the best choice I made. When I started this English 102 class with Dr. Brockman, I didn’t feel that I was a great writer. I knew I had so much to stay; the struggle was putting in on paper. I knew that regardless of how hard this class was for me, I was going to see it through.