Personal Narrative: My First Writing Assignment

This is the 25 minute writing challenge, where I’m not allowed to use the backspace button on my keyboard or edit what I’m typing. There are probably going to be many typos in this small paper, but that’s apart of the challenge as I can't edit anything. I honestly have no clue what to write about, but atleast I’m 3 minutes in right now.

When I was first hired I was told I would have 30 days from the start day to sign up for benefits. The date by which I had to sign up by was 03/20/16 a Sunday; I tried to get on, on the 03/18/16, but it would not let me. I called the helpline to get my password reset to gain access to the online portal; whenever I received access it said there were no available sessions for enrollment. My manager informed me to come in on Saturday 03/19/16 and he would help me further, he was not able to locate it either. He then informed me to make a benefits appeal, because I had tried to get enrolled before the cutoff date. I have two pictures, to show the information that was displayed and the date. Thank you for your time and

During this spring semester, I have grown in many ways as a writer, and a student. I have started to realize, and accept the flaws that I have created in my writing. In the past, I never looked into my writings and saw my problems, and if I did, I did not accept that they were problems. In my writing pieces in the past, I was very hard-headed about what I thought was correct versus what was actually correct. I have also become More familiar with different formatting options on Microsoft Word to create a more professional piece or writing. However, figuring out all the parts of writing and making them work together is the most difficult part of writing.

The best writing I’ve ever produced is from last semester I wrote a paper for Sociology on how the movie “Selma” related to what we were learning in class. This is the best writing I’ve produced because I thought long and hard about what I was going to write and ended up making a 100 on the paper which I was very excited about. Another reason is that I’m not particularly exceptional at writing I struggle with what words to use and how to really make my writing mean something to the person reading it, and my teacher left me a comment saying how I had thought outside the box and done very well. When I’m writing, my only fear is that I could be using better words so that’s why after I write a paper I always like to continuously edit it until I’m satisfied. Challenges for me are thinking of what to write I guess you could say that I get writers block and I must take breaks and really think about what I want my paper to convey, but once I get an idea usually I’m and can come up with more ideas it’s just really that first few sentences in a paragraph that get me.

Al, Alde, de, shon, deshon, and Al’Deshon my name takes on many forms. Kind of like my writing in a sense. I have never been a strong writing also being the reason, I took this class first semester I think. If I get it out of the way maybe I’ll have an easier chance of reaching the finish line happening to be graduation.

How long was I going to continue to ignore the fact that I desperately needed help with my writing? Reflecting back even in high school it seems I’ve always had the same problems when it came to my writing. Maybe it was the fact that I was too lazy to take the extra time out to write out a rough draft, unless of course it counted towards my grade, or maybe it was the fact that I never paid attention to my grammar because I was always rushing. Either way it goes once I got to college I realized I wasn’t going to be able to skate by with just putting my initial ideas on paper and turning them in, if I really wanted to get a good grade I would have to work for it.

Thinking about our first writing assignment, one of the suggestions focuses on the comparison of writing to running, it became apparent to me that this is something I would enjoy writing about. I am a long time running advocate, competing in marathons, and a neophyte writing student, and I find many similarities in both endeavors.

Many people enjoy and have fun writing, but then again, many people dislike having to write, including me. Writing has always been something I was never really interested on for many reasons.

As I thought about our first writing assignment, one suggestion focuses on comparing writing to running, it became apparent that this is something I would enjoy writing about. I am a long time running advocate, competing in marathons, also, a neophyte writing student, and find numerous similarities in both endeavors.

Writing, when given a prompt or focus point, comes more naturally to me than some other things. I find writing and composing soothing and meditative, therefore I enjoy to write in a quiet environment such as my room, a classroom, or library. The room must be somewhat calm in order for me to process my thoughts in an effective, orderly manner that I can then write down. I do little writing outside of school and class work, so the majority of my writing is for academic purposes. Whenever I formally sit down to write an essay or prompt, I must have soft music or some type of noise playing because if the room is too quiet, I tend to become distracted. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if the room is too loud, it is impossible for me to focus

I have a love-hate relationship with writing. I can write well according to some of my peers; though this could just be from the fact that I seem like the quiet, studious, type who has spent most of her time with the straight "A" nerds who went on to top tier schools such as Stanford. Sometimes I am not too sure of my own writing abilities. On most essays, I get a little bit above average grades and every once in a while I get a few more points than usual. I have noticed that my writing is better when I have to write about a topic I am passionate or know a lot about. The more I have to work with the better. Otherwise, my writing seems poor, forced, and somewhat bland. It usually follows a poor or basic thesis statement and lazy paragraphs. I believe motivation helps me to write better,

Seated in my petunia pink room at my tan desk an excruciating voice rang through my eardrum. “Again!” the voice bellowed. I hurried to rewrite my work. I started at the beginning with printed letters. A,a,B,b,C,c… I wrote every letter of the alphabet capitalized and lower cased. “Now cursive!” snapped the voice sharply. Again, I wrote all the letters but in cursive this time.

My writing experience started in high school. I was part of the high school yearbook. I was business editor as a freshman up to being the editor my senior year. I also participated on the newspaper staff. I had some experience in college, but I did not finish college. I then did not have any more experience until I started work as a leader at Nisco. I finally started college classes again.

When I was younger, I would eat up books faster than I got them. I’d always been found reading books in the oddest of places. I remember wanting to try writing although I could never fully express the words in my mind onto paper and on the rare occasion I was able to; only I could understand what I wrote. It had fascinated me , and honestly frustrated me, that people could write these odd and beautiful books that I’d held onto like a mother to her child.

While not a hugely transformative venture, I have found this semester to be a good vehicle for making my writing more accurate to its intended purpose. Prior to taking this class I did have some experience in professional writing for a few of the jobs I've had in the past, but this class organized those thoughts, gave them name, and pointed out where and how to pursue them. Its been an enlightening experience and provided me with tools I hope to use the rest of my life.