Personal Narrative: Word Walls

I have always struggled with my writing assignments. If I had the option not to write I would take that option with no hesitation. I truly dreaded it, when we have to type essays. Now, I have been into two English classes where I have felt a little more comfortable in being able to write something without being so embarrassed or ashamed in what I’m about to turn it. I still feel horrible about my spelling and grammar.

This past year, I have been apart of Naperville Central’s brand new Special Spaces club. When my friend approached me and asked me to join, I agreed even though I had no clue what I was involving myself in. In retrospective, I can honestly say that becoming a part of Special Spaces has been one of the most meaningful, fun, and fulfilling experiences I have had in high school.

Her father’s words echoed through her head as one might hear a reverberation throughout the Taj Mahal. Continuous. Chilling. Having no control to distill the wavelengths until they mellowed out on their own accord. She tried to anatomize the depth of his phrase, more than dutifully needed but Davina needed to know why. Why did she need to keep an open mind and more importantly, who the hell was about to come bursting through that door. But then again, did it really matter in the first place. When she thought about it, the brunette could have laughed at the idea. That an unattributed, faceless figure had her panties in a bunch. Surely Dominic wouldn’t think to waste her time with venial diversions,

As I am riding in my husbands 2008 chevy cobalt I realize, this is exactly how I envisioned the perfect day. A soft gentle breeze wafting the sweet scent of jasmine over me, the sun radiating against my skin. The sky is clear as cleaned crystal and bubblegum blue. I settle back on the warm leather seat of the car and embrace the feeling. I am totally immersed.

Walking away from everything you once knew and starting over is never a picnic. Leaving Iraq, and moving to America has impacted my life more than anything. I was only 4 years old at that time, and the only English I spoke was “excuse me, water please.” My family and I did not know it then, but our lives were going to change; we would become “Americanized”. Learning English was one of the massive changes that occurred, the way I dressed (culture), and even the way I had power to go to school and educate myself.

Throughout the conversation, Susan did not inform me that the home was still in First Look and not open to investors at this time. Susan did not highlight any features of the home, nor did she talk about the neighborhood or the surrounding area. When asked, Susan paused to reference the property file and stated, "In looking at the pictures it appears that it needs interior paint, carpet, appliances, and a few windows, which the previous seller must have taken." She stated, "I don't know why they have to remove things from the homes." I asked, "Do you have offers?" She paused to check the property file and answered, "No offers." I asked, "Is the property behind the home farmland?" She paused to reference the property file and replied, "It appears

A couple of years ago my English teacher assigned me to write a short novel. At first I wasn’t really thrilled about having to spend 3 weeks writing a book for one of my least favorite subjects. I thought it was going to be hard and not worth the effort, until I started to write. Once I had my topic and an outline the writing came to me very easily. After a while of writing I started to get into the assignment and it became more of a pleasing task. I firmly believe it was that assignment that made me realize I was a better writer than I thought and that if I put my mind into it could produce good writing.

I plan to improve this disposition by having boundaries and limits. It does not matter if the client shares the same cultural beliefs from me, I have a lot of compassion and go an extra mile to help them. I get attach with clients right away because I see a connection with them. I have noticed that clients take advantage of my empathy. I need to work on how to understand my clients but also have limits with them so they will not take advantage of my kindness.

When I was at Tad Gormley watching the Blue Jays and realized that I couldn’t stand, I learned that not everything goes as planned. My parents were helping my sister move into college at the University of Virginia, so I was at the Jesuit football game with a babysitter. At one point, my water bottle fell onto the track, so I jumped over the fence that separates the stands from the field in order to grab it. I didn’t perceive it as a big deal, for I had jumped over that same fence multiple times that game alone. However, at that exact moment I happened to be standing at a point where the fence was poorly patched; so, as I jumped, my foot barely caught the edge of it. I fell awkwardly and landed on my side. Embarrassed, I very quickly hopped

Growing up in a family of six, there was never a shortage of people to read to me, the only shortage that existed was my ability to understand and appreciate the story in front of me. I was always on the move and the sedentary act of reading a book never appealed to my childish motives. Coupling my inability to hear well and my stagnant progress in school, I was quickly falling behind. With most of my childhood dedicated to the fantastical world I had created, I had no time to listen to someone else’s story. I would not continue on this way though, for my mom, noticing my lack of literacy skills, made it her effort to divulge in me the wonders of someone else’s world, each world becoming a part of my own.

When I visited Brown what stood out to me is an environment encouraging students to be intellectually curious, not only through the idea of creating your own major, but also through the option to take a course pass-fail. This jumped out at me as an environment I would thrive in and reminded me of my senior year. I planed on taking a work heavy internship teaching course, and doubling up on science while learning calculus, putting myself in a calculus physics class surrounded by future engineers who took calculus years ago: all summer I was slightly terrified. There are many classes like Physics that I would love to take and not be constantly anxious about grades, and that's Brown’s provides. At Brown I would take full advantage of this opportunity

I grimaced as the fresh sound of thundering rain was captured by my sensitive ears. I slightly turned my head towards the small window on my right and watched the coal black clouds weep their tears onto our world. I lightly chuckled, realizing how I depressing I sounded. I guess I have never really associated rain with anything happy. How could I? Rain is literally like a never ending cycle of tears crashing down from the vast sky. Suddenly, the ear bursting rumble of thunder brought me back from my endless thoughts, and I immediately sighed before I went back to doing pointless more graphs for math homework.

For the course “Communication in Place”, I believe I deserve a grade of eight out of ten for participation. This course has allowed me to view the spaces around me with a philosophical position like never before, and observe the way place has an effect on patterns of communication. The ideas presented to me over the semester were engaging and interesting, and will have an impact on the way I perceive myself moving throughout space in the future.

I express myself through writing. My entire life I’ve had a big imagination that made it hard to express myself vocally; my thoughts scatter around in my mind and can usually only be properly brought to life on paper. Of course, I'm comfortable speaking to people and in front of people- but without the power of revision and addition, it’s hard to say what I feel needs to be said. I enjoy writing because I can let everything out on a piece of paper or a computer screen and it doesn’t need to make sense until I want it to make sense. My favorite genres to write are also my favorite to read, fiction and fantasy. With these genres' I can create my own world where everything is what I need it to be, I can create my own characters and give them unique

One day in writing the students had to use their “Kids Time” magazine to answer questions. One of the questions was, “Locate a power word. Write a sentence using the power word that you found.” The magazine was focused in on the presidential debate and some of the power words were, vie, term, and debate. Once students located their word and wrote their sentence on their word, the teacher added those words to the word wall that she has located in the back of the room. There are many other words up on the word wall, but a lot of the words had something to do with the presidential debate. There were tier 1,2, and 3 words located on the word wall. Some words that stuck out to me on the word wall were president, power, Democratic, Republican, and stance. The students can use these words while writing, get small prizes for finding these words in their readings, and then they take a test over the words. Now, that doesn’t sound like much fun and doesn’t seem like they would be able to retain the information, but the students love learning new words and my teacher doesn’t move on from them, they continue to stay on the word wall and are constantly reviewed. The word wall helps the student with word consciousness and allows them to build onto those words and connect new words to words they already