In my final blog post for this class I am going to be explaining some of the main take aways I am going to have. I have never enjoyed an English class more and am grateful to have had this class.
Before the beginning of this class, I wanted nothing to with writing. In high school, I always struggled in all of my English classes and found it so hard to get a decent grade on a paper. Throughout this class, I found that writing shouldn’t be forced in a way that would make me dread doing it. My professor this semester motivated us into slowly starting a writing process. I completed two formal assignments and dove into new ways of writing. Some new writing styles I worked on were reflection, composing scenes, and found poetry. Towards the beginning of this class, the main focus was conducting a scene. We wrote about scenes in the present, past, and even did a counterfactual part that changed the way our scenes played out. One informal assignment that I really enjoy was adding a counterfactual element to the story The Yellow Wallpaperwritten by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. We read the story then added a decision into it that changed how the how rest of the scene played out. I believe my descriptive writing has improved a lot considering I never used it prior to this course. I have learned a lot over the past couple of months and had fun doing it. In this class, I enjoyed our in-class discussions the most because no one was judgmental, and everyone had something interesting to say. I will have a lot I am going to take away from having this class but mostly I learned that writing isn’t a chore and now I enjoy doing it. I have started writing in a journal every night to make sure I don’t lose what I learned from this class.
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To conclude the posts dedicated to my last formal assignment, I wanted to include my findings section. In this section I explain how the “three good things” project improved my well-being and how it had a positive effect on my mental state.
Findings In this section I will prove “three good things” improved my well-being by disusing these three points. According to the PERMA model, our happiness is determined through five categories. Positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments. My first point would be my accomplishments and how they made me feel. Another point would be the social relationships that I have built. Lastly, by showing positive emotion and how it has brought forth my inner optimism. I chose to talk about accomplishments because to me, there is no better feeling then handing in a test or an assignment that you worked so hard on. During the week I worked on the “three good things” I had multiple assignments due and I appreciated that feeling when I finished a task. My one entry was “Was productive: I finished a paper that is due Friday and I love the feeling of being productive and the feeling of accomplishment.” This was within the first two days of starting this project and already I knew what was important to me. Next, my relationships such as my family, played a big part in my well-being. They are my motivation and support through everything and this study showed me to never take them for granite. Finally, positive emotion showed throughout most of my journal entries. I looked at things with an optimistic view and suddenly things did not seem that bad. An entry that connects with this would be “Had work: I don't love work, but I try and make the best of it.” After really learning about these five elements, I go through my days now connecting each part of it to a different element. I wish to focus more on the meaning aspect because everyone needs some meaning in their lives. Adding to my writing process during my research project, I wanted to add my Literature review section from my paper to show the statistical side of my work. This section explains gratitude, well- being and the PERMA model that was previous explain in my blog post.
Literature Review Stated in the Positive Psychology Center, Dr. Martin E.P. Seligman is the founder of positive psychology and has written over 300 scholarly articles on this topic. Positive psychology is “the scientific study of the strengths that enable individuals and communities to thrive. The field is founded on the belief that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, and to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play” (Positive Psychology Center). An aspect that takes part in positive psychology is well-being. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,well-being is a positive result that is meaningful for people and for any different parts of a community, because it tells us that people see that their lives are getting better, and well-being is important for the individual. Another key aspect within positive psychology would be gratitude. Benedictine monk, Br. David Steindl-Rast, believes that gratitude can be broken down into two parts. One being appreciationand the other being that gratitude is gratis. Appreciationis when you recognize that something means something to you (Team, The Gratefulness). The second quality is gratitude is gratisand that is when something is given to you at no cost (Team, The Gratefulness). Regarding positive psychology, many people believe it is real and means something but just as many people believe it is fake and they are the only thing controlling their own happiness.As stated in the positive psychology program, the PERMA modelwas created by Martin Seligman. The PERMA model was made to show that our well-being consists of multiple elements and if we follow them we can live “a life of fulfillment, happiness, and meaning” (The PERMA Model). The Harvard Health Publishing blog showed that many different experiments took place to see if gratitude improves well-being. Two psychologists, Dr. Robert A. Emmons and Dr. Michael E. McCullough, conducted a study that required the volunteers to write down what they were grateful for (Harvard Health Publishing). This was similar to the “three good things” practice and they found positive feedback with this experiment but only regarding age (Harvard Health Publishing). Within the same study, they found that “middle-aged divorced women who kept gratitude journals were no more satisfied with their lives than those who did not” (Harvard Health Publishing). Through my own experiences with the “three good things” exercise, I found myself noticing things I already do that works towards improving my well-being. Whether studies show that gratitude helps one’s well-being or no, it had a positive effect on me. For the upcoming research project, I took an entry from my Three Good Things blog post and composed a scene. I plan to use this theme and my thesis in the introduction. Also, was thinking about closing my project by including the end of the scene in my conclusion part of my project.
Tuesday, October 30th: It is about 7:30 p.m. My eyes are rolling to the back of my head in exhaustion. A half hour into the long commute home from work and I just wanted to be home already. Between classes and work I feel like I’m hardly home anymore. My attitude was sour and felt bad for anyone that had to deal with me that day. I finally get home and pull into my drive way. Viciously throw my car into park and yank my bags out of my back seat. As I was stomping my way into my house I noticed something was different. As I was walking from my drive way into my house, I saw that both cars were home, meaning both of my parents were home. I see my parents all time but both at the same time was rare. My mom can never sit still and does whatever she needs to do to occupy herself and my dad always has a lot going on with work. My mood slowly changes. I walk in and they were so excited to see me. I receive a hug from my mom. The hug felt like she has not seen me in weeks, but I did not mind. My mom told me to sit down as she made me a great home cooked meal. My father asking how my day was and you could tell he genuinely cared about what I had to say. All of that stress from school and work vanished completely. Like a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I had a chance to relax and enjoy myself. I have always been grateful for my parents and all the love and support they provided for me, but I chose this certain moment to add to my “three good things” journal because I looked at it differently. I never want to take that for granite and I noticed they play a big part in my happiness and well-being. Without them I would not be the person I am today. Thesis: After completing the “three good things” for a week, I believe it had a positive impact on my well-being in many ways. In this next post I will provide my scores I had for the Happiness quiz. Taking this quiz is another step im taking to further my research. This quiz made me ask myself questions that I would have never thought about on my own. Take the Happiness quiz and find out your own score!
My score for the happiness quiz was 79 out of 115 My results show that I am practicing many life skills that contribute to my happiness. Also, It shows that I have room for improvement and just by learning a new skill, I could make myself happier. I plan on using my results in my research project by explaining what those numbers mean. This quiz was made up with research from thousands of different scientific studies. The science behind the test is made up of three factors. Our psychological well-being is affected by our DNA, the environment surrounding us and our thoughts or actions. The science of happiness (or also known as positive psychology), is giving insight on how to fight against and relieve depression and/or anxiety. The quiz itself consists of thirteen questions and your answers range from about once a day (5), three times a week or more (4), once or twice a week (3), once or twice a month (2), or never (1). The numbers next to your options is the “grading scale.” These numbers come from the PANAS scale. When creating the happiness quiz, they used the PANAS scale to determine the number corelated to “how happy you are.” Of course, with more math involved, they find the sum of the positive questions and return your score. With the help of that scale, they also use data collected by OECD.org. This organization collects data such as statistics, opinions, and surveys that help them advance their credibility. The questions asked are not super specific but asks you to reflect on certain things like your feelings and beliefs. After the quiz, it encourages you to take part in doing the 3 happy things for that following week. Since we already did that as a blog post I was able to skip that. You can find my week of three good things blog post here. To conclude, the quiz is here to point out what you are doing to help increase your well-being and better yourself as a person For more information go to the pursuit of happiness website. For the next week, I am going to be jotting down three good things that happened to me each day. In this post I am going to be using these links to help me complete this task. I used What is Positive Pyschology & Why Is it Important?, Greater Good in Action: Science-Based Practices for a Meaningful Life, and Three Good Things. It is said that doing this relieves stress and makes someone just a happier person overall.
The focus of the following blog post is to explain my revision process that took place while editing my narrative project. Some links I used to help me through this process was What is Fan Fiction -- and why is it making people nervous? and Rewinding and Rewriting: The Alternate Universes in Our Head. Questions answered in the vlog:
In this weeks, post I had to make a vlog to explain what I have done so far in this class. I talk about my writer identity, my growth as a writer, and the process of my blogging. I am only mid way thorough this course but have enjoyed it so much already. For this next post, I will be composing a found poem revolving around my narrative project. A found poem is taking words or phrases from a finished piece of writing to make new meaning. My narrative project is about a time in my life where a friend of mine made a decision that had a negative impact on me and that is what I’m going to be using for my found poem.
Found Poem of my Past Scene Reading through my work, I realize again "there is no finished project, just a deadline". I do have some changes to make to my project but overall, I am pleased with the end result. I found this poem very easy to do and thought i had enough descriptive language throughout my writing to keep the poem interesting. For this post I am going to be revising the scene I made in blog post 5. This scene is giving me the foundation I am going to use in my first formal assignment in this class. This scene is supposed to reflect a part in my life where someone made a bad design and it had a negative impact on me.
“BANG, BANG, BANG!” I hear a loud noise as I’m in the shower, but the running water is too loud to identify where its coming from. I end my shower abruptly to see what it is. I grabbed my towel and start drying off. I hear the banging again just to realize its on my bathroom door followed by yelling. All I hear is “Erin come quick!” and I recognized the voice. I am now panicked and begin to rush. I step out of the bathroom only just to see my friend Lindsey passed out on the bed and my other friend Maddie just hovering over her franticly trying to check her blood sugars. She is covered head to toe in sand. Her already pale skin has turned to a ghostly white. The panicked feeling returned. “I can’t figure this thing out!” Maddie yells as she’s trying to set up Lindsey’s diabetic supplies “what the hell happened?” I said to Maddie with a crack in my voice. Maddie replied “I--- I don’t know, I just saw Ryan carrying her off the beach and he said she was throwing up” “I was only gone 30 minutes; how could this have happened?” I check her blood sugars just for her meter screen to read “HI”. We’ve only been in the Bahamas for six hours now, but I can only imagine how much alcohol she has consumed in that time frame not even including how much sugar could’ve been in those fruity drinks. I instantly felt frustration towards her. Not only was I scared for her life, but this is something I would never expect coming from her. The strong smell of alcohol was radiating off of her as she tried to form words together. I left the beach early to start getting ready for the club later on that night but from the looks of Lindsey, I wasn’t going anywhere. Maddie left me because she felt as if this wasn’t her problem to deal with. My heart ached for her, I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. I rinsed her off in the shower as the alcohol starts to wear off. “I’m sorry” Lindsey tells me I felt a bit of relief knowing she was going to be okay. |
Inspiration"Step into a scene and let it drip from your fingertips"- MJ Bush Archives
December 2018
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