Just Keep Swimming

My name is Lauren Rutherford and I am a freshman at Lenoir-Rhyne University. If there is one thing I love doing more than anything else in the world, its swimming. I started swimming when I was 8 years old and it was like love at first lap. However, the older I got, the more difficult it became, and the more I grew tired of it. By the time I was a freshman in high school, I was burned out. I quit swimming halfway through the year in order to focus on other aspects of high school like academics and a life that didn’t revolve around a pool. For me, avoiding a pool was impossible. I worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor. My younger brother and many of my friends were swimmers too. It was in my life whether I liked it or not. 2 years went by without swimming. My junior year I began to miss it. So i decided to give it another shot. Getting back into it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but I pushed through and fell in love with the sport all over again. 2 years later and here I am at Lenoir-Rhyne, swimming. I can’t imagine my life without it. I’ve made lifelong friends and memories I’ll never forget because of the sport and I now I know I can do anything I put my mind to. I’m so excited to see what the next 4 years have in store for me. Go Bears!

Old Fashioned Meets the Future

 

Over the course of the semester, I have drastically improved as a writer. I have learned a lot of different strategies and learned how to write more efficiently. This is due to the activities we have done in class. Writing letters, spending time away from the screen, watching plays, and writing for an audience beyond the classroom and presenting essays as blog posts are some of the activities that helped me the most.

My favorite activity that helped strengthen my writing was writing letters. This was helpful because not many people write letters anymore so it’s a different style of writing that you have to use. It was also really fun to me because its a dying art and I know my friends and family were extremely happy to receive them. It also taught me about the mailing process and what you have to write on an envelope and where. Another activity I enjoyed that helped my writing was watching the LR Playmakers. Seeing a script come to life is fantastic because everything is so much different on stage and it can give you a better understanding of what’s going on. For example, the play “Creature” was a lot better on stage and made a lot more sense to me after I saw it acted out. This aided in my ability to write about it and see the deeper meanings that were there.

An important feature that further aided my writing was time spent away from the screen and writing longhand. You don’t realize how much time you spend typing on a computer until you don’t do it anymore. Writing longhand helped me gather my thoughts on paper first and write it all out before I typed anything. It made the process a lot easier so when I went to type, all my work was already done. Its also a good thing to get some time away from the screen. It’s been proven that “ Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on non screen activities are more likely to be happy.” This simple writing exercise gave me more time to be away from the screen to do other activities and helped me become less distracted by the online world. The most important activity we did that made me a better writer, though, was writing for an online audience beyond the classroom and presenting essays as blog posts. Like the letters, it’s a different type of writing that you’re forced to do. You have to get to the point faster and write for a different audience then you’re used to. You also want to captivate your audience more since its online and they can easily move off of your writing with one click. It was a lot different than writing a term paper. In my opinion, it helped with my writing more. I’m not the only one who thinks blogs are more beneficial than term papers. In fact, blogs are becoming more popular and “Across the country, blog writing has become a basic requirement in everything from M.B.A. to literature courses” It’s something that can really help students enjoy writing more.

Overall, my writing was drastically improved because of this course. It wasn’t always easy, but it was beneficial for this class and all my other classes too. I will now write more off the computer and maybe even send a letter every once in awhile. Who knows, maybe I’ll even continue writing on my blog. You never know where writing will take you or what you can do with it.

 

Works Cited:

Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-tradition.html.

Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 4 Aug. 2017, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.

Annotated Bibliography:

 

Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. Vintage, 2004.

“The Devil in the White City” is a dual narrative that follows two men and their relationship to the 1893 World’s Fair. Erik Larson’s extensive research is apparent in his attention to detail when linking the stories of architect Daniel Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes to show the theme of good and evil.

Maslin, Janet. “Add a Serial Murderer to 1893 Chicago’s Opulent Overkill.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Feb. 2003, www.nytimes.com/2003/02/10/books/books-of-the-times-add-a-serial-murderer-to-1893-chicago-s-opulent-overkill.html.

“Add a Serial Murderer to 1893 Chicago’s Opulent Overkill” describes how Erik Larson used only first hand research and detail to write “The Devil in the White City”. Larson took a risk by writing a book with so many facts, but it paid off in the end. HIs mixture of history and entertainment proves to be one readers can’t get enough of. Larson makes the book seem like fiction rather than non fiction.

Richtel, Matt. “Blogs vs. Term Papers.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-paper-tradition.html.

“Blogs vs. Term Papers” by Matt Ritchel argues the pros and cons of both types of writing. Blog writing is on the rise and the use of term papers is decreasing. Teachers are having to decide which method(s) is better for this tech savvy generation and many are turning to the blog. There’s no real way to figure out which one is “better”, but it’s up for discussion whether one is more necessary and useful than the other.

Schreck, Heidi. Creature. Samuel French, 2011.

The play “Creature” is about a new mother in 1400s England. However, she is not a normal mother. Margery has a vision of Jesus Christ in a purple robe and keeps seeing a demon. She wants to become a Saint even though she is already a wife and mom. Heidi Schreck uses Margery’s delusions to help her figure out who she is and what she wants to do with her life.

Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 4 Aug. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/.

“Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” is about the potential dangers of too much screen time. Too much screen time has been linked to less sleep, loneliness, and depression. It’s also affected teenagers social interactions and defined a generation.  So, all this technology may not be a good thing after all.

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town. 1938. Harper Perennial, 2003.

The play “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder is about a small town in New

Hampshire called Grover’s Corners. Grover’s Corners is your typical American town where everyone knows everyone. The play focuses on the town’s activities as well as the lives of two kids named Emily and George. It follows the story of how they fell in love, got married, and died. The death of Emily reveals the moral of the story; live life to the fullest.

Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad. Doubleday, 2016.

The Underground Railroad tells the story of a third generation slave named Cora who decides to run away to freedom. It’s not a walk in the park, though, as she faces many trials and tribulations that test her will to survive and keep going. Colson Whitehead uses Cora as a symbol of perseverance and to show how you never know where you might end up.

Breaking the Wall

The play “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder is about a small town in New Hampshire called Grover’s Corners. Grover’s Corners is your typical American town where everyone knows everyone. The play focuses on the town’s activities as well as the lives of two kids named Emily and George. It follows the story of how they fell in love, got married, and died. The death of Emily reveals the moral of the story; live life to the fullest.

As I read the script, I wasn’t sure how the Stage Manager character was going to work. It was weird reading the fourth wall and having a character address you. The play starts off with the Stage Manager talking about the town and directly addresses the audience when he says “Well, I’d better show you how our town lies” (4). I really liked how it played out on stage, though. I thought it made the play more interactive and made the audience feel like they were a part of the show. I also thought having the audience sit on stage made them feel like a part of the show too.

The productions strength was the great acting by the cast. Everyone did a phenomenal job playing their character and each one was unique in its own way. Pastor Weisner was the star of the show. He made the play funny and entertaining. To me, some of the play dragged on and was kind of boring but it did pick up by the end. The first act was especially long and I thought the whole play was long in general. However, the production really made you feel something in the final act. Emily introduces the theme when she’s talking about life and says “Do human beings ever realize life while they live it?-every, every minute” (108)? It made me get a little emotional

and had me thinking about life in a different way.

The LR production brought the words and emotion to life. The play makes you feel emotions that you don’t quite feel while reading it. Wilder’s new use of breaking the fourth wall proves a success. The audience is engaged and everyone wants to keep watching to see what happens next. The play teaches you to never take a day for granted and live everyday like it’s your last.

Works Cited

Our Town. By Thornton Wilder. Dir. Lindsay Weitkamp. Perf. The Rev. Andrew Weisner, Tom Townsend, Sophie Heller-Lee, Dr. Timothy Goldberg, Ariona Smith, Ashton Pesterfield, Jack Verner, Heather Osterer, Quentin Heller-Lee, Callie Cope, Sally Putzer, Chase Fowler, Dr. Sarah A. Nelson, Jovani Valdez, Amber Biecker, Derek Spencer, Milissia Koncelik, Mason Fowler, Brandon Lee, and Clay James. LR Playmakers, Lenoir-Rhyne U., Hickory, NC. 10 Nov. 2017

Doomed from the Start

The prologue “Aboard the Olympic” is about famous architect Daniel Burnham trying to get a hold of his close friend, Frank Millet. Burnham is aboard the RMS Olympic while Millet is on its sister ship, the Titanic. Burnham reflects on the Chicago world’s fair and how many of the people who assisted with it are no longer alive. The prologue in The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson uses flashbacks to introduce the reader to the narrative. It also introduces the theme of good and evil and foreshadows the immense amount of death surrounding the fair.

The first flashback is used when Burnham starts thinking about the fair and “Millet, who was never far from Burnham’s mind, nor was the event that had brought the two of them together: the great Chicago world’s fair” (4). Larson then goes into more detail about the fair, telling the reader about the miraculous wonders that occurred such as “…a machine so huge and terrifying that it instantly eclipsed the tower of Alexandre Eiffel that had so wounded America’s pride” (5). This gives us an idea of what the book is going to be about. Larson uses flashbacks throughout the narrative to tell the story of Daniel Burnham and serial killer H.H. Holmes.

Although the fair had many miraculous wonders, it was also filled with darkness and death. A theme of good and evil is shown when Larson describes how “A murderer had moved among the beautiful things Burnham had created.” (6). The murderer (H.H. Holmes) represented evil and Burnham represented good. Death becomes prevalent in the story and is foreshadowed when the reader finds out Frank Millet is aboard the Titanic and is probably dead. After all, “Burnham and Millet were among the few builders of the fair still alive” (6). Now only Burnham is alive and even his health is declining.

Overall, the prologue sets the scene and offers a glimpse into the future of the book. The use of flashbacks and the common theme of good and evil (with a lot of death) are a key to the story to keep it interesting. A lot of hard work and research went into creating this dual narrative. As Janet Maslin puts it, “…it doesn’t hurt that this truth really is stranger than fiction.”

Jordan Makants’s Book

I really enjoyed Jordan’s book and his poems. He talked about sex, drugs, alcohol, relationships, and life in general. His comments about his poems were super funny and at one point he talked about how awkward it was that he was talking about this stuff with his parents in the room. His poems made it sound like he was depressed, but he promised he was a happy person. They sounded like he was just telling us what he was thinking. It made me have a different view on poems and appreciate them a lot more. I thought it was interesting that when Jordan first started writing poetry, he didn’t like it and now he can’t stop. It made me think about trying things more than once because you never know if you’ll end up liking it or not.

Misunderstood Margery

The play “Creature” is about a new mother in 1400s England. However, she is not a normal mother. Margery has a vision of Jesus Christ in a purple robe and keeps seeing a demon. She wants to become a Saint even though she is already a wife and mom. Heidi Schreck uses Margery’s delusions to help her figure out who she is and what she wants to do with her life. 

When I first read the script I thought the play was a drama with a few funny parts here and there and I did not like it at all. I thought it was boring and the main character was annoying. However, the LR production was more on the comedic side and was funny throughout the whole play. At the beginning, I thought Margery (Liz Bokhoven) was weird and had something wrong with her when she said “When I do this, do I look like a snake? Sssssssith” (7). But when this line was performed in the play, it was funny and made me laugh. The show was brought to life by the incredible acting of the cast. 

The productions actors were the strongest part of the play. Everyone portrayed their character perfectly so that even people who didn’t read the script could understand what each character was thinking and doing. I really liked how Jacob and Asmodeus (Corey Smith) were played by the same actor so that the connection could be made that they were the same person. Margery (Liz Bokhoven) did an amazing job on such short notice. She was holding her script but most of the time I didn’t even notice because I was so into the show. I didn’t think there were too many weaknesses but some of the actors were hard to hear at parts because microphones weren’t used. Eliza (Callie Cope) had a beautiful voice but I couldn’t understand what she was saying. The set and stage looked really good but it seemed small and cramped. Overall, I thought the play was entertaining and passionate.  

The play showed how passionate Margery (Liz Bokhoven) was about God and how badly she wanted people to listen to her. She truly thought she was seeing Jesus and demons. Margery has a good heart and didn’t want anybody to get hurt. Liz Bokhoven made me want to believe Margery but laugh at the same time. Margery tells her husband “I belong to God” (57). She would pick God over the man she married, showing her persistence and dedication.    

Margery is a misunderstood woman trying to cope with the birth of her first child. Motherhood is hard and she is a perfect example of that. She is doing the best she can under the circumstances. Margery does not acknowledge her child until the very end when she says “…May I hold him” (74)? She realizes that she is now ready to take care of her baby and put this behind her. Margery has a new meaning and will do anything to be a good mother.