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posted by: jlbrockman at 19:33 | link | comments |

Narration Essay Brainstorming

I have had a lot of experiences throughout my life that have had significant impact on me.  Some of them are more personal than others, and I'm not sure that I want to write about something deeply personal.  However, I think that the best writing comes from the deeper and more vulnerable places within ourselves, so I'll include some of those experiences in this brainstorming list:

1) online dating
2) attending a conservative Christian university
3) graduate school
4) being a single working woman
5) graduating from college
6) my first "real" job
7) surviving very difficult heartbreak
8) living with two cats
9) learning how to drive
10) turning 21

posted by: jlbrockman at 17:33 | link | comments |

Narration Essay Reflection

As I look back on my Narration draft, I think I have done a good job so far.  I think that my topic is interesting and original.  I can write easily on this topic, but I see that I am having trouble with my organization.  This topic is very personal to me, and my ideas come out so quickly that it is difficult to keep them straight.  When I revise, I am going to use the Old/New Contract to help me make sure that my essay is coherent and that I don't get off topic.  When I revise, I also need to add more examples and descriptions of some of my experiences.  There are gaps in my ideas, and some of the connections are unclear.  Also, there are some details that I left out because I was not sure exactly how I wanted to write them.  So, I need to go back and add them in. 

posted by: jlbrockman at 18:39 | link | comments |

Narration Essay Freewrite

Attending a conservative Christian university was one of the most difficult experiences of my life.  When I say it was difficult, I don't mean that the classes were hard (although some of them were).  My experience at the college was difficult because I began to better understand my true identity.  I gained a better sense of who I really am.  I was raised to be conservative and very religious, but the longer that I attended that university, the more I realized that I am very liberal and not very religious.  I now see myself as more spiritual than religious.  I do still hold some of the values that I was raised to hold as well as some of those espoused by the university.  However, for the most part, I view many of those values with much skepticism and a certain degree of disbelief.  This skepticism and disbelief are grounded in many of my other personal experiences prior to attending college as well as the many liberties that people have taken over time in rewriting the Bible and other texts, enslaving other humans, devaluing women, and furthering their own political views all in the name of Christianity. 

When asked if I still consider myself to be a "Christian", I have a difficult time answering definitely "yes" or "no".  I suppose that there will be a part of me that might always answer "yes" to that question as I have not rejected that faith entirely.  However, another part of me might always answer "no" because I don't think that the Christian faith has evolved into a faith that truely and completely glorifies God.  There are many members of this faith who do truely and completely glorify God, but I think that the faith itself has a long way to go in that respect.  As difficult as it is to completely go against the faith that has been ingrained in me since the time of my birth, if not before, I don't want to be a part of a faith that doesn't truely and completely hold the beliefs that it claims to. 

posted by: jlbrockman at 18:34 | link | comments |

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