Blog 5

One time a few months ago I had to type a research paper. In order to get started I had to google information. My topic was prohibition, so i viewed several historical websites in order to get insight. I'd say this was pretty informal research since I just clicked on random sights that google listed. But I was lucky enough to find some pretty good resources. I did not have to watch anything on TV but i did watch a few documentaries online detailing what life was like back then. All of the information came quite easily so writing the paper was not at all too bad. I was able to take what I read/ watched and re word it to tell a story describing prohibition from beginning to end. Although I struggled with the introduction. By the time I got to the second or third paragraph I had learned how to take important facts from my sources and pack them into my paper.

Blog #5

     My sophomore year in high school I was a assigned a personal research project in which i just the subject of airplanes. The beginning of this research was very easy, since my Dad is a pilot, he answered most all of my initial questions. So my initial research was interview based. Simply "hey dad, how long did it take to get your pilots license?" When I narrowed my topic to become a commercial pilot, this brought out some much more complicated questions that my Dad could not answer. My initial deep research started with internet, which did not get me very far. All of my number based question had inconsistent answers on the internet. Which pushed to libraries to look for aviation books. My questions were all fact and number based. Personally I do not enjoy opinionated research. Honestly, it is because I struggle with getting thoughts on to paper; and keeping bias out of my own research. Looking back i would still enjoy that research today. My fascination for anything that flies still exists. Which mainly goes back to my father and growing up around aviation.

Blog #5

Over the years, my research on my interests has varied greatly. Prior to this year, I had a great interest in social media and its effect on our generation. I mainly focused on the dating aspect of social media. The television show “Catfish” intrigued and inspired me the most. The show basically sets up a meeting between two people who essentially have “fallen in love” over the internet and one of the them wants to meet the other in person so they go about it by contacting the show. A lot of the time the people on the other side of the computer end up being fake. What led people to do such a horrible thing? Leading someone on and putting so much time and effort into getting the other person to “fall in love” with them over a simple dating website or even a common one such as facebook. It led me to start thinking physiologically. Is love over a computer really love? Or does that depend on one’s personal definition of love? Is there even a universal meaning of love anymore or it simply situational and opinionated? I realize that this must happen often if they have a reality show about it. I knew social media was taking over but little did I know it was to this extent. Social media actually helped me find more on this topic and I was able to test just how common it was. With the rise of the app called “tinder” where a simple swipe tells your future or a website such as “christian mingle” or “okcupid” where people put in their info in a superficial survey where they hope for love when they click submit. Everyday people turn to these things, some expecting true love and some expecting it to turn into a silly joke. I was continuously surprised to find statistics such as how a large percentage of couples break up because of something said on twitter or facebook. Would more people essentially “fall in love” if we didn’t have the internet so conveniently at our fingertips?

Blog 5

Prior to this year my curiosities lied in the medical field areas. I was very interested in biological engineering and genetic engineering. Much of my interest came from my AP biology class I took. To say I was interested is an understatement. Often, I would go home and read the textbook just for fun and come up with theoretical possibilities to my teacher where we would discuss the viability of the idea. I remember one time in particular. Our job was to design a genetically modified organism (GMO) and to then clone the organism. My teacher wanted a plausible and realistic plan with proper biological concepts and design. Everyone in the class groaned and griped at the assignment. I on the other hand was thrilled. My mind flooded with how I would accomplish the task. Which vector would I use? How many times would I have to put the extracted DNA through the PCR machine? Which restriction enzyme would be used? I loved this type of research. I would spend hours upon hours on this project getting every detail right.  I used textbooks, online science journals, blogs, and similar laboratory experiences to research. I can honestly say I know more about cloning a sheep than the average person (practical right?). Although this took on a formal research tone it did not feel like it to me. I loved doing the research necessary. This topic still holds interest to me as I progress through college, I am more and more excited about my major in Chemical Engineering and the ability to apply my degree to a job in the medical field or the possibility of attending medical school.

Blog 5

prior to this year, I found myself in August thinking why am I still playing football.

Camp was tough. Long weeks of early morning and late nights. it was so hard that I was thinking after practice that I didn't want to play football anymore. British time grew on me things got easier. I learned the plays, I got better as a football player. One thing that stood out to me this football season, is that a mint or opened my eyes to what the football player is to what an student here is at FSU. She told me that after regular students graduate from college they would have to pay loans. Football players who are lucky and blessed enough to make it to the NFL first $20,000 will not go to college loans. As soon as those words fell from her lips, I thought football was a must. Not only for that reason, but there are still days where I enjoy playing football. And after all playing football is one of the ways I'm going to make my parents proud.

Blog #5 Jan Stary

Prior to coming to the Florida State University, my curiosities laid in what I was going to do with my future. I knew I wanted to work with money, numbers, statistics; I wanted to be apart of the economy. This led me to venture into the world of the stock market. I bought my first book written about the stock market two years ago. I decided I would start with one of those “…for Dummies” books. In my spare time, I would read several pages at a time, sometimes getting sucked into reading more than just a several pages. Unfortunately I started getting involved with other activities in my spare time and took a brief hiatus in reading the book. I plan to return to reading this along with more books in the near future, as soon as I become acclimated to the college environment. Another thing I was curious about was alcohol. That sounds really bad; however, a year ago, I had a job as a server. After several months of employment, I was promoted to bar-back. A bar-back is essentially the bartender’s assistant. I had the almost the same responsibilities as the lead bartender along with the “bitch work”. I enjoyed working in this position. I began to learn a lot about the different types of alcohols, the different types of wines and what food combinations each one is generally paired with. I don’t know why, but it fascinated me. I enjoyed providing my services to my customers. This led me to further pursue my passion for mixing drinks and learning about tasty cocktails and search for a bar-back position here in Tallahassee.

Blog #5

One time in my life when I did the most researching was when I had to pick colleges to apply to. Being a senior, unaware of which major I wanted to pursue in the future, I really had no idea where I wanted to go to college. The doors were open to me. My parents did not limit me to an in state school so the world was mine for the taking. I had no idea where I would even fit in academically. I had to do so much research on so many schools. Originally from the north, I knew the snow and cold weather was not for me. I always wanted to go to a school that had warm weather. I also wanted a big football team. So, I guess that narrowed down some of the choices. I researched so many schools according to GPA, SAT scores, ACT scores, acceptance rates, graduation rates, ethnicity, night life, dorm life and so much more. Researching was probably the hardest part of my application process because I was so clueless. I visited every college's website at least 10 times just to figure out where I wanted to apply to. I visited many Facebook group pages to see how the people in the group were. I also visited many college acceptance websites. I went to many college meetings and read every single pamphlet that was handed to me. After reading about every single thing that was important to me in a college, I decided Florida State was my dream school. It matched everything I wanted in a school perfectly. I'm so happy I decided to do enough research on my own or I would not have found such a perfect match for a college. Now that I have decided on a college, I have no need to research this stuff again. I will, however, be more than happy to help my little sister who is 16 years old research a place that would be a great fit for her.

Blog #5 - Oliver Hamlin

     Prior to living in Vermont when I was sixteen, I was always surrounded by warm weather. When winter came around up north, I immediately became immersed in winter sport culture, the lifestyle adopted by the majority of teens in the Green Mountain State. A friend of mine invited me to come to the park area of a local ski resort, where skiers and snowboarders practice their tricks, and support him in a tournament he was competing in. Upon arriving, I sat impatiently waiting for the spectacular to begin. Once it started, I was in awe. Each contest flew through the air with grace, performing flips, twists, grabs, and grinds on the shiny rails and ramps. When I saw my friend go up and win the competition, I decided I had to look into snowboarding.

     Before jumping right in to buying a board and taking lessons, I had to do a little research to make sure snowboarding was something I definitely wanted to do. After all, equipment, lessons, and a ski resort membership would definitely take a toll on my wallet if I decided to make it a hobby. I started out informally by watching YouTube videos on the basics of how to ride a snowboard and googling where the best place to learn snowboarding was in my area. After speaking to a representative from a winter sports school and booking a beginner lesson, the next step was finding equipment. I visited a local ski shop and became educated on the different types of boards, bindings, boots, etc. and learned what equipment would be best suited for me. I also had the chance to read a map displayed in the store showing all the trails of Killington, the local ski resort, and seeing which 'green' (easy) level trails I would be able to ride on, hopefully, after my lesson. Following purchasing the bare essentials, I headed back to my home to watch The Art of Flight, a documentary covering the daredevil adventures of the Red Bull snowboarding team.

    Doing my research on snowboarding before setting foot onto a board definitely helped me make safer, more educated decisions while riding for the first time. I am always one to do research on a hobby before taking it up, because I tend to feel much more comfortable doing it in beginner stages than if I didn't conduct the research. After a year of practicing, I decided to work at Killington so I could be surrounded even more by winter sports culture and, of course, get to ride more often. To this day, snowboarding is one of my favorite sports and it is one of the many reasons I love the winter and snow.

Blog Post #5

Over the past year, my interest in politics has grown significantly. Now, politics is an extremely touchy subject due to the fact that news sources are all but extinct, as the majority of networks are simply opinion programs, and this is not a hidden fact. Without opinion segments, there would be no network, simply from the fact that reading the news is a twenty second ordeal, and they still have to fill fourteen minutes and forty seconds before the commercial break. My research is constant. I follow current events and watch news networks almost nightly. Research may end there, but that's where the most important elements of politics happen, analyzing the events for yourself, figuring out who has what to gain from transpired events. That is why politics is so much fun for me; it's a game, but the most important game to every day life possible. It's the best of both worlds for me, it is incredibly entertaining, yet still an extremely practical skill. Specifically, the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 is a real thinker. There are so many possible options, from simple mechanical errors, to even possible terrorism, that it is interesting to think of the possible outcomes for yourself, while still accounting for popular theories (much of which could be fear mongering.)

Blog #5 - Alexander Wohlert

Prior to this year, I was really interested in and curious about the business world. My interest began when I took an economics class in my senior year of high school. I've always had a fascination about money (maybe because I played Monopoly at a young age), but didn't know much about how it's used in the real world. Now I can learn about how it applies to everyday life and how our economy works. I asked about how businesses start, how do they grow, the most efficient ways of making money, how one becomes financially independent, and how to balance the way money is spent.

This curiosity led me to read books about investing, finance, and how money can be wisely spent in everyday situations. I also read the Money section of my local newspaper every week. I watched shows on CNBC such as Shark Tank and The Profit that focused on the realities of the business world. I did my own research outside of the economics classroom to further my knowledge and satisfy my curiosity. These subjects still hold my interest, which is why I've chosen Business to be my college major.

Blog #5

Prior to this year, I took a strong interest in health and fitness. Almost any chance that I had I would be on the internet searching “Healthy foods with coconut” or “How to strengthen your core” and so on. I even took interest in researching what running shoes were the best for my knees. By trial and error I tested out three brands of running shorts and came to the conclusion that Nike is the most comfortable and least likely to ride up. Anything that had to do with the gym or the kitchen was on my mind. My research style has always been very informal, most of it being done on Pinterest to find recipes or the Woman’s Health magazine to find effective exercises.

Another thing that truly interests me is traveling. Ever since I went out of the country for my first time when I was eight years old to Peru, I have had a love for experiencing other parts of the world outside of my home town Winter Haven, FL. I spent half of the previous summer with my face in an atlas of the United States. I went on a road trip through 21 states in 4 weeks. Every city that we drove through had a story of its own and I was egger to research all that I could and share what I learned with that woman who accompanied me. I’ve never seen myself as much of a “researcher”, but now that I have a different outlook on research I guess I’m unconsciously doing it everyday.

Blog #5- Justin Borrero

Prior to this year, my first year of college, I became a researcher of self-success. I wanted to leave college with no regrets and make my life a breeze from that point on.
The first place I had to start at was choosing my major. I had to find a subject that I was both good at and actually enjoyed. I narrowed myself down to either history or math. Now it was deciding which had more opportunities for me to make the most money. The obvious choice was math, so I began to narrow it down to majors that were primary math based. Then I had to decide of the many options which was not only the one that brought the most money, but also which was the safest career choice that I wouldn't have to worry if I will have a job further down the road. This lead me to Engineering, but research only became harder from that point on. With the many different options of engineering, choosing one was not easy. I asked many adults on there opinion about the topic. Some told me chase the money and go for Nuclear Engineering. Others told me to go with Civil Engineering because it was the safest option available. After doing some research on both engineering majors I decide neither were right for me. I wanted to make more money than Civil Engineering offered, on the other hand could I even survive college with a major like Nuclear Engineering?
I choose to start from scratch and think deeper on what I really like to do. A light bulb lite up in my head with the idea of cars. I have always loved working on cars with my dad and knew a good amount about them too. Being a mechanic would be great because I would be around cars all the time, but there really wasn't any money in that and could be a very unstable job. I researched car careers and after looking past all the NASCAR stuff that popped up, I finally found what major I wanted to take on and make a career out of. Automotive Engineering.

Blog #5

The last time I did research was my senior year of high school for my English class. We wrote a paper that took up half of the school year and counted for a majority of our grade. This paper was supposed to help us for college and get us used to the MLA format. There were strict guidelines about plagiarizing and you had to cite every quote, or just any time you used an article. We had to pick an author to write about and I chose William Golding. I'm not much of a reader so I just chose an author from one of the books we read in class that I enjoyed which was Lord Of The Flies. One of the questions that arose was why is man inherently evil? Golding always said men are naturally evil, this was a recurring theme in all of his novels and actually was interesting to learn why he thought this way. As my first research paper it was difficult to remember to quote and make sure to paraphrase correctly. It felt like a waste of time and became frustrating because it took so much longer to write what was already a long paper. As far as interest I liked this book because it wasn't overly descriptive in my opinion, and kept my attention the full way through. Also on previous assignments about this book I did very well so I figured Golding's other writings would be similar. I was wrong, sometimes just because someone writes one good book doesn't mean you will like his other novels. But since I wasn't much of a reader I didn't have many options. My ideal research would've been on comedy, music or sports. I watch a ton of sports and have always been interested in them, as far as music I watch interviews of my favorite artists on Youtube, and music is in my everyday life. When I watch Netflix, Tv or a movie I tend to look for something funny so that also is one of my interests, and something I find myself researching.

Blog #5

For some reason, my mind tends to explore the unknown. I always like to think in terms of what other people wouldn’t typically think about. I feel like the way my mind works impacts the way I research things, and the way I view the outside world.

For example, when I was young, every time I’d watch a cartoon or a TV show, I tend to lose my focus on the main plot and concentrate towards the specific details in the scene. I always ask myself things like “I wonder where that doorway in the background leads to.” My innate curiosity on viewing things has helped me learn how some things work as well. For example, when playing games, sometimes I would explore certain parts of a level that aren’t meant to be explored, or I would cause glitches in the game to help me understand how the game was built.

Because of the way I view things, I often think of every possible scenario when conducting research. I can relate this to programming, in a sense. As a programmer, you have to think of every possible scenario to make sure that your program works without error. Many times, you have to assume that the user of the program will try to break it at times (like I did as a kid) and you have to account for each and every single input that the user could possibly do.

I find myself searching into things to such a large extent that it often distracts me from the main focus of the research. Like I stated previously, I concentrated on the background details watching TV shows as a kid that I often missed the main plot, and the same happens to me when I research. I overanalyze and over-engineer, and even though in some cases it could be useful, the specifics often distract me from the main focus of said research. 

Blog #5 - William McKenna

Prior to this year whenever id have downtime at home after school and had nothing to do I'd usually find myself researching and looking into either topics about the world's oceans or topics about the universe and solar system. When I would do this it was just me skimming the internet looking for interesting articles when I was bored at home so it definitely was not very formal. Some questions I'd ask were, "How many species of fish have been discovered' & "How big is our universe" for example. As for books, I did not often read ones based on the ocean and universe for some reason. Instead, I mostly enjoyed reading mystery and action books.  When I had time to watch TV it was always something comedy related. If there was nothing funny on the TV I would just end up turning it off. The one question I would always find myself asking about the world is, "Why do awful things happen to good people". Many family members and friends of mine have passed away throughout my life and thinking about this question often upsets me because there's really no answer. When I think back to research I've done in my past I remember having to do one serious research paper in High School were I based it off whether or not college athletes should be paid.  That topic does not really interest me anymore though because as I've grown older my opinions have gone one sided on the issue.

Blog #5 Josh Warner

Prior to this year, I took a special interest in current events.  I took a class my senior year of high school called I.P.L.E.  This stood for the institution of political and legal education.  This class consisted strictly of current events that were going on in the world.  Why there was such a fancy title for a class with such a simple curriculum was beyond me.  Basically in this class the teacher would have a list of about 6-8 current events that were no more than a week old and we would have free discussions to talk about anything that had to do with these current events.  I didn't start watching the news until about my sophomore year of high school.  My dad is very worldly, and constantly knows what is going on in the world.  By me taking a special interest in current events, it allowed me to have educated conversations with my dad.  I would go to school, go to IPLE, and then come home and discuss with my dad what we talked about in class.  He would love when I came home from school and actually had something to tell him that I learned today.  I would watch the CNN news channel, and read articles on CNN.  CNN was a major source of my knowledge about current events.  My teacher also got a good amount of his video clips and articles off of CNN. I think the fact that my teacher was an awesome guy and made the class fun, as well as adding humor to it, really grew my interest in current events.  Today, I still try to keep up with the current events, but being in college with my workload and pledging a fraternity I rarely have time to watch any tv.

Blog #5

When I was younger, I always loved the idea of adventure. Now that I think about it I’m sure I got that love from the books I read. I remember being big into many different series of books. I loved the feeling of finishing a really good book and knowing there are so many more books continuing from the same idea. One of these series is the Magic Tree House series. These books were about two kids who (believe it or not) have a magic tree house. A sorceress sends them on missions through time in order to save her from a spell. The children also want to become master librarians. The children went on so many adventures and I absolutely loved reading about them. I think all of their adventures and traveling helped to develop the wanderlust I have today. 

Now that I think about it, the idea of adventure has always been attractive to me. In my favorite show, Supernatural, the main characters are always on some type of adventure. They travel across the country saving people (and the world) from supernatural beings. Whenever I watch the show, I get a thrill of the idea of the adventures in the show.

I have honestly never thought about researching as the way the author described it in the reading. I always thought about research as scrolling through “.edu or .org” websites (because “.com” are clearly evil when researching) trying to find some relevant information for a research paper that I typically do not care about. I now find it very interesting how some of the choices we make—as children or now, as college students—can shape us as unique individuals.

Blog #5

My senior year I wrote a paper on the processing of memory in the human brain. An incredible complex topic which required a lot more time and research than i had time do to for a high school course. However it was an interesting topic to me, i took the bulk of what i talked about from my psychology class. That class, was in fact the reason I chose the topic in the first place, Psychology was my favorite subject and I loved the class and loved learning about the different concepts so doing a research project on something I had already had some basic knowledge of seemed like a good idea. I utilized mostly internet sources- like i feel like most students do today. I used a few textbooks and psychology articles in my research as well. For the research I did there was a lot more information I could have gathered if i knew more so what i was looking for. As i researched I tried to stay away from things that just caught my interest and to go more for the basics of memory and its processing in the human brain instead of diving into too much detail. While that kept me on topic it also hindered the amount of information my paper actually contained. The length requirement also made it hard because with a  topic like the human brain there is so much to cover and i just could not address everything in the span of a 20 page paper

As someone who loves learning new information I constantly find myself looking up stuff online.when there's something highly publicized in the media and i have no idea what it is i normally take a minute to ask someone or to look it up from a few different sources and make my own opinions. It may be something simple and i may just get the basic idea versus an complete understanding from start to finish but regardless its research.

Blog #5

I am and have always been one to enjoy science.  The analytical, and logical way of thinking always was easiest for me.  I am interested in mostly things that have to do with science.  For example animal planet, the science channel, and other science sources with various amounts of facts and concepts offered to the public.  My friend is the same way but he happens to be religions.  There is nothing wrong with that i just have trouble finding a logical explanation for why he thinks god exists. There is no "scientific" way to prove it or disprove it.  We would often spend long hours debating about the various biblical texts constantly trying to convert each other to our own way of thinking.  We knew we never would because in the end to be religious in my opinion is to have faith.  There does not have to be any science involved, just the a belief that there is something more powerful looking over us.  It was fun for both of us.  It was an intellectual challenge to see whether or not one of us could stump each other on a particular topic.  After those long hours debating we came to the conclusion that I was not religious and he was.  Strangely enough we would always arrive at these debates when we talked knowing we would have the same result.  In a way that goes against all I said at the beginning about being logical.

Blog #5- Serena Cecere

Prior to this year, I'm not sure if I was really curious about anything.  I didn't watch the news, I never asked questions. Nothing really inspired me to wonder. That was until English my Senior Year of High School, I had the most amazing teacher: Mary Dakin. She taught us less about grammar and essay structure and more about life and society and the way its evolving. She taught us about freedom and creativity and why there's never a wrong answer.  She was a little woman from New York, probably the most intelligent, woman I've ever met; she had this range of extensive knowledge about every thing you could ever imagine, and she held a very loud opinion, in which she would use rhetorical questions and public embarrassment to encourage us to speak ours.  There was one speech that she gave in class I remember distinctively.  She gave us an assignment to look about the Drudge Report and highlight articles that we found interesting just by their titles. I had never once in my life, as sad as that is to say, looked at any sort of news prior to. From there she went on to speak about how there was this six year old boy, somewhere in Europe-I don't remember the exacts- that wanted a sex change. Six years old! And his parents literally let him change himself into a female! At the age of six, they let their kid, make a life changing decision, like he was knowledgeable enough to do so! She then went on to explain how there are people everywhere now in our society that are pushing for Co-ed bathrooms because single sexed bathrooms are "hurting the feelings" of the transgendered. I will never forget this day, because this is the first time I really questioned our society. I was in shock as to how that's even up for debate right now. Therefore ever since this class, I pay more attention to societal issues, I don't check up on Drudge Report--or even read the news everyday like I probably should, but these kinds of things evoke a sense of curiosity from me. It makes me ask around, do some informal research by talking to mostly my dad, about these things before moving on to go do some investigating research of my own.  

There are also shows like Criminal Minds and Scandal that will forever evoke curiosity in me. Make me question people. Make me scared to live on my own. Make me seriously question our government and the basis on which that's operated. But those things I never look into. Not because I'm not interested, but honestly, I think I'm too scared to know the truth. 

Blog #5 - Cory Gallarelli

The role of me as a researcher continues to expand. I’ve always had a natural inclination to research things of I don't understand. If a discussion I am not well versed in erupts I will casually pull out my phone and open a new tab in Safari dedicated to the topic. If it’s something extremely obvious that I should know about I will be very careful to make sure no one notices me googling. Later, when I am in a place I can devote my time to such things, I will pull out my phone and read up. I don’t set out to be a scholar on the topics, but I merely gain enough knowledge to be able to say I understand it. It’s very causal and simplistic. This has been a part of my daily routine since I’ve had a phone with decent internet connection. I can recall numerous incidents during school where I would be standing with my friends during a break in between classes, listening to the conversation in front of me unfold. As a word or idea would sprout up that I would not understand I would look it up. I did this for most of my senior year and learned a lot through it. Granted, I was learning abbot a flower one day and a football game the next, but these things built up. Through all of my research I was able to learn so much more than I ever could had I sat there in confusion. Until senior year my thoughts were in another realm, and I thought none of the same thoughts I do now. My interest have naturally changed and so have my research habits. I still engage in research on topics I don’t understand, but I also put a lot of effort into topics I’ve been meaning to research. If something is one my mind I will look it up and learn more about it. I blame this new surge of research on my desire to learn and know as much as I can. This desire fuels my curiosity and inquisition. My knowledge of the world use to be so limited compared to it’s current state. I am in a constant mode of inquiry, and I try to acquire and ascertain every iota of information available to me. I am thankful for this info bug that has bit me, and even more thankful for the internet; with which I can learn all things and find knowledge at the drop of a hat.

The only organizational point in my snapshots is who i am today. By meaning, every snap shot is a major point in my life that has significantly molded who i am now. which is where i found my motivation for each individual snapshot. So, obviously it is easy for me to write about these instances. They are good for this paper because they are indirectly the current snapshot of who i am (of that makes any sense). So far i have not held back anything from my snap shots my goal is to be genuine. Some of my paper is embarrassing to let others read but the only reason I am not worried about people reading it, is because I am focusing what i have become.

Blog Post #4- Ashley Shaw

My snapshots are all about loss. Whether it’s losing a loved one, or losing something I tried to gain, or even losing the trust I had in someone. It wasn’t really a hard topic to write about, I didn’t even know that’s what I was writing about until I read it over. I just sat down and started typing and whatever came out, came out. After writing for an hour, my first three were done and I realized that’s what it was about, everything I felt slipping away and everything or everyone I’ve ever lost. I figured that these experiences would be good for the paper because I think it tells a lot about who I am, what I’ve conquered and what still hurts. That’s what this paper was all about, giving someone a chunk of who you are. I think I managed to do that. There were some ideas that I had that I couldn’t really use, for instance I was going to write about losing my sister, not physically but emotionally, we were best friends and she knew more about me than anyone and when I told her some stuff that she didn’t know about me she judged me silently and she was mad at me and it hasn’t really felt the same since. I was going to write about it but I couldn’t really find the words to describe the moment that I lost her.

Figuring out what worked and what didn’t was the hard part. I had to have enough detail to make the person feel the pain of my losses as strongly as I did, but I didn’t want to go too far over the 500 word limit. I added and took away and changed sentences and formats so much my third draft and my first draft are practically two completely different essays. I also thought about the originality that my paper needed so I used the basic story format but I also used formats like letters and poems and just chunks of dialogue with no actions in it at all. In the end the paper’s one-hundred percent me.

Blog 4

To come up with my ideas for the snapshots, I tried to come up with an event that had happened in my life repeatedly but still each experience was different time after time. If that make any sense? So I decided to write about each time I went to a different school such as elementary, middle, high, and college. I knew these would be good topics because each time was so different. Luckily I could remember my first day at each of these levels in detail, so that is when I knew it would be a good idea to write about it. As people grow, they change, and so I decided to base my writing off of that theory. In my paper you can see how with each transition of school levels, my surroundings changed drastically. In elementary school, everyone is friends but by the time you get to high school, it is like a war zone.Before writing I planned out goals for the paper. I wanted to be sure that each snapshot had some type of relevance to the next without being a continuance of the precursor. Also I wanted to be able to show how my view of the world changed overtime, which is visible in my paper based off what I held to be important. I did think to write about random moment that i considered “The best moment of my life” but soon realized that it’s hard to elaborate on those moments. Most of there were in retrospect, not big deals at all. This being said, my choices practically narrowed themselves down.

Blog #4

Before I made a single stroke on the keyboard, I sat down and thought about the moments of my life that were really formative in my life, my attitude, my hobbies, my friends. My snapshots are oddly traceable to certain other events; it's not as though my life is blurbs of random events, but more of a narrative, describing how I am who I am. My goal is for someone to read my Snapshots and look for similar events in their life, to realize that a simple yes or no answer can radically and turbulently alter their path. I only selected the most important and impact full moments that came to mind, as to quiet the static of every day life. My life and this paper are a stem, everything comes from music, so music is a integral part of my paper. From music, my mental, social, and spiritual life formed. It shows the transformation of my life through music in different snapshots, exhibiting the effects a simple choice of to do or not and the colossal power it has over your life. 

Blog #4 - Koji Tilley

              Before I began to write, I thought of the values that define who I am, and why some of my memories that I had are more prominent than others. I than began to write about those memories in vivid detail, and I tried to replicate the mindset that I had in that point in time. That being said, some of my earlier snapshots are italicized because they highlight my thought process more than the scene itself. The italicized snapshots indicate my youth, and also indicate my discovery of the world around me.  I’ve arranged the snapshots chronologically, because I wanted to show my sense of character being built upon. These snapshots aren’t necessarily a description of what was around me in that place and time, but rather, it was a journey on how I became the person that I am today.

              Not all snapshots follow a definitive format, though. Some of them describe what I am thinking; others describe what I’m doing. For example, I had a really short and simple snapshot in the middle of the paper that I only added since it was a decision that changed the person that I am today. Most snapshots were a specific experience at a specific point in time, but the one snapshot that stands out to most readers and even to me is the snapshot where I talk about my confused state of mind. I added that to show the emotional conflict that I go through, and it seems out of place and confusing only because to me, it is out of place and confusing.

              The snapshots that I have scrapped are some of my cool experiences that didn’t really tell who I was. I had plenty of ideas to write from, but it was hard to find experiences that had significance. Even though snapshots such as the marching in the Tournament of Roses Parade and playing in Carnegie Hall didn’t show much meaning behind the person that I necessarily was, it was added in since those are memories that I’ll never forget. Therefore, they have a more personal significance to me. Even though I’ve been to many outstanding places in the world, many just weren’t included simply due to the fact that it’s not as memorable. Heck, even when writing this blog post, I thought of all the awesome places and why I didn’t write about them, but now I know why. Those places aren’t as significant. 

Blog #4- Justin Borrero

The first thing I thought about when I was going to begin writing for the snapshots was think broad. What has been in my life that is still in my life today. Besides family and friends the first thing to mind was football and music. I could write a lot more on football than music, so I started with that. I had to think of the first time I began playing football, but I honestly couldn't think of an exact time. I decided to write about the first time I played organized football instead, which was much easier to describe because I could almost remember that whole day. I didn't won't to write only about football, but it's such a big part in my life I had to at least mention another story. I went with something recent that was still pretty fresh in my mind which was my first game of my senior year in high school. For music, I stayed with something recent so I could get more details out of it. My other snapshots I thought of the good and bad times in my life. Which changed me and made me who I am today. The first thing I thought of was the best times I had with my grandmother and the worst. Then there are always those snapshots in life that I could write a short novel on, but would probably be to inappropriate for school. So I decided to leave those out and keep them to myself.