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.