Blog Post #7

Prompt: Why do you want to go to Fort Lewis?

I see a trail that’s looping around the whole school. ¨Stop Dad! Stop!¨  I get out of the car to feel the cold air coming off the mountains and I was freezing but I didn’t even care because all I could think about was the view around me. I was surrounded by the snowiest mountains and beautiful green trees with lite snow cover on them; I looked over the edge of the trail to see the town covered in white dust. I walked around the trail with a clear picture of what my future will be.

I want to go to Fort Lewis for the beautiful campus.

I hope to meet some great new people while i'm there.

I know I can make an impact on the Softball program.

I know that if I go there I will learn from the best of the best teachers.

I believe this is the best school to go to for my degree.

When exploring my college options I knew I had a lot of decisions to make, so I was nervous whether or not this was the place for me. When I stepped out on that trail, I knew. Just like when I was I was six years old playing my first game of softball, I knew that I loved the game. When I felt the cold mountain air I knew I couldn’t not be somewhere with mountains. When I look down onto the town of Durango I see myself walking down the streets hanging out with friends and having a great time. I felt it in my heart that Fort Lewis College was the place I wanted and needed to go.

Blog Post #3

            Today in the great room of Mr.Allen we talked about Eveline. We talked about how she uses passive terms like, " Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne."
             We also talked about how in the 5th paragraph she was describing her and Franks relationship. We discovered using the knowledge we learned in math class how many female oriented and male oriented pronouns there were. And there are a lot more male pronouns then females. We kept trying to guess about why this could be and we came to the conclusion that Eveline hadn't gone on very many dates back in the day. The next thing Mr. Allen asked was, "Is Eveline pretty?" Two seconds later Chris shouts out, "NO!" Mr. Allen was shocked to see how fast we all blurted out no! My logic is that she is pretty just not confident in herself. She is very extravagant at first in her relationship but it dies down after awhile; I think she like the feeling of having Frank around to make herself feel confident but she doesn't seem to put a lot of effort into her relationship with him.
            Overall in the end, I think Eveline can never go back to feeling confident thats why it goes back to passive forms of words and phrases.

Blog Post #4

In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver

When I first started reading this poem, I assumed it was going to be about nature and that kind of stuff. The first time I read it through, I really didn't understand; so I read it through again. After reading it a second time I realized that this whole poem is a metaphor.

At first it talked about trees becoming their own pillars, then follows up with with it talking about a fragrance being a fulfillment, then goes on to talk about cattails floating away. I imagine this poem being about how in life we grow up, have accomplishes that shape who we are; we have our ups and we have our downs but in the end the only things we need to know is love, protect and when the time comes to let what you love go, let it go. I don’t believe that this  poem has to represent a relationship necessarily but it can represent anything you love in life such as: a sport, a family member, a pet or even a object.  One part of the poem really stuck out to me and that was, ¨To live in this world you must be able to do three things; to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.¨ I believe that these things are necessary to enjoy life; to find what you truly love you let it go, stop doing that thing for awhile and you will come to the realization that you miss that person, activity or thing so much that your life depends on it. I also love how Mary Oliver constructed this poem; the way that the stanzas are perfectly placed so that in each one it's almost a pause in your life. I definitely think she did this on purpose so that the construction of it made you realize what it was truly about if you didn’t get it from the words. I feel like we can all relate to this poem in one way or another. We all have challenges in life that shape us to make certain choices and decide who we are, but that is a scary thing to think about, that's why she made this poem a metaphor so you can overcome that fear of what is to come in the future.

Blog Post #2

In A Rose For Emily there was many examples of such beautiful imagery and description that I felt as if I was apart of the town. That is why I think Mr. Allen told us to highlight that stuff. I also believe that he had us read this because it got all of us thinking. In A Rose For Emily a few lines really stuck out to me, " Among them lay a collar and tie, as if they had just been removed, which, lifted, left upon the surface a pale crescent in the dust. Upon a chair hung the suit, carefully folded; beneath it the two mute shoes and the discarded socks. The man himself lay in the bed." When I read this section I got the goosebumps! It seriously blew my mind! After I finished reading all I could think was, "Wow. She was one messed up lady!".

Blog Post #1

In Achebe's interview he strongly talks about, "The story of Okonkwo is in a way the story of our culture; he pays the ultimate price because he places too much emphasis on strength and manliness". To me, this completely summarizes the mordern american culture. We are so focused on who plays the manly sport or who is the strongest when in fact somehow we all pay the ultimate price. In Things Fall Apart, I don't believe that the suicide of Okonkwo was the ultimate price but the fact that after he killed the messenger he felt in his heart that, that was the manly thing to do but in reality to one followed him and he ended sinning to his god, which is why I belive he killed himself.