My amazingly late (and awesome) final blog post.

Writing has always been my forte. I'm not entirely sure what process, if any, there really is to any of it though. I suppose I'm one of those creative types that requires inspiration. Even sick and disturbing inspiration (more motivation?), such as the massacre at The Dark Knight Rises. I have a lot of opinions on multiple topics, and I'm sure I could have mustered up various masterpieces to fulfill the assignment. But of course, at midnight on the day our opinion piece was due, psychopath James Holmes decided to brutally murder twelve people and shoot fifty-eight others...less than twenty miles from the place I was born and raised. Maybe that's the type of inspiration I'm talking about. I don't know.

I placed the articles I wrote in chronological order, with the opinion piece at the front of my portfolio. I felt it was my strongest piece of writing throughout the course, and I definitely had a personal connection to it as well. Aside from that, I felt that I became more comfortable with each writing assignment. I have been out of school for the past four years, and although I won't argue that a lot of this comes easy to me, it was extremely difficult trying to balance two six-week courses, two jobs, and a Pilates instructor training program. In the end, I learned to sacrifice time from my less urgent responsibilities, and made sure to find time to "chillax". No, I don't mean relax. If you haven't tried to "chillax" before, you really better get on that.

In terms of brainstorming, I don't find it necessary because my brain is always storming with genius ideas. Ha. In all seriousness though, I find myself to be one of those people who will literally sit staring at a damn blank screen for hours and then suddenly bust out 2 pages in less than 20 minutes. It's a little bit of insanity mixed with a sprinkle of genius. I definitely do try to structure my writing around a main point (essentially a thesis); even if it is not blatantly defined, I maintain that focused idea in my head throughout the writing process.

Speaking of the writing process, I am a firm believer that it is in fact a "continuing, progressive act", due simply to the fact that many of us write the same way we speak. We all know that in various conversations (particularly those of major significance) we always go back and try to think of how and why we could phrase certain aspects differently in order to best make our point. Writing is no different; to assume that it is would truly be taking away the potential your writing has to be excellent. Therefore, continuing to revise a work before turning it in is essential to developing the ability to best phrase certain ideas, and of course the most effective way of that phrasing tying in to support the main point of the writing piece, no matter what the genre. The process of going through the first two papers, and especially with workshopping my rhetorical analysis, definitely allowed me to master my writing abilities once again. The majority of comments I received during the workshop on my paper were immensely helpful. (A special thanks to Will for the red pen loveliness and B+ grade. But Daniel's "Lightsaber of Approval" was so much better. And of course, our wonderful professor's careful critique of my writing; in terms of clarity, passive voice, and verb choices, I feel more prepared than ever before to continue on into the magical world of MiraCosta College.) Not to imply I'm anywhere close to mastery, perhaps that's the wrong word. Maybe awesomeness? Sheer epic? Anyways.

I'm truly afraid to go here. But I'm going there.

Where's here? (there?)

EVERYWHERE?

My favorite class moments...

*Me bringing cookies. Those things were damn delicious.

*Almost every day. I very rarely have said this about a class, but it really became one of my favorite places to be this summer. Which I suppose is a very good thing, because being somewhere four days a week for six weeks would be damn awful if you couldn't stand it.

To the trained eye, you will notice I've gone on a bit of a tangent. Perhaps (whether intentional or not) this is an allusion to the progression of our beloved English 100 course. HOWEVER, I have assuredly made my points. You have all learned something. You have all had a few laughs. Your quality of life has improved. You look better naked...well...maybe not that far of a stretch. Class is over, right? So technically this can be more inappropriate...? Because class discussions never...ever...included anything remotely inappropriate.

;)

^ The entire point of that pretty pink paragraph was to inform all of you how fucking lucky you all are. (OH NO. Profanity.) What other college level course could you take in which you hone writing (and reading, if you were doing what you were supposed to...) skills, but immensely enjoy doing so? It's the best $200 I ever spent; the fact that it will help me get into UCLA doesn't hurt either. I will genuinely miss this class. Have an incredible summer everyone. And remember...

BE AWESOME.

Oh...and I suppose you can add me on Facebook if your heart so desires. Except for Will. Because of that damn red pen. MORE AWESOMENESS.