The Tourism Addiction

Author's Note: In my writing class this summer, we have been using writing circles to choose topics and share our writing.  One of our topics we chose last week was "traveling."  The poem I wrote was an attempt to practice using parallel structures in creative writing.  I hope it enhanced the overall imagery and emotions in the poem--enjoy!

I soak up the colorful, bustling streets
     or calm canals
     or lively festivals
My feet leading me to old friends
or new ones met along the way

I smell the sweet aromas of the salty ocean
     or steaming food vendors
     or crackling campfires
My mind and soul uplifted
by each new sensory experience

I taste the foreign flavors of soft, savory dim sum
     or spicy crawfish
     or fragrant couscous
My taste buds craving
the next tantalizing bite

I board the plane dreaming of my next trip there
     or stories to tell back home
     or memories of new friends made
My thoughts meandering toward plans
for my next big adventure

Survival of the Fittest

Author’s Note: My professor asked our class to write a brief analysis, and I thought it was a great example of how two seemingly different topics can be compared. The interesting part was that each student in my class had very different answers, which really shows how the point of view and background of the reader can lead to a variety of interpretations!

Background of assignment:

My professor asked our class this week to view this short (funny) clip of a gazelle running into a tree in front of two lions: http://youtu.be/n7VtyfQywXY ( note, if you can't link to this, search for "gazelle and lions" on youtube)

She then asked us to compare this to the following African saying, using the mind of a researcher:

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing it must run faster or be killed.  Every morning, a lion wakes up knowing it must outrun the slowest gazelle or starve to death.  It doesn’t matter whether you are a gazelle or a lion; when the sun comes up, you had better be running.”

My Response:

In any profession, you must constantly be looking for the most effective and efficient methods in order to stay ahead of the game and keep up with the times.  This is similar to the gazelle and the lion, who must always strive to be ahead of their competitor (predator or prey, respectively) in order to survive. 

However, as with the misguided gazelle (who, one can infer, will unfortunately become a snack for the lions), a skilled professional must always make sure to choose the specific direction of their research carefully.  Otherwise, their efforts may end up being useless or illogical—and no one wants to spend so much effort on something that isn’t worth it in the end.

Critical Analysis of Author's Point of View

A Naïve Boy’s View of the Holocaust

Author’s Note: This writing piece is about the novel Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli.  The purpose is to show how the point of view of the novel influences the reader to feel angry about the way many people were treated in Warsaw, Poland during WWII.

In Milkweed, a young boy without an identity is struggling to survive in Nazi-dominated Poland during WWII.  The story is written in Misha, the young orphan's, point of view.  From this perspective, a lot of events and characters are described in a way that creates rage and disgust in the reader about Nazis, the ghettos in Poland during the war, and the way people were allowed to be treated in general back then.

One way that Misha's point of view influences the reader's interpretation is how this perspective describes/shows the citizens of Poland allowing, and accepting, certain types of inhumane treatment to go on in Warsaw toward the Jews and Gypsies. It was especially painful to see the way that the crowd let the governing police strip and beat a man for no reason. Another terrifying scene was when the young soldier "Jackboot" and his girlfriend were treating the orphan/homeless boys like they were circus animals. That part, seen from Misha's eyes, seemed confusing at first, but, once the reader caught on to what was really happening, it was really disheartening to think that people actually treated others like that simply because of their religion.

However, the reader would feel a lot differently about Milkweed if the novel was written in the point of view of one of the Jackboots.  For instance, the reader wouldn't have thought that it was wrong to be degrading the Jews and Gypsies of Warsaw, because they had been so brainwashed by the government and their friends/influences around them that these people were beneath them.  Even though this seems so unbelievably wrong to us, if the Jackboot told the story, they probably would have made it sound more sympathetic to the government; it may even have sounded convincing, as if the Jews and Gypsies in the story even deserved what they were getting!

As you can see, the point of view of a story forces the reader to see just one side of an event or topic. In Milkweed, the narrator's perspective makes the reader sympathize with the Jews and Gypsies, particularly the children who were helpless victims during WWII in Poland.  This novel is particularly powerful because it was written from a young boy who didn't even know if he was Jewish (abandoned at birth), so it really showed how unclear and wrong the reasons for the mistreatment of the Jewish and Gypsy people were.  I think that, if it was written in any other point of view, the reader wouldn't have gotten such a strong, emotional understanding of how the unfortunate were treated during WWII in Europe.

Disappointment in the Stands

Author’s Note: This is a letter to Casey, the main character in the narrative poem “Casey at the Bat,” by Earnest Thayer, from one of his fans.  The letter is written as a reaction to how he (and his inflamed ego) caused the team to lose the game, and it details the consequences that came from his actions during the game.

Hi Casey,

This is Jackie, one of your biggest fans—or, should I say, one of your ex-biggest fans! I was really upset last week at the big game and the way you didn’t even try to hit the first two balls.  I know you were just trying to show off, but it caused a lot of us to question how your ego effects the way you play.  More importantly, your actions led to our season ending way too soon.  I am writing this letter to help you understand how your attitude and actions at the game affected everyone in town so that you can come back next year with the “team player” attitude and better batting average that we all know you have.

First of all, you had two chances that you threw away because you were too busy trying to show off your supposed skills!  I mean, really Casey, none of us would have been less impressed if you had gotten a home run on the first ball! We know it was because of your ego and not the pitches, too, because you even acted like those first two balls weren’t “your style”—and they were clearly perfect chances for you to knock them out of the park!  We all know that you are a great batter, but there was no reason for you to show off and not even try at those first pitches.  Your attitude at the plate really made every one of your fans nervous, and, in the end, disappointed.

As it turned out, you shouldn’t have tried to impress anyone, because it ended up in disappointing all of your fans.  We were really close to winning the game, and, because you let the first two balls go, you only had one chance to hit it out of the park!  It is still hard for any of us to believe that you can go out there again as our last saving grace after you pulled a stunt like that.  If you had tried to hit the other balls, we wouldn’t be so disappointed, because at least we would know that you tried your best.

The biggest consequence of what you did (or didn’t do!) at the game was that, since we lost, we are now done for the season. Now what are the rest of your teammates going to do for the rest of the season?  I’m sure some of them might be happy because they have more time with families and doing commercials or other media gigs, but I bet some are really sad they can’t play any more games, let alone win the World Series! Also, did you think at all about what are we, your fans, going to do for the rest of baseball season? I mean, now all we have left in town to watch is our terrible college football team?!

In the end, I really hope you can see that it’s always best to try with everything you’ve got, and not worry so much about impressing us with doing something daring and risky.  I know you still have a lot of fans, and, as disappointed as I must sound, I also still believe in you.  We are all still looking forward to cheering for you and the team next season, as long as you try to learn from what happened last week.  Next time, though, can you please just swing at all of the good pitches that come your way?

Sincerely,

Jackie

A Quick View of Me...

I consider myself someone who greets life with open arms and always strives to learn more about people and cultures.

Though I was born in Oconomowoc, I have spent most of my adult life outside of Wisconsin.  After graduating from UW-Milwaukee with a BA in English Education, I spent the next 6 months in England working in various schools as an aide and substitute teacher. 

After this eye-opening experience, I knew that I needed to see more.  So, on a whim (and a shoestring budget), I moved with one of my best friends to the panhandle of Florida, where I spent the last 6 years teaching Reading and Language Arts and growing as an educator, traveler, and overall person.  Every free moment I had was spent either backpacking, visiting friends all over the states, or working on growing better at my other love--cooking.

Finally, though, I knew I had to come back home.  So, in September of 2010, I returned to my roots in Wisconsin to be closer to my family, as well as to live back in this beautiful lake country area that I know and love.  I'm excited to be teaching back here, and I can't wait to see what each new day brings.