A Bittersweet Ending

Freshman year, I cannot believe we are coming to a close. It seems like it was yesterday that I was just getting ready to come to Cedar Crest. However, I never expected to take some much out of my first college writing class. 

Before my college writing class, I had FYS, First Year Seminar, which helped lead into the writing course for the spring semester. I got As on all my papers and my professor told me that I should continue writing. I like writing, especially on certain topics that grad my attention. Then I came to my first writing class and I really underestimated the course. College writing is extremely different from high school writing classes. I learned that writing takes time and a lot of peer editing. Time management is a very important concept to have when taking a writing course; time to write and time to read. The book we read, The Glass Castle, was one of my favorite topics during the course. My other favorite was watching the documentary, The Queen of Versailles. I enjoyed these two pieces during the course because it was easier for me to relate to real-life situations. For the beginning, they grabbed my attention and I liked writing about each piece. However, I wish I worked on my papers more to improve my writing overall. The one thing learned about myself is that I will never give up writing. Being a nursing major, I still have a lot more papers to write. I think it is important to understand what you do well with writing and what you need to improve on. 

A suggestion to the course would be to allow more time for the memoir to be read. Sometimes it was hard to read such a large section, especially with other homework and assignments due for other classes.   

College writing is not easy. I am going to continuing writing and not get down on myself for receiving a bad grade. This is fuel to keep me moving and focus on what I need to improve. I hope for the future that I will be able to look back and thank my first college writing class and professor for making me a better writing each year. College writing is an experience I will not forget, thank you freshman year for preparing me for the rest of my college career.     

Research 101

I think conducting research papers is an important concept because we need to know how to acquire information and develop it into a paper to help support an argument. I remember writing research papers before, but never thought about how beneficial there were for my future. When we don't know something about a topic or have a question nobody can answer, we 'google' it. Google is a main source for research. However, I never used scholarly peer-reviewed articles as my research information. The biggest challenge with scholarly sources is finding a book or article pertaining to your specific topic. I am changing my thesis and now I might need to find another source, which is the most difficult part of the research paper. Relating to the annotated bibliography, I had to do that before in high school and I like it. I think it helps a lot with understanding your source and what the source is going to provide for your paper.

The most important concept I can take away from writing a research paper is understanding what you're researching and what the argument of the scholarly source you use is expressing. Also understanding the information given to you from each scholarly article or book. Using part of a book as one of my sources, I do not have time to read the whole book. Instead I am using only a chapter of the book to help support my argument because I want to use this source. It as information that would be essential to my research paper. I like writing research papers because I think it helps a lot to have evidence from others sources to help support your argument or topic. It is a difficult task to be able to write a research paper correctly and have the right information, but it will help for the future; especially when having to write nursing papers.

The Queen of the Family

The Siegel family is somewhat complicated. Jackie Siegel, the mother, and David Siegel, the father, have a 30 year age difference. They have eight children and live in a mansion in Florida. They were building the biggest house in America...on accident. Throughout the documentary, they interview Jackie, David, the children, Richard Siegel, the nannies/maids, and other people. However, I mainly focused on Jackie because even though she isn't portrayed as intelligent, I think she is the most realistic one during their financial crisis.

If the film was different, of course everyone would act different. Jackie wouldn't have acted the way she did if the housing market crash did not occur in 2008. If this crisis did not occur the film would be different. The family wouldn't have acted the way they did, and people wouldn't have talked about the issues and problems that were being dealt with throughout the documentary. David wouldn't have had to lay people off and he wouldn't be as stressed as he was in the interviewing. Towards the end of the film, David was getting on my nerve; being disrespectful and rude to his family. He didn't tell Jackie about the finances when going through the crisis and he never mentioned anything about the Versailles mansion. Specifically in the film, there is a scene where David states he is a "victim of [his] own success or failures." Basically, David works for a living and he can't separate his business life from his personal life. To me, this scene is very upsetting and it shows because he is never involved in the family during this time period. He is always in his study and during one scene, didn't say "I love you" to his one son. He was being, I think, very disrespectful to Jackie and his selfishness of the company showed. He was hard-headed about his resort companies and kept his family in a financial situation. At one point towards the end Jackie states, "I'm not a stupid person, but when I don't have the information, I look like a stupid person." I love that she said this because it comes to show you how isolated her husband was when dealing with the housing market crash and not allowing any outside opinions to contribute to solving the crisis.      

The Second Time Around

After writing my second college paper, I feel as if I improved to a degree. I went to the writing center which helped me a lot with the flow of my paper and what I should add in to complete my paper.

I enjoyed writing my second paper more than the first paper, because of the feedback I got back from my professor. For my first paper I did not have an appointment with her to talk about my paper. The feedback from two different sources helped me and I felt more confident writing my second paper. I knew exactly what I had to add into my paper and what I was writing about; providing flow with my topic/thesis. Another aspect was that I enjoyed the book. I grabbed my attention and writing about it was somewhat easier. I can't relate to the narrator of the memoir, but I can relate to having a family and the experiences of growing up. I liked writing about the book because it is realistic and it is easier for me to write about topics that are part of people's lives. I focused on family and love in my paper, which is something I can relate to and talk about. The first paper was about education and class, but there was not a back story like The Glass Castle. Even though I can relate to education and class as well, I was more interested in writing about the Walls family and their experiences.

My approach to this paper was similar to my first paper, except that I did not include so much of my opinion. We also had to add in some additional research, which brings in outside source into my paper. I feel as though this was important to get my point across to the reader. I thought more about my opinions in a way that was not portrayed in a first person format. Overall, I enjoyed the memoir and writing about the Walls family and their journey through life.

Life is Fragile

What is the parenting? What's the difference between right or wrong? Everyone has different morals, so there isn't a definite difference between right or wrong. It can only be based off of someone's morals or values. Parenting is based off of those morals. Don't eat that, don't do that, don't touch this, pay attention, don't draw on the walls! What's right and what's wrong?

When I think of the typical American family, I think about Full House and Boy Meets World. These are two of my favorite older TV shows. I would compare parenting to these two shows because I believe the parenting is portrayed in a manner that is approved by America families. Children learn from their mistakes and teach not only themselves, but their parents as well. The parental figures in these two shows are relatable and accepted by society. In relation to my family, I couldn't have asked for better parents. My parents taught me to be responsible and respectful. If I made a mistake, I took responsibility and learned from the situation. I don't think of myself as a rude individual; I like to be friends with anyone I meet. My morals are similar to my parents, but I have independent morals of my own. That's what makes me different from my friend or my sister or my mom. I wouldn't have wanted my parents to teach me about life in any other way. The words are indescribable to how appreciative I am to have them as my parents.

The Walls family is nothing compared to my family. We never ran away from problems and my parents watched over me. Jeanette's parents care so dearly for their family and love all their children. Love is what every child wants. The problem with her parents are that they don't watch over the children. They are running for who-knows-what and tell their children things that should never be said to a child. For example, Jeanette's mom told her she was a replacement child for her sister that passed away. What? I would never say anything like this is my child and no parent ever should. Her parents are responsible in the sense of teaching them and helping them, but irresponsible in what they teach their children. Kids copy every single thing. 

Writing About Writing

When I am assigned a four page paper for my first writing assignment in my first college writing class, I thrive to do well. I don't remember having to write a four page paper without an outline for what each paragraph requires. It was difficult to not be repetitive, but I think I accomplished the goal of my first college writing paper.

Before writing, I went over each topic I wanted to cover for the paper. I spilt up different thoughts for each paragraph and then elaborated with  more detail and evidence when I was actually writing the paper. I read over my page a lot for grammatical errors and incomplete thoughts. I don't think writing is my strongest point, but I have been told that I am a good writer. This was very shocking to me because I would never consider myself a very good writer; decent maybe. What I usually think about when I'm writing, as I can say fro most people, is if it grabs my reader's attention and flows throughout the paper. I want people to enjoy my writing and not think it is dull. I think the most important aspect of a paper is the author's opinion. I believe that it gives the paper more character with the author's input on a certain subject. Personally, writing my opinion is the easiest part of any paper and I like being able to provide my own point on a certain topic. My motivation for writing a paper are my feelings along the way. I think that going outside your comfort zone and adding in some personal feelings help get across your point to the reader. My feelings are my inner strength. I like to be able to include my thoughts and feelings; that is my strongest point when writing.

Even though writing is not the most exciting thing to me, I do enjoy writing when given an assignment. I think it is important to know how to write, but everyone has their own way of writing. That's what makes writing so unique.           

East, South, West...Where's North?

From preschool to senior year, I have had the most amazing experience in and out of school. But to get to graduation and regret not sleeping during nap time, we must start out small.

I grew up in the Central Bucks distract my entire life. I never moved out of the district and I am so appreciative now that I never did. My first school was Simon Butler Elementary school. I was there from half-day preschool until sixth grade with the typical ups and downs of growing up. Elementary school did not contribute to my career decision, but I had one of the best teachers there who I still keep in contact with. My sixth grade teacher, Ms. Henry, but now Mrs. Hawk, was my favorite teacher at Butler. She was an inspiration to not only me, but the class. With her I wasn't afraid of what was to come in middle school; she prepared me. The relationship the class had with her was incredible. Only after teaching for her second year at Butler, we were her favorite class. I am so thankful I got to spend my last year at Butler with her.

On to Unami Middle School, where I played soccer and made the decision that would change my life forever. In seventh grade, we had to do a career project on what we wanted to be when we grew up. I had no idea what I wanted to do; I was only thirteen. I didn't even know what I was having for dinner or wearing the next day. Nobody had prepared me for this decision. I thought about it for awhile and then something hit be like a to of bricks. My mom's best friend, I call her my aunt because we are so close, Aunt Diana was the answer. I knew that I always wanted to help people and work with others. She is a Nurse Anesthetist and I decided to do some research on the performance of a Nurse Anesthetist. It clicked; I knew this was what I wanted to do when I grew up. At Unami, there were the cliques. There were nerds, jocks, populars, and then there was me. I liked to mingle and be friendly with everyone. I hated cliques, but that was how it was then. To me, loving my friends and expanding my education were the two most important aspects of growing up.

 

Finally, Central Bucks South High school, were I found the love of my life and made the decision to enroll at Cedar Crest College. CB South has two sister schools, CB East and CB West. However, no CB North! My high school education I think was the most important because it challenged me to preform better and prepare me for college. We had block scheduling so I had four classes each day that were an hour and a half long. I liked bock scheduling because I only had to focus on so much and some of my classes now are that long. I have been with some of the same people since pre-school and the feeling of graduating with them was speechless. High school wasn't just about the education; it was about the experience. If I could go back and change my experience I wouldn't. I loved my high school years; I met incredible people that I will never forget. I played soccer for one year and ran track for two years. Being involved was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It is important to not only focus on your education, but to get involved and meet new people and have a good time. My school was diverse and there were lots of different talents. CB South is known for everything; sports, education, music, arts, you name it. I believe I was given the best education in the Central Bucks school district. I wasn't learning just to learn; it was more than that.

 

The relationships created in high school go beyond the walls. I stay in contract with multiple of my favorite teachers. The teachers know high school is more than just education; its the friendships built there and the time spent there. My guidance counselor and my teachers made it easy for me to apply to Cedar Crest and potentially be accepted. If it wasn't for them and their assistance, it wouldn't have been possible. They helped shape who I am today. CB South came together as a family; if someone was upset, we were there to comfort them, if someone was happy, we all celebrated. CB South Titans always came together.

"Once a Titan, always a Titan."  

 

 

Interview

For our next assignment, we were asked to interview a classmate and I interviewed my friend Tori Hovan. Tori and I met at orientation and have become close friends getting to know each other.

 I tried to create questions that I have never asked her before. My first question was how would she describe herself? She answered with that she is silently awkward at first until she gets to know someone more. After knowing them for a little she starts to open up more. Tori doesn't have to try, she makes everyone laugh; she just makes my day better.

My next question was what made her decide to go to Cedar Crest? Tori said because it is close to home and seeing her family is important to her. She also said she was able to save money by commuting from home. Next, I asked her why she decided to pursue in nursing? Not really having a specific response to this question, Tori said she wasn't sure. She claimed that one day she thought about nursing and it stuck in her head. Next, I asked Tori what she would want to pursue in if she wasn't studying nursing? From knowing Tori, she loves make-up, so her response to this question was she would start her own make-up company.

Personally, I had a dream school before Cedar Crest; John Hopkins University. I decided to ask Tori what her dream school was and she replied with Widener University and West Chester University as well. My next question was if Tori had any secret talents and she responded that she doesn't really have any except her left thumb is double jointed...haha!

 I know I have a bucket-list and I was interested if Tori did as well. I asked her if she could pick one thing from her bucket-list, what would it be? She replied with starting her own make-up tutorial on YouTube. Almost finished with the interview, I asked her what her biggest fear is? Tori stated that in a jokingly way birds bother her, but on a serious note, failing and disappointing her family and herself is what she fears most. For my last question I asked her if she could go back in time, is there anything she would do or change? Tori replied with teaching herself self-motivation and with being more outgoing; the best advice is to BE YOURSELF!

Welcome to My Blog!

Hi, my name is Tara Irvin and I am a nursing major. I am a freshman living on campus in Steinbright. I love hanging out with my friends and eating food. I love Cedar Crest and I can't wait to see what writing class has in store for this semester!