the little narrative that could...maybe

The Little Narrative That Could...Maybe

Setting: Literacy Narrative

Time: October through November of 2012

Character: Myself

Monologue

It began with a few simple ideas. I planned on writing my narrative like every teacher in high school expected us to write our essays. Very informative, simple, and boring. That’s not how I wanted to write it, but that’s how they asked us to, and it was easier than thinking of something big and creative. I was kind of taken aback by being asked to write outside my comfort zone. After writing the same way time after time, writing in a different style was, well lack of a better word, different. After I went through like 5 different topics, it was time for me to start writing. I decided for the first draft I would stay in my comfort zone just because coming up with a creative introduction was too frustrating. I was worried that I would sound stupid. I wanted to sound witty and unique but it was just not working. After another class, I read some examples of pieces that were written differently. I sat behind my laptop a few days later trying to write like those authors did and it really took a lot of work to get it to be alright.  I decided to turn it in as is and hope that it was creative and different. I still don’t know how I did but I certainly hope it was enough to be considered out of the box. My literacy narrative speaks from my feelings and genuine thoughts and I feel like that should be enough. But the fact that I don’t know if it was enough still makes me worry. Overall, this assigned had me puzzled. It made me question what I’ve been taught after all this time, and I’m still not sure what the right way to write is.

Scene.

Ethnography reflection!

My ethnography project was on Relationships and what some of the underlying issues hidden behind fairy tale relationships. In the beginning, I felt like I would easily be able to get this project done. So many people are in unique relationships in college, it’d be no problem. But it was actually very difficult. Not many people, especially girls want to be filmed so that a whole class can watch her speak. I mean, to be honest, I really wouldn’t want my face plastered on a screen talking about my relationship status. Who’s business is it anyway other than my own?

When we tried to think of an angle for our project, it really wasn’t too hard. I just thought about some of the things in my relationship that other people really don’t get to see – pet peeves, arguments, etc. Lacy mentioned to us about homosexual relationships but a lot of people in that community are afraid or uncomfortable talking about their sexuality. I personally did not want make this project controversial just because you never know how it could turn out. I wanted it to be casual.

Working together in a group went fairly well. The only hard part was like our schedules are all different so it’s difficult to plan get-togethers outside of class.

In high school I had a few opportunities to do different projects like videos and I’ve really enjoyed them. This on the otherhand was much harder just because I don’t know very many people like I did in high school. And I didn’t want to offend anyone with any crazy questions whereas in high school, I knew everyone better which made it easier to talk to other students.

Overall, the project gave me a broader perspective on relationships and how different and unique all of them are. It was kind of like a behind the scenes look on real relationships, and it made me think about underlife within my own long-term relationship with my boyfriend.

 

Literacy Narrative Blog Post

In the beginning of my literacy narrative process, my original idea was to write about how I am just like a pencil. Thankfully, my idea changed from that a lot. My first index card was a list of topics I could of used for my literacy narrative:

 

I was really set on the idea of writing about how I am my own source of expression, which I talked about in my second index card.

                          

In my third index card, I realized that I am less like a pencil and more like a pen because everything I say is permanent and I can’t take it back usually. I feel like this is when I began getting the idea for what my final topic ended up being.

 

 

In my index cards, I really didn’t talk about what my final literacy narrative idea would be. I guess I realized afterwards “I’m like a pen,” is a little bit cheesy. I decided I still like the concept of being my own source of expression. It started making me think about how in the past, the way of used this access to speech throughout my life. It made me think about my yearbook past and how I could basically say anything I wanted about students, faculty and other events that are in the yearbook. Along with this, I started to think about my sarcasm and how my freedom of speech isn’t always the best thing for me.

So for my first draft, I kind of just started writing. I didn’t really know what I wanted to say just yet so I decided I would just type. I did my introduction last, it just works out better when you don’t know what you want to say just yet. The idea of conversational writing was new to me so I wanted to stick to the basic style of writing for my first draft. I mean, it wasn’t exciting or anything interesting but it was just what I am used to doing from high school. That’s just how we were taught.

I really wanted to switch things up for my second draft. After reading Foucualt’s pencil and Jamaica Kindcaid’s girl, I was inspired. I wanted to try their writing style with my literacy narrative. So I started out my paper with that same type of writing.

“I sat behind the yearbook computer and tapped my finger repeatedly on the space bar. Now the screen is filled with a big blank white space. Am I suppose to say how I really feel about you? I don’t think my advisor wants me to lie...But what if I say too much? I can’t say too much but I have to say something. I’m sweating. The deadline is quickly heading my way. Forty-five minutes, forty-four minutes...tick tock. Okay I’m finished. This story is going to be awful. But at least it’s telling the truth...right?”

It was definitely different using this type of introduction. I felt like if it was any other teacher, they wouldn’t go for it. I also used this type of style later on in my paper when introducing my problem with sarcasm.

“Everyone’s laughing. But she isn’t....Why isn’t she laughing? That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever said. If you don’t understand it, then there’s something wrong here. You should get it by now. You still aren’t laughing. You look mad. It wasn’t supposed to be a serious joke. You aren’t supposed to frown when I say something funny? You should get it...We’ve been friends forever. I’ve always been like this. I’ve never been serious. You know that. Please laugh?”

I felt like this type of intro was more enticing and personable. It showed more of my emotions and how I see things in the moment rather than giving a boring opening. I made a few other minor changes in the second draft like a title change. I just wanted to try something new…

In my third draft I wanted to take some of Lacy’s advice and talk a little bit more about how the issues affected me. So I added a few sentences toward the end to talk about how I am with my sarcasm now and how I learn to be more aware of what I say and how I say it. I also changed the title again because I thought “Frank & Filterless” sounded cuter.

Now this paper wasn’t easy at all. I really had to step outside my comfort zone and try new things. There are still somethings I wish I could of written better. Maybe show a little more of my personality but overall, this literacy narrative was a challenge.

 

I Dream of...

I wake up and ask myself, “Was that a dream or did that really happen?” I dreamt someone broke into my dorm room and stole my money that was on my bookshelf. Luckily, my roommate told me it was definitely just a dream. Scary stuff.

Instead of reflecting on something specific from my daybook, I want to talk about how the underlife theme has started affecting my daily life. Underlife has made me start thinking about things a little differently. I’ve really started noticing how everyday activities carry underlife. Like eating, I don’t know if this can be considered underlife but just how everybody eats food differently. They think about it differently, and heck they probably think it tastes differently. And you don’t think about how someone might view eating as underlife. Eating seems to have various underlying meanings to everyone.

So that’s what I’ve been thinking about. I’ll probably be thinking about other things involving underlife and talk about the next one in another reflection. What kinds of everyday things do you consider to be underlife?

Remember me, remember me not

Country Vegetable Soup. Slice of bread. A Sprite. What a dinner. College meals are really getting to me...I don’t know how much more I can take it.  I am physically drained. The drive from home lasts forever. Now I wish I did my homework before I went home…

So in class, we were asked to list some memories after the WID for Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge. That guy has a pretty long name, I would not want to sign that on every receipt…Anyway there were a few questions listed to get are minds headed in the right direction:

• Something warm
• Something from long ago
• Something that makes you cry
• Something that makes you laugh
• Something as precious as gold

 

I liked this mostly because I got to think about some really good memories I had. This made me think about how everyone has different moments that their brains choose to remember, but what happens to the moments and events are brain chooses not to remember? It kind of bothers me because maybe those memories that are forgotten aren’t as important as the ones we remember but at the same time, I still wish I could remember them.

How exactly does our brain decide what is important to remember from what is unimportant?

Annotated Bib Mini Assignment

3 students at Moore and Sanford Hall Courtyard, Charlotte.  30 Oct 2012. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.

This picture may be useful for my group’s ethnography project because rather than just describing the groups and relationships between people, we can provide a visual of the relationship. Although, in this case, the three students in this picture aren’t really showing how they interact with one another on campus. I would probably go take a new picture to further explore and exemplify how students on campus interact with one another.

Notes before fieldwork, Charlotte. 30 Oct 2012. Personal photograph by author. JPEG file.

This image allows a reader or instructor to see some of the beginning ideas of my group’s ethnography project. I wrote about some of things I was looking for while looking for on and off campus relationships. This image also has some of my possible interview questions written down. Even though I haven’t conducted an interview yet, having this pre-fieldwork picture not only shows that I intend on doing an interview but also it shows what questions I might ask to students in various relationships and how they interact on and off campus.

Whitmire, Farrah. A couple interacting at University Walk. 30 Oct 2012. JPEG file.

This picture really shows a couple interacting off campus. It visualizes what a couple might look like while interacting off campus. By having this picture for our ethnography project, we can get a better look on how a boyfriend/girlfriend couple acts with one another socially away from the place they receive education. It seems couples act emotionally and physically closer with one another when they are away from, I guess you could call on campus the “work place,” rather than when they are on campus. This picture could help more in the future once we are able to compare and contrast on and off campus couples in more detail.

Ethnography Mapping

My group (Farrah, Stefani, and I) met at the Atkins Library to start our ethnography project. We decided that we are doing our project on relationships: boyfriend and girlfriends and friendships. We started by talking about some things that we’d liked to focus on: the difference between relationships on and off campus. For our off campus location we chose the U Walk apartments, and for our on campus location we chose the courtyard between Sanford and Moore Hall. We also wrote down a couple of interview questions we might ask at a different time. They’re on my daybook picture.

<------my daybooking beforehand<----my map of the courtyard

 

After leaving the library, we went to the courtyard to observe some relationships. We didn’t have too much luck because it kind of was an awkward time, 10 am. But we noticed a couple holding hands, and some groups of friends walking together.

Next time we will have to go at a better hour because they're really wasn't anyone around.

Then we went over to U Walk and we watched some friends hang out, a couple outside holding hands, some people were playing volleyball, and one guy was on his porch listening to music.

                                               We were able to watch a couple talk.

 

So that sums it up, next time in the courtyard we will have to go at a better time.