The End.

People heal in many ways. Some exercise. Some break things. I write. I write every emotion that is going on in my mind to get it out of my head. Whether it be good or bad. I want it out. This way, I can go back and reflect on it. Reflect on the good. Reflect on the bad.
Prior to starting this class, a major turning point in my life occurred on December 31, 2009. I had just broken up with my abusive boyfriend, and was learning how to deal. How to deal with being single after a 4 year rollercoaster of emotions. How to deal with the emotions that he left behind like dust in the rearview mirror. How to deal with finding myself again, and thats what this class has done. Creative writing has made me realize who I am again after losing who I was. It brought me back to reality. Back to what was real. Back to what really mattered, and that was focusing on myself and my goals and my happiness. No one else's. It is hard to say goodbye because I have gotten attached to this class and many of the people in it. But, I know that it is the beginning of a new chapter for me.
My biggest challenge will be to continue to write when I dont have to anymore. To continue to write down every thought and continue healing when it is not assigned.
Thank you Potvin, for your class has helped me find myself.

My nemesis.

My nemesis is my anxiety. Ira Glass talked about deadlines, and to get through slumps, you have to continue writing in order to get through that slump. Procrastination fuels my anxiety. I put things off until the last minute. If I have something due in class on Monday, I'll do it Sunday night. I feel as if I work better under pressure. For me it works, but it is not for everybody. If I had to give a visual to my nemesis, it would be a little, sweaty creature because anxiety makes you anxious. Part of anxiety is nervousness. Being nervous makes you sweat. This creature is little because he is part of me everyday, but likes to come out at the most inconvenient times. Therefore, I know when he is there. He make his presence known. Ira Glass talked about growing as a writer, and reflecting on past pieces. At some point in my life, I would like to "outgrow" my anxiety- get it under better control.
I liked how Ira talked about how you have to deal with the crap in life to realize when you have something special. This really stuck with me and is very true in my life. In order to appreciate things, you have to go through the crappy parts. If there were no crappy parts, as humans, we would be numb. We wouldn't appreciate the special parts to its fullest. With this being said, if I didn't have my anxiety, I wouldnt be able to appreciate my life when my anxiety is on a lower level than usual.

Ira Glass

I like how he said that failure is part of becoming successful because when a lot of people fail, they get down on themselves. But, failure is really just a part of life. It's what you DO with that failure that matters. You either do it right the next time and learn from it, or you fail again. Also when he said that if you get in a slump, it's okay, but to push yourself to keep writing because the only way that you can get out of the slump is to continue writing. Sometimes, I get writer's block, or I'll have something due and I really can't focus on it until the night before it is due. Procrastination and myself are best friends. I work better under pressure, and Ira said to give yourself deadlines. Once a week or month, have something due and make it your priority to get it done, regardless if it's right away or at the last minute, the important thing is that you accomplished it and are then one step closer to success.
People do grow as writers and it is fun to look back at articles or stories you wrote, and think "Man, what was I thinking?" as Ira did on his article from 8 years ago. People grow not only in life, but in their writing abilities.

Open Mic Night

I liked the open mic night a lot more than I thought I would. I was not as nervous as I thought I would be either because I felt much support from the group and that we were all in it together. I would not recommend having it at the UC again because some kids were very distracting and rude. I dont think we should set a time limit next year either, instead say something like "reasonable" and not necessarily 3 minutes. Also, we should try and get other english classes involved next year as well. Maybe talk to their professors and give them extra credit if they attend. Everybody loves extra credit :)

Killing Yourself To Live- Final impression

Well, I like the title, I think it suits the book as far as what his "job" is in the book, however I did feel like the book was more about him and his life than necessarily about rock stars and theirs. Yes, he did talk about the rock stars and how they died and about going to their "death spots" but I felt as if he talked more about his life along the way than any of the rockstars. Compared to other texts I have had to read for other classes, I liked it. I would recommend this book because it is a fast, easy read, and let's all be honest that's what every college student wants in a writing class.
As for Chuck's improvement, I would include more about the rock star's lives and not necessarily his love triangles, or quadruplets.
There should, however, be a disclaimer on the first page that Chuck is very into himself.
I could see this book being used in a history of rock and roll class and maybe not a creative writing class.
I did like his stream of consciousness and how all of our thoughts seem to blend into another and they are all somewhat interrelated.
The last part did make me smile though because Lucy didnt think that he should even attempt to write this book and there I was reading her say to him that it was going to be a doozey and he wrote it anyway, so that gave me inspiration that you shouldnt listen to what everyone else says about your dreams and just do them instead.
Overall, on a scale of one to ten, I would give it a 7.

Killing Yourself To Live

I must say, I didnt care for this part of the book too much. I did like the fleetwood mac reference and the part about how American pie is played on the radio practically everyday. The Slow Ride Vs. Free Ride part intrigued me only because my cousin was born to the Slow Ride song in the hospital. I did kind of feel bad for him when he finally said good bye to Lenore, it made me reflect on my life as well, and how I will never have to see my ex again, but my experience was much different, this thougth made me happy, I'ms ure Chuck's saddened him. I didnt get a real feel that he was too close with his family, some families are like that; they only see each other when someone comes into town or the usual holidays, but mine isnt like that, we're very close and its very rare that we go months without seeing each other. Well, now I am off to read the end, hopefully it will end with a bang!

What's been happening

Well, let's see. Over spring break, my best friend moved to Florida for a couple months to visit her mom so I've been dealing with her being gone, so I've been keeping myself busy. This past weekend, my cousin and I had a girls night/movie night. That was fun. Saturday night, I hung out with my friend Ashley and we didnt go to bed until like 5 a.m., so yesterday I slept all of my day away which was bad because I had an economics exam that I needed to study for, which I took today. I think I did pretty well considering how much I didnt study. I really need to get on my psyche class though, I've been slacking in there because I aced the last psyche class that I had, but I do need to put more effort into this psyche class because her exams are a bit harder. Accounting is going pretty well, we have an exam in there a week from Wednesday. I'm not working as much which is a good thing considerign my school load.
For my psyche class we have to do four experiments in order to pass the class, I went to one today and the other participant didn't show up so I got credit for basically showing up, which is amazing.
My mom's surprise birthday party is this coming up weekend, so I just want it to get here so I can stop being on edge about it.
Other than that, it's just been school and work and hanging out with Kristopher. I was actually very excited to write the paper for this class about a song, it was very good therapy for me.
Tomorrow we are supposed to have our first SNT meeting for my National Society of Leadership & Success group. I hope it goes well and that everyone shows up. There was some miscommunication about last weeks.
Today is my aunt's birthday, we had a party for her this past weekend, not a lot of people showed, but that's alright.
I really wish I was rollerblading right now instead of sitting behind this computer, but what can I do?
I need to figure out which summer class I'm going to take considering registration starts in a couple of weeks. I know which one I'm going to take, I just dont know which time I want to do.. if I want MAKE myself a morning person and have class from 8:20 until 11:10 a.m. or waste some of my summer nights by taking a 6:10-9:00 p.m. class. This decision is quite crucial, even though it may not seem that way to others.
I just had my first coney dog from A&W, that was pretty good and I got cheese curds, but surprisingly there was not a good amount of cheese inside of them. That was disappointing.
Oh well, that's all for now.