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by maddiedrdg0910 on May 25, 2010 at 6:08 pm · Filed under English
Think about it – something as small as a mere spark could set the flame to a blazing fire. It’s the same thing with writing. Something as small as the look on a parent’s face, or a sentence written by an author, or the way someone said something can branch out into an idea for a whole story. The writing pieces I have done for English were all inpired by something in my life – whether that inspiration be big or small.
Your own experience – “Moral Obligation…Maternal Instinct?” was inpired by my experiences with working in groups and feeling that its my duty to take care of the people around me – and I will admit, it goes a little too far sometimes.
Other people’s lives – My piece titled, “It Goes Without Saying” was inspired by my brother. He really messed our family up at one point, but who knew I’d get a great writing piece out of it? After all, God closes one door and opens another.
Your geneaology – I know it doesn’t look it, but “The Light” was inspired by the genes I got from my mom. She raised me to think we should be nice to anybody and everybody – and Micheal Fowlin just built upon that.
Where you live – The piece “Sanctuary” was inspired by the woods in my backyard. Though I didn’t live through the Depression, my mom did, and she told me all about it. When she told me the stories, for whatever reason, I’d always think about the long stretch of woods I lived by, and it’s a perfect place to go when things get overwhelming.
Mothers and Fathers – My mother may be one of the strangest people I’ve ever met, and I love her for it. She’s also in a way immature, which ultimately colors my life, along with her’s. “Spring Fever” is purely about my mother and her childish, but inevidably loveable passion for spring.
Vacations – Okay, so camp isn’t considered a vacation. Well, it is for me, and that’s all I’m concerned about. This may have been the worst day I’ve had at camp during the seven – going on eight- years I’ve spent there. Well, at least it’ll give me something worthy of remembering…and I know I won’t be looking back and laughing about this one anytime soon. “A Not-So-Happy Ending” is all about vacation time gone wrong.
History, research, books, and other sources – Again, where my inspiration came from doesn’t really fit into any of these categories. I got the idea from a song by Death Cab For Cutie. The song is touching, but one line talking about smoke in the sky made me reflect back on the way we treat our planet. I’m extremely opinionistic about the way humans live, so this was a personal writing piece for me. “Too Far Gone” may have been the only essay I’ve written that almost brought me to tears in the process.
by maddiedrdg0910 on May 23, 2010 at 5:17 pm · Filed under English
Let’s say inspiration was as abundant as the air we breathe. It never runs out – there will always be an endless, yet vital supply. You can find it literally anywhere you go, and we use it all the time. Its produced by everyday things, like trees and plants. Who would have thought such a common thing would be so necessary? The assembly I attended at Parker Middle School recently made me recognize an unbelievable amount about the way people get inspiration for writing.
One of the main – and the biggest – point that Kathleen Benner Duble discussed at the assembly was that inspiration for writing can literally come from anywhere. She told the students to really open their eyes to the world and listen to things we would otherwise ignore; when she did, she wrote whole books off of it. This can help students because they’re pretty unexperienced, so learning how to become more observant and creative will really help them become better writers. Now she wasn’t saying that a whole story will pop up and hit you in the face one day. She’s saying you can find little facts or stories that will spark an idea for a longer writing piece. And that’s exactly it – without a little imagination, creativity, and determination, you’ll never get a good writing piece out.
You can’t buy a box of cake mix and put it in the oven expecting a fully frosted three-tier cake to come out. You have to add more ingredients, including patience, to get the final product. The same goes for writing something. You can go out and find an inspiration anywhere, but you have to have patience, determination, creativity, and imagination to come up with a worthy writing piece. This was without doubt the most eye-opening assembly I have ever attended since even I was in grade school.
by maddiedrdg0910 on May 19, 2010 at 8:47 pm · Filed under English
You’re a quiet person. Go onstage and speak at an assembley with hundreds of expectant, critical eyes upon you or shrink back into the shadows like a frightened animal for the rest of your life? If you were corageous, you’d make a different decision than if you were shy. This is what’s happening in Jerry’s case in The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier. Jerry is both determined and apprehensive; his apprehension fanning the flames of his determination. These two traits are what make him choose the things he does.
Jerry Renault is determined, which feeds into his apprehension. Two things made him this way. On page 20, a at the bus stop says, “You’re missing a lot of things in the world, better not miss that bus.” This scared Jerry, making him apprehensive about how his life will turn out. On page 63, it says, “He didn’t want to be the mirror image of his father. The thought made him cringe. I want to do something, be somebody. But what? But what?” His father sits there everyday after work – nothing exciting or even different happens. Jerry is afraid he’ll turn out like his father, which makes him determined to change his future.
The fact the Jerry is both apprehensive and determined greatly influences his decisions. His determination and apprehension are what make him decide he wants to be different than his dad when he grows up. On page 6, it says, “Know what? What? I’m going to make the team. Dreamer, dreamer. Not a dream: it’s the truth.” Jerry decides that football will be what will make him different than his father. This gives him something to work for, and make him determined. He is also apprehensive because throughout his life, people are giving him reasons to worry about his future. The two things that make him apprehensive are when the boy at the bus stop calls him “Square Boy”, and when he sees his father “sleep his life away”. He’s worried that he’ll end up the same way; wasting his life away. He wants to do something greater.
by maddiedrdg0910 on May 12, 2010 at 7:23 pm · Filed under English
Get up at six, try to fill in the void where your happiness and energy used to be with coffee, drive to work through an ocean of clunky, chlostrophobia-inducing cars and reltentless honking, try to find a parking spot – no such luck. Oh great, late again. Walk through the rows and rows of cubicles to your seemingly identical one while phones ring and fingers tap on keys. Come home, attempt to get a decent sleep,wake up with blood shot eyes, do it again. Ah, the wonderful world of routines. Where will you get in life with a routine? Some might say far, I say fatigued.
It’ s true that most of us wouldn’t make any progress if it weren’t for our every day routines. They keep us on track; ensure we’re getting the things done that need to be done. You could say I have a slight routine to my day – wake up at 6:30, do my hair and get dressed, eat breakfast, go to school, come home, be showered by 7:30 and then go to bed around ten. It’s what lets me to do my homework, shower, and do whatever else I need to while still allowing me time to be with friends. That’s what I like about routines. Shanna said, “I think routines are helpful; they help you stay busy; without them, you would be lost.” However, after a while, routines can start to wreck your life.
Sure, routines can help kick start you into getting yourself situated and earning good grades, but when you grow up, routines can dry out your life. Everything loses its flare when its been done repeatedly. Stitching yourself to a routine also keeps you from experiencing new things that could help you exponentially in the end. Also, you could loose all will power to do anything in life if your routine is sucking the juice out of everything. Olivia seems to agree with me. She said, “Routines might be good at first, but after a while life gets boring.” Not only does life get boring, but not allowing room for mistakes or exploration will prevent you from learning valuable lessons and new expreiences. Personally, I’m all for routines – but only up to a certain time limit.
by maddiedrdg0910 on May 6, 2010 at 8:57 pm · Filed under English
The pressure builds and builds, as if the force of graivty is mulitplying and you feel like your head’s about to explode. You can barely function, let alone make decisons. There are always the limitless, heavy expectations and pressures of your friends, family, and teachers hanging around your ankles as you try to move on with your life. This is what happens to every teen, especially Dade from “Star Food” by Ethan Canin. His mother is pulling him one way, while his father is pulling him another. What’s a kid supposed to do?
Like any other kid his age, Dade is doing what is normal and expected from us. He’s trying to please his parents. On page 151, he says, “To appease my father I cleaned the electric star…I thought about limited fame and spent a lot of time noticing the sky.” He wants to clean the star so his dad will be pleased by him, but wants to please his mother also by looking into the sky and trying to discover something. This is normal for every teen, and I don’t think any teenager would try to discover something worldly like his mother wants him to.
The main reason Dade is trying to please his parents is because they both piled great expectations on him. On page 148, while pointing to the bad side of town, his father said, “You’re going to end up on one of those curbs.” He keeps trying to get Dade to stop day dreaming, (well, it’s day dreaming in his eyes) and to start working harder around the store to ensure that he’ll have a steady job as an adult. However, his mother keeps telling him her high expectations for him, which frankly are the exact opposite of his father’s. On page 149, he says, “She told me she kew in her heart that one day I was going to be a man of limited fame. I was twelve years old.” The mother not only wants him to live up to her expectations, but tells him she knows he will. This makes the pressure worse, because if he doesn’t then he’ll seem like a failure. Dade is just a normal teenager trying to please his parents, only in his case, he’s having a lot more difficulty then the average teen.
by maddiedrdg0910 on May 3, 2010 at 4:14 pm · Filed under English
The bird needs to fly from the nest at one point, but how can he do that if he needs his mother’s support to guide him? If the bird has been following his mother’s rules for his whole life, then what happens when he has no rules to follow? The obedient fledgling will soon turn into a disoriented, lost mess of feathers. Every teen out there with possessive parents faces this problem; we’re all birds getting ready to leave the nest.
In my opinion, every teen has to defy their parents sometime or another. A little rebellion teaches independence. And no, that doesn’t mean I want you to go get a tattoo and hijack a car instead of going to school. I’m talking about making your own decisions and refusing their suggestions on which school to go to, which friends to have, or how dress. You may not make the perfect decisions in the beginning, but it goes without saying that mistakes just make room for improvement. The majority of parents’ rules are for your safety, so use common sense and follow the ones that ensure your viability.
I’ve never done anything that bad, and neither has my mom or dad, but the other people around me sure have. My brother has done some things that I’d rather not mention and appropriate for school, which also built upon me. Believe it or not I’ve even learned from his mistakes. But the story that both surprises and gives me hope is my uncle’s. My mom can’t remember it in detail, but one night, he decided he was going to sneak out. He slithered out the basement window into the cold, black night and off he was. Too bad he got caught and my grandpa nailed the window shut. Not I’m not sure that he learned from this mistake, because he still ended up doing all the unmentionable things that all teens do, but he grew up to become a wealthy, married, independent man. That’s where I get the hope for my brother. He went through a period of rebellion, only it was behind my parents’ backs. Well, like my uncle, he was caught and grounded for over a year. And he sure did learn his lesson. I saw a huge difference in his outlook on the kids he was hanging out with, and I have complete faith in his success. We all have no idea what’s going to happen to that one, but my mom always said he’d end up doing great things, and I believe that, too.
The teen stage is a critical time for personal development and a time to sort out your thoughts and take care of yourself. When you force the shape of this period into the guidelines of your parents, it fades away and slumps into dependence. Teens are required to make mistakes; it’s what we do. And believe me, I’ve made quite a few of them – and frankly, I’ve never repeated any of them. I can still remember crystal clear the first time I snuck out, swore online and had my parents find it, kicked the car door (more than once), and went through a goth phase; all of these which my parents either condoned or punished me for. And I’m only 13. The fact that I’ve done these things ensures that I’ll never do them again, so by defying my parents, I am building upon myself. If you always follow the rules, you’ll feel lost without them when it comes time to go off on your own.
by maddiedrdg0910 on May 2, 2010 at 7:58 pm · Filed under English
The smoke billows into the sky, the plumes staining the clear blue backdrop a sickening, lingering grey. You hear the stories of the polar bears’ shrinking land while the scent of gasoline burns your nose as a constant reminder of the impact us humans are having on our helpless planet. You stumble over the garbage strewn over the ground with cars horns blaring in your ears and cement beasts towering over you, blocking out the sunlight and suffocating you. Not only does the setting disgust you, but the behavior of the ones responsible for it is repulsive. To me, the Griffin’s opinion on human nature in The Griffin and the Minor Canon by Frank R. Stockton is spot on. And no, it’s not a good one.
The Griffin’s opinion on our behavior is exactly right. He thinks we’re greedy, ignorant creatures. And he’s dead right. On page 142, he says, “I have had a very low opinion about you ever since I discovered what cowards you are, but I had no idea that you were so ungrateful, selfish, and cruel as I now find you to be.” The Griffin thinks that people care for no one but themselves, and in most cases, that’s painfully true. As embarassing as it is, the first concerns that go through any person’s mind are about the well being of themselves. On page 143, he says, “There were only two good things in this town: the Minor Canon and the stone image of myself over your church door. One of these you have sent away, and the other I shall carry away myself.” The Minor Canon bends over backwards for the people of the town, and they take him for granted and even take advantage of him. I could never admire an opinion about human nature as much as I admire the Griffin’s.
The Griffin is by far my favorite character in The Griffin and the Minor Canon, mainly because of how insightful he is. He sees how shameful our behavior is – which only someone from another species could point out, as we’re too ignorant to take a step back and see for ourselves what we’re doing to the people and world around us. We destroy the planet, and think nothing of it until it starts to backfire. It’s well deserved if you ask me; we had it coming ever since…well, the beginning. Sure, the cavemen were harmless, but come on, they were half monkey. I’ve never seen a monkey liter. And don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty too. I think mine and the Griffin’s opinion of human nature go hand in hand – our ignorance to each other leads to our impact on the planet. And the sad thing is that we’re too far gone to clean up our act. But we’ll have wiped ourselves out of existence by time the blackhole that the sun will become swollows our whole solar system, so it’s okay.
by maddiedrdg0910 on April 28, 2010 at 8:49 pm · Filed under English
“Don’t go.”
“I have to.”
“Why? No one else is bothering to fix this.”
“That’s because this is no one else’s fault.”
“Why are doing this to yourself?”
“I don’t know. Moral obligation?”
I’m one of the people who feels the need to take responsibilty for everything and everyone. When I’m doing group work, it makes me anxious when the teacher assigns a part to another student, because I feel it’s my job to make sure we get everyhting done. You could call it maternal instinct, as I feel like my groupmates are my childeren if I know them. It’s like an animal’s first instinct. They do what they feel is needed and without a second thought – or even a first one. However, there is another definition to duty – what is expected, or even required, of you from other people. In the “Griffin and the Minor Canon” by Frank R. Stockton, both the Griffin and the Minor Canon experience a sense of duty.
The Griffin and the Minor Canon both have duties; whether they be self appointed or set, expected duties. The Griffin feels a great sense of duty when the Minor Canon leaves. On page 138, it says, “One morning he looked into the Minor Canon’s schoolhouse, which was always empty now, and thought it was a shame that everything should suffer on account of the young man’s absence.” The Griffin feels it’s his job to help the town, since the man who used to do that was now gone. I think that anyone would feel this responsibilty, not just the Griffin. He did this because he’s kind and sensible, and wants to do the right thing, not what’s easiest. But the Griffin isn’t the only one who feels a sense of duty.
The Minor Canon goes though two different types of duties. One was what he felt he needed to do for his job. On page 130, it says, “Apart from his duties in the church, where he conducted services every weekday, he visited the sick and the poor, counseled and assisted persons who were in trouble, and taught a school composed entirely of the bad children in the town with whom nobody else would have anything to do.” The Minor Canon does what is required by job, by even goes further as to do whatever he feels is the right thing to do, like involving himself with people who would have otherwise been avoided. However, the Minor Canon also has duties forced upon him by the people around him. On page 136, it says, “It’s your fault that the monster is among us. You brought him here, and you ought to see that he goes away…it is your duty to go away and the he will follow you.” Being the responsible man he is, the Minor Canon would never refuse such a task, as he wants to make sure he takes care of all his duties. The fact that the Griffin and Minor Canon have that sense of duty is what bonds them and makes the get along so well.
by maddiedrdg0910 on April 8, 2010 at 6:20 pm · Filed under English
Going at something alone doesn’t really make a difference. Unless you’re Rosa Parks or Ruby Bridges, then one individual usually won’t start a revloution. Changing the way things are is like trying to play an invasion game alone while the other team has more players than you can count on your fingers and toes. You’ll get trampled. Unifying to make a difference is the most efficient way, and this is part of what happened during the Harlem Renaissance.
Think about why we have teams in invasion games. Without other people to support you and work with you, reaching the goal is an utterly unnacomplishable, unrealistic task. Sure, some people are flat out undefeatable and can spark a flame to a movement that will go down in history – cough cough Rosa Parks. Its like a wave washing up the shore – a wave that could destroy sandcastles and wash away the sand. A drop of water wouldn’t do much damage. The Harlem Renaissance was a lot like this.
The Harlem Renaissance was the wave that changed everything for African Americans. They united through literature, and flocked to the cities to try and have their work published. Together they increased the pride and confidence in the race. All of them bonded together and flourished – and if they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have accomplished anything. Working in numbers is a major tool if you want to make a difference.
by maddiedrdg0910 on April 7, 2010 at 8:35 pm · Filed under English
Where would the chameleon be if it couldn’t change its color to fit its surroundings? Dead. Where would the arctic fox be if it didn’t develop a thick coat of fur over time? Dead. Where would the bison be if it couldn’t learn to travel in groups? Dead. Adaption is like our built in survival guide. It’s what keeps us alive. We all do it, expecially Wanderer from the Host, by Stephenie Meyer.
Adaptation is a survival skill for a species, man or animal. Think how far we’ve come – from having the brain of a monkey to talking being able to talk to someone who’s across the planet. For animals, the change is instinctual. For humans, if you look at us as animals, we’ve adapted over time also. But if you think of us as people, sometimes there are situations when you have to force yourself to adapt. Wanderer in the Host did this exactly, and if she hadn’t, her death would be a given.
As humans, we adapt in more than one way. First off, our bodies naturally adapt to everything involuntarily. In the summer, our skin darkens to protect us from the more direct rays. Also, when we our body is under stress, we get an adrenhaline rush in case our body needs to fight something off or run away. In the Host, Wanderer adapts to extremes. First she’s caught in the desert, next she’s cramped into a rough, tiny hole in the wall of a cave. Adaption is the key to survival, and we see it every day.
by maddiedrdg0910 on April 5, 2010 at 9:50 pm · Filed under English
Everything ends, we all die, life is unfair, blah blah blah. There’s a lot of unfair things in life. They’re like spiders; you run into one in the least convenient of all places, and they spin webs of difficulties that you have to rip through. Learn to deal. There are things in this life that no one can explain, let alone control. Mourning over such “petty”, various matters is pointless. You have to learn how to adapt to these things, and learn not to question them. Now personally, I don’t believe in aything, but Countee Cullen believed God was responsible for all this. He knows God is fair, but there are unfair things he created that have no explanation, and he thinks it’s unfair that God should give him a gift such a being a poet, but making him black.
Countee Cullen was very opinionistic over God. He has full faith in God, but if God is so fair, then why are there things on this Earth that are utterly unfair? In Yet I Do Marvel, by Countee Cullen, he says, “Why the little buried mole continues blind, why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die.” These are just examples of the many things that God created that aren’t always fun. He thinks that God is to busy to stoop down to our level and provide explanation to us for every little thing. One major example of this is the segregation of African Americans.
Its funny, how someone can give you a gift that you have no use for. It’s almost a tease. This is how Cullen felt. In his poem, he said, “Yet I do marvel at this curious thing, to make a poet black, and bid him sing!” He’s saying how God makes him a poet; tells him to sing about all the happy things in his life, and then makes him black. What’s he supposed to write about? How a white man spat on him the other day? Even if he did find something to write about, no one would pay attention to his work. After all, he is black, and getting forward as a black man in those days was next to impossible. It’s like giving the mole eyes, but making him blind. What’s the point of the eyes? What’s the point of being a poet? He knows God is good, but there are a lot of things he questions him on.
by maddiedrdg0910 on April 4, 2010 at 1:06 pm · Filed under English
I, too, will be ready.
I am the younger sibling.
They tell me I’m not ready
When I suggest something new.
But I know I am ready,
to break away from their posession.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be off on my own,
after I’ve suggested something new.
They won’t dare
Try to tell me,
“You’re not ready,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how mature I am,
And be rueful -
I, too, am ready.
by maddiedrdg0910 on March 31, 2010 at 5:12 pm · Filed under English
“Stealing candy from babies!”
Little Jim’s voice rang in my ears, along with the sobbing of the effusive girl behind me. I exchanged an annoyed glance with Rachel, then turned to look at the rest of the people who were stuffed inside the office like sardines in a can. After an excessivley long speech about “guilty by association”, we filed out of the sweaty room and out into the fresh air of the camp. It was when we sat down at the pick-knick tables that the tears hit me. It was pretty embarassing – having my favorite little campers coming up to me and asking me what was wrong with wide, frightened eyes. This was the one time in my life when I had been thoroughly misunderstood. Although the whole thing was a sham, who knew it would stick with me long after that.
It was the last day of camp, and meant to be the best one. Rachel, my new found friends, and I were all broiling under the sun with nothing to do (Since we were Jr. C.I.T’s, we weren’t used to so much freedom). Just another lazy summer day. So we asked Ceaser, our “counselor”, if you will, if we could hang out in the mini campers cabin, which was conveniently air conditioned. We sat on the sofas and floor, just talking. Two other girls we knew, but weren’t really with us, were in there, too. After a while they left, and soon we followed. We went out to fields when Ceaser drove by on his little golf cart, and nonchalantly told us we were written up in the book for “going through peoples stuff” and taking the twizzlers from the mini campers”. I didn’t even know there were twizzlers in there…We were all shocked, and I personally, was hurt. I’d never gotten in trouble at camp before. Disgruntled, we lumbered up to the office and got the scolding of a life time. The berating was over the top. Apparantley the two girls in there before us thought we were the ones who ate the twizzlers, when it was two other girls the whole time, and that we were going through peoples’ stuff. They definetley misunderstood us on that one.
I’ll have to admit, I think the “going through peoples’ stuff” bit was my fault. I saw a girl’s phone on the table, and because we were exchanging phone numbers, I thought it was one of my friend’s. So I picked it up and asked who’s it was, only to get yelled at by the girl who later told on us. She took it that I was going through others’ belongings, and even stretched the what she thought she saw when she was telling the office about it. The anger was one thing, but the embarassment and shame of all the eyes of my new made friends (who happened to be the counselors of the mini campers) on me as tears streamed down my face was another. That may have been the worst day of my life, and the most misunderstood. What a great way to wrap up my summer!
by maddiedrdg0910 on March 30, 2010 at 8:31 pm · Filed under English
“Maddie!”
Oh god.
“Your soccer teams just came out! Come see the e-mail!”
With my stomach churning like the sea during a storm, I walked into my dad’s office and looked at his glowing, luminescent monitor. Team 14-3. Again. Wowee – C team. Well, at least I knew some people. Soccer is so stressfull. Looks like I’ll never be on the A team. When I started soccer in pre-school, I didn’t have much aspiration to be the best out there. At the first try outs, I had the ball, but when a boy took the ball from me, I stormed off the field crying. When I started up again in 5th grade, I had much more longing to be a good player. Over time however, this dream faded, like Langston Hughes said in his poems.
Langston Hughes was one of the many African Americans dealing with segregation. Like all the others, he had a dream. A dream to be free of segregation – to have equal rights as anyone, no matter the color of their skin. Over time, this dream boiled up, and burst out of everyone’s fury. The African Americans were fed up, and they put their desire to work and did something about the way they were treated. In Hughes’s poems, you could see that over time, his “deferred” dreams got worse. In Dreams, he said, “Hold onto dreams”. But in Dream Deferred, he said, “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up, like a raisin in the sun?” He’s saying how many African Americans’ dreams of being equal disintigrated, or grow old and become a burden, or build up and burst. You can really see a difference between the first poem, when he’s saying how important dreams are, and then twenty years later, his other poem says how when dreams are postponed they loose their meaning and become pointless. This is what happened to my dream of becoming an A-team player.
All I ever wanted was to be one of well known A-team soccer players. With every e-mail that always said the same thing, 14-3 (they didn’t want to tell us the letter of the team to prevent our feelings from being hurt but we all knew), my heart fell and my dream solidified further. Eventhough I knew I’d never make A-team, I kept playing. The only thing that kept me playing was knowing that I could never make it as an A-teamer – that the other girls would make me seem like I had two left feet. This dream just became annoying as we shared the field with all the higher teams, just like Hughes said. It everntually faded away, quite frankly like “a raisin in the sun”, but life wasn’t necessarily “like a bird with broken wings”. I found my knack for school and artwork. I guess you could say my dreams switched from being an A-team player to being a notable artist and an honors student. What hughes said was very true, just not as extreme in my case.
by maddiedrdg0910 on March 29, 2010 at 6:02 pm · Filed under Science
Who knows, when you get forced into something you don’t like, you could learn from it. You could walk out a different person than you entered. We’re all lumps of clay; molded by everything and everyone we encounter. Although I didn’t like working in groups, I sure learned a lot from it in the Dynamic Earth project.
I’m not one for groups. They stress me out, and when I’m alone, I’m sure I can get the work done. Also, I can work at my own pace. I’m just generally a happier, brighter person when I get my work done on my own. Sure, this project started out the same as always, but ended very different. Throughout the duration of this project, I learned a lot about my group, myself, and working with groups in general. I learned that if I don’t ensure that I have a modest portion of the work to myself, I get sick to my stomach and feel like we might not get a good grade. However, the whole point of the group is to work together. This project helped me learn how to balance these things.
Not only did I learn a lot about myself, but I learned a lot about my group and the way each of them work. During this project, I learned a lot about the way Tom, Nick, and Jenna work. I learned that Tom makes the hard stuff seem like a piece of cake. Also, when he’s told to do something, he gets it done in record time. This helped move the group along and calm us all (or mostly just me) down. I learned that once Nick gets going, hes like a rolling rock. He’s a steady worker, and he’s an amazing researching. Most of the information we got we owe to him. I learned that Jenna is always optomistic and in a good mood. This kept our spirits up and kept us working. Also, she really knows how to divey up the work and give us good deadlines. Everyone in the group added someting to our project, and although the result may not have been perfect, I sure learned a lot for the next time I do a group project.
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