Famous Last Words: Final Thoughts Fall 2017

Finals; Flickr

Wow, I can’t believe its finally finals time! I would like to start off by saying this class has been so much fun! I learned a lot. I didn’t just learn about how to better my writing, but also how to work with technology! I feel like I am technologically challenged sometimes when it comes to new techniques like using pages instead of posts. It took me forever to figure out how to start my project this semester for some reason, but I am happy with the outcome! I got to learn about blogger, the difference between a website URL and the URL to the actual post. My favorite part was definitely the stories. If I had to pick between Epics of India and Mythfolklore, I think I liked Epics of India more.

These next two weeks are definitely going to be a challenge, but I feel I’m ready to tackle it on! Mind over matter is what I keep telling myself. I have my first final Thursday in my Organic Chemistry class, and I am beyond ready to get that over with. I feel that will be the most challenging final, but I sure am glad it’s the first one I have.

I’m mentally preparing myself for long nights at the library, lots of food, water, and tea. I plan to keep my workout schedule in check to release stress and tension, and be able to stay awake these next few days. I also started drinking Pomegranate juice! I don’t know how much energy it provides, but its great for the immune system! I think I have mentally prepared myself for the craziest two weeks. I don’t think you can have finals week completely down even as a senior, but you can always improve on how to take it on each year. Wish me luck!

Week 14 Storytelling: Chuck and Eva

Chuck Bass; Wikipedia

There once was a pretty girl in a village with her father in France. Her name was Eva. She had beautiful blonde her, blue eyes, and a kind heart. She wanted nothing but good for the world. In her free time, she would bake pies, and send the pies to the less fortunate. However, she wasn’t very fortunate herself. She had three dress she wore, and shared a room with her two not so kind sisters. Her father was her best friend. Her father was getting ready for his annual trip to the city, and asked each one of his daughters what they would like. His first daughter said a new outfit, the second daughter said new jewelry, and Eva asked for a rose.

 So the journey began. Eva’s father gathered the few things he had, and started his journey with his horse—Potter. As their journey continued, the weather started to get a little terrifying. It seemed like a blizzard. The father continued when he pulled up to a huge castle. In awe, he got down from the horse, and looked around. He found a rose lying in the snow perfectly untouched. He picked it up, and continued his journey.

Little did he know, a beast was watching from the castle of the name Chuck. Chuck used to be one of the wealthiest young gentlemen in the city. However, his fortune didn’t last long, and a witch disguised as a beautiful princess—Blair, cursed him. Blair told him he shall never have anything if he does not open his heart to goodness.

Chuck demanded his wolves to go find Eva’s father, and bring him back immediately, so that’s exactly what his minions did for their ruler. Chuck awaited Eva’s father to awake.

Eva’s father finally woke up scared, hungry, and lost. The beast looked at the father, and asked for his rose. The father denied giving him Eva’s gift, and Chuck asked to see a picture of this beautiful daughter of his, and when he did, Chuck fell in love. He had never seen such a beautiful young lady. He decided to let the father leave on one condition—bringing Eva to the castle for a grand dinner with the three of them.

The father didn’t see harm in a dinner, so he went back to the village, and brought Eva with him this. Eva was confused as she saw the castle, and wondered why a beast like Chuck would want to see her. She opened the large door, and was greeted with flowers everywhere, a chandelier, and a table filled with every food imagined, and sleek, suave, well-groomed young man at the end of the table. Eva believed in love at first sight, and this was truly that. They both danced away, and Chuck fell in love with her kind heart, and decided to give what’s left of her fortune to her village.

He placed the rose in her hair, and the rest was history. 

Bibliography:  Thomas Fredrick Crane's Italian Popular Tales: Zelinda and the Monster 

Author's Note:  

This story was inspired by the very popular tv show - Gossip Girl. I decided to use Eva and Chuck Bass from the show to put a twist on "Zelinda and the Monster." The original story is from Italy. The story included a dragon as the beast. I wanted my beast to be Chuck because in the show he plays a "beast like" with a heart. The original story ends with Zelinda possibly being the beast's wife after she finds out he was cursed by a witch. The witch in my story was Blair. Blair was the first girl Chuck falls in love with in the show, but the love could not be returned at the time. I hope you enjoy my twist on this tale of Zelinda and the Beast.

Reading Notes: The Language of Animals (B)

Birds; Flickr

The Language of Animals was filled with so many emotions. There were scenes of embarrassment, sadness, pride, guilt, and more. My favorite scene in this story was the end where the son comes back to his father, and mentions how he is the son that he wanted to kill. I was glad he came back to see the father, so the father could realize his worth.

I was not expecting the father to be so brutal towards his own child. I was a little shocked at the fact that he wanted him killed, and to have his heart brought back. I feel the moral of this story was that everyone is special in their own way, and sometimes it’s hard to understand how someone is special, but once it’s understood, others realize their worth. This is the take I got on this story, and something I could use to write my own version.

This story reminded me a lot of my brother and his two pet birds. He absolutely loves them, and takes care of them as if they were his kids. Haha. I can use my brother’s love for his birds as my inspiration on my twist on this tale. I also really enjoyed the journey the son was on after he was unwanted. I feel he also realized his worth on this journey. This was one of my favorite parts as I was reading, as well.

I feel this will be a fun story to put my own twist on! I look forward to writing about self-worth, and unique ways everyone is special. I also plan to include the many emotions from the original story into my own. One thing I wish there was more of was dialogue, so I plan to use dialogue and imagery. Wish me luck! 

Bibliography: Thomas Fredrick Crane's Italian Popular Tales: The Language of Animals

Reading Notes: Zelinda and the Monster (A)

Dragon; Wikipedia

Okay, so after reading this I immediately thought of Beauty and the Beast! I thought the story was super cute and really creative. My favorite part was the rose. Roses are my favorite flower, and I think it’s perfect for this story. I plan to keep a rose in my story. I also really admired Zelinda’s character. She represented selflessness, bravery, and courage. I would like to include these factors into my story, as well! I would like to apply imagery throughout my story to create a beautiful scene of romance and tragedy. I would like to make my story more tragic because I haven’t gotten to write a tragedy just, and I think this would be a perfect story for this theme.

I would like to make the sisters more complex b making the play a bigger role of evil in my story. However, I admire the father’s character, so I would like to keep him the same. One thing in the original story that caught me off guard was how the beast was a dragon! I feel like this would be a great detail to keep in my story. My favorite scene in the original story was how calm Zelinda stayed when she heard what happened to her father, and asked to be taken to the garden. This was such a mature scene.

If you can’t already tell, I’m a big fan of Zelinda. I think I will really enjoy making her grow in maturity even more, and I her character will allow me to write a fairy-tale like romance. The story of Zelinda and the Monster, and the many versions of Beauty and the Beast I’ve watched inspire me to create my own version. Wish me luck! 

Bibliography: Thomas Fredrick Crane's Italian Popular Tales: Zelinda and the Monster

Learning Challenge: Success Challenges

 

Fireworks

Picture by Victoria Pickering

Source: Flickr

"The 9 Principles That People Who Feel Successful Say They Live By" 

This was definitely a good read for anyone. Personally, this article applies to me in many ways. Some of the aspects of this article I would like to include in my own life are "Have fun," "Seek Challenges," and Pursue Meaning." I feel all of these are equally as important and useful. The section "Have fun" mentions that if you're not having fun, then you are basically doing life and success wrong. I feel this is something I've truly put an important on this year, and plan to continue to remember in the future. I am and will continue to do this by making each and every person in my life feel special by giving them time. I think time is one of the most valuable gifts. 

A challenge I struggle with is the section "Seek Challenges." At the end of this section, the writer mentions how your friend isn't running a marathon because it's fun, but because it's a challenge to push through and conquer. This section really stood out to me. I feel I can improve in this area by not ignoring things I want to learn like certain workout plans because they are hard, and taking each workout a day at a time for a better lifestyle and success. 

I feel "Pursue meaning" is one of my favorite sections because if there is no meaning behind what you are doing, it's not as valuable in my opinion. I plan to keep this in mind by reminding myself the real meanings behind the relationships I build, the things I apply for, and why I work as hard as I do. I think I will write these down on my sticky notes in my macbook and keep it on my desktop as a constant reminder. 

The link to the article is located above. Enjoy!

Growth Mindset: Quotes

Chicago; Flickr

I absolutely love this Growth Mindset extra credit opportunity. I think quotes are such a great way to be able to think deep about something, and with your own perspective. That being said a quote that caught my attention was "Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start being excited of what could go right." Personally, this is something I have to constantly remind myself of. Don't get me wrong, I am truly proud of my accomplishments, but I have the type of personality and mindset of always wanting to do more and better. It's a blessing and a curse. I always think of all the things that could go wrong when tackling something new instead of thinking about what I could do right. I tend to surprise myself when I tackle a task like an exam, and make an A. I guess you can say this is a confidence issue, but this past year I have truly learned to believe in myself and be confident in my own abilities because they've gotten me this far in my college career. This quote is going to be a reminder for me to take a step back, and think of how good I will feel when things go right. 

Another quote I was inspired by was "Practice failure. It sounds harsh, but it's really not. This means to fail, and fail some more until you've reached your ability to be comfortable in challenging environments and setbacks."Take a moment and think about this. How many times have you been devastated about getting a rejection letter, or even failing an exam? It hurts. It makes you feel stupid, not good enough, a failure, etc... However, this quote is a reminder to me and everyone else that these experiences are necessary to be able to push forward and most importantly, not stress! The concept of failing stresses me out, but when I'm comfortable with knowing my potential and still failing, but knowing I did my best, there is no stress - only the ability to move past it and try again. This quote inspires me to not be scared of failure, and "keep swimming" like Dory once said. 

I chose the Chicago skyline as my image because it represents all the possibilities to come when we are not afraid of failure.

Reading Notes: The Golden Ball (A)

Golden Ball; Flickr

I thought this story was adorable. I couldn’t help but think of chivalry when I read this story. Something that really stood out to me when compared to the other stories I’ve read in this class was the format of this one. It seems like the format is like any other story, but then there is a riddle towards the end. I thought this was very creative and unexpected. This is something I would like to keep if I wore to write my twist of this tale.

My favorite part in this story was the ending where her “sweetheart” saves the day. I thought this was precious. I also liked how they added giants in this story! I could picture the giant being cut in half as if this was a movie I was watching. I also enjoyed the drastic consequence of losing the golden ball. It made the story more dramatic than it already was. Haha. I did wish the characters were more complex. I guess that’s another thing I would like to change up because I wanted to know more about the girls as I was reading. This story had a little bit of everything—love, drama, fear, and more. I appreciated the different elements represented in this tale. Some things that kind of caught me off guard were all the gold on the man. I found myself wondering if he was just super rich, or had some kind of magical powers. Another thing was the bogles. I was not expecting the giants to be their master at all, but I thought this was a nice unexpected event. Clearly, this ball was worth a lot to the interesting characters in this story. Overall, I definitely enjoyed it! 

Bibliography: Joseph Jacob's More English Fairy Tales: The Golden Ball