As the semester comes to an end there are many things to reflect on based on the assignments we were assigned in English 111. Some things to reflect on would be the monthly letters we had to write, writing summaries and short exercises in our journals, studying one or more of the assigned text as models for our own writing, planning drafting in writing our literacy narratives and textual analysis essays. 

Composing letters and snail mail was something I put on the back burners and forgot to do a few times. Some days I would walk in class and everyone would have their envelopes and I would have nothing because I forgot to write my letter. This class really helped me stop procrastinating and making a planner of when everything is due. 

We also used assigned texts as models for our own writing. Our campus read was educated. When we wrote our textual analysis essays we had to cite and quote everything that we used that was not something that we said. For example while riding the textual analysis paper I used quotes from educated as Tara Westover said. For my textual analysis I wrote about a chapter in the book that I enjoyed reading most. The chapter was chapter 4 of Educated and it was about when the Westovers got into an accident and while reading it I felt like I was a part of the accident too. A phrase from the chapter that was one of my favorites was when Audrey said “everyones here except Tara” This was not because she wasn’t in the car it was because she was thrown on the floor from the accident and the way that she explains it I could just picture her head being under the seat when the family was looking for everyone. 

Another thing that we were required to do was turn away from the screen and focus solely on writing and getting work done and I noticed that I got more things done when I was not focused on my phone. Back in highschool it would take me days to write papers and now that I know how to put my phone up and just focus helps me get more things done in a shorter amount of time. 

Another part of english 111 that I really enjoyed was making a blog and writing for an online audience. This was a way for me to set my writing at a higher standard because I always had the mindset that someone could actually read my work outside the classroom. This really made me look over my work more and fix little mistakes and pay close attention to detail.

I always looked forward to Fridays in class because those were wordplay days. This was a time for us not to stress about school work and play scrabble. This helped me not to stress about other classes and put my mind at ease a little bit. This was also a way of expanding my vocabulary and having to critically think whenever there were not really any letters to make words out of.   This course really helped me out in a lot of ways and I learned things in this class that I will use in my future and also in my career. Even though my time in class was cut short I still made friends out of the class and would recommend my teacher to anyone that has to take this class in the future. Overall this was not a hard class and I have never really been a fan of english until I made it to college.

Caught By Surprise 

In Tara Westovers memoir Educated she does an exceptional job at making the small moments so vivid it’s like we are in the book right there with her. The book this far was so well written there are many moments I as the reader feel like I lived in the vivid moments with her. 

One of these moments that I really enjoyed reading was in chapter four “Apache Women” on page 36. This moment in this chapter made me feel like I lived through the car accident with the Westovers. This chapter started out explaining how no one remembers the car leaving the road. The Westovers were going on a trip. Tara’s brother Tyler was driving the family early in the morning. He fell asleep behind the wheel of the Westovers family vehicle. Tara explained where exactly the accident occurs. She stated that the station wagon crossed the center lane about twenty miles from Bucks Peak. Then Tara goes on to describe how the car collided with two power poles and stops when the station wagon hits the row-crop tractor. 

After the first paragraph Tara goes on to explain why the family was traveling at six in the morning to begin with. She explained that her mother had planned the trip. The idea began with Taras dad in high spirits and tapping his feet to show tunes and oftentimes pointing to the mountains. Tara’s mom then had the idea to take the family on a trip to the mountains. A little bit of time passed by before her mom announced the trip to the family. Tara described her dad lighting up like a sunflower once finding out about the trip. The Westovers drove the car twelve hours before they ended up at the Westovers grandparents house. Tara explains the trip and the events that took place while visiting with her grandparents. Then keeps me as the reader wondering what else happens in the wreck and if anyone in the car gets hurt. 

Westover goes back to the car accident and explains the details of the accident after keeping the reader questioning for half of the chapter. She explained that she had been asleep in the back floorboard of the car with her sisters feet over her head. During the accident her sister fell on top of her in the car and she was unable to answer when everyone was asking if she was okay because her face was crammed underneath the seat of the car. When she got up she was able to look around and she could see her brother was twisted almost climbing into the back seat. She noticed that her brother had blood coming from his mouth running down his shirt. She also noticed that her sister’s nose was bleeding. After checking everyone out for herself she could hear her dad asking if everyone was okay. He informed the family that they needed to be careful and not to get out of the car because there were power lines across the car. Tara was listening to her dad ask if her mother was okay but he did not get a response. Then Tara realized how bad the accident really was. She described how the windshield looked like those she had seen in the junkyard. Her dad asked if he should call an ambulance. At this time we still do not know the extent of the injuries for Tara’s mom. This is a way that Tara keeps the suspense building making the reader crave more information. 

Tara ends the chapter by explaining that they made it home and she doesn’t know how. She explained that her mother was laying on the sofa and complaining that the light was hurting her eyes so she must be alright. She also describes her brother feeling guilty for the accident. Tara’s mother also has no memory of the accident. Tara begins to explain in her later years why she titled the chapter the apache women and all the decisions that go into making life. 

Works Cited

Westover, Tara. Educated. Random, 2018.

When I was young I always remember asking my dad for help. If my mom did not know how to explain something to me, my dad always did. I remember my mom getting so frustrated when I would not understand something that she was trying to teach me. The difference in my mom and dad was that my mom would verbally tell me how to do something. But I do not learn that way. My dad on the other hand was a visual learner and he showed me how to do something rather than tell me.

A good example of this was when I got my first car. I was so excited to be able to drive myself around and not have to depend on anyone else to take me. I most definitely was not thinking about maintenance and the money that went into getting a car. My first car was maybe one thousand dollars. When we got it I was so in love. I pulled up in the driveway the last day of the bus taking me to school and my dream had became a reality. My first thought was I am going to baby this car and keep it forever. I was so brainwashed I did not even realize that I had to put gas in it. I thought cars would run forever without having to do anything to them. But my thoughts were all wrong.

One sunny day I was riding down the road not having a care in the world when I noticed a light flashing on my dash. I did not know what to do. I immediately started panicking and called my mom.

“Mom I need help” I didn’t even give her a chance to say hello. I looked at her as a hero so I hoped that she had an answer to my problem. 

“What is the matter?” she said.

“There is a yellow light with an exclamation mark in it flashing on my dash” I explained

With much frustration she said “ call your dad and ask him” and she then hung the phone up. By this time I found a stopping place where I felt was a safe place to pull over and take a look at the car to try and find the problem. I walked towards the front of my car and noticed how my front passenger tire was flat. I thought that now would be a good time to call my dad and ask him for help. He picked up on the first ring. 

“Dad I need help. One of my tires is flat and I’m not sure what to do.”

“Where are you? I’ll be right there” 

I felt like as soon as we hung the phone up I saw my dad pulling up. He asked me to pop the trunk and I was very confused. He lifted up the carpet in my trunk and there was a tire, a jack and a lug wrench. At this point in the tire changing process my mind was blown. I didn’t even know that cars came with these things. He explained to me how the jack worked and where to place it. He started loosening the lug nuts. Once he did that he then showed me how to use the jack and explained to me where it needed to go to take pressure off the tire so we could get it off. Then he took the lugs completely off and slid the tire right off. The tire that we were about to put on almost looked like a bike tire. It was so small. After we replaced the flat tire he explained that this was not a permanent fix. He told me that I needed to have a used tire put on the wheel that the flat tire was on. 

I was so grateful for this experience because he taught me how to put on a spare tire just in case a similar incident happened in the future. Maybe I can use want my dad taught me to teach someone else who doesn’t know how to change a tire one day. 

Ever since I was a little girl I have always been attracted to the emergency part of the medical field. My heart races and adrenaline fills my body when I see those flashing red lights and hear that ambulance siren. I recently became an EMT and I’m going to continue on to get my paramedic. During my class I rode four, twelve hour shifts with three different ems agencies. My personal favorite was Catawba County EMS. I applied for a job there and hope to grow through this county to make my dream job a reality. After a few years on the ground I’m going to take it a step further and become a flight medic. I hope everyone that reads this chooses a career that makes their heart as happy as EMS makes mine.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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