The Accident that Changed her Life

It started with a phone call. Seeing the caller ID read “MOM <3” Katie picked up the phone. Immediately expecting a typically cheery soothing tone, Katie began, “Hey Mah!” After a few seconds of silence, she questioned to see if she had lost the call, until she heard slight hiccups and muffled sniffling. Then what she heard has impacted her life ever since.

“Dad is in the hospital.” Those were the first words she heard. That was when the panic set in, unlike any she’s ever felt before, as she listens in to detailed updates of a car accident her father encountered. Updates that thankfully included recovery, and after a year’s rest and recuperation, her father will forever bear the scar of his surgically placed plate, now removed, which was in his shoulder to keep the shattered bones in place.

Katie is a daughter who has been through difficult times, but none like this before. She explains, “Nothing tragic has ever happened to anyone close to me before that point in my life.  I had only known of other people’s struggles.” She hadn’t understood how fragile anyone’s life can be. At that point in time, it was always sympathy Katie gave to other people, never the other way around.

            Although Katie’s dad had not died in the accident, it was another level of her reality that shook her to the bone. It was because of that accident that she changed her lifestyle. Her mother mentions how it wasn’t instantaneous, and she didn’t know it at the time, but every better decision she made related back to that accident. She then tells Katie, “His helmet shattered once he was thrown off of his bike from the impact of the car. I can’t imagine how I could have handled the situation if it was one of my girls.” Katie admits that statement resonated with her.

            Years of bad decisions became less and less prevalent. From being heavily influenced by people and substances at an age much younger than when people are normally exposed to those kind of influences or peer pressures. Her mother makes scrapbooks of her daughter’s journey’s through high school and college. As you flip through Katie’s portraits, year to year, there is a visible maturity seen through the confidence she yields, the smile she holds, and her brighter attire.

The fragility of life she felt so close to her heart, moved her more emotionally than she realized, until she looked back at the path she has taken, and saw how dark it could have been, but how bright it is now since that once moment in her life.

Painter's Block

Imagine feeling stuck and struggling to overcome a fear. That is where I was during the winter break of ’13-’14. I was standing in my cold basement, more specifically my art studio, and formerly my mom’s stamping office.

The dust collects on the remains of my mom’s “Stamping-up” representative days, which led to her becoming a jewelry representative. After endless purchases of merchandise that never matched her income she finally settled for a part time job. Maybe it took a few part time jobs to really get settled, but nonetheless, she kept her hobby of stamping and splurging on jewelry in her spare time.

I scanned the room, looking upon the piles of boxes and closets of jewelry and stamps that fill half the room, creating a division between what originally was my mom’s and my dad’s workshop spaces.

I check the fuzzy socks on my feet for any nails or shards of wire I may have missed from tiptoeing across the floor of my dad’s workbench containing his many computer or electronic projects he’s always fiddling with. Once I know my feet are not in any danger I then find my canvases piled in the organized mess that I call my workspace. Once my mom admitted my ownership of her space, I built upon it as any conqueror would. Except for the one flaw I share with my mom; we hoard things we have great visions for, but never have time to execute them. Therefore, on top of the mounds of used and unused stamps, and jewelry boxes are piles of canvases and paint still in their wrappers or boxes.

All of these materials, collecting dust, begging to be used. They have a profound amount of potential. As I run my hand across the plastic casing my canvases, their need to shed the wrapping was so loud I could feel the vibrations of inspiration influencing me.

As soon as I tore off the plastic of the first canvas, my inspired momentum was struck with hesitation. I am reintroduced to my fear of blank canvases. Such as writers block, I became intimidated and overwhelmed by the great potential the canvas deserves, and I may not be able to deliver.

The white, blank, stale surface shrinks my inspiration to microscopic proportions. It is a color I feel intimidated by repeatedly, but a new sense hit me. The comforting smell of the fresh wooden canvas frame allowed my momentum to become too great to break completely.

I turned to the first color I could work with. Which in turn lead me to my next concentration. It was omniscient, abyssal, and spacious. I could then see, envision, and develop my ideas onto my canvas. My hands worked tirelessly and eagerly upon my black toned canvas.

My space concentration was then born, my white canvas fear obliterated, and my hoarding has happily and sufficiently decreased from then on.

Application Essay

1) In what ways has your campus and community involvement impacted your growth and development?

2) How has your co-curricular involvement on campus impacted your academic success?

I have grown and seen myself develop within the Bridgewater community and my academics. I’ve done so by joining clubs on campus and an intramural sport. I have joined a club that has values I have been passionate about all throughout high school and I am able to continue developing that passion through participating in Relay for Life, which is part of the American Cancer Society.

Through Relay for Life, I have found a new community. This has helped me feel at home at Bridgewater. I was struggling to fit in and feel a part of Bridgewater. After finding a society of people I could connect with, I was able to branch out. Because of that I found myself expanding my social group very quickly.

I had felt extremely home sick and alone the first few weeks of school. It had made me consider transferring schools because of the distance from home. I hadn’t allowed myself to stop focusing on being away from home, and start looking for ways to get involved at Bridgewater. Once I realized my fault in perspective, I made a goal to get involved. I started with joining one club, which became a catalyst to my involvement expanding. I then wanted to create my own club and joined an intramural.

This has positively affected my academics in many ways. Now that I feel comfortable at Bridgewater, meeting new people has become easy and useful. Such as in my Public Speaking class, I found myself struggling to keep track of assignments due and what exactly the teacher was asking for even after seeking clarification after class. I looked around and realized I wasn’t the only one. Immediately after class that day, I looked up everyone’s email and sent them a request to be involved in a group outside class specifically to help each other understand the requirements of our class, state any common problems, and ask any questions we have.

I didn’t expect my group to become anything spectacular. It turned out that on the contrary of my expectations, my idea caught like wildfire. Before I knew it, more than half my classmates responded and joined my group outside class. It has profoundly improved my clarity in class, and now I can participate while fully understanding what my teacher is asking of me.
            I believe that I have changed and developed as a student and a person after joining groups outside class. It has altered my perspective to become more aware of challenges, which I am eager to face, and opportunities that I can apply for.

Rhetorical Analysis of Gary Provost's Poem

Leave it to poetry to look at a topic or concept in a different light. Take for example, Gary Provost. He was a writer of twenty-four books that includes guidelines for writers, and on top of that he also practiced writing poetry. One of his poems in particular I chose to analyze. It is about the writers voice and the impact it had on the reader. 

In this poem, the purpose of the text is to inspire and exemplify, and that it's specifically for the reader to write more influentially by using different sentence structures and wording. The text uses examples of shorter monotone sentences, each including only five words, and then elaborates on them with more than five words, adding variety, to create a growing voice that starts quiet and gets louder to build emphasis. 

I believe that out of all of the writing genres, this text best fits into the poetry genre because of its analogies, its dramatic pauses, and it's poetic structure. It could arguably also be a narrative due to the way Provost explains how a writer would create a strong voice in their writing to keep the reader hooked on their every word.

To give the reader a reference of what to base their writing off of when looking for ways to create a strong voice, the entire text is an example of that. It has what to do and what not to do. Therefore anyone reading the poem can clearly visualize these examples as it absorbs the readers themselves in its mesmerizing tone of voice.

The reader is hooked by Provost's words because of his analogies. He uses figurative language metaphors to compare the writers voice to an orchestra's instruments. For a soft smooth sounding voice, Provost uses words such as "harmony", "lilt", and "rhythm". Compared to when using words such as "crescendo", "drums", "crash", and "cymbals", Provost makes the reader become excited about the writing. The metaphors allow the reader to hear the text's voice become louder and more, or softer and more soothing, relating very appropriately with the metaphorical instruments.

Then Provost ends the poem with a sentence that is powerful, yet soft. After her gets the reader’s full attention, he uses that energy the reader now has to write a closing statement that makes an impact. The sentence itself speaks directly to the reader, making it personal. From beginning to end, the poem gains momentum and ends with a crescendo, leaving the reader with the ringing of instruments still in their ears.