School Lunches

"Ringgggggggggggg" goes the bell followed immediately by hordes of students rushing out of their classrooms like tiny ants scattered across the school. Just like the daily routine, nothing ever changes. In this moment, we all have one goal and one goal only. Get to the Lunchroom. I imagine the newbies, aka the transfer students who aren’t yet familiar with the lunch room etiquette, would be sweating bullets at this point taking the longest possible route there...big mistake. Lines at the cafe are usually extremely long, so being prompt is imperative. But getting in the line was only the first battle. After you receive your tray of gray clumpy looking food, the next fight ahead is finding a seat. You’re holding your tray, head up, looking out into the sea of colored, sectioned off guppies, and your heart starts thumping --you need a place to eat. At this point, it seems the only option is to slowly and awkwardly make your way over to that seat all the way in the rear of the cafeteria where the sunlight just happened to be nonexistent, right? The cafe is split up table by table according to your clique. That was probably an understatement; let’s just say the cafeteria is split up by your entire physical appearance. This aspect of the lunchroom was extremely vital. You had better belong to a social class or you'd most likely end up eating your 5 day old stale pizza in the girls bathroom stall. Okay, so let’s rewind....you’re back at the line, and you just received your food with tray in hand. Again, you’re staring out into the crowd trying your best to look at least a little bit confident. Your eyes scroll across the tables... one... by... one... by… one. All the way to the left you find The Prima Donnas, with their pink notebooks, pink book bags, and glittery everything. Moving right along, you soon find the Anime Freaks, the Chess Geeks, and of course, the Neuroscience Nerds. Now, we’re at the center of the world. Appropriately enough, you find the Jocks. Almost naturally, you think to yourself that eating lunch there is not even close to an option. The next table over are the cheerleaders and well….yeah. All the way on the right you find the Goths, dressed in all black with black eyeliner and lipstick smeared across their faces. After this thorough assessment is complete, you probably just noticed you’re the only one still standing with tray in hand and that the lunch lines are closed. “Excuse me kid, I need to close the stand and you’re standing in the way”, says the typically overweight, curly haired, bearded lunch lady. Time to make a decision. If you were lucky, you’d find a decent looking girl or boy sitting alone somewhere in the crevices and you can eat your lunch with them. Although there’s no guarantee they’d be their tomorrow, a feeling of relief and triumph overwhelm you because you’ve made it through another day in the Lunchroom.

As I sit and reflect on my past written material and experiences I can definitely say that I have some strengths as well as some weaknesses. Over the years my writing style and capabilities have gone through many changes and progression. One of my strengths when it comes to my writing would be organization. When I begin the writing process I usually have several rough drafts, but in addition I always begin with a solid outline. I would say that in my opinion, forming an outline can drastically improve the effectiveness of an essay or any type of composition. Over the years my organization skills have improved, thus producing a better quality paper. Another strength that I have as a writer would be the use of personal examples in my work as well as using them appropriately. I find that adding personal references and anecdotes into any piece of work results in the reader having more emotion towards the work, as you can find in most literature. In addition to my strengths I have weaknesses as well. I would say that one of my weaknesses as a writer would be the lack of enticing and exciting vocabulary in my work. Most people would agree that the words you choose to use can add to the creativity and development of your writing style. Another weakness in my writing would be the occasional grammatical errors.
There are a couple ways that I would like to improve as a writer; however, the most desired of them all would be further developing my own way or style of writing. Over the summer I read a book called “The Woman’s House” by Naomi A. Hintze and upon completion of the book I was really inspired by the way she wrote; literally. (You can find more info on it here http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2834713-you-ll-like-my-mother ) I loved the way I could get a hint of her personality just by her writing style. Similarly, I would love to develop that skill of Naoimi’s so that my readers can actually have the same experience with any piece of literary work I create. I think the only way to acquire such skill would be to continue writing and eventually that style will come naturally. At that point I can tweak some things and mold my own writing “personality”. Another way I would like to improve my writing would be the choice of words that I use, which I previously mentioned as one of my weaknesses. When I think of the use of spectacular vocabulary one person in particular comes to mind; William Shakespeare. (http://classiclit.about.com/od/romeoandjuliet/a/aa_romeojulietq.htm) I predict that this course, English 15, will for sure help me achieve my goal. I think that the goal of the course and my desired improvements in my writing correlate quite closely. Also, I believe the practice of rhetoric which the course entails will be a great way for me to improve my creative writing skills. I am confident that with my instructor’s assistance as well as the great effort I will put into the assignments, my writing and rhetoric skills will only progress.