Northern Lights

As I have been reading this book (to take a lesson from our class) I have been confronted with so many different borders and gaps.  There are a lot of things that I have never come close to feeling, seeing and doing.  Such as how Clarrissa must feel about her mother leaving, and finding out the identity of her true father.  I can not imagine how what it would be like to travel all the way to Finland, to meet your real father for the first time.  However, I think that this book is well written, and therefore have gotten a feeling of what emotions and motivations Clarrissa is feeling.

Clarrissa compared her leaving Pankaj, to being as easy as it was for her mother when she left.  She was able to tell him the night before, "don't ever leave me" as she was thinking to herself about how she was going to leave.  This is another thing that I just cannot imagine doing.  

I must say that I am really enjoying reading this book, and that I thought I would not.  I have not read too many books, typically just because I do not enjoy having to read in order to have the story reviled to me.  Usually I cannot concentrate on the book, and sometimes just fall asleep.  This book really does keep my attention.  Some of my favorite parts include when she is talking about her feelings in the church when she first saw her real father Eero.  How she was not sure whether or not to get communion because she was worried he either would or would not recognize her.  

I also like the mysteriousness of her mother, how she disappears, clearly has secrets from people such as her affair, and does strange things like talking to the neighbors cat and changing relationships with friends by the month.  

The author does a good job of describing the landscape and setting.  I have never been to Finland, or anywhere like it where you have long hours of no light, but I like the images that are put into my head of school children walking with flashlights, a dark sky with the sun in the corner, and the description of the people she meets.

The gaps and borders in this book really have made me very interested in it.  The situations, places and emotions that I cannot relate with, but feel through the reading have made it very interesting.

My history as a Writer 2

When I came to college I did not know what was going to be expected and my writing. I thought that maybe, like in high school, every class I took would emphasize the importance of writing. That I would be shown how in all of my different areas of study, being able to convey effectively what it is you are trying to say was very important. However, this was not at all expected of me. In my English class, yes, I was asked to make points, describe settings, situations, and logic, and analyze many things. But not in my other classes, and I think that I know why.

Instead of teaching the importance of good writing skills, and asking a student to write a paper on a specific thought, my classes are just based on the fact that if you cannot write well, you will not do well. Now, I still have classes that require papers to be written about history, science, or engineering, but I also need to write well for many other things that I do. I must be able to explain myself on tests, my reasoning on lab reports, and even take good notes. Some of my classes are very heavily lecture oriented, and lecture is important in all of them. If I am able to write well, then I will be able to copy down the correct notes and read them later to remember and learn everything that I had to. More importantly, I will be able to recognize what is being taught by the professor easily.

I believe that I have come a long way as a writer. At the beginning of high school, my writing skills were limited to writing a biography on a famous person, or writing a book report. But now I use my writing skills all of the time. Being a good helps me in all of my classes. It helps me communicate with other students and professors, it helps me compose papers on exactly what I am trying to say, and it makes me a better student as it is an intellectual way to express my idea.
Oh yeah, and then there is the whole writing poetry thing that never really worked out for me.