Hell Week(s) / Thlogs 2 and 3

So, I started week 2 pretty well.  It was the second week of the quarter, and I hit the ground running the previous week. I was excited to go to this class, knowing that it would challenge my thought process and the ways I have settled into. New subjects are always brought up, opening my eyes to material I never encounter in my other classes, but that affect my everyday life.

Genre is a great example. I loved listening to everyone talk about the creative genres they found and wrote about, along with how they analyzed them. I have come across many of those genres throughout my life. My fellow classmates have helped shed some light on so many subjects, from textbooks to restaurant menus, and even breakup texts. One of my favorite exercises of that day was recognizing the conventions of our annotations. Not only was it a great way to analyze annotations as a genre, but it was helpful to see how others annotated the works we read. Personally, I was never taught how to annotate. It was always a thing I kind of just did. From what I noticed, I spent a great deal of my annotations summarizing main ideas. Seeing how other people annotated allowed me to learn about their thoughts and, subsequently, view my thought process in a different way. I picked up some tips to better pick out information and organize my thoughts and hopefully passed some knowledge on to my fellow classmates.

I call week 2 the bane of my existence this quarter. That Monday was a pretty average day. I was quite tired and coming down with a cold, but surviving regardless. Nightfall comes, and my sickness elevates to an entirely new level. I knock out, waking up periodically throughout the night. To say the least, it was the most ill I have felt in a very long time.

Following doctor’s orders, I skip work and school for the rest of the week. It was exactly what I needed, but having a never ending checklist in your mind and not being able to do anything is a painful thing. Since then, I have been sprinting in all of my classes in an attempt to catch up.

Coming into our only class during week 3, I was quite confused. The day revolved around the essay draft we were suppose to have written. I felt quite out of place having not written my essay yet. Despite this little hiccup, it was great getting to read other essays. Reading the theses and introduction paragraphs was a great way to introduce us to the creativity that one can weave into their writing. In addition to that, I was also able to learn and put into practice the idea of the ‘arguability test.’ This was the highlight of the day for me. I was given a new perspective on theses that I could apply to all my future papers. These activities let me to explore some topics written about and exposed me to the insightful words, all of which motivated me to finish my own essay.