Assignment: Bedtime Stories

(“dumb blonde”/Valley Girl accent-type-voice)

One night, I sat down with a kid, and he asked me to tell him a bedtime story. I asked him, “Did you ever hear about the cow?” And he said, “Of course not, we live in Chicago!” I chucked, and started to tell him the story of the cow who tried to fly far, far away. One day, a cow was tired of living on a farm. So that cow decided to go somewhere far, far away. With faith, trust, and pixie dust, the cow lifted itself off the ground, and flew to Saturn. (beat) “Is that the whole story?” the kid asked me, I replied “Yeah, that’s it.” And he looked at me funny, and said “I’m pretty sure that’s not how the cow jumped over the moon.”

Assignment: Ambassador

For this assignment, we got a list of words and we had to use them in a specific order. This is what I came up with. (Note: it’s a :45 essay.)

My name is Taylor, and I am an ambassador. Usually when I’m in meetings, I’ll start by setting my laptop on my lap, and not pay any attention at all. My activities begin by counting the different colors of shoelaces in the room (beat)… of what I can see, anyway. When I’m done with that, I’ll watch the neck of the guy who sits in front of me that reminds me of Bradley Cooper. Mmm, (beat) that’s nice. His hair is just the right length. (beat) He is so perfectly shaped that I wish I could put a bridle on him, and keep that perfect hunk of man close to me forever. I’d scream into a microphone for everyone to hear “I AM NUTS ABOUT THIS GUY!” And hopefully, I would be the winner of his heart. I’m definitely not qualified to be a real ambassador… good thing it’s just the school board. I can proceed to dream of the Bradley Cooper look-alike, and get some bonus points for “helping out.” But Bradley, you are the one that’s actually helping me out. Yes. 

Assignment: Early Morning Show (:30 Essay)

The first time I co-hosted the Friday morning show on KAXE is one of the most significant mornings of my life – and I was only ten years old. Seeing the microphone in my face wasn’t intimidating, it was exciting. So was hearing my voice through the headphones, and just knowing that my parents were hearing the same thing, but from the comfort of our kitchen at home. I ran my hands along the smooth marble countertop that all our notes and gear were scattered on. The smell of vanilla ice cream is different at eight-thirty in the morning than it is at eight-thirty at night. The taste of both the best vanilla ice cream I had ever eaten so early, and the taste of radio had never been so great.

Assignment: This Blonde Chick (:30 Essay)

Kryrsta hoisted her fire truck-shaped red backpack over her shoulders, the backpack soared over her head and hit the ceiling of the train stop in downtown Chicago. I hate being so tall she thought to herself, which turned out to be a mistake. A little old lady fell over as Krysta walked past her. “Calm down, it’s not like the train’s here yet. No need to fall for me, either!” Krysta called out cheerily as she skipped down the stairs. She declared the train to appear, and it did immediately after. Three stops into her journey, she sat down next to a strapping young man, and they got off the train together three more stops later. She turned to him and said, “We’re polar opposites! I’m going to be a train wizard, and you’re an accountant – also, you’re short and blonde, and I’m tall and blonde!” 

Assignment: I’m a Cheerful Pie (Short Essay)

(To be read cheerfully, naïve)

Today is such a great day! I’m freshly baked, and the apples inside me are perfectly mixed with my filling. What a fantastic day to be a pie. It’s so nice to cool off in the sunshine! My creators are also making mashed potatoes and turkey. It must be Thanksgiving! But this is strange though… What is this furry creature coming towards me? Oh my! It’s a dog! This doesn’t seem right. Dogs can’t eat pies, it’s not healthy! Not to mention that I’m baked to perfection. A dog can’t truly appreciate the artwork that is a pie such as me. I thought only humans ate – 

 

Assignment: Ticket To A New Life

Trying to pinpoint a specific time that something blew your mind is tricky. Picking an event or activity or simply just a thing that blew your mind is easier. Figuring out the specificities – that’s where it gets tricky. Recently, my Writing and Rhetoric II class had a workshop on brainstorming topics to write about. We all learned that we may have more stories to share than we think we do, and for me, it was no different. The first question we had to answer was ‘Think of a time where your mind was blown. A time your whole world changed.’ The first instance that came to my mind was November 30^th, 2012. My first real drum corps experience.

I was seventeen years old. A Senior in high school. I was also working both a part-time job and an internship. Based out of small-town-Nothern Minnesota. Not too many life experiences under my belt. But all of that was about to change. I had been dreaming of that weekend for almost two years, in fact, I still dream of it to this day. That weekend was my audition to march with Spirit of Atlanta’s color guard – a World Class Drum and Bugle Corps. I drove myself down to Eagan, Minnesota (a four hour trip.) Duffel bag and rifle in the trunk, backpack by my side, and a fully charged iPod. The alarm went off on Friday, November 30^th, 2012 at 3:30am. I landed in Atlanta, Georgia around 10:30 that morning. After getting lost in the outskirts of the city with a friend that goes to school there for the majority of the day, I got back to the airport and boarded the shuttle to camp.

That weekend flew by – full of the spinning of flags, throwing of guns, and my best attempts at dancing gracefully. I got back to my small town on a Tuesday night with my mind anywhere but the math test I had to make up that week. All I could think about was the people I met; how driven and focused they are. How passionate they are about something that they realize they’re probably never going to be able to do once the drum corps experience is over.

Drum corps is like the olympics of marching band, except it happens every year for most people. You go through an audition process throughout the winter, and then, if the corps likes what they see, you get a contract. Then you fundraise to pay tour fees, and move in usually around mid-late May. Spring training lasts for about four weeks, and then you tour around the country for about two months. During Spring Training (commonly known as “all-days”,) you learn the show. This is a time that people learn a lot about themselves and their limits, being outside and physically active for sixteen-plus hours a day does that. Tour is like all days, just the scenery is different, and sometimes the days a little bit shorter.

The whole drum corps experience has been a mind-blowing and life-changing experience for me. Not only have I learned about myself and one of my favorite art forms, but I’ve learned a lot about people. Living with about 175 other people for three months in strange conditions really helps you appreciate the small things – like a sunset on the way to a show, or a gym that doesn’t smell like dirty feet.

Drum corps has taught me more than I can even put into words. One of the things I’ve learned is how important it is to keep in touch with those that you’re not sure if you’ll see again, and seizing the opportunities you do get to catch up. I got to spend the turn from 2013 to 2014 with my “drum corps family.” It was kind of crazy to think about how much had changed in just over a year. Not only had I pursued both of my dreams, but I was spending New Years in a house full of people who support me, no matter if it has to do with this weird activity we all love, or my professional goals. What’s still mind-blowing is that it only took one plane ticket to change my life.

Assignment: An Honors Class Ice Breaker

With the first week of classes comes the ‘dreaded’ getting-to-know-you games over and over again. The new faces that fill the room start to have names, a hometown, and majors. But all of the new information does not usually stick – too much new information in such a short amount of time. In this honors class, I thought that maybe, just maybe, we would not spend so much time on it. Even though we spent the whole class on the ice breaker, it was not as monotonous. Somehow, I feel like I already know my classmates in Writing and Rhetoric II: Honors pretty well.

The first question that took me by surprise was the geographical question ‘where do your people come from?’ The instructions were to stand at a place in the class room geographically related to where we thought that ‘our people’ came from, and the term ‘our people’ was left up to us to decided what we thought it meant. I wanted to move to the southern part of the United States at first, where the majority of my drum corps friends live, the people that understand me a lot better than most people. I wanted to stand in the Chicago cluster, too, since I have found so many people here that I feel pretty close to. I also considered staying in my Minnesota space, since that is where I grew up, and I still have a lot of friends and family there, so that is the place I still identify with. I ended up in the “Scandinavia in general” area because I felt like that was the easiest to explain to the class. What everyone had to say was interesting and helped me understand how they view themselves in the world.

What I liked about the time line questions, was that everyone ended up opening up a lot more than I expected them to. Being someone who has not been thought of as “honor student material”, it was nice to be in a room full of those that are a little more faster-thinking and who actually consider their answer, and not just taking it from the surface value. I think my favorites were the storytelling question and the activism question. They sure made things ‘escalate quickly.’

I found myself thinking more and more about the storytelling question. I stand by my position I said in class on story telling – kind of in the middle of neutral and ‘good’. I think of This American Life. Ira Glass is the type of radio personality I would like to be, if I decide to go that route. He is calm, collected, and it seems like he knows what his guests are going to say before they say it. Maybe they do it through some sly post-production, but Ira does have a way of speaking that just makes you believe him. Which is why I hope to be a part of that type of radio broadcast some day.

What exactly defines activism? I feel as though it is something you do to make the world a better place, but the dictionary definition is “the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.” I thought about it from a more personal aspect, because I feel as though our world has lost some of that. Who sends a thank-you card any more? It seems that even in the new age of constant connectivity, we have lost that “personal touch” that makes us different from other living beings. One of the best parts of the human experience (to me) is creating inter-personal relationships with other people; making connections that last a lifetime. When you find your group of people, and you can make things happen with them that both bring you joy and make the world a better place, it seems like a win-win all around.

I liked this ice breaker a lot more than other classes that have a get-to-know-you ordeal. It was much more stimulating and helped me get to know my fellow class mates better. The people and subject matter in this class excites me, and I look forward to the rest of the semester.