Childhood Heroes

Joan Didion's article about John Wayne not only shows her infatuation with the actor, but also the impact that this man had on her life. As a child Didion admired Wayne's adventourous lifestyle, and calm persona. She writes about her admiration for Wayne's brave character and ability to be a "real man," who can be a provider for the woman. Didion claims to have never found her John Wayne in her own relationships despite her constant search for it. John Wayne also shows Didion what a woman should be, even though some may agee that he portrays woman as inferior to men.

Blink 182 has been in my life ever since I heard the song, "Whats My Age Again" on my brother's CD mix, while riding in the car. Once I heard this song, I knew that I had to hear more from this glorious band. One day after a boring school day in fifth grade, I snuck into my brother's room and came across a Blink 182 CD with a picture of a woman wearing an abundance of makeup, dressed as a sexy nurse. I immediately took this CD into my room and listened to the whole thing straight through. This became an after school ritual of mine. Throughout middle school, my love for  Blink 182 only became stronger. It brought me and my best friend together that fateful night at the sixth grade dance, and inspired me to start a band in highschool. When I received the news that the band had reunited, I was ecstatic and ever since then, I have seen them play live every time they came to Hershey.

On Shitty First Drafts

Anne Lamott's comical approach to explaining a step in the writing process that every writer must suffer through is actually full of useful advice. She stresses to the reader that the first draft is meant to be "shitty, "and that "all good writers write them." This first version has the right to be unorganized and grammatically incorrect. Lamott provides stories from her own career as a writer to relate to the reader. I had much to think about the essay as a whole. Whenever I have had to write any sort of paper up until now, I was always worried about what I was saying when I had  not even written anything. I now realize this is a major factor that, to an extent, has been crippling my writing.

Nothing makes me more inclined to bang my head against a wall than writing any sort of paper. Before I even start the process I have this dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach that is telling me that this is going to take a while. After a few minutes of contemplation and mindless Facebook surfing, I begin to write my first sentence. Something about this sentence never seems right, and after another five minutes of butchering, I have, what I feel is, the first sentence of my paper. My writing from here gets a bit easier sentence by sentence. I almost have to warm up. This first sentence is like stretching before going on a long run on a day when all I want to do is be a couch potato. My idea of writing is much worse than the actual process.

I need to warm up before I write. The first sentence in my writing is like stretching before going on a long run on a day when all I want to do is be a couch potato. That is to say that my thoughts about writing are much worse than actually siting down and doing it. Just like thinking about running, or doing any type of exercise on a day when you do not have much energy is far worse than when you are actually at the gym.