Final Draft Paper 1: Educational Narrative

Jordan M. Nichols

English 101

Dr. Begert

Educational Narrative 1/30/2013

      Nobody knows how much choices will affect their lives at the time. Standing there at San Diego International airport looking at the departures/arriving billboard the two words "on time" was the only thing my mind was fixated on. Sitting there with all my belongings in two suitcases and a duffel bag. All I was worried about was boarding that plane and starting my life.

      This moment would start when I just turned 19 years old and boarded that plane towards the other side of the world. Destination would be a tiny, lobster claw shaped island called Okinawa, Japan. Coral reefs and sandy beaches formed the jagged seventy or so mile coastline but more importantly it was "Not the United States" which was the only thing I cared about at the time. At the pinnacle of adult life this place will shape my future whether I liked it or not.

      A couple of months ago this was the contract I picked. The place I was working at held openings for positions in Japan. I did not hesitate to pick the furthest place away from home. Growing up all my life in Birmingham, Alabama I felt the need to escape. Being in a small industrial city nestled in the heart of the south my opportunities seemed bleak at most. Since pressures of entering the black hole of blue collar work was not a very well entertained idea for me, I decided to enlist in the United States Navy. I would go on to complete basic training and then schooling to become a Corpsman (a medic for United States Navy and Marine Corps). The next plan was to leave everything I was comfortable with behind.

       Departing from the terminal I took my first steps in a different country. The first thing was relief to be out of cramped cabin for the past ten hours. With each footstep the feeling of relief was slowly turning into mild anxiety. “What have I done? No, really!? Why am I here?” I was lost and felt different from everyone else. Neon lights and buses lit the roadways outside Narita International Airport. Luckily, I was rag tagged with another group of Americans and we corralled through the unknown together with the masses of people pushing us forward. I would eventually make it to my connecting flight towards what would be my new home.

      Thrown into this place with no known prior Japanese language skills, I was starting to wonder about my sanity. My mind scared by the weird, wiggly calligraphy that etched itself on every horizontal surface in site. This would be the catalyst that made me jump over the edge of uncertain down the path to teach myself a second language. A point of looking at everything as it challenged me. "Try to read me, you idiot foreigner." A challenge my naive, boyhood bravery would graciously accept. Everywhere I went I needed to know Japanese from menus, road signs, and even advertisements. Never would I think I would miss reading random pointless ads. I enlisted my deeper thoughts and  persuaded every ounce of my free time to try and learn this elusive beast. From online texts and self-help to even sinking so low into reading the Japanese: For Dummies book (It was a little helpful but only used it for a week). Frustration and confusion will be my new best friends as every night we would spend together getting to know each other.

      At first it started with learning the two different alphabets and after months that would lead into kanji learning and sentence structure. Very arduous at first but over time the headaches would soften with the flashcards retiring to my memory. I moved up the elementary ladder of going to simple words and sentences to whole children’s books. Never would you see a more charismatic champion exclaiming from behind the spines of little kids’ books. You could walk in my room and see my head bobbing left and right like a tennis spectator. Nothing would seem more comfortable than after working a long shift and immediately sinking my teeth into various grammar book. TV shows would follow later and afterwards I would start to sail through some news channels and read thoughtful articles aided with only a dictionary as my atlas. Nothing would be more exhilarating than seeing a new word in the wild as I try to corner it down in my short term memory.

     It was about survival and trying to evolve forming this life life necessity. There was still something missing in this process. Even with my jumbled thoughts and expressions in my head, it all felt very cold and one sided. I had to fill that social need for my learning. Everyone else was speaking it and I couldn’t compete with them. I came to a very barren plateau and I felt sluggish. I was putting hours and hours a day learning and was wondering why I could not feel more progress. “Did I belong here?” If I could not hurl myself over this wall it might just enclose me on the outside permanently.

     I needed to form friendships and bonds with the locals. I needed to hold conversations in Japanese with another warm body. Somebody to bounce off expressions off of and see the facial cues if what I said was even acceptable. I would slowly form sentences to shakily ask strangers. I then started to feel more confident and started to talk more. Later I would start talking to Japanese coworkers at the hospital. I would approach with the intent to converse while a mix of unsure and excitement would force their facial muscles to strain out an awkward smile. I could only imagine the thought of a Southern, blond haired kid speaking their own language showed instant amusement. They would guide me along through the conversation. I felt like an inexperienced dancer dragging my feet over theirs as a tumbled in and out of the dialect. Neither gratuitous nor spectacular but nonetheless I was holding on. I still talk to some of them to this day. Despite the miles upon miles of blue Pacific that separate with us I still will get pictures of them and notes about what they are doing.

      Even after three years living there I was very proficient but not fluent. I still wanted to master this new skill. When I moved back to the States I would continue to learn it every day and try my best to recreate all my stimuli from Japan and implement it to my American world. Watching Japanese news programs and reading short articles would start to take priority in my life. One of the things that surprised me was the benefit it gave me in other areas. I never took something as serious as this was. I was an average student in high school with no real motivation to learn on my own time. An average worker that made sure my work started and stopped the moment my hours were clocked. This gave me new understanding of taking something and developing it. I became a self-starter and made sure that I applied the same discipline to other tasks I was doing even if it did not relate to learning Japanese.

Ed Narrative Rough Draft

     Nobody knows how much choices will affect their lives at the time. Standing there at San Diego International airport looking at the departures/arriving billboard the two words "on time" was the only thing my mind was fixated on. Sitting there with all my belongings in two suitcases and a duffel bag. All I was worried about was boarding that plane and starting my life.

     This moment would start when I just turned 19 years old and boarded that airplane towards the other side of the world. Destination, Okinawa, Japan a tiny, lobster clawed shape island called . Coral reefs and sandy beaches formed the jagged 70 or so mile coastline but more importantly it was "Not the United States" which was the only thing I cared about at the time. At the pinnacle of adult life this place will shape my future whether I liked it or not.

    Coming off the terminal I took my first steps in a different country. The first thing was relief to be out of cramped cabin for the past ten hours. With each footsteps the feeling of relief was slowly turning into mild anxiety. What have I done? No, really!? Why am I here? I was lost and felt isolated from everyone else.  Neon lights and buses lighted the roadways outside Narita International Airport. Luckily I was rag tagged with another group of Americans and we corralled through the unknown together. I would eventually board a separate flight away the next day away from Tokyo and away from the group.

     Thrown into this place with no known prior Japanese language skills, I was starting to wonder about my sanity. My mind scared at the weird, wiggly calligraphy that etched itself on every horizontal surface in site.  This would be the catalyst that made me jump over the edge of uncertain down the path to teach myself a second language. A point of looking at everything as it challenged me. "Try to read my you idiot foreigner." A challenge my naive, boyhood bravery would graciously accept.

     Everywhere I went I needed to know Japanese from menus, road signs, to even advertisements. Never would I think I would miss reading random pointless ads. I enlisted my deeper thoughts and persuaded every ounce of my free time to try and learn this elusive beast. From online texts and self-help to even sinking so low into reading a Japanese: For Dummies book (It was a little helpful but only used it for a week) . Frustration and confusion will be my two new best friends as every night we would spend together reading and learning about it.

     Started with learning the two different alphabets and after months will lead into kanji learning and sentence structure.  After a year or so I moved up the elementary ladder of going to children’s books. Never would you see a more charismatic champion exclaiming from behind the spines of little kids books. TV shows would follow later and afterwards I would start to cruise through some news channels and read thoughtful articles aided with only a dictionary as my atlas.

    At first it was about survival but over time it would evolve into a life necessity. I had to feel the social need in my life. Everyone else was speaking it and I was stuck with my very incompatible English. The feeling of being completely different came in a very steady and slow awakening. Blurred at first than as you move on in your day becoming clearer and clearer. Did I belong here? This other side of the wall became darker and darker and my only hurl myself over it was to study more and more.

    A year later and the thoughts were getting more and more positive .  After a while the dread of going home after a 10 hour shift to not immediately relaxing seemed idiotic at first. Then I started to see how the simple things I learned would present themselves out in the world. From finally identifying one word to slowly forming sentences to shakily asking strangers directions. I started to see the reward. I then started to feel more confident and started to talk more. I even made friends with a lot of people that even to this day I still keep in touch.

    Even after three years living there I was nowhere close to being fluent, but I still wanted to master this new skill. When I moved back to the States I would continue to learn it every day and try my best to recreate all my stimuli from Japan and implement it to my American world. Watching Japanese news programs and reading short articles would start to take priority in my life.

   One of the things that surprised me was the benefit it gave me in other areas. I never took something as serious as this was. I was an average student in high school with no real motivation to learn on my own time. An average worker that made sure my work started and stopped the moment my hours were clocked. This gave me new understanding of taking something and developing it. I became a self-starter and made sure that I applied the same discipline to other tasks I was doing even it didn’t relate to learning Japanese.

Favoring Malcolm X's style in "Learning To Read"

I enjoyed Malcolm X's "Learning To Read" the most out of the authors. The way he took one single moment in his life and expanded on it in every detail was impressive with such perfect rhythm in developing is narrative it's hard to imagine he was once illiterate.

             "In my slow, painstaking, ragged handwriting, I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks."


This was my favorite excerpt from the narrative. That one sentence instantly exposed his work ethic to me. Showing that all it takes to succeed at something is rolling up your sleeves and be willing to do the dirty work.

Another line he used that I enjoyed was, "I woke up the next morning, thinking about those words--immensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but I'd written words that I never knew were in the world." This brought a funny grin to my face. Forcing me to remember all those little successes in life. The joys and wisdom you gain by applying yourself have never came more clearer. I could imagine the glee that must of overcame him in that very morning. Certainly not unlike most children have when the realize they can ride that bicycle for the first time.

Literacy was that bicycle for Malcolm and he was going to ride the joys of it for the rest of his life thanks to his perseverance and willingness to overcome his shortcomings. How couldn't that inspire you?

Differences between Malcolm X,Benjamin Franklin, and Mike Rose

       The most stand out differences I found between all three authors were how they used their personalities in the text. Each one of them had their style and objectives for their stories. Malcolm X used vivid imagery in his "Learning to Read" narrative. With a motive of encouraging and inspiring people to take upon a task that seems unthinkable and complete it. You could sense a just understanding of his self-confidences as a tool to motive anybody that was of an unwilling nature. Benjamin Franklin used a very thorough account about his experience. Making sure not one tiny event was unaccounted for in a memoir like fashion. Mike Rose was more of a recollection of his dog days in vocational education. He wanted to replicate the event for his readers to show light of how backwards and unproductive it was for him. Hoping to cast out a spotlight on the process to raise awareness on how a terrible track it could be for future pupils.

Mike Rose "I Just Wanna Be Average" Questions

1. Mike Rose had a difficult and cumbersome life in Vocational Ed. Juggling work,home, and a sub par school life was a recipe for failure. He had to take two buses to school where he spent most of the morning with his friends. Going to school it was a constant battle to get help from the teachers to fit their educational needs. It was an inner city's assembly line of failure to put all the lower performing kids in one place to almost quarantined them away from the rest of the children. I've had some teachers whose passion made of never been there but nothing comes close the experiences that Rose went through.

2.Rose talked a lot about the mild ignorance that was put upon him and his classmates to even being beaten by gym teachers. This instilled a very deep divide between the students and the teachers where they would face each day in survival mode. To just survive one lousy class after the other. The teachers had no way of catching their imagination and kept using the same plan that failed them in regular school. Rose couldn't learn the traditional ways and had to come up with his own way to do algebra equations. He states his mind was "bungled up" and he would treat studies like "playing with your food."

3. High school can be disorienting for students like Ken Harvey for a lot of reasons. High school takes place in the gray area of growing to an adult and you're struggling to keep up with your peers. It's all too much to juggle and can be confusing at times. At times he just completely shut it out by trying to be normal and average. His rebellion was to be completely middle of the line and he refused to shape an identity or create any ambition.

4. I think college can be disorienting for some because our whole lives we're taught to follow a line. From toddlers we are raised to follow our parents' instructions and throughout grade school we had to do what the board of education wanted us to do. Every detail mandated by someone older than you. After all 18 years for most of us the rug gets ripped right in front us. All of sudden you're an adult and you should know what to do by yourself. I think college people can't cope with their own decisions. The first chance they get of freedom they can't make the right decision because growing up nobody bothered teaching us ways to be decisive and to make plans. It was a big follow the leader to the edge and than see how far you can jump. The best way is to learn all the real world problem solving on your own.  I find it welcoming. I went straight into the workforce at 18 with six years of real world experience under my belt college it's a breathe of fresh air. I'm in a place solely for learning anything I want. I have a chance to find and define my own profession.If I did this while I was younger I wouldn't have the discipline to see it through.

5. My history of education greatly contrasts . I had the typical suburban public school pipeline with cookie cutter teachers and curriculum to match, but I had a lot of great teachers that tried to go away from the book and let us think and debate together. Even though most days it seemed it was a battle between trying to give us innovation but still trying to implement the army of palpable standardized testings upon us. You could tell they were trying to teach us something more greater.

Cubing: Educative Narrative Topic

Describe it

My experience started out when I just turned 19 years old and moved to the other side of the world. I would be living in Okinawa, Japan and my world will shift completely. At the pinnacle of adult life this place will shape my future whether I liked it or not. Coming off the terminal I took my first steps in a different country. I was lost and felt isolated from everyone else.  Neon lights and buses lighted the roadways outside Narita International Airport. Luckily I was rag tagged with another group of Americans and we corralled through the unknown together. I would eventually take up residence just south the mainland (Honshu Region) to a tiny, lobster clawed shape island called Okinawa. Coral reefs and sandy beaches formed the jagged 70 or so mile coastline. Thrown into this place with no known prior Japanese language skills. My mind scared at the weird, wiggly calligraphy that etched itself on every horizontal surface in site.  This would be the catalyst that made me jump over the edge of uncertain down the path to teach myself a second language.

Apply it

Everywhere I went I needed to know Japanese from menus, road signs, to even advertisements. Never would I think I would miss reading random pointless ads. I enlisted my deeper thoughts and persuaded every ounce of my free time to try and learn this elusive beast. From online texts and self-help to even sinking so low into reading a Japanese: For Dummies book(It was a little helpful but only used it for a week) . Frustration and confusion will be my two new best friends as every night we would spend together reading and learning about it. Started with learning the two different alphabets and after months will lead into kanji learning and sentence structure.  After a year or so I moved up the elementary ladder of going to children’s books and TV shows and later start to cruise through some news channels and read thoughtful articles aided with only a dictionary as my atlas.

Associate it

At first it turned into a social need. I had to everybody else was speaking it and I was stuck with my very incompatible English. After half a year it turned into wanting though.  After a while the dread of going home after a 10 hour shift to not immediately relaxing seemed idiotic at first. Then I started to see how the simple things I learned would present themselves out in the world. From finally identifying one word to slowly forming sentences to shakily ask strangers directions. I started to see the reward. I then started to feel more confident and started to talk more. I even made friends with a lot of people that still talk to this day in America. Even after three years living there I was nowhere close to being fluent I wanted to master this new skill. When I moved back to the States I would continue to learn it every day and try my best to recreate all my stimuli from Japan and implement it to my American world.

Analyze it

One of the things that surprised me was the benefit it gave me in other areas. I never took something as serious as this was. I was an average student in high school with no real motivation to learn on my own time. An average worker that made sure my work started and stopped the moment my hours were clocked. This gave me new understanding of taking something and developing it. I became a self-starter and made sure that I applied the same discipline to other tasks I was doing even it didn’t relate to learning Japanese. I than started to love the idea of learning more and more and now I’m back in college and just thirsty to learn more subjects.  

Cubing Exercise: Cellphone, Apply It; Marijuana Associate It

Apply it.

Cellphones (smart phones) are used every day as the greatest invention to fight boredom and social pressures.  No matter where you are you have the access of applications and games to combat the fear of showing up to place with nothing to do. Back then if you showed up early to dinner or an event before your friends you were left alone. Under the bright spotlight of ”Singular”. Nothing to look at as your eyes moving side to side hoping and praying for a familiar face to walk through. You sat there as you felt the eyes of the masses look upon you and start to question your intentions. “Hey why did you come all the way to a restaurant alone?” “I wonder if his/her friends really wanted to meet with him here?”. Now we don’t even need friends in person anymore.  I have my Zelda games on my phone and enough internet page links to keep me occupied in a lifetime in solitude. A proverbial shift happened and now we meet up only to look in a descending 45 degree angle at a rectangular shape internet machine. Friends say hey and immediately start talking to whoever isn’t currently present. And if they aren’t talking to each other they’re googling reasons to get back to their house where they can use a bigger rectangle shape internet machine.

***

Associate it.

Marijuana is associated with multiple components. Culturally it is at a crossroads. Growing up parents and authority-type figures will quickly tell you it forms you in an inescapable black hole of unintuitive and lackluster future. Striking how it's part of rather rejected class of which no normal person striving to become their personal best will use it. Doctors and researchers will submit reports about the qualities and risks with it. Outlining benefits to cancer coping and among other various medical conditions.  Lawyers may pick sides of legality of it. The counsels will take up sides and legal pads disputing the legality of this plant. Citizens will petition amongst their statesman about the topic. Celebrities and musicians will be seen using it and coining it for inspiration.  Students will separate their friends and acquaintances from it.

Are They Really That Different? Benjamin Franklin Vs. Malcolm X

   Excluding the generational difference between the two styles of writing you could find a lot of similarities between the two autobiographies. The style of writing was the only major difference I found between the two stories. Benjamin Franklin and Malcolm X have an oddly similar path of gaining more education through reading and writing. Despite being separated by not only two centuries and different sets of social classes their journey was more related to each other and it was great uncovering it through both their works.

   They had a very personal history with the language in which they talked about how they went through very extreme measures to hone their skills. They both talked in a way that literature almost found them. Malcolm X found it while enduring a prison sentence. Taking every chance to read and go to prison debates to sharpen his intellect. Benjamin Franklin would pursue it by sneaking off in the corners of his residence and mind to dive into his favorite works. They both would meticulously print out their work in order to expose themselves to newer words that they can use. Not a detail left out as they recreated their new gained literature on paper to further developed their talents.

  Benjamin Franklin would use it as a way to follow his dreams in a time where his future looked uncertain. It was through reading and print making that was able to center his life around and find his love for reading and debating. Malcolm X used it as a way to turn his life around. With growing up in his present social class and being illiterate his opportunities were limited. Though getting incarcerated was a blessing in disguise. It's what led him down his path of redemption.

  After reading I want to try to instill their adept work ethic in my narrative. Keep rewriting and editing to make sure my paper is as good as it can be!
 


  

Pre-Writing Past Use

       Pre-writing skills are very useful tools to use for any essay,narrative, or story. It can help out with identifying main goals you wish to accomplish and the best ways to use your writing to accomplish the task.

      Every year at my work we have to submit evaluations on ourselves for our performance. I usually start by outlining topics I could use in the report to make my performance look strong against my peers. I would take the most pertinent subjects and try to elaborate the most on them. This helps guide me to make my best parts stand out for my boss. It is easy to get lost in the details and stray from topic, so using a framework is a very apt way of writing. Especially if you are unfamiliar with the topic at hand and want to make sure you have enough thoughts to express. This outline really help me use my time productively.

      An outline really help me use my time productively. I had a lot of success with using it on topics I wasn't very strong at writing. Even though I prefer just thinking aloud with ideas for stories and narratives I found for research papers or objective pieces that handwriting out goals and your blue print for the paper helped immensely.

Malcom X "Learning to Read" Afterthoughts

        Malcolm X's story left a profound resonance with me. I have always remember studying on Malcolm X but never read any of his work. A regret I would instantly realize!

        His demeanor calm, laid back but vividly strong. I could read his words all day. I love how he doesn't leave a detail out. Engulfing the reader into his realm as he recreates it in front of your eyes. As if I was there opposite of him in a room, a study, or maybe an auditorium filled with guests as he pressed on about his experiences.  His ability to show his enthusiasm of learning to read really came to life. I like the idea that he took one moment and expanded on it effortlessly. Maybe he knew his text would outlive his life and he was determined to capture every second of his memory and transplant it into his audience.

       I would like to use his technique of all the vivid details into my paper. I feel like after each story we read I gain a better understanding on how different techniques to use. With Malcolm X it was his detailed account. I probably wouldn't come close but this piece gave me the impression that personal experiences that are vivid enough will gain more ground with readers.

Getting An "A" On Your First Paper

What must you do on the first paper to get an A?
     First thing make sure you follow the requirements. Which include MLA format and composing 1,200-1,500 words. First find a significant past event that changed your outlook on life that you would be willing to share with others. Use a style of writing that embodies a great personal tone that you can connect with your audience.
     When reciting your story, include a lot of details, support, observations, and connections.  Be direct with your examples and make yourself clear. Stay on topic and try not to ramble about your topic. This will set a comfortable mood with the reader.
Make you first essay as truthful as possible. Don’t be afraid to use evidence, but don’t let documented evidence overshadow your personal experience. Try not to have trepidations of using humor and your personality into your paper.
      If you would like you can put your essay in chronologic order, this helps to keep the readers focus. Also if you have a lot of different events during different times it help the reader keep track. Over all make sure that it is NOT PLAGERIZED!!

Both Writers conveyed different approaches when writing their stories. Feross Aboukhadiejeh's story,"How I Learned To Program Computers", had a very light tone to it. It started out with an easy overview to show what the topic was about and than delved into a chronological life story growing up creating websites. The style was easy to follow and was able to grab a large audience due to it being a quick read with amusing anecdotes about having some boyhood bravery and solid work ethic was a recipe for success in the computer world. His passion showed through his lightheartedness and it was enjoyable. I think this would be an easy approach to emulate. Nice, easy and fun with just enough to keep people occupied and inspired.

In "How To Live Google Free" by Joshua J. Romero is a more detailed account on his amuses of trying to rid life of Google. After realizing how much his life includes one company and how legally they can use all your information was a real shock to Romero. He then decides to quit. He uses a lot of tables of new applications he found and shows step by step how someone can go down the same path if they desire. This is great way to pull a person in and show them the way your experience can be accomplished with success.Luckily his topic is a very common trait we all have in the digital word which means anybody can be inspired to take his approach. It would be great to use a topic and be able to plan a line by line way to mentor readers.