Jessica Smith's Blog: August 2015

Jessica Smith
English 1100
August 27, 2015
Prof. Young

Getting to Know Me

There are 6,928 'Jessica Smith's' in the world, however, I consider myself to be different from all of them. Since my name is so common, I typically introduce myself as Jess, and the last few months my best friends from home called me 'J,' which I began to love as a nickname. To begin, I live in Bayville, New Jersey with my mom, dad and little sister. Seeing I'm very close to the shore, we're big beach lovers. This summer, I would go to Seaside Park before work, after work, on my off days, with friends, alone, or basically any opportunity I had, I would go to the beach. Besides the beach, I do love sports as well. Growing up, I played soccer for a college showcase team in Berkeley, then onto middle school and high school. During high school I played lacrosse as well, and loved the new introduced sport. However, I don't play these sports anymore because it became too overwhelming with my school work, my job and social life. Going into the topic about my social life, I feel as though that is something I'm very passionate about. In other words, I don't care as much about the popularity aspect of a social life, but I care a lot about the friends I do have. I am very passionate about making sure that the relationships I have with the people in my life are sincere and legitimate. I also love listening to music, whether I'm doing homework or browsing almost all social medias - which I do very often - I love having some sort of sound in the background. Depending on the activity is how I can depict the genre of music I put on. For example, right now I'm listening to Drake and other current popular artists because I like the upbeat tune. On the other hand, I also love reggae because it's so calm and happy. The Dirty Heads are my favorite band in that genre. I've even seen them a couple times in concert, and had the pleasure of meeting them.

When it comes to writing, I find myself staring at a blank computer screen until the ideas flow to my brain. During my senior year of high school, my English teacher made it a requirement to create an outline for everything before handing in a final copy. However, I found myself doing the bare minimum of every outline and would never refer back to it when constructing the final copy. I much rather think of different ideas on my own than take the time out to write an outline. Every year during my high school English classes, each teacher was different with grading and had a different teaching style. My freshman teacher, Mrs. Lytle, would help us to construct our essays from what I could remember. Therefore, it was nearly impossible to get a bad grade considering our teacher would sit in class and help us write it all out. Sophomore year was very different and far more challenging. My teacher, Mrs.Wildfrid, had us write essays as tests, quizzes, homework, etc. She would rip apart everything we wrote but would always let us take her considerations and edit our papers for another submission. Junior year seemed to not exist in all honesty. My teacher, Mrs. Hawtin, was one of my favorites as far as socializing with, but when it came to essays she just gave our papers a grade -typically an A or B - and continued onto another topic soon after. Last but not least, senior year with Mr. Mannion was probably my most challenging yet helpful years. He would give us constructive criticism, outlines, example presentations and so on. Each of these teachers would correct our grammar, punctuation, and five paragraph structure, helping me learn about it and develop the skill throughout the years.

Although I've been in honors English since high school, and have taken actual college classes, I feel as though I still have so much to learn. I always considered writing as one of my strong points, however, I always need the time to think and plan it out. Being timed in any style of writing has always been a struggle in my life, which I tend to work on this semester. I rewrite sentences a million times until I feel as though it's perfect which I should learn to save until the end. With that being said, I would rate myself as a B writer because I'm completely average when I take the time to write. In class, I may be more of a C writer because the pressure fills my head and always blocks the ideas I want to discuss. Overall, I'm looking forward to excel in this English class this semester. I have skill I want to be able to apply and add to. I'm no where near perfect and am excited to see what new things I have to learn from this class and this new college experience.