Shitty First Drafts

Anne Lamott's essay spoke much to me about getting started with writing. She spoke much about how starting out writing is hard for anyone, even famous author's, English teachers, or whoever they may be. She expressed how there aren't really any writers that just sit down and type their entire story or essay up in a matter of minutes, without flaws or imperfection. A lot of the times people struggle most to just get the general outline typed out on a page.
From her personal standpoint, she believes one should just vent onto the page with anything they can think of, no matter how crazy it could possibly be. What I got out of her essay is that it's good to just get a starting point even if it's all jumbled up and all over the place. I feel this does help me some because I to have trouble just getting started on something, mainly because I get distracted from writing very easily. Although, when ever I begin writing, I tend to act as if it is my final draft and I tend to just correct myself as I go through it. I've never been big on just writing something bad just to have something down on paper finally.
Throughout her essay Lamott expressed how frustrated she would get and that it almost felt as if she'd die if she left her writing to do something else. I like her also get frustrated when you just get into a rut and can't think of anything to put on paper, but I would normally just leave for a bit to give my mind a break. I guess I've just never been so attached to my writing so I always just wanted to write the best first draft I could so I wouldn't have to write out anymore.
Lamott also used many strange metaphors and references in her essay. She uses references to parents in agony to what she's writing or fear of people finding her stories boring like a houseplant. She also spoke up her pen being like locked up snarling dogs that would creep their way out if she stopped writing. I thought it was kind of crazy how into a writing one could be. Although, I did like the general idea of the exercise that her hypnotist gave her. I do feel like I have thousands of words flowing through my mind at times when I'm trying to write, and just to pick them out and close them up to keep them quiet really helped me to think clearer.

If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?

    "If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?" was a fairly simple story to read. As soon as i started reading i suddenly found myself getting hungrier but I began to realize more and more what the story was about. Throughout the entire story it felt like the author had a constant struggle with how to fit it. She didn't necessarily seem socially handicapped but more so confused and misguided.
    At the start of the story she talked much about how she and her sister wished to grow away from her families food traditions and wished to eat more "American" foods such as: bologna, bacon, hot dogs, and many other meets that Americans seem to eat on a day to day basis. Although, as life went on the "American" foods seemed strange to her, smelled weird, and were frankly unattractive to her tastes anymore. This seemed to make her even more confused and nervous in a way. She began to wonder where she belonged; she didn't necessarily want the ways of her parents, who were Indian, and she didn't seem to fit in with the American ways.
    She eventually at one time heard of the Indian restaurants in America and was pretty fond of them for a short while. After this point the story just seemed like a confusing struggle about food really. She managed to get married to a meat-eating husband who had to make several odd negotiations about when he ate meats or didn't eat them, and she became a little scared of him leaving her for a "meat-eater".
    All together, it was a pretty interesting read. She seemed to have a very real struggle throughout the story over such a simple matter to most people. I realized that foreign things, no matter how simple, can be extremely frustrating and confusing to those who are new to it, even to the point where it's just out of the ordinary.

Brandt’s “Sponsors of Literacy”

Reading Brandt's "Sponsors of Literacy" was definitely a difficult start for me but the more I read on, the more it slowly came to me. To me, Brandt put an emphasis on how literacy can be seen in many aspects such as your surroundings, an institution like school, or maybe one or several people. I know teachers play a big role in literacy in many people's lives. There is much demand for proper literacy in today's society that you almost struggle in a way with how much a certain knowledge is needed. I remember one portion of the reading where Brandt spoke of sponsors being people that show up typically in your memories, so I'd definitely have to say my parents are very responsible for my amount of literacy today. They have always been there if i needed help or had questions and they've been a huge help.