My Thoughts on the Literary Contest

In the end, I enjoyed my time writing for the literary contest. Through it, I was able to finally understand what poetry really is. You see, I have never really liked poetry in general. Never really was my thing. I always thought that poetry as just writing about things in a pretty way. Well actually, that is what poetry is. It’s not just that though. That would be a massive understatement. I found out that poetry lets you find a way to express yourself in a way no other art form can. Through rhymes and metaphors, you can come closer to being able to describe a feeling. Someone can write to you saying, “I am sad.” But, poetry can show the reader the depth of the writer’s sadness. That is the power of this art form. I really enjoyed the process of finding out what poetry really is. Let me show you what led up to this epiphany.
At first, I dreaded entering the Literary Contest. I found it boring and not worth my time. I had to do it though, so I might as well learn to love it. First thing I did was go to google and typed, “What is Poetry?”. It gave me this,” literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of literature.”.  Though it told me outright what poetry is, it still was not enough. I wanted to find out firsthand what poetry was all about. I decided to search up famous poems. I found the poem, Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelly. The poem described a vast open desert and in it, a pedestal and the remains of a statue. I loved it. My favorite part of the poem was the word of the pedestal which said,” My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Then the poems proceeds to show what was left of his mighty kingdom, a broken statue and the vast open desert. This poem tells us in the end, no matter how powerful you are, we all bow down to the power of time. You and everything you build will, in the end, return to dust. I found this to be a powerful message. Though I easily summarized it, my short description will never give you the true meaning behind it. Through the poem’s imagery, I was able to feel my insignificance and my mortality.
In the end, as much as I dreaded it at first, I loved being able to participate in this contest. Through it I have a newfound respect for poetry. I realized how vastly unappreciated poetry is. Reading poetry inspired me to really put my heart and soul into my poem. I implore you reader, to read poetry. Through reading it, you will be able to peer deeply into the thoughts and feelings of other people. In the process, you might be able to find out more about yourself.  

  

Fun Assignments

I have to say. This has been one of the most interesting English classes I have ever taken. A lot of writing but interesting nonetheless. This is the first class where I’ve had so much freedom to express my thoughts and feelings. As long as I followed a small set of rules, I could write freely. This class has been sort of therapeutic for me because I could get things of my chest with some ink and paper. Besides writing essays, which is standard for English classes, we got assignments that flexed our creativity and got us out of our comfort zone. These assignments were the journal, life compass, and the multi genre project. These were my favorite ones because they were the most fun.

The journal was my favorite assignment. This is the reason why I said that I could get things of my chest in this class. We had to write one page each day until we got up to 40 pages. All we had to do was write about our thoughts. We could not cross out anything if we got it wrong grammatically. We did not have to worry about making typos. These conditions made my thoughts flow into the page as fluidly as a river. This assignment helped me relax. After I finished writing, my mind was free of negative thoughts, for they were all transferred to the page. Easily my favorite assignment.

After we wrote journal entries, we were supposed to do something called a life compass. It did not take long to make one. Just about 3 minutes of thought and you could quickly write one. From a scale of 1 to 3, we had to rate 4 categories that summarized our mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional state. This part was really cool because it served as a time to reflect upon our day. I would ask self-questions like, “how does my body feel today?”, “Was I happy today?”, “how close have I been with my family and friends?” and “how productive has my mind been today?”. These moments of self-reflection would help me realize if I there was anything I felt was lacking inside of me. Thanks to that, I could fix the things I thought I felt was a little strange about me today.

I loved the multi genre project. These assignments made me get out of my bed and do something outside (even though I did not appreciate it back then). We would have to do things like go outside and talk to people as if we were tourist. I went to the nearest Starbucks(tourist central) and ordered myself a Caffe Americano. I had to choose that one because it just sounded like something a tourist would order. This assignment was easily the most fun. You do not get to do this in most English classes. A nice change of pace.

This English class has been the most memorable one I have ever been in. These assignments were relaxing and actually helped me take other classes. The journal helped me out in my most stressful moments. The compass helped me find the source of the stress and minimize it. The multi genre project helped me do something besides watch Netflix and play video games. These were some of the only assignments ever that I have considered fun.