fastwrites...

~Choose an item from any of the preceding lists as a prompt. Just start fastwriting about the item; perhaps start with a story, a scene, a situation, a description. Follow the writing to see where it leads.

It was our second competition of the year and we were just as nervous about competing at this one as we were our first. In our beautiful handmade white outfits me and the rest of the spazzlers waited behind stage for our turn. We preformed our lyrical routine flawlessly when the time came. The song we danced to was called “Slow me Down”. It really was a beautiful dance. We continued through our day competing our various other dances, tap, jazz and finally production. At the end of the competition there are three encores announced. These are the three most entertaining dances of the competition asked to preform again. As expected our studios production got called back along with another studios production and a senior hip-hop dance.

We all rushed back to our dressing room to get dressed for our performance completely excited. About two minutes later our dance teacher comes running back saying that the hip-hop had to pull out due to girls having left. Our lyrical had gotten the encore too! We all started screaming our heads off. Keep in mind this is out of 600+ dances over the course of two days. So the plan was we would do our production and run to our dressing room change while the other team was dancing and then go on again! That was the craziest 15 minutes of my life. Clothes, makeup, and shoes flying everywhere helped it go by in a blur.

When all that was done we went and sat down on stage for awards. My lyrical and production took first in their categories. We finally got to the last three awards to give out. Encore, Sportsmanship and Overall. Encore went to our production. After screams and hugs we all sat down to hear who got sportsmanship and overall. The sportsmanship award went to a small studio that I can’t remember.

As I said before there were 600+ dances at that competition. It spanned over two days and ranged in age groups from 5 year olds to adult dances, and ranged in styles from tap to jazz to ballet to modern to hiphop etc.  We now listened with curiously for who one over all.  In the typical dramatic voice we hear, “And the overall winner for this year’s competition is….. Slow Me Down, from Premiere Dance Academy!” I wish we had a camera to capture the moment because all of our faces went from shock to screaming to crying. None of us had put the fact that we got encore to the chance at winning over all, together. Encore was more for most entertaining.

We claimed our four foot trophy, still in complete shock. I will never forget that dance or those girls or that competition. We really did danced to that song with our hearts and I think this is one of the reasons the judges loved it so much. It had meaning and purpose. This was one of those moments in my life I wish I could slow down. Later that night I still couldn’t believe we had been honored that way. It was one of the best days of my life.

~Most of us quietly harbor dreams—we hope to be a professional dancer, a good father, an activist, an Olympic luger, or a novelist. Begin a fastwrite in which you explore your dreams. When the writing stalls ask yourself these questions: Where did this dream come from? Do I still believe in it? In what moments did it seem to be within reach? In what moments did it fade? Plunge into those moments.

I dream to be a successful educated mother someday. I have always worked hard in high school to get into college. Right now I want to get into dental school and become a dentist. When I use to live in Texas I had the nicest dentist. I loved to go there! I have only ever had one cavity so I really never have associated pain with trips to the dentist. Maybe I just like the attention, or the amazing cleanness in my mouth after a visit, and that’s why I enjoy it so much. Right now being a dentist seems like the ideal job if I want to have a family. They can work wherever basically, from the city to the country. Everywhere needs a dentist. Also, once I have had enough experience I can open my own practice and make my own hours. Dentists make a lot of money too. I want to have kids and give them all that I can. As sad as it is, money really is important now a days. My family now isn’t wealthy but we get by. We only ever travel to Texas to see family and never go on vacations. That is something I want to be able to afford in my future.

This dream came from my past and previous experiences with dentists. They are all so nice and funny! This career also just seems so ideal so me! I know I should probably be dreaming of being a famous actor or something but I think more logically then that.

Right now, this dream seems to be in reach! It isn’t a ridiculous dream and if I keep up my hard work I can reach it. As I am looking into colleges for next year, I am trying to keep my future for a family in mind. This simple dream will bring me happiness and that’s all I can hope for I guess.

This dream fades whenever my mom and I talk about money. Going to a university is going to cost a lot of money. If I can’t get the scholarships I need, my dream is going to be harder to reach. I almost cry when we have to talk about this. I get super quiet and upset. I tell my mom I can do it myself and then feel mean for saying it because I know she wants to help me through college the most she can. Life is tough though and I know I can do whatever it takes to get where I want to go.

~What do you consider “turning points” in your life, times when you could see the end of one thing and the beginning of something else? Fastwrite about one of those moments for seven minutes.

My quinceañera was probably one of my biggest turning points in my life. The party itself traditionally represented me becoming a woman and my family presenting me as one. But I think the whole experience of planning it and the day really did change me. Before the quince I was really self-conscious and overall a really awkward little girl. I had about 4 good friends that I always hung out with and no one else really. Boys never came over to my house and that subject was always awkward whenever my mom tried to talk to me about it.

For the party I had a court that did a waltz during the presentation. I choose seven girls and seven boys to be in it. We called ourselves the quince group. In and out of school we all became best friends. Boys didn’t seem so strange to invite over anymore and me and my mom became a lot closer. The hours of planning the quinceañera helped this greatly. I felt more confident after 500+ people showed up to celebrate me. I had grown out of my awkwardness after that. As of today I still am more confident and know it is okay to be me.

Adventure- Something I Have Never Done Before

New Heights

            The Mall of America, being around a twenty minute drive from many of us who live in the twin cities, can almost be considered our local mall. It attracts thousands of tourists every year and MOA is always trying to build bigger and better attractions. I have been to the mall plenty of times but yesterday my friend Lucy, her younger sister Tara, and I we went there to try and find something foreign to us. We wanted to do something we have never done before at this mall that we usually only shop at. After sneaking Tara past the security guards with Lucy’s old license, we found exactly what we were looking for.

            Sixty five feet in the air a young boy leaned over a plank like Rose in Titanic. Below him were four levels of rope courses. Everyone on it was harnessed up and attached to the metal structure. Their facial expressions ranged from ‘This is a little scary.’ to ‘This is awesome!’ to ‘I’m going to puke.’ and to ‘I just puked!’. Everyone was smiling though once they touched the ground again. We stood in line for thirty minutes. We were more bored then scared by the time it was our turn to put the harnesses on. The personnel attached us to the course and we climbed to the first level. It was around this time something in my mind clicked. I am afraid of heights!

            I knew I was afraid of heights because I always have been. When I was seven my school had a carnival. I went on the Ferris wheel and cried the whole time because we were so high in the air. When we moved to Minnesota I refused to go on any of the Valley Fair roller coasters that went more the 20 feet in the air. In eighth grade, this fear developed into something new though. Going back to Valley Fair on a field trip with all my friends I did not want to be the scaredy-cat so I went on the power tower. I made it out alive with the help of a death grip on the handles and screaming at the top of my lungs. As the day went on I began to enjoy this rush of adrenalin I felt whenever I was high in the air. Although I was afraid, I was enjoying it!

            Every level we went up got scarier. My hands ached from holding onto the rope so hard. When we reached the fourth level my mouth was dry and no taste. Tara kept encouraging me as I stepped out onto the single rope that you must walk across to get to the plank where we had seen the boy before. When I made it across I felt proud. My heart was pounding, my legs were shaking, and I had a nervous smile as I took the five steps out to the edge of the plank.

            Being only a few feet from the ceiling, I reined over the park. All the way up there I literally saw the world from a different point of view. People were so tiny! I could see everyone and what they were doing; oblivious that someone else was watching their actions. The lights and sounds of the park were terrific. The lights blinked and shined and flashed like paparazzi’s cameras. I was able to zone in on different sounds: children laughing and screaming on the rides, music from the speakers, a roller coasters wheels against the metal as it rolled by, and all around happiness. In this location I felt the rope course shake under my feet but I felt bigger then this huge place. I not only was at the highest point but I had worked through a trilling fear to get there.

I wasn’t quite sure how I would make it down as I was frozen with fear. But, the second time on the levels was less scary then the one before and my fear slowly began to subsided. (Of course my hands relentlessly still gripped my rope.) Although I am no adrenalin junky it is fun to do something exciting like this once in a while. It can be electrifying to engage in your fears and try something new.

Writing Background

1.       What is your earliest memory of writing?  Tell the story.

My earliest memory of writing was in the 3^rd grade. I remember just wanting to write because it was fun. I had recently visited my Uncle Joe’s ranch outside of Victoria Texas. My little story told of all the things we did that day. This wasn’t an assignment or anything so I gave it to my teacher to show off what I had written. The end product was probably about a paragraph of writing with horrific spelling mistakes. I was so proud of this writing though because at conferences my story was displayed right by the sign in sheet for everyone to read. It was awesome having everyone so proud of something I had written.

2.       We usually divide our experiences as writers into private writing and school writing, or writing we do by choice and writing we are required to do for a grade.  Let’s focus on the school writing.  Tell the story of a teacher, a class, an essay, an exam, or other moment you consider a turning point in your understanding of yourself as a writer or your understanding or writing.

This is a hard subject to find something to write about. I don’t have a specific teacher or essay or anything that I consider a turning point for the good. However, I do recall a turning point for the worse. At the end of 3^rd grade I was placed into an Alpha Phonics class for dyslexic kids. I was a very mild case but, my spelling was horrible. I sounded out words exactly the way they were spelled and spelled exactly the way words sounded. My teacher made me right “bed” at the top of all my papers so I would write my bs and ds the correct way. I still suffer slightly from dyslexia but not as bad. Since I was put in the “special class” I ended up hating English, writing and spelling.

3.       Writing is part of the everyday fabric of life in the US, and this truer than ever with Internet communication.  Describe a typical day for you in which writing plays a part, and think about how this has changed in your lifetime so far.

Texting on cell phones is the most writing I do all day (excluding writing for this class). I have to be able to display emotion with words instead of tones and facial expressions. The people who text hundreds of times a day probably don’t realize how much they are capable of writing. Facebook also has a lot of writing involved. This is a new way to communicate. People used to use letters, then email, and now they use Facebook. This has changed my life because the way people communicate with others is always changing too. Communication skills in whatever form are important.

4.       What is the most successful(or least successful) thing you’ve written in or out of school.  Tell the story.

The least successful thing I have written in school is my research paper in 10^th grade. I had little facts and just through together what I had at the last minute. The requirements were 5 pages and my rough draft barely even 3 pages. In order to meet the requirements I repeated myself a few times. Also, I edited the margins to my advantage. Little did I realize that my teacher was not dumb. He made me correct the margins and redo the assignment. I really didn’t care that much about essay at the time but still, how embarrassing is that?