After ten years of a formal, private school education in the English language, I walked into this class expecting anything and everything but what I was met with. It was different, it was terrifying, it was amazing. This class has opened my mind not only as a writer but also as an American, a human being, and a bundle of particles in this amorphous universe of ours. Let's just say I've never been able to say that halfway through one of my robotic, stuffy, private school English classes. Actually let's go ahead and acknowledge the fact that I've never been able to say that ever! Although challenging to the point of drool coming out of the corner of my mouth, I've held on even if not to be a leader, but to be a learner in this crazy class of ours. And I mean that in the best sense.

-modes of blogging and informal writing: academic, political/community-based, and personal

Informal writing is my favorite. The contractions (don't, can't, shouldn't, couldn't, hollerin') , the cursing (fuck, ass, shit!) , the absolute nonsense of my stream of conciousness thoughts without the obligation of an explaination (Shiva's pretty cool but i wonder if we could really take down the large corporations, ooh anarchy is cool too, yeah but everybody thinks negatively of anarchy they dont understand it, we should all just live in the woods, wait no snakes, wait snakes are cool i guess, yeah snakes are cool, what the hell was I talking about before?) . And to be able to do it on the computer is even better. Instead of being lazy and plopping my ass down to stare at facebook for four hours, i get be lazy and plop my ass down to do my homework for a couple of hours, to share my thoughts.

I've found that in this class, we have blurred the lines between academic, political/community-based, and personal writing. Everything we write is for an academic purpose technically, but at the same time we share our personal thoughts and actions and reactions through the outlet of politics and the "bigger picture" if you will. For example "Earth Democracy" by Shinva, a powerful political writing piece about our abilities to sustain life with the rest of the planet Earth is processed through out little brains and then we get to argue and learn and take a stance on what she's said, making it into our personal relationship with political writing enclosed in the academic envelope we're all sitting in.

-situating your writing: Analyzing, synthesizing, and composing with sources

Situating my writing is definitely not the easiest part of this class for me. I could write about anything, I can dissect it and analyze it and chew it up and spit it out for hours, but the result could still make no logical sense to anyone but me. So i suppose as far an analyzing and synthesizing is concerned I'm good there, but as far as composition, I'm pretty fucked. I wish that I was a more talented composer when it comes to putting my final projects together, but the most I can do is reread and reread and still say, "What? I like it." This is not my strong suit in this class, even the thought of "how am I going to put this all together into a logical argument?" makes me get writer's block because I'm too concerned about the end result to remember what i was writing about, what's that called, deontology? See what I mean. I can just see the snotty, pantyhosed English teacher with her nasal voice and her bright, evil, red pen saying "Now is this really relevant, Andrea? HM, Andrea? IS IT, ANDREA?" Anyway, point proven. 

-composing processes: argument and persuasion

But as far as arguing is concerned, I've got it down. Since the age I learned to speak, I've been a little salesman. I would come home with the wrappers of twinkies and candy in my lunch box instead of my boring turkey sandwich with no more explanation than "Traded, mom." When really I would say it was a magical turkey sandwich or a famous turkey sandwich that was destined for the lips of my innocent consumer. And now that I'm older, the swindling side of me has settled but I've got a lot of logical shit to say in the face of complete idiocracy, so my argumenative side has kind of taken over. I really believe that i can bring up a valid argument and side with it passionately until my opponent throws the white flag into the air. And with writing, I can channel that same passion onto paper and take a swing at anything I agree or disgagree passionately with. I'm not saying that I'm perfect at the argument and persuasion thing, I usually get carried anyway in long, romantic metaphors and meanings, and forget to back up the things that I say with valid, proven statistics from outside sources. The fact is I know that I'm right, but how is anyone supposed to believe a ranting girl without some sort of empirical evidence to back it up? I know I woulnd't.

-multimedia: visual analysis and composition, aural analysis and composition

Then there's multimedia! I wish we got to use multimedia more in this class, because it is truly my passion. I have been enrolled in, rolled up in, and completely toe up in art since I was little, and I don't think the infatuation is going to cool off anytime soon. I am building up my portfolio right now to transfer to the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, also known as Andrea's Dream College. Visual design is, for me, the best way to rangle and share my absurd thoughts to the world, more so than writing and definitely more so than the verbal diarreah that I'm constantly producing when I open my mouth. I have completed all the multimedia projects we have had up to date (which haven't been many) and I am ready and willing to finish many more.

As far as aural analysis is concerned, see above. I'm shy, soft spoken, and never seem to say the right thing when I open my mouth, but I can write till the cows come home and I can draw/paint/percieve/remix until my audience understands what I'm trying to say. These compositions will always hold me back in life because my nerves get ahold of me and I'm too afriad to speak even when I have a valid point. "I think you're wrong" comes out as, "Hsdjfbwewer wer thong." It's a sad truth but I honestly and completely don't mind the alternative.

-collaborative, coordinated, or distributed writing: linking, interacting, and responding in writing to/with peers.

Nothing to me in more interesting than being graded by my peers. Within any class, within any community, group of friends, anything there are subgroups. And as we are all students of this Comp 1102 class, we are a subgroup simply by being here. We have our own culture, our own flow as a community of people, and when you get down to it, we're all going through the same thing. We can relate with eachother so this allows for beautiful opposition to be had in debates and arguments because it is true opposition, it is pure and real because we are all starting from the same point and deviating our ideas and reactions just by being who we are. The best thing we can offer each other is our minds and our point of views, because even when we disagree we are still learning from each other, even if what we're learning is "Wow, that guy's as asshole." Collaboration also seems to be a big theme of this class, so it's beautiful that we get to take the collaboration we read and talk about from a universal level to the smallest point, a tiny classroom at USF St. Petersburg. We build relationships with each other thus allowing us to build and learn about out world, our peers, and ourselves.

-writing in the disciplines: connecting your writing to research and scholarship in a specific field

I can't say I've done a lot of connecting my work to a specific discipline. For the first time in my life I'm not in an English class writing about writing, or an art class writing about art. For the first time I am within these classes taking the skills I have to write about more important things to me. I am writing about the issues in today's world and the things that I find beautiful and what moves me. My writing may not be easy to connect to any discipline and perhaps this is a shortcoming for me, but the truth is, I could write like that If I had to, but i feel free and comfortable to take my writing to the nest level and allow for my creative decisions to be made for me, not for anyone else or any other academic purpose.