Assignment 0

Hello everyone and I guess I'll introduce myself now. My name is Janet Sun and I'm a sophomore. Currently I'm undeclared in my major, but I plan on double majoring in Biology and English. I realize that the two subjects seem a bit unrelated, but I love biology and writing equally. For a long time in my life, I wanted to be a veterinarian and then some sort of biologist. Then I discovered writing and fell in love with that as well. Trying to pick one subject over the other proved to be bit more difficult than I imagined so I figured I might as well study them both.

I was born and raised in Poughkeepsie, NY, which is about two hours away from New York City by train, and just to split hairs, I'm from the Town of Poughkeepsie and not the City of. There isn't much to do in my hometown, but there are some "tourist" spots such as the Roosevelt house, Bell manor, and outdoorsy stuff such as hiking and/or rock climbing at Mohonk Mountain. There are also more interesting spots in nearby towns such as West Point, Peterskill for more climbing, and other stuff that I'm having trouble remembering at the moment.

Some of my interests aside from reading and writing are rock climbing, mixed martial arts, soccer, volleyball, random assortment of video games, gymnastics, and, newly found love, flying trapeze. I share the majority of my interests with my three older sisters who, for the most part, got me involved in the different sports and activities I'm interested in. I started rock-climbing when I was about eleven, got interested in mixed martial arts about four years ago, was forced into my town soccer league at age 6(?) and loved it, volleyball just sort of happened and the same can be said for video games, and started gymnastics when I was four, though, don't think I can do anything besides a really nice cartwheel. Flying trapeze was discovered by my oldest sister when she went to a fundraiser held by the firm she works for and found a coupon for flying trapeze classes on auction. The two of us went to the class (not using the coupon which was given to our other sister as a gift) when I was living with her in NYC for the summer. We both loved it, but I didn't get a chance to go back until this past summer since I spent the previous summer in Beijing, China. This brings up another interest I have that I have been lucky enough to do; traveling. I have gone all over the country as well as Belize, Rome, Vienna, Prague, >Budapest, China, and Canada. I plan on studying abroad in either London or Australia, though I would be happy going anywhere.

As for my writing, I haven't received that much feedback on it aside from things my friends have read, but over the summer when I was living with my sister, I went to a writing workshop for a two weeks. It wasn't the best workshop I've ever been to, but it was my first official class on creative writing. Then last year, my FYP had a good deal of creative writing, which was reviewed by the teachers and occasionally by my peers. I found that to have the most constructive feedback. I wouldn't really call it negative, but one piece of feedback I got was on a short memoir I wrote in my FYP, which basically said that there was some confusion on the character of my father that I hadn't meant to create. It just made me realize that just because I saw something one way, people will often see things in another.

Some of my favorite writers are Orson Scott Card, David Sedaris, Terry Pratchett, and Neil Gaimen. I was introduced to Card by my oldest sister who gave me her boyfriend's copy of "Ender's Game". I immediately loved the book, despite the fact I was never a big science fiction fan before it. After "Ender's Game", I read all the other books in the series including the stories about a character named Bean that was written several years after the Ender series. I had never read anything else like it and was just really interesting and not just entertaining. Card's other books are still on my list of books to read, but I really like his style of writing and how he will use different point of views to get to the same ending. My third oldest sister introduced me to David Sedaris. She's seven years older than me so when she graduated from college, she returned home to look after me while my father went away for work. Knowing my taste in humor, we would read David Sedaris stories together, mostly out loud. The first story I heard written by David Sedaris would be "SantaLand Diaries" and that was what got me hooked to the author. As for Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimen, I recently read a book they wrote collaboratively called "Good Omens" and was thoroughly entertained by their sarcastic wit and almost morbid irony. The story was about the apocalypse and how the anti-christ was misplaced and raised by normal humans so it had no malintent in him. There were several interesting points acknowledged in the book and, though entertaining, was also thought provoking.

I find one of the best things about good writing is that it can be very cathartic. If the reader can relate enough to it that they feel every emotion written, they are emotionally tied to the story and characters. I tend to put more focus and interest to what I am reading if I can relate to it somehow and I get more out of it as well when I finish. Also, good writing is thought provoking and can be talked about in a later time. The books I remember the most are the ones I found interesting and talked about with friends, family, or teachers.

What do I hope to learn in this class? I hope to be able to write as interestingly as my favorite books, all the while still be entertaining. I want to develop my writing skills so that maybe one day somebody would actually want to read something I wrote and not find it mindless, cliché, and/or boring. Organization and brainstorming have never been one of my strongest suits so I hope to build upon whatever foundation I have as the course progresses.