The lunchroom

The first week, everyone knows the significance of the lunchroom in those first few days. As you walk in on day one you don't even think of food, the only thing you think of is staking your claim. Finding the table that you and your friends will be residing for the rest of that year. The first day is always the fastest, people pour in to the room as everyone tries to spot the table that their friends have gathered around. Only after this is done and everyone is sitting do we stop and look around at what the lunch room actually looks like. The walls are plastered white as is the ceiling. Random posters placed around the room attempt to encourage students eat healthy add some color to the room, but are otherwise ignored. As one walks into the food line the color changes to a dusky brown, matching the railings leading to the dull silver hot plates that have been sitting there faithfully we came and will be there long after we are gone. Four television hang around the room, although they are rarely on its does add a dash more color against the plaster walls. A series of windows located on the far side of the room opens up the room, allowing sunlight and wind to pass through. The room continues to fill as more students enter until every seat is taken. Then the room comes alive, there are dozens of conversations at each table, the hustle and bustle of students leaving their seats is reminiscent of walking around a large city. After a few weeks everything settles in, tables have been "reserved" and every one knows where they sit and who they sit with. If someone was to draw a map of the lunch room at the end of the first week, complete with every student and where they were sitting. That map would be reasonably accurate for the remainder of the school year. After all of this hustling and bustling over seats people begin to inspect the food, each student has a different level of trust in the cafeteria's food. Some students will partake in everything from the custom made sandwiches, to the slightly dried out hamburgers while others have refuse the food entirely, bringing their own lunch each day. As the weeks go on the lunch room begins to have a more relaxed feel about it, people have settled into the rhythm of things. The once unassuming plaster walls and posters have developed an air of familiarity and conversations among friends are carried from day to day. People start to figure out the subtle timings of the room, the best time to arrive and the best time to leave. Eventually the apprehension that was felt on the first day becomes a mere memory. From there the room the room takes on a life of its own, becoming a place of comfort and reprieve from the studies of the day and a much preferred place then the classroom.

Prompt 1

Throughout my high school career I have considered myself to be a strong writer. I can weave words and sentences together to make a paper flow more naturally, I know how much I can assert my own opinion without offending my reader, and I am able to tailor the style of the paper to directly support its purpose. Yet as I began to develop my own style of writing I began to notice that I had developed some very damaging weakness within my writing style. While one of my strengths as a writer is making a paper flow more naturally this means that my papers become lacking in structure, often becoming to free form which may not convey the tone of the paper properly or may make the writing appear unfocused. The beginning of a paper is another one of my weaker areas. The beginning of any piece of writing is by far the most important part, so as a result I don't feel satisfied unless I get it exactly "right". As a result there have been times when I have spent a good hour staring at a blank computer screen trying to work that one sentence correctly. Nowadays I will often write the intro last in order to be more efficient, but it is still something that I struggle with. A more common problem that I struggle with is grammar; often time when I start to feel that I am on a roll I will be oblivious to the many grammatical errors that begin to pile up. If I don’t catch these errors before I turn in my writing they will not only distract from the actually writing, but will make the paper appear unprofessional. The last problem that I have with writing is more of a personality issue than anything else. I am somewhat of a picky writer, when I am given a certain amount of freedom within a writing assignment, then the process becomes both fun and rewarding. However when I am required to write of a certain topic in a certain way then the process becomes arduous and difficult. As a result the final product is often of a much lower quality. This has come back to bit me more than a few times in high school where a paper that could of been a solid A was instead a low B because I didn't put my best effort into it. My goal over this course is to eliminate weakness to become a better rounded writer. Another goal is to gain more of an insight into writing fiction, something I have always wanted to do, but do not feel that I am skilled enough to do so. My desire to improve my writing came from reading 2 books, Shogun by James Cavell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dgun_%28novel%29) and Neverwhere by Neil Gaimen (http://www.amazon.com/Neverwhere-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380789019). These two books really showed me what fictional writing could be and gave me something to aspire to. And while I don’t think that I will ever be as good as these two, I can damn well try.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

The Begining

Throughout my high school career I have considered myself to be a strong writer. I can weave words and sentences together to make a paper flow more naturally, I know how much I can assert my own opinion without offending my reader, I am able to tailor the style of the paper to directly support its purpose. Yet as I began to develop my own style of writing I began to notice that I had developed some very damaging weakness within my writing style. While one of my strengths as a writer is making a paper flow more naturally this means that my papers become lacking in structure, often becoming to free form which may not convey the tone of the paper properly or may make the writing appear unfocused. The beginning of a paper is another one of my weaker areas. The beginning of any piece of writing is by far the most important part, so as a result I don't feel satisfied unless I get it exactly "right". As a result there have been times when I have spent a good hour staring at a blank computer screen trying to work that one sentence correctly. Nowadays I will often write the intro last in order to be more efficient, but it is still something that I struggle with. The last problem That I have with writing is more of a personality issue then anything else. I am some what of a picky writer, when I am given a certian amount of freedom within a writing assignment, then the process becomes both fun and rewarding. However when I am required to write of a certain topic in a certain way then the process becomes arduous and difficult. As a result the final product is often of a much lower quality. This has come back to bit me more than a few times in high school where a paper that could of been a solid A was instead a low B because I didn't put my best effort into it. My goal over this course is to eliminate weakness to become a better rounded writer. Another goal is to gain more of an insight into writing fiction, something I have always wanted to do, but do not feel that I am skilled enough to do so. My