Being in a College course brings out how a person can reach their goals of focusing on their skill of writing and reading. When you work on your writing and literacy, you always make a connection in class and in the outside world, whether it’s a personal story, a book you read, or an experience you had with a family or friend. In our English class, we all have our opportunities to present a significant moment we have all experienced to show how writing and our literacy have impacted us. In this phase of our english course, with our writing literature and literacy narrative, the most insight ive gained from this phase is seeing how problems or situations cause us to see how we overcome these problems and not only reflect on how we survived or went through them, but to also observe what we did to voluntarily change our outcome to better fit our narrative. The concepts that have impacted me the most in my learning and writing practices would have to be exigence and purpose and intended audience. When you read a story or poem, you usually tend to look for the main theme or message or purpose of the narrative, and you also tend to make out who the intended audience is and why. The purpose of any writing is what gives its value behind the author and their story. Knowing why you wrote a story is what connects it to its intended audience, and that is to share their message. This phase of our English course has helped me explore different genres in writing and reading different narratives, ranging from speaking out against police brutality and spreading influence for different forms of English to showing true potential to someone that you want to show you can make it without following any stereotypes. For my narrative, my intended audience was aimed towards anyone who believes in following a artistical form of expressing their true selves. An example of this could be through writing, playing music, or creating art, as long as what they want to share is expressed on a book or canvas using their hands and their mind. For example, many people love the idea of playing an instrument because they love music, and when people play music, it helps relieve stress and lets a person express their creativity when playing a song. In my narrative, I showed my own examples of all three ways one can share their stories and elaborate on how they use their work of art to reflect on the kind of person they are.

When I was in 10th grade, I was assigned with a task to copy a famous artwork in my art class. The artwork in question was VIncent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”. When I first heard we had to copy this artwork onto a canvas, I was skeptical of my ability to copy this exact piece or art, as I was aware of its complexity. We were guided through this assignment with helpful tips and steps to showcase how to execute the painting exactly as the original. After a couple of days, we all finished our assignments together in our first period art class. In retrospect, I was thoroughly impressed with the efforts I put into my art assignment as I took a good look at it and admired its detail. This was the most I had ever thought of any painting I have done since I never did appreciate art as nothing more than colorful beautiful drawings. I did appreciate how pretty my painting turned out and so I took it home with me and hung it up on my bedroom wall. 

It wasn’t until a couple years later where I started to really think about my painting and why it stuck out to me. A few years after my 10th grade art class, I started to have certain dreams that kept me thinking about them all day. I would never think about anything else but my dreams because they probably had deeper meanings than I originally thought. That’s when I decided to write down my dreams in a journal to keep to myself as a reminder of what I dreamt about so I wouldn’t forget. That was when I was able to realize that I found a similar interesting connection between my cataloged dreams and my starry night painting. When I use my hands and my mind as a durable pair, my hands can construct whatever my mind pictures. I took another look at my starry night painting and then realized that it was who drew, painted, colored and completed this canvas painting, and it gave me a boost of self esteem. It wasn’t exactly a perfect replica of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting but it was a nice attempt at copying a famous piece of art which was what impressed me the most, my act of trying. My starry night painting holds value to me along with my written down dreams because they are the result of me showcasing my character onto any material item. I could take a look at my painting and my journal and reflect on who I am based on reading and observing my handwritten work. 

My dreams would always involve subtle hints  of subliminal messaging. I wrote down in my journal describing my dream, which was about me being in my house surrounded by bees. It felt like a nightmarish kind of dream but more of a confusing one at that. I tried to find an answer as to why I had a dream about bees and many answers from different sources all say something about this topic. Some say it is a sign of upcoming good fortune, while other sources say it is a bad sign and bad things would come my way. One way or another, I try to use this information and apply it to my own life to try to find a connection between all these dots to find any hidden meanings. I would also have a dream where I would end up chasing somebody that I have never met before but I was so persistent into finding who they are but end up waking up in the process. I try to piece these dreams together but to no avail, so writing them down in a journal helps me piece a bigger clearer picture while reading and writing my thoughts. 

Making connections with my writings helped open my mind to any thoughts I believed I could find useful to help better my understanding of who I am as a person and if there is anything I can do to express my way of thinking. Another way my mind can express it’s inner deep thought is through my ways of playing my instrument. Music is always known for letting people express their emotions through music, and doing so does help oneself navigate through their mindset by playing a song or note that brings out a sense of comfortness. Whenever I would want to share how I was feeling, and words didn’t feel like the right approach, I would always picture what noise or sounds fit my mood and I would play any random note just to relieve any thoughts I deemed necessary. 

So my idea between all these three key points in my story is that when it comes to literacy or literature, our own understanding comes as a result of how we express our thoughts through the work of our hands to craft what your mind imagines. To go into greater lengths, what you write helps identify your personality and  character when you analyze your writing thoroughly. These three specific moments are what draw my attention to make these connections as they all have their own moments in describing and illustrating a person’s inner thoughts.