runnning with scissors

what did i do?
1) I started out on Thursday at Russell Ridge Center- a home school resource center for home schooled kids. Marianne pritned out the assignment and I went and printed out my essay- well actually, both my rough draft and my memory draft. This was because I couldn't decide which one to do, so I chose them both. I cut 'em out (that was pretty fun...) and started looking at them, until "Mom" Chesley looked stole them from me and looked them. I was somewhat ambivlanet about this activity just because I was thinking it was a pretty "far out there" activity. However, afterwards, I found that I really enjoyed the power of cutting up an essay- I showed it my sister, "Hey Mary, guess what all of these scraps of paper are?"
"what?"
"my essay"
"what?!!"
That was pretty danged funny. After cutting it up, I shuffled 'em and read through them and started placing them in piles of "mostly about seminary" and "about semianry and greenriver" (i had focused a great deal on seminary, so this was a good dividing idea because it got rid of the unneeded ones quickly) I then went through the others and continued to seperate them until i had an idea of paragraphs i wanted to keep. i identified my core paragraph, and then identified body paragraphs by what they talked about and grouped like paragraphs togethoer.
2)conceptual revision? well, I learned athat there are different ways to play with paragraphs in essays, and that often you have some gold in an essay, you just need to mess around with it, perhaps even destroy it a little bit....
3)I think my new essay flows better and is bit more focused than previously. Especially as far as different topics, I grouped the paragraphs togethor and then filled in some weaker spots or changed sentence structures a bit here and there, so it most definately flows better, and is more focused as well!


Running with Scissors

As human beings, each person belongs to a number of communites. Some people belong to sports teams, others book clubs, service organizations, and the list goes on. Most people also belong to more than one community as well. I belong to many communities- including the communities of Greenriver Community College and LDS Seminary.
Greenriver is an academic institution. Seminary is a theological class for high school students of the LDS faith. Greenriver offers a wide variety of classes for students to take to either become qualified in a degree of their choice or to transfer to a University or large College. Seminary is an early morning LDS church class for high school youth that provides a community of support for helping youth in upholding their standards.
On my first day of seminary, I had only been in Kent for about two and half months. I didn't know anything about anybody, and so I just showed up to the class that some lady in the church foyer told me to go to. So, I showed up there. For two days. And finally I realized, that I happened to be the only freshman in that class! Whooops! Whathappened? Well, I ended up finding the appropriate class (which drove me creazy with soo much noise going on and obnoxious freshman boys, and the other part was the teacher- Bro Sellers- who had been in the military and knew how to handle obnoxious young men. Most of the time. There are somethngs that they don't- no, can't- teach in the military- getting a posse of 14-15 year old boys to be quiet is one of them! Oh how I detested those young men for talking that year! And destested I truly did- how dare they talk and ruin the lesson for me?
My first day of Greenriver was quite different actually- since all of those classes were online, I had to wait the dreadful wait until noon when the classes opened online. This was awful. I checked at eleven, just to see if they'd open earlier by any chance. Of course they didn't. I then was bombarded with class information like sylabbus' and class due dates and my first assignments.... it was scary!! But also very exciting- to be in control of my education and to have soo much learning to learn ahead of me!!
Another thing about seminary and Greenriver that differs, is the atmosphere. i've only set foot on the acutal campus a couple of times, but my impression of it is that it's a lot more "loos" than seminary. That makes sense, however. For example- we don't swear in seminary. Part of it is because of all the people that e xpect each other not to, and the other part is that we're all in the church, and that's how we show respect. That part is that most of us just think it's plain silly to swear.
The first time I fully realized this particular difference between greenriver and seminary was in my english 110 class. Within the first scouple of weeks I was given an assignement to read an essay by some author about crappy rough drafts- except the word "crappy" wasn't used- the "S-word" was used in it's stead. I looked at that assignment and did a double take. Crappy (but not "crappy") rough drafts?! Okay, I suppose that it's considered alright to use language like that in college. I'm extremely uncaccustomed to it, but I guess Ican see where they're coming from.... (If you saw the rough draft of this essay, you'd see how it's title "crappy rough draft") In seminary, such language isn't even considered being used because everyone kneows that it's an unacceptable practice. This one apsect of Greenriver i've had to adjust to, knowing that many people don't consider such language inappropriate and don'ot share my opinions conerning it. I now brace myselc mentally for english 110 every time I access the class online. I don ejnjoye this class, don't get me wrong- I enjoy writing and haven't enjoyed it so much I htink in a very long while; however- it woudl be nmice if i didn't have to worry about what peopole are going to say and whether or not it willl be appropriate.
With (for example) young men from my semianry class, I ahve no such worries. I know that if I am around them they will not say anthing inappropriate- no wswaring, cussing, vulgar language, dirt jokes, secual innuendos- none of that which when I hear it makes me cringe. What's also nice is, for example, in mycomtemporary world issues (CWI) class last year, a boy named Isaac from my semianry class was in it with myself. And we would talk about different htings in tat class that tend to be very convtroversial matters. I aboslutely loves it when we broaches a topic like that and when a slightly "skewed" (to my opinion) opinion was offered, Isaac and I could just glance at each other and grimace- our thoughts echoing one another. What a lovely feeling of reassurance!! To know that I am not alone in my opinions and beliefs, or views.
A similar experience happened in my freshman history class. Mr. Larsen (during a unit on Greece) drew an excessive amount of attnetion the the male genitalia on a greek statue in a picture, and also the female "endowments" (that's what we'll refer to the breasts as)- the upstanding LDS boys in my class looked way and groanded at the taecher's audacity. With these young men, I don't have to worry about them viewing my body as an object to be admired that being the sole reason they enjoy my copmpany. I iknow that while they might struggle with viewing my body as such, the fact is that in this struggle they continue trying to do their best in choosing the right.
I'm quite sure that Greenriver's population would not enable such feeligns of security- such backup in making wise decisions. But that's okay as well, because that is not Greenriver's nature, nor its purpose. Seminary's purpose is to lift and support and teach its students and help them to lead better, happy, righteous lives. greenriver's purpose is to produce good, well-educated citizens. Both noble causes, but very different purposes at work behind them.
They type of people at greenriver and seminary vary as well. seminary's students are mostly all mormon, which means that they all have the same standards that each is encourage to uphold. We have expectations of conduct from one another. Greenriver is much more diverse than semianry- consisting of many different ethincities (semianry's students are mostly "white", USA-born students). What an interesting these two institutions make!
At greenriver much of what I learn is brand new information. Knowledge I have never encountered before, and in each online class, different moethords of handling the classroom. Whears in seminary all of the classes and different teachers are organized mostly the same. At greenriver, teachers have much more say in the control of the structure of their class.
in semianry i hear many thigns which i have been taught growing up. every now and then there will be a fact that i have never heard of before, but usually i am reminded of previous lessons- "oh yes! I remember learning that..." and then what I learned before is expounded upn.
every year in seminary, we also start out with hat is known as "The Plan of Salvation". we talk about the pre-mortal life, life on earth, and death, and what it all means and what the purpose of each is. for greenriver, classes, there is no such overarching theme- except for maybe the existence of a syllable...
There's one other difference between greenriver and seminary. greenriver has teachers that rae experienced (in most cases) in teaching and pretty much experts in their fields (know whatthey're talking about from tons of experience). semianry can have a wider-range of teacher skills. for example, i had a Bro Dysart for semianry last year. He taught very interesting lessons, but at the beginning of the school year it was quite obvious that he lacked the knack for adding the necessary interest for teenagers in his lesson. Because of this many of his students ended up leaving- probably for a "better" teacher. Through out the yaer, bro dysart would occasaionally have a different teacher ocme in and teach his students and he's watch with us and I think what he was doing was learning how to teach us well. Over the yera he became a much more adept teacher- focusing his lessons more and making them of an extreme more amount of interst to the audience. It was a spectacular experience to witness.
Both greenriver and semianry have their perks, but between the two institutions, I prefer seminary. this is just because of the nature of the class. people may say that seminary tdoesn't taech anyhting that cna't be taught at home or at church. that is true, but seminary provides and unequlaed ppurtunity for daily teaching in an enviroment with other peopeple whome the students can realte to and interact with, thus providing and unparalled support which the likes of cannot be foudn at home or church. people may say that semianry is useless. it is not. as any semianry student- most will say that they notice how starting their day of f with seminary changes the whole outcome of the day.