Week 14: Famous Last Words

As this class is coming to an end and it is a bittersweet moment for me. Bitter because I have truly enjoyed this class and getting a chance to push myself to do different things that I would never have done before. Sweet because it means I am one step closer to graduation and going to study abroad this summer.

I am really going to miss seeing everyone’s stories each week. I think people in this class truly have a lot of talent and it has been so much fun reading all of their stories. I can’t believe it has been 15 weeks it felt like time was flying.

I am super excited for summer to be here, but I am also sad because my friend/ roommate is graduating and going to graduate school next year so I will miss her like crazy. I think all of college is like that. There are such great moments, but nothing lasts forever and that’s hard for me to accept right now.

I saved this Famous Last Words post to be my very last post in the class to get my last two points. I think I have really enjoyed writing these each week to see all of the things I was thinking at the end of each week as the semester progressed. It was funny to look back over them and see all the funny things that were stressing me out at the time, or all of the random things I did each week.

I have loved taking this class and getting a chance to try new ways of writing. I think it has been a love-hate relationship throughout the semester though. I am not the best or most creative writer so at times I really struggled with the different assignments we had, but it got better the more practice I had. I am so happy I took this class!

It's only fitting that I put a picture of my puppy Skyla up here since she was in my very first post in this class, and now my last! It was from her 1st Birthday!

(Personal Photo of Skyla taken in April 2015)

Week 9: Famous Last Words

I can’t believe that spring break actually over! I felt like it took forever to get here and flew by in the blink of an eye. I have so much stuff to do this week that I am very stressed out, but I had a fantastic break and I don’t really want to get back to school yet.

I guess I can tell you all about my fantastic but crazy break! My family and I went to Costa Rica! It was a crazy experience though. We were flying out on Friday from DFW to San Jose and when we arrived at the airport we checked our bags, made it though security, got some coffee, and then realized our tickets were booked to San Jose California… Man was that a sad situation. I felt so bad for my dad who had worked so hard to plan this vacation and such a simple mistake changed it. But no worries 45 minutes later, some airlines miles, and we were booked on a flight the next morning the same time to Costa Rica.

We had a hotel in the middle of the jungle, which was absolutely beautiful. We were right by an active volcano, which I thought would be very scary, but was actually fantastic! The weather was awesome too. We spent every day doing some sort of fantastic adventure, from zip lining over the rainforest canopy to riding horses to waterfalls. It was a dream come true. If you ever get a chance to go there you should and you should head to the rainforest!

(View of the Rainforest and Volcano from our room. Photo Credit: My father.)

Before I left for spring break I went and saw the speech by Gandhi’s grandson! It was great! He gave us some great advice on how to handle things non-violently. I think it was the perfect speech to go to after some of the stuff that has happened on campus. I am glad I got the chance to go see him speak.

Storytelling for Week 9: Violating the Curse

I remember when Pandu came to me with the news of his curse. I knew something bad would happen and that he would eventually fail to stay away from one of his wives. It’s not that I thought he was a bad man, quite the opposite, he just loved us so much. He was a very passionate man and sometimes his passion got the better of him.

I knew that I would help him in any way I could. I bore him three godly children, and his other wife Madri bore two. We always abided by the curse never testing its limits.

(Pandu is Cursed. Image Source: Wikipedia)

I remember the day the curse was broken, I felt the moment Pandu died as if a part of my heart was being stolen away. It was as if I had a tiny hole right in my chest and I could do nothing to mend it. I knew what Pandu and Madri had done. She came running back to the palace screaming, “Kunthi, Kunthi, he is dead. Pandu is dead and it is my fault. I let the moment get to me and we did the one thing Pandu was told not to.”

“Oh Madri, I felt it the moment it happened and it was terrible for me. I can only imagine the heartbreak that you felt being with him at the time. I am so sorry you had to go through that,” I spoke calmly to Madri.

“But, I shouldn’t have let him. We shouldn’t have done that. I have ruined everything! We have lost our husband and the father of our children because I did not have it in me to stop!”

“Madri, I promise it will be okay. You are stronger than you believe and we will get through this. We have five sons who are looking at us to take care of them, we cannot give up. You must not give up!”

“You do not understand. When Pandu left this world I left with him. I can no longer be here. My time on the earth is now finished. When we send him off I will go with him. Kunthi, you must promise me you will take care of my boys, they will need a mother and you are the perfect one,” Madri begged me to help her.

I cannot say I was surprised when Madri told me this, I knew she was struggling with Pandu’s death.

The next day we built the funeral pyre. It was as tall and wide as befits a king. We laid out Pandu’s body dressed in his finest clothes. I remember watching as Madri went running towards the pyre. She really was going to end her life with Pandu. Although this made me very sad I also understood her sadness, she didn’t want to be alone in the world. I watched as she climbed the Pyre and lay down next to Pandu getting ready for their last time together on earth.

Author’s Note:

This story is based on the story of Pandu’s curse. Pandu was cursed after he killed a deer that was actually a celestial being. The deer told him that when he unites with one of his wives he would die. His wives have five children through a mantra that Kunthi was taught to summon a god. One day when walking Pandu and Madri are overcome with passion and violate the rules of the curse. Pandu immediately dies and Madri later joins him on the funeral pyre leaving her children to Kunthi.

I told this story from Kunthi’s point of view allowing us to see how it affected her as the other wife. In the book we do not see a conversation between Kunthi and Madri, so I created one that I believed would be accurate.

Bibliography:

Narayan, R. K. (1978). The Mahabharata.

Week 9 Reading Diary B: Indraprastha is Made

I think it was interesting to see how Duryodhana reacted when he learned that his cousins were still alive. While Duryodhana was upset that they won Draupadi as their wife, Dhritarashtra was excited for the cousins that they won. He wished them a happy life.

One thing that annoyed me was how Dhritarashtra acted, it seemed like he was really bad at making decisions. I understood that he was trying to be fair between his sons and his nephews but it was annoying when he turned his nephews away for his sons.

I still think it is weird that all five of the brothers married one wife. I thought it was interesting that they were willing to exile one of the brothers if they thought about her or interrupted another brother while they were with her. I know that Narada gave them advice on how to handle this situation. I didn’t think they would actually exile someone but they did exile Arjuna when he walked in on Draupadi and Yudhishthira.

(Draupadi and Pandavas. Image Source: Wikipedia)

I think my favorite part of the book was when Duryodhana came back from visiting his cousins and he talks about how he thought they were making fun of him. I know the palace was made to be confusing, and I thought it was perfect that he would be the one to get frustrated by the tricks and illusions.

I find this book to be interesting. I feel that because the original was so long this one barely has any details. I don’t know if that is just my feelings about it. For example in the Ramayana I feel like when someone was exiled there would have been some description about it, but when Arjuna was exiled there was one line about it.

I am finding this book harder to read also, because I felt like the number of names thrown at us in the very beginning of the book was overwhelming. I am really enjoying it though.

Week 8: Famous Last Words

This week I believe my best writing was in my storybook post. I have spent a ton of time researching my characters in order to develop their personalities into what I believe they would be like. I am really enjoying spending time on this and making it the best that it can possibly be. I am still editing it, so it is not absolutely finished, but I believe you can never edit too much. I think that we can always find something to fix in our work.

For this assignment I did not experiment with a new style because I have been using the same style for my other storybook posts. I did try to include more of my characters in my dialogue though, because this is a critique that I have received from a few people so far. I believe I still need to do a little more of this though.

My other classes are going well! I am just in a lull right now, the week before this was super busy, and now I have some down time. I don’t know if other people are struggling with their motivation right now, but I sure am. I am just ready for spring break.

(Waterfall in Costa Rica. Source: DeviantArt.)

For spring break my family and I are going to Costa Rica. I have never been here before, but I have always wanted to. I love the jungle and all wildlife, so I am very excited! My family hasn’t had a “family vacation” in a long time. My brother graduated from college 2 years ago and it has been hard getting everyone together while he has a ‘big boy job.’

On a side note, I gave up sweets for Lent this year, and it is probably one of the hardest things I have given up during a Lent. My roommate also did it so it’s nice to have some support, but our other roommate thinks it’s funny to bake cakes and buy candy… But that’s why we love her!   

Commenting Review Week 8

Comments have been very useful for me to improve my writing. The comments that I believe are the most helpful to me are when a person is specific about something that they see is messed up. This helps me to realize the types of things that I am missing when reading over my own writing. I also like very broad comments that just say what they felt overall when reading my posts. This helps me to really understand if what I am writing is actually getting through to the other people who are reading them. I like having a mixture of both types of comments.

The comments on my project have been extremely helpful for me. I have had people who give really specific comments on certain things to fix that I have overlooked. Also people have given me feedback on what I should add to my stories to make them better. Both of these have helped me a lot to make my stories the best that they can be.

When I am writing a short comment I like to focus on what I felt when reading the stories. I really like to leave positive comments, because I feel like that gives people motivation to keep trying. Personally when I receive too many corrections it is just overwhelming to me, I like having people add some positive comments.

There are definitely some comments that I have received from others that have helped me to improve my writing throughout the semester. Many people have helped me to grow as a writer.

(Nick Miller from the show New Girl. Source: Spylight Blog)