Bittersweet: Childhood Reflection

A word that always had a lot of power for me and my sister as kids was “bittersweet.” We threw that word around with wild abandon. Everything we liked the most seemed to be poignantly sad yet beautifully joyful at the same time. “Bittersweet” has been coming up a lot for me lately as I deal with grief for my Grandpa.

A Break in the Hedge: Childhood Reflection

A girl bears a sturdy stick which she uses to chop at the branches, heavy with leaves, drooping around her. She is trying to cut a path into the clearing between two forsythia bushes.

The Blue Truck

1980s nostalgia, dirt roads, and John Cougar Mellencamp. This is a piece about my dad. The Blue Truck “Ouch!” Dad says sharply as we start rolling the car over the gravel road. “Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Do you hear all those rocks jumping up and biting the bottom of the car? They’re saying ‘Stop driving over…

I Am (not) Fire. I Am (not) Death.: Reflection on a Childhood Object – full draft

I feel like every week is going to be a “whew” scenario with these papers. But I did manage to finish again, even after having a Book Club on Tuesday, the “Ask Me Anything” event for the university on Wednesday, and 52 papers to grade from last week. Not to mention looking after my family….

Weighty Matters: Description and Reflection on a Childhood Object

This is the second reflection I assign to my ENGL 1101 class. To produce this paper, students create a Memory Map of their childhood room, place objects on the map, choose three objects to draw and caption, and then from there, choose a single object to describe and reflect on in detail. The memory I…