Lives and Times

Living in South Bend, Indiana forces me to embrace the COLD. Along with the excellent education that I am receiving, I have also learned to overcome the blistering, cold winter days (which seem to be quite abundant this winter). As I walk out of my warm classroom building and enter the negative twenty degree weather and another blizzard, my creative juices somehow began emerging. One assignment I have is to create a metaphor that captured my writing process. What more appropriate metaphor than a blizzard, one in which I cannot see a foot in front of me. Each step in the fresh snow becomes one step closer to the final destination, either my dorm room or a completed paper, though the beginning is often blurred. Usually when I write, I become easily overwhelmed and bombarded with ideas which could create a dynamic paper but the end product is never clear. I often write and rewrite my opening paragraph several time before I have something that works, sometimes I even begin my paper with an unfinished, unclear opening. In a blizzard, the snow obstructs my vision making it difficult to see where I am going or even where I have been. As I continue to trudge through the weather, my steps become clearer and clearer. Similarly, with each page that I write the paper begins to unfold in a more clear cut manor. Perseverance during this stage of the writing process and during a blizzard is crucial in order to move forward, to complete the task. When the blizzard dies down, all that is left is a beautiful, snow covered scene- everything becomes clear. I never seem to have a problem writing my concluding paragraphs because once the body is complete everything comes together forming (hopefully) a masterpiece. This masterpiece may not be as beautiful as the freshly snow-kissed trees or the unbeaten sidewalks, but the paper is complete. And that, to me, is a masterpiece.