A humbling experience

The main reason I started a blog was to put my work out there, since I will be a writer, for people to see. Some of the work I create during my college career will only be put on my blog for free but afterward money will have to be paid for my work
In my Creative Writing class, we are having to write about an historical event for our final project. In my thinking of an historical event I am thinking of something huge like 9/11 or the wars we America has been involved in, something huge. Well, come to find out it really doesn't have to be huge but something that happened in the past, such as something family related or something little in the news. Also I found out something huge was still okay. So anyway, my mother brought up a good point and makes since is to write about what you know. Since Magnolia, Alabama is about an hour southwest of Selma, Alabama and I know Selma I chose to write a piece on the Civil Rights Movement is Selma. What I am doing is writing a fictional account of the events surrounding the the Selma to Montgomery march such as the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion and "Bloody Sunday" My main characters are an 8 year old white girl that has a black friend. It is in the form of a journal kind of like Ann Frank with the Holocaust. Yes the whole friend thing sound like "Selma Lord Selma" but my story is going to take more twists and turns than "Selma Lord Selma", so I'm not completely plagiarising. Growing up I always thought the Selma to Montgomery march was something that happened in Selma and didn't affect me in any way so I didn't think that much about it besides what I had heard from my peers, family members, and history books. Well yesterday I found differently.
I convinced my mother that she needed to go with me and help research so yesterday I drove down after classes and met mom at the Selma co-op and off we went. At first I thought we could go to the chamber of commerce and find some info and then go to the Civil Rights Museum. Well, we went to the Civil Rights Museum first and found more info than I thought we would. I was very excited. When I first started writing this piece I ran into the problem of not knowing what an 8 year old would understand. In fact, I came out that my character understood more than what she should. Well, that problem what solved yesterday. At the museum mom and I started talking to the director and come to find out she was 11 years old when all of it happened. I'm thinking great. She had the most humbling story I have ever heard. To respect her and to get you to go to the Voting Rights Museum I'm not going to tell it on my blog but ask me in person and I will tell ya. While she was telling it I felt the spirit of what happened, she conveyed her feelings very strongly. She wasn't all yelling and shouting, but she was calm and I could feel what happened to her through her words. The whole time she was telling the story she looked out of the window and didn't even pop a smile when she told something on a liter note. Every once in a while she would look up at us, but mostly she looked out the window.
If you haven't been to Selma I highly recommend it. There is soooooo much history, not just Civil Rights. Driving through Selma you can look at the buildings and know that what they witnessed. On Dallas Avenue there is a block of churches that definitely weren't built in the 20th or 21rst century. They are so so so beautiful. Definitely recommend the Civil Rights Museum if you are interested. There are so many antebellum houses and old old beautiful houses. You can tell they weren't just thrown up in a couple of months like houses nowadays. Also, if you like cemeteries (maybe weird but I like them) the Live Oak Cemetery is awesome. It has old Spanish moss hanging from huge oak trees. There is other things I haven't mentioned. Anyway you just have to go. Hope this didn't sound like a tourism brochure.

Classes and so on

Wow, it has been over a month since I have blogged. I thought it was only a couple of weeks. Since I haven't blogged in over a month and I am procrastinating my homework I feel inspired to do so. Classes are going ok. I have gone through the stressful and crazy time of midterms and paper number ones for my 4 English classes, which weren't to bad for me(knock on wood). As far as I know i did better than expected on my Am Lit midterm, less than expected on my Brit Lit test number 2 (material was really interesting but his tests suck in a disguised sort of way), don't know about my Linguistics class, and don't take midterms in Creative Writing class.
As a usual ritual on this blog I am going talk about my classes since that is my life at this point in time so her it is:

American Lit-340 is interesting Dr. Beidler is the funniest 62 year old man. It is like a friend of mine said. She said in a paraphrased sort of way he ticks people off but he is funny. I had tears coming out of my eyes because of laughter the first day of class, but he is a little to liberal for me. He has ticked me off by making fun of Marengo County, Alabama, which is where I grew up. What he said was funny the first time, because for some reason I did see some truth in it, but when he does it over and over. That's not funny. Marengo does have many good aspects to it. That's the county my hometown is in dude. Not to mention there are two people I know of who have affiliations with Marengo County that I know who are in the class with me. One of them has told me she isn’t happy with him either. Anyway besides my ranting, Am. Lit. is interesting, Dr. Biedler has brought some literary aspects to the works we are studying that are interesting and I haven’t thought about. Hey I’ve seemed to have convinced him I can write a paper, I am so cunning.

British Lit-205 is falling between my fingers. I really enjoy the material we have gone over like I said before, but I haven’t grasped how to take his tests. My highest grade in there is my paper. Hmm. We talked about Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory (who is a historian back in old days of whenever he was alive). In Morte Darthur, Malory writes a story, whether fiction or non-fiction is up for debate, about King Arthur and the whole fiasco with Lancelot and Guinevere. I am very interested in that subject thanks to my high school English teacher. That whole thing fascinates me, I might write a book about it later in life.

Linguistics Approach to English Grammer-321, I really like. Besides its insanely long title I am learning a whole lot. I have the worst grammar in the entire universe, if you don’t believe me ask my mom and professors and read my blog, and I really think this class will help me with my grammar. Keep your fingers crossed. The title of the textbook is How English Works and that is exactly what we have been studying. Pretty cool. ( I am such an English major) Some of the things we have talked about seems like the English language people of the world are pulling out of their rear-end to justify why certain words are used, but hey it is fun to do their rear-end pulling out of processes of sentence making. Dr. Sawalis is so funny too.

Creative Writing, Uses of History-308 is awesome. I can’t say enough about my creative writing class. I love it. I really like reading my classmates work and talking about it, or in my case listening to people. There are some really talented writers in my class and needles to say I am one of themJ. Our instructor knows what he is talking about and has very good advice for writing. I have decided to write a fictional account of the Civil Rights Movement in Selma. I am writing it form of a journal from the point of view of a 8 year old white girl, who is friends with a black girl. I don’t plan on offending anyone, but in some subjects that is impossible.

And for my life outside of school it has been good. I have seen my whole entire family two time this month, which is a rare occurance. I can't express how thankful for them I am and I love it when I get to spend time with them. A downside is that Buddy has had fleas, and I don't mean just momma, daddy, and two or three kids, I mean mamma, daddy, all forty thousand kids, grandpa, grandma, all their friends, and the flea from the local five and dime store and all his ancestry and descendants. So needless to say I hate fleas and think they need to become extinct and if you have any suggestions beside frontline and flea collars and flea baths and flea spray feel free to comment and let me know. Untell my fingers meet keyboard keys again, later friends.