Embedded Files
Not feeling any of these from details from these chapters? Go back to the work we did about “boxing” in our identity and classifications. This one is great to use for conflict and that micro vs macro essential question.
Assigned _____. Due _____.
If you complete it, it's an automatic 100. This is about the process right now not the finished product. The more you write, the easier it is to write, the more powerful your writing becomes, and the more you care about what you're saying and how you're saying it.
Choose any option (see me if you're stuck or have other ideas), and push yourself to write until it feels finished (I don't like to set minimums or maximums because then your brain automatically aims for that and it gets in the way of just focusing on the writing, you'll know when the writing is done, but please aim for over 1 page).
Make sure to choose a title for the writing (this is part of your job to frame the writing, make meaning, and hook the reader).
My example (this was written at this time last year)
(I have decided on my prompt. I want to write about the life lessons I've learned from my grandfather who passed away Monday).
So I have to own my cop-out here. I wasn’t ready to share that story of my grandfather like I thought I would be and have delayed posting it in full this entire time. I am willing to share some components of it though:
We buy journals for our son and write in them periodically to update him on what he’s doing, or learning, or who he’s seeing. We also use it when there are life lessons we hope he learns.
I wrote a very short entry into that journal about an hour after my grandfather passed and shared the following things with Logan:
A lot of what I understand about good relationships started with growing up seeing my Mommom and Poppop together. They always showed love and humor with each other.
It’s okay to not be okay. In fact, sometimes you only hold yourself back if you don’t let yourself go through it.
It’s also important to have your support systems and use them (and make sure you’re being a support system). I’ve noticed that the way I grieve is to withdraw and retreat which is probably not always the best choice I can make and sometimes I have to be intentional about reaching out and not closing off.
I was fortunate to get to see my grandfather three times in his final week. The first two times he was pretty tired and I left when he needed rest and fell back asleep without a proper goodbye. The third time though I got to hold his hand on the way out, kiss him on the forehead, and tell him that I loved him.
There is no good way to lose a loved one, but I think it’s a blessing to have had that time and been able to have that goodbye (even though I didn't think it was goodbye at the time).
Apparently, the only thing my grandfather said on his final day on earth, and in the hospital, was to tell my grandmother “I love you.” That is equal parts beautiful and painful all at once. Their marriage was one of the good ones.
Phew! So that’s the gist of what I wrote to Logan. We aren’t sure when to give him these journals. He’ll obviously be older but I hope it helps him when he’s going through loss of his own.
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