Why assign a personal narrative when exploring the things we are passionate about?
To provide students an opportunity to reflect upon unique aspects of themselves: what they believe they love; what they are good at; what can be rewarded from doing; and what they can contribute to society. As a result, they can apply narration (and personal experience) as a primary form of inquiry and reflection.
Directions:
Write a 750-word (minimum) personal narrative based on an experience with a passion of yours.
Create a narrative (story) used to suggest a learning experience regarding a passion that effected your culture/society/community.
Focus on a single event for the story that has helped you form an idea/philosophy/value/belief about your passion or has helped illustrate "a portrait" of yourself to your readers.
Part 1: A true, narrative story (single event - with beginning, middle, ending) of 500 words or more (2-4 pages);
Part 2: A reflection (thoughtful analysis) of the story and how it relates to your own philosophy or cultural understanding of your passion and its importance to you and/or your community (250 words or more).
Explain why you chose to write about this particular event. (2-4 sentences)
I chose to write about my expedition in Europe because it is the most recent and fresh memory I have about a passion I (finally) was able to afford to pursue. Traveling around Europe made quite the significant change in me due to the shift in perspective about the world after being exposed to different cultures and environments. It opened my mind to the endless amount of beauty that the world contains and the histories it holds, both of which I learned to treasure throughout time. Europe holds a really special place in my heart because the duration of my time there has taught me that there is so much to the world that I have not seen that I need to explore and there are cultures that I want to be a part of, and it sparked a strong desire for me to take traveling even more seriously.
Traveling was a very rare opportunity for someone like me who’s family couldn’t afford to travel much, so for a long time, I have always fantasized about what it would be like to live in my computer wallpaper where everyday, my computer took me to more places than my parents could possibly afford. I was quite envious of the people who lived abroad, most especially those who were born in Europe because they couldn’t possibly suffer the same way I would. They had everything. Spain was next to France and London was a few hours flight away. Germany is a train away from Poland and Italy’s heel almost touches the borders of Greece. To live in the U.S. for the rest of my life was an unsettling feeling because I couldn’t possibly understand settling in a country with states that aren’t any different from the next. I always thought Europe would be the best place to “settle” because it is a place where countries of different cultures border each other and are collectively known under one name: “Europe”--- similar to how California and New York are two states under the “United States” except they are culturally the same. Europe had the diversity I looked for all my life because I didn’t want to limit myself with only one culture when Europe offers multiple. I wanted to live a life where I could drink tea in the morning and decide to take a train to France to eat croissants, run away to the green fields of the Netherlands and end up sleeping in front of the Trevi Fountain in Italy. Who wouldn’t possibly want to get lost like that?
One may ask, “how did your dream to travel come to be? When did you first discover that?”. Well, growing up, one of the shows that I loved watching was Phineas and Ferb. One of the episodes that was most impactful to me was when Phineas, Ferb, and their friends decided to travel around the world in one day to create “the biggest, longest, funnest summer of all time”. They visited their friends' relatives during their adventure to reach Paris, and they explored different kinds of cultures and what they are known for on the way. They featured places like Netherlands, China, Tokyo, Egypt, India, Greece, Italy, London, etc., and traveled until they reached their final destination: Paris, France. What made a lasting impression on me is that through their expedition they met all kinds of people from all over the world, explored different cultures with unique backgrounds, architecture, buildings, clothing, food, environments, and civilizations. The countries they explored were far different from their own home, and it made me wonder what I have not seen yet. Interestingly, the show made connections between the Tokyo Tower and the Eiffel Tower, and articulated the observation that both towers share similarities in structure and height. Two towers from different parts of the continent were connected. Substantially, that specific episode sparked a profound curiosity within me, and I’ve become inquisitive about the similarities and differences that could be found between one nation to another. How much of our history has mingled with communities that are now across the globe and how interconnected can people be despite the difference in cultural upbringing. Phineas and Ferb introduced the idea that the world has a lot more to offer beyond the comfort of my own home. There is someone across the world that has a different perspective and life experience than I do, and what’s even more fascinating is that these anonymous individuals have access to things that I don’t. Their experiences influence their character and beliefs, their moral obligations change the way they live, not to mention that there are people whose enlightenment are far beyond my own scope, and I desperately wanted to know the answer to the endless amount of questions that are open to debate. However, the only other way I knew I could answer my inquiries would be to travel, and so my fanatical curiosity grew into a long-term passion. It has been decades since I discovered my passion, and to this day, I continue to hold a strong interest in traveling around the world just as strongly as when I first discovered it. As I grow and learn about the world more, my passion to see the wonders of the world is now a substantial part of why I work towards the future. Now, it is among my dreams to enlighten myself by embarking on a life journey that will take me through the experience of mingling with cultures different from my own. It is a long-term dream of mine to live everyday with a new experience and immerse myself into the experience of unfamiliarity and appreciate the beauty of diversity.
The opportunity to embark on my own journey happened during the summer of 2022 when my parents surprised me with tickets to Europe for the entire month of July. I was in pure disbelief as I looked at the delicate piece of paper that was worth thousands of gold. I couldn’t believe right in front of me was the ticket to paradise. Out of my own dying curiosity, I couldn’t help but ask, “how many countries are we visiting? Are we going to Japan?”, and they said “No, even better. We’re traveling around 5 countries in Europe!”, and I squealed my uncontained excitement. My whole life has been nothing but sand colored houses that painted the world monochrome, the same loud noises of the engines that roared through the empty night and drove until the light of dawn, the same cluster of houses found in different neighborhoods with the same green plant and the same design of fake green grass plastered throughout every house to make up for the prosaic suburban districts. I’ve become paralyzed by the lack of distinctive varieties that as soon as I held the golden ticket close to my chest, I could feel my dreams awaken from deep hibernation. “Europe, here I come!”.
For as long as I’ve dreamt about traveling, July 11, 2022 was the day where my long-awaited dreams came true; I was finally on an international flight with my family to Europe after waiting for more than a decade to afford this day. Seated on a middle seat with my brother right next to me at Southwest Airlines, we flew an international flight straight from Chicago to one of Europe’s most trendiest cities; the land of art, fashion, culture, and cuisine: Barcelona, Spain. Beyond school, the 14 hour flight from country to country was the slowest time in my entire life and unfortunately for my brother, he had to withstand what felt like an endless loop of “are we there yet?”, “how many miles nearer are we?”, “do you see land anywhere?” until the plane finally landed at our first destination. “Bienvenido a España”. I knew we were really in Spain as soon as I hopped off the plane and overheard the bag carriers speak in decipherable yet unfamiliar code language, and it became even more so a reality when the airport signs looked like scrambled letters bunched together to make gibberish. Perhaps a normal person would’ve been intimidated by the unfamiliar language that was being spoken and the random letters plastered all over the airport, but for a linguaphile like me, it was language heaven. As soon as we were out of the airport, our first day in Barcelona started, and I will never forget the excitement that I felt when Zeus struck me with lightning and all the energy I never thought I had became an uncontrollable force. Before my family could plan and organize themselves, my foot took a step towards the exit as though it had walked on the same ground for years and before I knew it, my expedition around Europe had begun.
Barcelona was the first city in Europe that introduced me to an entirely new culture, and they did not disappoint. On our way to the air bnb my mother rented, I caught the stark difference in atmosphere and environment compared to what I was used to in America. Starting from the architecture, Barcelona wasn’t filled with huge rectangular buildings with lots of parking space like the boring modern architecture with postmodern inspired concepts in America. Their architecture screamed medieval style Catalan Gothic with a mixture of Modernism. Although at first glance, the buildings were simple, being able to identify the architectural treasures of Barcelona, I couldn’t help but gush at its striking works. Each building had their own unique design from the rectangular balconies to the round designs. Not to mention that the steel fences were starting to age with rust as the floral like designs remain intact. The roads were so narrow that it could only fit two lanes and there wasn’t enough space for cars to be able to park on the side, but the sidewalk was spacious enough for a child to trip and never touch the gravel. Their streetlights weren’t the boring design we had in the U.S. where the same gray pole can be found throughout the country, Barcelona lit up the streets at night with lamp posts with medieval designs you would find at the doorsteps of an old castle. At home, it is easy to spot the green street signs when they are on a pole, but in Barcelona, their street signs have emerged with the walls of the buildings and their neutral colors make them hard to find. The sidewalk wasn’t the cleanest place to walk on for fellow germaphobes as I found residues of old, burnt cigarettes, urine on the wall, and plastic straws and bags dispersed throughout the sidewalk as though the city was the aftermath of an unconsented highschool houseparty. The environment was a lot warmer than expected, almost comparable to the hot and humid weather in Texas that leaves you breathing for more oxygen from the heavy air. Although we weren’t at the heart of Barcelona, driving through the city within an hour of arriving already taught me so much about Barcelona’s environment and just how different it could be from what I was familiar with at home.
In the duration of five days in Barcelona, we visited multiple worthwhile sights that make Barcelona, Barcelona. We visited places like La Sagrada Familia, the tallest church building in the world that is still “currently under construction for more than 140 years with work dating back to the 1800’s” according to the tour guide. La Sagrada was one of my favorite attractions due to its three-dimensional forms with complex shapes and designs that I doubt any architect could copy with modern technology; its architecture would leave anyone speechless with its microscopic designs that were designed with full intention. My most favorite part of the attraction was the stained glass that would illuminate the insides of the cathedral with colors of the rainbow, and it was most especially gorgeous when the sun sets where the sun is perfectly angled towards the glass. Park Guell was also another visited attraction that left an impression on me because it was the most stunning public park I have ever been to while also being the most physically exhausting. The park was ridiculously profound that it would take half of the day to see every nook and cranny of the scattered sights because walking around left my legs numb like I was walking through a snowy mountain without a destination. However, on the plus side, the park contained unique architecture that looked like gingerbread houses from candyland with ceramic shards plastered on the surface that emulates colorful frosting. The park was followed by a curved bench that flowed around the park like water with touches of vibrant flowers and plants throughout the area that reminded us of its natural beauty. The best part was the attraction overlooked the city of Barcelona where the beauty of La Sagrada as well as its noticeable height outshines every building. There are other places like Casa Batllo, La Pedrera, Catedral de Barcelona, Gaudi House Museum, Montserrat were also other attractions that we visited that would take quite a long time to explain, but what I learned the most about Barcelona was that it was full of architectural riches.
Following Barcelona, we took a flight to London, England, visited Paris, France, and took trains to Belgium and Netherlands. We visited the rest of the European countries and cities that we booked to go to before we went home. All of the countries generally shared common characteristics that my family and I distinctively associate with European customs after our travels. We learned that it is fairly common for Europeans to put a slice of lemon in their soda and that they only use bottled drinks. We learned that unlike America where you can get an unlimited amount of beverages, in Europe, you have to pay for another in order to get another drink. Europeans don’t eat in large portions because they keep their meals in small plates, which would be a culture shock to Americans who have somewhat of a luxury to be able to pay less for more. In Europe, the chefs as well as the staff in restaurants always make sure that they hear you exclaim “Oh this (the food) is delicious!” before they could settle in satisfaction because they take pride in their cuisine. Because of the fair weather, our hotels didn’t have any air conditioning because they don’t need it, and you don’t need to get your hands dirty when flushing the toilet when most automatically flushes. France had arguably the best hot chocolate, Belgians drink and party like crazy every night, there were more bikes than pigeons in the Netherlands, and the Dutch will take your jokes to offense if you’re not careful— every country had their own unique twists and turns that would be culturally shocking to people such as myself, an American. I traveled just like Phineas and Ferb and visited various countries of different cultures. The show itself doesn’t even begin to magnify the extent to how different things are from country to country, but just as expected, my developed romanticisms of Europe cultivated from the show fell true as I explored the countries myself.
It is to no debate that my brief one month adventures in Europe taught me more about European culture than I would have in school. One month outside of the U.S. was a fever dream adventure that is crazier than the roller coaster rides at Six Flags. Although it was only last year, looking back on the thousands of pictures my family and I took, Europe felt more like a virtual reality than a memory because the experience itself was so surreal, my brain couldn’t fully process the fact that I physically experienced being under the Eiffel Tower to see the rust on the steel and smell a tinge of cigarettes everywhere I walked. Staring at pictures, I couldn’t possibly believe that I was walking on the same road, looking at the same statue as the royal family in London. How could I possibly believe that I physically saw the sight of two cows hiding under the shadow of a tree in the Netherlands like it was on Pinterest? Such unbelievable sights that it couldn’t possibly be a reality to know that people in Barcelona don’t speak the same Spanish I learned at school. All of these experiences culminated an even stronger passion within me because my experiences in Europe were even better than it looked in pictures and travel vlogs online. Descriptions couldn’t possibly be enough to express just how spectacular of an experience I had to physically be in the ins and outs of countries I’ve always seen in school posters and computer wallpapers. I never truly understood my love for countries and culture and traveling until I was physically there to experience Europe’s magic that I proclaimed to my father, “I want to go back. When can we go back and return? When can we travel to Europe again and visit all the places we missed?”, begging to hear “Next year” knowing full well we couldn’t possibly afford it. Europe left me craving to know more and be physically there to live more, something that being strictly at home couldn’t offer me.
Europe truly placed such a high value on traveling that it became imperative that I pursue a career that will pay me to travel, which is why I decided to pursue travel nursing. What better way to live life but to travel and help people all around the world and earn a wage for it? I thought that was two birds with one stone. I was already on the path to pursue a nursing degree prior to my travels, but my travels in Europe convinced me that seeing the world is worth paying for. Traveling doesn’t have to remain as a long-term dream like I have always awaited for because I realize that pursuing a nursing profession with a diversity in fields, nursing could allow me the luxury to travel if I work hard for it which is why I work hard now to make sure that I do achieve my BSN. With nursing, I can secure a future that allows me to travel anywhere. I finally lived through the once in a lifetime opportunity to travel around Europe like I have always dreamt of, perhaps working as a traveling nurse could pave the way for me to live in Europe as well. I will see Europe again because I’m not going to keep dreaming and wait for the day to come again. “I’m going to come back someday” to relive the fun experiences, and I will come back to travel again.
Reflection: Now reflect on the personal narrative and writing process. Take this time to express what you learned about yourself and your writing process.
According to the Little Seagull Handbook: writing students are often called on to compose narratives to explore their personal experiences" (Bullock, Brody, and Weinberg, 2021, p. 80).
What I learned about myself is that my passion for traveling is so complex that I could practically talk about it forever. My essay is very long and extensive to the actual requirements that I'm afraid I might have overdone it, but the lengths at which I took to explain my passion just shows how strongly passionate I am about traveling. There is no possible way that anyone would miss that fact. In terms of my writing process, it was quite tedious because it's hard to explain my passion for traveling in a consiced paper where it's simplified. Again, my passion for it is too complex to leave it with a couple of sentences and paragraphs. There's too much detail for me to cover on the reasons why and my essay only lists a very few. I learned that I find it very hard to make vivid descriptions without stating what's fact because elaboration is my weak point in the essay. I try my best to be as descriptive so hopefully the readers can understand and visualize the experience themselves. I didn't really like the process because of how tedious it was. I'd like to think that personal narratives shouldn't take too much effort especially because this is about a passion of mine, but unfortunately, I had to utilize a lot of strenuous work to make the essay proper and organized at the very least. I tried my best trying to connect everything altogether without overexplaining. Hopefully, I didn't write something overwhelming to the reader.
1. Did you focus on a single event (a story) about your passion that helped you reflect on your ideas/philosophy/values/ or beliefs that create a portrait of who you are? If yes, you had a clear purpose to your paper. In one sentence -identify the event and explain how it relates to your philosophy or beliefs.
My story was about my experiences during the one month I traveled around 5 countries in Europe and how it made me grow a strong passion for traveling and experiencing cultures because there is so much to see in this world that time doesn't give you and there is a lot of value to learning culture that you can identify with.
2. Was your analysis compelling/a satisfying ending? Did it communicate to your reader your own philosophy or cultural understanding of your passion? If so, explain how?
i left off my analysis with a motivation to travel by pursuing travel nursing, but my conclusion starts off with observations, importance, and then I relate it to my nursing career. I personally like the conclusion because it gives off that same motivation I have to the reader and it shows that by the end of the trip, I found a reason to pursue nursing even more now. My cultural understanding isn't necessarily included at the very last paragraph, but it is part of the ending of my essay, and I talk about the general common etiquette they have in Europe and how it would be culturally shocking to Americans such as myself.
3. Did you use narrative techniques (see Writer's Journal #1)? If so, what? If not, what could you have used to enhance your paper?
I did use narrative techniques but more so the order of my writing. The lesson talks about how the organization of the storyline can be organized in different fashions and I tried playing around with it a bit by starting off my essay with the present, going to the past, and then talk about the middle. In terms of the strategies, I included self-dialogue and I tried my best with the descriptions. I was a lot more descriptive with surroundings to allow the reader to visualize the things I saw because what I saw was a huge part of the experience that changed me.
4. Did you SHOW action or feelings? Explain what you learned about this technique and how it is useful in narrative writing.
I expressed a lot of my excitement and curiosity through my observations. I took my reader through my own observations and analysis and made comparison between Europe and America. My feelings about Europe and the impression it left me are expressed in metaphors to make my essay a little bit more creative with imagination. What I learned about this technique was that I can have a hard time showing my feelings, and I learned that I focus a lot on the events more than my own actions. That's a weak point that I hopefully addressed as I revised my essay. Showing actions and feelings can help enhance the essay by creating an image for the reader's imagination as well as to help the visualize the events clearly in their head.
5. Reflect on the writing process: in which process did you spend the most time? Explain. What does this tell you about your writing process? What do you struggle with the most?
6. Which revising technique was the most helpful. Explain.
Reading my essay backwards was probably the best revising technique because it forces me to look at each paragraph of my paper separately and at its raw form. It throws me off when I read the same essay multiple times so reading it backwards gives you somewhat of a relief from overwhelming yourself with the same sentences. It is much easier to pick on the weak points of the essay because the backwards technique disorients your essay where it forces you to connect the dots with that one paragraph.
7. Reflect on the criteria of the rubric - which area was the strongest in your paper? Explain.
I am confident in the areas such as organization, sentence structure, word choice, voice, format, and ideas, but I think the reflection is the one thing I worry about because I tried my best to reflect on my values which is primarily how important traveling became to me after exploring Europe. I don't know how else to describe that importance besides talking about the observations I made on European customs that are distinctive to the countries and my fascination with the difference. I made sure to communicate how magical it was to be a part of Europe in the duration of the entire month I was there. I made sure that throughout my essay, the reader can fully understand how desperately I've always wanted to go to Europe and how going to Europe has become my motivation for future careers.
8. On the A - F grading scale, what grade would you award your paper? Explain your evaluation.
As much as I would like to have an A on my essay due to the effort, at best it would be a B+. The essay was written a lot longer than I believe it should be because it reached a 10 page maximum compared to what I would think a normal l narrative paper would be which takes up only 3 to 5 pages. I am also not very confident on whether I truly connected everything properly, so I deducted points on myself for the reason that the connection might not be clear to the reader. My essay is well-organized and it should be in order to where the reader can understand. I made sure that there are a lot of descriptions and visuals by including metaphors, so I would give myself points for the literary devices. I made sure to make this as personal as I possibly could so at best, I'm giving myself a B+ for my work.
9. What were your strengths and any other "nuggets" you learned through the writing of this paper.
My essay was strong in the aspects of explanation because I made sure to include very specific details about places and environment. what is probably my "nugget" in the paper is my ability to be able to connect the story to my understanding and analysis. I'm not very confident on my reflection because I tried my best to articulate why traveling became such a strong passion to me after my experiences, but I'm not confident that I used the right strategies to describe that because I don't think words can describe just how passionate I am about it that I find it hard to express it in words.