Final Personal Narrative: Unit 2 Reflection
This is my final journal for this class. Personal narrative means a lot as does reflection. (close to me and looking in the mirror or back) During this journey a few things stood out to me in my critical thinking process. I have learned many valuable lessons doing my own research and inquiry into Saint Louis, and its underground. I will expound on three. One lesson would be adapting to the ever-changing situation and having a plan b, c, and d. The second lesson would be the challenge of developing a story (topic) reader’s can stick to and keep their interest. Digging deeper and finding the meaning and critical thoughts associated with the topic would be a third lesson.
Early in the semester we were given several tips to help our approach to successful writing. Know you need time and interval. Make sure you have time for thoughts and time to develop those thoughts. Find a comfortable place to write. Pay attention to those thoughts as they do not come on demand. Find habits in your approach that work and practice writing in short bursts. Make sure I reward myself when I have made strides. I used all those techniques to evolve as a better writer. As a writer, things will get in the way of that mission. I was flooded out of my home and needed to relocate and find another comfortable place to be creative; an uncomfortable chair in a hotel room. I had deaths and terminal diagnoses within my immediate family circle. I had pets die and become terminal as well. My computer blue-screened crashed the just days before the website was due to be turned in. I lost all of my research files that were stored in word and power point. My hard drive was toast. I still needed to formulate a plan to use these tips to successfully create a google docs website while navigating through those challenges.
My plan was getting derailed prior to and throughout this project. I like to be organized and have everything in its place, and it wasn’t. I learned that I had to be willing to bend and adapt to get the job done. It was a lesson I learned before but hoped I didn’t need to use that skill here. I used to be a master avoider for many reasons and have improved in that area to avoid getting behind. I also needed to have a back up plan. I originally built my story around an encounter I had with a guy named Mark. (the plan) We talked at length about his time working under the city streets. He agreed to do an interview and to be taped and highlighted on the webpage. He was the expert. What an amazing idea, having the expert tell the visitors to my page his story in audio media. What I discovered over the course of creating the website was, those 35 years underground have left Mark as an alcoholic recluse. I never had the ability to re-interview him or create the audio media I wished to highlight. My decision to trust my path for the story early on made a huge impact on my approach and redirecting my efforts. I chose to mention him (I am glad I did), as he was the one that sparked my interest in the topic for this project alone. I then made the decision to change the focus of the website to be about my journey along with the readers, doing the inquiry together. (the backup plan) My next planning challenge was using Google docs to develop anything. It was my first time using the program. At first, I had difficulties editing and developing pages, tabs, colors, themes and buttons for my layout. I had a hard time moving pictures around on the web pages once I inserted them. Fortunately one benefit of using Google docs is that your information is saved as you do your work on their server. I began to rebuild my research data one piece at a time and put the content into the website. The feedback from my fellow student, and the professor in the teacher(student) conference gave me invaluable ideas on how to improve the appearance, functionality and structure of my web pages. I had to again often use a plan b or c to get the work done. Being creative and thinking outside the box helped as well. Sometimes just stepping away from the work and going for a walk helped reenergize me.
While doing my deeper critical inquiry into the Saint Louis underground, I was overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information that was available. It was like sipping from a fire hose. I needed a focus to develop my story. I wanted to avoid overwhelming visitors to my page with too much content much the way I was. I could have written a book with several chapters and spent a year researching topics on the underground. I had weeks. I first was choosing to use the history of the Indian mounds as the topic but abandoned that as it would have been the only topic, deservingly so, and is well documented already. I started asking myself questions. Did people know there was an underground? Were they going to think the site was about the underground railroad of the slavery days? Do they care what is under their feet while walking or driving the city streets? I decided to ask many people what they thought of the topic. Almost every person I spoke to had never heard of or thought of what was under the city streets. I knew the unknown underground was the topic to choose. To simplify the web experience, I narrowed down my research to inquire about and develop three main aspects of what was under the city. The concrete jungle, the giant sewer system and the natural tunnels and caves were my choices. My challenge was also limiting the amount of words and being more specific and to the point without losing content, or the readers short attention span. I started by choosing pictures I liked from the internet of those three themes and from my two library books. I built the story around those pictures and the questions I was attempting to answer.
I think everyone that comes to the city can benefit from a deeper knowledge of the history of Saint Louis’s other unique qualities to compliment the traditional touristy topics. Personally, though, I have not been a person that wanted to go deeper into any topic since leaving the Army. Surface stuff, no pain, no gain, and riding the wave was my preference. The in-depth critical thinking this semester caused me to take a deeper look inside of myself and my mind while researching this topic for my project. I started asking many deeper questions affecting my writing approach about the underground. What is it? Where is it located? When was it built? What am I attempting to relay to the visitor to the site? What do the visitors to the site need to know? How did growing up where I did influence my critical style and understanding? How do I emotionally respond to the inquiry? Can I do this? I started journaling daily to get my thoughts down on paper. I would find my mind racing prior to my time to wake up. I grabbed a pen and paper and just wrote. Learning to write nonstop for several minutes without worrying about sentence structure, spelling, correctness helped me go deeper. Waiting for the perfect time and the perfect words for me did not work. I worked the story, reworked it, and had others read it and critique it. (that was difficult as it made me vulnerable) I took the feedback from the instructor to heart and used those tips to make improvements. Think deeper, seek what tools were used and how they were used in a scene, was one tip that had a significant impact on me. Practice is also key. A ball player must practice daily to stay on top of his game through repetition. I found that writing was no different. The times I had difficulties writing were the times I wasn’t journaling daily. I was not swinging the bat and practicing. It would be difficult to get back on track. But, when my train was derailed, I got back on the tracks. When I got knocked down, I got up again is the perfect song. You know, that is really the theme song of my time spent making this website project a reality and has always been my life’s theme song as well I learned.
I would like to add, that If I was given the opportunity to do it, I would increase the number of areas I wrote about from my inquiry’s that are part of the Saint Louis underground. There could be a page dedicated to the prehistoric artifacts, another on the former Indian civilizations, and yet another on how the burning down of city blocks has impacted the underground. I have grown as a researcher, critical thinker, and writer as a result of doing this website project. I do believe I have learned these lessons; have a plan and backup plan; develop a story to grab a reader’s attention and keep it; dig deeper into the meaning.