This is the last free write I will do for this class, but it will definitely not be my last free write ever. This semester was fun. I met new people and I made some really great friends. This class was one of the classes I looked forward to. I felt like I could get something out of every class. I couldn’t do that in law or philosophy. Either concepts would go right over my head or the class would move so fast that I would have to spend that night reteaching it to myself. I feel like I belong in this class. I know whats going on, I participate and I have fun doing it. I hope to have many more of classes like this at BC. Im happy the semester is over but I will definitely miss this class.

. I then walked back to the reference desk to see if I could find a book I had read in the fifth grade. To my surprise they had it, Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. After flipping through the book I began to wander through the shelves.

The essay I chose  is “On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character.” This essay stuck out to me because I just recently began to start writing a journal. I have been freewriting regularly and decided why not compile them every day to see how I grow and change. What immediately stuck out to me and something I’ve begun to incorporate in my own writing is the need to acquire some distance from yourself to turn yourself into a character. At first I was a bit confused. I thought why would I need to distance myself if I’m writing about myself? After reading Lopate’s essay I understood why I needed to distance myself. Distancing yourself allows the writer to look at themselves from a different point of view to write honestly about themselves, making their writing more engaging and more entertaining to read about.

“I can write about anything I want. I’ve got no idea where to start. I can write about track or Shay or friends or family for what feel like forever. I honestly enjoy writing but writing for school is hard. I pray that this writing makes me better because I want to be great.” -Freewrite #1 8/31/22

I felt my excitement building as I again struggled to unwrap the box. I was surprised with the S pendant. It was small, it could fit within a dime for reference but it was the best gift in the world to me. This piece of silver, stamped with an S and probably  shipped from some corner of the world is one of the best gifts I have ever received. 

When walking into O’Neill Library I was surrounded by countless shelves of books. I walked to the shelf closest to me, a collection of encyclopedias. The books were in sets separated by the alphabet. Each encyclopedia set was sorted by color, I looked around me and there were entire shelves with spines with colors such as a deep royal blue, red that has faded over time, and yellows that had a grey tint to them. I was amazed to see the sheer scale of information in these books and throughout the whole library. I grabbed one off the shelf, It was black with deep dark maroon outlines and when I opened it was pages of Jesuits and brief histories of their lives. I then walked back to the reference desk to see if I could find a book I had read in the fifth grade. To my surprise they had it, Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. After flipping through the book I began to wander through the shelves. I noticed a group of books of all different shapes and sizes. This was odd because most of the books on these particular shelves were still encyclopedias and all had been separated into groups of the exact sizes, shapes, and colors. This group of odd books happened to be a collection of autobiographies of some of the world’s smartest people such as Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. I picked up the book My Brief History by Stephen Hawking and flipped through the pages. I saw pictures of him standing without his wheelchair and read briefly about his childhood. I was truly impacted by the amount of information available to me if I just looked for it. It’s incredible to me how much information is out there. I couldn’t help but wonder what was hidden in these books and this library.

Each encyclopedia set was sorted by color, I looked around me and there were entire shelves with spines with colors such as a deep royal blue, red that has faded over time, and yellows that had a grey tint to them.

On this silver chain are 2 pendants. One is an S that was gifted to me by my girlfriend to always remember her. Her name is Shannon but she goes by Shay. Shay and I do everything together so it’s only fitting that there is a piece that reminds me of her 24/7.  We met sophomore year of high school and have been inseparable ever since. We’ve taken trips to the beach together, I’ve visited her and her family in Louisville Kentucky and she even surprised me for my birthday here in Boston. She means everything to me and my chain is a constant reminder of what’s waiting for me back home. I remember when she first gave me the pendant, it was to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. I had a strange sense of nostalgia, there I was looking at a little black box wrapped with a silver bow. I felt my excitement building as I again struggled to unwrap the box. I was surprised with the S pendant. It was small, it could fit within a dime for reference but it was the best gift in the world to me. This piece of silver, stamped with an S and probably  shipped from some corner of the world is one of the best gifts I have ever received.