Project 1 Really Shitty First Draft (750-word)
This draft includes work from a free-write session that we did in class, and another free-write session that I did on my own.
A place where I felt heard undoubtably was my high school graduation day. This was because I was privileged to sit on the stage for the duration of the ceremony. This was because I gave a speech to the audience. This was because I worked my ass off to be the valedictorian of my class.
However, this was not the one time that this title made me feel heard. Once the announcement was made public I immediately felt more noticed. The congratulations were nonstop up until I recently left to attend Florida State. Even my mom got more attention; instead of a fake smile in the grocery story from my ex-bestfriends’s mom, she now got a praise for raising me so well.
Before the announcement was made, I was the silent body that got my work done.
A place where I felt spoken to was in calculus the beginning of senior year. A past student came in to do a presentation for a business fraternity she is in and expose high school students to a potential career path - one that I would soon call my own. She was the saludatorian of her graduating class two years prior; I was currently number two in my graduating class. I felt a connection to this girl that I never knew, and when she began describing a job that perfectly described me, I felt as if she somehow knew me and travelled from New York City, where she went to school, to south Florida just so that I could have a life epiphany.
A place where it was complicated was my calculus class senior year. We were the only period for calculus II; sixteen students in the class; five of those sixteen were girls. It is safe to say that our voice was overlooked in this period five classroom. The masculinity was overwhelming in this room. I think they knew that they the control and that is why it bothered me. At one point in the year the boys would do some type of wrestling in class before we would start the lesson. It truly was unbelievable, although I have to admit, entertaining. In this room I never rose my hand to ask questions or make comments; I never corrected my teacher when he blatantly made a mistake. Those tasks were left to the males in the room. The fact that I am a naturally shy person may play a role, but in this circumstance the other, not so shy girls also kept relatively quiet. With such a high-level class it is obvious to say that almost everyone was at the top of our class, but it is notable that the girls were just slightly higher up. We were the very cream of the crop. Yet, during this specific fifty minutes everyday we were lowered. I’m not going to put the blame on the guys in the room because it is not their fault for being boys. After all, boys will be boys. However, I will say that in general, our society does not given enough credit to girls who are good math. I do not need anyone to bow at my feet, but it would be nice for someone to acknowledge that I did get a level 5 on both Calculus AB and BC. Can the boys in my class say the same?
For sixteen years I begged my mom to get me a puppy. Well, I guess it would be better said that I begged my mom for a puppy up until the age of sixteen because my family technically had a dog when I was very young, but I cannot remember her, sadly. Anyways, I stopped the begging at sixteen not because of some maturity revelation, but because I finally did get a puppy! The name given to her by the rescue was Autumn, then I changed it to Abby, then I changed it Brandy, then I changed it to Rue, then I changed it to Brandy Rue. Indecision at its finest. Anyways, we adopted her from a rescue called Second Chance. They take puppies and kittens out of kill shelters in Alabama and bring them to South Florida where they are adopted. Florida has more animal rights than Alabama. The thought of my puppy being killed in a shelter is what led my family to want to help save more puppies. We could not adopt more because our house is too small and we already had two birds. So, we learned more about the organization and got involved with the saving process. We became fosters.
