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Robert's Example

Adjectives - musical, athletic, passionate, kind empathetic, understanding

Story - I am very passionate about music and try to be understanding and empathetic regarding the finances and situations of prospective private instrumental students. Because of this, I will allow new students to begin working with me for a much lower rate than I would normally charge. I do this because I want everyone to reach their musical abilities and I don't believe outside forced should get in the way

Verbs: Believe, allow, charge.

I really enjoy playing and teaching music. Because of this, I will often charge a fee which is cheaper than what I normally would for students. I do this because I am certain that everyone had musical abilities and I enjoy helping people reach them

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Description: Passionate, Intelligent, Upbeat, Clever, Empathetic, Wan

Chosen Adjective: Empathetic

Story: I took in a cat that had been abused by a former roommate and nursed her back to health.

Verbs: took, been, abuse, nurse

Story without Adj.: About ten years ago I was living with two other people. One of them owned a cat, and would hurt it. My other roommate and I took the cat in and protected it from the abuser, and when the two of us moved out together, we took the cat with us. After a few vet visits and some time to heal, she was much happier.

Questions: It was much harder to think of adjectives!! I usually ask other people what they think of me if I need to describe myself. This exercise tells me that being descriptive often happens without actually using descriptive words.

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Generic Descriptors of Myself: Passionate, Positive, Caring, Creative,

Picked Adjective: "Caring"

Specific Story Choice: I often spend a lot of time speaking to friends to cheer them up if they are feeling down. I care a lot about my friends and their feelings so for me its always great to listen in to how they feel and comfort them so they feel better.

Verbs from Story: speaking, listening, comforting

Story Without Adj. "Caring": Seeing my friend's status change to a negative one, I decide to delay heading to bed a bit longer to message them and see how they're doing. "Hey (Name), are you okay? I'm here to listen if you need me."
I send the message, waiting patiently as I see the indicator for typing appear and disappear a couple times before a message actually pops up on my screen, confirming that they did need someone to listen to them. I exit out of the messaging app to flick on my alarm for the next morning before heading back to the messages, sending a reaction to their response so they know I'm there for them.

Answers to Questions:
1) I actually had a lot of difficulty in this assignment on both ends. I struggled a lot with finding the adjectives and then also with actually writing the story. It was a really interesting activity to do because of this and I may actually keep trying this on my own to see if I get better at it!
2) This exercise made me realize how difficult it is for me to choose certain words for the story. I often just write without thinking too much about word usage, so having to think more about it and what I'm actually writing was a great activity to take me out of my comfort zone and challenge me to think more rather than to just write whatever.

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Description: Helpful, caring, empathetic, compassionate, curious

Chosen Adjective: Caring

Story: When my friends or family are in need, I would take the time out of my day to take care of them.

Verbs: attentive, compassionate, concerned, considerate

Story without Adj.: At the grocery store, i had to but milk, fruits, veggies, sour cream and of course ice cream, It was a small trip. After i picked up what i needed, i went to the checkout point. Waiting on line, there was a woman in front of me speaking to the cashier and i overheard her say "what's the amount...... i don't have enough". Thinking about the situation, my heart sank and felt concern for her. I went to the cashier and asked to add the remainder to my receipt. The woman said no that it was okay but i kept insisting that it was absolutely fine and not to worry about it. She said thank you and as she was walking away she glanced at me and gave me heart filled smile. I was happy to help her that day.

Questions:
It was hard to find adjectives to describe myself because i don't take the time to list the kind of person i am. Moreover, i found it a bit harder to describe a story without using the adjective. I tried to substitute the word, caring for another. This helped me think about my writing technique and how i should improve it.

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Generic Descriptors of Myself: Goofy, happy, caring

Picked Adjective: Goofy

Specific Story Choice: I made my friends laugh on zoom telling them all about my Hunter videos that I recorded for this class.

Verbs from Story: made, laugh, telling, recorded

Story Without Adj. "Goofy”: I was talking with my friends on zoom about my Hunter courses this semester. I told them about all the videos that I recorded recently where I had to dance like Saturn and write my name with my eyeballs. It is important to note that I am not a dancer. I shared my videos with them, and their reactions were as expected: they all laughed! Although these videos put me outside of my comfort zone, they made my friends and me happy in the end.

Answers to Questions: It was harder for me to write the story. I tried to use sarcasm to convey the goofy-ness without using the words to describe being funny. I also found it difficult to come up with descriptors at first. When I thought about it after speaking and laughing with my friends, goofy seemed fitting!

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Description: quirky, kind, outgoing, funny, creative, stubborn

Adjective: Creative

Growing up my sisters and I made over a thousand home movies. We made plays, movies, music videos and sketches. We made the entire Nutcracker ballet twice playing every role. We had to cut the tape every time we changed to a different character. It took us all day, but we loved it. About 3/4 of the way through my youngest sister was over it and did all she could to crash into us for Waltz of the Flowers. We still laugh at it today. We were exhausted when we finished filming. But we decided to do it again the next year anyway.

Verbs: made, play, cut, crash, laugh

Story without Adjective: I didn’t use my adjective to begin with, but here goes another retelling.

My sisters and I were prolific filmmakers, dancers, music video enthusiasts and playwrights. We made over a thousand home movies by the time I graduated high school. We created visual art inspired by my Dad’s jazz records wearing trash bags, a magnified light, a fan and our dog dressed up as a motorcyclist. We also wrote many plays and had all the neighborhood kids over to play all the parts. I think wrote my first play at age 4; it was all scribbles, but the neighborhood kids played along. My parents gave us this refrigerator box that was our most prized possession. We opened it up, painted a starry scene and turned it into the backdrop of all of our plays. Our most ambitious production was the Nutcracker ballet.

My sisters and I (there were 3 of us, sorry I didn’t say before) set out to play every single role in the Nutcracker ballet. For the Marzipan dance we made the youngest wear a onesie and we colored her face red with magic marker so that she would look like a lamb. I don’t know any red sheep, but we only had a red onesie so we went with it. My other sister was the Nutcracker. In order to make her a boy she stuffed her shirt with a pillow; I don’t know, somehow in our minds that made her look more like a boy. We even attempted an illusion of this crazy lift; the SugarPlum fairy (me) would jump and land on the shoulders of the Nutcracker (my sister). In order to pull off this illusion we placed a sheet behind us hanging in front of an open doorway. Then we put a ladder behind the sheet. We recorded me jumping up to the Nutcracker, then cut the tape, then started recording again when I was sitting on the highest rung of the ladder, my sister posing with her arms underneath my legs. For all being under 10 I think we were pretty resourceful.

1. I think it was harder to use adjectives to describe myself. Once you give yourself a label then there is pressure to live up to it. 2. I have always liked telling stories. I think showing a person you are creative is a lot easier than just using the word creative. When you tell a story with a specific example it’s showing the person in detail how creative you are. Plus its more memorable.

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Description: friendly, goofy, curious, organized, helpful

Chosen Adjective: helpful

Story: The time I helped Spanish (Spain) tourists order a sandwich from Subway.
Verbs: grew, began, was, coming, used, go, were, would, order, offer, want, looked, seeing, figured, translate, confirm, toasted

Shortly before the pandemic grew and quarantine began I was with a couple of friends coming back home from the Microsoft store in 5th Ave. We used to go to the Microsoft store all the time for video game tournaments so we were familiar with the area. On our way to the train there would be a Subway's spot where we would order our sandwiches, which we called our "victory meal" (even though we still ate there when we lost). One day after we ordered our sandwiches and sat down to eat, a family of foreigners came to order. I was mid-chew on my first bite of my sandwich when I heard the manager of the store ask if anyone can translate for them. I looked around seeing if anyone would offer assistance but after a moment of silence I stepped up and decided to translate for them. The dad of the family basically just wanted the sandwich from the poster out front but asked me to ask what was in it. After ordering the sandwich I asked the usual, "do you want it toasted, do you want any toppings like, vegetables, do you want to make it a meal with chips and a drink?" I figured they were from Spain because I recognized the thick Spanish accent from thousands of Soccer videos/ interviews I've seen from La Liga (The Spain soccer club league). I asked just to confirm and they said yeah and I asked them about Spain and sports and we had an amazing conversation until the sandwich was done.
1.) I would say finding other adjectives was tricky and listing the verbs was also confusing because I had to dig back into my story to find them.
2.) The activity shows how writing can be down in numerous/ creative ways and find other ways of wording to tell a story.

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Adjectives: weird, loud, caring, determined, passionate, empathetic, funny, creative, mature, childlike

Chosen Adjective: childlike

Story: When I was sixteen, I went to Walmart with my cousin. We went to the bike aisle, and I saw a Spiderman helmet. I put it on, and I saw a tricycle that was meant for really small children. I couldn't help myself and looked incredibly childlike as I rode it up and down the aisles with the Spiderman helmet on.

Verbs: went, saw, rode

Story without using adjective:
I love animated Disney movies. I could watch them over and over again. I sing and dance along to the songs. I even wanted to go to Disneyworld for my 21st birthday. Also, one of my favorite game series is Kingdom Hearts which have several worlds based off of Disney. My mom and younger siblings tell me that I act too young for my age and need to grow up.

Reflection: I found finding adjectives that described me as easy. I thought it would be difficult to write a story using verbs and not the adjective I used, but it wasn't. This exercise made me realize that my writing style can be incredibly simple. It also reminds me of how childlike I can be because I had so many stories to choose from lol. I enjoyed others stories as some were funny, beautifully worded, and lengthy.

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Adjectives: Kind, empathetic, positive, friendly, funny

Chosen Adjective: friendly

Story: I made a random friend at the park

Verbs: Talk,ask, decide, walk, apologize

Story without chosen adjective:

This past weekend, my friend and I decided to have a picnic. While at the picnic, a lady walking her dog passed our blanket. The dog walked toward us and laid on our blanket. The owner apologized, but we started petting the dog. I began talking to the owner and  asking her questions about her dog and also about her day in general.

Reflection:  I did not find it difficult  finding adjectives to describe myself. However, I did have to think as to what story exemplified those adjetives.I think this exercise helped me realize that sometimes I need to "stretch" my writing. Sometimes I lack description.

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Description: helpful, curious, argumentative, empathetic, cautious

Chosen Adjective: curious
Story: A friend told me that people taste cucumbers differently to different people so I spent an hour researching it
Verbs: told, taste, spent, researching

Story: One of my friends asked me why I hate cucumbers when she thinks it just tastes like water, so I told her that the smell is too strong for me. Another friend did a Google Search to see if cucumbers taste different to different people like cilantro does, and when she found out there are organic compounds that make certain chemicals repugnant to specific people who can taste them, I spent an hour or two researching this. I looked up what chemicals, what other vegetables do the same, and I learned cucumbers are part of the melon family.

Reflection: I found it easy to write without using too many adjectives since it makes the story shorter and more direct, but I definitely would find issue with cutting them out altogether since the story would be too vague otherwise.

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Generic Descriptions: Bubbly, friendly, helpful, polite, dramatic, impulsive, open, loud, observant, hard-working.

Picked Adjective: Helpful

Specific Story Choice:

I try to be as helpful as I can be, especially while traveling. The first time I ever traveled abroad was during undergrad to China and Kazakhstan. One oppressively hot day, we were in Xi’An visiting about 10 different families in their cave homes where they served us snacks and chatted with us. Prior to this trip, I had been an extremely picky eater. Traveling taught me that politeness was important because my actions represented all Americans. In the first cave home our host served us all hard-boiled eggs. Not my first choice for a hot day but we were guests not only in their home but in their country. At the second cave home our hosts brought out a large platter of hard-boiled eggs. What a weird coincidence! Then our hosts at the third house so graciously brought out yet another platter of hard-boiled eggs… And so on. By the third house my classmates were beginning to look a bit flushed, especially since most of their stomachs hadn’t acclimated to the Chinese cuisine yet. For the next seven houses I stealthily ate egg after egg after egg to help out my classmate’s weak stomachs and in order to save face in front of our hosts. My stomach of steal is very helpful in hard (boiled) situations.

Verbs from Story: Traveling, visited, served, chatted, actions, represented, brought, beginning, flushed, acclimated, ate, help, save.

Story Without Adjective “Helpful”: The first time I ever traveled abroad was during undergrad to China and Kazakhstan. One oppressively hot day, we were in Xi’An visiting about 10 different families in their cave homes where they served us snacks and chatted with us about their way of life. Prior to this trip, I had been an extremely picky eater. Traveling changed me and taught me that I am a guest in the country and should act accordingly. In the first cave home our host served us all hard-boiled eggs. Not my first choice for a hot day but we were guests not only in their home but in their country. At the second cave home our hosts brought out a large platter of hard-boiled eggs. What a weird coincidence! Then our hosts at the third house so graciously brought out yet another platter of hard-boiled eggs… And so on. By the third house my classmates were beginning to look a bit flushed, especially since most of their stomachs hadn’t acclimated to the Chinese cuisine yet. For the next seven houses I stealthily ate egg after egg after egg to conceal my classmate’s weak stomachs. My stomach of steal saved the day.

1. I had so much trouble with this exercise! Coming up with adjectives for myself was actually quite easy but then coming up with a story to back up that adjective proved really difficult. (Which has sent me even deeper into the vortex of imposter syndrome… Can these words describe me if I don’t have stories to prove them?!) I finally decided on a random story from my life and then figured out what that story said about me and what adjective I could gleam from said story.

2. I think from this exercise I learned that I often don’t tell stories to explain one certain attribute  (about myself or anything). I guess I often tell stories just for the story’s sake and that’s probably not very interesting! Taking out the adjective “helpful,” was actually pretty easy. If I had tried to take out ALL the adjectives that could have proved a lot more difficult. While both versions are pretty similar I definitely like the second one (without "helpful") more.

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Adjectives that I can fit-in of my personality:
Loving, dependable, caring, forgiving, soft, nice, responsible.

Adjective I picked up:
"Loving"

Verbs: depend, care, and responsible.
Specific story
"Taking care of my family and missing my children"

Story (not using picked adjective):
We're a family of four: me, my wife, and my two adorable children. Without seeing my children, it's almost impossible for me to go anywhere even for a few days. One time I thought I would go to visit my brother and his family in Florida. I thought it would be a good get away from my two kids and family for just a few days, because, the children fight each other and complain all the time. But as I was leaving for Florida and about to aboard the airplane, I then turn around come back home instead. I was already start missing my family and my two tendering and innocent children. You see, for me, my family is a very important part of my life.

Comment:
I realized that without the use of good or proper adjectives, it is very hard to write a very good personal story.

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Description: calm, creative, funny, weird, stubborn

Chosen Adjective: Stubborn
Story: The time in elementary school where I really had to pee but I was too stubborn to go because someone had pointed out before how I never had to use the bathroom for some reason, which led me to try to keep that streak going.
Verbs: go, pee, use, try

Story w/o stubborn: The feeling welled up inside of me. The feeling of a certain bodily function that we humans simply cannot escape from. A cursed cycle of consumption and excretion—to pee, as they call it, that not even my will could subdue. My reputation could not be soiled. I had to go forth as I was. No matter how much I tried and yearned for freedom, my ego would not allow it. My strength was to be used to resist. This was the identity I had carved for myself and I could not shed that mask. What stood before me was the only path and till the bitter end, I shall endure.

Questions:
1) I found finding adjectives more difficult for me since I have a habit of being way too humble to find fitting words to describe myself. But in the interest of my own time, I ended up using the words I didn’t want to use anyway.
2) The exercise was interesting to do since I don’t typically have the occasions to write creatively anymore. It showed me that I really like to be dramatic with language even when describing or doing simple things since I’ve always found exaggerating mundane scenarios to be interesting. Being told not to use certain words also made me more eager to find ways to make my writing more dramatic to compensate.

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Description: Intrinsic, crazy, emotional, creative, poetic

Picked adjective: Creative

Story: I secretly love to get lost in my imagination and forget about all my responsibilities; my loved ones included. I could never disconnect from my dog though; I guess only when she needs her alone time too. I become restless when I cannot complete a project, painting, or other form of art. The freedom of ignoring my phone is intoxicating. There is still a part of me that remembers what life was like without that thing glued to my side. Disclosure: I wrote the story without verbs first.

Story without adjectives or "creative": I could spend days in the comfort of my imagination and forget to speak to another human; I could never forego a conversation with my dog though. Messages go unanswered, emails ignored and it’s as if a luminary linguaphile is my secretary, pure freedom. The people I love understand I rather stay in my imagination, and know I become livewire if I leave a project, painting, drawing, or sculpture- unfinished and untouched for too long. Disclosure: This kind of goes along with the other descriptors.

Verbs from story: leave, understand, ignored, forego, forget

1)     It was definitely harder to only use verbs, I found myself double checking words like: forego, imagination, and unfinished. However, it forced me to get a little creative and use “luminary linguaphile” lol. I had to look that up too.

2)     I think I had more fun avoiding adjectives; although it took a tiny bit longer. When I first started academic writing, my English professor would write words like “stop” and “not here” whenever I used too much metaphorical language. I like to believe I toned it down a bit since then.

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Description: Secure, Tenacious, courageous, compassionate

Chosen adjective: Tenacious

Specific Story:  I was persistent in my pursuit with contacting unemployment for backpay that was owed to me.

Verbs from Story: Persistent, pursuit

Story without adjective "tenacious": I was receiving unemployment benefits due to co-vid and all of a sudden my payments stopped. I called unemployment almost everyday but could not get through. After a few moths of calling, I stopped and then tried again around August. When I finally got through to a live representative, I was bounced around to about four people who claimed they had "taken care" of my case. After being told that the back pay was dispersed and I should be expecting the funds in my account within 2-3 business days. I was sadly misinformed. My husband advised that I just forget about it but deep down I knew I had to continue to press the issue and I could not just "let this go." After travailing a one hour wait time every time I called, it was very tempting to quit.  However, it was worth all the hurdles in the end. My final phone call transferred me to to a Top tier three manager who had the authority to rectify and clarify my case as well as answer all my questions. Finally, Breakthrough!!!!She immediately corrected my claim and five weeks ago I received all my back pay since May.  Hallelujah!!!!

Answers to Questions:
1. I did find it challenging to find adjectives to describe myself. It challenging to narrow down the adjectives I wanted to use. However, choosing the action word was not so hard once I narrowed it down.
2. I did not realize that I am so accustomed to using sophisticated language. However, it reminded me of of keeping things balanced and relatable in my speech. In the words of my husband, I don't always need to use professional language in every conversation, especially personal conversations.

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Description: Introspective, empathetic, easy-going, literary.

Chosen Adjective: Empathetic

Story Choice: Called a cab for intoxicated woman and her young son so they could get home safely.

Story without adjective: One night, a friend and I had just grabbed a cup of coffee and  were walking to go sit on the boardwalk. As we were walking, across the street from us we saw a woman walking with her son. The woman was struggling to keep her balance. We watched her try to walk a few feet and then grab hold of the pole of a street sign for balance. I felt for her and her son. I was sure that the child was confused and maybe a little scared about what was taking place, and I felt that the woman, even though intoxicated, knew that she was putting her and her son in an awkward situation. So my friend and I walked over to them, told them our names, asked the woman if there was someone we could call to come pick them up, and told them we'd wait until the ride showed up. We called a cab for them and helped them into the cab when it arrived.

Questions:
1) I didn't really find the activity that difficult. I liked the activity because it exposed how our actions reveal our characteristic traits.
2) I find that the activity proved that one doesn't need to say they are this or that kind of person in order to exemplify that.

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Description: Helpful, caring, shy, calm
Picked Adjective: Helpful
Story Choice: I helped organize my best friend's birthday plans.
Story without picked adjective: My best friend,
Kelyn, really wanted to throw a party at an Airbnb for her birthday this year. However, she made the decision last minute, making it nearly impossible to find a location. She was worried it wasn't going to work out, but I decided to step in and reassure her she wouldn't have to worry about a single thing. Our other friends and myself put time aside from our busy days to find the perfect place and will be doing our best to make Kelyn happy that day.
Questions:
1) I decided to not use the word 'help' either just to make it more difficult, but I definitely see the challenge in this activity. I feel like it was harder than finding adjectives to describe myself with.
2) The activity reminds me that it's always important to expand one's vocabulary.

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Description: Tall, funny, Headstrong, Helpful, blunt
Picked Adjective:  Helpful
Specific Story Choice: I helped my friend pack and move
Story without picked adjective:   On Monday I was excited for my day off to relax and take a nap once my friend leaves. Before leaving, my friend mentioned that she is overwhelmed with packing and the moving process. Instead of taking my nap as planned, I drove my friend to Manhattan from Long Island to help her finish pack and move furniture which took all night.
Questions:
1.  iIt was harder only using action verbs to describe myself. Finding adjectives for myself was a lot easier because it's done so often.
2. This confirms my struggles with grammar that i've had since coming to this country as a child

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Description: creative, loving, anxious, excitable
Picked Adjective: excitable
Specific Story Choice: Went to a fall festival and was very excited by every little event that happened.
Story without picked adjective:
During a Fall Festival in Manapalan NJ, I felt excited by the vast amount of fun events and opportunities at my disposal. At first, I was entranced by the petting zoo and the cutest alpacas I had ever seen. But then, I noticed they had a piglet race going on at 11:30 that we simply could not miss! How could we forget about the sunflower field and all of the great photo-ops there were? Safe to say, I was eccentric about the plethora of activities, and I could not just choose a single one; I am a very excitable person.
Questions:
1.) Only using verbs was exponentially more difficult for me. I think that my desire to tell a story got in the way of following this prompt exactly as well (sorry Thomas!) Personally, I don't think about verbs and adjectives in daily conversations/in writing, they usually just flow onto the page, so this was difficult.
2.) This exercise definitely showed me how my writing flows and how my brain works, more than anything. I also noticed that instinctually I used a wide vocabulary when I am able to do a free write like this one. I do not pay attention to verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc, it turns out that I write what comes to mind without paying attention to it.

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Generic Description: Friendly, helpful, sensitive, well-organized
Picked Adjective: helpful
Specific Story Choice:  Take care of my friend when we studied abroad.
Verbs from Story: take care, look after, help
Story without picked adjective: My peers and I studied in Beijing four years ago. One of my friends, Michelle fell and twisted her ankle. I took care of her for a week until she could walk. I helped her to do the Ice therapy and heat therapy by a towel. I ordered takeout food for her and borrowed my notes to her. She was thankful about what I did. Sometime we thought of this funny and touching memory even we were graduated.

Answers to Questions:
1. I think using only action words is hard for me because I have to describe the story in details and sometime I cannot find an exact right verb. One adjective means a lots of things and have a brief impression of one's personality.
2. Since English is my second language, I think in my first language and I have to do the translation in my brain. Sometimes I have to look up the dictionary when I cannot think of an accurate vocabulary to express myself.

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Generic Description: average, shy, foolhardy, headstrong

Picked Adjective: headstrong

Specific Story Choice: The time racoons ate all my food while hiking and I had to walk 60 miles.

Story without picked adjective:  I looked at the gnawed hole in my food bag before turning out the contents on the picnic table.  The chips, cereals, and nuts all had holes bitten through their bags.  I threw each bag with teeth marks into the trash and found myself left with a snickers bar, lemonade mix, and a packet of instant ramen.  I put these in the top compartment of my backpack as I took out my maps.  I had just started moving through the Blue Ridge Mountains and hadn't planned on resupplying for another 3 days at the earliest.  I relaxed slightly as I looked at what I could expect for the next 60 miles.  From what I could tell there were no difficult uphill or down hill sections and even better the trail followed the Skyline Drive before it veered of to the next town.  A stupid plan was forming in my head as fumed over losing my food.  If I could just keep an average walking pace I would reach the next town by the tomorrow, if I was willing to walk into the night.  I threw my significantly lighter bag over my shoulder and gave the bear pole that had failed me a departing kick and went to wake up my hiking partner.

The terrain was gentle and the trail was well maintained.  Even though I had been hiking for weeks my legs were ready to rest when I sat down for a late lunch.  I ate my snickers slowly as I found my location on the map.  I finally found the picnic ground I was eating at and checked the mile markers for the section was on.  I was still 40 miles from the road to Roanoke.  On any other day I might have considered stopping at the next shelter.  I considered going to one of the service stations my hiking partner and I had discovered dotted the Skyline drive and just buying more food despite the exorbitant prices.  I did a quick bit of mental math and reasoned I would have to spend maybe $35 dollars if I wanted to buy supplies for the next two days.  I glared at my maps and hoped I the next sections were as easy as they looked on the maps.

Me and my hiking partner sat in the hotel restaurant we had decided to take an early dinner in.  I was drinking lemonade from my water bottle as he took sips from his camelback.  "Are you still up to keep walking?" I asked.  "I don't think so," he replied, "that bottle of wine I put in my camelback is telling me I'm done for the day."  After we finished our meal we went over to the reception desk.  After I had learned what time cars generally stopped driving on the Skyline drive and my hiking partner had booked himself a room for the night we shook hands farewell in the hotel lobby.

I started walking on the road of the Skyline Drive at around 10:15 pm.  I had been using my headlamp to walk in the dark for over an hour and was feeling nervous.  The headlamp I had could supposedly run for 50 hours using its high floodlight setting.  I had no idea how many hours were left in my headlamp and was worried about running out of battery during the night.  I had tried using the low floodlight setting, which allegedly was three times more efficient,  to hike at night but had nearly tripped and fallen on rocks or roots.  I decided to walk along the road so that I could be use less battery and not find myself stuck in pitch darkness.  Walking on the road was somehow quieter than walking in the woods but I found myself straining to hear the sounds of distant car engines.  Equally unsettling was the mile markers on the side of the road and how well they reflected my headlamp's light back at me.  At around 2:00 am the clouds parted and I was able to turn off my headlamp thanks to light of the stars.  At around 4:00 am I turned off the road back into the woods for the decent out of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  At 5:37 am I checked my maps make sure that the road crossing was the one I needed.  After confirming that it was I sat down to sleep for a couple of hours.  When I woke up I ate my ramen packet for breakfast and called the trail angel who had put up a note offering to take any hikers into town to buy supplies.

1) For me it was much easier to find a story than adjective to describe myself.  I felt like I was able to tell a story that conveyed my personality.

2) This exercise made me realize that I have a hard time writing concisely. I also made a huge number of mistakes when writing that I only caught because I reread what I had written.

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Generic Description: Tall, Compassionate, Musical, Simple

Picked Adjective: compassionate

Specific Story Choice: One of my coworkers, who I did not know very well at the time, was waiting for the bus. There was a high chance of rain, and the next bus did not arrive for another hour. Instead of rushing home, I offered to drive them. They thanked me, saying that was a true act of compassion.

Verbs from Story: waiting, arrive, rushing, drive

Story without picked adjective: It was getting late. As I waited to leave work, my impatience increased with each passing minute. Once the cash in the register was accounted for, and my timeslip signed, I hurriedly left the premise. I wanted to get away before anyone asked me for more help. As I left the parking lot, I saw a familiar face waiting for the bus to arrive. I rolled down the window, hoping to make a quick quip their way before the light turned and I departed for home. Their eyes immediately lit up when they saw me: “Nick! Appo made me work past my shift time, and I missed the bus. The next one isn't for another hour; is there any chance you could drive me to White Plains?” Despite an overwhelming desire to rush home, my heart hurt knowing there was a chance they would be stuck in the rain during a commute that is painful on a sunny day. Sometimes, after someone acts in bad faith, the only remedy is to act especially well.

1) Finding adjectives was difficult for me because I have difficulties putting labels on myself. I either feel they are too bold of a claim or fail to capture what I envision.

2) This exercise made me reflect on how often I use the ongoing present when I recount a story. For example, I almost always opt for “I was thinking” instead of “I thought” when writing. Doing an activity that asks for examination of verb uses made me consider this.

3) Peers tend to pick attributes of themselves that show their character in a positive way. I certainly did, and it makes sense for this to be people’s inclination; it’s unlikely anyone wants to share a story of themselves being rude or aggressive.

# data[].attributes.body
Description: easygoing, calm, caring,  straight forward.

Picked adjective: easygoing
Story: I am an easygoing person, I don't want to have any argument with my friends on the minor issues. For instance, when my friends and I decide to go somewhere, I am always the one who like to respect their decisions. I will agree with their decisions and make each other happy and enjoyable.

Story without Adj: I always respect my friends' decisions on minor issues. I do not want to upset my friends and think I am very picky on them. I will tend to listen to them as long as not challenging my bottom line.

For this activity, I find not using the adjectives to describe the story is harder for me. I need to think of the words to describe the issues mean while the story can still show my characteristic. Through this exercise, I can use other associated adjectives and verbs to describe myself beside the required adjective. This adjective word has a lot of close synonym, which they can also suitable to describe my characteristics. As I notice after the story without the chosen adjective, I still need to utilize other adjectives to describe the issue. The adjective is unavoidable in describing an issue for my situation.

# data[].attributes.body
Description: kind, analytical, easy-going, short, calm. 

Picked Adjective: Calm

Story: When my niece was choking on a dumb dumb lollipop that she bit off the stick, I remained calm instead of panicking and was able to help her cough it up without causing more panic and stress in her. 

Verbs from Story: was, choking, bit, remained, cough

Story Without Adj. "Calm": When my niece Tiegan and I were playing games in the family room, she turned her back to me and pulled something out of the couch cushion with impressive speed. I could not see what she was doing, but when I heard the crinkling of wax paper I knew that, once again, she had hidden a lollipop and was feverishly trying to unwrap it and get in her my mouth before I could take it away. Laughing internally to myself I gave her a few moments to gain the satisfaction of its fruity flavor. I then asked “Tiegan what are you doing over there” Realizing she was caught, she promptly bit down on the lolli and took off running. The candy disappeared down her throat and mid dash she turned around and looked at me with fear in her eyes and her mouth hung open gasping. Internally a wave of panic ran over me but I knew better than to let my fear show and worry her even more. I knelt down in front of her and told her to relax and try to cough it out, I turned her around softly to start performing the Heimlich maneuver if need be,  but her powerful coughing launched the translucent green candy across the room. She started crying immediately and instead of yelling at her or scolding her for stealing candy and  running with food in her mouth, I rubbed her back and let her know she was safe. 

Finding the adjectives to describe myself was the hardest part of this assignment. Each time I thought of an adjective I second-guessed if I really am that way. I think this only solidifies that I am analytical, probably overly analytical on most occasions. 
	This exercise showed me that I am rather unaware of the description of my caricature. I know what im interested in but not really anything about my persona; it seems rather subjective anyway. I am aware that in certain scenarios I react in certain ways, but I do not know if I AM those things, if that makes sense. This exercise showed me that I take language for granted. Language in all of its both arbitrary and significant glory is such a complex and amazing system that I used daily without ever being conscious of the fact that I am using it. Whenever I speak or write, I don’t think “i’m speaking/ writing” “I am using x,y,z, part of speech” I just do or use it without any thought. 

# data[].attributes.body
Generic Descriptors of Myself: Goofy, happy, empathetic, caring, critical... (and for the sake of example, smart)

Picked Adjective: "Smart"

Specific Story Choice: Solved a difficult problem in class.

Verbs from Story: Solve (you will likely have more than one in this section)

Story Without Adj. "Smart": I walked up to the board in front of my class. I could practically hear everyone let go of their breath, happy they were not chosen. I had an idea of how the problem could be solved, but I wasn’t certain of it by any means; it was a different formula the fifteen kids who went before me hadn’t thought to use yet. After I finished writing on the board, I rushed back to my seat. I looked at the teacher, and she smiled at me.

Answers to Questions: (for example)