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Word Count: 155
The main theme for my origin story was youthful nostalgia. I think every single one of us can relate to having this about something. Curious about this, I decided to do some research about it. The first article I found happened to not only state how common nostalgic feeling is, but also that the peak time it happens is our early adulthood. This makes a lot of sense considering my brain went there when brainstorming what to write about it. Under this article, there is a thread for people to comment and add to the article. I enjoyed one man’s comment. He’s 65, and he states that throughout every part of life, his only reminiscent bumps happen about high school and college. He claims that this could be because these are the only parts of life where we are enchanted by possibility. This made me very curious about how we view different stages of life.

Article + Comments - https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/were-only-human/nostalgia-for-young-adulthood-rethinking-the-reminiscence-bump.html

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Word Count: 151
My story is about a night I spent at Parker Days during my teen years in high school. You could say it's "really" about the youthful nostalgia I greatly miss from that time in my life. As I was writing it in my college home, my heart knew it sang when talking about high school moments like this. I wanted the reader to visualize the night in a 4D way, watching, hearing, smelling, etc from my perspective. In a way, even just for a moment, we are sharing the same experience. If I were to google about my story to satisfy answers to my questions, I would want the answers to be written in a thought-provoking way. I want people to go further by connecting my nostalgic moments with one of theirs. I think it's essential to look fondly at the past and reflect on how it relates to the present.

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Run-on's
-A run-on sentence is when two independent clauses in a sentences aren't joined properly with something like a conjunction, or a semi colon (or those tools are used incorrectly)

-An example of a run on sentence would be something like this:
"I went to get a smoothie I got one with strawberry and mangos in it.

You can fix a run on by...
-In addition to a conjunction, add a comma
-Adding a semi colon before the next independent clause
-Adding a conjunction like and or because after a comma in between independent clauses

Comma Splice
-A comma splice is when two independent clauses are connected in a sentence by nothing but a comma

-An example of a comma splice would be something like this: "It is snowing very hard outside, all of the main roads are freezing over"

You can fix a comma splice by...
-Adding a semicolon
-Adding a semicolon before a transition word if there is one present
-Adding a conjunction like the words since or for

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https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts

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"Describe the situations around each re-telling. Whom did you tell? Where? How? When?"

The two people I decided to tell were my roommates. I told them after watching the TED talk/note taking, and I went into each of their rooms separately to share. Each of them listened very intently, which I appreciated, and had their own comments about the talk. Kaia is an introvert herself, so she told me how she felt represented. Especially in the part where Susan talked about how schools often fall short in accommodating introverted people. She related to that! Savannah said she overall enjoyed the talk, and didn't know that there was such a broad spectrum of introvertedness. Her preconceived idea was that you were either a hard introvert or hard extrovert, nothing in between.

"What did you do before you told the first person? Did you re-read notes, think about your major points?"

Before I told Kaia first, I didn't re-read notes, but I did go over the major points. I also told her the major points before anything else. This way she could follow along easier. A bit of some schema activation!

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In the TED talk, "The Power of Introverts," Susan does an excellent job using power verbs to let us see things in a sensory way. For example, the first sentence I had written down was her use of the word roaming (see photo for complete sentence). In this sentence, she's talking about navigating our brains in a metaphorical sense, like we are inside of them. The word roaming creates that picture you can see to help you grasp this analogy of your brain and an adventureland. I pictured a tiny version of myself in an immense forest-like world (my mind) and "roaming" around in it. The second sentence was where she used the word fall. Again, a metaphor, but it's like she's saying we all literally "fall" on the spectrum. For the most part, whether we like it or not, our brains in how they function fall on a map determining how introverted or extroverted we are. The last example I had was her use of the word aping. This was a more effective way to say mock or imitated. And once again, her word choice made me think. For instance, even if it wasn't her intention, I pictured humans as similar to apes. You know the quote, "Monkey see monkey do?" Monkeys are master imitators, and in an animalistic way, we are similar to them. We may not be aware we are aping the beliefs of the people around us, but we are.

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What I did to activate schema when watching the TED talk was make predictions. She started off the talk setting the scene about summer camp, and how her mom packed a suitcase of books. Based off this opening, and the title, "The power of Introverts", I can suspect the speaker is an introvert herself. Reading in society is sometimes deemed as an antisocial person's activity, and is not conventionally one's choice at a place like summer camp. I'm already hooked by these things as well because I find myself to be introverted with events like this sometimes. I feel connected to Susan.

www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts

"How much did you know about Activating Schema before this week's lesson?"

Honestly, before this week, I knew virtually nothing about activating schema. I knew in general there was an importance of background knowledge with reading and reviewing material, but I didn't know how to get there.

"Prediction helps lay a foundation for richer, more connected knowing." How do you think this insight connects to the task of activating schema?

This insight connects to the task of activating schema in the way it changes the way your brain thinks when taking in material. Having a prediction or relating the learning to a web of background knowledge makes you interact with the text. Both allow us as readers to make connections with the reading.

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Today I learned that Grammarly takes things to the next level compared to other spell check services like Microsoft Word. Grammarly goes beyond fixing simple spelling errors by helping correct other things like missing apostrophes, and missing possessives. Grammarly also helps fix your mistakes while you write. Overall if downloaded to your computer, Grammarly can be used as a neat tool to help improve your writing.

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For capitalization, I learned about the acronym M.I.N.T.S, and how each letter signifies what words we should capitalize:

M - Months
I - The word "I"
N - Nouns (people, places, and official names of things)
T - Titles
S - Starting words of sentences

If I were to write about a movie, I would need to remember to capitalize the first letter in the title every time I mention it. For example, "I love the movie Mean Girls."

Today's callback is to commas, where you can see I put a comma before my quoted sentence.

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It was a Tuesday just like any other, and the biggest aspiration I had on my plate as a five-year-old was getting my mom to let me hang out with our new neighbors. An unfamiliar yet beaming family with thick strawberry hair and blue eyes had just moved in across the street; two loving parents, an angsty older brother, a smiling yellow lab, and a little one my age, with winding hair and double the freckles. My mom drove me over, and I ran straight towards the smallest of the bunch. "Casey's your name, right?" But before I could even receive a response, the little one grabbed my arm, trailing me down the halls, eager to show me her bedroom. We make it to our destination, and I'm greeted by hundreds of moving boxes labeled "C's Barbies." Each enormous box is packed so full it took both of us to lift off the lids (I pondered what the scene looked like of each family member sitting on the boxes to close them all). We played for what seemed like days, or at least when our creative juices ran tired. It was time to go home.

After this day, I fell in love with not only my new partner in crime but Barbies. With every Barbie I bought, it was like I was adding a family member into my house. Each one had its own name, a romantic love interest, a favorite tv show, etc. I played with Barbies, both alone or with friends. Theoretically, I didn't necessarily need a group of friends playing with me if it meant I could play with my imaginary ones. The beauty of Barbies is that you create the story. You lose yourself in real life to bring these inanimate people to life, whether it means cutting up worn socks to create a stunning prom dress or going outside and trekking through the woods to "set the scene" for an imaginary safari hunt. Barbies will always have a place in my heart. Seriously, don't tell anyone, but I still have them!

For this story I wanted to write about something nostalgic, so I reflected on old toys I played with in my childhood. Of course I had to mention my obsession with Barbie. The question I want to pose is, "What is a nostalgic part of our childhood that influenced you?"

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I’m in my bedroom. The sun rises once again, and my sleepy eyes begin to open and close, adjusting to the light of the new day. I look to my left and see the tall and obnoxiously large electric fan I bought from IKEA. Almost as if it were alive and aware of the heat this day brought, the fan is rocking hard back and forth, growing weary of its hard work. I notice my window is cracked, allowing a sliver-sized view of the birds nesting in my backyard. Thankfully the whirring noise of the fan has prolonged for a while, and sound has become muted to a hum. I bring my attention back to the birds. The birds are singing a delightful morning song, perhaps trying to send me a message that today will be a great one.

It looks like I’m not the first person to wake up, for the blower is now pushing in a smell coming from my right window. Half-awake, I begin to smell the hard work of my early waking neighbor who’s been cutting his grass. It must be Kevin; his lawn always looks quite impressive.

The world has wasted no time this morning, exemplifying my oversleep. I reach to grab my phone from under the covers, and I’m instantly hit with the white tower’s gust of cold air. “Jeez, I’ve been in this linen burrito for so long my body heat could scorch someone,” I say to myself. The detouring cold temperature of my room only entices me to keep sleeping.

However, long nights must always come to an end. As I grow more conscious of my surroundings, I can taste the spaghetti I’d made my roommates and me last night. “Did I forget to brush my teeth after dinner?” I figured my insistent scrolling on social media last night was a distraction enough to forget self-care. At this moment, I realize the birds are right. Today will be great, but only if I get up to face it head-on. I lifted my covers and decided to head to the bathroom to give my teeth a scrub.

For this story I wanted to take a more creative approach, and I wanted the reader to feel like they stepped into my body just for a second. I wanted them to feel like they were waking up one morning experiencing it through my lens. The main question I would ask here is, "Do you ever try and be present, focusing your attention in on the small moments in life?" I find that it's not always the large events in your life that make life memorable if you focus on the smaller things. How do you think your perspective on life would change if you paid more attention to the mundane things we take for granted?

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It’s summer break, mid-way through July, my junior year. The crisp uneven breeze standing in “Parker Days Amusement Park” is enough to make my knees go weak. I look upward, focusing on all the perfections that make life what it is; in the distance, racing bumper cars crashing into each other with such force as that of football players. I narrow my eyes in the distance of the progressing hoards of feverish teenagers waiting to get inside.

Focusing my attention behind me, I observe the kids, faces caked in various fried foods, bolting towards any line available without a care in the world. Parents have thrown in the towel for fun already, and young couples hold hands before the rides start. I can’t help but close my eyes in order to soak in this wonderful but knowingly temporary summer night. I run my hands slowly and carefree through my waist-length, curly hair while the smell of popcorn selfishly floods my nostrils. This night, I feel like the main character to a Netflix original; the part of the show before any conflict, where the viewer feels the warm nostalgia of being young.

“Can you take a picture of us?” a young girl asks, eagerly posing on the Ferris wheel with her lover.

“It’s so cold out!” an old man yells.

Becoming aware of the biting cold outside in my t-shirt and shorts, I decide it’s only fair to stay numb to it. Will I still be friends with these people around me in a year? Will we still find joy in going to the amusement park as we get older? I’d rather surrender myself to a game of tug of war with the cold than let the night end.

I reflect on Parker Days a lot. This fair was temporary, lasting 5 days, and it came every year. I'd see all of my friends there, and it brought some of the most memorable experiences I have of being young and carefree. I ask with this story, what makes our childhood so sacred and sought after? Why do we wish to grow up so fast, but spend the rest of our lives mourning those years of our adolescence?

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In the Khan Academy video, I learned that you would use an apostrophe when writing a contraction, like "I'm," in place of the two words, "I am." Secondly, if you were to write about a noun that possesses something, you would add an apostrophe at the end of the said noun. For example, in the sentence, "Moms ice cream is delicious," you would change the sentence to say, "Mom's ice cream is delicious." Thirdly, I learned that if you were explaining the plurals of something, you'd also add an apostrophe to the end of the word. Like, "That math equation has multiple x's in it."

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Today, I learned that when using commas in dialogue, the primary purpose is to separate the dialogue tag from the reported speech. A dialogue tag would be something like, "Mark said..." and the reported speech would be whatever he talks about. It's essential to separate the two to have a more clearly laid out image of where the quote starts and ends. In a sentence like: "I don't want to!" Claire said. I learned that you wouldn't use a comma since the dialogue ends in an exclamation. The same would be for a sentence that is a question. Lastly, I learned that this is the only way to successfully complete a sentence with a comma.

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Today I learned what an appositive comma is. It is a comma you would place in a sentence where you are including further detail about a noun. For example I could say, "I went to favorite store to grab some bread." But if I wanted to specify which store, I would say, "I went to my favorite store, King Soopers, to grab some bread." Next, I learned that you can use this comma at any point in the sentence. Like with the sentence, "My bread of choice was also my favorite, Sara Lee." This comma has some flexible rules! Finally I learned that this is used if your preference in the sentence was to clarify something. This is not an essential to the understanding to the sentence, but rather a writer's choice.

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As much as I love a night in, throwing something on Netflix, I'm the most "me" when I'm with people. I've always been a social butterfly, but at the core I value my connections with other people so much. Kaia has been a lifelong partner in crime for me, and I cherish our friendship so much.

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It's crucial that you guys know I'm the biggest animal lover around. It would've been easier to use photos of my animals back at home, but I wanted my roommate's cat to make a special cameo. I've only known this little guy since August, and we're best friends. This is normally the outcome when I meet furry companions.

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This is a picture from a recent skiing trip I took with my family in Keystone. Not only do I love winter activities like skiing and sledding, but also spending time with my inner circle family.

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"What do you think it takes to have a great idea?" I love this question purely for how open-ended it is. I believe creating a good idea takes things like creativity, curiosity, or a goal (for example, a drive to inspire people). Learning to write takes similar traits. I'm aware that my writing skills are far from perfect, and every year my curiosity on how to get better is what takes me to each new level. My goal is typically to inspire people as well when I'm writing about something I'm passionate about, so learning to improve my writing is fun with that in mind. And when it comes to learning, I've come to one definitive theory, from school alone, about how it is merely a mind game. You assume when you're younger, learning-wise, you are good at the things you're good at and bad at the things you're bad at. And that's where it ends. Which, to an extent, can be true. However, as I grow up, I feel as though learning is a mind game that can stem from attitude. Going into a lecture or new discussion with a negative pre-assumption can affect how much I learn. Or, when I'm trying to study, I hinder myself because I let too many distractions take over my mental capacity, leading to gaps in my knowledge about specific topics. I've even let other people influence how much I apply myself in a class because they say the content is "boring." At the end of the day, humans are incredible learners who can take in almost infinite information throughout our lifetimes. We are also creatures who inspire to learn. The only thing stopping us from achieving greatness with learning is our own biases or opinions.

Do you guys feel like you've experienced similar experiences with this "mind game" of learning?