Thinking about Audience:

1.       Whom do you want to reach? I would like to reach those with family members buried in historic cemeteries.

2.       What is your audience’s background- their education and life experiences? My audience most likely has a diverse background. Cemeteries have all sorts of people buried and therefore, their families will be just as different.

3.       What are their interests? Their interests should be their family. Those who would be interested as my audience would have to have interest in supporting their family members and making sure they are taken care of well in the historic cemeteries.

4.       Is there any demographic information that you should keep in mind? As for demographic information, I’m sure it will be very diverse just like their background. Because of this, I will have to be very fair/unbiased across the board to make sure not to offend individuals.

5.       What political circumstances may affect their reading? Politically, I’m sure my audience will be everything. There will be those who are conservative, middle ground, and liberal. Again, I have to be even in my writing so to not show favor towards a group’s thinking.

6.       What does your audience already know-or believe- about your topic? What do you need to tell them? What I would like to think is my audience doesn’t necessarily know the status of the cemetery and how disarrayed that it is, so I would need to describe the situation and how things are not being taken care of. A good way to show this could be shown through statistics, which historic cemeteries by report have a high chance of being forgotten unless individuals take action such as the families.

7.       What is your relationship with your audience, and how does it affect your language and tone? My relationship with the audience is an unknown relationship so therefore, I will need to be addressing them in a formal manner.

8.       What does your audience need and expect from you? I would expect that the audience would suggest that the information be descriptive and provide information about the status of the cemetery and what steps were taken to try to reverse the dilapidation.   

9.       What kind of response do you want? I would like my audience to take the information and persuade them to want to take action to fix up the cemetery. I would like them to understand that there are things that can be done.

How can you best appeal to your audience? I can appeal to my audience through writing clearly the status of the cemetery and specific actions that can be taken.                                                                                                                                       

Audience and Genre

     There are way that audience and genre are connected. This connection can be displayed through considering your tone and the medium through which you choose to write. In the reading concerning audience and tone, it states that you have to be aware of who you are writing to/what is it for. This goes the same way for the genre. Based on the reading concerning genre and tone, it states that different genres require different tones. Consideration of tone one is a similarity that genre and audience share. Another connection is through the medium. In the reading concerning medium and audience, you have to think about the best medium that will speak for your audience. The same thing goes for genre and medium. In genre, based on the reading, the medium you choose is specific to your genre. An example of this in the reading is a resume (the genre) where you decide whether it is to be an electronic medium (through e-mail) or a print medium (through a letter). Consideration of your medium is just another connection that audience and genre share.

Proposal Brainstorming

Discussion of the subject: The abandonment of historic cemeteries has occurred throughout the years
Statement of my intended focus: I will specifically argue that historic cemeteries are to be taken care of.
Rationale for choosing the topic: This topic is important to me because of discovering the Central State Hospital cemetery in a huge state of disrepair at Tom Sawyer State Park.

"Guide to Proposal Writing"

     After reading "So What? Who Cares?", I gained an understanding of how to show your argument topic and angle for the audience. In "Guide to Proposal Writing", the example by Church does adequately state why the audience should care about her topic of the loss of biodiversity. This is done by making the argument personal to the reader and giving support to her argument. An example of this is in the first paragraph: "Some scientists estimate that we are losing approximately one hundred species per day and that more than a quarter of all species may vanish within fifty years." Church offers a clear claim, therefore identifying at least one group with a stake in the research of species dying out. By showing support with scientists, Church shows there is interest in the topic besides just her.

Who Cares?

For my paper, the people that should care about my argument that steps need to be taken to revitalize the Central State Hospital cemetery are the citizens of Louisville and more importantly those families who have a family member buried in the cemetery from the hospital. Beyond this audience however, my argument should hold for all those who care about state property being taken care of for the public and those who think cemeteries are important in general.

"Rural Idaho Town"

     From reading Holson's "Rural Idaho Town Seeks to Turn Film's Cult Status Into Prosperity", I determined that the angle of Holson's questioning was to receive information from the townspeople that showed their reacting to their fame from the film, "Napoleon Dynamite". She was looking for information that supported this angle that showed how "Napoleon Dynamite" affected the town. When she was conducting her research, Holson did so through personally. I drew from it that it was either by phone or meeting with them. I know this because the piece provided specific descriptions of clothing and what was worn. Holson talked to the townspeople and those who attended the festival for this piece. They were relevant for the town of Preston because they had been affected by what the movie did for the town which was Holson's angle and what she was looking for while writing.


     From reading "Decisions You'll Need to Make about Your Project," the option that most fits the angle of "Rural Udaho Town..." is option C. which is place the individual's experiences and/or perspective within a larger historical or social context. I believe it is option C because Holson integrated the quotes with paraphrases and details that contributed to Holson's social context of a small town being affected by a Hollywood movie. Also, the essay is structured where a thesis is presented of her goal. 

Art Spiegelman's Maus and the Oral History

     In Art Spiegelman's Maus, it is a conversation at the dinner table and after dinner between the family. At the dinner table, the little mouse Arty didn't want to eat his dinner, so the father, Vladek goes into a story from his past about how he always had to eat his dinner completely. This is shown specifically when he says, "y'know, Mala, when I was little if I didn't eat everything Mom served, then Pop and I would argue til I ran to my room crying ... sometimes he'd even save it to serve again and again until I'd eat it or starve." The next part is when Arty asks to hear a story from 1939 from his father. The father talks about his war days serving in the army and then becoming a war prisoner for the Nazi's. It is his whole account of what he had to endure. An example of this is on page 46 when Art asks his dad, "Please, Pop!... tell me about 1939 when you were drafted." Vladek responds with his story. During the account, Art puts his two sense in and asks questions showing he is involved in the conversation such as on page 59 asking "So What's Parshas Truma?"
     This is an example of an oral history because of the definition from the oral history website, "Oral history is the systematic collection of living people's testimony about their own experiences." Arty is collecting his father's personal testimony about his experience growing up with his family and also his experience with the war and being a prisoner. More so, the whole Maus depended upon "human memory and the spoken word" just like the oral history website said. 

Oral History People and Questions Combined

Through researching, I believe there is a flaw based on the care of the cemetery or rather lack there of. It could be argued that no one cares about the people buried here.

Based on my writing for the cemetery at Tom Sawyer Park, I have been thinking of people to do my oral history on. Some people I am currently considering are:
1. Gene Goodbub, genealogist and engineer to Central State Hospital 1962-1984, though he may not be alive.
2. Rev. Charles Barton, chaplain to Central State Hospital, he also may not be alive.
3. Phil DiBlasi, UofL archaeologist
4. A Tom Sawyer Park official
5. Scott Wade, the Courier Journal journalist from the 1997 articles


What do you want to find out?
I want to find out a deeper account of the Central State Hospital cemetery regarding the status, location, and responsibility of the cemetery. Depending on the person chosen for the oral history, the direction I go could vary, but the goal should stay the same. 


What is the primary goal of this oral history?
The primary goal of this oral history is to gain information and background knowledge of the cemetery and how it has come to be what it is in Tom Sawyer Park. 


Questions to ask them could be:
1. How do you feel about the disrepair of the cemetery?
2. What has led the cemetery to come to the state it is in?
3. Why has the property not be taken care of?
4. Who is responsible for the cemetery property?
5. How have you been anyway affected by Central State Hospital and its dealings with the cemetery? What kind of emotions do you feel towards the cemetery?


(The questions asked will be affected by who I end up doing my oral history on.)

EDITS: I have a meeting with Dr. DiBlasi the archeologists, so I am working on questions specific towards him.
1. What is your opinion on the state of the cemetery?
2. How do you think the cemetery could have been better taken care of?
3. You were quoted that the cemetery was a "comedy of errors", can you go more in depth with your thinking?

Basic Research of My Place: E.P “Tom” Sawyer Park

     For my first trip to introduce myself to E.P “Tom Sawyer Park, I went there because I wanted to explore the park that I chose as my place. Before this, in the past, I held a connection to Tom Sawyer Park due to the fact I spent a lot of thinking while I ran a multitude of draining miles for hard soccer conditioning and the fact I spent time with friends on the playground swinging through the air. From this, I formed a connection to the park initially, both positive and negative. Positive because I enjoy being outdoors and taking in the beautiful scene the park provides, and negative just because I have ill feelings towards being forced to run. 
     As I have discovered with more attention being paid to it, this park is a peaceful place; the bright sun, green grass, birds chirping, shady trees, entertaining playground, and people exercising give off that vibe. The feeling is simply uncontrollable. That is why I was so shocked to find a cemetery in the middle of an open field where there was no care shown whatsoever to the headstones or remains. 

     I discovered the forgotten cemetery as I took the Goose Creek Trail through the park. For the whole time, I just wandered on the trail, taking pictures of anything that caught my eye such as weirdly spiraled roots coming through the earth, as well as going a bit off of it as well. I enjoyed holding my hands out and grasping onto the leaves pouring off the trees next to me just to feel. The trail then opened up to reveal wild fields filled with all kinds of plant life. When the trail opened up, a fence showed itself lining the path. It is old, rundown, and in several spots, the fence is fallen down completely baring the field to outsiders it may be protecting the area from. I became one of those outsiders as I decided to venture across the field. That is when I came across headstones beneath the tremendous sized tree casting a protective shadow.

Meshew, Joanne. Map of  the Area. 1997.  The Courier Journal.

     From revealing themselves, I yearned to learn more about the headstones and the cemetery. The land that Tom Sawyer Park sits on has not always been a park for people to come and participate in outdoor activities. It was land for the Kentucky Lunatic Asylum or better known now as the Central State Hospital. Here, patients were helped with treatment of mental illnesses. The hospital began its operations in 1869 including the part of land that Tom Sawyer Park sits on. In the 1950’s, the buildings and grounds were in disrepair and in the 1980’s the buildings were razed and relocated. There are still some remaining farm houses and buildings on Tom Sawyer Park that belong to the Central Sate Hospital. When the park opened in 1971, it inherited all the buildings and now known cemeteries that were on the land boundaries. Visiting the park now and curiously walking around, you can investigate the buildings as they are not looked after. 
     I found it odd that the cemetery had not been taken care of when I walked upon it. I wondered about the family members of those who had died and why nothing was done to upkeep the grounds. It is like no one cares about them which gives off a haunting effect when pondering the displaced headstones. In The Courier Journal article written in June 1997 “Walk in park leads to discovery of forgotten cemetery” by Scott Wade, apparently at one time the headstones were even more misplaced than they are know when I came across them. A man and his 2 grand kids found a few headstones in the creek bed of Goose Creek face down. They brought the site to the attention of the Courier Journal where more action was taken at the state level. Before this, Gene Goodbub who was an engineer for the state hospital until 1984, “recalls finding a pile of 20 to 30 headstones near the field and the creek shortly after he began working there.” The fact that only a few headstones were found in 1997 from the 20 to 30 that were found by Mr. Goodbub begs the question what happened to the headstones? Who would take a person’s headstone from a cemetery? I find it simply disrespectful. 
    One of the headstones found in the creek bed was from Aunt Florence Annette Markwell. According to Clarence Barton in the article, the chaplain of the Central State Hospital, Ms. Markwell lived her last six years of her life at the hospital. Around 1970, her family members wanted to pay their respects to her by marking her with her own headstone. At this time the cemetery was already in disarray so they put the new headstone on the edge of the cemetery. It is curious how the headstone came to be moved 100 feet away from where it was placed.

Wade, Scott. Headstone of Florence Annette Markwell. 1997. The Courier Journal.

     In a follow up article “Rediscovered cemetery to be identified, official says” by Wade, Donna Neary, the administrator of historic preservation and archives states, “it hasn’t been unusual for old headstones to be taken and used as coffee tables,” to which I find even more atrocious and disturbing. Would you really want your coffee table in your house to be a stolen dead person’s headstone and more so someone who was in a mental institution? Any takers? No thank you. 

This is the same headstone from 1997, that
I found beneath the tree in the field of Florence
Annette Markwell.

    Why the headstones from the cemetery have gone astray in the first place can be answered by Rev. Clarence Barton, the Central State Chaplain from 1952 to 1988. When he arrive at the hospital, Barton said, “the cemetery was overgrown and no longer being used in the 1950’s when he and others decided to clean up the field. Because workers couldn’t tell which headstone belonged to which grave, the stones were placed along the side of the field, perhaps 100 feet of more from the ravine and creek.” If the cemetery was so overgrown in the 1950’s, I can only imagine the difference that the area must have seeing as it is 60 years later.
     What I was even more put off by was the statement by Phil DiBlasi, a University of Louisville archaeologist when he was quoted in the article saying, “It sounds like a comedy of errors. Everything that could have gone wrong did in this case.” For a cemetery becoming forgotten to be defined as a “comedy of errors”, I am upset. The whole situation of the Central State Hospital, its cemetery, the forgotten people, and misplaced headstones is a tragedy from a historical perspective. 

     From researching and experiencing the remains of the cemetery as misplaced headstones under a large tree in a dilapidated fenced field, I have discovered a part of Tom Sawyer Park that not many are aware of exists. I have shared what I have found to my family, and they were as shocked as I was when I first discovered the headstones. I take a sense of accomplishment of myself to have educated myself and others of this odd discovery. I, however, have feelings of concern for the cemetery because I think more can be done to educate the visitors of Tom Sawyer Park of the rundown area. I fear that they could become forgotten even more than they are now.

Basic Research of My Place: Annotations

Wade, Scott. “Walk in park leads to discovery of forgotten cemetery”. The Courier Journal 4 June 1997. B4: Print.

In order to gain an understanding of the Central State Hospital cemetery found in Tom Sawyer Park, an investigation must occur find the correct information that will support the discovery. This article discusses the findings of headstones of patients from the Central State Hospital by a man and his grandkids at Tom Sawyer Park in a creek. Based off finding the headstones, state officials have decided to further investigate to determine if there is a cemetery and its boundaries. At one time, the state had hired an archeologist to define the first cemetery, with no idea, that a second cemetery may exist. Wade writes how mysterious it is that these headstones have been anonymous to the state and park by stating, “No one knows how many people were buried in the cemetery. The institution’s death registers for 1873 to 1936, which would tell what happened to patients’ bodies, have not been found at Central State or in the Kentucky State Archives.”   This article supports the fact that a discovery has been made and steps need to be taken to identify the background of the Central State Hospital Cemetery. It supports my claim that there have been wrong steps taken in caring for the cemetery. It raises the questions of how did the headstones become displaced by the creek and why is there no knowledge of the location of a cemetery. A cemetery is a place to honor a person’s life and that cannot be done if they are forgotten.

Wade, Scott. “Rediscovered cemetery to be identified, official says”. The Courier Journal 6 June 1997. B1: Print.

               In this article, it follows up an article written by The Courier Journal on the case of a nearly forgotten cemetery being discovered. This article discusses the steps that the Kentucky Finance Cabinet is taking to resolve the findings. There is work occurring to find the correct boundaries of the cemetery by the cabinet through an archeological survey. This was done earlier in 1991 for the first and only known cemetery. It also brings to light that a former administrator at the Central State Hospital explored the area in 1978 and found dozens of headstones in the creek bed, but park officials never took any action. The cemetery is an important cause for action especially when Wade quotes Chris Wilson, a historic preservation analyst by stating, “Although many family cemeteries are abandoned or forgotten, this case stands out because people who are buried there were the responsibility of the state.” This article is a good source for my paper because it highlights the fact that action needs to be taken for the disrepair of headstones from the forgotten cemetery. As the article clearly says, the state government is at fault and now has to take care of it. My claim is definitely supported because the cemetery was identified through finding its boundaries and being fenced off when found. What needs to be further discussed is if there will be any actions taken against the state for its ill actions towards not taking care of the cemetery. This is highly relevant due to the fact they are the ones who are responsible all the years that the Central State Hospital has been taking care of patients. 

Using My Sources in My Narrative

Based on the sources that I have to use in my narrative on Tom Sawyer Park, I plan to integrate them by answering the questions that I asked in my first narrative on the essence of my place. These consist of answering why the cemetery is here? Why is it left alone? etc. I plan to answer the questions by the information given to me by the sources and then follow the information by my thoughts and feelings based on what I have found. Giving my personal thoughts on the information will allow me to seamlessly integrate the sources into my narrative.

"Black Men in Public Spaces"

In "Black Men in Public Spaces", Staples uses evidence in his writing through quoting individuals to support the argument. An exact example of this is on page 260 when Staples uses a quote from Hoagland to support his writing;  "Similarly, a decade later, the essayist and novelist Edward Hoagland extols a New York where "Negro bitterness bore down mainly on other Negroes." Where some see mere panhandlers, Hoagland sees "a mugger who is clearly screwing up his nerve to do more than just ask for money."" Staples integrates these quotations into his own text by explaining how they relate to his writing. Staples introduces the quotations by first, giving credit to the quotation's writer, and then goes into the quote following that introduction. To explain the quote, Staples connects the quotations with his own words. His is supporting the fact that black men have been used to explain mugging in writing. 


Based on what I read in "They say, I say", I think that Staples does a good job in correctly using a quote for his writing. This is because he gives a good introduction to the quote where it isn't a random add in, and also, because Staples provides the quote to support his opinion in his writing efficiently. It would be a different story if Staples didn't have an introduction and the quote had no relation to what he was writing about. 

Researching My Place

From visiting my place, I think that the state hospital cemetery that I discovered would be an aspect worth researching. I am interested in this place because of its oddity in the state park. It makes me think that the cemetery has been there longer than the state park has been there. It just happened to be on the state park land when it was made.  I would like to know the history of the cemetery such as when it was created, who was buried there, and what has led the cemetery to be in such disrepair. 

As for researched evidence for the Central State Hospital cemetery remains, I have found many websites stating that Tom Sawyer Park has remains of a cemetery from the state hospital, but not much more information than that. I even found events for a paranormal excursion at the grounds of the park. 

The website below is a summary about a news article from the Courier Journal in 1997 stating that the graves were found by a man and his two kids.

http://files.usgwarchives.org/ky/jefferson/cemeteries/cshcem.txt 

I have called and  left a message for the state park to try to receive some more research for the cemetery.

The Essence of My Place: Tom Sawyer Park

Driving up to E.P Tom Sawyer State Park, I am here for a different reason than normal; not here because I am dropping one of my younger brothers off at a practice, or because I myself want to get a workout, but purely because I wanted to explore the park that I chose as my place. In the past, I have held a connection to Tom Sawyer Park due to the fact I have spent a lot of thinking while I have run a multitude of draining miles for hard soccer conditioning and the fact I have spent time with close friends on the playground swinging through the air. From this, I have formed a connection to the park initially, both positive and negative. Positive because I enjoy being outdoors and taking in the dramatic scene the park provides, and negative just because I have ill thoughts towards being forced to run.

                As soon as I get out of my car to start becoming reacquainted with Tom Sawyer, I just stop to take it all in. As a whole, the park is large and what I am most interested in is the trails that the park provides. They are unfamiliar to me, so I’m curious to see what they hold for me. Through slowly walking about to get to the trails, I am just watching, listening, and considering everything. Basically, I feel as though I am one of the creeper people watchers that I normally get a tad freaked out by, staring everything down. It is so scorching hot that the sizzling sun is melting me as my sweat simply drips off me. I put on my neon sunglasses to block the bright, dazzling sun as it kills my eyes. I see the familiar scenery; the vivid green grass, shady trees, those who are unenthusiastically exercising, and the gray gravel rock pathway where I would always run long laps for soccer. I can hear the pure peacefulness that the park provides such as the steady pounding of steps on the path, and the birds cheerfully chirping their hellos to each other. I even focus on the smell of the bloomed trees and flowers filling the air with their perfectly charged scent of pollen creating the park’s perfume.

                Upon being greeted by the Goose Creek Nature Trail, I enter cautiously just trying to soak in as much as I am given by the trail. It strikes me because it is simply just too serene. I am entirely alone except for the sounds of crickets musically rubbing their wings, birds twittering, and branches becoming broken and snapped as a creature ventures through the woods. I see an attacking hawk fly through the sky down to the brush towards the trail, as well as fluffy squirrels scampering across in front of me. For the whole time, I am just wandering on the trail, taking pictures of anything that catches my eye such as weirdly spiraled roots coming through the earth, as well as going a bit off of it. I like to hold my hands out and grasp onto the leaves pouring off the trees next to me just to stroke their smooth texture. The trail opens up to reveal wild fields filled with all kinds of plant life. When I turn the corner, I happened to scare a fragile deer that ran off to go back into the woods. I was simply amazed how alive everything was, the plant life, the animals, and the energy that came from it.  

                The weirdest thing that I came upon on my trip was a cemetery. It was definitely something that I didn’t except, but it excited me because I thought to myself, how remarkable is it to stumble on something like this? The graves sit out in the field going unnoticed by an unobservant passerby. I really look forward to researching it more to find the historical side because there was a sign stating the graves where from the state mental hospital. I just had no idea it was there. It gets me thinking; why are they here unattended, are they hurt by this, and why is this the exact spot? In general, the place is peculiar because it’s not really much of a cemetery as much as just headstones because the green, wild brush is overgrown hiding some of them all under a bulky, aged tree. I received an eerie outlook on life from investigating.

                From my experience in venturing to Tom Sawyer Park, I have gained a fresh perspective on the park. I learned new information such as the cemetery, and also emotionally, I believe I have a better connection to it. I trust that if I ever need somewhere to go and think I will visit “my place” for awhile. I felt very welcomed by the nature of everything, and as a whole, simply calm and relaxed. I actually lost track of time as I mindlessly wandered which is hard for me to do. Visiting the park created a happier outlook for my day.  I believe I will associate Tom Sawyer Park in a much more positive light, and put the negative thoughts of conditioning aside. Secretly, I felt like running through the trails, but I just didn’t want to give in. Next time, however, I know I will. 

"The Stone Horse"

I was most drawn to Section 1 of Lopez's narrative. This section was very historical in nature. It was very descriptive and some aspects that could be explicitly shown are imagery, and emotions. As a whole, every paragraph from this section contained imagery. An example of the imagery displayed can be seen through, " the bare, jagged mountains and dry lake beds, the vast and uniform plains of creosote bush and yucca plants." (pg 497 second paragraph) You can see exactly what is being described and become apart of the writing. You can really get a feel for the region and change that is occurring with these sentences: " The dark mouths of gold, talc, and tin mines yawned from the bony flanks of desert ranges. Dust-encrusted chemical plants stood at work on the lonely edges of dry lake beds. And crops of grapes, lettuce, dates, alfalfa, and cotton covered the Coachella and Imperial valleys, north and south of the Salton Sea, and the Palo Verde Valley along the Colorado." (pg 497 last paragraph)

I believe this section to be emotional because Lopez is describing change that has occurred over time and destruction that has taken place. I feel like Lopez is very much opposed to what has happened and the writing from the later sections greater support this, especially in the last line when he doesn't want the stone horse to ever be touched/found.

Coming Out of the Cave

In considering the "Allegory of the Cave", a time and place that I have been in a cave-like situation in my life would be living at home going to high school before college. I ascended from living at home because I graduated high school, gained knowledge, and went to college to gain new experiences. When I went back to my cave, or rather my home, for the first time from college, those who never had left were the same as when I had left. It was just like high school filled with immaturity and drama. I think this is because they did not get a new experience or an opportunity to be enlightened. They are still in the "shadows".

By researching and experiencing my place, Tom Sawyer Park, it can be considered "ascension" because I am receiving a new outlook on it. I have previous opinions and thoughts about my place, and by researching and revisiting, I may be made aware of new information, new details that can change or improve my opinions/thoughts.  I will be better educated.

Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"

When Plato quoted Homer by saying "Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endue anything, rather than to think as they do and live in their manner," he is referring to the point that it is better to be aware of the reality you are in, than to be unenlightened living in a false reality. Based on this specific quote, Plato is explaining to Glaucon that if you are a poor servant to a poor master, than you at least understand your true reality of life, instead of thinking you are something else having a false reality.

In my opinion, Scocrates' intended philosophy in the "Allegory of the Cave" has truth. I think it is better to be enlightened by what is really going on than to be in the shadows, blind to what actually is. This is because I think enlightenment deems an intelligence of the individual. If you are unaware, you are not enlightened.

My Place

For my place writing, I think as of right now, I want to choose E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park. I know it has some background, and when researching in class, I found it has so much to look into which I am very interested in for the project. I like it because its outdoors, there's so much to do at it, and I have spent some time there whether its been to do sports or just to hang out. Another thing is that the park is so big that I have only seen a little part of it, so it will be fun to go out and explore a little bit.

I feel like because it is outdoors that, all the senses will be stimulated, whether it is smell, hearing, or seeing. I just know it is a really calming place that relaxes you when you are walking around, so I am looking forward to using the park for my writing.

Introduction

My name is Morgan King and I was born in Syracuse, New York, but I have lived in Louisville since 3rd grade. I went to duPont Manual HS/YPAS across the street from UofL. I am just a visiting student at UofL for the summer and I am a full time student at WKU in Bowling Green, KY for elementary education as my major and piano as my minor. I want to teach K-2nd grade as well as become a private piano teacher. In general, I like to do a lot of active things especially play soccer, and I also love music.


As for my writing background, I have always written for school and classes, and hardly ever for my own personal choice. It's not that I don't like writing, however, I do not think it is my strong suit. I would like to work on it more and I'm sure ENG 102 will somehow support that. I think I have improved my writing skills over the years, although they still need a lot of work.

As for my definition of place, I would say place is anywhere. It can be specific or indefinite, specifically in regards to location. It can be anywhere you want to go or something that you identify with.