Blog 9(?)

Writing this essay was an interesting experience for me. I never really thought very in-depth about what happened that day or how I felt until this assignment came up. I know that it had a huge impact on me and that my aunt's passing truly shaped my thoughts and beliefs about death. It also was a springboard into the sense of spirituality that I feel I now possess.

Some things that went well for me with this essay are:
-Once I got started, it was easy to write about the experience
-It got my to look back at this time and really examine what happened and why
-It got me to reflect on the deaths that have affected me since her passing and how these have also shaped me, as well as how I may have felt if any of these were the first I had experienced instead of the death of my aunt, given the situation and her history.

Some things that were hard:
-Debating whether this was following the definition of CNF properly or not
-Recalling exact conversations, and deciding whether to include what I think was said, but that I am not sure of or not (I chose to leave it out.)
-Starting the story was kind of difficult for me since I am not a writer (other than papers for classes) and I don't think I've written a story since elementary school
-Debating whether or not anyone would ever want to read this or if it was just too boring and too personal to be worthwhile for anyone but those affected
-Writing the reflections and trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to word my thoughts and feelings ( This is something I think I still need to work on)


I think for my next essay, I am going to focus again on the deaths of loved ones (what a theme I've got going here..) but this one is coming from our freewriting on smells (I promise, it's not as weird as that may sound...) This essay is going to repeat some themes from essay #1, but it is taken from a different angle- focusing on all of my relatives that have passed instead of just one, and on the things that remind me of them or make me feel like that are watching over me. Hopefully this will be easier for me to get started on now that I kind of have the hang of writing a CNF piece, and by that point I will have had some help from Dr. Chandler and suggestions from the comments on my first essay.