FINALMENTE.

So it's finals time. The year feels like it went so fast. I mean, it seems like yesterday was the first day I walked into the school a sophomore. And now, I'm already taking finals! Geeze, I want to cherish the little time I have in high school, but it's just going by too fast. Anyway, aside from that little rant, this is my English final.

8. How do you like having a blog? How has blogging changed the way you write, the way you think, or the way you think about writing?

To be honest, I love having a blog. It gives me a place to write, and it's guaranteed that my hands or wrists won't be aching after I write everything I had to. All my thoughts go into my blog, so whenever I'm thinking up a storm I can just go blog about it. See what people say. Who knows, my eyes could be opened to a whole new world just by getting feedback. That's why I love having a blog. Just a place to place my thoughts and get feedback.

With blogging, it's encouraging to write more. I don't know why, but that's the case for me. The fact that I get the opportunity to write electronically whenever I want just makes me want to do it more. And it's true that the more you do something, the more critical you get about it and how much better you get at whatever it is you're doing. Before, I didn't even write that much. There was no place to put my thoughts, and I just kept everything to myself. I only wrote when it was mandatory, like school assignments and the like. Even this is a school assignment as well, it's still different. I get to write about whatever I want. It's unrestricted writing, which allows a free mind to express themselves. I feel like I get a little bit better with each blog I post.

I thought blogging wasn't my forte. I thought that I could ever get into blogging. But hey, look where I am. Look where it got me. It made me love writing. It made me fearless to share whatever is going on in my head. Now sometimes I blog for myself, to keep memories. I keep all of that on my tumblr.

10. Where do you get your ideas for blog post topics? What inspires you to write?

Ideas come and go, it's always been a wide variety of topics for me. What I choose to write about is mostly what I'm feeling, or just a little something-something I find cool. And hey, according to that, I've been following my Statement of Purpose pretty damn well. "[...] If possible, I would love to write about a variety of topics and since writing about my personal life is the closest thing to that, I would like writing about my personal life.." and I'm sticking right to it. I might have a thought in my head all day or week and when I have the chance to blog about it, it just flows. Like a river. Sometimes a quote I might stumble upon or a random thought about life can give me ideas for a blog. It's just different each time.

I find it very difficult to pick ONE set topic and write an enormous amount of it, which is probably why I probably find standard school writing assignments dreadful. With a set topic, you have to nitpick every single little aspect to get what you need; that takes ages and to me it's just a waste of good time. On the other hand, free, unrestricted topics push my ideas to greater lengths and the ideas I get I can write about easily. Blogging about my day would be easier than writing about some stupid essay or something.

My inspiration on the other hand, I'm not quite sure about. Maybe it's the thrill of having an opportunity to inspire others. Haha, does that make sense? In a simpler way of saying it, is that when I'm inspired, it makes me want to inspire more people. So it's kind of like a chain. Who knows? Something I say in a blog might change someones thought on whatever subject I wrote about. I don't know, but that's the inspiration I'm talking about.

9. How did your classmates' blogs help you develop as a writer? Give examples from other blog(s) and from your own to show the connection(s).

Oh man. The times I actually browse other blogs actually give me more than I expected. Before I was using Google Reader, I admitted that I used the student feed that Sutherland set up to look at other people's work. And I wrote about that in one particular blog. I wrote about how the things that other people wrote about usually gave me ideas of my own, and I would form a desire to type up another blog in response to a blog, or to just state my opinion. But alas, I never get around to doing that. Most of the time I would probably think to myself, 'hey thats cool.' and continue on to ponder on about whatever I just read.

A subtle example of myself being inspired by a blog is probably this connected to this post by Michele. Random thoughts like that seem to spark my mind to think a lot more. I mean sure focusing on one thing and going really deep into detail about it is good and all, but it leaves no room to think for myself. It's like the person did all the thinking for me. On the other hand, jumping around leaving small bits and hints can initiate an interest, which would eventually lead to a thinking process. That thinking process is usually what a blog is for me. Unfortunately I lack further examples, but in the future I will make sure to give more details on how all of this works for me.

But for now, this is it.