My digital story:The Wreck

Self-Reflection

My Paper at first did not follow the MLA format until I went back to the Bridging the difference book and refreshed my memory on the steps for the header. I believe my title does grab the readers attention when someone reads my title the first thought should be "What wreck?" or "What happened to her?". When I first did my introduction to me it didn't seem like it would grab anyone's attention or make the reader keep reading; So I put a short clip of the climax in the beginning then rewind back to that morning. I think this way was better because the climax was exciting and it makes the reader wanting to read more. I learned many things from writing this paper. One of those things is using imagery.I believe using imagery can make the reader see what you saw and make them seem like they was right there  beside you.

The Wreck (final rough draft)

The Wreck

I remember letting go of the wheel and turning my body so I wouldn’t get hurt. The sound of the cars hitting together was the scariest thing I ever heard. “Please don’t let me die, please don’t let me die” I prayed.

Rewinding back to the beginning of that morning, I woke up for school not feeling too well. It was raining and cold outside. I usually dreaded to miss school because I hated to be behind and having to make-up work .But I just couldn't push myself to get up out of bed. When I finally had the strength to get up I walked down the hallway to tell my Ma that I didn't feel well. She told me to lie back down and just take the day off; so I did. An hour into my sleep my phone rung and woke me up; it was a text message from my friend in class. "Brittney where are you! We need you to anchor today remember!" I had totally forgotten that I signed up for anchoring for my schools TV show that week. I texted her back and said don’t worry and that I would be there. I knew that I should have just told her that I wasn’t feeling too well but I didn’t want to let my classmates down. I hurried up and got ready and told my Ma that I was going to school. She didn’t want me to, but she understood that I had to anchor for the show. I grabbed my umbrella and walked to my car.

 It was still pretty bad outside and very cold. I started my car and started to drive to school. I decided to call my boyfriend to tell him what was going on with me. I felt a little better talking to him because he always knew what to say to put a smile on my face. I was at the red light about to turn left to the road to my school. “I still can’t believe I’m going to this school just to anchor.” I vented to him.  The light turned green and I pushed on the gas. The dangerous thing about the road to my school was how it was constructed. You have to slow down to turn the roundabout because cars are coming from the opposite direction.  I had been taking this road all my years of high school and now that I was a senior I was use to what I had to do. “I still look really cute today, even though I have a cold.” I remember saying. When I came up to the turn everything seemed like it went to slow motion, “What do you have on?” My boyfriend asked. And right when my boyfriend asked this the scariest thing happened. When I turned the corner my car ended up in the other lane. I didn’t panic because the car in the other lane was farther back. “It’s okay Brittney, just pull your car back to your lane” I thought to myself. I can see the car getting closer and closer, I tried to swerve my car back to its lane but it wouldn’t go.

 “Babe did you hear my question?”  And in that moment I knew that I was going to hit this car head on, I let go of the wheel and turned my body. The sound of the cars hitting together was the scariest thing I ever heard. “Please don’t let me die, please don’t let me die” I prayed. I was too scared to open my eyes because I didn’t know what to expect. This was the first car accident I ever been in and I was all alone. “Brittney! Brittney! What happened?” I opened my eyes hearing my boyfriend still on the phone. But the phone wasn’t in my hands any more I couldn’t find where it went. The inside of my car was smoky and all I can see was my broken windshield. I panicked thinking that the car was going to exploded with me sitting there in the car. So I got out the car and that’s when I started to ball into tears.

There was a police officer already on seen and he ran up to me asking if I was okay. I couldn’t stop crying, it was still raining and he took me to his car and sat me down. He went to go check on the other car and called the paramedics. After a couple of minutes he came back and asked me for my name and my I.D. I told him it was in the car and my phone was in there too. He went to go look but all he could find was my school I.D and my phone. “I must have picked up the wrong I.D!” I cried. Oh no, I thought. I’m going to jail. I was the cause of the car accident and I didn’t have my driver’s license on me. I called my Ma and told her what happened. My Ma just had surgery that week and she couldn’t really walk because of it. But within 10 minutes she was there in her p.j’s, holding me saying everything was going to be alright.

I still didn’t know if the other people in the car were okay. I didn’t want to get up and see my car mangled.  “Everything is my fault! My car wouldn’t get back in the other lane.” I cried to my Ma. “It’s okay Brittney, just calm down.” I can tell that I was scaring my Ma even more with my loud cries so I tried to calm down for her. The paramedics came and checked to see if everything was okay with me. I told them that I was fine. After I had the guts to stand up and see the accident most of everything was cleaned up. The traffic on both sides was still bad but everything else was picked up. The other people in the car turned out to be okay. It was two men in the car; they stood on the side of the road talking to the cops. The other police officer came up to me. Alright this is it. I’m going to jail I thought to myself.

 “Alright Brittney, I’m glad that you and everybody else was okay. This could have been a lot worse.” He wrote me a ticket and told me that I was free to go. Thank God I thought to myself. I got in my Ma’s car and sat down, and then she started to drive off. “I can’t believe I lost my car.” I said sadly. I had just got my car three months ago from my Ma and my dad. It was a two door silver Hyundai Accent and I decorated the inside of the car with Ed Hardy everything. It was the perfect first car for me and it was gone. “I’ll rather have you than the car Brittney” my mother told me. She was right. I was so thankful to be okay.

 When I think back on my car accident now I always regret being on my cell phone. Many people today die because of phone use while driving. If I never was on the phone that day then I would have been more focus on the road and never would have got in the car accident. This event impacted my life in so many different ways.  I am now a cautious driver. Every time I’m with my friends I always tell them to wear their seatbelts because they never know what can happen to them while driving. I also tell all my friends the importance of not being on the phone while driving. I now keep my phone in my purse on the back seat so I would not be tempted to look at my phone.

 

One Rainy Day... (Draft)

I remember waking up one morning for school not feeling too well. It was raining and cold outside. I usually dreaded to miss school because I hated to be behind and having to make-up work .But I just couldn't push myself to get up, when I finally had the strength to get out of bed I walked down the hallway to tell my ma that I didn't feel well . She told me to lie back down and just take the day off; so I did. An hour into my sleep my phone rung and woke me up, it was a text message from my friend in class. "Brittney where are you! We need you to anchor today remember!" I had totally forgotten that I signed up for anchoring that week. I texted her back and said don’t worry and that I would be there. I knew that I should have just told her that I wasn’t feeling too well but I didn’t want to let my classmates down. I hurried up and got ready and told my ma that I was going to school. She didn’t want me to, but she understood that I had to anchor for the show. I grabbed my umbrella and walked to my car. It was still pretty bad outside and very cold. I started my car and started to drive to school. I decided to call my boyfriend to tell him what was going on with me. I felt a little better talking to him because he always knew what to say to put a smile on my face. I was at the red light about to turn left to the road to my school. “I still can’t believe I’m going to this school just to anchor.” I vented to him.  The light turned green and I pushed on the gas, the dangerous thing about my road to my school was how it was made. You have to slow down to turn the roundabout because cars are coming from the opposite direction.  I had been taking this road all of my years in high school so I was use to what I had to do. “I still look really cute today, even though I have a cold.” I remember saying. When I came up to the turn everything seemed like it went to slow motion, “What do you have on?” My boyfriend asked. And right when my boyfriend asked this the scariest thing happened. When I turned the corner my car ended up in the other lane. I didn’t panic because the car in the other lane was farther back. “It’s okay Brittney, just pull your car back to your lane” I thought to myself. I can see the car getting closer and closer, I tried to swerve my car back to its lane but it wouldn’t go. “Babe did you hear my question?”  And in that moment I knew that I was going to hit this car head on, I remember letting go of the wheel and turning my body so I wouldn’t get hurt. The sound of the cars hitting together was the scariest thing I ever heard. “Please don’t let me die, please don’t let me die” I prayed. I was too scared to open my eyes because I didn’t know what to expect. This was the first car accident I ever been in and I was all alone. “Brittney! Brittney! What happened?” I opened my eyes hearing my boyfriend still on the phone. But the phone wasn’t in my hands any more I couldn’t find where it went. The inside of my car was smoky and all I can see was my broken windshield. I panicked thinking that the car was going to exploded with me sitting there in the car. So I got out the car and that’s when I started to ball into tears. There was a police officer already on seen and he ran up to me asking if I was okay. I couldn’t stop crying, it was still raining and he took me to his car and sat me down. He went to go check on the other car and called the paramedics. After a couple of minutes he came back and asked me for my name and my I.D. I told him it was in the car and my phone was in there too. He went to go look but all he could find was my school I.D and my phone. “I must have picked up the wrong I.D!” I cried. Oh no, I thought. I’m going to jail. I was the cause of the car accident and I didn’t have my driver’s license on me. I called my ma and told her what happened. My ma just had surgery that week and she couldn’t really walk because of it. But within 10 minutes she was there in her p.j’s, holding me saying everything was going to be alright. I still didn’t know if the other people in the car were ok because I didn’t want to see something that I didn’t want to see. “Everything is my fault! My car wouldn’t get back in the other lane, I tried and tried but it wouldn’t go back to its lane!” I cried to my ma. “It’s okay Brittney, just calm down.” I can tell that I was scaring my ma even more with my loud cries so I tried to calm down for her. The paramedics came and checked to see if everything was okay with me. I told them that I was fine. After I had the guts to stand up and see the accident most of everything was cleaned up. The traffic on both sides was still bad but everything else was picked up. The other people in the car turned out to be okay. It was two men in the car; they stood on the side of the road talking to the cops. The other police officer came up to me. Alright this is it. I’m going to jail I thought to myself. “Alright Brittney, I’m glad that you and everybody else was okay. This could have been a lot worse.” He wrote me a ticket and told me that I was free to go. Thank God I thought to myself. I got in my ma’s car and sat down, and then she started to drive off. “I can’t believe I lost my car.” I said sadly. I had just got my car three months ago from my ma and my dad. It was the perfect first car for me and it was gone. “I’ll rather have you than the car Brittney” my mother told me. She was right. I was so thankful to be okay. When I think back on my car accident now I always regret being on my cell phone. Many people today die because of phone use while driving. If I never was on the phone that day then I would have been more focus on the road and never would have got in the car accident. I now keep my phone in my purse on the back seat so I would not be tempted to look at my phone.

Some of my ideas...

Some of my ideas that I had in mind for my memoir is to have lots of dialogue throughout my paper. I believe that this is really important to have so that the reader can feel like there exactly there with me. I also wanted to have lots of imagery in my paper, I want the reader to see what I am saying in my writing. I want to start off my paper from the beginning of my story and explain moment by moment what happened. Here is a little piece on what I have so far...

I remember waking up one morning for school not feeling to well. It was raining and cold outside. I usually dreaded to miss school because I hated to be behind and having to make-up work .But I just couldn't push myself to get up, when I finally had the strength to get out of bed I walked down the hallway to tell my ma that I didn't feel well . She told me to lay back down and just take the day off; So I did. An hour into my sleep my phone rung and woke me up, it was an text message from my friend in class. "Brittney where are you! we need you to anchor today remember!" I had total forgot that I signed up for anchoring that week.....

What I thought...

The mentor reading "Blue Oblivion" by Jill Adams , really stood out to me and gave me great ideas on what I should do for my paper. Overall I loved the memoir, I loved how she told her memory with great descriptions.I really felt like I was there and was experience everything that she had. I also liked how she first told her story in the past and explained why she was afraid of the water. Then she came back to reality and started telling her story of  her trying to over come her fear.