Shumaker 1

Brendan Shumaker
Introductory Essay Final Portfolio
Professor KL
28 April 2015
Reflective Essay on the Writings of Brendan Shumaker

January 13, 2015, was the first day I had the pleasure of meeting Professor KL. Entering the
classroom full of thoughts swirling around in my head about what lies ahead for my future in this class.
Professor KL introduces herself in an extremely positive manner. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a teacher so
enthusiastic to enhance our writing skills. Soon after the writing begins; the heads go down and the ink
filled pen hits the paper. I soon realize that I will find out what makes me tick as a writer; by that I merely
mean in this class I will find what drives my writing. In this paper I will discuss me as a writer, my
strengths/weaknesses as a writer, and what I learned from each of the writing projects.

Brendan Shumaker, that is me, from day one I hated the subject of English. Throughout
kindergarten all the way to eighth grade my hatred for English class only grew the over the years. I never
fully understood why I hated English, maybe because it was always my least favorite subject. Also,
English was never my best class only adding fuel to the fire of my hatred towards the subject of English.
High school hits and the hatred of English seemed to plateau, I found ways to cope with the class. I began
to excel in my high school English classes. I started to realize what it was that made me tick as a writer.
My biggest demon as a writer is writers block more commonly known as procrastination. Once I finally
started writing or typing the paper everything started to flow naturally. The feeling of having a stream of
consciousness is amazing; having all the thoughts in your head hit the computer in such a fluid keystone
is like taking the first lick of a freshly cooped ice cream cone. My writing process includes mainly only
doing the final draft. I personally hate rough drafts in the sense of Why do it twice when you can do it

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once? I am somebody who wants to find the easiest way to get something done. As a writer I know a
rough draft would help tremendously with being able to come up with ideas but personally I hate them. I
thoroughly enjoy free-writing or stream of consciousness. I enjoy these due to the fact that by writing
down everything that comes to your mind you could find a brilliant idea like a diamond in the rough. But
also, the downsides of those ideas could be very vague and meaningless ideas. My biggest pet peeve of all
is busy work writing. I feel like I have to run through a brick wall reinforced with steel bars to get it done.
When I find something I am truly passionate about I can hit a home-run with my eyes closed; while on
the other hand with busy work I feel like I cant even hit a 50 MPH fastball right down the middle. As of
April 28, 2015, at 3:19 in the morning I have come a long way as a writer since day one. Now that I have
told you what makes me click as a writer lets move on to my strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

We all have strengths and weaknesses in life regardless of what we are doing. In writing my
strengths include: a vast vocabulary, passion in projects that have meaning/depth, multiple life events
relating to topics, and a wide knowledge base. As a child my parents were always using big words which I
loved. I always wanted to then incorporate these new words into my vocabulary. In writing you can use
your wide vocabulary as a creative mechanism to express your thoughts in a way to enhance the readers
experience of your ideas. Another strength of mine is my passion for projects. My writing is very passion
driven the more I care about the topic the better the end product becomes. The words just hit the page like
two lovers lips meeting for a passionate kiss. Everything about a topic I find important or appealing to me
flows onto the screen; the feeling is surreal. Next in my toolbox of writing strengths is my vast life
experiences. I have only been on this world for 19 years but I have experienced a vast amount of life
events. These events range from traveling the United States and foreign countries, to experiencing a death
of a loved one, to playing sports my whole life, and countless others. I apply each of my life experiences
to my writing to help the reader understand my point of view. It helps me find a purpose in my writing if I
can intertwine my life events with the prompt I am given to write about. Finally, one of my most valuable

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tools is my wide knowledge base. I am infatuated with History and common knowledge. History was
always one of my favorite subjects as a kid; I guess I fell in love with the black and white facts about
History. One cant change the past; but we can have an educated discussion on the events that took place
in the past which is awesome to me. Common knowledge is such a competition for me; I am always
spitting out random facts to people. They of course dont believe me, then they look up what I have to say
and realize just because my initials are BS doesn't mean I am filled with it! These are my strengths as a
writer; now lets discuss my weaknesses.

I admit I have a plethora of weaknesses when it comes to writing just ask any past English
teachers that I have had. My weaknesses are writers block more commonly known as procrastination,
no rough draft, lackluster effort in busy work projects, and a lack of organization in my thoughts. A huge
weakness of mine is merely starting the paper. Staring at a blank page makes me freeze up eventually
ending up in closing the computer. This leads to procrastination, I always push a writing project I cant
start off until the night before causing an all-nighter to take place. I am working on getting rid of my
procrastination by starting projects days before they are due. No, I have not completely gotten rid of my
procrastinating; but I am working diligently to rid myself of the procrastination sickness. Another
weakness is my lack of having a rough draft to guide my final writing project. As I stated in the second
paragraph, Why do something twice when you can only do it once? The results of not having a rough
draft make starting a project even harder for me. I need to grow up and start doing a rough draft so I can
make the best possible final draft. My biggest weakness is finding a meaning behind a busy work project.
It is so hard for me to get into a writing project if I am not passionate about the prompt. I hate it, I feel
like I am writing to Wilson in the move Castaway. By that I mean when I do a busy work project I am
merely typing words on a page with no meaning. The feeling of putting effort into something that has no
meaning is waste of talent to me. But, I need to find different ways to motivate myself when it comes to a

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busy work project. Finally, my weaknesses wrap up with having a lack of organization in some of my
projects. Since I rarely have a rough draft to go off of my final projects will be unorganized. All of my
thoughts are hitting the paper so fast that the reader is bouncing from Illinois, to Wisconsin, to Indiana,
and back to Illinois. I can fix this problem by having a rough draft to organize my thoughts in a clear and
concise way to make it easier for the reader to follow. After hearing all my weakness, now lets move to
the effects each writing project had on me.

The first writing project of this class posed the question How Can the Good Life be defined?
The first answer in my head screamed it cant be defined! I immediately thought, The Good Life is a
subjective statement; which in fact I was correct in my thought. But then as a class we began to discuss
this topic; if in fact there was a way to define The Good Life. In a reflection essay I wrote, The Good
Life is like a tree everyones branches are different but the roots of the tree are pretty much the same. As a
class we agreed that the three major roots of everyones tree consisted of happiness, job security, and
being able to provide for ones family. I learned to not look at the whole tree but to narrow my vision by
looking at the different parts of the tree. I found that the foundation of the tree, the roots, are common
amongst most. While the branches of each tree differs that is what makes everyone so unique.
The second writing project of this class posed the question, Does higher education lead to the
Good Life? Again, I sat in my seat deep in thought. My first reaction was NO! I thought not everyone
values education in the same light. Certain countries only have education as on outlet to make it
somewhere in life. America has multiple avenues that do not stem from a higher education. Then I began
to research the correspondence of higher education and the job market. The research showed me that the
higher levels of education one obtained; ones salaries increased while unemployment decreased. Still I
was in disbelief; not with the stats I found but with the question posed. I began to think about what the

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class defined as the roots of The Good Life. I then learned from this project that higher education is the
water that helps the roots of the tree flourish. When higher education achieved one experiences a sense
happiness; followed by a sense of job security which then results in the ability to provide for ones family.
There you have it, the three major roots of the tree all being cultivated by the waters of higher education.

The third and final writing project posed the question What is your Good Life in 10 years? The
task here was to interview three people about their future Good Life. After interviewing Tristin Olsen,
Josh Derr, and Matthew Swanson I found similarities and differences in their answers. They all agreed on
wanting a sense of family in the future. I assumed from that answer that they were raised in a family
oriented household that enjoyed sitting down each night for a family meal. Josh and Matt agreed on being
the breadwinner for the family, they both took great pride in that. From that information I assumed that
their Dad did a very good job of providing for their family. While on the other hand Tristin would do
anything to protect his family. After hearing this, I assumed that his Father always made him feel
protected. I learned from these interviews that based on your family upbringings/life events one visualizes
what their ideal future Good Life entails.

April 28, 2015, here I am entering my final two classes of English. Professor KL hasnt changed
one bit; she still has the same enthusiasm as she did on day one of the semester. She had us do a lot of
writing projects to help us grow as writers. Yes, at times it was very monotonous/tedious but in the end it
was definitely worth it. My skills have grown significantly in the past four months. I still have to work on
things but now I have a better base to start with. In this paper I described myself as a writer, I spoke on
my strengths/weaknesses, and what I learned from each writing project. I leave you with this take the
waters of higher education given to your by your parents or your own handwork to enhance the The
Good Life Tree.