Cameron Champlin

Writing 2

MTWR 3:30-4:50

September 11, 2019

The Descriptive Essay of The Lost Coast Remediation Process

In this project, I decided to remediate my memoir essay primarily through visual and

auditory means. My memoir reflects on my experiences during the Lost Coast Trail and how

these experiences taught me to press on towards a goal. Even though writing the essay helped me

reflect on the trip as a whole and how it shaped me into the person I am today, I felt as though

there was another outlet, I could’ve used to communicate the purpose of my trip. While writing

the essay, I heavily depended on the images I took while hiking the trail as a source of primary

research. Therefore, I resorted to a video, in which I could compile these images into a visual

story in order to remediate my memoir through image documentation.

In the same way that I started my essay by examining images, I started my remediation

project by chronologically stitching together images in order to form a story. A picture is worth a

thousand words, and I could’ve incorporated more images into my memoir. However, I tried to

challenge myself by describing the contents of my images through text. I tried to recount on my

emotions and thoughts in every moment depicted in every image. In my memoir, I wanted the

reader to feel what I felt. I wanted the audience to live through my experiences, not observe them

from a distant perspective. The issue with images, I found while writing the memoir, is that their

incorporation didn’t strengthen my points of expression through inner feelings. Images are

limited to what can be physically seen, not internally felt. I didn’t want to distract the reader in

my memoir with images that could potentially lead them to assume things that weren’t true. In
my memoir, I decided to commit to text in order to effectively reflect on my inner self, although

I was left with the feeling that my pictures had the potential to aid the portrayal of my

experience.

The remediation video serves a different purpose from my memoir, yet it builds on my

experience because it serves as an outlet of clarity and reflection. My memoir primarily

communicates my feelings on the trail while the images used in the video serve as

documentation of the trip. Together, these two modes of expression allow the reader to become

aware of how I felt while examining what I physically encountered on the trail. This was the

overarching goal of delivering my experience to an audience: to find complementary modes of

communication, in which I could visually display what I experienced while connecting such

visuals to how I felt.

Although the video has the potential to serve as a visual aid to my essay, I wanted the

video to be independent in itself. I wanted the audience to be able to draw upon the purpose of

my trip solely from the video in the same way that they could my essay. Therefore, I resorted to

auditory means. I chose the song “The Climb” by Alex G because the lyrics reiterated highlights

of the trip’s purpose as expressed throughout my essay. The ideas addressed in the song that the

climb is a struggle, that sometimes one has to lose, and that it’s not about how fast one gets to the

end goal reiterates the points made in the closing statement of my essay, in which I address:

“My goals will always be there, but sometimes I may have to take a different path, at a

different time than I intended. I may even have to venture upon the road less travelled. It’s hard,

and it’s going to be work. People might advise me against it, and there will be storms. I might

even stumble along the way. However, if it’s something that I strive for in life, that I feel deeply

in my heart, I’ll climb up that mountain and not turn back.”

I think the song is an essential part of this project because it weaves in the purpose of my trip and

further connects the video to the memoir without requiring the use of alphabetical text.

Through visual and auditory means, I was able to create a complementary, yet solely

independent mode of expression that aids my memoir. The remediation video, involving a

compilation of images captured on the trail and the song “The Climb” by Alex G, serves as

documentation of the trip while connecting to the overarching purpose. Although the memoir and

the video utilize different modes of communication both projects reflect on my experience of

hiking the Lost Coast Trail and highlight how the trip shaped me into the person I am today.

Word Count: 782

 Works Cited

G, Alex. “The Climb.” The Climb-Single, 2018. iTunes.