Final

                                    How Love Changed My Life for the Better

As a young child I guess you could say I had it a bit odd to begin with. My first few years of life I had never even gone out of the house. My mom and dad were so busy with work, one working on a day schedule and the other working on a night schedule that when they came home for the day they were so exhausted and didn’t have the energy to go out or do anything. My first time I left the house was when I was a few years old and It was because my grandma was visiting from out of state. We all went to the natural history museum down in Albuquerque. No one knew how I would react, “you mean, there’s a whole other world outside the house?” my grandma joked about my first thoughts. We went to planetarium as one of the festivities and I loved it. The booming sounds and moving pictures were just great! Traveling away from home was fun!

A few years later I had a above average childhood. I was a single child livening with just my mom. A somewhat short and petite women who did her best to raise a single child alone. Aside from not having a dad who lived with me my mom did a great job making a good friendship with me. She was dating a fellow from Australia at the time which made a fun trip when we went to go visit him. Both my mom and her new boyfriend loved traveling, which made me have great stories to tell my friends and teachers at elementary school when I got back. For presentations I'd make boards filled with pictures, seashells and other trinkets from my travels depending on where I went. The Eiffel tower in Paris, the Old Square in Europe, riding horses in the ocean in Jamaica, the Colosseum in Rome, I had been everywhere! “You’re so lucky! I haven't even been of the state!” Some people would even tell me. However, the life of travel and fun times would not last long.

As a teenager I got into the whole ‘rebellious teen’ kind of attitude. Which is funny cause I remember being a kid with my mom visiting a friend’s house watching an older sibling slam the door on her dad and my mom saying “I hope when you’re a kid you never act like that,” with my reply being “don’t worry mom, I won’t.” While shaking my head and holding her arm tightly. By the age of 12 or so I was no longer traveling over seas with her and just enjoyed being home alone. I spent most of my days cooped up in my room watching T.V. It wasn't as glamorous as it sounds though The only things I watched were mainly Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos, and Maury. This was because growing up I never had cable, because my mom was too cheap to buy it. I didn't even have Netflix and still do not. This anti-social behavior just got worse as the years went on. I became so antisocial to a point where I would only go to places like church or school. And still do. At the time though, I wanted to be home schooled so I was only going to school once a week through a program called RGES (Rio Grande Enrichment Studies). They give you enough homework to last the week. That was during middle school. In high school I only went for one year. And it was the worst year in school of my life. I hated it. I hated having to wake up at 5:30 every morning and did not enjoy being there one bit. I remember for half of the semester I did not talk to anyone. I sat in the back of every class and ate lunch alone. The only reason I started talking to people was because two girls one day wanted to sit in my spot for lunch. I continued to talk to those girls a little throughout the semester, but we never met anywhere apart from school and were no longer in contact after the school year ended. After that year I was home schooled for the rest of my high school. This meant the only places I was going was church and the store. 

But the past year has been the absolute worst with my anti-social behavior. I still do not go to school, I do it all online, and at 19 I still do not have a job. I still am forced to go to church and volunteer work for a place I don’t even want to be, but am also forced to do, or else my internet will get taken away. My church is small and only has maybe 20 people going. When someone there actually tries to strike up conversation with me, they may ask “what does a fun day look like for you, Tara?” or “what do you enjoy doing?” my answer is always the same; “I enjoy being in my room alone listening to music. I’m not an interesting person. I don’t go out and I don’t do much.” Me being alone is not the reason this year has been so bad though, because trust me, after years and years of not doing anything with anyone you get use to being in the background.

When I was 16 it was back to just me and my mom being alone again. We had no family in New Mexico, it was just us. It was actually pretty nice. I could finally start building a relationship with her again without anyone getting in the way. That was, until one night when there was a really bad ice storm and my mom invited someone over from her work to spend the night because they could not get home. She asked me first if she should and at the time I said sure without really thinking if this man was good or not. Weather or not he might steal something or whatever the case might be with inviting someone you didn’t know much about over. And that one simple “sure” from me was all it took for my mom to invite him over and start a 3-year battle between us. Once again, I was put in the background.

This new guy seemed to be a good match for my mom. A taller, white haired blue eyed guy with a nice build who had the same interests as her. They both loved the outdoors and traveling and had much more in common with her than I did.It was hard for me to relate to them. But for the first few months I was of course suspicious of him. This new guy had already moved into our house. I was constantly watching him and whispering to my mom. I didn’t trust him. My mom was blinded by love though and didn’t hear one word I said about me not liking him. In one ear out the other, sometimes not heard at all. I was use to people not hearing me though. Years with no friends also makes you not develop a voice or opinion. I always say I don’t speak unless spoken to and my main form of communication is three words; “Yeah,” “Sure,” and “OK.” Even with my own mother I had no voice of protest. How could someone not listen to their own child? I felt like a kid in a movie when the parents have a new born baby and the kid feels ignored. The only difference was this was not a made-up story for entertainment and there was no happy ending of the family getting back together In the end.

It’s ironic in a way. I always liked movies that didn’t have sappy happy endings. Too mushy. And now my own life is taking that turn. I am 19 now and have almost cut off most communication from my mother. I live in a different state, and am going to move away from the same house I lived in my entire life. It’s going to be hard, but it’s for the better. If this is what it takes for me to finally get that push onto my own two feet then so be it. I am ready to start my own life without being a follower. I am moving to a state with better job opportunities, which will be good once I get my degree. So in a way, it is better for my adult life which in the long run might actually turn out to be a happy ending for me. I will have already moved to the state I wanted to live in since I was a kid and can make a life for myself. I don't have to be pushed aside for other people and can now focus on my own life. 

Week 12

For my rough draft I was having a very hard time coming up with what to write about. This does not usually occur to me. Probably the reason I am hesitating so much is this is a story that other people aside from myself are going to read. I usually write epic fantasy tales with magical creatures, but something halted me into doing that this time. “It’s so immature,” my mind kept telling me “Nobody is going to want to read about talking animals!” So for this assignment I am actually going to do something a bit different that is unlike myself. I am going to write a non-fiction story describing how my life went from something people were jealous of, to being cut off from the ones I loved. I can imagine this digital story being told as a kind of a “draw my life” form like the videos seen on YouTube.

                                                

                                          

                                                    

                                    How Love Changed My Life for the Better

As a young child I guess you could say I had it a bit odd to begin with. My first few years of life I had never even gone out of the house. My mom and dad were so busy with work, one working on a day schedule and the other working on a night schedule that when they came home for the day they were so exhausted and didn’t have the energy to go out or do anything. My first time I left the house was when I was a few years old and It was because my grandma was visiting from out of state. We all went to the natural history museum down in Albuquerque. No one knew how I would react, “you mean, there’s a whole other world outside the house?” my grandma joked about my first thoughts. We went to planetarium as one of the festivities and I loved it. The booming sounds and moving pictures were just great! Traveling away from home was fun!

A few years later I had a above average childhood. I was a single child livening with just my mom. A somewhat short and petite women who did her best to raise a single child alone. Aside from not having a dad who lived with me my mom did a great job making a good friendship with me. She was dating a fellow from Australia at the time which made a fun trip when we went to go visit him. Both my mom and her new boyfriend loved traveling, which made me have great stories to tell my friends and teachers at elementary school when I got back. For presentations I'd make boards filled with pictures, seashells and other trinkets from my travels depending on where I went. The Eiffel tower in Paris, the Old Square in Europe, riding horses in the ocean in Jamaica, the Colosseum in Rome, I had been everywhere! “You’re so lucky! I haven't even been of the state!” Some people would even tell me. However, the life of travel and fun times would not last long.

As a teenager I got into the whole ‘rebellious teen’ kind of attitude. Which is funny cause I remember being a kid with my mom visiting a friend’s house watching an older sibling slam the door on her dad and my mom saying “I hope when you’re a kid you never act like that,” with my reply being “don’t worry mom, I won’t.” While shaking my head and holding her arm tightly. By the age of 12 or so I was no longer traveling over seas with her and just enjoyed being home alone. I spent most of my days cooped up in my room watching T.V. It wasn't as glamorous as it sounds though The only things I watched were mainly Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos, and Maury. This was because growing up I never had cable, because my mom was too cheap to buy it. I didn't even have Netflix and still do not. This anti-social behavior just got worse as the years went on. I became so antisocial to a point where I would only go to places like church or school. And still do. At the time though, I wanted to be home schooled so I was only going to school once a week through a program called RGES (Rio Grande Enrichment Studies). They give you enough homework to last the week. That was during middle school. In high school I only went for one year. And it was the worst year in school of my life. I hated it. I hated having to wake up at 5:30 every morning and did not enjoy being there one bit. I remember for half of the semester I did not talk to anyone. I sat in the back of every class and ate lunch alone. The only reason I started talking to people was because two girls one day wanted to sit in my spot for lunch. I continued to talk to those girls a little throughout the semester, but we never met anywhere apart from school and were no longer in contact after the school year ended. After that year I was home schooled for the rest of my high school. This meant the only places I was going was church and the store. 

But the past year has been the absolute worst with my anti-social behavior. I still do not go to school, I do it all online, and at 19 I still do not have a job. I still am forced to go to church and volunteer work for a place I don’t even want to be, but am also forced to do, or else my internet will get taken away. My church is small and only has maybe 20 people going. When someone there actually tries to strike up conversation with me, they may ask “what does a fun day look like for you, Tara?” or “what do you enjoy doing?” my answer is always the same; “I enjoy being in my room alone listening to music. I’m not an interesting person. I don’t go out and I don’t do much.” Me being alone is not the reason this year has been so bad though, because trust me, after years and years of not doing anything with anyone you get use to being in the background.

When I was 16 it was back to just me and my mom being alone again. We had no family in New Mexico, it was just us. It was actually pretty nice. I could finally start building a relationship with her again without anyone getting in the way. That was, until one night when there was a really bad ice storm and my mom invited someone over from her work to spend the night because they could not get home. She asked me first if she should and at the time I said sure without really thinking if this man was good or not. Weather or not he might steal something or whatever the case might be with inviting someone you didn’t know much about over. And that one simple “sure” from me was all it took for my mom to invite him over and start a 3-year battle between us. Once again, I was put in the background.

This new guy seemed to be a good match for my mom. A taller, white haired blue eyed guy with a nice build who had the same interests as her. They both loved the outdoors and traveling and had much more in common with her than I did.It was hard for me to relate to them. But for the first few months I was of course suspicious of him. This new guy had already moved into our house. I was constantly watching him and whispering to my mom. I didn’t trust him. My mom was blinded by love though and didn’t hear one word I said about me not liking him. In one ear out the other, sometimes not heard at all. I was use to people not hearing me though. Years with no friends also makes you not develop a voice or opinion. I always say I don’t speak unless spoken to and my main form of communication is three words; “Yeah,” “Sure,” and “OK.” Even with my own mother I had no voice of protest. How could someone not listen to their own child? I felt like a kid in a movie when the parents have a new born baby and the kid feels ignored. The only difference was this was not a made-up story for entertainment and there was no happy ending of the family getting back together In the end.

It’s ironic in a way. I always liked movies that didn’t have sappy happy endings. Too mushy. And now my own life is taking that turn. I am 19 now and have almost cut off most communication from my mother. I live in a different state, and am going to move away from the same house I lived in my entire life. It’s going to be hard, but it’s for the better. If this is what it takes for me to finally get that push onto my own two feet then so be it. I am ready to start my own life without being a follower. I am moving to a state with better job opportunities, which will be good once I get my degree. So in a way, it is better for my adult life which in the long run might actually turn out to be a happy ending for me. I will have already moved to the state I wanted to live in since I was a kid and can make a life for myself. I don't have to be pushed aside for other people and can now focus on my own life. 

Week 11

Welcome back everyone. For this week’s assignment I was going to draw out a mind map on my digital plans but I figured Id rather write it out. My first question I asked myself was “Who would my audience be?” I would probably be reaching out to people my age, although really all ages could listen to me. People who could relate to my interests. Next I had to come up with ideas on what I would talk about. Here are some of the ideas that came to mind.

If I was to do a digital story such as pod casts I would first want to figure out what I would want to talk about and make a series on. Would it be educational or entertaining? Knowing me it would not be educational. One of my ideas for putting in educational was talking about history but I Know nothing on history and it is a subject that bores even myself. So talking about that would not be a good idea. Another thought I had was doing educational pod casts on animals. But I felt like that would not be a good idea either. So I moved on to entertainment. What could I talk about that would be entertaining? My first thought was of course, music. I could talk about all my knowledge on different bands and maybe even the history on them for education. I could talk about how certain genres became what they are today such as Viking metal or black metal.

Aside from the history on music and genres and different bands I could also introduce people to knew bands because I know a lot of great ones that for some reason people who have the same taste in music as me don’t know about. I call these bands “hidden gems.” A good way to introduce this new music would be editing parts of the song of their best songs. I do edit a lot of my music and can do that pretty well and make my own ringtones and all. My only issue with that is all the copyright strikes I would probably get. With my mind on music my thoughts would be if I got popular I could maybe start interviewing band people and get their story.

Other then bands if I was to digital stories another thought that actually just came to my mind was narrating my own stories. What I mean by this is I use to write my own stories a while back and came out with two books and lots of short stories. If I went back and revisited them now I bet I could make them a whole lot better, action packed, and detailed. They all did have lots of action and battle sequences, but my writing skills have improved lots more over the years. I feel like a few people might listen to that. I wouldn’t need a webcam, just my microphone. My only issue with that is my voice inst very powerful. There isn’t much emphasis in my words. I am kind of bland. If I did that I would need to really try to make it sound exciting.

Now if I was to do a digital story on just me, I actually do have a pretty interesting story to tell about my life which not many people can tell the same. I could inform people on what it is like to travel over seas and visit exotic places. When I was younger I use to travel quite a lot, visiting places like Paris, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Jamaica, and more. I could talk about the different experiences I had while doing a slide show of my adventures. I have learned this semester that with this type of narrating, leaving music out would probably be a good idea so people could focus on what I was saying.

All I all if I was to do a digital story, I actually think I like the travel video the most. Mainly because I would not have to worry about copyright, and it would be a video on just me and the interesting things I have done and experienced. 

Week 10

Hi guys, today I am going to be talking about how I would do my own podcast. Now, I know podcasts these days are popular and all, but quite frankly I have never been that interested myself. I don’t listen to them much. So, when it comes to writing about how I would do my own, I am kind of unsure. A podcast to me is someone just talking about well, whatever they want to talk about whether it be educational or entertaining.  But my interests are pretty limited so that is probably the reason I don’t listen to them is because someone just talking inst that exciting to me. It takes skill to make just talking entertaining, like adding emphasis to words. Maybe if I found one that was on a topic I could relate to like for example, music, I’d stick around. But if I was to do my own personally, I would try to sound out-going and enthusiastic about what I was talking about. My topic would probably be on something like heavy metal. With this I could add some of that music in for examples. But the cool thing is I edit a lot of music so I could create something of my own that would fit into the podcast perfectly or to the tone of the video.

Week 9

Welcome back everyone! Today I’m going to be writing about how I would make my own web series. After watching some of the videos this week I noticed that these videos had a lot in common. The main thing that stuck out to me was the lack of any form or music or sound aside from the person talking. I don’t watch many blog videos so this actually was quite striking for me. The second thing I noticed was there was not really any shaky camera angels. It was stationed and focused precisely on the person so they could be in the middle of the frame. These two elements helped the story because it helped you stay focused on the person talking. If I was to start blogging and making videos about me and my life I would defiantly keep out the music. Even though it would be hard for me, I learned that for this style of video it benefits the video having it out. If I was going on a road trip, I would also use text to describe what was happening around me, maybe my feelings too.

Week 8

Hi again everyone. Today I am going to be discussing what makes a good story. Everyone is going to have different opinions on what makes a good story. For me it would have to be how much it relates to stuff I like. For example, I like fantasy and horror subjects, so a good story for me would maybe be set in a far way fantasy realm with unfamiliar and deadly entities. A story that would not be so interesting to me would probably have to do something with nonfiction like history. But what makes a good story isn’t just things we have an interest in. Now I don’t do a lot of reading now a days. But I can tell you that both paper and digital stories both require some of the same things to make them entertaining. Lots of things can make any story interesting like conflict; obstacles the character has to face. We can relate to this because everyone has to deal with some sort of obstacle in their life. Conflict in a story is relatable and entertaining. Through conflict we can learn more about the character and their true personality and how the people around them will react to this. Conflict and the hardships we go through define us, or as my parents would say “it builds character.” Another thing that makes a story entertaining is what is the risk the character is taking? If there are high stakes and a lot that the character can lose if they fail, it draws us in. It makes us want to cheer on the character in hope that they don’t fail their quest. This makes the story more suspenseful and intense.

As a writer in the past, I related to the last point they made in the video we had to watch which was what else made a good story was how in depth the character was. How advanced is their personality? How deep is their conflict? How far are they willing to go? Coming up with characters and their backstory’s whether it was tragic and heartfelt or fairly average was always fun. Sometimes it was relatable and maybe based on your own life, sometimes it was completely made up. Either way, even if people had not gone through the circumstances themselves, they could still understand how hard it was for your character. The cool thing about story telling though is even if you have not gone through a scenario which the character has gone through, through good story telling it still makes you feel as if you had a connection to them. It brings out emotions in us. And digital story telling can use some more elements to bring out the story better such as music. Which of course, normal books can’t do.

In conclusion, what makes a good, entertaining story is things like conflict, risk, and character development and depth. Without these key elements, your story and character would be bland, dull, and overall just pretty boring. There would be nothing to thrive for and nothing to lose which would make your audience lose interest. “For a given audience, a story is a sequence of content, anchored on a problem, which engages that audience with emotion and meaning.” (Alexander, Brian 13)

D4Darious. “What Makes A Good Story?” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=394&v=DCzcoyDp2fY.

Alexander, Brian. “The New Digital Story Telling.”

Week 7

Hi again everyone. Today I am going to be discussing what makes a good story. Everyone is going to have different opinions on what makes a good story. For me it would have to be how much it relates to stuff I like. For example, I like fantasy and horror subjects, so a good story for me would maybe be set in a far way fantasy realm with unfamiliar and deadly entities. A story that would not be so interesting to me would probably have to do something with nonfiction like history. But what makes a good story isn’t just things we have an interest in. Now I don’t do a lot of reading now a days. But I can tell you that both paper and digital stories both require some of the same things to make them entertaining. Lots of things can make any story interesting like conflict; obstacles the character has to face. We can relate to this because everyone has to deal with some sort of obstacle in their life. Conflict in a story is relatable and entertaining. Through conflict we can learn more about the character and their true personality and how the people around them will react to this. Conflict and the hardships we go through define us, or as my parents would say “it builds character.” Another thing that makes a story entertaining is what is the risk the character is taking? If there are high stakes and a lot that the character can lose if they fail, it draws us in. It makes us want to cheer on the character in hope that they don’t fail their quest. This makes the story more suspenseful and intense.

As a writer in the past, I related to the last point they made in the video we had to watch which was what else made a good story was how in depth the character was. Coming up with characters and their backstory’s whether it was tragic and heartfelt or fairly average was always fun. Sometimes it was relatable and maybe based on your own life, sometimes it was completely made up. Either way, even if people had not gone through the circumstances themselves, they could still understand how hard it was for your character. The cool thing about story telling though is even if you have not gone through a scenario which the character has gone through, through good story telling it still makes you feel as if you had a connection to them. It brings out emotions in us. And digital story telling can use some more elements to bring out the story better such as music. Which of course, normal books can’t do.

In conclusion, what makes a good, entertaining story is things like conflict, risk, and character development and depth. Without these key elements, your story and character would be bland, dull, and overall just pretty boring. There would be nothing to thrive for and nothing to lose which would make your audience lose interest.

D4Darious. “What Makes A Good Story?” YouTube, YouTube, 24 Mar. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=394&v=DCzcoyDp2fY.