Author: Sara

During the process of this visual note taking assignment, I learned that you don’t really need detailed or intricate drawings to tell a story. Realizing this has made me fully understand the intersection of storytelling and illustration, which is what comics and graphic novels are all about. I believe that the level of drawing skill is not dependent on how successfully one can communicate their thoughts, and how simple doodle-like images are enough to convey an idea. I really enjoyed visually drawing out my notes, and I think it helped me to thoroughly understand what I’m learning, as I had to process the notes before engaging in the illustration process.

While writing my narrative, I wanted to explore my core reading and writing experiences starting from elementary school progressing all the way until right now. Through this chronological storytelling, I hope to communicate my non-linear journey of my appreciation for the literary arts.

I started by examining my list of memories that I constructed during the X-Page Exercise. From there, I just started to write. Starting from my earliest experience all the way until how I feel right now. I really enjoyed doing the initial freewriting practice because I think it allowed me to fully express all the things I want to say during the draft. Afterward, I was surprised that I was able to write an essay that I could take pride in without meticulously organizing it beforehand.

After completing the writing, I learned that I really admire the process of writing narratives. Being able to pick out certain key moments in your life and reveal how they’ve impacted the person you are today feels like a very meaningful process.

I think a sentence that one might find most interesting would be, “While my appreciation for the literary arts was non-linear, there is no doubt that my interest was never there.” Throughout my essay, I narrate both the positive and negative experiences that I’ve had with reading and writing, and I think that that sentence clearly wraps up my relationship with literature.

I went home for Labor Day weekend on Friday and when I came back to my dorm, I found my precious succulent shriveled and dying from the lack of water and sun. Several of it’s leaves had fallen on the window sill, but just as I was about to throw them out, I realized that some of them take the shape of a flipper! I took one and started to rotate it, positioning the leaf in different angles. Alas, I discovered that it was only right to donate this green flipper to the only green creature I could think of… a turtle!

Due to the organic form of the succulent leaf, I understood that it had to belong to a turtle in motion, which is why I specifically chose a sea turtle. There is also a fluid quality about the leaf, making it a perfect reason to illustrate the sea turtle swimming alongside it’s other ocean friends.