Thursday, January 26, 2006

Short Lyric Essay About A Job (English 305 Paper #1.5 -- Final) (Writers Note: This IS the final, it is NOT a draft... keep that in mind)

National Youth Minister.


Intro
“Hi! Most of you know me by now, but if not I’m Edward…”

Body
Three minutes… that’s all I get, to touch you with my words. Three minutes and my time is gone. Three minutes to tell of my life and my conversion. My pain and redemption. Everyone has pain, that’s why I’m up here… everyone, but what is your pain? I’m looking at you as I pray in my head; I’m looking and wondering what part of my life are you supposed to hear?

What terrors grab at your soul? And what hopes does it crave?

Conclusion
“I looked up from my book and I saw Him. There! In the Eucharist! In my heart I cried out, ‘You’ve been here the whole time, and you didn’t TELL ME!’ I should have fallen flat on my face; instead, I went back to reading…”

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Short Lyric Essay About A Job(English 305 Paper #1.5 -- draft)

National Youth Minister.

“Hi! Most of you know me by now, but if not I’m Edward, I’m 21 and I’m the crazy guy that keeps running around, I wanted to tell you a little bit about why I’m here today”

Three minutes… that’s all I get, to touch you with my words. Three minutes and my time is up. Three minutes to tell of my life, and my conversion. The pain and the redemption. Everyone has pain, that’s why I’m up here… everyone, but what is your pain? I’m looking at you as I pray in my head, I’m looking and wondering what part of my life are you supposed to hear? You’ve been in lust? So have I… You’re into drinking? I did it four to five days a week. You’ve done drugs?

So what if you’re smart, I’m a genius… a 1550 SAT… 12 AP tests, National Hispanic Merit… #3 in state competition… you think you’re cool? Do you see how you’re friends respond to me? Do you see how they laugh? How you laugh? People think I’m cool too.

But what does it matter?

I’ve searched for excellence… I’ve searched for love… I’ve searched for friendships; I’ve searched through drinking and a few drugs… I’ve searched, and it’s empty.

“I looked up from my book, and saw Him. There in the Eucharist. In my heart I cried out, ‘You’ve been here the whole time, and you didn’t TELL ME!’ I should have fallen flat on my face, instead I went back to reading… but my burden was light.”

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Lyric Essay (English 305 Paper #2 -- possible draft)

The loves of my life

Athens
We snuck away at recess, me gleefully enamored by the love of my life. Her boyfriend just broke up with her today. So she, her friend and I had tricked the teachers to let us use the restrooms, each asking minutes apart so suspicion would be avoided. Teachers are so stupid. And kids sneaky when they’re with the girl they’ll later remember as their first kiss and when they’re 24 recall as that tricky girl. We went and played in the bathrooms those games that kids play, flashing the lights and playing bloody Mary. The bathrooms were unlike those in the States… they were small, cramped starting with a closet with a sink and a door, the door leading to another closet with a toilet. The only lighting a 60 watt bulb above the sink and a high, small window above the toilet… we closed the toilet door, turned off the light and spun in circles 13 times saying “bloody Mary, Bloody Mary” … each of us acting scared when we “saw” her in the mirror, trying to get the others scared, the faux fear hiding the real fear that someone else really saw her…

The three of us ended up in a janitor’s closet, they sent me in first, as they talked outside in whispers… finally they came in and closed the door… I was sitting on my heels as they shuffled and the love of my life came up to me and started kissing me… the darkness made it rebellious and naughty… Then the bell rang.

She was dating her boyfriend again the next day.

*********************************************************************
Austin
A sweet red head that I met at Boy Scout camp. I always wanted to date a red head. She came to camp every Friday, to visit with her dad and brother, every time she’d stop by one of the stores I managed and hung out with me and my employees. One of my guys had a crush on her so he asked her out, we all teased her about it when he wasn’t around… he wasn’t exactly a catch. “We’ll I don’t have any other date that night.” Eventually I find myself flirting with her in the back office, as I count the thousands we made that night. The boy gets a dear John and I get a sweet angel… in the pine trees we’d walk and everything seemed so alive, as the very leaves we shuffled along were decomposing.

Her brother warned me not to date her.

*********************************************************************
Across the US
She was blonde and an annoying self centered girl that I was stuck with. I became a missionary to evangelize within my church, to bring the God I had just met to the youth. Not to be stuck with two team leaders that already were grinding on my nerves and this bimbo who could do nothing but talk about herself. This was not going to be a good year.

We were forced to take a day off together… I was excited and I told my team brothers about it… they laughed and said it wouldn’t be that bad… if nothing else you can sleep through it.

The lake shimmered and she was quiet. The horses meandered around us. We watched Cinderella 2, a horrible cartoon movie that made us want to claw our own minds out… but we laughed.

I fell in love with her, she warned me not to.

Friday, January 20, 2006

Uhm... Yes?: My voice revisited...

Uhm... Yes?: My voice revisited...

This link is a revisit by me of the My Voice Project for my Creative Non-fiction class...

Monday, January 16, 2006

My Voice (English 305 Paper #1)

My voice is the loner, the soul who never feels at home, so he carries it on his back. The young boy enchanted by stumbling across world war 2 bunkers in the hills of Athens. The older boy proud of an abusive Special Forces father. The angry, offensive, young Atheist who hated God, but ended up falling in love with a man he never saw walk the Earth. A young man transformed. It is the voice of the rabid Catholic who traveled at the beck and call of his master to the fields of Kansas, the barrens of west Texas, the inner cities of Compton, Inglewood, and Gary, the freeze of Michigan and Minnesota, the spice of Louisiana and the quite of San Antonio. Of a 25 year old humbled by age, and wizened by grace. My voice is that of a man willing to risk it all for love, even the pain of opening my heart to another. My voice is the romantic who wrote horrible poetry in High School, My voice is the lover.