Reading Journal 2 : THE BODY

       The Body’s subtitle is “fall from innocence”. Chris, Gordie, Vern and Teddy went through this while searching for the body of Ray Brower’s. The journey had changed their minds a lot at least to Gordie and Chris. For me, I am still going through this process, I think. As I mentioned before, I already saw a dead body but I was too young to notice and realize. But now, although I am not looking for a dead body, many incidents happened and they had affected me a lot.

       Before I came to KMLA, I was just one of the “good” students who obey to what adults say and study hard. But recently, the thoughts and moral codes are starting break inside me. Before, adults were superior to me. The perception I had in my mind was that they were wise and make always right decisions. My father was one of the most perfect examples. I was so proud of my father at first. He was the role model. But these days, I am still proud of my father but I do not want to be same with him. The realization that he is just another person who is imperfect but has some flaws and scars in his life came to me without any signs. Andy’s fight with the shop keeper and Chris’s milk money incident portrays the truth of the adults. They are just other interest groups who are willing to exploit children who have not fallen from innocence, yet.

       Also the dormitory life allowed me a new experience toward the inner self of other individuals. Unlike normal schools, I can see how all the kids talk, behave, and counteract with others. In other words, it is possible for me to see how they live. And sometimes, their inner self sometimes come out through their words and actions. Sometimes, they are disgusting. First it came to me as almost like a betrayal. Those made me to close myself toward them. Seeing the other face of the person was very unpleasant. When Chris and Gordie were facing the older gang, Vern and Teddy ran away and disappeared from the scene in order to not get involved in the fight. Of course, they would be afraid but they valued their safety compared to the bonds between them. I was feeling the same notion which Chris and Gordie might have felt at that time.

           

       To get back up, remedies are needed. Although Chris and Gordie got beaten up by Ace and his gang, it does not really matter because they had much more valuable things that Ace did not have: true friendship. Chris and Gordie were able to overcome those incidents because they had bonds to prevent them from falling down. Fortunately, I was able to meet friends who could be the friends. They helped me a lot and kept me up to face the reality. Personally I really enjoyed the quote, ““I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” but also thought that it would be fine to change the number into seventeen.

Reflective Essay : Things To Keep In Mind for Successful Dormitory Life

          It has been about ten months since I started to live in the dormitory. For many of the students including me, they had never experienced any similar things such as this. Few of them left the school because they could not adapt to this but mostly, everyone is doing fine. I learned new knowledge and studied new subjects, but I learned things that are more important than my grades or exams. Most of them came from my life in the dormitory. In each room, six people share one room. This is the only place where students can get freed from teachers and EOPs. Because the rooms have so different characteristics compared to any area of this school, the life inside the room is also very important. I want to tell you is what I learned during this first year: things to maintain a positive dormitory life.

           Harmony is one of the things that students need in order to be stay well with other people. It also applies same at the outside of this school. But it is much of a greater deal because the person has to live with two other people who are very different from him or her. There was one room on the first floor last semester which atmosphere was terrible. One of the people in the room was having conflicts with the other five and it was just not pleasant to see. The separation between roommates and homemates are terrible. They are the ones that you have to live with everyday and not going well with those people will make the dormitory life miserable. They should try to accept others and be more reluctant to other people’s behaviors although they might not like or used to it.

           Similar to harmony, tolerance is also an important key to the successful dormitory life. Every student has different habits and ways of lifestyle. Some might wake up early whereas others might wake up late. Some people would like to listen to loud music when others prefer classical music. Because everyone is not the same, everyone should have tolerance to other’s actions or behaviors. Sometimes, your roommate would cross the line and did things that made you mad. However, you should try to understand why that person did that instead of starting a conflict. Then roommates will understand the things so that he should avoid things in order to prevent frictions between other people. The atmosphere of room depends on the tolerance of the people in the room. Therefore, they should always try to look at with different perspective to at least try to communicate better with the members of the room.

           Unlike harmony or tolerance, this one is about the person’s attitude. The students here are isolated from their parents and other people who take care of them. This type of situation might help the students to act and make decisions on their own which is great for developing independence. However, it is like the double-edged sword. If the person just could not control or not even try to control his lifestyles, then I recommend him to quit the school. That is why the self-control is the one of the factors of the positive dormitory life. Nobody stops you from playing computer games or watching cartoons or sleeping all days. However, nobody pays the price of those actions but you. Developing a regularly life by using moderation is so important because that is the only way to use the time wisely in this busy life of KMLA.

           There are many other important things that people should keep in mind in order to live well in the dormitory. But whatever the lesson or the moral is, you should maintain a great and close relationship with the members of your room and can moderate your behavior on your will If you can both of them, I can bet you that based on my one year experience, you will go through an enjoying and terrific life in KMLA.

TED video - Ric Elias : 3 things I learned while my plane crahsed

“Three things I learned while my plane crashed”. The title captivated my attention. This clip was only five minutes but it was long enough to move my heart. Ric Elias is the speaker and he talked about the three things that changed in his life. Those changes were not novel or provocative. However, they are actually profound and so important because they can be applied to everyone. As I was heeding, his words affected my attitude.

           The three changes he mentioned were urgency, relationship, and “being a good dad”. To explain details about them, the urgency here means not to postpone anything to some point at the future because the future might not come. The saying “I collect bad wines” articulated what he wanted to say. This part of the speech made me to reflect myself. I thought I was very diligent but come to think about it, I am very lax person after all.

           Ric Elias also strongly spoke about the relationship between other people especially one that you love. He said, “I regretted the time I wasted on things that did not matter with people that matter.” This phrase truly shows the importance of amity and the relationship between inside the family. I was disparaged after I heard this phrase because it was concise yet astute. This made me to contrite about my past when I was having conflicts with the “people that matter”.

           The last thing he talked about was “being a good dad.” At first, because I am not a dad of a son or a daughter, I felt somewhat apathy to what he said. But then as I watched this video second time, I realized that this statement was relevant to me. Although this part is very similar to the second part, he wanted to emphasize the importance of the family. When he thought that the plane crash was inevitable, he was not afraid of his death. Sadness was the only thing in his mind and it was because he could no longer see his children grow up. Because I am staying at a boarding school, I can partly relate to feeling of not able to see his family.

           Ric was very candid during his speech which is the reason why this speech is so laudable. People do not know what will happen in the future. One thing that is sure is that nobody will live an incessant life. To not condone any regret later on, people should learn from Ric’s changes in his attitude. I believe a pivotal change would happen if you really enhance yourself by accommodating those lessons.


NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ABOUT THE PLANE CRASH: 
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-15/us/new.york.plane.crash_1_air-traffic-controllers-bird-strike-pilot?_s=PM:US

Fingerstyle (related to August Rush)

Justin King - Phunkdified



Eric Mongrain - Air Tap



Kotaro Oshio - Landscape



Jung Sung Ha - Sweet Child O'Mine

Review - August Rush

       "August Rush” is the best film that satisfied my ears. The movie director did not need to create new, separate sound tracks because the music that came out in the plot was so amazing. Also I liked how this movie portrayed the music as the best tool to communicate and create a harmony.
       Evan Taylor was a music prodigy who was in an orphanage. He did not know where his parents were but he had a belief that one day, he would find both of them through the power of music. Actually his parents were both deeply related to music, too. His father, Louis Connelly was the main vocal and a guitar player in the band made of all of his brothers. His mother Lyla Novacek was a talented cellist. So this boy decided to go to New York in order to find his parents. While he was on his way, both his parents looked for each other. I will not tell you the ending but it is pretty predictable. By the way, the name August Rush is the name the Evan used as a fake name.
       What I really liked about this movie is the lessons of the story. It is kind of weird to say lessons but more of things that the movie wanted to tell. It deals about the true meaning of the music. “But I believe in music… The way that some people believe in fairy tales.” I think that music is the only thing that everyone can communicate. Music is the place where people can escape from when bad things happen. Also this movie depicts the importance of the family. The plot is maybe too idealistic but I liked the idea that the family should not be separated. In the movie, Layla did not even know his son's real name but she tried everything to find his son. Her actions truly show her love toward her family which we should learn from. 

       Many scenes where the characters played their instruments were great. Especially to me, the two parts where the acoustic guitar came out interested me. First part is where Evan first touched the guitar. His performance was so great because he played it in a very different style compared to normal guitar player. The other part is where Louis and Evan play each other’s guitar. They did not know that the other was the one that they were looking for. That scene really showed the connection between two by using music.
       Most of the critics did not like this movie whereas normal audiences liked it. I believe that this happened because those two different groups had different purposes of watching this film. Critics would have a thought in their minds to evaluate. However, the audience would just watch it for entertainment. I guessed that critics would dislike this for the predictable ending, unrealistic flow of the plot, weak structure and many characters that aren't developed during the run-time.  On the other hand, the audience would liked it because it had great soundtracks, a happy ending, and a plot almost like a fairy tale. The normal audiences probably was more relaxed and lenient during the movie compared to the critics.
       This movie's structure was not the best, I think. Maybe for some people, it is kind of too sugary and unrealistic like a fairy tale. The ending was predictable for me. However, the use of the soundtracks in this movie was so memorable. I thought it would be nice to just watch the movie without watching but listening. Just like what Evan said, “All you have to do is open yourself up. All you have to do … is listen,”So maybe if you want to spend your time watching a relaxing, warm movie, I recommend you to watch this film.

Three Words (Mr. Moon)

 Boat, Tree and Bird
       
         I drift without plans. A tiny boat on a huge ocean, nobody can be seen around the boat. The boat follows the current of emptiness, regardless of the direction of the destination. The currents are so hard that they overcome the boat’s force. The boat ended up nowhere, left alone in the middle of the dark ocean. Also, I do not move from where I belong. A small tree on a grassy hill, no one comes except the winds. The winds act like as friends but none of them stay. I fly above everything. Nobody stops me if I cross a wall, a fence, or a border. I only have the wings of freedom but I have everything I need. Like a water, nothing can restrict me.

Reading Journal 1 : THE BODY

             Due to lack of concentration, I did not catch who wrote the story which was in a different font. As mentioned in the book, it turned out to be Gordie’s. That was really interesting. Although he wrote this when he was in the college, the story has so many similar characteristics to his childhood. Goldie lost his older brother Dennis which made his parents not to care about him. In the story, the main character Chico lost his brother Johnny in the accident. The relationship between Gordie and his parents were not comfortable. There is a scene in the book which Goldie fought with his parents. Maybe Gordie had unpleasant memories in the past that they still have effects on him which is similar to childhood trauma. .

             Death is not a pleasant thing to be close with. However, Gordie had faced it when he was only a kid. At that age, he was probably not mature enough to overcome the death of person who was close to him. That might caused him some sort of trauma that made him never forget about the death of his brother. Although I did not read up to the part where the boys actually find the dead body but at some point they will. That might aggravated the shock he got from the unfortunate event.

             I also saw a dead body and it was not a pleasant experience. When I was about eight years old, my grandmother died in a car accident. So later on, her body was sent to the hospital which my uncle worked at. Before the burial, there was the last time to see her so my parents and other adults went inside the room. Accidently, I went inside that room which I was not supposed to do. The first things I saw were the pale feet. I still remember the atmosphere. Although the temperature was normal, it was so cold. It felt like the air was pressing down. Although I was taken out of the room immediately, I still cannot forget about it.

Metafiction : Fat Joe's Love Letter

Fat Joe was coming from the corner where McDonald was. He was eating hamburger on his right hand while sipping on coke which was in the other hand. As he walked, it seemed like a bulldozer was approaching. Joe was six feet five with a stomach size of a pig. Nobody looked like him. Anyway, he was walking on the street. Suddenly, a weird thing happened.

           Land was vibrating upside down, and then Fat Joe vanished. But only a hole was there. People were surprised on one side but they were also happy that land did not vibrate anymore. People were curious about the hole and Fat Joe. So, they sent one person to explore the hole.

“Hey! Ranus! Take a look at this hole. What a hole. Seems like a job for a trash like you!”

“Leave Fat Joe right there. Who gon’ give a thing if he’s a goner? He ain’t got no further or thing. Just leave it that way, man.”

“Shut up and go done. Unless you’re going to be fired.”

“Okay, alright. I’m going down.”

Soon Ranus was lowered down. It took a long than expected. The hole was deep, and the deeper it was, he got more curious about what happened to Joe. Suddenly, the box, that Uranus was on, crushed to the ground. And he saw a huge pool of blood.

“Oh my! What is this goddamn place? A huge pool of blood? I ain’t gonna stay here!” I screamed.

Suddenly, the floor shook like crazy then a loud voice thundered. “How rude! This isn’t blood but melted red chocolate, you fool.” It was Joe I suppose, covered with red substance all over him but strangely he seemed much smaller and slimmer. He wiped his face and I’ll tell you. I have never seen such a handsome face since I was born. 

From that day on, he was no longer Fat Joe. Nobody told him to get lost or call him “fat lard”. Some people even suggested him to become a movie star. Many changes occurred and he decided to give the love letter to the girl he liked for months. In the past, Joe thought that he was too ugly that Mary will hate him. But after his appearance changed, he decided to give the letter which he kept for few months.

"It was March 17th when I first saw you. That was the time when I just arrived in American and couldn't speak English except the simple words like 'yes' or 'cool. School was a torture every day. I couldn't understand a thing that teachers talked about. I couldn't hang out with anyone because there was nobody next to me. I was lost in a middle of nowhere. I felt abandoned and alone. That's when I saw you, next to me, shining as brightly as a star upon a black sky.

          Yes, I have a crush on you. Every single word from your mouth was beautiful, even though I couldn't understand much of it. I was quite sure you were saying something pretty. I strongly desired to listen and speak to you. However, the obstacle of language segregated us so firmly. I couldn't speak a word to you because I was afraid that you'd avoid me.

          I wanted to tell you many things. I wanted to tell you that you smile lit the darkest corners of my life. I wanted to tell you that my heart was yours. But the only thing I was able to say to you was just "yes" and "cool". Because of this language barrier, all I could do was to wait for that day I'm able to communicate with you fully, and just watch you pass by the lockers every day. A year passed and my patience had reached its limit. I started the morning with a thumping heart.

          You are beautiful, as usual, and I am no more than a coward. You stayed next to me and helped me to go through everything I suffered at school. However, I now have the courage. And today is the day. I am here, behind you." she said, as she read through Joe’s letter.

           Behind her, with his heart thumping, face red as a tomato, he held my breath as she turned towards Joe...... But the words she said shocked him.

“Sorry, Joe. I liked you when you were chubby but now you are just like one of those guys in the TV. I’m really sorry but…….”

          Before she finished talking, he fell on the ground and started crying. So sad he was, he cried and yelled for three hours. But that did not stop her from changing her decision. To erase her from his mind, Joe decided to go to where he used to belong: McDonald. At there, he ordered seven hamburgers and ate them all by himself. From that day, he went to fast food restaurant every day to soothe his feelings.

          Exactly one month later, he became Fat Joe again.

(used "Fat Joe" written by myself and "Love Letter" written by You JunSeung)

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring

           I have a stone in my heart. The short clip reminded me of the stone. Maybe because I lived with it for so long, I forgot about it as time went by. At that time, I was about 8 years old. One day, a terrible cold made me to go to pharmacy. At there, one thing caught my sight. It was candy which was similar to HALLS. I could not buy it myself because I had no money. So when both my mom and the pharmacist were not looking, I took it and put it in my pocket. At first, I wasn’t that worried. But then when I came back home, the sense of guilt came to me.

Thinking about it from now, I was immature. However, this does not justify my wrong. It was not that I had not enough money. My mom could have bought it for me. It would have been better for me if I got caught because then I would feel less guilty about the incident. This stone will probably not leave me until I die.

Chain Writing : Fat Joe

           Fat Joe was coming from the corner where McDonald was. He was eating hamburger on his right hand while sipping on coke which was in the other hand. As he walked, it seemed like a bulldozer was approaching. Joe was huge. He was six feet five with a stomach size of a pig. Nobody looked like him. Anyway, he was coming toward me. Suddenly, a weird thing happened.

           Land was vibrating upside down, then Fat Joe vanished. But only a hole was there. People were surprised on one side but they were also happy that land did not vibrate anymore. People were curious about the hole and Fat Joe. So, they sent one person to explore the hole.

“Hey! Ranus! Take a look at this hole. What a hole. Seems like a job for a trash like you!”

“Leave Fat Joe right there. Who gon’ give a thing if he’s a goner? He ain’t got no further or thing. Just leave it that way, man.”

“Shut up and go done. Unless you’re going to be fired.”

“Okay, alright. I’m going down.”

Soon Ranus was lowered down. It took a long than expected. The hole was deep, and the deeper it was, he got more curious about what happened to Joe. Suddenly, the box that Ranus was on crushed to ground. And he saw a huge pool of blood.

“Oh my! What is this goddamn place? A huge pool of blood? I ain’t gonna stay here!” I screamed.

Suddenly, the floor shook like crazy then a loud voice thundered. “How rude! This isn’t blood but melted red chocolate, you fool.” It was Joe I suppose, covered with red substance all over him but strangely he seemed much smaller and slimmer. He wiped his face and I’ll tell you. I have never seen such a handsome face since I was born. 

Reading Journal 1: Ghost (Shawshank Redemption)

 "Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."                  
                 Andy Dufresne is not a real person. This may sound weird but he was never there. He is not a person or even a thing but a different projection of the hope. From the beginning, we can realize some strange facts about him. Unlike usual prisoners in the Shawshank, Andy was an intellectual character. He used to be a famous banker. Innocence is also another difference. It turned out that Elwood Blatch was responsible for committing the murders. Also he was the only one that acted against the forced system. Importantly, he is the only one that escaped the cell. “It’s my life! It’s my life, don’t you understand it’s my life?” clearly shows his thoughts and determinations. Those characteristics are not shared by anyone in the prison which makes him unrealistic. These clues started the thoughts that maybe he did not exist at all but represent the hope. To think about it, both Andy and hope have few things in common. They cannot be seen easily in prisons and they can motivate people.

                  If Andy Dufresne is hope, he should have caused something special to happen in the prison where hope is not allowed. Somehow, many characters showed his influence. Warden Norton, the antagonist who represented the inhumanity, was totally destroyed in the end because of the redemption. Tommy Williams got help from Andy who was eager for the job. His best friend, Red learned how to ‘hope’ again which had great impact in his future. He said “There are others here like me, others who remember Andy.” If Andy is considered as a hope then in here, everybody has some kind of hope in their hearts although they are suffering from institutionalization.

                  Andy not only changed the prison but changed the insides of prisoners. He allowed many of them to have ‘hope’. This saved Red indirectly. When Brooks was out of the prison, he could not adjust himself to the new world. The isolation deepened the institutionalization. His death was not long after the release. If he never met Andy, Red would have faced the same situation and end up like Brooks. But Andy the hope changed him. Although Red was institutionalized, Andy taught him to live with hope which was the motivation for continuing his life. In the end, hope led another man to Zihuatanejo, the utopia.

Education Revolution

In Little Prince, the prince said this. “They never say to you, 'What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?' Instead, they demand 'How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much money does his father make?' Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.” The same thing is happening in the modern education system. Many schools only focus on academic subjects which rooted from traditional goal of public education. Also the system does not consider passions or interests of students. This must change for the students and also for the society. This can be done with few procedures.

 In the time table, most of the subjects you see are academic subjects such as math, science, and philosophy. It is true that some classes deal with music and art which are considered as ‘non-academic’ in this society. However, if you consider the amount of time the classes are distributed, it is easy to notice that academic subjects take most of the time. This shows how much the non-academic subjects are so underrated. Most people also have the conception of thinking that getting the good grades in school is the best thing a student can achieve. Such wrong biases are the causes for the undervaluation of non-academic subjects. According to Ken Robinson, “Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability.” The schools are doing the exact opposite of what Ken said by restricting students to only study academic subjects.

In most of the high schools, students do not get the chances to choose which classes they want to listen which is different in KMLA. This shows that the education system does not care about students at all. This does not mean that the traditional educations are just worthless. Some students learn new useful knowledge from them. However, the influence of students in the system is so insignificant that it cannot reflect most of the students’ ideas and opinions effectively. Not every student enjoys spending time in schools. There are some teenagers who go to schools for the lunch and sleep rest of the time. This is happening because the purpose of education is not actually educating at all. Rather it is close to standardizing. By standardization, the society can get young people who are the products made in factory of education. The public education is not a true education but a method to maintain and stabilize the society.

 To fix the problem, there are two things to consider. It is about changing people’s thoughts. The society needs to allow more space for the arts in the education system. A lot of students lose their interest in schools because they do not get to learn things they want. By providing more opportunities to participate in classes they want, students will become passionate about it. Ken argued that we should recognize the power of human talents and passion. To maximize those two qualities, the education must not restrict student’s ability but rather broaden student’s talents and creativity for their future. This can only happen if all the people, including students, teachers, parents and our society, are trying their best to fix it.

 The goal of traditional education is to standardization. However, it is time for the change. Now the purpose of education should be diversification so that everyone can expand their abilities in their talented areas. Education will no longer kill creativity but guide students to their bright future. Until Ken Robinson loses his job, everyone should try hard to improve the education system into a more idealistic one. 

My first prize

“I can’t just believe this!” That was the first words that came out of my mouth. After getting into the elementary school, I won the first contest of the year. Not just a certificate of participating but the first place. I thought my drawing was terrible. A lot of lines of crayons went out of their designated place and all kinds of mistakes can be seen even from far behind. Somehow, the teachers liked the idea of the drawing which was supposed to have the predictions of the future. The picture consisted of different tubes that connected different buildings and people could go through them. To me, it was one of the memories in my elementary school that I cannot forget.

My feelings were complicated at that time. At first, it was so unexpected to me. That drawing contest was the first school events for not just me but every other kid in my same age. Also it was the first chance for us students who had hopes that they could win the prize. When we drew the pictures in the class time, everybody was so focused and putting their efforts in. By seeing other kids doing theirs all looked great that they could easily beat mine in quality. Then on the announcement, my name was called and I received the prize in front of everybody. I was so unexpected about the outcome.

When I got the prize, at first I felt very nervous. But later on, I started to feel happy. It was the first time I ever got a prize in a public place in front of many people. That prize was the thing that I could be proud of. It was nice to have my thing which can beat anyone else. My friends praised me for the prize and that felt also good because I felt like I was recognized as a good artist.

Soon after, I heard about something else. My advisor told me that I needed to go to a city’s drawing contest as my school’s representative. I felt like there was a huge mountain ahead of me that I had to go through. But I decided to participate in the competition and started to prepare for it. During this time, I got to know with different teachers and also seniors whom I never saw before. This preparation not only helped increase my drawing skills but also showed me different worlds existed around me.

Time flew quickly and it became the day when the contest was held. The competition was held in Korean Historical Museum which stored a lot of historical artifacts of Korea’s past. The participants were supposed to choose one artifact and draw it with our own methods. No restrictions on the tools. So I went in and looked for the best item. It was really hard to find because most of the items were official papers which were used in the government of Chosun. Then one vase came into my eyesight and I just knew that it is the one. So I started to set up my painting tools in front of the vase and started the picture with sketch. About one and half hours later, I was finished with my piece.

When I finished my work the first thought that came into my mind was “What if I don’t get a prize so that I don’t live up to the expectations of the school?” But as time passes I realized that it was not the prize that was important but the efforts that I put in. I no longer regretted my piece and waited for the result to come out. Fortunately, I won the smallest prize of the contest. However, it did not matter because I was so excited that I had actually won a prize in the competition supported by Seoul.

There is still the picture hanging up in my home. When I look at it, it reminds me of not just the competition but also the other memories of the past. Those were very peaceful that I want to go back to those days. Anyway, that drawing really looks like a artwork of an elementary school boy, but to me it is more precious than Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Myself as a writer

     After entering the KMLA, I really had many chances to write essays about many different things. In Ms. Choi's class, I first wrote serious autobiography and in Mr. Johnson's, I wrote the term paper about some of my interest. There were my opportunities to improve my writing skills last semester but because of my laziness I did not really push forward. So I want to make this semester the turning point by putting more effort.

     Well, my English skills lack a lot to have some sort of distinct writing style but I like to show what I think and feel to the readers. I like to express my feelings honestly in the writing. It is really important to communicate with the readers through the writings and to achieve that I believe the writer should really express his thoughts and emotions in the writing.  

     Creativity is the strong point. I tried to be creative as a I could because that is the only way to cover up my weak points. Most of the times, I spend most of the times before writing thinking about what to write. Of course, that would apply to most people because there is even term like "writer's block". But I found out that I spend more time than other students in general.
     There are many problems in my writing. One of the problems I realized is that I have problem with constructing a structure of the writing. Also as you mentioned, I am one of the students who have troubles with matching the right articles for nouns. Something that I realized these days is that my vocabulary is poor which affect the writing bland and less dynamic.

     Because I am not a great writer, my goal in this class "English Composition" is to improve my writing in overall. This includes fixing grammars and adding new vocabularies but most importantly I want to improve the fluency of my writing.