During today’s class, create a new document for your selected story idea. Focusing on your selected story, create a list of events from the beginning to end. Each event, thought, decision, and action should be a separate entry on your list (using a numerical list will be fine for this part). Think about and describe as many details of each point as you can. For example, how did you feel, what were you thinking about, what made you choose one thing over another, what physical details can you include: colors, sounds, place, people, etc. The goal here is to include as many details as possible. In fact, include more details than you might use in your final deliverable on Twitter. The idea is to give yourself as many options to choose from before you craft your digital story. When you put more into this stage, it saves you time and energy later, because if you have to fill in the blanks later, you are trying to make details fit into a structure that you have already decided on. Instead, give yourself the story and details first and you will discover a structure that works for your specific story. There is no one always correct way to tell a story, so you should rely on your story to help you figure out its way of being told. Include this list of details in a memo, which you copy-and-paste into a comment to this blog post. Keep your original document safe with your other files.
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To: Professor Ellis
From: Samantha Pezzolanti
Date: February 8th, 2016
Subject: Project 1 Memo 2
List of Events,
June 2008 I get accepted to John Jay College of Criminal Justice in hopes of joining the program to graduate as an NYPD detective. As far back as I can remember i loved watching law and order I wanted to be the next olivia benson. Aspiring to be a cop made me feel like a badass and i could picture myself with the gun and badge locking up bad guys.
September 2008 I find out that I’m pregnant with my daughter, I was 18 years old. That day I swore time stopped moving, I can still feel my stomach drop out from under me and the white lights of the doctors office nearly blind me. I was in shock I never thought it would happen to me ever. I was at a loss and I couldn’t really feel anything all i heard was my mom asking me if i understood i was giving up my youth. It felt like i failure my parents, on their anniversary no less. I wasn’t sure what to do i felt torn i couldn’t run from this i would never forgive myself but was i ready to say goodbye to my youth?
December 2008 I’m finishing my first semester in college when i’m put on bed rest after having pregnancy complications. The day i was rushed to the hospital is a big blur, the commotion around me, the whispers of the nurses and finally the doctor saying if i had this baby now she may not make it. I was in the hospital for christmas and it was the loneliest i’d ever felt. I didn’t feel any christmas cheer not even from the nurses who tried their best to be happy and warm towards me. I felt like i’d cast myself a line i wasn’t able to reel in anymore and i just wanted to have Ava and stop being pregnant.
January 2009 I have to withdraw from my second semester at college for medical reasons I wasn’t able to travel to and from school. After the christmas ordeal they told me i couldn’t go back to school until after id had ava. This felt like the beginning of the end for me I was forced to give up on my dream momentarily they said, but i knew, i felt in my gut that it would be forever.
March 2009, My daughter is born and I make the decision I will enroll back in college and make her proud. By far the most emotional day of my life, welcoming my daughter into the world. Warmth, excitement, shock and awe consumed me as they placed this squirmy, slimy screaming little ball of life in my arms. Id never felt such a connection to other human being before it was as if our spirits interlocked from the moment her little brown eyes stared up at me. From then i knew i would do great things to make her proud.
August 2009 I begin college again, my second semester. Determined to be a do it all mom, to beat the odds and get my degree!
October 2009, I’m overwhelmed and falling behind juggling a full college schedule and a newborn baby. Id never been so tired in all my life. Being someone who’s always on top of things always a stickler for order i was just a huge mess. I couldn’t manage all nighters because i’d fall asleep standing up, i couldn’t retain what i was reading for class because i was so exhausted it was just essential life functions. After i fell asleep feeding Ava i realized I wasn’t able to do this right now and a feeling of sadness gripped me as tears rose in my throat. I hated quitting and i hated even more that my doubters were going to be right how could i earn a degree and take care of a baby.
November 2009, I withdraw from John Jay and get my transcripts. I still have pictures in my phone from the last day i was there, the sunset on the west side highway. I had no faith that i’d return and no idea where i’d go moving forward.
Spring 2011, after working seasonal and dead end retail jobs I decide i will try and get back into school, again enrolling at John Jay this time with a psychology major. After Ava turned two i found a letter or a blog post of some kind that id written to myself about where i wanted to be when ava was 2. I had this big goals of having the degree and moving out. So that gave me this sense of pride and determination to go back. I told myself now that she was older it would get easier. WRONG!
December 2011, after completing two semester at John Jay i realize how unhappy I am and how little i’m enjoying or flourishing in this major and I leave John jay for a final time. It was hard to quit for a second time, the air smelt salty as I finally admitted to myself maybe everyone was right just find a job and make ends meet. I didn’t have any plans to go back to school I was defeated and fed up and i just wanted a paycheck. My mom told me to take the income tax course, it was a solid career and i had the opportunity to make commission so i went for it.
January 2012 I pass the income tax course and begin working for H&R Block. This was the first time since id had ava that i felt like id won, like i had some sort of potential to do something. I felt a weight off my shoulders like maybe i wasn’t a total failure and disappointment and i could master something, TAXES!
May 2013 Im promoted to manager and I realize I have potential in the business world and look at the business program at Kingsborough Community College. When i got the news or the grapevine gossip that the district manager wanted to promote me and ask me to run and office my head spun with pride. I’d just been doing my job and making sure i had money in my pocket but she saw something in me. I was so proud of myself and those dark clouds of doubt mediocracy started to disappear. I contemplated long and hard all summer long and finally decided i’d try and get my associate’s degree. Not as big as a BA but still something. So i enrolled and for the first time was actually excited to see what i could do.
September 2013 I enroll in and begin my first semester at Kingsborough. Determined to finish what i started and earn a college degree. Now I was 23 and i was slightly more mature and stable, I started making friends, people appreciated my opinions and ideas and the professors didn’t look at me like some teenaged mess. I felt at home.
December 2013, I finish my first semester at Kingsborough with a 4.0, more determined than ever to succeed. For the first time in my life I felt powerful, accomplished and i believed in my abilities and i was sure i could do this. The rest of my time at Kingsborough was just as enriching, I met professors and peers who invested in my success and made life long friends.
January 2015 I file for graduation still carrying a near perfect GPA. Excited that my goal was on the horizon close enough for me to touch.
June 2015 I graduate from Kingsborough with a degree in Business Administration and a 3.7 GPA.The single proudest personal moment of my life, I did it! I proved all those people wrong those ney sayers the hate i had for myself vanished. I finally achieved what I set out to do and i knew then if i could come back from rock bottom i would weather any storm.
July 2015, I apply for and am accepted to NYCCT for their writing program.
August 2015 I begin my first semester in earning my bachelor’s degree excited to earn another degree
December 2015 I complete my first semester at nycct with a 3.8 GPA.
January 2016 I get an invitation to the honors scholars program and the Buzz blog for the university.
To: Professor Jason Ellis
From: Mariah Rajah
Date: February 8th, 2016
Re: Project 1, Details.
The Breakdown
The 3 different countries:
Guyana –
1. I lived in a rural town where cows were more than cars.
2. The skies were for the most part always the bluest of blues, the sun was hot, days were humid and the nights were cool. Everything I can remember about Guyana was bright and bold and vivid.
3. My front yard was the Atlantic Ocean and I spent days hearing the waves crash into the seawall.
4. Men fished in the trench in front of my house for lunch and women sold vegetables from baskets on foot.
5. The scent of salty fish usually filled the air.
6. Behind my village was a shanty town of the poor and the dirt poor.
7. I remember seeing children with tattered clothing, uncombed hair, unwashed faces, but happy smiles.
8. They barely had anything they needed but everything they wanted.
9. The pace of life was slow and of very low standard.
10. Things in Guyana at the time were both economically and socially devolving.
11. My parents did everything they could to make the best out of every situation but they were unhappy with what they could not give me.
12. I did not understand why I was leaving nor did I know the true reason why but I left
13. The school system was weak and my parents knew that I would not gain much from living there. So at the age of 5 I moved to Barbados.
Barbados –
1. An island paradise with white sandy beach, swaying palm trees, and whistling winds. It was like living in a dream until it wasn’t.
2. The beaches were my favorite part. The blue waters were unlike anything I had ever seen. I fell in love with the waves I could splash into and the days that were lost at sea.
3. The people of the country had a very different accent.
4. I couldn’t really understand for the longest while.
5. The food was different and but I had no choice but to eat it.
6. I had no friends.
7. Why was I here?
8. I started school. I hated school!
9. School was difficult and I never seemed to adjust over the time that I was there.
10. I was bullied day after day for the way I talked, dressed, and looked. I didn’t have much and I cried at nights begging god to give me more.
11. I spent most of my time alone.
12. I was living in a house with two cousins who had were more of a priority which caused me to have to grow up even when I didn’t want to.
13. I taught myself to read better and eventually found my place in life.
14. I realized I was smarter than I thought I was.
15. I did not feel as alone as I once used to.
16. I became aware of who I am and what I was capable of.
17. Within that moment I found myself in a whirlpool once more, I was moving back to live with my parents.
18. Once again I would have to change all that I knew and recreate myself.
19. I was sad.
20. Why am I always being forced to give up what I have and start over?
21. I missed them but I hated having to give up all that I had.
22. It wasn’t much but it was enough to make me happy in a place that really didn’t have much to offer me in my eyes.
New York City –
1. While I was gone my parents had worked hard to create a life for themselves.
2. They had much more than I remembered and had even made plans to give us even more.
3. So we are moving again?
4. I had just become accustomed to life here.
5. I had lost my Barbadian accent.
6. I had put that past me and realized this was my life now.
7. I was mad. I was lost again.
8. I was alone, and confused at why I had to constantly change my life over and over.
9. In October of 2005 we would move to New York City.
10. I remember the day as if it were yesterday.
11. The cold air hit my face, a sea of yellow cabs filled the scene, people were hustling and bustling, the smell of new scents filled the air, and distant sounds of traffic muffled around me.
12. My eyes had so much to take in and in so little time.
13. I had never seen so many people in one place at one time.
14. Why was everything moving so fast?
15. “There are way too many people in here.”
16. “Is this allowed?”
17. I don’t like it.
18. It’s cold.
19. “Why is it so cold?”
20. “Will it always be this cold?”
21. “Is that snow?”
22. “Yes that’s snow!”
23. This day would set the pace for all my days to follow in New York.
24. Everything was new to me and I was new to everything. I felt stupid because I did not understand certain words.
25. I could not explain myself properly.
26. Even before I started school I felt a sense of uncertainty.
27. Would I be able to make it?
28. When I started the 6th grade, I was terrified to say the least.
29. I knew nothing of how anything worked and for a while I wouldn’t catch up.
30. In my head I would ask constantly, “What is that?”
31. I did not want to admit out loud that I didn’t know what certain words meant.
32. I felt lost once again and who I thought I once was no longer existed.
33. I spent a lot of my time silent worried about bullies and not fitting in.
34. I spent extra time doing school work because I didn’t understand much, and I spent even more time alone because I managed to make no friends.
35. I began to write and my writing was my strongest suit.
36. I wrote constantly.
37. I wrote everything and everywhere.
38. I wrote poems.
39. I wrote stories.
40. I wrote who I wanted to be and the places I wanted to see.
41. I gave myself a voice without speaking and soon enough my silence would break.
42. I would find myself in this sleepless metropolis.
43. I would begin to grow and try harder each day to find my place.
44. I would use the patience I had developed over the years to help me focus on my studies, and the self-awareness I once had to resurface and help me to find who I was again.
45. At such a young age I had managed to rebuild myself twice. Find a passion in writing which gave me a voice and boosted my confidence and become a student no one saw me being.
46. By the end of 6th grade I had graduated with honors and I was moving onto more.
47. I got a medal.
48. I heard my name and thought, “wait… who me?”
49. I had never been more proud of myself.
50. That day still brings me great joy because I knew that I had gotten myself there and I was able to prove to myself that I could do it.
51. Today I am the same person I found so long ago with the knowledge that life changes rapidly without notice and whatever life happens to throw at me I can manage.
52. It is inevitable that life will remain the same and that we will know what to expect, but with patience, the willingness to understand to accept growth, and the dedication anything is possible.
Memorandum
To: Professor Ellis
Form: Pamela Drake
Subject: Digital Storytelling – Project 1 Details
Date: February 8, 2016
List of Events
1. Enrollment in college.
This section will include my enrollment in college without having any idea what I wanted to be. As a babysitter, I decided to enrol in college to start a career and do something constructive.
My thought about doing something that I could learn. My enrollment at BMCC for one semester
2. Enrollment as a Chemistry major and wanting to be a chemist.
This section will include my struggles with passing the math My fear of math and thinking that I would never be able to pass.
3. Math exams and withdrawals
This section will include why I dropped the classes several times and how the fear of math continued to build.
4. Change of major to Technical Teacher Education
This section will include my decision to study technology teacher education. The night classes offered for the major. The difficulty of working out a schedule that would accommodate my family. My decision to change my major once again.
4. School Postponed
This section will include my family issues that kept me from taking classes and post posting my education. Missing many years of school then taking one class per semester.
5. Getting a full-time job
This section will include my full-time job working at City Tech and what I learned working in various offices. Working in the Student Life and Development Office as a work-study student and getting a full-time job working the Office of Governmental and Corporate Relations then working in the Business Office.
6. Re-commitment to my education
This sections will include when I re-committing to finish my degree and deciding to give up my full-time job to attend school full-time and work part-time. This was a dramatic decision for me and meant risking my giving up the security of a job. Being concerned that I am putting my income and job security as risk to pursue something that might not allow me to have a better living. Deciding that it is worth the risk and not really seeing it as a risk but as an investment that will produce a return.
7. Enrolling in the Professional and Technical Writing major.
This section will include my decision of enroll in the Professional and Technical writing major and how I felt that this major is the one I was waiting for.
8. Worrying about how I would manage and pay the bills while taking the next two years to graduate. What I would do to help in that process that would allow me to focus on school. Although it has not been easy, I would not give up and I decided to do whatever was necessary to continue.