Well, I am absolutely exhausted. Last night I was up late working on a

paper. I had difficulty concentration. It was about 1am so I decided to call it a

night and go to sleep. Turns out, I couldn’t concentrate because my blood

sugar was at 45. I ate an apple and piece of candy and went to sleep. I woke

up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. I knew my blood sugar was

low again but I was too exhausted to move. I feel back asleep. I woke up

again shortly after. It appears that my body’s natural reaction to low blood

sugar is to wake up. That’s a good thing, I suppose though I decided to take

a risk and not get up. I wasn’t wearing my insulin pump, nor did I take an

injection of basal insulin before bed. I knew from experience that it was only

a matter of time before my blood sugar started to rise. Sure enough I woke

up again but I wasn’t sweating anymore. I was freezing cold because I was

soaked. Still I was exhausted to I just fell back asleep. I woke up, shivered,

pulled my body into the fetal position under my blanket and fell back asleep.

I repeated this about 2 more times before I aimlessly swung my hand above

my head in search of the heating console on my wall. My heater kicked on

and I finally slept peacefully. That is, until my alarm started screeching at

7am.

            The day went well afterwards though. I had poptarts for the first time

in 2 years and they were fantastic. I had a conference with Professor Tweedie

and he gave me a lot of positive feedback on the two papers I have handed

in so far. My art class was canceled (at least I hope it was since I didn’t go) so

I had more time to do homework. However, My day has now taken a nose

dive. After being presented with the Prezi, I realized how poorly I did on my

self evaluation. I wrote way more than I should have and I didn’t take it 100%

seriously which I know I will have to when I write a legitimate CV. A lot of my

accomplishments are from high school and they apparently aren’t ones

worth mentioning so now I feel like I have nothing to say on my CV. Also I

spoke negatively of myself in some sections which we aren’t supposed to do.

So, I guess I better get to work on my CV revisions.

            I am considering graduate school. However I don’t know exactly what

I want to study. Also, I’m not sure if I want to go for an MA or an MFA. I

would prefer the MFA because I love workshops. I joined the Avant club and

that’s basically what it is. We read, interpret, and critique the work of our

peers and I really do enjoy doing that. However, I do want to have to option

of going for my PhD. I probably won’t go for it but I like having that option.

Maybe it’s a vanity thing because I like the way “Dr. Bouchard” sounds. I have

considered getting my PhD in folklore. I think that would be fascinating.

Perhaps I will go for my MA because Professor Reynolds said I can go for my

MFA after my MA. I’d like to say I have plenty of time to figure this out but I know that’s not the case.

           

            When writing my CV, I’d like to focus on anything writing related such as classes I have taken in the Writing Arts program. Also I’d like to include my GPA since I am currently Cum Laude status. I’d also like to include my minor (visual arts) because several jobs (advertising, writing children’s stories, etc) involve both writing and images. It would be a good idea for me to include the types of writing I like to do and any honors I’ve gotten as a writer. I should also include that I am a member of Avant andI have had a piece accepted into the magazine after an anonymous submission. If the piece I’m submitting to the Pat B. Tweedie Creative Non-Fiction contest wins, I will of course put that on there too. I would also like to include any skills that pertain to writing or my strengths. I will leave out jokes (such as when I wrote “I have a license to kill” under the “List any special licenses” category. I noticed while I was typing this that I am a fairly fast typer. I may include that too.

Careers in Writing Arts Self-Evaluation

1.       List your personal strengths and weaknesses

    Weaknesses: lazy, poor time management skills, Don’t handle stress well, almost always late.
    Strengths: Responsible, creative, cooperative, not afraid of being the leader

2.       List important or related courses you have taken

Courses in progress:  The Writer’s Mind

                                         Writing, Research, and Technology

                                         Special Topic: Careers in Writing Arts

Completed Courses:  Intro to Writing Arts

                                         Writing Poetry

                                         Intro to Advertising

                                         Writing Children’s Stories

                                         Creative Writing I

3.       What is your major and specialization? What is your overall cumulative GPA? In your major? How many credits have you take in your major?

       My major is Writing Arts with a creative writing concentration. My overall cumulative GPA is a 3.718. I have completed 76 credits and have 16 in progress. Of those 92 total credits, 22 are Writing Arts related.

4.       Do you have a minor or coordinate major? Explain.

    I am a Visual Art minor. This is only my second semester and I am still completing my core classes so I haven’t decided on a concentration yet. However, I do believe that my 3D work is better than my 2D work.

5.       List hobbies, activities, and interests, especially those related to your major.

    I enjoy reading, particularly fictional stories of the romantic comedy and supernatural variety. I also enjoy writing descriptive fiction/non-fiction pieces and poetry. I recently joined the Avant Club (Rowan’s literary magazine) and I absolutely love sitting around with fellow writers reading, interpreting and critiquing our peer’s work. I enjoy doodling, working with clay, painting, book binding, and traveling. I will sit down and play a few notes on my piano or violin when the mood hits me. I don’t know enough knitting or crocheting terms to figure out patterns but I can make pretty nice scarfs and blankets.  I can’t drive in silence so I’m usually blasting music and singing along when I drive. I dance a lot, usually spontaneously in both private and public venues. I consider myself a fruit ninja and a mustache connoisseur. I also enjoy thinking. I think about everything that happened, could happen, should happen, never happened, can’t happen, and so on. I spend a lot of time thinking while I drive, while in the shower, in my bed, anywhere that there is a window I can stare out of, etc. Cheering people up, giving advice, and making people laugh are also activities I enjoy.

6.       List all of the offices you have held in clubs or writing associations

    In high school I was Concert Mistress of the string ensemble, 2nd Chair in the orchestra and pit orchestra and Captain of the drill team. I was in many clubs in high school but did not hold office in them. I am in the Avant Club on campus but I do not hold office.

7.       Do you hold any special licenses?

     I have a license to kill. That’s actually not true. But I’m hopefully going to get my boating license this spring.

8.       List special skills.

    I feel as though I'm good at a lot of things but not really great at anything (except writing (Aside from that last comment, I'm usually a modest person)). I am told I have a calming effect on people. I’m a good listener and I can usually come up with good advice. I can make people laugh. I can make a lot of silly faces and play a few songs upside down on the piano. I can play various instruments and easily pick up a tune. I'm not the greatest artist but I am good at sketching and I can write. I can twirl a fire baton without catching my hair on fire. I can also drive a boat (parking the boat in the slip is another story) and I can dress myself.

9.       List the types of writing you do the most.

    Definitely creative writing. I write a lot of poems and vignettes most of which are non-fiction or loosely based on non-fiction events from my life. I also write a lot of papers and blog posts but that’s because I have to for class. I don’t mind though, it’s good writing practice.

10.    List awards, honors, academic or otherwise.

    At my 8th grade graduation, I was given the writing award. The teachers collaborated on who got what awards and out of approximately 120 kids, my writing stood out the most. In high school, I was in the HTHS Music Honor Society, National Honors Society, and National Latin Honors Society. Three out of four years, I was invited to the HTHS Academic Dinner for students who maintained honor status grades each marking period. At graduation, I received the HTHS Outstanding Student award and performance art scholarship along with the President’s Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence and the personal achievement award. I was offered the opportunity to join the Bantivoglio honor society at Rowan. Rowan granted me the Trustees Scholarship. I recently had a piece accepted into Avant. I was also offered a place in the Sigma Alpha Lambda Honors Society for Rowan University.

11.   List special programs in which you have participated.

    I participated in my high school’s madrigals, sweet adelines, contemporary, chamber, and concert choirs, string ensemble, pit orchestra, orchestra, stage crew, musical, one acts, drill team, blood drive committee, interact club, and crew team. I was a girl scout for 8 years. In college, I joined the women’s ultimate Frisbee team for one semester and now I am part of the Avant Club.  

12.   List Charity Work.

    I was a girl scout for about 8 years. I participated in Relay for Life (an overnight camp-out/walk for cancer awareness) 5 years in a row and was part of my school's Interact Club. In Interact, we held fundraisers such as Pedal for Progress where we collected, disassembled, and shipped bikes to third world countries. We also had fundraisers such as Pennies for Patients for leukemia victims. Every Tuesday, the club went to Fellowship House in Camden to tutor children grades K-5. I also was a member of the Blood Drive committee. I’ve donated platelets once and blood three times but had to stop due to diabetes and a low platelet count. The summer before ninth grade, I spent an afternoon at a rec center for the physically handicapped and was a ball girl for two women playing tennis in wheelchairs. We had an Empty Bowls fundraiser twice while I was in high school as well. Empty Bowls in an event where students, faculty and community members gathered in the art room to craft bowls out of clay. Then the students, faculty and community members glazed the bowls. The art teacher fired them and then they were sold at a big dinner in the cafeteria where you buy a ticket for 5 dollars and with that you can pick any bowl that you like and get unlimited food. Food was donated by local businesses and residents. Any left over food at the end of the night was donated to the local soup kitchen and all proceeds from the dinner was given to the New Jersey Food Bank. As both an art student and a member of the National Honor Society, I was a very involved in the project.

13.   List any scholarships which you have received

    I received the Allen William Coutinho Memorial Scholarship (for performing arts),
Outstanding Student Award
Rowan University Trustees Scholarship
Rowan University Grant

14.   List any key projects and your role in them

    For the Empty Bowls Soup Project as mentioned above, I made and glazed bowls in my art class. I continued to make bowls during my study hall period and came back on the weekend when we invited community members to come help out since they couldn't come during the school day. I cranked out about 4-5 bowls on days when I had both art and study hall. In total I believe we had approx. 750 bowls for the event. I donated a large pot of soup. The National Honors Society used this event as their community service requirement so at the event I helped serve the soup and keep the tables clean. I also called out the ticket numbers during our raffle. At the end of the night, I helped clean everything up.


15.   List Any jobs you have had

    Waitress at Crystal Lake Diner February 2008-October 2008, Summer 2009
Took orders, served food, held conversations with customers, helped seat and bus tables
    Hostess at Outback Steakhouse December 2009-present, promoted to Takeaway Server November 2010, promoted to Server November 2011.
Take orders, box food, customer service/hospitality, answer phones, seat tables, clean the bathroom, keep the kitchen stocked, run out to the store if necessary.

16.   Describe the kinds of employment you seek

a.       A creative job where I don’t have to do a lot of research and data analysis
b.      A job with security and longevity
c.       A job that involves traveling

17.   List three people who can recommend you and how you have been associated with them.

a.       Martin Bouchard, my father
b.      Jonathan Pena, my sister’s fiancé
c.       Ray (last name is unknown), my friend and former boss  

    You are in a room. It is fairly small though the vaulted ceiling gives the illusion of space. The walls are lined with bookshelves and painted a deep, cherry red. A clicking noise accompanies each step you take as you move across the hardwood floor. A smoky scent hangs in the room even though the intimate glow of the fireplace perished late last evening. Flecks of dust are framed by light spilling in through a window. Beneath the window is a desk. As you approach the desk, the clicking becomes muffled by an antique Persian rug. On the desk is a leather bound journal. It is clear that the journal has been used. The corners bend upward, the cover has scratches. The binding is slowly but surely unwinding itself in a dance of deterioration. Loose papers have been folded and shoved inside. They stick out precariously as if trying to escape from their prison of pages.

    Despite its poor appearance, it is a treasure. Inside, you have everything your heart ever cried for, everything that made you laugh out loud while sitting alone in a public place, everything that you were, are, and want to be. This is your journal. This is you. Others may not always appreciate your ideas. Some will praise them. But then there are those people, out for blood, out to destroy everything you believe in. They are the ones who only know how to say “No”. But you don’t listen. You know, you believe, that somewhere in this ephemeral world there is a “yes”. And that is what keeps you going. That is what keeps you trying. What others don’t understand is that writing isn’t just a hobby for writers. Writing is a part of who we are, it is as visceral as our hearts which support our choice to be writers. We write not because we want to but because we need to.






    I originally started this blog describing what I thought of when I think about a writer’s den. However, Instead of saying there is a typewriter on the desk like I was originally going to, I said journal. I made this switch because I actually carry a journal around. I would carry a typewriter but, well, that would be ridiculous.

    As the description unfolded, my ideas began focusing more on writing itself than on my grandiose mental images of a writer’s den. The den I imagine is much like the cabin that Thomas Turner mentions in his article. It is ideal, but it is not realistic. We both like to pretend that writers live this desirable lifestyle and we both recognize that this actually isn’t the case. And we both have accepted the fact that we have to write. We did not choose it. It chose us.

    I suppose my niche is creative writing. I love descriptions. I actually asked for a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary for Christmas one year. I’m not sure what else I would write about. If I had to make a list of 5 facts about myself I’d say:

1.       I’m falling apart at the tender age of 21

2.       I live with teachers

3.       My brilliant boyfriend is a physics and economics double major

4.       I have a weird taste in music

5.       I have a soft spot for the occult, the paranormal, the whimsical, and the downright uncanny

                My eyesight started going when I was about 6. At 15 I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. I was medicated for 4 years until I met my boyfriend who coached me through my maelstrom of emotions and helped me take control of my feelings. I still have anxiety attacks at times but I no longer need the medication. At 18 I was diagnosed with Ventricular Tachycardia which meant getting a implanted defibrillator device. A month later, I developed type one diabetes. At 21, I’ve been told that I need my wisdom teeth removed and I found out today that I have a slight case of Raynaud’s disease. I’m also at risk for hyperthyroidism. My kidneys are pretty weak from the diabetes. Therefore I know a lot about health issues. The funny thing is, I’m an organ donor.

                My Dad teaches TV Productions and Radio Broadcasting to high schoolers while my mom teaches high school English. My sister is an elementary school teacher. Many people think I will catch the teaching bug. I considered it, but I once almost shook a girl I was tutoring because she just did not understand algebra. I assume shaking children is unprofessional and frowned upon in most educational establishments. Anything I need to know about TVP, English, school children, and pedagogy I can learn from them.

                My boyfriend really is brilliant. He got 5’s on 8 out of 9 AP exams. He wrote a paper on thermodynamics when we was 17 that got published by Jefferson University. Its sick how many questions he can get right when we watch Jeopardy. Anything I need to know, I can go to him for.

                I have a weird taste in music. It is common to hear Eric Clapton, The Grateful Dead, The Decemberists, Back Street Boys, Kanye, and Beethoven on my iPod. I also have showtunes and foreign music (French, Japanese, Russian, Romainian, Serbian, etc.) I’ll listen to anything. Also, having grown up playing the piano, singing in 6 different choirs, playing in my high school’s string ensemble as concert mistress, the orchestra, and the pit orchestra, I know a thing or two about music. I think it would be fun to write lyrics and jingles. I’d even love to write scores and soundtracks if I had a better background in music theory.

                Finally, I love abnormal things. Ghosts, vampires, fairies, folklore, mythology, origins and entomology, paganism, astrology, parapsychology, strange disorders, anything that strays from the norm. I love learning about these things and would be more than happy to research and write about them.

                Where will I be in 5-10 years? Who the hell knows. Writing lyrics for an indie film with it's own original soundtrack may be fun. And writing the scripts for a sitcom would be cool too (that's where my Dad sees me in 5 years.) As a disney fan I would of course love to write the screenplay for a new movie. And I wouldn't mind writing for a magazine where I get to give my opinions. Whatever it is, I better not be in south jersey doing it. I want to travel. And I want to do it as soon as possible.

This was a long blog post. Whoops. Thanks for reading.

I remember sitting in my elementary school's computer lab. We were writing poetry and I was having a very easy time with the assignment. My teacher asked me to help the kid next to me. I suppose we were about 9 or 10 at the time and he was writing about a snowman. His poem sounded more like a technical manual on how to build snowmen than a poem. I tried to elicit descriptions and emotions from him through interrogation. "What does he look like?" "How do you feel when you build snowmen?" "What is the snowman like?" "Is he alive in your poem?" I tried to give him help with word choices "instead of 'cold' why not 'chilly' or 'frigid'?" "Instead of 'snow' try 'glistening white flakes.'" He was very frustrated and I didn't understand why the assignment was such a challenge for him. I think I wrote the majority of the poem. 

For a more in-depth intro, see my other website: www.sluceontheloose.weebly.com