blog 5

One thing I really looked forward to, once I understood what the class title meant, was the chance to write down some of my personal stories. Since I have lived and traveled abroad, people have often mentioned, "Wow, you must have some crazy stories about that." I do. I just can't always seem to remember what they are at the appropriate time.
I lived in Oaxaca, Mexico for a year and a half. The first seven months of this time was spent in a Missionary Training School doing biblical studies. We would also visit local villages each week. After this I spent four months doing an internship in order to join the ministry. My internship focused on developing my Spanish ability. After this I stayed on until the following January for an apprenticeship with the ministry. Since moving back to the U.S. I have visited Oaxaca twice. I also spent a month in Hong Kong and a week in Cambodia this summer.
Now that that has been established, I hope that it is easy to see why I run into a problem when try to write my stories down. I find them too large, too complex, requiring too much baseline knowledge for people to be able to understand.

As I started free-writing for my first piece, my thoughts wandered all over the memories of my time in Mexico. I decided to focus on the summer of my internship and the process of learning Spanish, because this offered the most obvious "point of the story" that I could find and highlight on. Also, I feel like some of the richest experiences during this time.

It took a long time to write. Every time I brought up a concept that I assumed would be new to the reader, I explained it. The result was a very detailed, wandering piece. Five pages single-spaced. I have been working hard to beat the piece down into something focused, concise, but still understandable. I will share it soon. I hope to receive comments on whether its range is still too broad, if you would like to hear more details about something, if the story is skimmed too shallowly, and if the "point" is adequately presented and expanded.