Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Help!!!! This is my 4 page paper...i need some insight

I can remember walking down the hallways of high school day after day being looked at as if I were some type of object. No one ever looked me in the face. It was as if there eyes were always too busy exploring other places on my body. It never really struck me to think about where there eyes were focused. Yet, it was where their eyes were focused that brought me to where I am today.
Here I sit, on a flat white mat covered with a white cloth, and all I can focus on is the clock and the minutes slowly passing by. The clock now read 6:00am, and as each minute passes I can feel my stomach begin to growl. I think to myself "I have been starving myself for the past twelve hours and for what?"
With that thought I begin to examine my past. I think about the hallways of high school; the plain white walls with blue lockers lining each side of the hallway. Suddenly, I begin to think about the numerous confrontations that occur within those hallways. It's almost as if the hallways hold a special value to each clique. You see, in my high school there were a plethora of cliques. You had the jocks, the skaters, the nerds, and the band geeks, and then there was the rest. Where did I fall, in the middle of all these cliques? Well, let's just say I was a part of “the rest.”
"The rest" was in no way a clique. It was just a bunch of people who chose not to associate with any particular group. It was those people who were looked at oddly but, for some reason I was the one who was looked at in an awkward manner the most. I though of myself as an average girl. Yes, I was indeed short in stature, and am still today, but I was always told "good things come in small packages" so I never thought of myself as being any different.
Indeed, everyone knows the struggles that come in high school; finding a date to the prom, sex, parties, and many other things, but none of those things ever fazed me. My high school career was not about whom I was going to prom with or when I would lose my virginity. It was about putting my best foot forward and getting into a good college. I guess in some ways I did break the barriers of a "normal" high schooler, in the sense, but why was I being treated so differently?
As I snapped back into reality, I look back at the clock; it was only forty-five minutes later than the last time I looked at it. The clock reads 6:45 am, and here I am sitting on this white sheet. A young woman approached me, and gave me a top to cover myself, she said "Could you please take off all you garments except for your panties and put this on with the opening in the front?" I slowly began removing each leg from my jeans, and as I proceeded to undress myself again the thoughts of high school reoccurred in my head.
This time, I was sitting in the cafeteria; people were looking at me, looking under the table…at me! All I could think about was why they were doing this. What was under the table that looked so appealing? I would look at my friends surrounding me for an answer but, they all giggled at me as if I were stupid. I never really took notice as to where the table fell on my petite body; the only body parts exposed above the cafeteria table were my shoulders, my neck, and my head. I guess I was so juvenile at the time that I never really took into any thought that what they were looking at beneath the table could be something that would later scar me for life.
Suddenly, I heard a voice say “Melissa, are you dressed in the top I gave you?” I stopped thinking about high school and came to the situation that was developing around me. With a little hesitation in my voice I responded “Yes.” The woman slowly opened the curtain that was surround the mat covered with the white sheet, and said “Melissa, please lie down we’re going to transport you to another room now.” With that, I laid down, on what seemed to be the most sterile bed ever. All I could smell was bleach. Slowly the bed was being pushed an all I could do was look up at the ceiling. Before being moved from one room to the other, I caught one last glimpse of the clock, it read 7:45am.
Time was moving faster than I wanted it to. I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing. As the bed I was lying on moved down the hallway, I heard every little crack it went over. It reminded me of the number of people who brought me where I am today. On my journey from one room to the next, I counted seven cracks, and for some reason these seven cracks resembled the seven people. The seven people who were always too busy looking else where than at my face. The seven people: Rob, Dan, Jesse, Brian, Matt, Jamie, and last but not least Will.
As I sat in the room all I could think about was the last of the seven people, Will. Will was the worst out of the seven he never would even make an effort to look me in the eye. He was the one who drew the straw that broke the camel’s back he was the one who woke me up into reality. He was the one I wanted to punch in the face numerous times for pointing it all out. As much as I wanted to deny it existed, it did.
So, there I was lying on this bed, about to go into surgery, and all I could think about is what Will had done. Before entering the operating room, the anesthesiologist approached me and asked me many questions like my name, my date of birth, and if I had a living will. I answered all the questions slowly. “My name is Melissa Veronica Shaw. My date of birth is 9-30-84. I have no living will.” All of the sudden before my anesthesiologist could walk away I grabbed her and said “You want to know why I’m going through with this?” Before she could answer I said “Well, I’m tired of people not looking at my face and focusing on how large my breasts are. I’m tired of the fact that because I have a larger chest people feel its okay to touch without asking. As a matter of fact, there is nothing more I would want right now than to make my chest invisible, but this is the only operation available to me, a breast reduction.” With that the stretcher was transported into the operating room where I was moved onto a cold metal table, and as soon as I was placed on the table my anesthesiologist said “Everything will be okay Melissa, I promise. Now what I want you to do is count backwards from one hundred.” I began to count “100-99-98…” and there I was off to sleep and soon all my troubles would be cut away.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can remember walking down the hallways of high school day after day being looked at as if I were some type of object. No one ever looked me in the face. It was as if there [their] eyes were always too busy exploring other places on my body. It never really struck me to think about where there [their] eyes were focused. Yet, it was where their eyes were focused that brought me to where I am today.

Here I sit, on a flat white mat covered with a white cloth, and all I can focus on is the clock and the minutes slowly passing by. The clock now read 6:00am, and as each minute passes I can feel my stomach begin to growl. I think to myself "I have been starving myself for the past twelve hours and for what?"

With that thought I begin to examine my past. I think about the hallways of high school; the plain white walls with blue lockers lining each side of the hallway. Suddenly, I begin to think about the numerous confrontations that occur [occurred] within those hallways. It's almost as if the hallways hold [held] a special value to each clique.

You see, in my high school there were a plethora of cliques. You had the jocks, the skaters, the nerds, and the band geeks, and then there was the rest. Where did I fall, in the middle of all these cliques? Well, let's just say I was a part of “the rest.”

"The rest" was in no way a clique. It was just a bunch of people who chose not to associate with any particular group. It was those people who were looked at oddly but, for some reason I was the one who was looked at in an awkward manner the most. I thought of myself as an average girl. Yes, I was indeed short in stature, and still am today, but I was always told, "good things come in small packages" so I never thought of myself as being any different.

Indeed, everyone knows the struggles that come in high school; finding a date to the prom, sex, parties, and many other things, but none of those things ever fazed me. My high school career was not about whom I was going to the prom with or when I would lose my virginity. It was about putting my best foot forward and getting into a good college. I guess in some ways I did break the barriers of a "normal" high schooler, in the sense, but why was I being treated so differently?

[maybe take out the end of that last line and give an example of the narrator being treated differently. Refer the example to the character showing how she didn’t care about dating/sex/parties etc.]

As I snapped back into reality, I look back at the clock; it was only forty-five minutes later than the last time I looked at it. The clock reads 6:45 am, and here I am sitting on this white sheet. A young woman approached me, and gave me a top to cover myself. She said, "Could you please take off all you garments except for your panties and put this on with the opening in the front?" I slowly began removing each leg from my jeans, and as I proceeded to undress myself again the thoughts of high school reoccurred in my head.

This time, I was sitting in the cafeteria; people were looking at me, looking under the table…at me! All I could think about was why they were doing this. What was under the table that looked so appealing? I would look at my friends surrounding me for an answer but, they all giggled at me as if I were stupid. I never really took notice as to where the table fell on my petite body; the only body parts exposed above the cafeteria table were my shoulders, my neck, and my head. I guess I was so juvenile at the time that I never really took into any thought that what they were looking at beneath the table could be something that would later scar me for life. [maybe too dramatic a description – perhaps describe exactly what it might have felt like for the character, eg made me stay home for a week, couldn’t look anybody in the eye for the rest of the semester]

Suddenly, I heard a voice say “Melissa, are you dressed in the top I gave you?” I stopped thinking about high school and came to the situation that was developing around me. With a little hesitation in my voice I responded “Yes.” The woman slowly opened the curtain that was surrounding the mat covered with the white sheet, and said “Melissa, please lie down we’re going to transport you to another room now.” With that, I lay down, on what seemed to be the most sterile bed ever. All I could smell was bleach. [maybe expand a little on why sterility feels unnatural or uncomfortable? Maybe also expand on other senses – cold/hard/metallic/bright/gray etc] Slowly the bed was being pushed and all I could do was look up at the ceiling. Before being moved from one room to the other, I caught one last glimpse of the clock, it read 7:45am.

Time was moving faster than I wanted it to. I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing. As the bed I was lying on moved down the hallway, I heard every little crack it went over. It reminded me of the number of people who brought me where I am today. On my journey from one room to the next, I counted seven cracks, and for some reason these seven cracks resembled the seven people. The seven people who were always too busy looking else where than at my face. The seven people: Rob, Dan, Jesse, Brian, Matt, Jamie, and last but not least Will.

As I sat in the room all I could think about was the last of the seven people, Will. Will was the worst out of the seven as he never would even make an effort to look me in the eye. He was the one who drew the straw that broke the camel’s back [maybe this is too much of a cliché – you can take out this line and just keep the line that comes after.] he was the one who woke me up into reality. He was the one I wanted to punch in the face numerous times for pointing it all out. As much as I wanted to deny it existed, it did.

So, there I was lying on this bed, about to go into surgery, and all I could think about is what Will had done. Before entering the operating room, the anesthesiologist approached me and asked me many questions like my name, my date of birth, and if I had a living will. I answered all the questions slowly.

“My name is Melissa Veronica Shaw. My date of birth is 9-30-84. I have no living will.” All of the sudden before my anesthesiologist could walk away I grabbed her and said “You want to know why I’m going through with this?” Before she could answer I said “Well, I’m tired of people not looking at my face and focusing on how large my breasts are. I’m tired of the fact that because I have a larger chest people feel its okay to touch without asking. As a matter of fact, there is nothing more I would want right now than to make my chest invisible, but this is the only operation available to me, a breast reduction.”

With that the stretcher was transported into the operating room where I was moved onto a cold metal table, and as soon as I was placed on the table my anesthesiologist said “Everything will be okay Melissa, I promise. Now what I want you to do is count backwards from one hundred.” I began to count “100-99-98…” and there I was off to sleep and soon all my troubles would be cut away.


You have to show what Will did – I’m guessing you were already planning to do this. It has to be something pretty extreme to somehow justify what the main character is about to do.

I also think you also need to make the main character a bit more flawed – a bit more relatable to the reader. You could maybe hint at her being judgmental of other people for physical reasons or maybe express even more doubt in her eg just before she is put under for the operation she expresses doubt at being pushed into taking this drastic action by the opinions of others.

Because you are going between the past and the present in the story you have to be aware of the tense you use.

The story is potentially very powerful so you have to give your main character a lot of credibility. Why would she do this? How bad would things have to get before she did this? Would she try other things first? Would being mocked by friends at school be enough of a reason to have an operation? If you think she would then explain what peer pressure feels like.

I hope this helps a little. Good luck!!!

Terry McGahan

A Quinlan said...

Good start here. The drama in the situation is excellent. I think you need to pull back from the flat white mat for a while. Not with a discussion of h.s. cliques, but with a scene that shows the sorts of things you are telling. 1) Depict (with dialogue) just one confrontation that occurred in the hallways. 2) As Terry suggests, show a scene of narrator being treated differently. 3) Save the scene with Will for last.

Thanks!

Lacey said...

I think I feel the same as the above commentors... I would like a little more of scenes, in place of the more vague "back then" sort of phrasing. There's also a lot of repetition in here - for instance, in the first paragraph, "It never really struck me to think about where there [their] eyes were focused. Yet, it was where their eyes were focused that brought me to where I am today." That could be cut down to "Where their eyes were focused never really struck me as important, yet that same focus is what brought me here today." There are a few places where the shorter way of saying something might be a little more poignant for the reader, while in other places the reader might benefit from a more in-depth description of what you're trying to say. (See Terry's note on examples within the scenes.)

MissShaw1 said...

Thanks so much for all of your help! I definately have trouble with tenses. After I posted it, and walked away from it for a bit and came back...I totally took notice of that and worked on changing that. Didn't work out so well, but when I had someone read it aloud to me...that is when I took notice and knew how to change. Thanks so much again EVERYONE!