Repurposing:
The song “A day In The Life” was always significant to me. In 12th grade, we were asked to pick a song to write about. I chose this famous Beatle song and really began to dissect it. I found that the song had many more layers, and much more meaning then expected. I was proud of the piece of writing I was able to hand in and share with the class as a senior in high school.
When I decided to repurpose this essay, I had a few goals in mind. I wanted to change the formatting from an academic point of view and shift towards more of a creative mindset. I also wanted to dig deeper and find more aspects of the song that I found interesting. I believe I accomplished both of these goals. I was able to keep the heart of the paper intact while adding more and more. For instance, after receiving terrific feedback, I was able to talk about how The Beatles are almost too famous for their own good, everyone “knows” Beatle songs without listening closely to them. I was also able to discuss how Beatle lyrics can’t simply be thought of in one way; they are more complex then that. I believe that these additions, plus the overall structure of the paper, make my discussion of The Beatle’s song “A Day In The Life” that much more powerful.
Remediation:
I had to spend some serious time thinking about how to approach representing my piece of writing in another form. I couldn't just simply play the song - that would be too easy. But I realized the lyrics are what I spend the most time focusing on in the paper. That is why I decided to use the lyrics to create a platform with an annotated collage of images, gifs, excerpts from the repurposed paper, and highlighted words. I was able to match up the excerpts from the paper that corresponded to the lyrics that I was talking about and I was able to use all sorts of images to help describe my message. I feel this portrayed a lot of the same ideals that my paper did but just in a completely, even more creative form.
Why I Write:
Writing has always been a powerful part of my life. So when I was to try and answer the question, “Why Do I Write” I really had to think deeply. My mind quickly flashed back to my childhood. I wanted to talk about my early childhood first because that is when I developed, and really realized that I had a passion for writing. When I continued to reflect on this topic I also noticed that this early childhood passion did not carry through my teenage years. I thought about why that was, and determined that at some point, through being forced to write strict academic papers for school, my desire was turned off and this fueled an opposite reaction, almost a hatred for having this love of writing in my life be taken away from me. I thought I did a good job in this piece of detailing how and why the academic work stole that joy from me.
The last part of answering this question for me came down to the present moment, and how has my college experience shifted my love for writing, and ultimately my purpose of writing. After giving it much thought, I determined that I am starting to get back some of the love for writing, and the disdain is slowly moving aside. I thought a powerful indicator of this was when I applied for The Minor in Writing at Michigan in the first place. Ultimately I feel I always had a strong connection to writing, though it has been a love/hate relationship, it has always been deep and meaningful.