In my advanced composition class, we are writing creative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction is a term for basically stretching the truth and writing nonfiction with fiction elements such as imagery, and storytelling. We are now writing lyric essays. In class he gave us a prompt: “Go into your book-bags and gather three items and write about them.” I picked my water bottle, planner, and cellphone. Here is my attempt at a lyric essay
Body:
My water bottle is pretty. It has pink and white flowers that intertwine as they dance together. The green leaves are jealous. They peak and sneak from behind the flowers possibly planning something mischievous. They are plotting to ruin their ball, seducing the flowers by caressing their strong stems and kiss their soft petals. They are trying to get the flowers to go home with them, so they can steal their jewels after the flowers take them off with the rest of their clothes. This is my favorite water bottle, but it makes me cringe when it falls out of its pocket on my book-bag and onto the floor of the bus and makes an overbearing CLANK. I pick it up; everyone is looking at me. I look down at my phone.
My phone is black with a transparent glitter case and a black pop socket with a white outline of a heart. The glitter against my black phone mimics the starts in the night sky. I love looking at the stars and the moon. I once read that some of the “stars” in the sky are actually planets. I’ve always been fascinated with space and what’s possibly out there. Some people think that there is not life other than the life on Earth, but how do we know? If we think about how big our galaxy is, it’s actually crazy. Then to think about the fact that there are 100 billion galaxies in our universe… I can’t even fathom 100 billion of anything. Then who is to say that the universe we exist in is the only universe? The glitters in my phone case are all the different universes in existence. The glitters in my phone case are all the possibilities that exists. They are all the amazing things that will happen.
“Amazing things will happen,” is what the front cover of my planner says written in metallic gold, cursive font on a peachy pink cover bounded with pages and a second peachy pink cover with a gold spiral. I open it, everything is color coated. Curriculum and Instruction is red, of course, because teachers write in red pen. Advanced Composition is orange, Shakespeare is yellow, Humanities is green, American Literature is blue, Advanced Grammar and Argumentation is purple. University events are burgundy, work is teal, and events in my personal life are pink. It is organized; therefore, my life should be organized, and it is until I forget to write something down and accidently schedule two things at the same time. Or when I don’t complete my homework assignments in a timely manner and they just start to pile up, and now I’m overwhelmed. My planner can either be chaotic or provide structure in my life.
Conclusion:
These are the contents of my book-bag. Three completely different items, yet they’re all connected.