The man of all men, John Wayne

As a child, Didion had this obsession with John Wayne. Young and naive, she saw him to be indestructible. Some may relate this fixation to a crush, which it absolutely was, but it also way more than that. Didion continued to follow John Wayne as she got older. Eventually John Wayne fell very ill, which was a monumental event in Didions life. Many would not find this as a big deal, for people get sick every day, especially elders. However, Didion saw John Wayne as a hero and the man of all men. This guy who played all these "bad ass" roles in all of these movies and courted women around in his fancy cars and extravagant dates, was weak for the first time. This stumbled Didion as her ideals were now beginning to change regarding the world and life around her.

I enjoy watching movies and television, however I have never taken what I've watched too seriously. Recently I watched the movie Crash, and I was surprised by the lasting effect it left on me. There are billions and billions of people in this world. Not everyone is going to get along and there are going to be people out there who make horrible mistakes and treat others poorly. I was impressed and admired at how this movie tied everything together in the end to show that no matter what we are individually made up of, we are all one united population. It made me realize the importance of helping others and made me aware of how we really are all put on this Earth together to help each other, especially in their time of need.

All writers write "Shitty First Drafts"

In this piece, author Anne Lamott takes us into the mind of a writer. She begins with a piece of advice, when writing, dive right in and start from the beginning, always telling the truth. "Shitty First Drafts" are the result of this, as even the best writers can not immediately sit down and produce a piece of writing that they are amazed by and conifdent with. This may lead one to wonder why she would offer others this advice when the outcome is always poor. However, she goes on to tell how after editting and editting good will come out of these drafts. I found it interesting how Lamott connected children trying to write down a story to authors trying to write best selling books. It is interesting how everyone faces the same struggles and starts out on the same page when trying to get their ideas out, literally.  

It should be easy to put your ideas in words right? This would probably make the most sense, however it is in fact the opposite. For some reason the things going on in your head are nothing but jumbled up thoughts buzzing and whirling by at one hundred miles per hour making it incredibly hard to not only catch them, but catch them, translate them into English, and then get them out on paper. Personally, I like to scribble down my main idea for my writing piece. This way at least I know where I'm trying to go and just need to figure out how I'm going to get there and which route to take once I'm there. Additionally, I like to write down those random phrases or minor details I want to include. These tend to be the few quirky ideas I manage to catch and spit out as then rush through my head. Although minor, these things serve as a great guide to get me to where I'm trying to go.
Writing is a major brain freeze. Worse than all of those you've experienced while drinking a milkshake to fast or slurping down that large slushie within sixty seconds. The task it nothing more than staring at a blank screen, waiting for your brain to finally pull through for you. That first sentence is the rising sun. Will it be a sunny day or a day with nothing but clouds? No matter what the sun always rises, it is what happens after that in which we are not sure of.