Finding your Passion and Making It Happen—A Personal Legend from Your Past
Extra Credit Assignment for Guid 200
Think back on your life, and about all the things that you have wanted more than anything else in the world. Something that was very personal--maybe something that other people didn’t think it was possible for you to accomplish (or they didn’t want you to even try!) Whatever your passion or goal was, it was big. REALLY BIG. And it took quite a while to achieve. This was not a goal to buy a new pair of socks and your journey driving to the Outlets. Nope, this was big and thorny and took months, maybe years to accomplish.
And it wasn’t easy. It was hard. There was adversity. There were roadblocks and obstacles and at times it seemed like it was an impossible dream. And sometimes you had to take a break and a rest, or worse, you had a failure, a setback and almost gave up. You sure thought about giving up. But you didn’t. You could still see that goal, that mission, that passion in your mind and in your heart, so eventually you picked yourself up, and went back to pursuing it. You persevered. You wanted this thing so much, so bad, that you pushed through all those impediments and the negative talk from the people around you (and those negative voices inside your own head) and you kept going and going until finally you accomplished IT.
This paper is your story of that journey to that one, specific passion that you had and accomplished. (You’ve probably had more than one, so you’ll need to decide which one you want to write about for this paper.) The story, from the beginning, is of
- what it was that you wanted
- why you decided what you wanted,
- when you decided (the time in your life),
- where you were (geographically, emotionally, what you were like as a person at that time) and
- what parts were easier than you expected
- how you felt along the way
- what were the roadblocks
- how you overcame them
- how you achieved your goal.
You will describe the time, the place, the goal, and you will, in detail, talk about your feelings (what was the significance of this goal to you, and how did it make you feel inside when you thought of it? What were your emotions as you progressed toward your goal—the ups and the downs? What were the feelings of those around you about You and Your pursuit of this Goal?). You will start at the beginning (always a good place to start a story!), all the way through the roadblocks and impediments and moments that you thought about quitting—and then—how it felt when you realized that you had succeeded and accomplished your mission. You will put in lots of details. You will see this journey in your mind’s eye, and describe the sights and sounds and smells along the way.
This journey, this personal legend of yours, was big. It probably took you quite some time to accomplish, and you probably were a different person at the end than you were at the beginning of your journey.
Here is the “fine print”: This paper is worth 20 points. That’s a lot. So it has to be big! 3 to 5 pages, double-spaced, typed. You MUST meet with a tutor to go over your writing before you turn it in. A note from your tutor must be stapled to the back of your assignment when you turn it in to me in order to receive credit for this assignment. Deadline: Friday, December 15th. You must print out your paper and turn it in. You cannot email me this assignment since you must attach a note from your tutor.