1. I began my audio biography remembering the happiness in my childhood and how it formed me to be who I am today. I knew I wanted to tell the exciting and liveliness of my childhood because it reflects my life today, but after realizing that I was speaking solely of the happiness, I forgot a large portion of my life that also shaped me to be who I am today.  Though divorce is very common in today’s day and age in America, it was not common whatsoever in my “perfect little town”. Divorced parents and families were looked at differently and broken, and I did not want to be seen that way. It was difficult to relive this story and realize where my trust issues sprouted from, but it made me think a lot about how things in life may be difficult but working through them is the only way to end up happy. Knowing that others would hear it made me feel uncomfortable because still to this day (because my parents are back together) no one from my college career knows what happened in my childhood.

2. First, I began with the ‘I Am From’ template and just listed out happy things here and there. During my second draft, I indulged a little deeper into my life to find things that actually made me who I am today, and in my final draft I added in that last piece of information in which completed me and who I am as a whole.  After hearing comments from you and from my peers, I realized there had to be a hardship in my life that completed a full circle of who I am, and the “divorce” was it. I wish that maybe I told the story in a different light, but I am content with the way my audio bio came out. My writing process was successful because it didn’t feel like homework; it just flowed like I was writing a blog entry or something in a diary.

3.  What I failed at in writing this piece was the real set-up of a story and also recording it without sounding bland. I made use of my failures by making it feel like real life – because in real life stories being told – the voice and audio isn’t always perfect. I believe the quality of my narrative was overall done very well. I paced my sentences very well and sounded more like I was really into it, rather than reading it from my computer.  I also feel like the details that I added really helped you put yourself into my small town and family life. I want to carry over my intensity, interest, and care for the project over to my refugee project in hopes that the refugees can tell their story and have it flow just like mine did, with difficulties and fear of course, but with a sense of comfort and relief to be letting the community understand what they are going through.