Journal Entry #2

The persona text I have chosen for my essay is a poem I wrote, The Long Road Ahead, on a long car ride home from San Diego knowing that I was going to fly to New York after I got back home to go visit my boyfriend who I hadn't seen in about 2 months.  This poem expresses alot about how I was beginning to learn to not make comments when it would just make a situation worse as well as learning to go in to my own world and think about the best situations and moments, which was a new trait for me after generally being pessimistic.  I also picked this poem because I liked the language I used and how I used literal occurrences and combined them with symbolism and rhyming to turn my feelings into a more "graceful" story.   I have written up the poem here in order to show what exactly I am basing my opinions and analysis on.

The Long Road Ahead

There's a long road ahead seemingly straight,

but causes my mind to wander in twists and turns, thoughts of fate.

Daydreaming, fantasizing, thinking of the best.

Times in the past and those to come in the future better than the rest.
Sometimes I'm jolted back to the moment with other's voiced frustrations,

keeping my mouth shut and not making suggestions.

As the car calms down I drift back to the thoughts of the near future,

happily in New York not concentrating on juicy couture;
Rather far from it the thing that really matters,

seeing the one that I love not having to hide behind my shutters.
As the car ride continues, I switch between the thoughts of the future and the now,

feelings of excitement and content, ignoring the stiffness of the drive that would make me think oww.

So the straight road goes on and my mind travels on the one that bends

with thoughts of fun in the future until the drive ends.

I believe that my poem is similar to Hampl's text about memories because in both situations, the real occurrence has been taken and slightly altered, whether consciously or subconsciously, to the desired situation.  For instance, in Hampl's text, she discusses the piano teacher and the girl she meets, changing the situation slightly to how she would have wanted the story to occur.  In my poem, I take the current situation I am in, as well as the future, and I begin to picture how I would like the situation to occur and thinking of the best possible moments.  For instance, when I allow myself to forget that I am in a stuffy car and begin to think about how amazing the experience will be when I would be reunited with my boyfriend, being able to act like myself and not use a "put on" persona for that whole week.  The main difference between these two texts is that I am considering the alterations I have made to my current and future situations, while Hampl is subconsciously adjusting her memories.