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1.26.2012

Love Letter to George Orwell

So this isn't really a love letter to George Orwell. Maybe I'll write one this weekend once I've finished the remaining final exam essays (they're slowgoing folks, but I'll enter the scores as soon as I finish them all) but I won't make any promises. I also have a confession to make: my obsession with Orwell is maybe slightly inflated for the good of the class. I'm more obsessed with Didion. And Alexie. And Bernard Cooper. And Annie Dillard. And Mike Rose. OH MY GOD, MIKE ROSE! You guys, you still probably don't believe me or care when I tell you how incredible and revered the authors published in your 50 Essays book are. But they are great! They are outstanding! Learn from them. Carry them with you in your pocket. Let them whisper sweet nothings to you when you sit down to write your next paper for whatever class you walk into next week. Carry your voice into that classroom too. Carry your close reading skills and your knowledge of Orwell's advice and Didion's attention detail.

Evidently this just turned into a love letter to 50 Essays.

Truthfully, though, I want to say thanks. Thanks for humoring me with weird font assignments and mysterious instructions. Thanks for not throwing a tantrum in the middle of the floor when you learned of a new assignment (I'm sure you saved it for your parents) and for not lacing your essays with anthrax. I hope that in the process of "murdering your GPA" (as you like to say) this class taught you a thing or two that you didn't know before and will undoubtedly need in the future, because rhetoric is EVERYTHING. Regardless of what you go on to study, where you go to college, where you end up working, and what you end up doing, in your adult lives you'll be forced to decipher arguments every day (every moment, really) and defend your views and express yourself. I sincerely hope you see that this class has given you some tools for that and I sincerely hope you continue to write. Guess where you can do that?

ON YOUR BLOG!

I've heard a number of you say that you're "totally going to keep blogging" because you've become just a little bit obsessed with it and after studying those super awesome blogs (some of which make their authors a pretty penny) you want to write like they do. You want to be funny and clever and personable like your bloggers. You want to sit down to your computer every day and write: DEAR INTERNET... You say you're gonna do it because you've finally begun to write with voice and you want to keep working on it. You're gonna do it!


LIAR.


You will get sidetracked. You will get busy. You will get stressed about your next class and make erroneous claims about GPA murder and sabotage. (And anyone within earshot who graduated from AP comp will cry FALLACY!) You will forget. You will give it up. And then maybe sometime in the future you will pick it up again. I have five blogs. I only write on this one these days, but the other ones had their fifteen minutes of fame too. One became a place to house all of my poetry, one became one of those delightfully random blogs about cooking and yoga and girl sass and politics and being married and being a twentysomething. It's nice to be able to "try on" writing identities with blogs because you can maintain an anonymous real identity so there's no risk. But if you remember our chats about risk and writing, you'll smell a problem here. When your real name is attached, there's something at stake. When there's something at stake, you're invested. When you're invested, you're less likely to give up. So, invest. Keep blogging.

On that note, I want to keep you all linked to my blog so I can spy on you and your writing, but out of respect for your privacy, I won't. Unless you tell me I can keep you. Then I will!

But before I unlink you all, I'm going to "assign" you one more blog post: open topic. Go find some cool stuff and link it. Write about how much you hate love me. Write about writing. Re-do a "Why I Write" post. Whatever you want. Or blow it off because it's not a real assignment, but you have no homework this weekend, so come on. Oh, and it looks like Prokott posted THREE TIMES TODAY so that's cool (nerd). I was at the U of M sitting in my class talking about cognitive dissonance and sociolinguistics so I couldn't sit around and blog. But she probably wrote some of the same things I wrote here. Go check it out.

While you're off checking things out, if you never explored the things I have linked on you blog here (let's talk about typos, shall we? I don't even know what I was trying to type when that gem emerged, but I'm pretty sure it should say on the blog or on my blog or something) you should do that. Especially this, this, this, and this.

I'm directing you to funny things because I get really awkward when I try to talk about emotional things like appreciating my students and being sad that I won't see them all on Monday and blah blah blah so, fine, I'll miss you. Despite how it may have seemed on my crabbier days, I enjoyed you all very much and wish you the best.




24 comments:

  1. Thanks for everything, Mrs. Cardona. I was waiting for a Weekend Update post to go up, just like always :) You can keep me linked to your blog, I don't mind!

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  2. Keep me linked!!!!! < extra exclamation points to show how much I a) want to be linked, and b) like you. (There's a lot of liking inside of me for you. [I realize that sounds weird.])

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  3. I blogged for about four hours today. IT WAS AWESOME.

    And I AM in love with George Orwell the most. But those other writers too. My friends and I are having a book club this summer where we read Didion's new book.

    Cardona's students: you are so lucky to have had her. She has crazy-nerd-passion for this stuff.

    Also, one of my students wrote that she heard that AP Comp "RAPED a kid's GPA." RAPED! Is that worse or better diction than "murdered"? If we had class on Monday, I'd make us discuss this.

    But I prefer to say that AP Comp "awkwardly touches your GPA in its private areas."

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  4. Touche. (Pretend there's an accent over that "e")Get it? Get it? Touche means touch. But we use it as a "ha-ha good one, sir!" response even though it means something like "Bravo, you got me good!" as in a fencing match.

    Crazy-nerd-passion.

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  5. You can keep my blog linked! (I have definitely been one of those people saying I am going to continue. Likewise, I realized I will be busy with other classes soon. But one of them happens to be Creative Writing and another block I am going to be your TA. So I am confident my writing will continue.)

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  6. I will keep blogging. Therefore, you should still keep me linked to your blog and drop in at random times and comment and stuff. It'll be just like I was still in your class. And, trust me. I SO still want to be in your class. I'm not really good with that whole sentimental stuff, either, so I guess I'll just leave you with this: thank you for everything. This class made me grow so much as a person and a writer and I am so grateful for that and for you. You're a rockin' teacher.

    P.S. Now, at the end of the semester when I don't even need it anymore, I finally can comment. Irony? I think so.

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  7. You can keep me linked and I will certainly keep blogging and creep on your posts directed towards your next semester's class. Ahh how fun that will be. Thanks for the amazing experience and even though you "killed our GPA's" it was a fantastic experience and a wonderful class; I learned a lot.

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  8. I'm going to blog but I will probably fail as described in your post but you should keep me linked.

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  9. Please keep me linked as well! I'm going to try to keep blogging because I think it's fun and I love it. It's amazing how much easier it is for my voice to come out when I blog. I really enjoyed this class, even though it made me want to pull my hair out at times. Many times actually. But anyway, thanks for everything! (I'm trying really hard not to stick an emoticon here)

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  10. PLEASE KEEP ME LINKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Who cares about privacy, anyway?! <--- (yes, I just did a question-exclamation mark). I checked, been checking, and will check your blog everyday-- it's my homepage, so it's the first thing I see when I turn on my computer! I always get so excited when I see that you have posted a new post (such as this one). I check multiple times a day to see if you've posted something new. Thank you for everything Mrs. Cardona, but I'll still see you around ( I need to return my books...) and we don't need to have some sappy awkward departure. Also, please keep me linked! I want others to read my blog (sheer egotism motive, GO ORWELL) and I want to creep on next semester's peoples' blogs. I'll see you Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  11. (^ Jenny, you're so cute)
    but yes, Mrs. Cardona, please keep me linked also. And thank you so much for all your help, I really feel that I have grown as a writer after taking both Upper Level as well as AP Comp with you.

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  12. I'd love to be kept linked too! I'll try to keep up blogging. This is actually my third blog and I'd like to keep this one up. Thanks so much for everything you've taught us this term! I feel like I've learned a lot (DON'T insert sarc mark here) and I feel like I've grown so much as a writer, even if I've had to deal with some grades that have made me less than ecstatic. Those have also helped me to grow too! So thanks for everything and I've really enjoyed your class, especially our class!
    P.S. I'll see you on Monday because I still have to turn in my books too. I still forgot them even on the last day.
    P.P.S. I just uber-edited this to make sure all my emoticons and erroneous ellipses were gone. Just so you know.

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  13. gurrrrrrllll you dont even have to ask. of course i would be very very very angry if you didnt. okay that is a lie but i would be a little sad inside. now that im not in ap comp i do not feel the need to write correctly thus i will write with no capitalization or punctuation besides periods and use lots and lots of 'and' and 'because' because i am the queen of the run on sentence when it comes to social networking chat lingo. also comments from the cardona on my blog are comparable to divine intervention (like God commenting on my blog you know?).

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  14. You can keep me linked! I'm actually going to try to keep blogging because I want to have somewhere to keep writing and using voice and keeping my thoughts straight ..because I have no writing or reading classes this semester. I'm sad about that. But thank you for an amazing semester! And by the way, I kind of forgot we didn't have class anymore when I went to check for a blog assignment...whoops! Habit! But thank you so much Mrs. Cardona!

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  15. You all make me smile. You shall stay linked. :) <-- see that emoticon? Yep, that happened.

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  16. Keep me linked! I definitely will keep blogging! Thanks for a great semester Mrs. Cardona :D

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  17. I wouldn't mind it if you kept me linked... I think I'd like that a bit. This class kicked my butt and I liked it. Weird, right? Thank you Mrs. Cardona, but don't worry about not seeing my obnoxious face because I'm switching into poetry! Beyond excited over here!! (Hence the double exclamation points...not even ashamed).

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  18. Please keep me linked. I totally want to stay connected! I must admit, it felt weird when I didnt' do a blog post this weekend...I might try to do one later. But yeah, I'm so sad that the class is over, and I'll miss you so much!

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  19. Here I am, checking your blog right when I open my computer!

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  20. Keep me linked too!! But as we can see, one weekend without comp and I am already failing at keeping up on blogging... Though now that we are diving into a new semester I will need something to distract me from my actual homework. So look for the occasional late night post :) But I do want to try and keep blogging regularly. "JENNA IS TOTALLY AWESOME" doesn't need to join my other three blogs that I never post on... Thank you for a great semester Mrs. Cardona! Truly my favorite class of the term!! I will stop by randomly with cupcakes or just to say hi ;)

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  21. Ah, goodness! This is delayed due to no access to internet but keep me linked for sure! First Block was fantastic last semester, I miss it already! As a side note- EMOTICON USAGE!?!?! excuse me, I need to go catch myself from falling off of my chair.

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  22. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  23. After much hemming and hawing, I have decided to keep blogging! I guess I just love writing to the world! (Orwell's sheer egoism right here!) This class is over, so I wish I felt no guilt using emoticons and exclamation points. It can't stop me!!!!!!

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  24. http://designspiration.net/image/92247/
    I just found this and couldnt resist putting it on here...

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