Eyes Open Wide

My name was Madison for the first two days of my life until my sister, who was seven at the time, asked my parents if she could hold her newborn sister, “medicine.” It was then decided that Madison was too hard for her to pronounce. Therefore, my name is now Taylor, and I warmly welcome you to my blog.

This blog is an assignment for my Literature and the Environment class this semester, but I am excited to explore the world of blogging. Seventh grade and the start of five-paragraph essay writing basically buried the creative and imaginative side of my writing, so I am hoping to steadily dig it back up through the process of blogging. As much as I am eager, I am also hesitant because I am most often a listener and prefer to keep my ideas and thoughts to myself. Therefore, I do not have much experience sharing my writing pieces with peers, let alone the whole blogging world. Yet, here I begin this process, and I promise to do my very best to entertain you readers with my stories, observations, and charming personality.

            On a more personal level, there is, after all, a reason that I am in this class in the first place. I am currently in my junior year at Grand Valley State University. I study from morning until night in order to become an Elementary Education teacher within the next few years. If all goes as planned, I will graduate with a teaching degree with an emphasis in English. I have a passion for reading and writing, and have had since the earliest days that I can remember. I hope to inspire students of all ages and plant a seed in their life that will grow into a passion for reading and writing just like mine. However, I have learned that, in order to write and read passionately, one must live a passionate and observant life so that there is an invitation to write and a motivation to read. To do so, I aspire to open my eyes wide and to share my observations with others here on this blog. Lately, I have been attempting to put these words into action. I walk with my head up and away from electronic devices so I can pay attention to the world around me, with no earphones in so I can hear the beautiful noises that surround me, until I embarrassingly trip on a sidewalk crack and nearly fall to the ground.

            Despite minor falls, my greatest hope throughout my blogging experience is that I will be able to reflect upon aspects of life, nature, and the environment and encourage my readers to do the same. There are so many intriguing and magnificent places and objects that we often just don’t make the time to celebrate or wonder about. Often, I think we all rush through life’s daily chores, getting one more check mark on our to-do lists, and forget that we only have one life to live. Do we want to spend it just mindlessly accomplishing tasks, or observing the world around us in appreciation and taking in every single aspect of the day as if it were our last?