Freedom is an interesting concept. To me, freedom is the ability to do things just because you want to.The ocean was my place of freedom as a child, and the beach was my sanctuary, and this still remains today.

 

While my project for my Writing 200 class originally began as a way for me to discuss my time in Croatia, it has become so much more. The past summer I lived in Croatia for an internship. I chose this location over others because I still wanted a summer beach experience, and the other options did not give me that feeling of summer. While it did not pan out to be the experience I wanted, I did learn things about myself. I learned how much the water meant to me, how it connected me back to my home, and how it took me away from my stress. My intention for the final project was to expand my blog post and attempt to convey more emotions in my original blog post-- to really show how the experience shaped me and how being near the water helped me. While it was fun to recount my trip, the project wasn’t really exemplifying who I am as a person. I needed to find something I was excited about-- which lead me to write a personal narrative about the beach.

 

My project today is a representation of me as a human being. A person who is excited, a person who loves, and a person who strives for a freedom she can’t find anywhere but at the beach. I realized through this experimentation process that water is my happy place, and the beach is my home.

 

I began the experiment cycles with a personal narrative about Croatia. While I found this a great way to portray my experience in Croatia, and the feelings that came along with it, I didn’t feel as though it was the story of me. It turned out to be a more thoughtful reiteration of my first blog post, which was not what I wanted. To be honest, I didn't know what I wanted. I looked at many examples of personal narratives online but found nothing that I could use as a jumping point. Looking back, I believe this was mainly because I was not excited about my topic. It was not until I found passion about what I was talking about that my project began to take flight.

 

For my second experiment, I created a photo essay of all the large bodies of water that I had pictures of on my phone. I was not familiar with photo essays, but I thought it would be very exciting to create one. While I found several photo essays that sparked my interest, I found that this was not the project that I wanted to do. I knew that water connected people, and that is one of the reasons that I liked water so much, but it really didn’t do anything for me. I wanted a story about me, and this was not how I was going to convey it.

 

In an effort to convey myself, I moved back to a personal narrative for my final project. The beach has been with me through my entire life, the ups and the downs, and I thought this was the best way to convey this. While at first I wanted to write a short story about a girl and her love for the beach, I found that my own story was stronger than anything I could write about anybody else. I wanted to talk about the way that the beach, and the ocean, have impacted me as I have grown up. Looking at my youth, teenage years, and finally my graduation day have given me an interesting lens to frame my project. Inspired by the story, “Going for a Beer”, that really has nothing to do with my project, I found inspiration from another person’s personal narrative. I wanted to tell the story of a little girl who finally became her own person when she realized that she was allowed to swim feely in the ocean. I chose to expand on my 2nd attempt at a personal narrative for my final project because I felt that it told my story the best, and allowed me to connect with my readers in a simpler way.

 

I really love the way that my final project turned out. I think that I really told the story of me, and I really enjoyed writing about my experiences and discussing the way the ocean and the beach have impacted my growth as an individual.  If I had to go back and revisit any aspect of my work, it would definitely be the way I approached the project. For so long I focused on one thing, the water, that I never really got to look deeper into what I was trying to say. I would have liked to begin with talking more broadly about my experiences at the beach. I think my experiments would have turned out very differently.

 

I hope to continue to grow as a writer, and as a person, beyond this project. I have realized that it takes time to reach your goals, and that sometimes what you set out to do is not at all what your final piece turns out to be. This final project has made me happy, and I plan on sharing it with my family. The beach is my home and my family is my home, and I am excited to share my personal narrative.