Bridget's first post

I am studying psychology with a minor in communications.  My plan is to attend Law School after St. Lawrence and considering you can major in practically anything as a pre-law student, I figured I should choose two areas i not only enjoy, but tend to excel in.  Also, my high school was small and did not offer too many extra courses so I only had taken one or two psychology classes and knew I wanted to take more based on how much I liked them.  Communications has also always interested me because I am a very outgoing and ambitious person and I figured it would be a nice balance to Psychology.  So far, both of them have been working out and pertain quite nicely to the legal world!

I am from Avon, Connecticut, which is a small town in the Farmington Valley about ten miles west of Hartford.  Avon is a small town in which mostly everyone knows one another.  I graduated in a class of about two hundred students, and 100% of us went on to college.  I like to deny t hat my town portrays the typical "Connecticut" stereotype, but now when I live someone else, I realize that it does. Personally I think it only portrays the positive aspects of a small New England town where everyone is nice to one another, but our rival town, Canton, Ct, oddly enough, will tell you that we are all stuck up snobs.  I just think I've lived a very privileged life, which I am very thankful for, especially since I am able to come to an institution such as St. Lawrence.  I live with my parents, two of my three sisters, Marisa and Grace (16 and 14).  Courtney, my older sister who is 22 and graduated St. Lawrence last year, now live fifteen minutes away in West Hartford, Connecticut.  I also have two kittens, Luke and Sammy, who I miss very much!

Besides writing, I enjoy playing volleyball.  I was the captain of my varsity team in high school, and we were the state champions my sophomore year, and came very close to it my last two years.  I decided not to play in college because I ended the sport on such a high note, that I did not want anything such as a new team or coach to ruin how I felt about the sport, and I heard that at times playing at a college level can be so stressful that athletes often loose their passion for it.  I also love to sing.  I was in an a capella group in high school and hope to join the singing sinners here at St. Lawrence when I can find the time.  On campus I am the Vice President of Thelmo, which is the student government here.  I also work at the Men's Ice Hockey games, as well as at the University daycare.  I love to watch Criminal Minds and Game Night with my friends on Mondays.

For the most part I have had good feedback on my work.  For my FYP and FYS last year I was fortunate enough to have an extremely helpful professor who not only always gave extensive feedback on every assignment, but offered to meet with each student to go over our work to help make it better.  In the process she helped me understand how to do proper drafts so that an impressive final product could easily be reached.  Because I learned how to do this in her class, in the classes where feedback from teachers was lacking, I was able to do fine on my own.

To be honest I do not know much about poetry or poets, which is part of the reason I chose to take this class.  In my junior year of high school however, I had a teacher who was very passionate about poetry.  He introduced us to Walt Whitman, and Robert Frost who I ended up quoting in my senior yearbook (from his The road not taken).  We also studied the work of E.E. Cummings.  Call me cheesy, but as a sap for love poems, I carry your heart with me, is one of my all time favorites.  I enjoy reading and trying to interpret E.E. Cummings' more difficult poems such as Snow.  Admittedly I have not been able to mimic his style, but I would love to be able to.

Good poetry makes me feel good.  It makes me think and makes me want to read more.  It inspires me to write, and instills a passion in me to try to articulate my words so beautifully about something.  When I read I carry your heart with me, I want to write such a poem about someone I love.  If I ever received a good poem from someone as a gift I think it would be one of my favorite gifts of all time.  Usually, I can't really place my finger on specifics that make a poem "good," I just go based on how it makes me feel.  If I feel any of the above feelings after reading a poem, then in my opinion it's a good poem. Perhaps by the end of this semester I will learn to be more critical of poems.  This relates to the last question about what I hope to learn, as well as being able to mimic E.E. Cummings.