SSRJ #1: Godwin

As human beings, we deny things. We deny that we are hungry. We deny that we are tired. We deny that we want things.  We even deny that we are in denial.  For me, this fact was made particularly evident after reading Gail Godwin’s “A Sorrowful Woman.” The story describes a woman who is struggling and how her family deals with her struggles. Throughout the story the woman makes a slow but steady effort to withdraw from her family until eventually she is completely isolated from them. This is a situation that I personally cannot imagine being in. What drives a person to the point that they can no longer stand to be around the people that they love? The woman obviously had a problem that caused her to feel this way. She recognized the symptoms but made no real effort to rid herself of them.  I think this is something that we all struggle with. Either out of laziness or a fondness for them, we choose to dwell in our problems, our poor choices, our undesired behavior, instead of trying to improve.  

At first glance the husband in the story seems to be the most responsible. With his wife falling apart at the seams and a son of only three years old he had to step up and take control of the household. The husband seems to be a sort of “knight in shining armor” coming to his wife’s rescue in her illness. When the woman first tells her husband about her feelings of sadness, he says that he understands and asks her what he can do to help her. The irony is that this initial act of love is what ultimately leads to the death of his wife. As the story goes on the husband assumes more and more of the wife’s responsibilities until  he is doing all of the tasks that the woman used to do, while the woman spends the day sitting in a room brushing her hair. The husband appeared to be helping. He was taking care of things, trying to make life go on as usual. He was selfless. He was caring. But more than anything else he was in denial. His wife was extremely sick. It was apparent. Several times in the story, the husband mentions his wife getting better. He acknowledged that there was a problem but did nothing to fix it. If he was truly acting out of love, then why was it that he just waited for his wife to get better? Was there nothing that he could have done? Why did he enable her to withdraw?

Me, Myself, and I

Honestly, I can't think of a single reason why I should be in college, but I can think of a thousand reasons why I should quit. College is difficult, they make it difficult on purpose. Eventually, there comes a point when it is more that just a class and you either take that step forward or you turn around and walk away. I could quit, but here's the thing, I like the challenge.

Sixteen weeks ago I would have never thought that I could say that. I was a newbie. I was scared. I thought I couldn't cut it. Somewhere amidst the endless papers and nights spent making flashcards I figured out that I can cut it. So here I am at the beginning of my second semester as a Graphic Design major. I love everything about design, manipulating elements, changing things and figuring out how they work together. For me design is more of a logic puzzle than anything else.

I've always liked things that make me think. Puzzles. Books. Writing. In all honesty that is probably the reason why I'm here sixteen weeks later writing a blog post for an English class. It's a challenge. It is a bit daunting to be a 19 year old. I am a teenager only by number and I am not quite what I would consider an adult. I am caught somewhere in the middle. At my age I most certainly don't know everything, but here is something that I do know: if you are willing to put yourself out there, take a chance and try something you have never done before the feeling of accomplishment is nothing short of amazing.