Dear Reader of Mine

Dear Reader

It was 27 years ago that I last graced a classroom with my presence. I graduated from high school in Alaska, and worked in the construction trades for a year before joining the military. After the military, I worked in a couple of meaningless jobs and three different trade jobs. I am back in school due to a bad fall off a ladder while working on recreational vehicles, the proverbial straw that broke the camels back. I have a great desire to put that life behind me once I have finished school. I have the honor of being married to a truly wonderful and understanding woman and we have four really great, but different kids between the two of us. We jokingly call ourselves the Brady Bunch.

I had not written anything of substance since being stationed aboard a ship while in the US Navy. There had been so many stories to write about back then, and so much free time to write them in. Recently, my sister sent me a packet of short stories and poems that I had written when I was younger. They had brought back memories of when writing was fun. While I say that writing was fun, I actually had no idea what I was doing. All of my punctuation was misplaced, or non-existent. There were so many things that I needed to learn about writing and punctuation, but as you will see through my E-portfolio. I have learned quite a lot; however, I am sticking it out for English 98.

Included in my E-portfolio are a few of my favorite papers for various reasons. There were enough choices to choose from in our course. The first paper to come is “A Worthy Journey.” Writing this story, took me back through what turned out to be a fun, happy trip. After much deliberation, I decided to include journal number thirteen from week seven “Need or Want.” Shortly after I was finished writing that paper, I called both of my brothers and talked to each of them for quite some time. To follow journal thirteen I have brought long forgotten memories to paper in “Little Green Machine” that was journal eight. To bring the final paper to life was my occupation for over four years, and that is the process paper “Keeping the Rain Out.”

I hope that you will enjoy your trip through the memories that I had originally put on paper in the following writings. They have been quite a wake-up call to go through after learning so much in the preceding weeks, and realizing how lax I was in my writing.