The Vision-Personal Narrative Poem

La Historia de mi papi
Comienza asi
my dad started at nothing
but turned it into something
he started by saying someday
I’ll settle down in L.A.

At first he landed in Quicksand
He thought he lost his chance
until he turned that something
from a dream to a reality

First came the sister
then came the brother
and through the parks and by the trees
they soon became enemies
Time stood still
like the shadow of the day
everything then moved soon
when the both ended up ok.

I look at the youth
and started to move
to opposite ends
where I lost some friends
But I went back on top 8
to the point where I said "dont hate"
Appreciate life for what it’s worth
From the moment you start life at your birth

When my aunt gave me music through my hands
I soon became the guitar man
playing with a message in plan
a plan to swing life away
as my guitar gently weeps
to the sound of the beats
where music transforms into heat

I can taste the ice cold wind
from the moment she said
I can’t be your lover or you friend
I stood there as she broke my heart
Institutionalized
hiding in disguise
asking is he everything you wanted in me?

Yeah I know love hurts
but for what it’s worth
every moment I make out of it
I go through each phase
because I look at a new day
to see how strong I am

I take the wheel and drive
driving the car of my life
Seeing how my cousin died
thinking he lived life
getting high and dry
It shows how it’s so much better
Living in a world of peace
All of us just together
rather than one.

From the moment I sang you my love song
to the moment I told you let’s dance
we started off with some romance
and ended up saying "I'm yours".
You’re my bell
and its so much better
being with you
now and forever
because in the end
Alguien te quiere
someone will always love you.

My CD Playlist

The Vision

The sound of a Spanish guitar and language you hear but the vision of my father struggling to come over to America is what I see when I close my eyes to the first track of my life’s story. Picture a man who is constantly on the run, trying to find a place in which he can be someone in life, only problem with him running is that he has a target painted on his back. Everyone wants him dead because he is an activist; one of the many people trying to stand up for what is right. This is what I vision when listening to the first track of my soundtrack.

To me, music revolves around my life and without it I am nothing. Music has been constantly there, from saving my life when I need comfort to helping my friends and I have a good time and dance. Music is a simple thing that can cure basically anything that tries to, that’s what I see in music that makes it beautiful. Music will never die because it is a gift given to us by God that gives us different ways to express ourselves. Music is on top of the food chain that’s taste never gets old. Music is the vision you see when you close your eyes. Music is an electric feel that constantly vibrates in the air passing from one ear to the other. Music is life. I am music.

The song “Quicksand” by Incubus is a great song and although its short, gives the listener an overview of the whole album I created. It tells us when we get emotional with love, a monster appears within us that we can use to make us feel better, or use to destroy every little thing we see about love. It’s a song of hope and tragedy, which reflects upon my early childhood memories; always trying to fit in with people in my elementary school but finding out I can’t because of the religion I practice compared to them. Although it may seem cruel, this song represents me because I see the beauty of my life experience.

The point of everything is not to feel sorry for me, but to look at me for what I have gone through and seeing how bad things in life can be seen as art. People call it bad memories but I call it a beautiful disaster because no matter how bad or good memories can be, you will always learn from them and cherish every single moment you had.

Roller Boogie Personal Narrative Summary

In Roller Boogie, this story shows alot of personal experiences with what the writer recalls from his childhood. The trends of the seventies are displayed as being well into pop culture such as rock and roll. The more we read, the more we tend to see what atmosphere the writer tends to create for the reader to understand more of where he originates from and what others in his time era faced. After reading this short story, it really helped me by giving me additional ideas of what to write about for my story. This is a perfect example of what can be illustrated through a personal narrative.

"THE STORIES WE LIVE BY: PERSONAL MYTHS AND THE MAKING OF THE SELF"

In The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self by Dan McAdams we learn about how myths are created throughout ones life experience. We see the many elements of what a myth is, how we create our own that reflects our personal life, and the reasons in which we make these stories in the first place. The introduction talks about the reasons in which myths are created and defines a myth as "A special kind of story that each of us naturally constructs to bring together the different parts of ourselves and our lives into a purposeful and convincing whole" (Dan McAdams 12). As explained in our english class man by nature needs a companion in order to survive. This story describes to us that man naturally makes a myth to reflect personal experiences with others, in order to create a good connection with each other. These myths help one another get comfortable with each other socially; an important factor that one must obtain in a society, which is the point McAdams makes in the introduction. After reading the introduction, we read about Margaret Sands and her self-experiences.She talks about the progress of her myth and how its developing into a tragic story. Like any other story, a myth is composed of a beginning, middle and end. The beginning starts with your early childhood, the middle about your greatest accomplishments, tragics and good memories that you had, and the end concludes with you connecting with everyone else in the real world. In the end, I learned alot how to compose a myth and realized how much it brings character out to other people. I knew after reading about Margaret Sands that her myth was filled with sorrow and tragedy, but I also learned how one can use this story as inspiration towards creating his or her own myth.

This story connects with film class in which one can reveal themselves through past experiences they had. The part where it connects with filming are the elements required towards making a myth are the same elements that are used in filming any kind of movie. Whether its an autobiography or a fiction movie, the same structure used in creating a myth are the exact requirements needed towards making a film.

Memory and Imagination

In "I Could Tell You Stories: Soujourns in the Land of Memory" by Patricia Hampl, she talks about memories constantly running in her mind; how each time she goes back to that same image it always changes; causing the image to have something more behind it each time she re-visits the setting. From there Hampl states that memories made within the past can be revisited in a mental state and can be used as a story. She brings up several ideas in which memories of her playing c notes from her piano constantly changes while she takes down notes on her yellow pad, constantly adding more visuals to this simple memory.

This relates to film because when one individual decides to film something original, whether its about his or her past or present, memories come into effect and play an important role to the director. Experience must be visualized, analyzed and re designed; adding additional footage to make the film stand out. Memory plays an important role in one's mind and should be re-visited in order to keep that memory fresh. I think that Hampl wants us to remember that memories will never go away and that they possess high value, for it is memories that make a person, in which we can use in film class to produce a self-video about ourselves.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Original Trailer