Why do I write?

I write because I have too. If I did not have to write in school, honestly, I would never write for pleasure. I'm sure in the future I may write to myself, but as of right now I don't particularly enjoy it. The only thing that I do enjoy about writing, is that I am good at it. In fact, that is one of the main reasons I took this class. I feel like this class can help me appreciate writing.

I tried keeping a journal once. That didn't work out so well.  Generally, when I would write in it, I would end up becoming drowsy because it's just not something I enjoy all that much. I have always been the type of person to want to go outside and play basketball or soccer. When it comes to reading a book, or writing in a journal, i just can't seem to find the time for it. I can write for school, because it is something I have to do, but even then I will often become weary. The only time I actually like writing is whenever I have a good topic to write about. I'm also not very good at writing if I don't have very much structure. 

My favorite things to write are research papers. Although I will often get frustrated throughout the research, it is so much fun to finally put it all together. You know those times where you actually feel like your hard work has payed off? Well getting the scores back on research papers are one of those times for me. I tend to go to a lot of different sites for my research, just to be sure that I have enough evidence to back up my work. I think one of the reasons I enjoy this so much is because getting to the finished piece is like taking a big weight off of my shoulder.
My mother has always been the type to write for pleasure. She has written atleast six books. I'm not saying that these books are particularly good, I just know she writes them for fun. Who knows, maybe one day she will become a best selling author. I doubt that, because I have read them, but maybe if she works hard enough she can achieve her dreams. She also has a blog page. I'm pretty sure she originally created it for school, but I know that she posts her own thoughts onto the page now. Who knows, maybe I will do the same thing in my future. I guess only time can tell.

Reading Response 6: Mistaken Identity

Chapter 8 is only about ten pages long, but it is entitled "First Milestone." This chapter talks about how Laura is progressing. The family continues to right on the blog every day to keep people updated on her condition. Laura is taken off of the ventilator and receives a tracheotomy, which will allow them to remove the ventilator from her mouth and insert it directly into the trachea. They did this to reduce the risk of infection and also decrease Laura's risk of developing pneumonia. The doctors discussed a number of procedures needed to be done to Laura for her to fully recover. They still needed to reset her broken elbow and stabilize her broken legs. They continue to ask for prayers from families. The chapter is entitled "First Milestone" because Laura went through her first major surgery, and everything went very smoothly. The blog post from Monday, May 1, 2006 read:

"Tomorrow morning, Laura is scheduled to go into surgery at 8:30. The fact that they are planning on doing surgery at this point is good news; it means they believe she is stable enough to handle a number of procedures. First, they will be setting her broken elbow and leg (femur) and possibly inserting pins where necessary. After the accident, they set them temporarily and now they will be setting them for good. While Laura is under, they will also do a tracheotomy. This has a number of purposes. They will remove the ventilator from her mouth and throat and insert it directly into the trachea at the incision point. This will help to reduce the risk of infection from the ventilator. This will also reduce the risk for pneumonia and lessen the severity of pneumonia, if she was to get it. The tracheotomy will also increase the potential to take Laura off the ventilator sooner.

When they do the surgery tomorrow, they will probably remove the tuve from her head that monitors her intercranial pressure (ICP). This is the device that has been measuringi any potential swelling of the brain. Since they haven't detected any significant swelling and pressure, the expect to remove it. 

Please continue to pray and pass this along to your prayer groups."

- Lisa Van Ryn

 

There isn't really much to conclude about this part of the story, except that Laura is strongly improving and everything went fine through the surgery. If I were the doctors in this situation I would feel so miserable if I were to let this family down. I am so happy that everything is coming along as smoothly as it can at this moment.

Reading Response 5: Mistaken Identity

We are now in Chapter 7, which is entitled "From Fort Wayne to Sydney and Every Point In Between." This part of the book is amazing to me. The Van Ryn family started a blog on blogger, which is funny because that's what I'm posting on right now. The blog was created so that family and friends would be able to stay updated on Laura's condition without having to overwhelm the family by calling them all of the time. The blog attracted people from all over the country, not just local family and friends. Within the first two weeks of existence, visitors had logged onto their blog from every corner of the United States and Canada, as well as from China, the Philippines, Colombia, Germany, Australia, Japan, and Africa. On May 10th alone, over 1,500 different people logged onto their blog, which was up from 1,300 the day before. The family read the comments every day as a source of encouragement. Some of the comments read:

"May God bless you and keep you, may He make His face shine upon you... Even all the way over here in the Philippines, some are praying."

"Reading about Laura is one of the most encouraging parts of my day. Her/your family's story is such a cool testimony of God's work in the details of our lives. It's so encouraging to remember that God cares about things like ChapStick and pink balloons. so often I don't take the time to thank Him for all of the little blessings I receive every day. Thanks for helping me to open my eyes to the small things God does... often the smallest things are truly the biggest."

"Thank you for the updates... please know that we are praying for Laura and for you. Our hearts go out to you in these very anxious and sleepless days. May God continue to strengthen you."

- Newell and Colleen Cerak

This chapter made me feel as if I could relate to it. Not because I know what it is like to go through something like this, but because they are posting daily on a blog that I am currently using. It was so cool to me that people actually looked at her blog daily and genuinely cared about her, even though they did not know who Laura was. Also, the fact that Newell and Colleen show their respects for this family through this very hard time in their life is amazing to me. This chapter has helped me realize that there actually are some good people in the world, and we shouldn't take everything for granted.

http://whitneysstory.blogspot.com/2006/06/whitney-ceraks-blog-copy.html 

This is the link to the blog the Van Ryn's posted to keep people updated on Laura's condition.