Identity Narrative Writing Process

While writing my Identity Narrative, I struggled with finding an event that significantly shaped the person I am today. When I finally decided to choose my significant event (moving from Florida to NY), I found myself not recalling certain details crucial to understanding my impact. I had to ask my mom to tell me all the details she remembered from that day. By asking my mother, I was able to write a good narrative essay because of the detail she provided. Although I ended up getting a 17/25 for this essay, it opened my eyes that I was no longer in high school. I think this essay motivated me to work harder in the following two essays.

What I learned:

• How to write a narrative essay
• How to explain certain things to my audience
• How to describe a memory using sensory details

Identity Narrative Final Draft

It was a warm, cool summer night in Orlando, Florida of 2008. More specifically, June 5th, 2008, that we actually embarked on the 20-hour journey to New York. This would have been my fifth time returning to Brooklyn, but this time I wasn’t going to visit my family. As I think back to this day, I realize how it has impacted me to be the emotionally unattached person I am today.

It was around 6pm when my uncle Xander, my dad Elvin, my cousin Junior, and a family friend Fendy, started to place some of our boxes into the trunk of their cars. I remember my dad placing colorful plastic bins, which had words scribbled on the side with black sharpie to indicate the items within them, into the trunk of my mom’s 2008 Black Honda Pilot. I spent that whole day dealing with a bloody nose, which wasn’t that abnormal for me since I’ve always suffered with that. I had used two whole rolls of Bounty on my bloody nose that I started to worry Fendy about my health. Thankfully my bloody nose stopped before the road trip. Anyways, it wasn’t until midnight that we actually started driving. As we drove away from the beige Spaniard house I grew up in, I started to cry. It felt like it was just yesterday that I was running around Apopka, the gated community I lived in, with my brother. I wiped away my tears and started to think of the family I would soon be reunited with. Yet, my mind continued to think of all the memories I had made in Florida. I remember watching Barney and Teletubbies on the back head of the driver’s seat, where there was a small tv screen. I did this to try to get my mind off of the fact that I was never going to see the sight of the lake filled with alligators outside of my community, and the palm trees moving from side to side, that always managed to make a swoosh noise. I would never be able to taste the deliciousness of Chick-fil-A, the crunchy popcorn chicken, the crispy salty waffle fries, and the refreshing Sprite, that sizzled in my mouth when I sipped the soda. I also couldn’t stop thinking of all the close friends I had made, my favorite teachers and my childhood crush that I would be leaving behind. Reminiscing made me sad so along the way, my brother and I ate a lot of the snacks my mom had packed. Wise Potato chips, Capri Suns, Sunny D juice boxes, and chocolate chip cookies were among the few things she packed for us in order to reduce the stops for food. The rest of the trip included bathroom breaks, gasoline stops, and frequent naps.

We finally arrived to Brooklyn the next day around 9 pm. I was woken abruptly due to my brother shaking my whole body. We had finally arrived to the front of my grandparents apartment in Bushwick. As I looked outside my window, I remember the concrete stairs, that lead to a large fading green door with a foggy window in the middle, that I used to walk up with my grandmother. Seconds after my mom presses the buzzer for apartment 1C, I hear my grandma running with joy to greet us at the door. When we entered the apartment I saw familiar faces that I longed to see. My cousin Cindy, aunt Jackie, cousin David, and my grandfather Manuel were all sitting down in the living room watching a Dominican entertainment channel. They all hugged me at the same time and commented on how big and pretty I was, except for my cousin David who was just a year younger than me and just wanted to play with me. My grandmother had made a large pot of sancocho, which is a traditional Dominican dish to celebrate our permanent return. I remember eating a big bowl of sancocho because I was starving by the time we got to Brooklyn. After eating and catching up with my family, I went to sleep in my grandfather’s queen sized bed.

Moving from Florida to New York marked a change in my identity. Ever since the move I have realized that I’m emotionally unattached. Being disconnected from my childhood home, makes me feel lost. I can never truly feel “at home” anymore. I don’t get attached to the places I live either because I know we will move again. I was at my happiest when I lived in Florida and now as a teenager I search for a way to bring back those emotions of feeling connected to a place where I can call home.

 

Identity Narrative Self Reflection

The identity narrative essay served to reflect upon a certain moment from my life and identify how that shaped a part of me today. With completing this essay, I was able to reflect upon my writing process and learn a few course learning outcomes.

Since the genre of my essay was identity narrative, I had to find different ways of expressing my ideas to an audience. By starting off my essay with when and where the move took place I think I did well because it starts off the story where the audience can understand. By telling the audience the way the move impacted my identity in the first paragraph, I did not do a good job of telling an identity narrative. Telling the end of the story before the reader gets to know it first is why my essay could have been better. Throughout my essay, I think I did a poor job of stating the purpose of why I was telling this story. Although the goal was to write a story on an experience or memory and explain how it impacted my identity, I mainly just described the memory in this essay.

When approaching the audience, I felt like I did a good job in the sense that I provided sensory details for the reader to follow. It allowed the audience to connect with my story. The part where I felt I didn’t do a good job was when I spoiled the ending at the beginning of my essay. While writing this essay, I felt like the content my essay provided was well done. This is because I explained the move and how I felt in detail. My exigence for writing could be seen as just an academical one. The identity narrative was assigned to me as homework and I did it to receive a grade not to search my identity. Looking back, I personally did not have any interest in reflecting on a past memory and explaining how it impacted my identity.

Overall, this assignment helped me achieve several course learning outcomes. I learned to explore and analyze, in both my writing and readings, two different genres and the five rhetorical situations. I learned to explore my writing by expanding my mind to the different ways an essay can be written. For example, writing a narrative was new to me since I have been out of practice it was this essay that. I also learned to analyze my writing by completing rough drafts that were peer edited in order to find better ways to improve the essay’s mistakes. Before writing this essay, I read both fiction and nonfiction accounts on identity. “A Pair of Silk Stockings”, a nonfiction account by Kate Chopin, helped prepare me on how to write out sensory details I would need for the audience to follow my story. Chopin’s short story made me think about how the five senses should be included for a good narrative. “On Going Home”, a fictional account by Joan Didion, helped prepare me on how to analyze my identity. Didion’s essay allowed me to recognize how a moment can impact your identity or life. In addition, I developed various strategies for drafting, revising, editing, etc like proofreading, making detailed annotations, and outlining. These techniques allowed me to build my essay and expand on the content. I also learned to recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when writing by considering the target audience, genre of the essay, its purpose, my exigence, and context that would be included. Lastly, I engaged in collaborative efforts during the writing process with peer review and group work. This helped when I had to write the final version of my essay because it allowed me to look at different ways to improve my writing.