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Blank Canvas By Caitlin Hawes
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In kindergarten, I was given the big books with
the one inch spaces, cut in half by dotted lines.
By learning to copy the letters onto the page
and create my own, I was paving the road to
my own writing and works of art. In first
grade, I moved onto learning to read, writing
words and sentences with the letters from
kindergarten. First grade also introduced the
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computers in the classroom. Black screens with
yellow-green text, forming shapes and letters
so I could play Reader Rabbit and other
computer games. This was the beginning of a
whole new world of writing and reading for me.
Now I was able to type words instead of
laboring over the page with a pen or pencil.
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By third grade, I had graduated to typing whole
paragraphs, using my spelling words, on
computers with more than one
color
color,
which
actually had word processing documents.
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Throughout the rest of my grade school education
my involvement with and experience in computers
grew.
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Soon I was
blank spaces
the
filling
of my computer screen with stories, research
papers and more.
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As sixth grade began, so did typing classes
with Mrs. Hoffman. While writing on a computer
was difficult at first, the tedious task of
typing became easier, the further our typing
classes moved along.
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My class was testing a new computer program,
where all the keys were represented by words.
Q W E R T Y U I O P
A S D F G H J K L
Z X C V B N M , .
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Quick Ask Zoe What Stops X-rays Even Dogs Cant
Red Fish Vanish To Great Britain Yaks Hear
Noises Under Jacks Mattress I Keep , commas ,
Over Long . periods . Peanuts!
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Two, three, four, eventually ten fingers paved
the way to anew sense of artistic freedom. Now
with the computer as my canvas, my words become a
rainbow of paint.
Two
Two
Three
Three
Three
Four
Four
Four
Four
Ten
Ten
Ten
Ten
Ten
Ten
Ten
Ten
Ten
Ten
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By seventh grade, I had improved my typing skills
just in time for the introduction of the
internet, which became a new medium for me to
explore. I took computer classes that enabled me
to
navigate
and use a computer
in many new ways.
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I learned how to have the computer check my
spleling
spelling
research information from online
(and) grammar
and grammar,
databases, use email, and
manipulate
programs into
doing what I need.
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Tap
Tap
Tap
My fingers glide over the keyboard like strokes
of a paintbrush.
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The computer allowed me to realize my love for
writing. Paper and pen cramped my hand it was
hard to be creative when my hand was
throbbing.
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I was never a person to write in a diary or
journal, but with a computer
I could type up
one page of my feelings, print it out, and hide
it away in my nightstand.
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Crushes Hopes Prayers Dreams Wishes
Everything flowed out of my hand and onto this
blank canvas, I was learning to personalize and
make this new medium my own.
Crushes
Hopes
Prayers
Wishes
Dreams
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free
was
I
finally
to
write
out
my
own
thoughts
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I learned my thoughts ran a lot
deeper
than my
latest crush or grade on a test. I could analyze
outside information. I was putting my ideas and
thoughts about other peoples work onto the
page.
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Toni Morrison
Alan Ginsberg
Thomas Jefferson
Betty Friedan
Queen Elizabeth
Adrienne Rich
Arthur Miller
Frank McCourt
Walt Whitman
Sherwood Anderson
Amy Richards
Jennifer Baumgardner
Sylvia Plath
Ralph Waldo Emerson
William Shakespeare
Alice Sebold
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These
authors,
poets,
playwrights,
theorists,
and
more all became a part of my database. Their
writings combined with my ideas created
beautiful works of art, inspired by them, created
by me.
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I had discovered my ability to interpret their
cut
and
paste
quotations,
writings, I could
paste
double checking my citations with internet sites
on MLA formatting.
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Feminist theory, womens issues, and women
passion.
writers became my
I discovered that
literature can change the world, and the computer
change,
gave me the power to create
whether
through my own works, or my insights on others
works.
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My
computer
led the way to reading,
researching, studying and writing about these
topics
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I learned to
weave
my words to captivate
colorful
audiences, to create
tapestries depicting
colorful
the wrongs of the world, analytical looks at
theory and messages within literature.
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Now, when stuck on how or what to write an essay
on, I make an espresso, add milk and two ice
cubes and sit down in front of a
screen.
blank
Sometimes the words dont flow so easily
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Other times, my fingers cant keep up with the
words and ideas flowing from my mind. The blank
screen becomes a shimmering pool at the bottoms
of my waterfall of ideas.
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From this pool
I fish
for the good ideas and
thread them together for essays, speeches,
and more.
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Essentially, the computer has become my blank
canvas, it is where my ideas are sketched out,
taking shape and form in revisions, creating
works of art from an artless
white
screen.