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This past year might have been the first time that I wrote consistantly over an extended period of time. I took an English class in high school that encouraged writing just to write, but even that wasn't as consistent as the writing we did this year. While writing was never my favorite activity, I enjoyed being able to choose a topic that interested me and stick with it for the entire semester. I find that, with all of the academic writing I am so used to, I sometimes lose my voice and sound more formal and structured than I'd like. There are definitely times when formal writing is needed, however, it is important for me to have a voice other than the one I use in lab reports. 

 

One of my blogs focused on my attempt to join the Club Cross Country Team at Penn State. I've always been athletic, I've just 

never run competitively before. Throughout the semester, I learned a lot about writing, when it is more relaxed and up to me. There were essentially no guidelines, so I had to plan the topics I would talk about each week and try to relate them back to the overall topic. Blogging like this made me organize my ideas and present them in a coherent way, something that I'll be doing a lot of in the future. 

 

A few of my favorite posts from this blog:

 

  • First Practice - Here, I reflect on how my first day as a cross country runner went and how I see the rest of the season going. 

 

  • Four Hills - Having never done any kind of competitive running before, I didn't know what to expect during most of the practicing, which was both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. 

 

  • If Running Were Easy... - Once I was a few weeks into practices, I was able to see how much I had accomplished and appreciate how far I had come. 

Cross Country for a Non-Runner

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