Process Writing

One valuable part of this class was how it pushed the importance of treating food and the context in eating it like experiences to be savored. The food review in particular allowed me to take myself out of the picture, and focus on the atmosphere as a key part of the meal. It brought to light how food doesn't make or break the dining experience. Oftentimes, for myself, it is a great meal if I am surrounded by people I appreciate and care for, and decent food. However, I don't think I will ever be able to mindlessly eat a meal ever again, to be quite honest. This in itself if a huge shift towards mindfulness that I am glad to dip my toe into.  

The writing for this class has also helped me to be more observant all around. In class, we'd pay special attention to the detail of food descriptions employed by every author we looked at. I remember feeling like the descriptions are even more powerful in their specificity. I think I began to close in and focus on the small details in my restaurant review and this final perfect meal assignment. I know that I was more vague than specific for a lot of my memoir.

In reflection, this is because in that piece the content was something I really wasn't ready to write about. I pushed myself to experience emotions and reflect on it in the same stroke. This is similar to writing a draft and editing at the same time, and it is just counterproductive. I think the space of this memoir just wasn't enough to hold what I wanted to share, and I needed more time to process what I was dealing with in the first place. My process for that piece was to free write for between five and ten minutes before exploring what parts had potential. This is how I start a lot of my poetry, also. I decided to start this way because memoirs are immensely personal, as is my poetry, so I wanted to start thinking about it like one cohesive piece. When it got down to the actual writing, it was a tough project that I need to work through for as long as I pursue creative outlets for expression. Wrestling with the way food plays with identity and family has been eye-opening, and I am excited to dig deeper moving forward.