Exploration 2 for Shannon Applin

  Hi everyone! My name is Shannon Applin and my fun fact was that skiing is my favorite sport (and only sport that I can do really ) and that I've been doing it since I learned how to walk. I was also born and raised in Michigan for the first 13 years on my life. I loved it there and I can definitely see myself moving back. Before I moved to Ohio it was rare for me to see a cow or horses and I had never seen a goat in real life before. Now I live on a farm but I'm forever a city slicker at heart haha. I came to The Ohio State University because it has one of the best programs for my intended major of art education. I'd love to teach high school art and work as a freelance artist in my spare time.

  The author I chose to do my research on was Frances W. Harper. I found her to be the most interesting because not only was she a successful African American poet but she was also an activist in the abolitionist and women's rights movements. Being a published writer and poet in the 1850's is very impressive to me because in that time African Americans were still highly discriminated against, especially women. Oh, and she lived in Ohio which is just a cool little fun fact.

http://www.biography.com/people/frances-ew-harper-40710

  I would have to say that Songs for the People by Frances W. Harper was my favorite poem because the poem itself sounded like a song in my head. I was able to really feel the emotion that she put into her words. She wanted the reader to understand the troubles that the people in her poem were experiencing. She wanted to take away the pain and she used her "song" as a way to do this. The rhyming in the poem really stood out to me because I feel that it pulled the whole thing together and made it that much more like she was singing the song to you and relieving your own troubles.

  I experienced  a literary event when reading Looking For Alaska by John Green. Looking For Alaska really impacted me because it was the first book I read where the main character dies. The main character, Alaska was a free spirit and didn't really think about the outcome of her actions. However, she was a very like able character and her death really came as a shock to me. Although Alaska was a fictional character her death caused me to appreciate my life more and just to be thankful that I'm still here. After reading Looking For Alaska I feel like I've been living my life fuller and I've learned to make the best of whatever life throws at me.