#English 101

[cryptid-ink]

I wrote this for my college English class. I was eventually chosen out of hundreds of students to perform it live in front of an audience. It's a true story.

TW: Domestic Abuse

Seizing The Day - Destin Cramer

The day that I left Josh was the worst day I possibly could have imagined. We had been together for five torturous years. I spent most of our relationship attempting to soothe his explosive episodes. His blood would boil until his face turned pink, the vein in his forehead throbbing as venomous words would drip from his lips. Living with him for so long, I felt hopeless, especially the day I left.

            That day was just like everyday that I was with him. Except, that day, we were living out of a hotel room. The walls of our previous apartment were haunted by the sounds of our screams, and the neighbors refused to put up with it any longer. We caused too much of a disturbance. So, the landlords didn’t bother renewing our lease, and we couldn’t find anywhere with our bad credit. I had been unable to work for years due to my nerve pain and PTSD. Josh had been unable to work because he was “tired.” I knew he was just lazy.

            Josh, my fiancé, a 23-year-old man child, was sitting on the unmade hotel bed, sheets strewn across the room, coffee in hand. His eyes narrowed at me as he noticed my eyes open to the sunlight streaming across the small hotel room. “I couldn’t even wake you up! We missed the apartment viewing!” His voice thundered against my tired ears.

            “I’m sorry, I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I had to take my sleeping medication. It must have knocked me out,” I muttered, pulling my aching body up from the pristine mattress to confront the demon that haunted my every waking moment. His face held a strong resemblance to a small child who just sucked a lemon for the first time, while simultaneously looking like a constipated old man.  

            “Well, you should have woken up. If we can’t find a place to live now, it will be all your fault!” his voice echoed against the empty hotel walls. It seemed extra pitchy and annoying today.  My service dog, Meatball, whined as he got louder. It seemed like even she agreed that he was being obnoxious today. She stared at me with her big brown eyes, begging for me to get him to shut up.

            “That’s not true. And I really can’t talk about this right now. I just woke up. You could have gone without me to see the apartment,” I said desperately attempting to avoid another argument.

The day hadn’t even started yet. I dragged my feet across the old red carpet. The fabric was rough against my feet, and I was grateful for the sensation to focus on as I felt a psychogenic seizure starting. I was diagnosed with “Stress induced seizures” a few years into my relationship with him, and to this day I believe he was the cause of them. Though of course, I did have another one when I found out my favorite band, My Chemical Romance, reunited. Perhaps I should blame it on that.

            “We’re going to be homeless for even longer now just because you were too lazy to wake up on time! I couldn’t have gone without you; you would have gotten upset if I left you behind!” I sighed deeply as his yelling penetrated my concentration.  “I really can’t do this right now. Stop yelling at me! I just woke up and I can’t have a seizure to start my morning.” I felt the anxiety swirl in my stomach, rushing its way up my throat, threatening to choke me. Josh was very aware of my seizure condition, but that didn’t mean he was ever respectful about it.

            “You can’t always use that as an excuse! You fucked up, and now we’re going to be homeless. Just apologize for not waking up on time!” His face grew more and more red. Oddly enough I remember thinking that he looked like a radish in that moment.

            “Just stop screaming at me! Please, I can’t handle this right now!” I started shaking, the stress rising in my body, and I could feel it approach the threshold. My hands were unable to stay still as I poured the store-bought coffee into the paper hotel cup. I heard his screaming grow louder as the world around me started to blur into a dark cloud. I felt my legs give out beneath me, and I felt the rough texture of the floor scrape against my face.

            I suddenly felt my vocal cords erupt as fear washed over me. I couldn’t control my body anymore. The tremors clenched every muscle in my body, straining all the strength I had against me, twisting me into horrific positions. I was a husk of anxiety and despair. I heard someone screaming “Please, Stop!” repeatedly. I hung onto that voice- my voice; hoping that I would come back to full consciousness when the screams ended.

            Suddenly, my voice was muffled, and I felt my breathing get heavier. I tried to see out my eyes. The suffocating darkness surrounded me, as I shook uncontrollably, I was unable to catch my breath. That isn’t normal I thought to myself.  I heard the door slam and the room got quiet except for my desperate sobs and gasps to get air. The seizure was straining every muscle in my body, causing an unbearable burning. I focused on the pain, and I slowly found myself climbing back into my body. I felt the feeling of control return to my stomach, then my legs, then arms, and eventually my hands. Desperate for air, I reached up to my face attempting to push whatever it was out of the way. My hands connected with something soft. It was a pillow. He had put a pillow on my face in the middle of my seizure.

            Shaky and exhausted, I pulled my phone out of my pocket only to discover that it was wet from the coffee I spilled. I wiped my hands and phone off on my pants and quickly told my friends what had happened. My fingers mistyped as I shook, still feeling off I texted on our group discord “He put a pillow on my face while I was having a seizure.”

            I ran into the white hotel bathroom and turned the shower on to drown out my voice. I hopped in the video chat section as I pressed my back against the door, just in case Josh came back. I cried as quietly as possible as I waited for them to answer. What felt like an hour passed until my friends’ voices broke through the noise of the shower and my sobs.

            “You’re going to move in with me, and you don’t have a choice,” My redheaded best friend, Julia, said sternly. Julia was my closest friend in the group chat, and she lived only 3 hours from me in San Diego.

            “What? I can’t do that on my own. I have nothing. I have no money, bad credit- I mean, Josh has access to all my bank accounts!” I said, panic oozing from my voice.

Morgan interjected, “Don’t worry about that- I’ll take care of it. You just need to break up with Josh and get in the uber that I order,” I could see her wispy brown hair in a messy bun as a cigarette dangled from her worried scowl. She was the “mother” of the group, constantly giving us stern advice, but always from a loving place.

“I’m scared- he won’t let me leave if I just say that I’m going to Julia’s.” Tears filled my eyes

“Goddamn it Destin,” Morgan raised her voice, “you can’t stay there, he could have killed you! If you don’t leave today, I will fly out there and pull you out by your hair!”

She was right, if I stayed something like this was bound to happen again. How many injuries from these “accidents” could my body really sustain? I was falling apart already. It was only a matter of time before he killed me and blamed it on my mental illness. How close was he really to smothering me with that pillow? I didn’t want to stay and find out.

            “Okay, can you guys stay on the phone with me while I leave?” I sobbed softly, whispering in case Josh was close.             “Of course, lets just go get your stuff.” Julia pushed.

I opened the door to the dimly lit hotel room. I sighed and pet my cats, knowing that this would be the last I saw of them. I had gotten them with Josh, but I knew Julia was allergic. Mama purred against my hand, not knowing my fate. I was going to leave this time. I didn’t know what the future had in store for me, but it had to be better than whatever level of hell this was.

            Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door and my breath hitched. It was him, it had to be. He must have forgotten his key again. Idiot, I thought as I brought my phone with my friends anxiously waiting on the other line. I held the phone between me and the door like a shield. I opened it to see Josh’s smiling face holding two plates of food. “Honey, I think you need to relax, I got you some food, and tonight I wanted to take you on a really nice date.” His sickly-sweet voice rang out against the tension in the air.

            My eyes narrowed into daggers as I realized what he was doing. He was attempting to get me to forget what just happened using bribery. I opened the door for him to come in.

“Actually, I’m not feeling well. I don’t want to go out tonight, and I need to talk to you about what just happened.” He looked at my phone as I spoke, noticing our audience.

“Yeah, we can talk, but I don’t want your friends listening.”

“I want them on the phone for this…” my voice quivered, along with my confidence. “What’s going on?” His voice darkened as he realized the seriousness of the situation.

There was a long pause as I drew my breath. The tension hung in the air like knives.

“I’m breaking up with you. I’m taking the dog and I’m moving in with Julia.” I stated bluntly. I didn’t care if I hurt him anymore. I was tired. This relationship was a dead limb, rotting on my body as I struggled and begged it to come back to life. It needed to be amputated and I was now my own surgeon. His screams broke my realization

            “How could you do this to me? We’re a family! We’re supposed to be together no matter what! You can’t take Meatball!”

            “Today you put a pillow on my face during a seizure. Last year you gave me multiple concussions. This was the final straw.” I stated, ice in my voice as I shoved random articles of clothing in my bag. He grabbed my phone out of my hand, screaming profanities as he attempted to stop me from packing. Usually I’d be scared, but that day, with my friends backing me up I knew I’d be okay.

            “Let me go Josh, or my friends will call the police.”  I pushed past him, grabbing my phone out of his hand as he attempted to fight me off, now only halfheartedly as he realized that I was serious this time. I pulled Meatball along behind me. Without missing a beat, she followed, wagging her tail as we left the monster behind.  I cried violently as I ran out the door, dragging my few belongings with me. I felt a wave of grief wash over me as I shoved myself and Meatball into the back of the black tesla that waited for me outside of the hotel. Meatball licked my hands, attempting to calm me down as we left the hotel behind, her blocky head nudging into my legs the whole ride. We drove across the barren southern California landscape for three hours and I allowed the emptiness of the scenery to fill me with a sense of relief and terror as I realized this was the beginning of an entirely new life.

#personal narrative #writing #english 101 #essay #did system #cptsd #ptsd #true story #my story #tw domestic violence #dv survivor #domestic violence #domestic abuse #tw domestic abuse #abuse #abuse survivor #tw abuse #pnes #fnd #non epileptic seizures #personal #mine #lgbtq #queer

[thecrashcourse]

Are you taking a Rhetoric & Composition course this semester? Our sister channel, Study Hall, is here to help!

Whether your writing is meant to inform, persuade, or to help you reflect, identifying its purpose and intended audience helps you make choices and avoid getting stuck! https://youtu.be/_52pATmhcxk

#rhetoric #composition #writing #English 101 #crashcourse #college #studying #studyhall #youtube #learn #Youtube

[hippi3kat94]

English 101: Elements of a Story

Anyone that has written a literature analysis paper for a class knows that finding reliable resources that support an argument can be a tedious task in itself. Web articles and blogs throw words around like themes, elements, and characteristics when breaking down a work of fiction, almost as if they’re synonymous to another. This can make the research process even more frustrating. And knowing…

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#elements #English 101 #English Basics #English Major #plot #story #Writing #Writing Resources #Writing Skills #writing tips

[balladofdeadbirds]

William Logan is my boyfriend!

#david tennant fanfic #david tennant fanart #english 101 #william logan #wallace york

[thesillydoll]

#david tennant #English 101 #light academia #dark academia #wattpad

[scrawlingwithstyle]

I turned in my first draft of my second essay today! It's not remotely complete, and it's about a hundred words too long, but it's decent for a first draft and good enough for my one-on-one conference with my teacher.

I usually hate research (it's boring and drags on forever), but it's a criminal case from 1921 and it's super interesting. Also the judge was a self-righteous, uber-patriotic asshat who shouldn't have presided over this case at all because he was biased, and I'm pissed that he got his way in the end.

#sacco-vanzetti trial #english 101 #great american trials #finding and organizing the information is the fun part #getting it to fit together and make sense is the hard part #and writing a conclusion is the hardest part #I found my best resources by digging deeper

[connieaaa]

Writing Center: its important not to get emotionally attached to what you are writing about.

Me: I know that in theory but I cried over a 3.5 million year old fossil last night

#college #writing #English class #English 101 #overly emotional

[frances-and-the-moon]

Yesterday I was trying to explain my friend why my pillow and bedsheets were all bloody (I sent him a picture) and I didn't know how to say it in English and I struggled a lot to explain so I said:

Englishing 101

#English 101 #What is language explanation #Languages #Dumbness #Englishing 101

[c-f-lindsey]

Well, I have a narrative essay due this Friday. We were only allowed to choose from a few topics, so I chose my own car accident.

└(^o^)┘

#college #community college #school #im toast #student #English 101 #narrative essay #due #Friday

[svartalfhild]

Unsurprisingly, people are already being fucking weird about Mizu's gender.

Headcanons are all well and good, but maybe we shouldn't be so eager to apply modern Western gender politics and terms to a character whose identity is so tied to the time, place, and circumstances in which she exists.

Please remember that Mizu was forced to present as male for her own safety and agency. Please remember that allowing others to see her as a man and call her he/him is not a choice; it's protection; it's a means to an end. Until we see Mizu talk about her gender in further detail, that's all the context we have.

Don't project what you want to see onto her and then treat it as fact.

#Blue Eye Samurai #BES #Svar rants #also as an enby who doesn't use they it super rubs me the wrong way to see people insisting on calling her they #even if she *is* genderqueer or nonbinary (and we don't know that she is) that does not mean that they automatically applies #and if you think that it does please go back to Gender 101 do not pass go do not collect $100 #on top of that there's the whole issue of applying English pronoun politics to a Japanese speaker #like I'm begging y'all to consider cultural and historical context before y'all go gallivanting off with your readings of Mizu's gender #taking a baseball bat to a hornet's nest with this one I know but I'm Bothered

[egophiliac]

Hi!

What's your favourite Disney movie? And does your preference for the dorms have any influence on their movies and vice versa? Like I know you love Diasomnia so is Sleeping Beauty high up there for you?

I'm just asking because Snow White is actually my favourite Disney Princess and her movie is my favourite yet Pomefiore is my least favourite dorm (but Lion King and Savanaclaw are both in my top two) and I was wondering if it's similar for you?

yessss someone else whose favorite princess is Snow! ❄️

that said, it's hard to say what my favorite movie is, because I'm one of those annoying people who's like "well it depends" (on different aspects, on my mood, on the phase of the moon, etc). though out of the ones represented in Twst, I think it probably is Sleeping Beauty! I think it's really pretty and just a delightful movie! it hits a nice sweet spot for me of being kind of...gently grounded while still having that floaty-fairytale feeling, if that makes sense also I might have had a huge villaincrush on Maleficent that is being massively projected onto Meleanor, shh

although I actually sort of hated Diasomnia at first (l-look, they didn't have cards at first and all we had to go on were the website descriptions that make everyone sound horrible). so I dunno, maybe the influence helped win me over to them! or maybe just because, like everything else in Twst, they were unexpectedly enjoyable in practice?

(I don't think there are any that had a negative influence either, because I am also one of those annoying people who's like "well I don't have a least favorite, I like everybody!") (sob. it's true though.) (I just, I just love characters so much --)

#twisted wonderland #joseimuke games are serious business #i was also OBSESSED with 101 dalmations as a child and it's possible some of my crewel affection may be because of that #or maybe just because he's a silly man who loves his dogs and his fashion and his shouting random english at dumb teenagers #look when i say this game is aimed at me specifically... #admittedly this is a blog for largely shitposty fanart and not nuanced media opinions #but it is generally true that i like all the movies they chose and pretty much like all the characters...i am boring :') #boring and maybe a little too entertained by fictional idiots having emotional problems

[shittyjakeenglish]

Fireworks can be nasty! Here, you can wear my noise-cancelling headphones, I hope it helps

Day 101

seems hes too serene and peaceful to thank you at the moment

#ask #williamjakespeare #<- you always have the best asks btw. you win #jake english #homestuck #my art #day 101

[l-e-g-i-o-n-losh]

KHSFYITESFJKHKSD ok i DO understand the point being made and how the immutability of comics canon events seems to depend largely on how much a reader liked a given plot more than anything else, but Jason is like the WORST example you could use. Yes! The fans did literally kill him it was put to PUBLIC VOTE! Writing always involves the creation of conflict but Jim Starlin did NOT make that call unilaterally the crowbar IS in the reader's hand (or at least the voter's). Especially as modern comics increasingly lean on the 4th wall and include metatext as a plot point, YES there is ABSOLUTELY a reading where the writer and audience are as much "characters" as the city of Gotham itself even if we never show on-panel.

#literally superboy prime and gwenpool personify the principle you can't pretend no one reads that way unless you yoink the pen out of THEIR #author's hands!! the conversation passed you 20 years ago dude it's industry standard now better or worse #songs that the hyades shall sing #didn't reply on twt I'm not actually trying to Argue with slott especially as an unpublished nobody but. yeah dude! #man vs author comes free w man vs god & man vs self its english lit 101 #ok actually i *might* just reply with some english lit printout defining man vs author

[hippi3kat94]

The Pros & Cons of Outlining a Story

Outlining your story can have some advantages as well as disadvantages.  An outline of a story contains the basic information of your story, meaning the plot, main characters, the setting, and so on.  Are you a ‘plotter’ or do you like to sit down and just see what happens on the page? I am a ‘plotter’ to a point. I use an outline to guide me through what I would consider the build-up to the…

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#Creative writing #English 101 #literature #Outlining #Outlining A Novel #writer #Writing #Writing A Novel #Writing Resources #writing tips

[jupiterxmoon]

I notice that Quinn after the chaos of the wedding she conserve the ring, I think she knew that things would work out in the end between her and Logan

#quogan #quinn and logan #quinn x logan #quinn pensky #logan reese #zoey 101 #zoey 102 #sorry for my bad english #erin sanders #matthew underwood

[shepherds-of-haven]

IDK IF this has been done before BUT this but its chase after learning enough from tutoring sessions with mc

Chase is so excited to keep all of this under wraps until he pulls out an absolutely baller vocab word with which to stun his haters and doubters. Imagine him pestering Riel like usual and Riel goes "You're so juvenile" and Chase is like "Not as juvenile as that absolutely puerile treatise you've been reading about trade policies on the Southern Coast... I mean, really, Riel, reading someone as pedestrian as Koryfones? How jejune of you" leaving everyone in the room absolutely stunned (however, he still has no idea what he's saying and is going off of vibes only)

#also thank you for making me relive my grading traumas from my days as a lecturer lol #I taught English Lit and Composition 101 and some of those papers were not far off from this picture 😭 #Shepherds of Haven #Chase #Chase Trinaeste #spoilers #mild