Writer's Week

Julie Halpern: I thought Julie Halpern's story was very interesting. I find it so inspiring how she overcame her difficult childhood of being in a mental hospital to eventually becoming a fantastic author! I really like how she incorporates her life into her stories because that is such a fun and interesting way to tell them. It seemed that Julie found it relaxing to write when she was in troubling times. That is such an admirable quality to have because through writing, a person can express themselves in ways that cannot be told.
Tuesday Students: I thought the students overall on Tuesday were very good! It is really nice to see kids in high school writing such heartfelt stories and poems from their own personal experiences. I could also kind of relate to some of them, which made listening all the more better. I found it pretty neat to hear some of peoples' thoughts on some events that have happened to them because I may hear these events in a different way than they do and it is nice to hear the opposing side.
Sierra DeMulder: I though Sierra DeMulder was an awesome presenter! Even though some of her poems were gruesome, they were different than the poems I normally hear, so that made listening to her interesting. I find it amazing how she can be a totally normal person one minute and the next she was a narrator or character in a poem. I feel the positive energy she brought to the whole auditorium made some people feel comfortable and able to listen to her. It was really awesome to see how she connected with some of the listeners because I believe that that is a very important quality to have when speaking to a large group of people.
Thursday Students: I thought the "music day" on Thursday was overall pretty good. I liked the messages of some of the songs and found it amazing how talented the musicians were. I find it awesome how people can express their feelings through songs because I know I would have trouble doing that and it is amazing that they can! I do have to agree with some of my classmates, however, that the "music day" made me less interested than some of the other days. However, we saw some really good musicians!
Billy Lombardo: I thought Billy Lombardo was interesting, but I often times lost focus when I was listening. I wish he would have talked more about what he did to become an author instead of reading a lot of his own writing. However, I found some of his stories to be really interesting and touching. I feel like he did not grab the students' attention quite as well as some of the other writers, but I think some people really did enjoy listening to him. I agree with Lizzy that I like how he talked about his son because it shows that he is a very caring father.
I got so much out of Writer's Week this year! I really liked how we got the chance to see so many performances that we do not usually get to see. The one main idea that I got out of Writer's Week this year is that someone should not be afraid to go up on that stage and either read, sing, or perform to a large group of people because maybe someone in that audience has a similar story.