Elizabeth's First Blog

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #19 By: Elizabeth Crotts   Everyone has annoyances and irritating triggers. They are typically produced when we are young by our siblings, parents, neighbors, and even strangers. We all get spontaneously irrational when someone acts or speaks a specific way. Some people hate the word “moist.” Some people hate the sound of Styrofoam or nails on the chalkboard. One of the biggest pet peeves to most people is loud, open-mouth chewing. That’s not one of my pet peeves, but I do find it gross. Just close your mouth, you are not a cow. This food isn’t cud! Moving on from what irritates the general public, I present my pet peeves. My blood does not boil faster than when other people steal my food. Those are fighting actions in my book. It’s MY FOOD. I will even clarify more if you ask for a bite and I respond no. That is my final answer. If you try stealing a French fry, I will bite off your finger and turn it into a fry. Go ahead, ask my family if ...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #18 By: Elizabeth Crotts   Writer’s Block What should I write? This has been the constant thought circulating my brain waves for the past 10 minutes. I have a decent list of blog post ideas lying next to me on my leather living room sofa, but I have no passion for any of the topics. It’s even more bothersome because I am the one who wrote the darn thing. I came up with the ideas or I sifted through at least 100 prompts on the internet to find the ideas I liked the best. I wrote the list 4 days ago and I already lost interest. Now, I don’t know what to write! Some people would label this situation “writer’s block” or say “I am lazy and want to get out of this assignment.” I would say those are false presuppositions. This is my favorite assignment that my professor has told me to do. I am not lazy because I have worked my tooshie off to create captivating topics and write about life lessons that have importance. I also don’t have writer’s bl...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #17 By: Elizabeth Crotts “What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to study in college? What is your dream job?” these are all questions I have been asked lately. I want to do something important and that I love with a fierce passion. I haven’t completely figured it out but, right now, I think I want to have a career in photojournalism. Here’s a brief history of the career and how it was started. I hope you learn something. The History of Photojournalism Using images to communicate the news, photojournalism has shaped the way we view the world since the mid-19th century. What began as war photography has slowly spread to other newsworthy events, including sports, fashion, exploration, nature, and even long-form storytelling through photo essays. Photojournalism has its roots in war photography, with Roger Fenton pioneering the field during the Crimean War. Fenton was the first official war photographer, shooting images that demonst...

EElizabeth’s English Blog #16 By Elizabeth Crotts   The Day that Changed His Life The day that changed his life was on March 20, 2013. My Father and my youngest sibling were in a head-on collision  around nine in the morning. My dad was 36 years old, but my sibling was only 18 months old. They were hit by a 71-year-old man who just had a heart attack behind the wheel. After the impact, my father’s first concern was his infant in the back seat of the vehicle. My dad remained conscious and called his wife (my mom) and his parents (my grandparents), who lived locally.  The first responders took the victims to the closest hospital where they all received medical care.  This accident resulted in my dad staying a week and a half in the hospital with multiple injuries including a shattered hip, partially broken femur, broken hand, 10 fractured ribs, fractured sternum, sliced spleen, bruised lung, nerve damage in his right leg and a few other wounds. These wounds also led to...

EElizabeth’s English Blog #15 By: Elizabeth Crotts   Animals have been a big factor in my life. They have been the comforting companion for the emotional moments I couldn’t express with words. I was so passionate about animals from the ages 6 – 11, that all my clothes had at least one animal on them or had a faux animal print design.  It’s easy to say that was my next obsession. I went so far into animal fashion, that I wore a hot pink zebra-print fedora for at least a year. I still love animals but you will not catch me wearing cheetah-print leggings in real life ever again. Not to give you a false impression that my fashion sense has boosted a ton since that phase. I typically dress like a 47-year-old homeless man or like I am ready to wrestle a pig. Most people don’t even recognize me when I get dressed up for a special occasion. It’s as if I completely changed my identity by wearing a necklace and an old dress from the depths of my closet. It’s crazy to me how depe...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #14 By: Elizabeth Crotts   The Healing of My Accidental Scars My mom applied pressure to my wound and walked me to the car. My dad grabbed his car keys and drove me to the children’s emergency room. He tried making jokes and poking fun at me during the 20-minute ride, I was starting to feel real pain and was not in a silly mood. That car ride was rough. After around 20 minutes, we arrived at the emergency room. I wasn’t taken back right away and ended up sitting in the front lobby for an hour and a half. Eventually, I was given my own room and seen by a few nurses and doctors. They took X-rays of my fingers to check for any severe or permanent damage. Thankfully I had none. I just tore skin, some finger tissue, and nerves. So, they rinsed any debris out of my finger, which was the most painful part of the experience.  Then closed it with a medical-grade version of hot gorilla glue and medical tape. No stitches, YAY! I was discharged...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #13 By: Elizabeth Crotts   People have always told me “The choices I make in life will be divided into two groups; the easy way and the hard way.” Now, I don’t seem to be graced with the understanding of learning life lessons the easy way. So, today's blog is about how an incident made me learn a simple life lesson the hard way. On this occasion, the hard way led me to meet some very nice nurses and doctors who work at my local children’s Emergency Room.   My Accidental Scars It was a cool evening, one fall day in September 2022. I was dreadfully helping my father maintain the landscaping in our front yard. Cutting back the overgrown limbs that protruded into our driveway and pulling weeds was the typical routine. But this day was different, my mom wanted us to trim down the row of bushes in front of our porch. My dad did one side of a bush row, then taught me how to use the electric hedge trimmer. Here is the kicker, I have used th...

EElizabeth's English Blog #12   By: Elizabeth Crotts           Have you ever thought it would be cool to read others' minds? Whenever you were asked, "What type of superhero power you would want?" Did you say "telekinesis?" Well, today I shall grant you that power! This blog is about all the random thoughts I had this week. Just a warning, things are about to get WEIRD!!  Why is cereal only considered a breakfast food? It can be lunch, dinner, or even dessert depending on what brand you choose. For those of you who like raisin bran, I think you are committing a cereal crime. As well as cinnamon toast crunch (CTC) is my favorite kind of cereal. How big is a whale's tongue? I don't have an explanation for this thought, I just kind of wondered about it. How was mayonnaise invented? Did someone wake up one day and decide whipping eggs and cooking oil was a good idea? Why can I not think of any good blog ideas? Okay, that was rhetorical, people! How co...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #11 By: Elizabeth Crotts   Dear Reader, you’ve made it to my eleventh post and I have made it over halfway to completing my English class assignment. Hooray! If you were to tell me when I was first given this assignment I would enjoy it, I would probably call you crazy. Somehow in the last month, I have fallen back into writing for myself. I don’t write to please my professor, my parents, or even you. I have finally found passion and excitement for my writing. Writing has always been an oasis for me. I have developed this skill since I was the young age of five years old. I have written for pleasure and for projects. Throughout the years, I lost a spark for writing. I only wrote essays for school or speeches for others. I have been consistently told the narrative that I am good. I am a good writer, I am a good photographer, I am a good person. I appreciate the acknowledgment from the people around me, but I hunger for more. I want to be bett...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #10 By: Elizabeth Crotts   I know my last couple of blogs have been melancholy. So, I hope today’s blog will be more upbeat and jollier. Blog #9 was about fear and how I faced the ones that haunt me. Death is something all of us will come to know when we die. Today’s blog will be about what I plan to do before my senseless body meets a glossy, rectangular, wooden box. Have you ever made a bucket list? I didn’t make a bucket list or a list of future goals until this year. My bucket list is full of silly, ridiculous activities and serious, momentous opportunities. I am the stereotypical traveler who likes to travel to all U.S. states, see the globe, and visit the seven wonders of the world. My personal goals on the list are to graduate from college, have a museum exhibit or gallery of my photography, create a homestead, stargaze on a rooftop, ride a motorcycle, and drive over 100mph. For more of my interest in heights, I want to fly a plane ...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #9 By: Elizabeth Crotts Fear is an emotion that motivates some and debilitates others. They differ from every person. My guess is, you’re here to find out what brings out my fear. What am I afraid of? I have had many fears throughout my childhood. I was afraid of thunderstorms, and to be completely transparent, I still am sometimes. I was afraid of the traditional monster under the bed. I also feared heights, but mostly falling from great heights. As well as staircases because I fell walking down concrete stairs as a toddler, and viewed them as the most dangerous thing in my three-floored house. I would hold on to the railing for dear life.  Oh, the scarring trauma of fear. When I don’t think I am in harm’s way, I enjoy watching the strikes of lightning in a thunderstorm. I don’t see monsters under my bed anymore and I have learned how to walk down the stairs, at least most of the time. I can still be a little bit of a klutz so, sometimes ...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #8 By: Elizabeth Crotts             I have written about my past and now, you have a glimpse into who I was. The more I spend writing this blog, I begin to understand you have no concept of who I am today. I am a human being, living on earth with no clue where tomorrow is going to lead me. The whole point of this blog is to silence the words of the people who seem to find entertainment and interest in me.  People like my classmate, who for some unknown reason wants to build a friendship with me. For your information, this specific classmate enjoys making “yo mama” jokes and watching Mickey Mouse skits. Though those interests are bizarre, I still find it weirder that this person finds friendship in a stranger (me) who walked up to them and started word-vomiting an introduction. My opening line was “My mom wants me to make friends, what is your name?” Truth is, my mom said, “I should ta...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #7 By: Elizabeth Crotts Fourth grade started with hope. Though most of the same students were in the class, the main bully had moved halfway across the planet. Hope. Finally, I thought, it was over. I was sadly mistaken. Even though my bullies lost their leader, I was still the target. They, with the addition of three new tormentors, ridiculed me for the next two years. Despite facing this persecution 8 hours a day, 180 days a year, I still acted “normal” for my friends and family. I still smiled, I still treated others well, I still endured to enjoy those scant hours of freedom from their attacks. Only when I was alone did I take off the mask revealing the brokenness that was underneath it. My reaction to their words became less and less over time. I started feeling numb. My last year at that school only one of the bullies remained. She was relentless. My attempts to evade her were met by renewed efforts to elicit a reaction from me through verbal r...

  EElizabeth’s English Blog #6 By: Elizabeth Crotts             Bullying affects us all in many ways at many different times in our lives. My experience was comprised of eight different bullies over an eight-year span. I was a victim from the age of four until shortly after my twelfth birthday. For eight years this story was only known from the bullies’ perspectives. It is time that I share my point of view. That I tell my side. I share my experience with the desire that my story can bring hope to others experiencing bullying. So, here is my side of the story. Bullying isn’t always physical. Mine started mildly with mean words and exclusion by two girls in my kindergarten class. My response was physical, as often it will be with young children unable to adequately express themselves verbally. I would hit, push, and kick in an effort to get them to stop. Unsurprisingly, that response only led to them telling on me, and m...