ASSIGNMENT 1:

Who I Am as a Writer With a Cause – An Autobiographical Narrative:

This is my essay:

Death Has Been My Motivation:

Why have I begun to walk the various paths I’ve woven into wonderful worlds created of my own imagination? Why have I decided to take life by the horns and show it whose the boss? Why am I a very open minded person?

Because, in 2012, my daddy died, and with the words uttered fearfully from my sister’s mouth through the phone, “Tashia, it’s dad. He’s not gonna make it,” my life was forever changed.

On that day, not only did I lose my dad, but I grew up a little too.

He died suddenly from a severe heart attack one morning while washing the dishes. And that was it. Game over! He was not going to be able do some of the things he had been speaking of, like travelling around South Africa on the train, or owning a small sail boat. And I was suddenly struck with the absolute finality and dead ending that is death. He would have no more chances to do the things he was always going to do tomorrow.

If we are completely truthful with ourselves, we’ll admit that we all say it – “I’ll do that workout tomorrow.” “I’ll work on that new website design next week.” “I’ll write a bit more in the novel later.” But, sometimes, tomorrow, next week and later never come.

And I do not want to be one of those people, who in my last years, has regret for the life I didn’t live. There is only one person you can blame, and that is yourself. So, here I am, at the age of 34, only now starting to do the things I truly enjoy, one of them being writing, the other being animation and a third important factor is working on my health.

I am creating an adventure filled fantasy novel series, and each time I write and add to the lives of my characters, I am fulfilled. I hope to be able to create an animation series based on the novel as well.

Even though I am not a published author – YET – I call myself a writer. It is what I want to do. I love creating new characters and weaving their lives into the worlds I’ve created.

I grow a little bit each time I write. I learn about myself through my characters and have found that sometimes, the quirks I give my characters are actually quirks I am discovering in myself.

Upon reflection of my life over the past few years, being diagnosed with a heath issue (polycystic ovarian syndrome – PCOS), and especially since the death of my father, the two causes I fight for, are, firstly, to enjoy your life and experience as much as you want to. If you want to learn to fly a plane, just do it. If you want to travel to another country, just do it. If you want to learn to play an instrument, go ahead and do it. And if you want to learn how to speak Marndarin, what’s stopping you?

And while you are doing all of these amazing things, be aware of the beautiful world and wonderfully different cultures that surround you.

I have some social media accounts, and I am always looking for people with this very same philosophy. And there are many out there. Whenever I find someone, be it on tumblr or instagram or facebook, that has the same philosophy as me, I soak up their feed and try to join them in their conversation. Finding people like this is very motivating, and pushes me even harder to enjoy my life and achieve the things I want to achieve.

I have begun to instil this philosophy of living life to the fullest in my daughter, and I can see her excitement for the life she is going to lead, build.

Isn’t that, after all, what a parent’s job is? To give your children the building blocks they need to live the best life that they can?

The second cause I fight for, and I have also written about it in my personal blog, is for there to be more awareness about PCOS. This is a chronic disease, and in South Africa, it is not treated as such. Women who are diagnosed with PCOS, are told that it is nothing to worry about and it will work itself out. In fact, that is what I was told.

But, this disease has the potential to be life threatening and debilitating. It increases the chance of heart disease and stroke and most women who have it have insulin related problems that result in diabetes and infertility.

I will continue to write about PCOS, not only to help other women out there, but also so that my daughter is aware of the disease. And I hope that through writing about it and talking about it, more will be done to help women who are diagnosed with this chronic disease.

 

ASSIGNMENT 2:

Death – The Biggest Motivation Of All

Human beings are amazing creatures. We can think, we can talk, we can create and we can make our own decisions.

Some humans are unfortunate in their lives and live a struggle from day-to-day, wondering where their next meal will come from or how they will replace their broken shoes if they don’t have money. Others are more fortunate. They never worry about whether or not they will have a meal to eat, or if they will have clothes to cover themselves.

Some humans go on to be super stars and celebrities, their faces plastered all over the news headlines and internet new sites. Others, achieve nothing in their lives, just living each day, waiting for the next day to come.

Wars are fought and people argue about why their religion is better than another religion.

But, there is one thing that every human being on the planet has in common. And that is that we will all die. No matter how rich or poor you are, or which religion you prescribe to, you will die.

And isn’t that a humbling thought? Yet, so many people waste their lives. I have a view of life that may be a little different to other people, and that view is that a person should accomplish everything that they want to in their lifetime, and they should do it now. Not tomorrow, or next week of next year. Because, tomorrow, next week or next year may never come for you. Because death is unpredictable.

I have found three other people who employ similar views to me, although their stories are slightly different to mine.

Larysa Sholom is a very brave human being. She has the unfortunate knowledge of knowing that she does not have a long time to live., and in fact has very years left. She walks with death beside her everyday, yet she is still motivated to live and do the things she wants to do.

She states “My life took a wrong turn when I was 21 and diagnosed with a very rare lung disease…patients can survive for over 20 years…..but I was not on of the lucky ones, my disease ran full course in less than 2 years.”

She goes on to say that the only thing that could lengthen her life slightly would be too get a new pair of lungs, which she was fortunate enough to get. She then states “someone died and graciously save my life…I wake up every single morning thinking that I will b gone sooner than most…but I don’t know when it will happen…I would like to share some of my life with the world through my writing…”

So, faced with the fact of her death, Larysa has been motivated to write. She is using her precious time to write her autobiography so that she can give hope to other people who may be in a similar situation to hers.

I felt drawn to Larysa’s story because I too was motivated to write by death. In my case though, it was not the knowledge of my own death due to an incurable disease, but it was the death of my father that motivated me. When my father died I was struck by the absolute finality of death and that it can happen at any time.

Jin-Shen Huang has also been motivated by death – the death of her father. After his death, she was conflicted, asking questions about her existence and life in general. She states in her text: “I suddenly realised we are going to die after we were born. There is no reason why my dearest father died and it just happens to everyone.” This is a realisation that I came to as well.

She goes on to state: “In the first year after his death, I usually watched the sky and asked God: who am I? Why do you let me born in the family?” These are, I suppose, the types of questions that a lot of people ask when they are first touched by death. I did.

She then says: “After all my anxious soul returned to calm and started to thirst for knowledge. It drove me to live positively.” And with that statement from Jin-Shen, I can say that we are exactly aligned in our views on living life. Live your life to the fullest and do the things you want to do.

I felt very drawn in when reading Svetlana Minina’s essay. She speaks about her fear of death and that it motivates her to write about her life and collect memorabilia about her so that, one day, her children can look at those writings and collections and know her she truly was.

She keeps everything she is collecting in a specific box. She explains: “I don’t remember when it all has started. Probably when my mom got ill. I just remember that I decided I want my own kids would find this box when they grew up and took out these pieces of my life and could see what their mom was when she was young, when she was not just a mom.” Once you are dead, you cannot tell your children about your life any more, and who wants to be forgotten? So, for Svetlana, the thought of leaving the living, and not having left anything behind, is her motivation to write.

She also speaks about being different to other people – in her own words – a nonconformist. She states: “Being nonconformist incites me to engage in different situations,…., to find out what is true and what is not, and what is my own way in this life.” I relate to this statement very strongly. The experience of my father’s death and the realisation of how final it was for him, has motivated me to live my life to the fullest and do the things I want to do, not caring what other people think of me.

I use my writing to motivate people to live their lives to the fullest, and this is also what Svetlana does. She lives her unique life experience which she then wants to share with other people to “help those who have stuck.”

While these three essays I have discussed differ is some ways to mine, they all have the common thread of knowing how final death is, and using that as a motivation to live fuller lives and experience things that a person who does not share this view might shy away from.

I would like to end this essay with a quote I resonate with.

“It is not the length of life, but depth of life.” Emerson Ralph Waldo

Sources:

Larysa Sholom https://class.coursera.org/writing2-002/forum/thread?thread_id=1065

Jin-Shen Huang https://class.coursera.org/writing2-002/forum/thread?thread_id=202

Svetlana Minina https://class.coursera.org/writing2-002/forum/thread?thread_id=815