The first assignment we had as writing minors was to think of a piece that we completed in the past and "re-purpose" it. That is, give it a new argument, new audience, and new form. The brainstorming process was hard. I thought about all the essays I had written during high school, college application essays, free-write narratives, and assignments from all of my classes in college so far. Finally, I had found material that I could see myself working on for the rest of the semester.

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I narrowed it down to two VERY different pieces. One was about a dance teacher who pushed me to work hard through tough love, and the other was about a special place in Canada that I go to every summer with my family. I really had no idea which to choose, because I knew that each would take me in a different direction. I went back and forth between these two ideas until I found a certain something in one of them that I felt a deep motivation to analyze, explore and write more about.

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I decided to re-purpose an essay that I had written during freshman year about the cottage I go to every summer with my family in Canada that we call "The Island". The assignment we were given in my freshman English 225 class was to describe a ritual that took place in our lives and explain how it affected us. In my essay, I wrote about the preparation before the trip that has become a yearly ritual in my family-- filling the trailer with luggage, staying at run-down hotels that are "doggy friendly" and finally crossing the border into Canada to get closer to our little evergreen-covered Island. As I revisited this piece this year, I realized that I could form a new argument using similar material-- I could write about how the Island came into my family in the first place. I knew that my great grandfather had decided to buy the land on a whim and ever since, it had been a place for fishing, swimming, making campfires, exploring the trails, and being cozy in the white, one-room cabin that sits perfectly on the granite land. I wanted to talk about all of the experiences the Island has given me that have changed me since the first time I visited when I was two years old and shaped me into the person I am today.

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Once I had come to this realization, I thought about who I wanted to tell this story to. I thought about writing it for future generations in my family who would wonder the history of the Island themselves one day. I thought about writing it for my family now. Then, I realized the most fitting audience for my piece-- my great grandfather himself. I decided to write an open letter to him thanking him for bringing the Island into our lives. He is my explicit audience of the piece, while other people who share the same love for a place that has a special place in their hearts are my implicit audience.

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I briefly interviewed my mom about my time at the Island when I was too little to remember anything about it. The interview can be viewed here.

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I had some concerns during the writing of this piece. I was worried that I would not be able to reach an implicit audience effectively by writing about a topic that was so personal to me. I shared this concern with my peer group in class and they disagreed. I had kept the details in my first draft pretty general since I was worried about driving away an audience other than my great grandfather. However, my group members said that the more specific I was in my writing about the Island, the more likely I was to make an impact on an implicit audience who had different experiences that also brought them so much happiness and appreciation for family.

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So, I went with it. In my second draft, I included more specific details about my experiences at the Island and why I was so thankful for this place. I have included the components that went into my preparation for this piece, which all led up to the final draft.

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After I completed my Re-Purposing piece, I immediately had to start preparing for the next major project in which I would re-mediate my open letter. This was quite a process, which I describe here.

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