My name is Melissa Ignacio. I am a first generation college student and a first year Animal Science major. For the years I am here at Davis, my goals are to continue meeting new people, create unique memories with them, build connections with staff and professors, and better myself as a person. As of this moment, my future academic goals are to go to grad school, vet school, and open up my own animal clinic. I wish to specialize into smaller breeds like cats and dogs, but in order to reach my goals I have to improve in my academics, specifically writing. Writing has never been my favorite subject, but I do not hate it. I struggle on converting my thoughts into words and writing them down and making it connect to the rest of my writing. I believe my writing is not horrible, but it surely can be improved. I work better if I am able to get examples of an assignment that way I am able to follow the guidelines and can see what I am missing than just assuming what is missing or assume I am doing it right. My teachers in high school taught me that my outline should be messy but first draft must be perfect or near to perfect which made it so difficult to meet their expectations. I was also scared of them so when I was stuck or confused on something, I would ask my peers but half the time no one knew the answer so I was back to square one. When I took WLD 57 last quarter my professor would ask for drafts and I would take hours writing a 500 word essay and the topics were never difficult, but since I was used to the way my high school teachers would want them, I would overthink it and put so much effort into making them flawless. My professor told me to stop that but that was the only way I knew how to write them. After reading Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts,” I realized my high school teachers taught me wrong. Anne Lamott explains how our first drafts are not suppose to be perfect, but really shitty. It is the starting point. Now I see it as learning how to play a sport or instrument. When I began to learn how to play volleyball, I sucked. I could not serve the ball, but I slowly started to improve. Same thing with drafts, the first one will be terrible and that’s okay. The second one will get better and by the time you get to your final draft, it will be amazing. Lamott spoke about professional writers starting out with terrible first drafts and it made me feel better because that’s the reality, not everything has to be perfect on the first try. I believe teachers who provide feedback on essays should encourage students to write terrible drafts so they can see their improvement when it comes to revising it. It is a learning experience. She spoke about her experience when it comes to writing and how she was always in conflict with herself on how to write food reviews. I always doubt myself and I believe that it is what prevents me from being able to make my thoughts into words and write them down. It makes sense in my head, but once I start to type it just sounds weird. Getting from your first draft to your final draft is a process that everyone goes through. You should not feel bad if your teacher/professor gives you more feedback than the rest of your peers, instead use it to the best of your ability to makes your essay better.
Melissa's Blog 