The thing is when I told my friends we came up with a joke that when I was under the influence of the laughing gas I'd finally end up being able to smell - specifically rainbows. This would contrast my usual lacking of the sense of smell. I might as well have no nose, like Voldemort, since the ol' sniffer is useless to me.
The idea of having a working nose and smelling rainbows danced around in my head for weeks. Then the day came.I was so nervous as I walked into the office with my two friends. We giggled and they both reminded me to tell them how rainbows smelled. My hands shook with a excitement as I sat down in the chair. "Rainbows!" I thought, "I"m going to smell freakin' Rainbows!!"
Suddenly, everything went black.
When I woke up later in the office I felt normal - except for the gauze filling in the holes where my
teeth once were. Even my friends thought I was acting normal on the gas. If anything I was just happier and gave more compliments.
That's when my friends made the mistake of asking me, "Autumn, do you smell the rainbows?!''
"NO!!!" I screamed as the tears came. I cried and cried gagging back the pain and frustration that my inability to smell will persist no matter what.
Similarly, Tutees at the Writing Center struggle. They get frustrated on writing papers and unsure about the structure, the grammar, the topic, citing, and countless other minuscule details that come along with writing. However, unlike me with my smelling, they can be helped. They can achieve a better ability in writing with their helpful buddy a... TUTOR FROM THE WRITING CENTER!!!
Unlike my friends, tutors don't mock tutees on their inability to do something. Tutors who work at the Writing Center are there to help ease the frustration and comfort a tutee when under the pressure to preform well.
In this sense, writing for a tutee is like smelling for me - both of us go through moments of frustration and weakness lacking the ability to preform well in these fields. The Writing Center is here not only to help with papers, but also to increase personal confidence.
I guess the Writing Center is here to help people smell the rainbows.
LET'S SMELL RAINBOWS TOGETHER!!!!
Also, If you have any further questions email me!
This blog is so funny! I was completely shocked at how you were able to connect smelling rainbows to tutoring, and you did it really well! I also really enjoyed your story about having your wisdom teeth removed; the passive-aggressive anger at your friends really resonated through your words. Your advice was also very important! How else might a tutor be nervous at a session? Also, I'm super curious; can I have more background on why you wanted to smell rainbows in the first place?
ReplyDelete-Sarah Woods
I've found that most tutees get nervous the time and the grade if not about their writing ability. When they have two other assignments due the next day, a tutee would often want to rush through an after school session to make sure they have time to do the rest their work. Same happens when they expect to fail and have given up on finding help. In situations like these two it's best to stress how you helping them to the full time and ability is for the best.
DeleteNow about smelling rainbows... We were talking about rainbows because one of my friend's name is Emma. According to the urban dictionary Emma means "Rainbowchild" so we call her that. Rainbows are always on her mind and she's the one who suggested it... We also talked about seeing the thoughts of facial hair also came up.
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ReplyDeleteOh my goodness! This is hilarious- and I love the fact that you managed to connect smelling rainbows and tutoring! Your voice was really showing in this, and you did a great job!
ReplyDelete-Alex Anderson
I love this! At first the story seemed independent from the message of the blog and I wondered how it was all going to come back to writing, but then it tied together so well. The title is also super eye catching and entertaining.
ReplyDeleteAutumn, Autumn, Autumn. Even if your name wasn't on this, I would no doubt know it was you. I love how you always start with some completely crazy topic, and then somehow manage to work it into a successful, complete assignment (an extremely entertaining one!). Let me know if you ever smell those rainbows. :)
ReplyDelete-Megan M.
I love how you kept your blog true to yourself and your personality. You didn't try to use fancy SAT words or do anything that would fail to represent the one and only Autumn Barraclough. Plus, you created an insanely interesting hook and a title that made me need to know what your blog was about.
ReplyDelete-Hayley Bray
Autumn, that was so interesting. At first I was a little skeptical about where your story was going, but I think the connection is very interesting. We should make "Let's smell rainbows together" our motto...and no one will know what we're talking about:)
ReplyDeletethis is Lexi btw
DeleteWow. This is amazing. I was so confused at first and was wondering who the author of this was and when I checked down to find it was you, Autumn, I wasn't surprised. It is amazing how you were able to connect such a topic to tutoring yet still be able to give enough to understand. A job well done. I really like your images as well.
ReplyDeleteAutumn I love how you make a good lesson out of a difficult situation, and it reminds everyone to take a breath and try to handle whatever situation happens to come your way
ReplyDelete