5-5:10pm: Intro…. How was your break? What did you do?
What did you read, write? Read or write anything for you?
5:10-5:35pm: Lawson’s book…. What is your opinion?
What did it show you?
What do you wish it had done?
If it did teach you something or connect with you in some unique way, what was it?
What do you think she wants for us?
5:35-6pm: Writing an opinion essay on her…. Where do you start?
Writing…
Depression….
“Crazy”….
Family…
Self-talk and self-care, self-love…
6-6:20pm: Your ideas and their structure… where are you starting? What singular word or thought? Forget about essays and an English class for a second… say you’re a journalist, an editorialist, one just authoring an opinion. What do you want to say about Jenny Lawson? What do you have expertise in?
Returning to her book, did you find anything that gives you more understanding of the title? Anything that showed you that there are things in life that don’t have to be looked at a certain way?
6:20-6:30pm: CLOSE…
Start writing your opinion essay…. Please use one of the OUTSIDE sources you found on her to support your idea. Could be an article on her, a video of her speaking on YouTube, whatever. Just no Wikipedia….
ASSIGNMENT: Start writing essay, be prepared to report your progress on Monday. Essay will be due on March 1st, 2021.
LENGTH: 4 pages (not including Works Cited Page).
ALSO…. Email me some thoughts from your journal… how you took notes on Lawson, or your day, and what the journal does for you. Show me that you’re using it, and I’ll award credit.
***For this first essay, and I can’t say this enough… Don’t overthink it. Worry about structure and editing later. To start, just WRITE if you haven’t already. Remember, an opinion… support it. DON’T SUMMARIZE, and quote only when you have to, to support your idea.
#professormikey 
If I had any “expertise” on Lawson for the sake of this essay, it’d be on her stylistics and a deeper consideration of her character…
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In terms of a potential place to start, mental illness such as depression and how family can help warp your issues into more workable situations is a potential starter for me. Given how much my anxiety has changed since finding the love of my life.
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Self-love, self awareness, the love hate relationship for being imperfect. kind of some words I’m looking at that describes her
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Of course she’s crazy but we all are at least a little bit, and embracing that just makes life more enjoyable, let the cookies speak to you haha!
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Shes very interesting to me. Like we she speaks about phobias. She’s not scared of flying like a “normal” person but shes scared of getting lost on her way to the airport. Her characteristics are very unique to her.
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What’s my expertise? My expertise definitely isn’t writing or reading. I’d say my expertise is having honest, real and challenging experiences with many forms of mental illness in myself and many people around me. They have been extremely tragic to mild inconveniences, This is what I bring to the table when it comes to responding to the work of Jenny Lawson.
I think I found an interesting way to describe how a piece of what being furiously happy feels to me. “Liget”. For anyone curious I suggest you look up the llongot tribe in the Philippines and the word they have for this unique emotion, which is an unfamiliar one to most people.
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LET’S GET AWAY FROM LAWSON FOR A SECOND…… WHAT ABOUT YOU??? How would someone read your story? What would they learn?
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My story would already be a long one, filled to the brim with lots of joys, heartache and constant survival. But overflowing with hope.
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Hm… I am not sure if this is even going to be IT, but I feel like starting with Ms. Lawson’s taxidermy. I mean, a) its the cover b) the lifelike effect and personification of something that is seemingly dead and futile is largely involved with the moving metaphor theme of accomplishing new meaning, and c) its a love language. ❤
I personally adore this because… em, I myself have a frenzied kind of love for an animal from the Chinchillidae family. It's a viscacha… They are native in the Andes Mountains in South America and look similar to, but are not closely related to, rabbits.. In point of fact my Word Press username was "vizcacha96"; it was short lived because I thought it was too weird for all of you to know that, and I wanted participation points from the roster to go to my legal name, not a rodent. Hahaha
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This is hilarious…
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This sentiment could bolster composition ….
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My story… I feel like I don’t even know what would be written in it honestly, Im nor sure what people could learn from me yet because I feel like I still need to learn, experience, and figure out more. And also just do and build the confidence to do that.
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Someone would read my story in a similar tone, in terms of being blunt about a myriad of complications that I have dealt with my entire life. They would learn that everything in life comes with some positive and negatives, and that I had quite the unique story in terms of dealing with mental illness and the surrounding circumstances.
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If I was going to write about one thing for Jenny Lawson it would be how different she is from everybody else. She has such a different writing style and writes in a very conversational way. I would also write about how she doesn’t care what others think. She will be whatever she wants to be. There would be no stopping her if she wanted to do something and no one would be able to tell her she couldn’t do anything
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Yes! Unwavering confidence.
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I think Lawson knows what she is, she can define herself as crazy which she dose multiple times in the book, and those close to her can but she doesn’t make a point of being, like look at me the crazy lady in the Kangaroo suit, she behaves this way despite what other people think. Lawson could be heavily medicated and chose to write the book like that, but she doesn’t ! she chose to write the book in the best way she can, furiously happy. And who would be furiously happy in a Kangaroo suite.
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This book changed how I view happiness. Happiness is not a gift or circumstance, but a choice. The title means just that, life won’t suddenly fall into place and make you happy. Everything could be perfect in someone’s life but they could feel horribly alone and hopeless at the same time. No one and nothing can give you true happiness and no one and nothing can take it, it is a mindset we chose to run with every day, even and especially in the moments that seem small or meaningless. That and your thoughts have meaning, because if you set aside all that fear of embarrassment they may be hilarious, relatable, helpful, or even insightful on a good day.
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My story…….I hopefully they would learn from my mistakes!
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Where is your expertise?
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hope
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my expertise is sarcastic humor….downside not everyone gets it and can get me in trouble sometimes. Ha!
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Build on this, relay expertise, and write honestly and thoroughly…
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I’m an expert in making it to the next day. The combination of having a fear of death while also having anxiety and depression gives me the rather.. interesting position of at times having dark thoughts, but never having an impulse or the potential to act on them. This has been described by a psychiatrist as “the most odd pairing I have ever seen”, meaning at times I can be about as low as a human can truly go. But I’ve been able to grow from that, and I believe it gives me a perspective unlike anyone else.
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Thanks for getting real with us Paul
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Appreciate the ability to be open have support! You are a mother, I can’t imagine the pressure that is. Thanks for being amazing!
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Ahhhh thank you!
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I think if someone read my story they would learn that sometimes the only way to take control is to give it up. I think they would learn that you are your own worst enemy and if you learn to stop holding yourself back or sabotaging yourself, you can do more than you know. Also, people will doubt you until you prove them wrong sometimes, and the only thing to do is keep pushing instead of letting other’s perception of your abilities win.
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My expertise is making others laugh and smile so it brings joy to myself.
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She takes things that are fine to turn them amazing. Theres a difference in “surviving life” and “living life”. Having to battle mental illnesses she would always balance them out in her life and turn those moments into her best moments in her life.
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What in her book provided understanding?
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when she talks about her raccoon and she uses him as her own personal happiness coach.
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My expertise is creativity, authenticity, being sensitive, and with vision. Oh, and impeccable organization.
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I think I’m pretty similar to Patricia. My expertise is humor especially humor that not everyone finds funny.
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Let’s close it up y’all… What’s on tonight’s page? If anything… YOU. Put that on the page… your opinion of Lawson, YOUR reading experience, YOUR experience in life and how that impacts your reading…
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I think my expertise is procrastinating but still managing to get the work done on time I really think it’s because of the time difference.
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If I were a reporter and wanted to share something about Jenny Lawson it would be her outgoingness. She is such a strong outgoing person from what I get from her book. She put herself out there for anyone to judge, telling us her daily challenges and how she gets through them. She takes no thought when expressing herself and would never hide herself from who she truly is.
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OTP: I want to expand on some quotes and notes I wrote about Lawson’s book.
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Nice!!
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I like to think that im an expert in making the most of my days. I have seen way too many people who have had theor lives ripped from them way too early and it really made me see just how short our lives can be. I never want to end a day thinking I would be dissapointed if that as my last day on earth. I try and take every opportunity that come my way and its lead to some pretty life altering experiences. When it come to the day when I am finally laying on my death bed i dont want to look back at my years past and feel like there was more i shouldv’e done. I want to sqeeze every morsal out of the one life i have
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Lots of your notes…FTP: Find more happiness. And more freedom. And more YOU
FTP: Look past word. Find feelings. Find character. Find LIFE.PM
Want a hint for a starting point or some added dimension to your essay?? Start with Lawson’s CHARACTER…
Want to learn something today? Don’t quote the book unless you are supporting something, and keep the quote as short as possible.
Where do you start…..? Start with you, and your read of the book. No need to summarize, as this is YOUR opinion and reading experience.
If I had any “expertise” on Lawson for the sake of this essay, it’d be on her stylistics and a deeper consideration of her character…
YOU(meaning me)
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Nice!!!
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My expertise is ambition. It sounds weird but I will always have the constant drive to do better and be better. I will always be a disciplined person in this way but it also gets in my way sometimes because I will overthink it and be too strict with myself when I don’t have to be.
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On tonights page: fine more happiness, freedom, and more YOU
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OTP: Jotting down potential ideas for the essay, with a heavy focus on PERSPECTIVE and UNDERSTANDING on an individual basis. Looking to help a reader walk a mile in my shoes.
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On my page tonight i have a few notes for the essay to build on as well as a few inspiring quote form tonights dicussion
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On my page, ” Don’t summarize just write your opinion.”
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Page 133: “Everyone is different so the best thing you can do is to ask the person you’re dealing with what they need.” To dig a little deeper, be more inquisitive, sensitive, and human.
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i put down how sometimes life can bring you down but you need to find yourself back. Her opinion in happiness is beyond it just being happy, if that make sense. shes awesome!!
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On my page tonight I have ideas to start my essay
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In my notes I wrote that I want to choose 3 random thoughts that pop into my head and make me laugh throughout the day tomorrow, just to see what they are.
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On my page I have to i put to start with a couple possible ideas and narrow it down, such as for the essay. If the one i have doesn’t have work out for me I would have back up ones. I would then brainstorm and pick which one stands out the most and which one I believe in most
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on tonights notes I wrote down ideas from my classmates to help build up my essay
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Have a great night y’all…. Enjoy some time for YOU… your writing, your happiness, your truth, and whatever contributes to you seeing how amazing your are … RESPECT.
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Have a goodnight!
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You too!
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Goodnight!
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Same to you!
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what defines a good writer vs a bad one
what did Lawsons book mean to her
finding more things about Lawson
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have a good night.
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On my page tonight: Find a connection between myself to Lawson’s writing find that inspiration for my own writing where I can and run with it.
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On my notes for tonight I just jotted down small ideas for my essay and to “not overthink it”. Have a good night
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Good night everyone!
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Thanks everyone for shari g perspectives.. I’ve written down a lot that will be considered I. My own essay
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My break was spent working and then doing some home work for classes a little early. I believe that my word for Lawson is just, “human” because at the end of the day she’s just another human writing about her reactions and feelings towards the world around her and what she experiences. She has her own problems but so does everyone else, most people just are less likely to share their strangeness with the public. When she went to Australia with her friend, her friend mentioned her needing to go out of her comfort level to really live life if she’s going to keep talking about how she’s being so furiously happy.
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