Self Reflection Essay

Thursday night you asked the class to answer this question: How do I talk to people concerning theater or art? After thinking about it, the short answer is: Not the way I think I should. I must admit I was concerned Monday when you first introduced the idea of this paper, not only for the length of the paper, but also over the self-reflection. The mere thought of this paper, as you put it the first day and I am paraphrasing: “how do we talk about things when we talk about good?” Made me think of my vocabulary and the lack of adverbs and adjectives for describing something as good. For someone that prides themselves on their vocabulary it can be a hard thing to admit, a weakness. Friday I spent the majority of the day working on

I even went so far as to introduce myself as a Joaner on the first day of class. Stating with pride how I would be the one to tear apart a film or performance based more on the technical aspects of a creation. Even now as I write this I find myself thinking back to “Texas Rising” and though I enjoyed the show, for the most part liked the portrayal of the characters and the production value, I still find myself thinking of the negatives, i.e. locations and the soap operatic feel I found the show having, but again I enjoyed it enough to devote 10 hours of my life watching the show in its

Joining the Navy at 17 and spending a large portion of early adult years that testosterone soaked environment helped to turn me into the Joaner I am today. Thinking back to the seeds of what I can only call my negative outlook on life, I can think back to the days of writing evaluations on the people that worked for me. They were written often, junior enlisted every six months and senior enlisted annually sometimes for as many as forty people at a time. I can remember lamenting with my fellow Chiefs the ease of writing a “dirt-bag” evaluation verses and run of the mill or an outstanding one. It seemed very easy to tear another down, slightly harder to give the appearance that a subordinate could walk on water but the middle of the road, or your average performer could be equated to removing one’s own fingernails with rusty plyers. Words like average, proficient, capable, pedestrian and the kiss of death mediocre were words we used to describe those not fit to advance, words that should have neither a negative or positive connotation could be used to tear another down. We even had a book on proper phrases to use for certain levels of achievement, most read exapmles were at the end, taken from actual British Navy Evaluations, I can remember my favorite, “Somewhere a village is missed an idiot” Now the British know how to