For my borrowed memoir, I want to focus on mortality. I chose to write about a vacation I took with my family when I was eight to go visit my grandfather in West Virginia. This was the last vacation we went on together as a whole family, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, and parents included. When I was eight, I wasn’t really thinking about the fact that this might be the last memory we all recorded together. I wasn’t thinking about how the people in my life were temporary. This essay will explore through my lens now the contrast between the carefree nature of youth and the more serious realities of aging.
I believe that this subject will appeal to other readers because family and loss are subjects that everyone experiences. I think that they are aspects of life that bring us closer together and foster a sense of community. I feel that through this memoir, I want to use details of imagery and specific moments in order to evoke a sense of innocence and longing as well as a sense of grief. I want to incorporate Lopate’s ideas of “character development in expressing your opinions, prejudices, half-baked ideas, etc.” because I feel that my memoir lends itself to having this view of myself (Lopate 43). As I am reflecting on a younger version of me, I am able to be aware of my own flaws and what I am still unable to see in that moment.
Advanced Composition 