START A NEW GENRE OF WRITING

Memoir ( hồi kí ), the most popular literary genre when I studied in Vietnam, becomes familiar to me as a reader. I never thought once that I can be the author of a memoir. I used to prefer academic papers which tend to base on available scientific or social information and express my ideas. Writing about the experience of my life - of the eighteen-year-old girl - makes me feel a little overwhelmed due to the fact that I am too young and less experienced than authors whose famous memoirs I had read. 

( one of the most popular memoir in Vietnam )

I take the first-year seminar class called Eng 151: Alternative Autobiography. Uhm… The name

of the class actually impressed me. I read the class’s description and whispered:

“ Well, this class seems to be interesting and chilling. It is suitable for me to come to the class and tell my own stories, my autobiography. Writing required in the class may not be so hard as memoir writing.”

The first Eng 151 class gave me a bunch of essay examples and a single printed introduction to my assignment for my first paper. My professor tried to explain to me what examples are about and the point of reading them. I flipped the assignment paper; the bold title really frightened me with MEMOIR. I sat in my dorm room and wondered how readings would help me with my memoir while right the first essay confused me with a series of vocabulary and long sentences; somehow the title of the first reading was “One long sentence”. It took me all night long over 3 days to finish half of the essay.

After 3 days of non-sleep and realizing that the due date is coming within 5 days, I decided to straight forward what I need to write. I picked my favorite title: “ Future Imperfect” - the most comprehensible essay written by Dinah Lenney - that narrated how the author’s father changed when he got old; reading the essay brought back memories of my time spent with my father, who is aging rapidly; it got me to consider the future: What lies ahead?

I started to map out my writing content; the detailed layout only took me 3 hours straight without breaks. I learned that in college writing, I need to give insight into suitable sources rather than trying to be involved in all of the given sources. Moreover, I understood that being suspicious of a new writing genre wastes my time and keeps me from learning about new experiences.