Clermont Campus Observation

John Morris
Professor Shepherd
English Composition I

A crisp, cool breeze sweeps across the campus under a blanket of silver sky as I stare out through the window at the vast beauty of the outside world. Students stroll down the walkways, light jackets covering their backs, gripping their umbrellas. Some will gather under their umbrellas as they engage in friendly conversation about school, current events, and life in general. Others walk quickly through the brisk rain, glancing and smiling at their friends as they hurry to their respective classes. The rain begins to slow down just a bit, and eventually disappears. The clock strikes 10:50 and a sea of hundreds of young men and women pass through the doors of each building, passing through small puddles of fresh rainwater to jump in their cars and leave campus for the day. Those who remained at school walked quickly to their upcoming classes, clutching warm coffee in their hands.
Sitting in the campus library, I peered through a window at the depressing environment on this mid-Autumn day at Clermont College. A slow, chilling wind blew through the campus under a dark, grey sky, pushing the descending rain to an angle. Hundreds of students, covered in drenched jackets and protecting themselves from the cold, biting rain with large umbrellas, walk briskly to avoid the discouraging weather to attend their next class. Companions huddle together to find warmth under their umbrellas, and loners sauntered into their respective buildings, grim-faced and shivering. Some exchanged quick “hello’s” but did not seem to care too much for a reply, as they walked right by each other to expedite the time it took to get to class. Classes let out at 10:50, soon after the drizzle was halted. Young men and women, clinging onto their coffee as if it was their last, either trudged their way through the puddles to reach their cars or strode into another building to prepare for their next course.

This project was, as I felt, a very good practice for looking into the concepts of different angles of vision. The idea of looking at a situation or setting in two different perspectives is not just a great strategy for writing compositions, but also for many situations in life. If everyone could apply this concept to seeing the qualities of places, situations, and other people, the world would be a happier place altogether. Individuals could get along better with other people, and there would be much less violence and hate crimes everywhere. People would see others for who they are as a person and not just for a wrong that the person may have committed.
It was also interesting trying to force myself to omit and add some certain facts to each description of the setting. Even though I personally felt that the scene on campus was a beautiful sight, I made myself fix the tone of my writing and change some of my emotions and the facts about that rainy day on the Clermont College campus. I started by describing how I really felt, which was happy and almost awestruck, then I changed the tone by displaying my vision of the campus as dark and depressing. This style of writing allows readers to consider their visions of different situations as they read the passage.
As to the quality of the writing, I felt like I did a good job of writing this composition. I was able to give descriptive sensory details and use creative wording for each emotional side of the scene. Although the composition was effective overall from my point of view, I feel that the accounts of the setting on campus were slightly flawed. In some sentences, I felt like I dragged on with my topics and made the writing slightly boring. Despite the latter factors and because of the earlier ones, I believe that this project was very successful for me, knowing that this is my first composition in a college-level English class.