Know your audience

I think we had a good time in Eng. 101 this week asking and answering each others questions for the "know your audience" assignment. It was really interesting to see the range of questions being ask. Some required a lot of thought on my part to answer. Like, who I would want to have lunch with. Gosh that list could be so long. It was hard to narrow it down to just one person. Or if I could be anyone from a favorite book, who would it be. Like I could really pick a favorite. As you can see, I can't even pick one favorite color. Others were easy to answer, like where I attended High School. Some responses from the class seemed real and genuine and a few seemed a little sarcastic to me. I'm not real sure though, as it is sometimes hard to see the tone someone is giving through text. I don't feel like my question was a good one for my audience. I ask "What were you doing 9-11-01?".  Most of the response I got back was, "I don't remember. I was in the first grade." Ok, so they are really young and maybe another question would have been best. I ask that question because it was September 11th, and I was listening to the radio on my way to school that morning. They were talking about all the things around the world that was planned to commemorate the day. It really made me sad to think about. Then it naturally made me think of where I was when I heard the bad news. It didn't even dawn on me that the people in my class might not even remember something that made such a big impression on my life. It was only after the assignment was over and I was on my way home, that I read the responses to my question.  I really beat myself up, thinking I should have ask something else. But then I got to talk to my children. My #1 son was 4 years old then, and he remembers watching it on television. My #2 son was almost 2 years old. He really doesn't remember, but has always honored the day with us every year. So he knows what happened and sympathizes with the situation. That made me feel a small bit better that kids younger than the ones in my class remembered something that happened during their lifetime. The news that night also had 9-11 stories. They interviewed High School seniors and got there stories of what they remember from that day in history. It was touching to hear, even though they were so young and only remembered a little bit. After seeing that, I felt better about my question, but will try to keep it more current in the future. The kids in my class are a real creative bunch. I got a real kick out of where they would want to live, and the craziest things they have done. I'm not too crazy. Old, married, Momma Holly is not very exciting. I would never have thought it to be a good idea to jump off the roof with an umbrella. I also thought it was interesting all the places they would like to live. I was surprised to see that as many as six of my classmates attended Kickapoo High School. One of my classmates was home schooled. How awesome is that! Maybe for my next writing I will choose a more current topic, or a much more exciting, upbeat one that most everyone has some experience in.