Sarah+Niedzwiecki

Sarah Niedzwiecki Hartman English 103 10 December 2010 Cover Letter for Portfolio Papers I have written in the past have definitely changed over the years. I have noticed that I tend to be much more descriptive and use a greater amount of detail in my writing. In other classes I have discovered that my grades have been slightly higher on my papers, than they used to be back in high school. I do not really understand how, but I do feel I have become a stronger writer through time. I know there are times though, where teachers have told me to change certain things, and I always seem to ignore their comments. I think it is mostly because I feel so comfortable writing a certain way, that changing it has always been very difficult for me. However, I do know that I have changed certain aspects of my writing. Teachers have told me in the past that I need to write more in detail and show what I am explaining more. Like I stated earlier, I have learned to be more descriptive in my papers. In my portfolio, you will find that I have included my multi-genre paper about when I was a bagger at a grocery store. I personally really enjoyed writing that, once I understood how to do it properly. I feel that my multi-genre paper is a good piece for my portfolio because it shows my creativity. It shows how I can write using different types of genres and still have it make sense. I learned to use dialogue, stories, journal entries, and even recipes to explain what bagging was like for me. It definitely was a writing I am not used to, but it has made me use the creative part of my brain more to write a paper. I believe it was an interesting experience. Also, in my portfolio, I have included a paper about some of the horrors I have faced living in a dorm. A good friend of mine, Kaitlyn, is who the paper is directed to. I ended up sending her the paper to have her read it because she has told me she is upset about staying at home to go to college. After she read it, she told me she found it to be very humorous and that it was a good read. She also said that it did end up convincing her that dorms are not the most luxurious place to be living. Although she still has doubts about living at home for college, she now has some skepticism towards living in a college dormitory. Overall, I feel that my writing has improved tremendously over the years. I have become much stronger and am much more thorough when it comes to my writing. However, I do know that my writing is not perfect, and it could always use some work. I personally believe that I need to get a little better on my organizational skills. I also believe that my writing needs slightly stronger vocabulary. I am not implying that my vocabulary skills are bad, I just feel that my papers could be a little better if I used more a variety of words, and less simple adjectives. Also, for my research papers, I think I need to make use of sources more. Sometimes, I will find a four-page paper about the topic I am writing about. Instead of making full use of that source, I tend to simply just use it for one quote of one paragraph. I feel that by doing that, the source is not used effectively. I think that may have something to do with the fact I always seem to have trouble with meeting the length requirements for certain papers. Even though my writing has improved over time, I believe that if I do these certain things my papers will improve significantly more.

This open letter is a good piece for my portfolio because it shows how I write in a great amount of detail.

An Open Letter To Students Staying at Home for College Dear Kaitlyn, I know you have been upset about staying home to go to college, but let me tell you, it is not as amazing as everyone makes it seem. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy college; I like the people, I like the independence, and most of all, I like the parties. However, college is like a rollercoaster. There are ups and there are downs. I will not lie to you and tell you that I wish I was back home, but there are certain things I took for granted at home that I will never take for granted again. I live in a dorm and at college, the food is not necessarily healthy, the bathrooms are gross, and you do not have the privacy, quiet, and cleanliness like you do at home. The first disadvantage about college is that the food is not good for you. Of course they have healthy food choices, but you can only eat so many salads before you get sick of them. Are you familiar with the rumor called “freshman fifteen?” Well if you’re not, I can explain it to you easily. The “freshman fifteen” is basically stating that most freshman generally gain a lot of weight at college. When I first came here I thought, “How bad could it be?” Well, I quickly discovered that the rumor is very true and it is extremely easy to gain fifteen pounds during freshman year of college. They offer things like vegetables and fruit as sides, but nine times out of ten a person is going to choose fries over the healthy choices. I never thought I would miss my mom’s home-cooked meals with fresh broccoli and carrots. The second major drawback about college is the bathrooms. You have no idea how nasty girls can be. I always thought girls were supposed to be the “clean” ones too. I was wrong. The toilets are gross. They do not get cleaned very well and a lot of the time the toilets do not flush everything so I have walked into stalls and seen some disgusting things. I have come across used tampons, feces, and toilet bowls filled with used toilet paper. It is not a pleasant surprise when I walk in on these leftovers. However, after I let out a couple cuss words, I flush the toilet so the next person to walk in there does not see what I saw. Another bad thing about the bathrooms, which I also believe it to be the worst, are the showers. They are atrocious and repulsive. I have found items such as cotton swabs, used band-aids, and enough hair to make a wig. While trying to avoid touching these gross things, I also try and avoid touching the walls. If I bend over and my backside hits the wall I feel I have to scrub that part of my body down until it is red. There has to be a whole layer of soap scum on the walls. In addition to the walls and floors, the showerhead is unclean as well. There is a thick, visible ring of mold surrounding the head, and it makes turning the shower head much more difficult because I do not want to touch it. The third and final downside about college is the fact that it is not like “home.” I used to take my privacy, quiet, and cleanliness for granted, but I never will again. I miss being able to dance around like a fool in my room because I never know when my roommate is going to show up. I also am always worried about changing clothes too because I am fearful of “mooning” my roommate or showing her something she does not want to see. Also, living in a dorm, I do not get the peace and quiet here like I do at home. I sleep next to the window and sometimes I can hear people a few floors up screaming or laughing. Right after I hear these loud people, someone from a different floor screams out their window telling them to “shut up.” Most of the time their efforts do not work, even though I greatly appreciate it. The walls are paper-thin here and I can even here small noises coming from my next-door neighbors rooms. Another bad thing about my dorm room is that it is not totally clean. I know it sounds weird because I am the one in charge of cleaning it, but I cannot prevent spiders and other bugs from coming into my room. I am completely convinced that spiders love me because I have come across several. I have arachnophobia and I do not enjoy their presence. There have been nights where I have been sleeping and randomly decide to open my eyes only to find a giant, hairy, brown, eight-legged creature crawling on my windowsill. I personally believe that spiders are better than alarm clocks because I have never jumped out of bed so quickly. Another time I was lying down on my bed while playing on my laptop. I saw something move in the corner of my eye so I turned my head and found a spider crawling through my hair. I used to think that the only place spiders would be was in my room, until I discovered that one followed me into the bathroom. A spider decided to hide in my shower caddy one day. When I went to pick up my loofa I discovered another arachnid trying to scare me. Thankfully, however, it had drowned during my shower so I did not have to go through the dread of killing it with my shoe and getting guts all over it. So as you sit at home and wish you were away at school, I want you to know that it is not as cracked-up as everyone makes it seem. The food is going to turn me into a “walking tank,” the bathrooms here are absolutely disgusting, I do not get the quiet and privacy that I want, and I have to defend myself from terrifying spiders. I hope you appreciate your own home because living at college is not always an amazing experience. However, if you come to visit I will promise to take you to a party so you can get to experience the good part of being away at college.

I believe my blog posts are decent pieces for my portfolio because they show how I can quickly establish a point I am trying to make.

[|My college experience....so far.]  Leaving home was something hard to do, but leaving my friends has been even harder. I do not really have any close friends that came to Ball State, so at times it can be hard. However, I'm doing well getting myself out there to try and meet new people. I have already been to my first couple of parties, and those have been extremely fun. It's been nice to meet new people. So far the schoolwork hasn't been too difficult, but I know it will get worse. Thankfully, though, I seem to like all my teachers so that's a plus. Other than that, this has been my life here at Ball State. [|What I Miss] 1) I really, really miss good Mexican food. I'm from the Chicago area and there is a place in my county called East Chicago, otherwise known as "Little Mexico." There are so many Mexican restaurants near me, and the food is amazing. I love spicy food and the only Mexican food I've gotten here is mediocre. I miss tacos, tamales, and rice so much!   2) I also really miss my cat. I know it sounds somewhat like I'm a lonely cat person, but I miss my boo. He cuddled up into my arm every night when I slept. I used to find that annoying, but now I miss it. I am almost tempted to see how long I can try and hide my cat in my dorm room. 3) Not having my close friends here sucks. It was nice to have them minutes away from my house, but now they are three and a half hours away. I'm not worried about making new friends here. That part is easy. However, it's not so easy to build a friendship that is as close as some of my friends from back home. I takes time to build a close friendship.   [|Halloween]     But anyways, college and halloween combined is amazing. I haven't had such a good weekend in so long. It was so much fun. I dressed up as a mouse for halloween and uploaded my pictures on facebook. My brother, who lives in Texas, saw the pictures and decided to text me about them. His text read, "Minnie Mouse? You would have made a better pumpkin." If calling your sister fat doesn't show you love her, then I don't know what does.   This next piece is a good choice for my portfolio because it shows my creativity and my use of variety in my writing. I’m writing a multi-genre paper about my job at Jewel-Osco. I worked there for well over two years during high school. About a year of that, I have worked as a bagger, until I got promoted to the floral department. However, that’s not too important because it doesn’t include anything about the floral department. There were certain aspects of the job that I did enjoy, like the people, so when you read this please don’t think I’m a whiny complainer and an extremely pessimistic person. I just wrote about some of the horrors I faced as a bagger. My paper includes things that have actually happened to me and it also includes a negative, but very true help wanted ad.  Help Wanted at Jewel-Osco:

Looking for a part-time service clerk (bagger). You will be given only one work shirt until you’ve been there for three months. You have to wear the provided uniform with black pants and black shoes. Your shirt is very cheap and will slowly shrink every time you dry it, and we will give you a hard time when you try to ask for a new one. The black pants you buy will become very worn and most likely rip in numerous areas, so be prepared to spend a lot of money on new pants because you cannot dress like a slob. The shoes you wear will become disgusting from walking in the back of the store by the dumpster. The meat department leaves their rotting meat there so sometimes you will walk in blood. Also there can be quite a lot of sticky stuff on the floor back there so hopefully you don’t stick to the floor. Therefore, be prepared to buy new shoes also. The job requires working roughly 20-hours a week and working any and all holidays. Fourth of July, New Year’s Eve, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Easter. These are just a small number of holidays baggers have to work. But don’t worry; I’m sure your family and friends will be willing to wait to celebrate these holidays with you. It should not affect any of your plans, and if it does, that’s not our problem. Also, customer service is our main goal. If you do not say “Hi” to every customer you pass, we will probably write you up. We will also write you up for a number of other things, but you will figure those out as you go along. We don’t like to give away our secrets. The job also requires an employee that is capable of standing for long periods of time without a break. You must be willing to give up every weekend and most school-nights to come bag groceries for stupid people who put the bread on the conveyor belts first and complain when it gets smashed. Baggers also have to go retrieve shopping carts from the cart corrals outside, regardless of the weather conditions. This job also includes doing a certain amount of night jobs. The night jobs include: 1) Fill Bags - self-explanatory; fill up the grocery bags at night. The paper bags weigh a lot so hopefully you don’t fall over when lifting them. 2) Clear Lot – The bagger working latest must remove all the shopping carts from the parking lot before they leave. Most of the other baggers who are supposed to get carts later at night don’t, so you will be stuck outside for a long time because the cart corrals are usually filled to capacity. 3) Clean Registers – Spray glass cleaner on the conveyor belts and wipe it down. 4) Inside Trash – Empty all the trash bins underneath the registers, in the bathrooms, in the office, and by the coffee machine. 5) Outside Trash – Go outside and empty the trash bins outside. Be aware, though, they smell terrible and leak liquids from people throwing unfinished drinks in there. Also, put the garbage bags in a shopping cart to take to the dumpster, and do not clean the shopping cart before putting it back for the customers to use. 6) Overstock – You know those items that you realize you don’t need anymore once you get to the register? Well guess what! Baggers get to put them all back. It’s roughly about three full shopping carts per night so be prepared to spend a couple hours putting everything back where it belongs.

A typical work night: 3:55- punch in 3:56- begin bagging 5:00-5:30- get carts in either the scorching heat or the blistering cold 5:30-6:30- bag more groceries for customers 6:30-7:00- get more shopping carts 7:00-7:12- take a “fifteen” minute break, but I only get 12 minutes or else they call you over the loud speaker and tell you to check your time because you are over your break time 7:15-7:30- bag more groceries 7:30-8:00- bring in more carts 8:00-8:20- start doing a night job (trash, overstock, fill bags, etc.) 8:20-8:30- bag more groceries 8:30-8:45- bring in more carts 8:45-8:50- hide in the bathroom for five minutes to either warm up or cool off. 8:50-9:00- continue getting carts 9:00-9:45- hopefully finish night jobs 9:45-10:00- bag some more 10:00- punch out and go home to do homework

September 15, 2008: The schools are closed. There is a flood in my town. Awesome right? Wrong. I have to get shopping carts in our flooded parking lot. The water is up to the lower part of my calf in the deepest part of the parking lot. It wouldn’t be so bad if this wasn’t smelly sewer water.

Dear Amy, I’m so jealous you quit Jewel and went off to college. I hope you’re enjoying it because I miss working with you. I have to deal with Harry, at the service desk, all the time. He’s so rude. He thinks that just because he’s older than me, and got promoted from cashier to a service desk person, that he can just boss me around. For instance, the other day I was on my break and so was he. He spilled his drink all over the table and told me to clean it up. I looked at him and squinted my eyes and like a bitch I said, “Sorry, I’m on break.” He acts like he runs the place with all of us high schoolers. He only graduated last year! And then, last week he almost made Emily cry! Eric and I were walking out of the store together and Emily was on carts and she started to talk to us for a minute. Harry saw her and brought her to the service desk, threatening to tell Carlos. Little did Emily know that he was joking around, but he seriously almost brought tears to her eyes. We all just hate Harry so much and I kind of wish you were to feel our pain so we could all complain together, but mostly I wish you were here because I miss all the good times we had. But, I hope you’re having fun being unemployed. I can’t wait to graduate high school and quit this place. Your best friend, Sarah

On Christmas Eve, one year, I had to work an eight-hour shift. I was working as the “holiday helper.” The “holiday helper” roams the aisles for eight hours straight asking people if they need help finding anything. It may seem like easy money, but it is the most boring job in existence. It was actually exciting when people did need help finding things. One customer, however, was not very exciting to help. In fact, she was just the opposite. Me: Did you need help finding anything? Woman: Yes, where are the pimentos? Me: I’m sorry, what are pimentos? Woman: They are those red things in olives. Me: Oh ok, those should be in aisle three with all the other vegetables. Woman: Thank you. Me: No problem. That’s how our conversation should’ve ended. However, she came back two minutes later. Woman: They weren’t there. Me: Oh, I apologize, I thought they would’ve been. Let me find a stocker and ask them. I’ll be right back. Me: Mike, where are pimentos? Mike: What are those? Me: The red things in olives. Mike: Oh, those should be in aisle three. Me: I know, that’s what I said, but the lady said they weren’t there. Mike: Well go find Dean (the grocery manager) and ask him. Me: Ok.

Me: Hey Dean, where are the pimentos? Dean: Aisle three. Me: The lady said they weren’t there. Dean: Well they should be. We’re probably out then. Me: Alright. As I walked back to the lady, she looked insanely pissed because it took me several minutes to come to that conclusion. I can only imagine how much more pissed she’s going to get when she finds out we are out of pimentos.

Me: Ma’am, I’m very sorry, but nobody knows where they are exactly since you didn’t see them in aisle three. We are probably out of them. Woman: Ugh, I can’t believe you! I buy these here all the time. This is ridiculous. How does nobody know where they are?! I walked away rolling my eyes wanting more than anything to say, “Well if you buy these here all the time, how do // you // not know where they are?” However, I just bit my tongue and walked away. Five minutes later the woman walked up to me. Woman: (In a snotty tone) By the way, they were in aisle three. Just so you know for next time. Me: Ok, thanks. I couldn’t believe she said that to me when I originally told her that aisle. Some people really know how to made me mad.

January 20, 2009: I hate getting these damn shopping carts. I’m freezing. My nose is running, my lips are numb, and my legs are shaking. I can’t believe we had such bad freezing rain and now the cart corrals are covered in ice along with some of the shopping carts. What’s that in one of the shopping carts? It’s something white and round. Damn, I wish it wasn’t so dark out right now. Ugh, I hate when people use these shopping carts as their own personal trash cans. Alright, just grab it and throw it out. (Holding mysterious white object in hand) Hmm, what is this that I’m holding? (Looks closer at object) Oh My Gosh! It’s a used diaper! This is disgusting! Who would do this? Ew!

Recipe for a Bagger: 1 cup bagging 1 cup getting carts ½ cup doing night jobs ¼ cup cleaning messes ¼ cup saying “Hi” to random customers 1 tbsp dealing with angry customers 1 tsp sucking up to the store managers

February 6, 2009: Bagging at register one. I am in the bird’s-eye view of my bosses at the customer service desk. Uh oh. Wendy just glanced over at my direction. Quick, Sarah, walk away to another register so she picks someone else to do whatever work they have planned for you. Oh, no! She’s headed towards the phone. Walk faster, walk faster. “Sarah to the service desk, Sarah to the service desk, “ is what I hear over the loudspeaker. Damn. I didn’t get away fast enough. I should’ve never bagged at register one. Me: What’s up, Wendy? Wendy: Sarah we need a clean up over by the deli. Here’s a pair of rubber gloves. Me: Rubber gloves? What do I have to clean up? Wendy: You’ll see. Just go to the janitor’s closet first and get the rolling trash bin and the Spill Magic. Me: Alright. Now that I have the trash can let’s go find out what they have me cleaning up. Hmm, what is this? I think it’s chicken? Or soup? Oh come on, you’ve got to be kidding me. Someone puked all over the floor! This is nastier than the diaper! This sucks.

One day as I was bagging, a man was purchasing two bags of chips. Like a typical bag of potato chips, they are always half-filled with air. The bags always make a kind of “crunchy” sound when you touch the air-filled parts. I grabbed the tip of this man’s chips and got yelled at. Man: Excuse me. You just ruined all my chips. I want two new bags. Me: (smiling because I thought he was joking with me) Man: I’m serious. I want two new bags. Me: Oh. Um, I’m sorry sir I thought I just touched the air. Man: Whatever, I’ll just grab the bags myself. (Comes back with two new bags) Here. Don’t break all my chips this time. And bag them separately. And be careful. Me: Ok, sir. It’s people like that, that make me want to say something back, but of course, the customer is always right. Did I ever mention how much I hate that rule?

March 5, 2009: Finally. I’m done being a bagger. I got a promotion to the floral dept. I no longer have to go outside and freeze my butt off or sweat like crazy. I don’t have to bag any more groceries for customers. I am no longer doing the worst job in the store. I now get to work with flowers. This is going to be great.