When I accepted my offer of admission to the Pennsylvania State University in the winter of 2013, I had many hopes and dreams for my first year here. I hoped to make life long friends and to establish connections. I dreamed of preforming well and of creating a strong academic foundation that would prepare me for further study and exploration in graduate school. But my freshman year at Penn State turned out to be so much more. I knew coming in that I had already found many pieces of myself and that throughout this four year long journey I would discover the remaining pieces I needed to complete the puzzle that is myself. During this past year, however, I found pieces coming together that I didn’t know I needed. There are certain aspects of myself that I didn’t know I had, but that I have come to understand are critical elements of my character.
I am beginning to see the discovery of myself as if it were an excavation. I went in with expectations or hopes for certain discoveries, but I ultimately uncovered treasures I had never anticipated. But these pieces were not necessarily bright, bold or attention-grabbing. Rather, they were seemingly insignificant aspects that may have otherwise been overlooked. Nonetheless, these pieces were the missing links I needed. They have provided connections to parts of myself that had remained too long in the shadows. It is through this process of self-understanding that I have come to realize that the best discoveries always come in the most unexpected ways.
My writing has always been a reflection of who I am: where I have been, where I am, and where I am going. It is my way of illustrating my thoughts and ideas that may otherwise have been difficult to articulate. My enrollment this past year in a freshman seminar, Rhetoric and Civic Life I and II, however, strengthened my ability to communicate my thoughts and helped me develop a unique voice that now appears as a defining characteristic in my work. To demonstrate this stylistic transformation, I have included a few works that best reflect my evolution and that exhibit the skills and knowledge I have acquired during my first year at the Pennsylvania State University.
http://peytonrmorris.weebly.com
**For whatever reason, I cannot get my website to take an active link. It does not show up at all on this page once published. I apologize for the inconvenience.