Hindsights 20/20

Now has come the time when we look back and reflect on our previous semester. It is the time when we berate ourselves for the places where we faltered and pat ourselves on the back for getting through yet another semester. For me this time seems like the moments while driving that you allow yourself to look in the rear view mirror. But, while I was reflecting on what I would reflect on, I realized how rear view mirror focused this class was.
We spent the first few weeks of this class discussing Hurricane Katrina. We dissected and discussed every moment of those first few days after Katrina made land fall in New Orleans and did a wide sweeping arch of the months after that. What I can tell you is everyone in office screwed up. They screwed up big and they screwed up on national television. It didn't look good on them lets say that. But, hindsight is 20/20. As much as I would love to say I would never mess up as publicly and gravely as they did, I don't know. I didn't sit amongst our leaders as they discussed what the next step in this horrific tragedy was. I sat at home listening to the average man critique the work they'd done.
Now however, I feel it is no longer time to look in the rear view mirror. It is now time to move forward and change what we can. No, we can't fix the hundreds of mistakes our predecessors made, but we can take steps to change them. So, from this sentence on I refuse to look in my rear view mirrors, instead I plan to focus out my windshield and my non-profit tasks ahead.

The Unmentionable Second Draft

Anyone who has written for more than their own pleasure knows very well the second draft. In my opinion never again will any work bleeds like it does during its second draft. During your second draft your piece that was once so precious you couldn't have imagined ripping it to shreds becomes something more akin to a one night stands in the morning; it's never as pretty and as well written as you remember it. During the time you were creating the works first draft, you were on a creative high. The juices were flowing and your soul was out there for the whole world to see.
This is not at all the state you are in during your second draft. During your second draft your inner editor has begun to rear its ugly head and every sentence looks like it could be better written and the commas put in completely different places. Barbato and Furlich discuss all of this in chapter 9 of their book a long with many other things. They give amazing advice on when to use five cent words and when to use five dollar words, they discuss the parallel of letting twenty-two people give advice when only two count, and remind you to give yourself a break before going back and re-hacking at your masterpiece. All of this may seem like common knowledge but while reading a ton of it I thought, "why didn't I think of that?" It allowed me to take a more analytical stance when it came to looking at my baby and having to cut it down to size.