Hi, my name is Chelsea Journee and I am from The Woodlands, Texas. The Woodlands is about 30 minutes north of Houston, Texas. My family and I have lived in the same house my entire life so it was a big change for me when I decided to go to college in a different state. I am currently a first semester senior (by hours) at OU. I am studying public relations and my minor is general business. On campus I am pretty involved. I am in a social sorority, I am an account manager for Lindsey + Asp (OU's student-run PR and ad agency) and I am also the treasurer for PRSSA (Public Relations Student Society of America). (Personal Photo: My sorority family) (Personal Photo: PRSSA executive leadership outside of Gaylord Hall) I enjoy lounging around with my dogs while watching Netflix in my free-time. My dog's names are Jasper and Snickers. Jasper is a miniature dashchund that loves to lay in anyone's lap and we don't really know what Snickers is because we rescued her
Chelsea, I really enjoyed your recreation of "How the Turtle Saved His Own Life". When I started reading your story, I knew it was going to be different since the girls already knew what a turtle was and did not seem to be frightened by it. However, I did think the girls from the story seemed rude since they were so noisy around the turtle's home. I liked how you made the father in the story seem ominous by catching the turtle and carrying him away without a word. It resembled the King taking the turtle away to his death. I enjoyed the fact that you kept the theme the same that the turtle was able to survive. I wonder if you might add a special spot or something on the turtle back so that the girls do know that he was the turtle from their pond. I think it would be nice if the girls learned a lesson, like being respectful of other people's/animals' homes. Great job, I can't wait to come back and read more!
ReplyDeleteChelsea, I loved your version of the "How the Turtle Saved His Own Life". It was very original and you added ton of other details that just makes the story come alive. I loved the setting of the story and the lesson it teaches. Instead of turtle using his wits to survive, the turtles survives and gets better life through pure luck. I feel likes its more friendly version than the original story. I love how you switch the setting to a more of a common place also. Molly and Hazel seems more likable than a king or prince. Overall, i loved your storybook design and spacing of the story was also very good. Keep up the good work and cant wait for your next story!
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea! I just finished reading "Hi, my name is Ravana." I really, really enjoyed your retelling. First of all, I love that you made this story into a journal. It is simple to read and it it also intriguing. Looking at Ravana from this angle makes the reader much more sympathetic toward him. It is interesting to stop and think that maybe he does not want to behave the way he does. When he is Ravana, he feels remorse for the things he does when he is out of control. I wonder what would happen if he was aware and conscious during his episodes! Also, what if you gave his other personalities names and described his behaviors as though we were there to see it, like Sita! It might exemplify the difference between Ravana and his alter agos. Nice work! I'll be looking forward to your future stories.
ReplyDeleteHey Chelsea! I just read your first story, "The Awful Encounter with Turtle", and thought it was really funny and cute! Is there turtle's name Turtle? The title was pretty funny too! I was going to say if the it's name isn't turtle maybe change the title to "The Awful Encounter with the Turtle". I also liked the suspense in the story when the girls go tell their dad about the turtle. I thought he was angry and going hurt the total but was happy when he actually gave it a home. I also like how the turtle was greatful. I think he was just grumpy because he didn't like his home. The story was well detailed and I couldn't stop reading. I'm wondering what would happen if the girls knew that the turtle was the same one that was mean to them. Keep up the good work! I look forward to reading more of your stories.
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea! I like that you included a short introduction about yourself on your home page because I don’t think I’ve seen anyone else do that on their home page. I like the font and color of your titles as well. Maybe for your banner images, you can choose a photo that depicts the story you are about to tell so the readers can have a visual image in mind while reading your story and they can better follow it if they can imagine it. For your first story, I love the vivid imagery you used to set up the scene and describe exactly what Hazel and Molly are doing. The dialogue is also a great way to provide a variety of sentence structures as well as help the reader understand the emotions of the characters. It’s cool that you put a giphy at the end instead of just a photo. You did a wonderful job with your stories and I can’t wait to read more!
ReplyDeleteHey Chelsea! I just got done taking a look at your portfolio web page. Just reading the title of your portfolio had be really excited! I am some what of a herp lover, that is amphibians and reptiles so seeing your portfolio was going to be turtle based had be all gitty haha. Reading your rendition of "How the Turtle Saved His Own Life" I was impressed with how you put your own spin on the story. I thought that the way you changed up the end of the story to have the turtle find a home thanks to the king was cute. Then I moved on to your second story and was kind of sad to not find any turtle influences :(. I guess there is only so much turtle to go around. But, the story was still great! I too think that Ravana kind of gets a bad wrap and is actually probably a pretty chill guy. In all your portfolio looks great and I hope to see more turtle stories soon!
ReplyDeleteHey Chelsea! I just read your second story, “Hi, my name is Ravana.” I thing it was one of the masterpiece I really enjoyed reading that story. Wow I didn’t know that Ravana story could be made into a Journal story, where he writes daily activity. It was a really unique idea. From what I read if feels that Ravana is good guy but his other personality are the one doing the evil in the world and he feels bad for it because he is trying to other personalities but he is unsuccessful at it and trying to control them as best as he can. I wonder if he could control his ten head personalities in the future? To prevent them form going out of control then everything would fall in to places or I wonder he is able talk to other personalities inside his head? What if you gave each personality their name them people wouldn’t blame Ravana for his wrong but his other personalities.
ReplyDeleteHey Chelsea.
ReplyDeleteI really like your first story. It is a nice redux of the original and I appreciate how the people were not ignorant of what a turtle was. Your use of detail is superb when you describe the different creature in the pond, and the imagery of the sunfish is exceptionally vibrant. For your second story about Ravana, I like your interpretation of his 10 heads. The 10 personalities would make a lot of sense, and the way you have woven that into a story is very clever. I also enjoyed the use of dates like a journal entry. It is a nice way to tie everything to your theme and was implemented well. This whole story makes Ravana feel more likable than he did in the Ramayana, although that still does not mean he is a good person. I also did not know that Ravana played an instrument, nor did I know he cared that much about it.
Hey Chelsea!
ReplyDeleteI like that you put information about the portfolio project on the homepage of the website. There are so many that have no information on them (mine included). The more I see with a description the more I want to fix mine. I like the consistent theme of the portfolio and the turtles are a good way to go!
“The Awful Encounter with Turtle” was a wonderfully wholesome story. It made me happy to see that the turtle enjoyed his new home and was even happy to see the girls!
The story about Ravana was very interesting. I never thought of how hard it would be to have that many heads and arms, even if they did not have their own thoughts. Making his kidnapping of Sita a mistake of his other personalities removes some of the malice that is attributed towards Ravana, but I am not sure why he thought releasing her would be worse than keeping here. Surely, Rama would not have been that mad.
Hi Chelsea! I enjoy the layout of your Portfolio project - it is simple and clean, yet also has that pop of color from the images and header pictures you placed throughout it. I liked how you explained the purpose of your Portfolio website on the Home page and that you even added pictures from two of the four stories you have written/going to write. I believe this introduction gives readers and visitors to the website a clear idea of what is going on. I enjoyed reading "The Awful Encounter with Turtle" because it reminded me of a well-written children's book! It was straight to the point yet it encompassed so much details and was descriptive. I could paint a picture in my head while I was reading the story, which I believe is a great quality when it comes to writing. Wow, I truly enjoyed reading "Hi, my Name is Ravana" because it was unique with the journal entry format and how it incorporated psychology aspects throughout the story. Now, I may be biased because I am psychology major, but I thought it was cool and unique that you took psychology and applied it to an Indian epic! Overall, great job on the stories you have written and I cannot wait to read the remaining two! :)
ReplyDeleteOne of my absolute favorite things to do as a girl was walk in the woods, by a creek, watching tadpoles and other animals flit and flutter about. I love the language you used to describe the scene <3.
ReplyDeletePoor Turtle! Kids are the worst! Yeah, splash them, T. They’re cute but obnoxious.
Aw, so did the girls’ dad move him to the pond? I assume that’s what happened but I guess we’re seeing it from the turtle’s perspective so if he didn’t see it neither would we.
I guess the moral of this story might be that when we are lonely we may be less forgiving and more protective of our solitude. Once the turtle has more turtle friends he doesn’t seem to mind the girls anymore. He has gained a family and therefore is less concerned with losing his sleep. I love the end where he winks and they say he’s nicer than the “other” turtle. Cute.
Hello Chelsea! I really loved how your writing is going. Your retelling of the "How the Turtle Saved His Own Life", it was really fun and sounded much more modern than the original version. You did a great job of distilling the story down into a simple formula that had a lot of heart without a lot of fluff around it. I also really loved the way you made Ravana have multiple personalities, explaining his evil actions this way. While I think your stories are awesome, I think they could maybe use some more dialogue. Your first story has plenty, but your Ravana story does not. Regardless, I think your stories are both very strong and do a great job of taking classic Indian stories and retelling them in refreshing ways. Keep up the good work Chelsea, and I look forward to reading more of your stories as you add them to your portfolio!
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea! I really enjoyed going through your stories and seeing the details of your stories was wonderful. You definitely have an excellent and unique gifting for creative writing and using Indian Epic tales to portray a setting and character build that is solid and easy to follow.
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea! First off, awesome portfolio! I love the set up and the header images are perfect for the stories. I especially love the GIF on the first story. It really wraps up the story and models the old pond very well. The turtle story was my favorite one so far! It seemed like a very simple idea but ended up being very meaningful. The characters were described in a simple manner but still had enough depth to them. The setting was clearly and vividly described. Great job! One place to expand the story would be to add a few more visits where the sisters disturbed the turtle. Also, how each disturbance moved the turtle closer and closer to doing something. I liked how the turtle's fate was described before knowing the background. It made me want to keep reading to find out how he got to where he did. Fun story!
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea! I love what you've done with your portfolio! Your first story, "The Awful Encounter With the Turtle," was so enjoyable to read. Your dialogue was great and I really liked that none of the characters were good or evil per se, they just had different motivations, and they all got a happy ending!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't expecting the Ravana story to be so much different, but I suppose I should have, since this is a portfolio. I think it's great that you characterize him as more than just a villain! My only complaint would be that only two diary entries seems a little short. I would love to know how he's doing a little ways down the road.
The Wise and Foolish Turtles was also a great read, and I really appreciate that you like happy endings. The pictures in this story were also great, and helped give the story a solid sense of setting.
Overall I really enjoyed reading through your portfolio! I don't know if I'll be back in an official class capacity since I'm in Myth-Folklore, but I'll definitely read more either way!
Hi Chelsea great job on your portfolio! I have read all three stories and they've been entertaining to read. One of my favorite parts of the portfolio is the changes you have made to the stories. While they are different in a lot of ways, the stories still have some of the original content in them. This makes it feel like I am reading brand new Indian Epics stories which is awesome. The wording that you use in the stories is also really entertaining because I feel like I am in the story with them. In the second story, "Hi, my name is Ravana" changing Ravana to have multi personality disorder is something I haven't seen in the class before. It potrays him as someone who is not evil, but has no control over his actions. Great job on your portfolio so far!
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea, first of all, great job on your project. I really appreciate the fact that you made it turtle themed and all the stories involve turtles and Indian tales. I think that is really different and gives me a lot of inspiration as well for what I could do with my project. I really like your first story with the jataka tales and I think it goes really well with your theme. One thing that I think could make your connection a little bit stronger is to perhaps add a little bit more to your authors notes! Everything seems great and I think that the extra detail to the authors notes would really bring it to life. Like why did you choose this project? Why turtles? etc. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Chelsea! This is my first time visiting your portfolio. Your layout is perfect. It is simple, and really allows your writing to shine. I am really impressed with the fact that you choose such a creative approach to your portfolio. I really appreciate people who stuck with a theme for their portfolio. I originally wanted to do a theme, but knew that I was not creative enough to keep up with it, because I know it can be really difficult to incorporate specific things into stories, especially not knowing what reading you will be doing. I think you did a great job keeping your theme consistent. I also think that you theme is a great choose. Animals appeal to most people, so this is an automatic attention grabber. All your stories were very well written and detailed. Your author's notes did an excellent job of showing how you started with your source story and created your own. Overall, great job and I look forward to reading more of your work!
ReplyDeleteCHELSEA,
ReplyDeleteI loved your portfolio. It was so cute. It also was organized in a way that it was easy to function. The first thing I noticed was the pictures. You incorporated a lot of pictures and good pictures at that. They fit in with your picture very well. It was fun to read all the stories. The first one was cute. I really liked when the turtle winked at the girl. I like the second one because I am a psychology major so I enjoyed the multiple personalities part. I liked the third story because of the turtle who wanted to be left alone. I think we have all been in that boat and we come around to wanting them again. I really did enjoy your portfolio and I cannot wait to read the last story. Good luck with the rest of the semester. Good luck with the last few weeks, finish strong.
Hi Chelsea!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE TURTLES! That's why I clicked on yours, when given our class's list of options to read about. It'd be really awesome if, even if there weren't turtles in the ORIGINAL story, you incorporated them into the other stories in your portfolio. That way, it'd be cohesive all the way through. Also, it would give you an interesting writing challenge. You could aim to select the most non-turtley story in the class, and incorporate turtles. Heck, you could even make a Rama-Sita love story with Rama and Sita as turtles! That'd be so adorable, and there'd be so many interesting angles to explore in that turtle-romance. Even Ravana might be a little less intimidating as a turtle (unless he were a snapping turtle - I stay way away from those after last time...).
Overall, I greatly enjoyed reading your portfolio, and I hope you enjoy finishing it up this semester!
Thanks,
Britt