I dream of the memories. Summer days. Fishing on the lake. Standing in the Georgia clay. Tiny feet running down the stairs on Christmas Day. Green and Blue, the rooms we shared upstairs. Eating veggies, chips and dip while playing cards. Fireworks from the dock as the lights reflect over the water. Flowers in my hair without a care in the world. The breeze through my hair. Holidays, birthdays, family gatherings, it was all done in love and brought us together. My great grandmother’s lake house, the place that brought me happiness, pure joy, the place I felt young and whole.
What makes a tiny memoir engaging and relatable to me is that you can visualize the feelings, memories and relate to the story. It also provides an inside look on others life and a possible core memory. The persuasion on the audience is also interesting because sometimes it makes you feel or react a certain way and recall your own memory. The ways that you can persuade your reader is referred to in the text as using Aristotle’s Three Appeals-Ethos-Credibility, Logos-Logic, and Pathos- Emotion. (Garrett 2021, pg. 41) I feel like I lean heavily into the Pathos- emotional side of telling my stories. I also feel like I can relate more to people who share similar memories and experiences.
I think my topic of childhood memories is effective at being engaging and relatable because everyone has a history. We may have had a good or bad childhood, but everyone’s experience will be different because it is through our own eyes and personal experiences. When we were kids, we couldn’t wait to grow up, yet the adults told us we did not want to, and we couldn’t understand why. Now as an adult myself all I want to do is go back in time and be a kid again.
Resources:
Garrett, B. (2021). Rhetoric and Writing Composition at UWF (6th ed., p. 41). Fountainhead Press.
"Teen Tiny Memoirs: The Winners of Our 2nd Annual 100-Word Narrative Contest: Contests." The New York Times, 17 Jan. 2024, nId=cQGvG6Iv8jV59PivwpgCtBsBLz4odW0cY9rRFTt%2F%2FR0%3D&sourcetype=Blogs,%20Podcasts,%20&%20Websites. Accessed 8 Apr. 2024.