Good Jeans

The Minor in Writing at the University of Michigan provides an opportunity for students to learn about producing multi-modal works applicable for any purpose - whether professional or everyday life. All students accepted into the minor are required to begin their writing journey in the Gateway Course, or Writing 220. In this Gateway Course, students pick an Origin Piece to grow into an entirely new work (or works.) All students go through a series of three experiments, or “phases” as I kept calling them, to explore writing genres and content, ultimately reaching a Fully Realized Project. Having now completed this project, I found that there is a vital process of writing that I had always seemed to disregard. This key component has particularly stuck out when completing this project:

Embracing the developmental period when working on our writing. 

 

Writing has always been an outlet for me for as long as I remember. I can recall sitting down at my writing exams in the fourth grade and scribbling away on fictional anecdotes, feeling as though the test time flew by. I was even fond of the expository and argumentative essays and would plan my paper as I read through the directions. The time I received a perfect score on a writing assignment in an Advanced Placement (AP) course in high school was etched into my brain. The first courses I enrolled in in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts were First Year Writing and Creative Writing in Poetry and Nonfiction. If it is not already obvious, I love writing. I’ve always known that no matter what I was going to pursue professionally, I would somehow be writing - I was going to make sure of it. Needless to say, the Minor in Writing was an incredibly exciting discovery at the end of my freshman year. 

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When my Gateway Course began to explore this major project at the beginning of the semester, I was as confident about what I was going to do as when I got my perfect score. The Origin Piece I chose was a poem I had written in the prior semester called You’ve Got Good Jeans. This poem centers on embracing change and finding beauty in these moments. My mind began to race during classes on all the possible ways I could conglomerate business, fashion, photography, and all the things I have never gotten to deep dive into to create something new from my poem. “I enjoy keeping up with the latest trends!” Why couldn’t I do analytical research on fashion? “I’m pursuing social media marketing at the moment!” So why not create a brand? I felt ready to embrace ambitious ideas and get started on the experiments as soon as possible. In the past three months, I’ve read quite a few Forbes articles on digital marketing, analyzed anything posted on Vogue, and listened to many, many, episodes of influencer podcasts. Canva became my new best friend to draft ideas for graphic design and social media content I could create. Yet, throughout this process, I felt as though there was always something lacking in my ideas and experiments. The finished experiments ended up becoming a magazine cover for a vogue-style brand, then Pinterest boards to visualize potential photos for a clothing store, and finally an Instagram for a brand/blog/podcast. After workshopping and discussing these developments with my Gateway classmates, I noticed a pattern in their responses. People enjoyed seeing the creative side of things - the aesthetic I developed from the original piece, the blog I was accidentally creating through each phase, and to my surprise, my thoughts. After finalizing that experiment, I felt as though I had an epiphany. I was going to do a complete 180.

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My Fully Realized Project eventually became a collection of poetry blogs. These poems are both new and old pieces that I had tucked away in my back pocket and have never been seen until now. They do not have to do with business, fashion, or digital content. Instead, these poems reflect what the original piece You’ve Got Good Jeans does; change. They reflect on different periods of my life, things I love, observations, or general ideas. Some are serious and others are silly. These poems developed from my original piece, and they would not have been without the difficulties I encountered throughout my experimental phases. The initial draft of the magazine cover created the blog’s look, the Pinterest visualized the scrapbook feel, and the workshop where the Instagram page I created was discussed led me to where I am now. Without questioning my work, reflecting on the content and genre research, and discussing with my peers, I would not have realized how much beauty there is in simply sharing. I have realized that it’s great for me to want to continue writing in my career pursuits, but it’s also okay for me to just love it and make something that’s my own.

 

I hope you enjoy exploring You’ve Got Good Jeans, the blog.