At last, it’s over.

Dear Fitz,

“Metacognition” is a fancy word. I’ve had that thought for the entire year, but I’ve never remembered to actually write it down in any metacognitions before. But now I have. Now what? I don’t know. I don’t think I want to know. Why not just call these things “reflections” instead? There’s a fairly high chance you’ve already explained the difference to us, but I don’t remember, and so I can only assume that you haven’t. 

I don’t think I’ve grown that much as a writer. I think I put all of my “learning energy” into learning about the easiest way to get a 100, or at least an A, and then optimizing the way I do things so that I can be lazy and do the smallest possible amount of work possible, instead of actually trying to improve. I would go and look back at the work I’ve done in the past year in order to remember what actually happened, but I’m to lazy to do that too. 

Anyway, one problem that I noticed about my writing is that I often know, or have an idea about the concept of the sentence/phrase that I’m trying to write, but can often take quite a long time for me to figure out what the words are actually supposed to be. If I don’t think it out, the sentences feel weird, and almost always don’t quite make sense. Like the first sentence in this paragraph. Transitions become almost always nonexistent too, which only adds to the fun. I don’t know how to fix it, and so a significant portion of the time it takes for me to write is spent just staring at the cursor line thing flash, steadily getting more and more bored. Success. 

I just reread the instructions in a fit of boredom, and I now realize that this probably not the standard type of “Fitz-style Journal Entry.” I’m not making a podcast or video, and so the only way I can see myself making this work is by just adding a “Dear Fitz,” at the top, and a “From, Mark” at the bottom without changing any of the other text at all. Does that validate this thing as a letter now? The “Dear Fitz” Portion came out in both a different font and text size as the rest of the paragraph. Therefore I must do the only possibly acceptable thing and only make the font match, while leaving the text two sizes smaller than the rest of the “letter.” Honestly this metacognition is a pretty good example of what happened with my writing this year: improper style, laziness, confusing sentences, more laziness, “oh wait I forgot to read the instructions” moments, grammar problems, and other great things. 

I read the instructions again, and I just realized it said that we should be “thorough.” I do realize this is my last English assignment of the year, but that doesn’t quite stop me from not trying. Sorry, Fitz.

From, 
Mark