Tony Roegiers

Millennial Musings Tony Roegiers

This little book came about because my Fall 2016 English Composition students wrote some marvelous personal essays in response to the following prompt: Write your own personal essay of at least three to five pages in which you turn yourself into a character. This is not a college application essay, so you don't have to make yourself look good or persuade anyone that you are a marvelous person and a potential boon to their institution of higher learning. This essay takes an honest look at your quirks and foibles, your phony personas, your wannabeisms--yes, and even your strange biases. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself; it's a sign of character. Above all, have fun doing it. Take a wild journey out; you don't even have to return. Experiment with rhetorical devices, but use them to entertain, not to persuade. Play with rhetorical fallacies, but make it obvious that you recognize them are being ironic. Speaking of irony, show that you are able to look at yourself ironically. I thought that their responses to this prompt might offer some insight into the minds, feelings, attitudes, biases, culture, and humor of the current 18- to-22-year-old set at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, and I think it did. I warned them beforehand that they would be asked to read their essays aloud to their classmates.