Senior Writing Portfolio Fall 2004 / Ashley Knezevich
Millikin University

Ashley Knezevich

Ashley Knezevich is currently a senior English-Writing major at Millikin University. In her spare time she is the Sports Editor for the Decaturian, which is the student newspaper on campus. She is also involved in Alpha Chi Omega social sorority, and is a member of Sigma Tau Delta English honors fraternity. Graduating in May 2005, Ashley looks to further her career through Walgreens Corporation through a management position, with a possibility of advancing to their corporate office and becoming involved with communications or publications for Walgreens. As a side plan, Ashley also looks to become more involved in journalism outside of her Walgreens aspirations ... hoping to free-lance in her spare time.

Poetics—Where did it come from, where did it go?

Pondering back to the very beginning of my love for writing ... I can't exactly place a finger on why I liked it. I guess it stems from being an only child growing up and creating stories was a way to enlighten myself on boring days. I have thus grown from those days of innocent tales of mythical creatures and the like, and presently find that my writing is now formed into a more journalistic approach. I guess an easy way to think of it is that creating an article for a print media is a fast and easy way for self-gratification in that you write something and two weeks later or so ... it's a published piece of work. I like to analyze situations and describe them, I like to relay that information to others, and in turn, I like to be published. I like having my work out there for others to critique. My poetics come from that innate urge of mine, and hopefully, it will guide me throughout the rest of my professional life.

Writing Sample
Genre: Short-short

Introduction: This piece was created in an Advanced Creative Writing course. The assignment was to use a “tarot card” deck, with different words and phrases to create a short-short. I love this piece because it reflects how life from my home-town is, especially on a day when everything goes wrong. I really believe that the character I created, Erin Anderson, has a lot of potential to appear in future pieces.

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First Day

She looked up at the darkening sky, way above the skyscrapers that lined the streets. Thick gray clouds hovered over her, signaling that a storm was “a-comin”. Light drops of wetness hit her cool neck and slid down to the collar of her stiff white blouse.

“Great, that’s all I need, is this,” she muttered to herself as she ran into the middle of the massive crowd crossing Michigan Avenue.

Perry, James, and Taylor was a prestigious law firm that she had her first internship at, learning all the rights and wrongs of the legal system firsthand. There was no way she was going to waltz in there sopping wet, mascara dripping down her cheeks, and her pantyhose and skirt plastered to her scrawny legs. She sighed, her first day was not going as planned.

The first thing Mr. Robert Taylor told her on the phone yesterday was, “Miss Anderson, at Perry, James, and Taylor, we emphasize loyalty. Loyalty in our partners, our team, and ourselves. We expect you to be loyal to this firm throughout your time here.”

It kind of freaked her out. Loyalty, what the hell did he mean by that? Late nights at the office, the occasional in-office rendezvous? How loyal was she going to have to be to these people to get her name out there in the business? Oh well, she was just going to have to grin and bear it. She would do whatever it took to become a partner after graduation, which was six months from now. She wanted her name to bounce off the lips of sue-happy people everywhere! Erin Anderson, Attorney-at-Law.

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