Tim O' Brien, Halloween, Pumpkin Patch

It was a little over week ago, when I went to see Tim O' Brien speak here at Santa Barbara City College. After my sociology class and long hours at work, I headed back to school just in time to see the author of The Things They Carried. The room, in which it was held, was packed; People had to start sitting on the floor. What I really enjoyed seeing was a room of students and English Professors all eager to see this inspirational Vietnam veteran. 

He introduced us with a brief background of where he came from, which helped us understand what influenced him to become a writer. Raised in the dull town of Worthington, Minnesota, the Turkey Capital of America, he began to escape his town in books he read. He said, one of the few things young boys could do in Worthington was play baseball and unfortunately he wasn't great at playing. 

There was many laughs in the audience when, O'Brien explained that his first novel he wrote was a baseball novel. There wasn't much of his own writing in this book because he copied it from another novel he read; He just rewrote himself as the main character which was a talented baseball player.  My favorite part of his introduction was when he explained to his audience that, "You don't need to go to wars or climb mountains to be a writer you just need to breathe," basically implying that anyone can be a writer. The rest of his time he was able to answer questions from the audience members regarding his Vietnam experience. 

Santa Barbara City College really enjoyed his visit; We are lucky to have such influential writers and speakers come, which is another great reason to come here. 




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On a different note, Happy Halloween to everyone! I hope everyone has a fun, but safe Halloween. Yesterday my sister and I were able to go to pick out our pumpkins at Lane Farms. Yes, it was last minute and were going to crave them today, before the trick-or-treaters knock on our door. 

In this particular Pumpkin Patch, there is a corn maze my friends and I go to every year. I suggest you go at night because it's more challenging. I remember when I was a sophomore in High School, my friends and I went during the day. My guy friends decided it would be fun if we all ran through the maze. I was the only girl who agreed to this, so I ran after them in the maze. We were going at a really fast paste and soon they started sprinting.  I couldn't keep up so I stopped and was left in the maze alone. Of course I was laughing the whole time because I thought this was a stupid idea and why did I listen to these idiots, but fortunately I stood where I was for a few minutes and I found my other friends. After we got out of the maze we went on a tractor ride, which is aimed for the younger kids and went to see the farm animals in their cages. Good times.

Anyways, I hope Midterms went well for everyone!

-KIKI REYES