Investigate a “nodal event” via sheer narrative

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For our first major paper, you are required to write a narrative of five pages in length. For this assignment, I’d like you to do one of two things:
a. Ask an important question related to a nodal event and then spend the essay trying to answer that question. This option offers 20 points of EC.
b. Investigate a “nodal event” via sheer narrative.
Pick an event that was especially impactful, especially important to you. Write about it using descriptive, sensory details. Where are we? What time (of day, month, year) is it? Relay the scene. Paint a picture using language. Describe the scene, the action, and yourself before the major event. Describe the scene, the action, and yourself *after* the major event.
In class, we’ll discuss a number of strategies and tools essential to writing creatively like metaphor, simile, voice, and imagery. You will then employ these strategies to compose your own personal story. You will write about yourself both before and after the nodal event. How did the nodal event change your identity? How can we *see* that without you telling us directly?
Try to start the assignment without a set course of action, without a set plan of organization. Allow words to do the work, allow language to structure the experience, to frame your opinions and your identity within the piece. Let writing construct, then merely transcribe. Let writing explore, rather than conclude. Make sure to employ imagery, simile, and a solid structure. Avoid the use abstract nouns or adjectives.