So how exactly did I work to create both the repurposing and remediating projects? Well, one thing is for sure, the road was not easy. However, the process I took to get there was definitely one of self-reflection and growth. 

 

When the eportfolio and class projects were described on the first day of class, I figured my topic for all of my projects would surround the idea of fashion and lifestyle blogging. I currently have a fashion and lifestyle blog and my communications studies major makes it easy for me to talk about popular culture and current media. The topic was a no-brainer. I would re-purpose one of my favorite digital studies papers about blogging and the whole eportfolio would go amazing.

 

One thing about the Minor in Writing; however, is that they end up pushing you out of your comfort zone whether you consciously want to or not. So there I am thinking I am going to take the easy way out and write about something safe, when all of a sudden we have to blog about what we are working on for our repurposing project. I sat down to write the post and all of the excitement and joy I usually have about writing just drained right out of me (Considering writing is definitely in my top ten things that make me happy, next to puppies and Parks & Rec marathons, this was alarming). I decided something was wrong with my project and knew I needed to dig a little deeper to bring back that usual spark I get from writing. 

 

And that's when it hit me: I needed to write about mental illness. I needed to write about the one thing that was so deeply embedded within my life there was no way I couldn't be passionate about it. Also, as a self-poclaimed mental illness stigma-fighter, this class was the prfect launch pad for my activism dreams. It was the most perfect idea. 

 

For my repurposing project inspiration, I decided to use a journal-entry I wrote when I was at one of my lowest points my freshmen year of college with my mental health. The entry showcases the confusion I had about my mental health and my struggle to try to understand what I was feeling. I decided I wanted to try to make sense of it all by writing a personal narrative piece where I explained my journey with mental illness, specifically OCD. This writing endeavor was not only to fulfill the class requirement, but to also spend time figuring out my mental illness story. I knew I wanted to be an activist for mental health awareness, but I didn't know where my story fit into that picture. The repurposing project allowed me to explore my journey with mental health so I was better equipped to share that story with others and fight against the mental illness stigma. 

 

I based my repurposing piece off of the format of a HelloGiggles article. As stated on their website, HelloGiggles is a "positive community for women." They have an entire mental health section on their site and are huge stigma-fighters. Considering their goals surrounding mental health awareness (and just life in general) are the same as mine, I decided to write my repurposing in the same format at their articles. Writing my repurposing in this format also allowed me to  submit my piece to their "From Our Readers" collection (fingers crossed I get publshed!). 

 

Later in the semster we were assigned the remediating project. This project allowed me to use the same argument from my repruposing to create a new project in a new medium. I decided it would be most effective to spread my mental health activism through an online platform--once information is online it becomes more accessible to more people. I also thought an ebook would allow me to most efficiently present my idea that mental health challenges can be overcomed. For example, I would be able to create separate pages that would fulfill the varying needs of people struggling across the wide spectrum of mental illness. 

 

That being said, I decided to create a digital booklet with the platform simplebooklet. My decision to use this site was mainly based on the fact it was a free service and it was super user-friendly (the two best things about the internet). I also found a ton of great inspiration from their "gallery" page. It was on this page I was able to figure out what some common features of digital booklets were, such as unique graphics and a table of contents page. 

 

Overall, both of the repurposing and remediating projects allowed me to learn more about myself and my mental health story. Going forward from this class, I am interested in expanding my voice online and on campus about mental health activism. To learn more about what I am doing outside of this class check out my "about me" page and my "blogs" page.