Jeannette Walls

One day after our Hall Counsel meeting, my hall director asked me if I would like to Jeannette Walls personally. I said sure I would go. I asked what time and when was the meeting. She said it is at the Student Center at 4:00 Wednesday. I said yes that could be there. I voiced my concerns saying that I have a class at ending at 3:50. She responded with no worries you should make it.

I knew that I was going to have a short period of time to get to this special session. My class got over with at 3:50 at the Arts and Communication building to the Student Center. I knew it would normally take about 10 minutes to get to the Student center from my class. I wanted to be there as soon as possible, because I do not like running late. I ran most of the way and followed the directions to the room where I thought was the right room. I sat down and there was a lot of discussion. I realized that almost everyone was wearing a SGA shirt. I was confused by this, so I leaned forward and asked the person in front of me. She said that this was a meeting for SGA meeting. So I jumped back up and ran down the hall looking for my correct room.

I found a lady, who was dressed up, standing in front of a room. I asked her if this is the room for ht author visit. She said yes it was. I walked into the room sat down towards the back of this small room. There was about 15 students and professors in the room. We were told that Jeannette Walls will be giving a speech about her book, and then there will be a brief question and answer session. Ms. Walls began talking about her past life. She talked about her being embarrassed about talking about how she group up. But, she said that her husband highly suggested that she right about her life. She said she really did not want to tell the world about her life. So after a awhile she began writing and her mother helped her through some of the stories. The most important part of talking to her mom about these stories was a simply sentence, tell the truth. She said that one comment helped her greatly through writing her paper.

This was probably the most important lesson that I got from her speech. In writing you must tell the truth. The question and answer session began. There were some really good question and even better answers. Afterwards I got her autograph, but she took time to ask me question about my options of the book. I told her what I thought and I felt respected by a great author.