Lopate’s introduction opened up my eyes to a different view of the personal essay. It never came to mind that so many concepts and components were intertwined in order to produce a personal essay. My view on the personal essay was that you just write about significant events in your life. I was dumbfounded when Lopate went in to detail about how important it was to be intimate in a personal essay. That concept was simple and obvious yet I wasn’t able to grasp it until he made it painstakingly clear.
Lopate was very helpful. I think that with his guidelines I’ll be more preceptive of all the aspects that are needed to create a successful personal essay. When he presented the idea of “The Conversation Element” I thought he is absolutely right and I didn’t put too much thought into it before. I love the fact that he keeps stating that you have to be honest with your readers. I also loved that he pointed out that no matter how simple or boring or odd an event in your life may be you should still write about it because there will be someone who finds it interesting. Overall I found this piece very informative and I’m definitely seeing things from a different perspective. Most important this piece taught me to write to my heart’s content no matter how dull the topic may seem.
WRT 303.01: The Personal Essay 
I agree with you (“no matter how simple or boring or odd an event in your life may be you should still write about it because there will be someone who finds it interesting”). I’ve noticed that the events that seem ‘simple’ or ‘boring’ to us actually end up being the most interesting to others–especially on recent BB discussions. Maybe it’s all in the conversational tone like you mentioned earlier!