1550 Owens Store Road

Canton, GA 30115

April 12, 2012

Judges, Senior Project

Creekview High School

1550 Owens Store Road

Canton, GA 30115

Dear Judges:

My name is Jennifer Shirley and as a senior here at Creekview High School I am

excited to continue my education in post secondary school. I will be attending Western

Carolina University in the fall. My goal is to pursue a degree in psychology in order to

make a difference in the lives of others. With that career in mind I chose to publish my

book as my product. I chose to publish my book as a way to cope with my own Post

Traumatic Stress Disorder that came about from the loss of my brother in 2004.

My book, “The Rest is Still Unwritten”, is a collection of poems and photographs

that I have written and taken. My research paper focuses on how literature is used as a

therapy tool. This relates to my product because my poems are my own therapy tools to

cope with my grief, anxiety, and depression. From my research I learned that literature

used as therapy has a specific name which is bibliotherapy. Also, poetry therapy is a

specific type of bibliotherapy. I overcame many obstacles within publishing my product.

I ran into several obstacles while publishing my book. The major obstacle that I

overcame was accepting that other people were going to read my poems which are my

inner most thoughts and feelings.

My topic is how literature can be used as a therapy tool and that is what I wrote

my research paper on. My topic directly relates to a career in psychology. I have also

discovered that I do not want to pursue a career in the field. I have found that I would

have a difficult time leaving my work at work, but I would still like to be able to work in

a field where I directly improve a person’s well being. With that in mind I have decided

to pursue a career in physical therapy, but I still want to keep up with my writing.

Overall, I feel like senior projects are very beneficial. They are a lot of work, and

are very time consuming, but I feel like I have learned a lot about myself and my future.

Thank you so much for your time.

Sincerely,

Jennifer A. Shirley