Journal 3 Jordyn Jackson

      The reading in Holding On is a very easy read. The stories are put together in a way that they are easy to read. I enjoy the simple vocabulary in the book and how the general theme of the book flows from story to story. I believe that one the strengths of Holding On is the vocabulary; this makes it easy to understand and reduces the amount of times I have to figure out what a word may mean. Another strength of the book is how it is written. The written stories give make you feel as though you have a personal connection to the main character of that story. It gives you the feeling as though you have a stake in the people's lives. A weakness of Holding On is the information provided in the stories. Some of the stories leave you wondering what happened next; maybe this was the goal of these stories. Other than that, I did not find any other weaknesses about the book

      The story that stood out to me the most in this section was the story of Father Louis H. Greving. Although this was one of the shorter stories in this section of reading, it peaked my interest the most. Perhaps the reason I was interested in this one is because of how short it is and leaves you with unanswered questions. The question that popped into my head was: Did Greving ever finish the Grotto and, if so, what did he do after he finished ? After doing a little bit of research online, I found out that Greving finished working on the Grotto in 1994. Someone else took his place at the Grotto after this to maintain the upkeep of the area. Towards the end of his time working, he also built a statue of Father Dobberstein in the area where the Grotto is located. Greving actually ended up working on the structure longer than Dobberstein did. When the Grotto was finished, Greving retired from his priesthood. He ministered for 8 years after his retirement and passed away in 2002. The new director of the Grotto is attempting to add new structures to the site to this day. With the cost of the maintenance, it is a hard task to accomplish because the work is outsourced now.