Reflection Essay

It is still so surreal to reflect back on my first semester as an incoming college student in the ENC1101 course, analyzing at my progression as a reader and writer in literacy. Since the first day of class I set in stone my goals for this class: receive a 4.0 GPA, develop my connecting theories skills in writing, and become more aware of objectives for each Unit throughout the course. All of these goals became achievements that not only make others proud but most importantly give me self pride. In order to earn the grades and achieve these goals, I went after every opportunity that I was given as an incoming college student, such as office hours and extra credit. By taking this course I have gained confidence with the utilization of literacy, and made an addition to my group of impactful literacy sponsors. Once students are finished with high school they assume that there is nothing else to learn beyond the stereotypical five paragraph essay, but they are so wrong. I was able to obtain so much knowledge about numerous course concepts from Writing about Writing, articles, and my professor. These concepts will carry on with me throughout a bright future of writing courses, job interviews, and any other skills that require literacy. The four outcomes listed below will help illuminate how I improved as a writer, by being a driven college student and going out of the way to earn my achievements in this course. In the first outcome I improved comprehending scholar texts,

Coming into Drexel this year, a necessity, I learned was to have a clear understanding of the mechanics for literature composition. I learned that it would mature my writing to a higher level of thinking. This is seen as past experiences in my writing through high school English teacher feedback indicated my writing to be full of flaws. I often would receive feedback on my writing being awkwardly worded or lacking fluidity. The one valuable skill I learned from English 101,102 and 103 was the idea that exposure to different readings, formulas and informal writings give practice, for me to find my own voice in writing.

The first smart goals I chose are to learn to become a leader and to have better time management skills. I chose these because I work on a small unit with no assigned charge nurse. Any day you go in to work it could be your day to be charge nurse so everyone on the unit needs to be able to step up and be a leader. Time management is a skill that every nurse needs to learn. In my opinion, if you have good time management skills it can decrease your stress level and make your workday more organized and enjoyable.

6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.

When I first started this class I had no idea what to expect, I was nervous since this was my first college English class. After the first couple of classes, I realized I did not have anything to worry about. You were a great teacher that I got along with well. When we had our conference projects mid-semester I was feeling very good about what the second half of the semester.

1.0 Prepare an individual reflective submission demonstrating awareness of academic skills required for your learning journey.

One aim I remember well is “Why do we prefer to see segregation as natural, or unplanned?” as I was the one who helped pick it. You gave me a choice between this question and “do we prefer to see segregation as natural, or unnatural?” (something like that), and I picked the former because I knew it better prompted the way you like to guide your lessons. I didn’t think you wanted a debate on whether segregation is planned or not, but rather a discuss on how calculated the racism in our nation is. When you asked the class about the aim, I remember there being silence. Even I was uncomfortable answering because Americans have a tendency to not want to accept their faults. It’s in our textbooks, our curriculum, and our daily lives. Every single history teacher I’ve ever had remained very neutral to the information they taught (which I don’t blame them for most teachers are expected to not share opinions), but you did not care and I loved that!! I feel like I never had the weight of how cruel and deliberate our history of racism was really drop on me until I was in your class. Americans passed segregation off as a natural process because we knew it was wrong, and did nothing about it, but we did not want to feel bad about ourselves and accept what a backwards society we created. It’s such a simple concept, but for some reason, it didn’t hit me hard until then.

In life dilemmas, do you often feel you’re unable to endure through daily functions? For my family, this happens every day with very few serene moments. During the peaceful times, my mind and body are at ease and I wish that feeling would last forever. Unfortunately, the aroma of tranquility departs while I’m experiencing the motions of my demanding life. In these stressful moments, diligent quotes such as “This, too, shall pass” and “Everything happens for a reason” help accomplish my daily responsibilities. In the past few years, these encouraging words provided me the confidence to overcome obstacles with my family, anxiety, and depression. However, sometimes my depression consumes my entire body and I feel lifeless and numb. These feelings don’t allow me to relax after stressful times and it becomes difficult to fight the negative thoughts.

Though there was an impressive amount of points and ideas which I will touch on in a few sentences which I appreciated from JD Vance's lecture, what made me willing to listen, swallow and immerse myself in what he was saying was the fact that he pointed out that while there are going to be differences in culture, in opinion, in almost anything there can be differences in… what’s important, what’s an essential part of trying to fix America and restore people’s hope in the American dream is to come at problems and dilemmas from the other side, with a new perspective.

I believe that existence is dependent on connections. Life only exists in ecosystems where energies are undoubtedly interrelated but I think as humans we often overlook the significant beauty of our ecosystem. I’ve learned that the three most important types of connections we make are relationships with other beings, the understanding of ourselves, and deep ties to our natural surroundings. Without these connections, life cannot be. In my experience, I’ve seen how art and creativity develop a language through which connections can be made.

When I was a child, I was a real menace. My mother told me my behavior could clear out a playground. Obviously changes have happened since my playground days and today I’m going to tell you a story prior to my metamorphosis. This is a story that I am not proud to say happened. My parents think it’s funny; however, at the time of the incident they did not. This happened about ten years ago, so I can now look back on it and laugh about what happened with them.

As I sit here and write this literacy narrative, I reflect on a time in eighth grade when I read a book regrading civil injustice. Back then I wouldn’t have thought to use such fancy words. Instead, something along the lines of “a black boy my age got killed for whistling at a woman! And the murderers didn’t even get in trouble.” So much confusion was attached with my not so politically correct summary of the book. In fact, we read this book in the upmost politically correct way as possible. Derogatory terms such as negro, nigger, and colored was to be renamed and replaced by the word African American. Simple. Nothing too hard to do in eighth grade just switch a word or two around. But how ironic we didn’t go over any set “rules” for the white character’s. No negative connotation related to the word “white” at all. In fact, when we had class discussions for this book it was normal to say “Hiram the white boy went to visit his grandfather in Mississippi.” But if I was to talk about Emmett Till, African American would always be attached to his name. I can admit just like any other person in that class it was weird but we never put too much thought behind it. Just abided by the rules and read.

The writing process we practiced during this assignment was quite tedious. The Classes seemed to drag on forever. Since we had the class so early in the morning the motivation to write just wasn’t present. Our writing process was parted in so many different sections, that made it somewhat easier and more difficult at the same time. I didn't have to write it all in one sitting, if i did i would have gotten bored with it. Since our classes are every other day and there are sometimes weekends and I would sort of forget my train of thought from last class and am not able to pick up where i left off. Some parts of the story i got really into and cared about, while other parts of the story i just wanted to get it over with and just wrote down

As I approach the end of my first semester freshman, I have learned so much regarding these next four years and beyond though my goals and aspirations are still the same. Even the few people I have met have changed my perception drastically. Through exploration on campus, University of North Carolina at Charlotte has shown me what it has to offer regarding my major and preparation for my future career and I have been reaffirmed that I made the right decision.

Tune in and listen without judging the other individual or rationally condemning the things she lets you know. In the event that what she says alerts you, simply stay quiet, yet don't state to yourself, "Well, that was a dumb move." As soon as you enjoy judgmental bemusements, you've traded off your adequacy as an audience. Tune in without forming a hasty opinion. Keep in mind that the speaker is utilizing dialect to speak to the contemplations and sentiments inside her cerebrum. You don't recognize what those musings and emotions are and the main way you'll discover is by tuning in. Try not to be a sentence-grabber (Wolvin, 1985).