Reflection Essay

Many people experience exclusion in their lives; yet, when they feel included, they experience the process of healing. In the memoir Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Power of Adversity, Dw Brees’ journey to healing is explored. This experience of exclusion to inclusion is also discussed in Becoming Human by Jean Vanier. The New Orleans Saints accepted Drew, a severely injured quarterback at the time, just as Jean Vanier accepted people with intellectual disabilities into L’Arche. Withal, Drew is given the opportunity to motivate and inspire his team, and those people included in the L’Arche community are given the opportunity to develop new, meaningful relationships. For Drew, having this opportunity results in a milestone for the whole team that represents hope for New Orleans, while the people with intellectual disabilities being able to be in an inclusive community result in the maturity of the heart. Both works suggest that being inclusive towards other people, especially those excluded in society, by welcoming them into a particular community result in a person’s internal and external healing.

I am a Nursing student from Glenburn, Maine and before this course, I had a strong passion for writing poetry and also writing short stories about my life. In my high school English class, each Tuesday would be designated in writing for twenty minutes constantly about a given topic. I found that as a writer, I write the best about topics relating to me personally. However, in Rhetoric and Composition, I was able to learn new skills that allowed me to improve as a writer.  In Rhetoric and Composition, I composed essays about my own subculture, a unique place of importance, and a subculture with little to none previous knowledge of. All of these essays taught me at least one skill that allowed me to grow as a writer throughout this course.

During the course first semester of freshman year in English 101, I have learned multiple foundations when it comes to writing. When I first entered college, the only knowledge when it comes to writing was the basic of gathering a bunch of information on a piece of paper. Knowing that writing wasn’t my strongest suit throughout my academic career, it was challenging for me. Going through my first college class, which was English 101, I realized that writing is more than just putting words on paper. I have learned the purpose of writing and the structure to make a solid concrete essay such as to create the thesis statement to acknowledge what the reader is going to read and a technique to help edit and limit word, together with discovering a connection with myself in writing.

When I write, I believe one of my strengths is that I am able to generate logical perspectives and strong conclusions. I am able to analyze the literature and relate to it in many different ways. In the compare and contrast essay I wrote, "Oliver conveys a tone of remembrance by juxtaposing 'the old burn-dump this waste place' and 'this secret garden'". I am able to apply literary terms and analyze how the author uses them to enhance their writing. In the same essay, I stated, "By using short, concise sentences, Oliver is more direct in her delivery and showing her lamentations for what has happened to the earth around her". I am able to analyze what the author is doing and the effect that it has on the reader.

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.

Doors, oceans, cities, all these different descriptions have been used by different people to describe their mind. However, my mind is a never-ending slide show, with me sitting down watching different slides constantly flash before me on the projector. Their random most of the time, but I can choose which slide goes up when I need it. However, there is one slide that sneakily gets into the projector, I don’t remember putting it there, but it always manages to get in. Whenever this slide appears, shackles come out of my chair and traps me, forces me to look at this memory. I remember it well, I was around 10 or 11, I was sitting in my room playing a board game by myself, see my sisters were always busy and I didn’t have friends to play with, so I always played by myself. Then while playing I start realizing that I'm alone, I cry while the light shines above as I play this board game by myself, with no one around, I was lonely.

The challenging component this semester was transitioning from being a high school level writer to a college-level writer. However, English 10 has by far been my best experience in writing. By taking this course I have retrieved many helpful elements, that will help me be a successful writer throughout college. In high school, essays often gave me anxiety and stress, however, when taking English 10, I was able to learn to enjoy the process and the art of writing purposefully and mindfully. Even though I have taken advanced placement English courses in high school and have taken a practice run of college level English over the summer with Professor Brenda Venezia, I was still able to get a lot more out of this course. To showcase my progress in this course, I have included my essay from project 2 a rhetorical analysis titled, “Black Lives Matter!” and a research essay from project 3 titled “Why is Racism dangerous?”, which effectively demonstrate my growth as a creative writer, reader, and thinker.

“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private.” - Allen Ginsberg

At some point in our lives, we have all asked the question “What is the purpose of school? Why must I learn this? The first time I can recall myself experiencing these sentiments was when I started French immersion. This subject has always presented a struggle for me as I have always felt that it is rather difficult which was amplified due to the lack of help that I received from my parents, as neither could speak French unlike many of my peers’ parents. Your teachers as well as the principal in schools also play a major impact in your education journey and can ultimately shape your education experience. These challenges can impact all students in some way however, it is important to approach these challenges head on in order to succeed and reach your goals including making yourself and your parents proud.

my senior year of high school, I was the FFA president at Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School. As president, I tried to make sure everything was done on time, but by the end of the year I was a little worn out. Irritated with having to do everything myself I tried to delegate but still ended up doing mostly everything. My officer team had clocked out for the year and I was upset. Sitting in an officer meeting one day before school, I asked my advisor if there was any chance we could talk to some of the officers about participating more, which was mostly about the officers that never came. Instantly he snapped at me in front of everyone else, including my little sister. In summary he told me I was a bad president and that I blame others for my mistakes. I was so shocked that I didn't even respond. I sat silently crying right next to him avoiding all eye contact. This was when it all started.

For the past three and a half years I have participated in the school band. In that time I’ve taken part in concert band, marching band, and jazz band. Setting up my schedule in sixth grade kicked off the adventure.

In this class we have a credo, and in that credo there are some key words that were capitalized: Read, Think, Write, College Level, rigorously, Holistically, Learning, Safe, and Fun. Everyone has their own way of defining words, some maybe the same and some may be different but that’s ok. In this essay I am going to thoroughly and efficiently explain to you in my own words what each of these words mean to me in the context of this course.

As Yogi Berra would say, “just kidding I learned my lesson.” I made a lot of mistakes in my first OHSC0 writing assignment, the main one being to keep my essay focused even if it means leaving out what I had seen as comic relief. I believe just this change would have made room for me to correct most of my other mistakes as one of my biggest problems in this essay was editing it down to two pages. One of the main comments about my essay was that I should be, “including clear definition of terms in the scientific process,” and I actually previously had a much better definition for many of the terms, but I chose to cut and shorten them to make room for more comedic quotes. This was clearly a huge mistake and only hurt my essays fluidity and

Over the course of history, evolution has affected different species in their own unique way; the human race is one of them. With time we all can change for the better or the worst that is one of the many things that make us human. We all have different personalities and interests whether it be reading a book or wrenching on a car, that is what defines each of us individually. When I was born I may have been a regular newborn baby on the outside to the common eye but surely I was not on the inside. I was born with a heart condition that made me a million dollar baby faster then you can blink an eye spending the first eighteen months of my life on oxygen and medical monitors at the hospital and at home so my mother would read to me which

That the educational approaches, especially ones related to high school term, play a pivotal role in forming the student’s personality is an axiom. In spite of the most accepted people`s belief, I am of the opinion that collaborating in group activities include sharing ideas with others and involving in accomplishing planned projects is more beneficial for establishing a promising future for students. I will elaborate on my reasons in the following paragraphs.