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,

After a helpful talk with my advisor, I decided that real estate would be my second preferred major if I were not to make it into the marketing program at the Terry College of Business. Although the realm of work differs in many aspects between the two, I feel that the factors of communication and benefitting the buyer still have very similar qualities. I for one have little experience working in the specified field, but am currently learning the basics in REAL 4000 and it is beginning to interest me very much so. After enrolling in the class I told my step mother, a former agent of Caldwell-Banker, that I was taking the class while applying for real estate as my second intended major. She was ecstatic, and her excitement certainly began to

I determined that I needed a new interest, something to keep my mind engaged and challenged. I enrolled in the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) through the Columbia Southern University (CSU) just for fulfillment. This reflection assignment exercise proves to be the catalyst for my future college endeavors. The assignment to reflect on DBA program dreamed of taking steps towards realizing those ideas and course accomplishments right now. Due to time some course assignments, I will embrace, and others will become challenging.

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.

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.

Throughout my life, there have been many failed attempts at persuasion due to unsuccessful rhetoric. One of these moments occurred during an interview for the acceptance into a CNA class I was interested in. I was being interviewed by the coordinator of the class who was asking me questions about previous experiences. There were questions asking about times I had worked with a team, times I made mistakes during a jobs, how coworkers would describe me, things I did to make others feel comfortable, and much more. The answers to these questions were used as a way to persuade the interviewer into accepting me into the class. In order to make a successful argument, it would have been useful to know the values of this audience. Values of the interviewer and of the class included having some patient care experience, learning from past experiences, being able to showcase feelings of comfort and kindness, and being able to begin working as soon as the class was complete. Although I had these values in mind, I was unable to express them in a persuading way. The appeal I relied on for this interview was logos, which did not benefit me in the end. I answered the interviewer’s questions with a list of all the things I have done and not how these things have changed me. This led to me not being accepted into the class, showcasing my failed attempt at persuasion.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Growing up, I always had a difficult time controlling my temper. I would experience erratic mood swings that escalated beyond what seemed appropriate, and I would handle stressful situations unfittingly. Throughout most of my teen years, I overlooked and dismissed the severity of my emotional troubles. It took three years to be thoroughly diagnosed with Bipolar Ⅱ Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. During those three years, I learned a lot about who I am, who I was to become, and the difficulties associated with the disorders I face.

For as long as I could remember I never understood how to comprehend shakespeare, or old English poetry such as epics. My first time being introduced to this type of writing was 9th grade where she had us read Romeo and Juliet . At first, I was excited because I had always heard great things about the book and movie. However, I had no idea it was written in a different context. I was introduced to different words and phrases I never heard of . It had reminded me a lot of the bible, how you actually had to put things into perspective yourself because the message would never be as clear. It’s almost like critical thinking, but even knowing that trick I still would have no idea what I was reading or what the message was. We often would