Reflection Paper In Literature

This class has been a stepping stone to my accomplishments as a writer. Over the course of semester, I have been challenged to tackle several different writing styles and succeed in each one in a unique way. It is through the rhetoric, technology, research, and collaboration used in this class that has progressed me as a writer and an individual.

Learning something new is something to strive for. However, are all the lessons we learn good ones? After all, there are two sides to every coin. A lot of the times it is easy to find the bad lessons learned but what about the good? Well, that takes a lot more thought. Ironically these were the thoughts running through my head that day, that dreadful day which is permanently burned into the back of my mind.

There was a point in my life where the thought of having to read something sent me into a panic and there was nothing I despised more. I was six and could only utter a few things in English, my first tongue being Portuguese; my peers would tell me I spoke “funny” and I soon resented anything to do reading or writing, especially out loud. Tired of being teased, I pushed myself to learn the language and to go beyond what a six year old was expected to know. From that moment on, I rekindled my love for literature and dominated the rest of my class in the subject, earning various trophies. Thus, the courses, Fiction Workshop: Writing Short Stories and Heroes, Lovers, Villains, Fools: Archetypes and Modern Culture, appeal to me the most because I feel that they provide me with the best opportunity to further develop my skills as a writer.

I’m Anna, a 19 year old that currently live in the more northern parts of our country. I currently work as a saleswoman and other than that I usually spend my spare time searching for new books to read. As I strive to become a publisher, I need several literary courses before it is possible to get into the program that I want to get into. Therefore, I decided to take this course among a couple of others because it seemed to be interesting and fun. I have not yet read any of the books that we are going to read in this course, which I am exited to do.

Learning as much as my brain capacity can endure is my ultimate goal in life. School is not just a chore, it is a necessity to further me into the future. English class, specifically the writing portion has evolved my understanding of persuasive literature and how to explain my thoughts on paper for an audience to understand. Throughout the first semester of KCC English I have improved my essays from small to large mistakes.

The term appreciation is from latin appreciatio, it means appreciation. A.S Hornby stated that appreciation is a judgement, proper understanding and recognition statement in giving valuation.

Taking this class has had a profound impact on me. I have learned how to properly study for a college class. Also, I learned how to effectively communicate and reach out to my professor. This was my first college course which gave me a learning experience about psychology and myself as a student. I have learned how to manage my time, study in ways that are better for me, and focus on the task in front of me. I have enjoyed taking this course overall as I have met my professor, visited campus, and may take more courses at Millersville since I have learned what taking a college course is like. Even though I learned about Psychology throughout this course, I also learned about myself as a student. I learn more effectively in a classroom rather than online, I needed better time management, and to reach out and ask for help. I have also learned that challenging work pays off because when I was struggling, I made sure to take extra credit opportunities which at this point should bring my grade up by at least one letter grade to a B. Taking this class taught me more than just psychology. I learned that I want to go to Millersville and take more classes now that I know how to study and manage my time more effectively.

Like most new occasions in life, you must go in with an open mind and remain possessing this sort of mindset throughout the duration of the encounterment. This is the tactic I chose in regards to this class, English Composition 1. The reason I say this is because of one specific reason and one specific reason only. That reason being: I haven't always had the best luck with English professors in and throughout grade school. Attempting not to pick fun, I have not always been a huge advocate for my past professor’s teaching styles. A common response to this may be “That’s your issue.” And it is undoubtedly my personal issue that I had to come to terms with. If my learning style differs to that of a professor’s, it is my responsibility to alter things. For example, my senior year of high school, I qualified to be apart of Advanced Placement (AP) Writing. It was a class, in which you were required to meet certain criteria upon admission. They looked at things like your ACT score, in regards to both Reading and Writing, as well as your overall academic performance. Within this class, students were able to qualify for contests, in hopes that their essay was chosen as the best. That being said, I was given the opportunity to read my commemoration essay in front of the entire school and many visitors on Veterans Day my senior year of high school. My essay is still being used as an example for the up and coming AP students, in regards to the commemoration unit within this class.

My parents used to tell me that education was a privilege, not a right, and that I was fortunate to live in a democracy where I was legally entitled to my education. As I got older, partially because of this upbringing, I used to think the word privilege could only be applied to address the wealthy people of higher social hierarchies who were bestowed benefits and advantages from society, a true life of privilege. I never once thought that word could refer to me. I made that mistake during a conversation I had a year ago with my brother’s girlfriend, Sara. To put it simply, she is a bright and radiant twenty-four year old woman whom I admire profusely, specifically for her intelligence and wit which got her into Dental School. With regards to this, it is important to understand that she is Asian and of Chinese-ethnicity, and I am of Macedonian-ethnicity but considered Caucasian. That particular day, I started applying to universities and was talking spiritedly to Sara after-school about my hopes and ambitions; I told her that I wanted to enter the English program and potentially head off to Teaching College afterwards. She challenged me by asking if I had ever thought about Law School. In fact, it was something I had never thought about, which I told her. To emphasize her point further, she told me about how when she was in her Biology program she had never aimed academically higher than getting into Hygiene school, let alone Dentistry. The idea seemed ridiculous to me.

A peaceful Spring evening gave way to a moonlit crisis as I stumbled out of my house and through an empty neighborhood. I saw the stars on the pavement beneath my feet, and underside of the ocean in the skies above; I didn’t want to exist anymore. I wanted to cry and scream, but only bubbles would come out. I walked deeper into the void, and in my depressing soliloquy, I cried out; I asked why I’m like this, why must I overthink and overanalyze any situation, when did I lose the ability to accept, and why the hell can I not learn to love myself? Whether the response from the void was a spiritual experience, a message from God, or maybe just a personal epiphany, I do not know. But that’s what I learned to accept, that there’s a lot of stuff I do not know and that I will never know. That night, I realized that true acceptance is not where I fully come to terms with a situation, no matter how terrible, but it is acknowledging how I will never fully accept these things. It is looking at the bad things in my life directly, and respecting that I will never be completely okay with it, and welcoming my sadness. After this night, I learned to accept my overwhelming self-hatred and fear of failure, and I grew to become more motivated and hardworking because of this. I wanted to work so that I could feel good about myself and I hoped that it would make me truly happy one day. After accepting all the things I didn’t know, I began to believe that there was a light around the corner, out

Although I am not very good at writing and analyzing literature, English is a skill that I believe is essential and something I have always wanted to excel in. The reason why I believe my skills lack in English is that I tend to analyze situations more formulaically and systematically, which explains why I am a mathematics and computer science major. My primary difficulty in writing before I entered college was my ability to pull important information out of small, specific pieces of text. I never understood how one could retrieve so much information about a story from the analysis of as little as a description of the setting or a couple of lines of dialogue between characters. So, coming into my first day of English 1102 at the University of Georgia, I wanted to discover and use techniques that could help me analyze specific sections of text effectively and accurately. What I found is that there is a multitude of formulas and techniques that can help me effectively and efficiently analyze a story and that I can apply these same techniques to other forms of media. Overall, however, this course helped me realize that the methods and techniques used in analyzing literature and media are profoundly similar to ones used in the analysis of a mathematics problem.

In junior high and high school, I reached a height of 5’2”. I did not have any more growth spurts after I reached that height. I gradually began to increase my weight because I was developing more muscle mass. My body changed and became toned with all of the sports and core activities that I participated in. When it comes to puberty and sexual awareness, I was scared and nervous because I did not know what menstruation was until I first started my period in junior high school. I was nervous that something was wrong with me, so I talked to my mother. She began to explain what was happening to my body and gave me advice to cope with the changes. In this stage of my life, I did not have any major illnesses or accidents. Occasionally, I caught the common cold and my allergies acted up, but I did not develop anything serious. Once or twice I developed strep throat, and I saw a physician to receive antibiotics to clear it up. During junior high school, I continued dance and cheerleading. I had dance practice twice a week during the evening, and cheer practice twice a week after school. My exercise level increased when I joined high school because I devloted all of my time to one sport. I chose dance over cheerleading, and tried out for the Pizzazz Poms Varsity Dance Team. During this sport, I practiced five times a week for two hours. When it comes to my eating habits, my mother always cooked me a healthy breakfast before school and packed my lunch. Before

Perspective. Nothing burnishes it more than the erosion caused by life's constant friction against one's mindset. From the safe suburbs of Massachusetts to a war-torn country. From the most luxurious districts in Syria to eating labneh with dried bread, wrapped in sheets in a 17°F-winter in Maaloula. Constant ups and downs that have done nothing to me but make me realize and appreciate life and the knowledge that accompanies strife.

In early 2015, I applied and was accepted to a theology program at Dallas Theological Seminary. That fall, I embarked on a journey where, for two and a half years, I literally spent every non-working, waking moment, reading, writing and studying. It’s a journey that would encompass reading tens of thousands of pages of books, watching thousands of hours of lecture videos, and writing hundreds of pages of written research. It’s something I’ve done in secret, with the exception of a few close family members and a few close friends.

I witness students in my Pre-Algebra class that seem to know all of the answers while I sit there completely lost. They have no problem jumping ahead while I scramble, trying to get my life together. They seem like they are professionals at school, always early, always ahead, and always answering while I stare at the teacher like a deer in headlights when he asks for an answer to a question. Those types of students are what I wish I could be. Though some students allow nothing to stand in their way to success this semester, I have a harder time dealing with the obstacles I face. Some of the obstacles I face are my lack of motivation, poor time management and several distractions.