Reflection Paper

The world around us shapes who we all are as people. Our experiences, whether surrounded by joy or failure, all help write the story of our lives.. Like the characters in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold, I understand the importance of a family's devotion to one another, how gender could affect how you are treated, and how rapidly information could spread through a tight knit community. As for those in Thomas Pynchon’s Crying of Lot 49, a twisted version of reality is something I have dealt with, like Oedipa. Using all of what I analyzed from the two books, I have come to believe that I am the way I am due to where I geographically grew up and my Hispanic heritage.

“Writing an essay is not difficult! I am actually great at it.” This is a common statement that I would formally say, and even believe. In the past, I had never felt the need to thoroughly revise my essays before. In all my past essays, I would work intensely on my first draft and then just turn the essay in. I never spent too much time re-evaluating my writing decisions before turning it in. This process had worked well for myself in the past, and as a result, each essay I turned it would be an easy “A”. When I signed up for EN100 I figured that it would be just like the other easy English class that I have taken. I assumed that I would work on an essay, turn it in, and then earn an A on it, but this was not the case. When I signed up for EN100 I figured that I could continue my previous essay writing methods, but that was quickly disproven. When I received my first graded essay, I was unsure why I earned anything but an “A” on it. It soon became clear to me that I was going to be required to change the way I formerly wrote my essays and spend more time with correcting them.

In Senior year, my only goal consisted of finding platforms that would provide optimal opportunities to convince colleges they need me at their schools. To reach my goal, I took the ACT fives times, constantly checked my GPA average, and volunteered frequently. None of this, however, compares to the biggest step I accomplished while working towards my goal: Completing Composition 1. When I signed up for my first college class, I imagined a scene similar to that of a movie with a huge room containing over one hundred college students brainlessly jotting down notes from a professor's PowerPoint. I did not expect the class to look similar to an average high school classroom. However looks can be deceiving, and upon my journey into a transition between a high school experience to a college one, I found the level of difficulty to increase tenfold. Everything needed more effort, more time, and more evaluation. What I thought I knew about writing was flipped upside down and rearranged. Composition I taught me more than I thought I would learn in the class. The course taught me how to use the writing process to improve my writing and utilize various grammatical sentence structures, as well as produce impressive summaries over any college reading thrown my way.

The greatest lessons and the greatest teachers I have had in life have not been in school. I believe the greatest learning takes place when you are exposed the suffering of humanity. I gained insight, compassion, and empathy.

Growing up in Rock Hill, South Carolina, attending Westminster Catawba Christian School as an adolescent, living in a suburban area with my older sister Reaghan and parents, a portrait of the best life any child could ask has been painted. My sister and I were spoiled rotten and got pretty much anything we ever asked for. My life consisted of going to school, participating in fun family nights, viewing movies, and attending church on Sunday. I’ll never forget the delicious soul food Sunday dinners that followed.

It is easy to underestimate how much effort is required to complete a goal. A common struggle for college students in particular is finding a perfect balance between giving too much effort and too little. Time management is critical and giving too much effort wastes precious time while giving too little results in a poor grade. I have personally found that when it comes to achieving goals either academic or personal, you can never give too much effort. In fact, the amount of effort you put into your work not only determines whether or not you reach your goal, but also defines you as a person. Knowing this fact, I took steps this semester to ensure that I achieved my goal of straight A’s, not just for the class but for the assignments as well.

The other day my Dad and I talked about the Republican primary winner for the Senate seat in Alabama, Roy Moore. I remarked that I found the ten commandments statue Moore placed in the Alabama State Judicial Building, and his refusal to remove it, repulsive. I told him I thought this was a gross violation of the first amendment. The federal judge in 2003 who ordered the statue’s removal agreed with me, arguing that it plainly signaled an endorsement of religion. My Dad decided to play devil’s advocate, though he agrees Moore is heinous and is appalled by how the GOP establishment has accepted him. He asked: don’t most of America’s laws stem from the word of God? Was James Madison saying that American citizens shouldn’t be held to the ten commandments when he called for the prohibition of a national religion? I looked into the case after talking with him. The state of Alabama’s Judiciary stated, "Indeed, we recognize that the acknowledgment of God is very much a vital part of the public and private fabric of our country,” before announcing Moore’s removal from office. The Alabama government agreed with Moore, but removed him because he would not follow a federal order. I asked my Dad why he thinks people believe it would be okay to put the ten commandments in a state building. He responded by telling me about some of his dilemmas as a Christian today. My Dad is searching for morality in 2017 — to him it is absent from our society because of how we have strayed away from

Mrs. Anderson is the 5th -grade teacher. She has 25 students, but two of her students disrupt the whole class by arguing and fighting with each other. Zack has a specific learning disability in reading. He likes math and geometry, he is a quiet worker during independent work and likes to stay after school to feed a guinea pig. Patrick enjoys telling funny stories and being limelight. He is an average student, likes sports. According to Mrs. Anderson’s observation, Zack likes to argue with Patrick, yelling or crying on Patrick’s teasing or even pushing Patrick if he doesn’t respond to his request. Patrick teases Zack and other students by name calling or making hurtful comments. When called on during class discussion Patrick can give unrelated or inappropriate information ( Star Sheet). It’s a few critical goals for Zack and Patrick to focus during this semester:

As I began to reflect back upon my life and the incidents that have turned me into the writer I am today, I smiled as I began to remember some of my earliest childhood memories. Shortly after, my entire class was erupting with laughter as we shared stories about each other from our youth. The reminiscing of what has turned us into the writers we are today opened up the opportunity for all of us to share our memories and laugh about our elementary days. Through the reflecting I shared a very notorious memory from kindergarten involving our teacher. As I spoke about the memory I realized that it was the memory that has influenced me the most as a writer.

As Rocky Balboa once said, " it's not about how hard you hit; it's about how hard you can get hit, keep moving forward. It's how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done." This man believed that nothing is going to hit you as hard as life. Which means life will hit you pretty hard and it's all about taking it and keep moving forward. This quote has guided my life, there has been times where something has happened in which it brought me down but after a short while I have always recovered, got back on my feet, and moved on in my life.

When I first began this English course, I did not know what to expect, all I really knew was I would be writing essays and papers which I don't particularly enjoy. I was not as confident in my writing abilities but after the first class period had ended, I decided that my goal for the semester would be producing writing that was clear and more effective. The Eclipse of 2017 pushed the first class back, but I still had an assignment to write about the Eclipse. I don’t think I have ever been so nervous when turning something in because I wanted to make a good first impression on my professor. I immediately relaxed when she said we did not have to read our essays out loud but instead explained what freewriting is.

In our lives, many events impact us, but, everyone has one situation that is most important to them. One of the most influential events in my life would be when I joined the East Ascensions Advanced Chorus. I enjoyed practicing and performing in class, concerts, musicals and other events, but I enjoyed being with my choir members more. Joining the choir had such an impact on me because I eventually stepped out my comfort zone for the first time, I no longer felt like I did not fit in and gained the self-confidence I always wanted.

When I was younger, I used to talk in Pushto; with my mother, father, sister and, basically my whole entire family. Because my family was my life, they were all I’ve ever known. I was five years old when I started going to school, and obviously, as a naive young child, I assumed that everyone talked - or was- exactly like me. Thus, I would talk to classmates in my language, and they’d stare or generally be confused. Correspondingly, Many of them, in their childhood innocence, would respond back in English and continue to play with me. It wasn’t until a few days where I realized that they weren’t the different ones, I was, and I slowly started to change. In reality, my transformation wasn’t drastic at first, since I only just learned the basics. Red was the first word I learned. Something so simple yet is so bold. Red can draw attention towards yourself, like a woman trying to impress her flame. Red is hungry, and so was I. By the time I learned basic English words, and can string together a sentence, all my kindergarten friends and teachers could finally understand me.

I remember, when I was in 4th grade, I used to try to write books or stories. When I was younger, I loved to read with my mom. After we would read something, would try to write something similar to the book we had finished. My mom would help me read books like The Magic Tree House by simplifying and slowing everything down for me so I could better understand what was going on and why. Nina Sankovitch, a reader who blogs about what she reads, captures my feelings when she talks about how “I discovered new wells of resilience and joy, empathy and beauty” (Sankovitch). When I was younger, I did not always know how to capture these emotions, but my goal was always to make a story and try to recreate those feelings. It was a real accomplishment for me because, while this was happening, I struggled with reading in class. When I first started reading, I would dread being called upon, though I liked to write stories of what I read on my own. Now, I do not enjoy to reading anymore.

My mother does genology for my family so I know that I am mostly a mix of African, Native American and not enough European to really think about. I look like a normal African-American girl and most people I come in contact with assume the same thing. To define myself without race I would say I am invested in the betterment of other peoples lives and performing in front of an audience. As a black woman I am affected mostly in my major, theatre, because being black is a factor in whether or not I am cast in certain roles. Personally it has been a rollercoaster going to predominately white-schools and still finding a way to love and appreiciate my blackness. I’m reminded of my race daily when I have to mix my foundations to find a shade that isn’t offered or when my theatre professors suggest I do a monologue from “A Raisin in the Sun’ and as of recently when I look at the news I am affected by the fact that the injustice in the world based on race could happen to me or a loved one in a heartbeat.