Reflection Paper

For this paper, I decided to attend a service at the Masjid An Nur, which according to their website means “Mosque of the Light” located on Lyndale Avenue in Minneapolis. I decided to go to a mosque and experience an Islamic service because being someone who was raised Catholic, attending an Islamic service would be an eye-opening experience for me and give me a perspective on the Islamic religion that I didn’t have before.

I had a positive experience and a lot of people approached me after the service about my inquiry of Islam. I was told I came during a good sermon and they hoped I learned from the experience, if I was coming back and also what I thought about the whole thing. I told them I like the experience and I was honestly doing this for a class and that my interest peaked most when I actually walked inside the building. I asked about the curtain and was kind of token back with the answer. I was told that the curtain is used to hide the women during the service. Because women are appealing to the eye it is sometimes hard to concentrate on worship and this simply isn’t tolerated. I could see the point of view about a “time and place for everything” but I think if a person will is that of a higher being one would not engage in deeds. I also notice that after, women mingled amongst each other, but younger women and kids mingled amongst each other. I also asked a guy why made him follow this religion, and he told me culturally where his parents are from this is like tradition. Similar to religion and myself being passed down he had experience the same thing. He also mentioned that although he was sort of given this religion he believe in it whole-heartedly. He said that many of the other religions text had been altered many times and the Quran the last standing oldest religious text was

“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.

A Hindu spiritual teacher once shared, “This world is your best teacher. There is a lesson in everything. There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise” (Sivananda). When I take this wise advice and reflect on the past year, I see many lessons that have helped me become a more mature and responsible person. Many of these lessons have been through my English course with Mrs. Frohoff. In this class, we’ve had many units, such as the types of love, writing assignments, including many 1-page reflections, projects, such as a memoir and a PSA, and presentations on themes like identity and critical world problems. It has been through our memoir assignment, the large number of deadlines given, and the presentations required that I’ve been taught valuable lessons about who I am and how to grow as a person throughout this school year.

After reviewing this assignment, I learned that my approached was going to be a little different from what I was accustomed to doing with other assignments. In previous assignments I referred to a project that my company had completed and had control of from beginning to the end. In that scenario we were in control of and responsible for how far off we were from the schedule/task, cost, and projected finish time. Basically in this assignment the manager was there from the beginning as well; somewhere along the way the project manager’s focus has shifted and we have been given the responsibility to re-evaluate the situation and determine which direction should be taken to get back on track with cost and time. In this scenario the project manager has lost sight of his scope and time schedule.

In school, I used to loathe the icebreakers that involved saying an interesting fact about oneself. I would fumble around and iterate some unoriginal sentiment about my favorite color or animal and leave without actually providing substance about myself. This all changed after I lost the vision in my right eye and could tell people about the three-inch needle that pierces my eye multiple times every year. I thoroughly enjoy watching people squirm as I chuckle and explain the process.

On August 2017, I started my freshman year of college. My first class was FIQWS 10108, the sun was shining bright, as I was nervous to start my first day as a college student. We first went over the syllabus and discussed what was expected for the class. I was shocked to find out that we would be writing three lengthy papers. I’ve never been an excellent writer so I was worried about writing the papers. My fears soon diminished as my professor began guiding us through the writing process.

Haley, I 100% agree with you when you say that if we try on our writing assignments we should have no problem passing this class. This is a requirement that I noticed throughout this first half of the semester. I also have problems writing. I can write/type all day long about nonsense but when it comes to grammar or formatting I get lost. I believe that I have learned a lot sense the first writing assignment, but I know that I can learn more. Sometimes when I am writing I get frustrated because I don’t know how to start the paper. Therefore, I am glad that most of the papers we have written have the requirement to use a summary that we previously wrote. I think that having a pre-written summary has helped relieve the stress of starting a paper. I also perceive myself as more of an academic. Yes, I love to write, but I don’t necessarily like to write about specific things. This class is a requirement for the degree that I am going for, like you, and I probably wouldn’t have taken it if it wasn’t required. I would have probably taken a class that focused on poetry or free writing. Anyways, good luck in the second half of the semester.

The Jesus and Christian Community class at Fresno Pacific University is a course where a student can further develop their relationship and understanding of the Bible while discovering a relationship with Christ. All incoming freshmen are required to take this course as a part of their general education requirements which focuses on the book of Matthew, his interpretation, and the historical background of the Bible. One of our assignments is to help incoming pupils understand a certain verse and its purpose. The section we will be focusing on is the in Matthew chapter 17 verses 14 through 21 in addition to the Sadducees and other related topics. Jesus has followers which are the general public and disciples who are the people who claim to be devoted to God called the Pharisees and Sadducees. The faction of the disciples called the Sadducees are a group that are not characteristically what one would depict as humble servant of Christ. They followed their own set of rules and had standards that were different from the Pharisees, the followers of Christ, and Jesus himself. As we continue this discussion, we will see the importance of the verse in Matthew along with the roles the Sadducees and the things that influenced their cultural views.

People undergo numerous changes throughout their lives. From the time we are born, we are learning how to behave in and process the world around us. The influences from my environment, peers and family have shaped who I am and continue to do so.

Over the course of the semester we have done numerous writing assignments in order to help us dig deeper into topics that we might not have known about previously and to improve our writing skills. I have never been an excellent writer. I’ve had trouble planning out where details would go in my past papers. However, there has been a clear improvement in my writing when looking back on the work that I have done in this class.

I remember where it all started; I sat on the guard stand of an empty pool with a nagging mother texting my phone and time to kill. It was the summer before my senior year, the summer before I would make the most important decision of my life so far. I stared down at the blank list of schools in front of me; where to start? I visited a few campuses, and my mother put a few bugs in my ear, one for her alma mater, and the other for two historically black schools (HBCUs). I wrote the first down, placing it low on my list, but there was hesitation with the other two. My entire academic career have been in predominantly white environments; how would I navigate a majority black space?

Looking in the mirror at the actual physical presentation of myself, I investigated what other people view when they looked upon me. At that moment, I began to realize what the features are interpreted as. My hair is pulled up and tight, various people have suspected military, but I have never been enlisted. My glasses and crooked teeth would suggest that my parents were low income, no corrective surgery or braces for me. My body image would be identified, instantly by women, as having children and I do have two sons. After one eight-pound boy and the other almost ten-pound baby my body did not return to its original dimensions, there was no weight trainer or nutritionist for me. My calloused hands will tell anyone that I am a blue-collar worker and the ring on my left tells them that I am married. Progressing through college and beyond will be my way out of the shell that society has created me in, it will be my golden door to freedom.

Over the history of this country, many families across the globe have come to the U.S. in hopes of a better life. My family was one of the many that decided to leave our home country and come to the United States. We never realistically imagined coming to America, but when we did, it was a real dream come true. Knowing I was coming to this country as a student was especially exciting for me personally. We were so excited about this new adventure and the opportunities we would have, despite the many challenges that lay ahead. Two of the obstacles I had to overcome, were having to learn a new language, and build new relationships.

To go along with being an athlete, I am a student. To be able to get playing time, you need to have good grades. My parents didn’t just push me to be a good athlete, but to get good grades. I had higher expectations compared to my brother. But that pushed me to keep my grades up and do get an A on assignments and tests. This impacted who I was and what I decided to value. It was important to my parents that I got good grades, but to me it was too because it helped me get into college and it made me feel good about myself. Being a student, just like being an athlete, teaches me to be diligent in the work that I have in front of me. It also teaches me time management, and what I need to get done compared to going out with my friends.