A Collection of my Reflections

Wow, I can’t believe that this quarter is coming to an end; it has gone by so quickly. Looking back, I never thought I’d make it this far, but now that I am here I can honestly say it has been worth all the stress and anxiety, not to mention the continuous lack of sleep. This class was a bit out of my league, but I gave it everything I had.

I am a part time Running Start student for my first time this year as a junior at Snohomish High School. “Part time” is to say the least... I am currently taking four classes at my high school and two classes at the college. Six classes, big mistake... The workload from all of this schooling becomes a bit unbearable at times. From the time I get home from school until the time I go bed, I am doing homework; with the exception of a few extra curricular activities. I’m sure my family and friends have endured less than the best from me through this stressful time, but they have also helped me get through it.

I have always been very involved with sports, my favorite being soccer. I have played soccer for about twelve years now, and my passion for the sport only continues to grow. I also play golf here and there, and played on the golf team at my school my freshman and sophomore year. Growing up, I took interest in playing the piano and developed a love for music. Although I don’t play the piano anymore, I still love singing and listening to music. I value school and my grades very much, and have been very self-motivated all throughout school. I love the Lord, and spend a lot of my free time helping out at my church and hanging out with people from my church. I want to attend Northwest University after I graduated from high school and I am currently considering becoming a pastor.

English has always been a class in school that came easy for me. My teachers would regularly give me positive feedback on my project and writings, and encouraged me to take honors classes. Well that all changed this quarter. I entered this class thinking I would breeze right through it, that it would be very easy and not time consuming. Boy, was I wrong. A few weeks into the course, I was adjusting my expectations after receiving unusually low grades on my assignments. I was used to getting A’s on all of my past English assignments, but not anymore. Although this class frustrated and stressed me out, it challenged me at a level that was new to me. The bar was raised and it was difficult, but I learned to adjust and I grew as a student from it. I think I could have done a lot better in this class if my workload from all my others classes wasn’t so heavy... That way I could have spent more time focusing on this course.

I took this class as a substitute for my Junior english requirement for high school graduation. I think this course was good preparation for the future college classes I plan to take. In this English class, we focused on three elements: Identity, Community, and Traditions. My personal favorite out of the three was traditions because the paper offered the most freedom to the writer. I am a better creative writer rather than an analytical writer, so many compromises were made throughout this course.

My understanding of a true self-identity has changed due to this class. This section caused me to step back and reevaluate myself and my identity. I was challenged to think of what the contributing factors to an identity were and which ones specifically were factors in the formation of my own identity. My initial definition of an identity was a label or someone’s personality. I had never really thought much about my identity or identities in general. This unit changed my train of thought on this subject and revealed a whole new perspective with which I now look at people. In one of my discussion board postings, I discussed how I have learned that “For some it may take a life time to figure out, but for most it is through repeated trial and error in their teen years that they get a sense of identity for themselves”(Tapert). For me, I am slowly unveiling my self-identity and I still have a long way to go. The direction of my identity has changed multiple times in the past, but this time I feel like I have a solid grip on what I want and what my identity should look like. I have committed to this dream of my future identity and there’s no turning back now.

Through watching the movie District 9, my perspective on what community is completely changed. My initial thoughts of what a community is was specific to someone’s geographic location. The image that first popped into my mind when hearing community was a neighborhood. I thought of how the people that surround you act as your community. I quickly learned how geographic community is only one small piece to a bigger puzzle that I hadn’t realized before. I have learned that communities are so much more and can be built around the sharing of common beliefs and interests. In one of my blog posts for this class, I stated that soccer has been a community in my life. I wrote, “A team will rise against all other odds if they are a community first. Once each player is committed wholeheartedly, community will flourish without much effort.” I believe this is true for all communities; they will thrive as a whole if and when each person is committed first. District 9 reassured my recent understanding that communities go far beyond the physical barriers that enclose them. Although the aliens were trapped in District 9 by chain-linked fences, their community was limited to more than just the physical obstacles, they were also stripped of their freedom and rights. Emotionally, the aliens’ community strengthened as a result of the pain and poverty they endured. Physically, their community decreased in size and many were murdered or died because of poverty.

From the collection, my favorite unit was the one that focused on tradition. Traditions are something I deeply value. Prior to entering the unit, I had strong beliefs on what tradition meant to me, personally. My understanding of traditions didn’t change or alter, but was definitely strengthened. In my life, I values routines and tend to have a difficult time accepting and adjusting to change. This is why I value traditions so much. I believe traditions mend together identities and communities. For instance, A person may view a particular tradition as being sacred and meaningful, while another person may not feel the same way. I am the type of person who looks forwards to and anticipates traditions. For example, I stated in a previous blog “my great grandmother has always baked angel food cakes for every holiday and for each family members birthday. Whether you are turning five or 50, she will bake you a cake and even bring strawberries and cool whip to top it with.” I value this tradition so deeply, and it brings me great joy when I receive angel food cake from my Grandma on my birthday.

Throughout the unit, I learned that modern innovations can affect all traditions in more ways than one. Until I began to brainstorm ideas for our tradition essay, I had never realized the impact that televisions have on the Thanksgiving holiday. The Television increases Thanksgiving in various ways, ranging from the quality of food, the sense of unity it provides, and the motivation within people. Some communities are defined by the traditions they have, while some people shape their identity around the traditions that they value.

Our last assignment for this class also serves as our final. Our task is to carefully pick four of our writings and use them as pieces that represent our best thinking and writing skills. The assignment calls for a writing that demonstrates our critical thinking skills, revision skills, one that illustrates our awareness of audience and voice. We were also assigned to choose a writing that we personally enjoyed, called our “writer’s choice”. After going back and fourth between all of my writings, I have chosen each writing because they exemplify my progress in this course the most. I chose my first discussion board posting considering identity as a writing that demonstrates my critical thinking. I chose my blog posting about the contents of my wallet and how it relates to my identity because it showed the most need for revision and responding analysis. I chose my reply to a fellow classmates discussion board posting about identity as a writing the most illustrates my awareness of audience and voice. My last piece of writing that I chose was my blog about how soccer is a community, this was a writing that I enjoyed and chose to use it as my “Writer’s Choice”.

Thank you for you the time you took yo read my portfolio. I hope it provides you with a thorough understanding of how this English class can and has shaped my writing skills as a whole. Enjoy!