At the beginning of the semester I wanted to be confident in my writing and for it to flow easily. I think that overall my writing has been the same in terms of the style I write in. However, I do feel that I was able to write more freely. In high school I would try to stick strictly to what a certain essay required or what it meant and I would overthink every single sentence.

One piece I’m proud of is the film analysis essay. Since this was an assignment, it introduced me to the idea about being able to write about whatever I liked, like a movie. At first I found myself overthinking every sentence I typed but as I kept writing it became clear that everyones ideas and standpoints are interesting because they are unique to them. I never thought I would be able to take a movie character, like a stop motion corpse, and connect it to detailed ideas of feminism or Frankensteins monster and connect it to critical disability theory. I enjoyed going back and reading the paragraphs in the eyes of a reader and revising my drafts, seeing how the smallest changes could give a paragraph a completely different point of view or sound. This paper helped solidify my view that writing is putting your mind to paper, in whatever form you would like.

One piece of writing that was particularly challenging for me was the argumentative essay. In high school I didn’t do much research for my essays, but this essay taught me that in order to write your standpoint on a question there has to be other articles or writing to back up your answer. But I was able to figure out how to connect quotes from the articles provided into my essay. I learned that many of these articles, although they are about different people and moments, all had elements that could answer the question on how to build a proper memorial.

Overall I really enjoyed liked this class and it definitely made my love for writing a lot stronger. During the end of my junior year of high school I stopped trying on my papers and just gave in what I thought was good enough, but seeing my writing teachers be passionate about what they teach motivates me to give it my all instead. I also never though that a college semester could go by so quick. I think it’s really cool that I have had the chance to experience what it means to be a college student and how rewarding it feels to see the work you put in. As well as how meeting new people is really special.