Facing Challenges

Reflection Letter

I’m not only a student at Everett Community College but also at Lake Stevens High school. Being only sixteen years old and going to high school, college, and work is a bit of a struggle for me. Sometimes I’m so tired at the end of the day I feel as though I don’t complete this online class to the best of my ability. In the beginning of this quarter I was working shifts at night not leaving anytime to do my work for college until around eleven or twelve p.m. Being over exhausted everyday, I knew I had to change something. Now I work morning shifts from six to seven a.m. until ten then go to school from ten thirty to two and have plenty of time to do my college work. You can easily see the change it has made to my grades and effort put into my work. Working hard and being on the go all the time is pretty much my life for the moment. I’m trying to get a business degree to transfer to a four year university. Which takes a lot of hard work to get ahead of my high school education to a higher level, doing all of this will give me a better chance to get into my dream school Western Washington.
Going from my last English class which was actually at the college to an online course was difficult. I didn’t know what to expect and it was harder than I thought. I enjoyed creating conversation in comparison and contrast with other’s who I have never met but felt as though we were sitting in a classroom right next to each other. The three main units, identity, community, and tradition all linked together in some way. My favorite unit was community. I felt as though I understood this unit better than the other units and had fun with all the assignments. The tradition unit was the hardest for me to grasp. I think if I would’ve understood it better I could’ve done better on my paper to my own standards. The timed writings were the most difficult for me. It was hard for me to write on the spot all I could do was count down the time I had left. The group discussions really helped me out with writing my papers; I enjoyed other people’s feedback. Blogging was them most fun for me I could just express my own thoughts on a page that was just about me. This whole class has really challenged me with everything we had to do. Sometimes I would think I couldn’t do it and be so overwhelmed but push myself anyways. Overall I believe I learned a lot and succeeded in trying my hardest to meet not only my teacher’s expectations but my own.
For my chosen pieces I included visiting pop culture Discussion Board 2 in the tradition unit for my critical thinking piece. My revision piece is my unit one paper, “Are we what we wear”? The second blog assignment “What’s your Community”? I felt had the most voice and attraction to the audience. My writers choice is the unit two cultural writing assignment. Our second major paper in which I felt I did a really good job analyzing.
I hope this reflection gave a better introduction of who I really am and how my writing is based off of what I study and learn. I write just what comes to me and hope that’s good enough. I love to write and really liked this class especially for the people in it. Thank you to my instructors and students who helped me write the best I could.

Kirsten Michaels