Reflections of a Quarter

Reflections of a Quarter

What a quarter it has been. My name is Emily Rose Osnes and I will be glad for a break from the pressures of being a college student. With a fifty hour work week and visiting my stepdaughter every three weeks over the mountains, I am ready for an extended nap time! Despite the trials and tribulations of this quarter I know that I will prevail. I am willing to work hard for my success in life, because I know it will be worth it in the end. As Queen Latifah writes in her essay Who You Callin’ a Bitch?, “I know who I am. I am confident.” This excerpt is a good portrayal of where I am at in my life right now. I took this class to meet the requirements for my degree and ended up learning a lot about critical thinking. I am working towards my Associates in Business Administration. I have not yet decided if I will transfer to a university or not. With all of the chaos in my life such as: rock climbing, camping, holding food drives, work and family, I am not sure if I will ever find the time.

I enjoyed the topics in this class very much. I love writing about things that are important in our world. I also love relating those topics to my own personal experience. When I write about something that I am passionate about I tend to produce better ideas. If I can relate a topic to my own personal experience then I find it easier to write. One great thing I learned in this class was how to back up my writing with solid evidence and examples, not just personal experiences.

I consider myself a very open-minded person, therefore taking this class felt pretty normal for me. The topics of identity, community and tradition are close to my heart. I found some things in the community unit to be difficult to grasp. In the essay "A Secret Society of the Starving", by Mim Udovich, I found myself judging the idea that people like that could be considered a community. What this class has taught me is to look beyond what I am afraid of about the people and see how they have created a community, and be able to analyze how that community works. I do not have to agree with the community to acknowledge its existence.

I have chosen pieces for this portfolio that I feel are a reflection of my work during the quarter. For my critical thinking piece I chose my Community Discussion Board Two posting. For my revision piece I chose my Community Paper, which needed a lot of help. For my voice and audience piece I chose my blog posting about communities. Last, I chose my Identity Discussion Board Two posting as my writer’s choice piece. I only hope that I can take the thinking and writing skills that I have learned in this class and apply them to my daily life and future career. I appreciate any insight into the following chosen pieces and how I can improve my writing to better improve my life.