I think that throughout the semester, my work I think I did very well making connections to the outside world and my own life to the readings that we did in class. For example, a lot of my work when I got to choose what to write about was Toni Cade Bambara because I felt like her work and her message was something I could relate to, since I’m also an African American. I’m not too sure if I’ve found my style as a writer, but I think that I’m a very introspective writer and that I draw understanding not only from what I’ve read, but from what I see around me. I think my journey these 15 weeks has been insightful in a way, we have read about so many different types of ideas and perspectives, and i got a little view inside worlds that i could relate to, but also others that i had not thought of.
One piece that I am most proud of was the work that I did with Toni Cade Bambara. I liked the fiction/literary theory essay that I did. I loved the idea of connecting critical race theory with the personality of the characters from Gorilla My Love. This was something that I understood fully and well how racism has shaped my community and how it has affected us. I think I did well on it, because as I mentioned before it was something that I could relate to, and could even connect it to my own life and those around me as well, not just Toni Cade Bambara’s work. I also liked the poems we did like the Black Out Poems, and the Where I’m From poems. I liked those because I’ve been writing poetry all throughout my life, so it was fun to take some of my own hobbies and work on it for an assignment.
I think my greatest challenge this semester was my time management, personally i’ve had trouble saying organized and on time with a lot of my classes due to outside factors, which made it a lot harder to stay on the ball, but i always tried to keep up with everything that was going on in this class and all my others.
In conclusion, what I really enjoyed about this class was that for the first time in an English class we really got to study and learn about everybody no matter where or who they were. We learned about different walks of life and the different struggles and triumphs that come with them. I think that’s so important for an English class, to be diverse and accepting of all people.
