Final Reflection

I felt uncertain or wobbly about picking a topic to write for my literacy narrative. I did not want to choose something that I knew would be hard to write about, but at the same time I wanted it to be meaningful to me in some way. It was struggling to compensate for the two topics, but in the end I found a happy medium between the two. Now thinking back on it, I wish I didn't choose something as meaningful to me because when we had to share a part of them in class I was nervous because I didn't want anyone feel sad or upset after I read it. I was unaware of the read around in the beginning, but if I did know I probably would have chose to write about soccer because that was a huge part of my life and would have been fun to write about. The topic I did chose to write was a very touchy subject and a little difficult to write about. When I had to reflect on all the moments I spent with my friend who passed away it did bring up some memories we had together. While I was writing it was hard to focus because I would stop and reminisce each time I thought of an event. So writing my narrative it did push some limits that I thought I couldn't have written about. So writing my paper was an enormous wobble, because it did push me to write through my insecurities and uncertainties and helped me become a better writer. Even though I was not suppose to have a resolution from accomplishing my literacy narrative, I do. It has helped me filter some emotions that I thought I could never get passed, but it had helped tremendously.

Literacy Narrative Reflection

I felt uncertain about picking a topic to write about for my literacy narrative. I did not want to chose something that I know was going to be hard, but at the same time I wanted it to be meaningful to me. So it was confusing at first, but once I got my ideas done on paper it was really easy after that.

I had to edit or revise my work before it wasn't something that is new to me. In my first draft I started out talking about my relationship with death, then I led into my relationship with my friend Phi who passed away, and finally concluded on how his life has dramatically changed mine. It was boring and stuffy at first but then Lacy suggested if I started from the end of my story and then work my way back to the beginning and it makes the audience want to keep reading.

After I tried this I had two other drafts trying out different writing styles of my first paragraph. I really liked the first one I did because I used a metaphor or a boat at sea and that described good and bad situations. I kept that metaphor going throughout my whole paper and it really seemed to work out well. I really liked this version better than the first because I felt like I was connecting with my reader more and they can really understand my emotions during the time periods.

The goals I wanted to achieve in this literacy narrative was to get across the fact that you should not take anyone for granted at any time because you don't know what the future brings or takes away. And also that situations may be really low at one point in your life but time really does heal pain.

Ethnography Reflection

At first thinking about the ethnography project, I chose signs and meanings of what I found around campus. From that I really like the idea of writing about quotes and messages because they influence the way I think and feel about certain situations. Especially bible verses, I connect with them the most because God is what I believe in most. Once my group and I did our field work of finding quotes on posters, around campus, and bible verses we tried to do a slide show. Finding out the slide show was not getting out point across as much as we wanted it too, we thought of a better idea; a power point. Our revision into the power point made a lot of things easier because then we could also write what we each thought about each picture and how if affected us individually. I loved working with a group because once all of our ideas came together for each picture it made me realize that our interpretations are different but at the same time similar. I really enjoyed the aspect of putting a power point together rather than actually writing a paper because it helped me get the points across easier and more effectively. I feel as if I had to write a paper about quotes and messages, it wouldn't have came together as it did. I don't think we could have expressed ourselves in depth as we did through power point. I really liked this assignment because it made us think outside the box, rather than the traditional written paper thinking. I liked how we had to do field work and collaborate further than just talking about the pictures, we also had to come together and discuss what we thought the meanings of the pictures meant in our own ways. Overall I really liked how we connected with the different topics we found.