Some final words…

Writing 303– The Personal Essay was not what I quite expected when I enrolled. I was hoping to learn about other people–those who wrote and discovered themselves. Little did I know that I would write and learn more about my peers and myself rather than famous, successful, personal essayists.

I never actually considered students and writers. However, on my very first day (since I missed the first), while I reflected upon the poem “Why I write”, I learned that we were all writers. I was a writer. I didn’t really need anyone else to label that for me.

I’m grateful that I cook this class, which taught me more about life and expression than any of my classes ever have.
This class not only allowed me to bond with some very unique people in different stages in life, but also taught me to change some my perspectives and realize that everyone has a different story.

I was moved by many people in this class in unexplainable ways…thank you everyone! Thanks Professor Lucenko for instructing and giving us this opportunity to think about ourselves and our lives: who we are and where we want to be. 🙂

Good luck everyone! Write.write.write.

~FARZANA KARIM

Digital Story Presentations/Final Reflection

This feels surreal…I feel like it was literally last week that we first started posting here. This semester flew by (and yet dragged on at the same time?).  It’s sort of sad to think that this page will sort of fizzle out now. Anyways….

I was really impressed by the presentations this week. I felt like after a semester of reading through each other’s work and commenting, suggesting, editing, discussing–this was one last way to get a real and more visual sense of at least an aspect of each other’s personalities and lives. It’s sort of–I don’t know, comforting–to think that just  a few weeks ago we were all sort of overwhelmed about this project. I remember hearing chatter around me about how for some, this would be their first time with this type of software. It’s nice to be on the other side now, and to know we all got through it and produced some really interesting and well thought out pieces.

As a Political Science major/Journalism minor, I have done a lot of writing over the past few years. From long research papers, responses to questions on various political topics and position papers, and then the journalism side of balanced and independent writing on any given subject. Through all of this, I have always thought of myself as a good writer. Even growing up, writing was my strong point (or maybe it was just because my math was so bad? hmm). With that said, I have never written about myself the way we did in this class. And even on instances where I tried to experiment with journaling or writing my thoughts down, it was nothing I would ever show anyone.

I was a little terrified when I realized we would have to post our work for everyone to read. As the semester went on though, I realized that my classmates were writing about personal things and I was honestly moved by some of the things I read–and so appreciative and sort of proud of my classmates. It inspired me to also dig deeper within myself and write about some rougher areas of my life.

This was ultimately so helpful in constructing my personal statement. A lot of the hardest experiences I have been through is what ultimately led me to what I want to pursue in graduate school–and before this class, I didn’t know how I was going to open up this part of me to others (complete strangers at that!). Thanks to this course, I conveyed all of my experiences and pushed the vulnerability away. I now have a personal statement I am happy with and will be uploading to applications literally in the next two weeks.

The idea that all of us are writers was something I struggled with at first. Upon reading some of the other works of my classmates, I felt inferior. Slowly though, I realized that it wasn’t something I should be comparing and instead I needed to focus on my own growth.

As others have done in their final posts, I want to echo a sincere thanks to everyone, especially those who read my work and made thoughtful comments.

This has been one of the best courses I’ve taken during my time here, and it makes me wish I had taken other writing classes. A few of my friends are in other WRT 303 sections, but I am so glad I ended up here with everyone.

Good luck on finals everyone, have a nice winter break!

Be well,

Saira