Writ 340 Reflection Piece
It has been an interesting summer of Writing 340; as I have come to learn about the many pitfalls in my writing. I will certainly take away a lot in terms of being more idea driven and will continue to dig deeper in future pieces of work. However, the biggest takeaway I will take from this class is the fact I was able to write about a lot of issues in my home country of India. I started off writing about how young individuals are not able to pursue their dreams, as Indian culture and society forcefully pushes kids to follow “traditional” career paths and considers alternative and more “creative” choices as a waste of time. I then talked about colorism in Indian society and how we need to tackle such discrimination as it is detrimental to growth as a culture going forward. I then spoke about religious discrimination in India and how Prime Minster Narendra Modi has contributed to taking India multiple steps backwards by imposing anti secular laws that harm the religious outlook in the country. Finally, I spoke about the disastrous income inequality by discussing Mumbai architecture by comparing Mukesh Ambani’s 1-billion-dollar home with the largest Indian slum in the same city. By discussing all these vast issues that plague India, I realized that it is up to millennials like me to continue bringing up uncomfortable conversation for society for things to change. This has also partly helped me decide that India is where I want to be for a year or 2 after my graduation as I believe that a US college educational experience has deepened my understanding of social issues and I am in the drivers seat to do what I can to spur conversation as I go back.
The summer of Writing 340 has also further inspired to work even harder for my professional golf dreams as I now realize that this dream is so much more than just about me. It’s about inspiring other fellow Indians pursuing a more creative career path and letting them know that following your dreams is not a waste of time. It’s about doing it for my father, who was not allowed to pursue his own sports dreams but let me pursue them despite him being brought up in a different culture. I absorb all this and go forward knowing that practicing with a greater purpose will always result in greater results. I also have greater faith in educating myself to further improve my game as I learnt more about the benefits of an education other than the traditional “bankers education”. Non-traditional forms of education can sometimes be even more beneficial than a traditional form of education, especially in non traditional career paths.
I think this was the perfect class to end my USC education with as I had the opportunity to reflect on topics close to my heart and on ideas about my future. I got to understand my fellow peers and the culture and oppression they faced on a regular basis. I have enjoyed reading my fellow peers work and have been fascinated by a number of topics that they’ve written about. This class has given me a new methodology on how to think about oppression in general and I will always remember ways of dealing with such oppression in future endeavors of mine.
