Wp4
Aaliyah Farmer
Writ 150
Professor Dissinger
May 6, 2022
Throughout my journey, through writ 150 I notice that I tend to have more introspective and well-thought-out thoughts versus when I’m speaking to answer a question. I feel this is because I have more time to think rather than saying the first thing that comes to mind whether it be on-topic or off. This is due to the fact that writing is more permanent rather than speaking. At first writing these prompts about identity was a very difficult thing for me to do because I never thought about what shaped me into who I am today. However, the provided prompts have helped me come to the realization that being able to write my thoughts have helped me put my past into perspective, provided me with a more clear vision of my future, and assessed my strengths and weaknesses.
Throughout my life, I have never given myself credit for the things that I have accomplished and have always viewed myself with a critical eye. Reflecting back on my successes and failures while playing soccer I’ve learned that if I would have not been so hard on myself It could have provided me with more freedom to explore new opportunities within the soccer world. With all that being said, writing about my experiences within soccer has allowed me to encounter some of my strengths which are never missing training, prioritizing bonding with my teammates, and always training with full intensity. Writing down all my strengths and weaknesses has allowed me to have more empathy for myself. For example, if I had a bad game in the past I had the tendency to let my anger carry on towards school work. I would look at self-empathy as a sign of weakness, but now I learned that having self-empathy shows resilience, and self-discipline and takes a lot of courage.
The role of writing has played a big role in my life because it has shown me that despite everything I have been through I am resilient. For example, the father-daughter dance which was mentioned in my wp1 was an experience of mine that made me rethink my resilience. In the beginning, I felt unwanted and I was unsure why something that I was so excluded from made me feel this way being as though it wasnt in my control. Me being the oldest of three made me find that resilience I had inside in order to make sure I was there for them. When writing about this specific event that occurred I felt confused but proud of myself at the same time. These two feelings I had encapsulated how although these were adverse experiences they formed the foundations of my resilience today. Without these adverse experiences, I would not be able to be the person I am today because it teaches me different lessons for my future self. Looking back at the experiences in which I was resilient, has allowed me to feel confident in my ability to overcome these adversities in the future, and now I can view these future adversities in a positive way.
Going into this class made me a little nervous because I shy away from writing because I view it as risky. Although writing can be seen as a good thing because it allows you to take the time to write your thoughts at the same time it is also permanent which can be seen as a bad thing because there is no going back. This was my reservation because when writing you could easily turn something in and possibly think of more thoughts to include but the downfall would be you do not have the ability to go back and change it. Therefore going into this class I viewed writing as very risky. However, going forward with this class my experiences with writing changed because I now view writing as less risky and have a more free-flow writing style. Learning about my tendency to be risk-averse has taught me that taking risks can help you overcome that risk-averse feeling whereas taking risks will only open more opportunities for myself. My tendencies to be risk-averse dont just stop with writing. Looking back on my life I’ve now realize that this is a common pattern, a pattern which I feel as though I have now confidence that I can break. Although that can be the down fall of being risk-averse the benefits of this I seen for myself is I can achieve more things and set higher goals for myself because im not as restricted as I could be if I was risk-averse and did not want to do certain things. While being less risk-averse is beneficial this taught me a lot about myself through the lessons it has taught me. For example I noticed when I tend to write an essay about my personal experiences I tend to shy away from using certain examples because I feel as though I would be judged or not understood. It wasnt until I finally took the risk to include a personal example from my life experiences and I was understood and not judged at all. This showed me that if you shy away from taking risks youll never fully understand or get the full outcome you want whereas if you take the risk their is a chance you will most likely get the outcome you wernt expecting to get and sometimes even get the answers you want.
With all that being said I learned that being able to write my thoughts out and having time to fully process and think has helped me gain a better understanding of my future and assess my strengths and weaknesses.
