WP4: Reflections
I like to write. It’s not something I want to pursue as a career (well, maybe as a side hustle), but I enjoy the writing process and find comfort in getting my thoughts out of my head and onto a piece of paper. Something I’ve struggled with in writing is figuring out WHAT I want to write about. My college essays and personal projects are a big jumble of random topics, from the media of Mount Everest to waste and disposability. To that end, I have appreciated my time in this course as its allowed me to consider what I really want to write about. What do I care about? Like most people, I care about a lot of things, but it’s interesting in looking back at this course to see what’s stayed the same in my writing.
It sticks out to me that my writing always comes back to religion and the long-term impacts of religion on various areas of our lives. There’s an odd comfort in knowing that there is something, after all, that actually interests me. Although I made slight deviations and changes in my topic, the “seed” of the project stayed the same. I remember Professor Dissinger saying something along the lines of even when people in our class did change topics, the new topic was ultimately not that different, and I think that is true in the case of my writing project.
Perhaps this is too simple, but over the course of my writing project, I learned that things are not always what they seem. Or, things are not always what you assume them to be. I went into each project with preconceived notions of what I would find. Usually, I was flat out wrong. For instance, I never realized how many Catholics actually support abortion access. Where did my assumptions come from? The media? Mistaking my own life experiences as being the case everywhere? In this way, WP2 and WP3 were an interesting exercise in not letting your ego get in the way of your writing. Sometimes, you have to say, I was wrong! Or, I was not seeing the whole picture. And I could have done a better job at saying that. This project has helped solidify my belief that learning is a lifelong practice that doesn’t need to happen inside a classroom.
Something I’ve been thinking about over the course of this summer is, what is the purpose of writing? What is the purpose of contributing 0.000000000001% to a field of study or writing something people will likely never read? Some days, I feel really optimistic about writing and its potential employment for change. And sometimes, I feel really cynical about it, like, what is this actually doing? Or how can anything change when people (I) tend to only read people who share similar beliefs about the world? I don’t think I have the answers to these questions. This summer has been quite turbulent, with the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, rising COVID-19 and monkeypox cases in the US, and numerous violent shootings. It’s hard to write these days and even harder to feel good about the future. I’m hoping to find a healthy balance between these feelings of optimism and cynicism in my future writing.
On a less depressing note: the writing process this semester helped me to expand my ideas about what research is. It’s crazy to me, now, that I never went out and interviewed anyone for all my other college papers! What a cool and exciting way to actively contribute to your ideas and work. I wish more professors would encourage this. Sometimes, I would go into interviews super prepared with lists of questions, and other times I would just sort of see where the conversation took me. Although I did only interview family members over the course of WP1, WP2, and WP3, I think that these ‘practice’ interviews will make me more comfortable reaching out to an expert or professional in a certain field in the future. And that makes me look forward to future projects.
I think my writing practice was influenced just as much by WRITING A LOT this summer as READING A LOT, both inside and outside of class. The work of David Foster Wallace (which had been in my periphery, but I’d never dove in), made me question what professional, academic, and non-fiction writing could be. Genres of non-fiction and creative non-fiction can be just as wild, wacky, and interesting to read as a fantasy novel, really. It’s all about how you tell a story. Sometimes, I read heavy academic writing and think, am I stupid?! Why am I not getting this? But the work of scholars like Paolo Freire and Vershawn Ashanti Young give me confidence that it is possible for people to write in an accessible way (or, at least in a way that veers towards accessible).
I enjoyed the process of learning to use Medium. It’s always exciting to learn to use a new software or platform. I know Medium is quite easy to use, but it feels like another tool in my toolbox. And it’s nice to take classes that put tools in your toolbox! I felt quite intimidated at the idea of publishing my writing online at first, but over the course of the semester I got used to it. It’s unique to instill in a class that we’re writing for an audience rather than Turnitin, and I enjoyed this approach. Had I not been a final-semester-senior, I probably would have put my best foot forward a little bit more in this regard (cultivating an audience, putting out my best work, and so on). I appreciate that Professor Dissinger runs his class like this. I think it’s important that we have educators breaking the traditional molds of college level writing classes. Like, why can’t a writing class also teach you to create a podcast or introduce you to great fiction and non-fiction writers?! Education should be exciting and participatory.
Thanks for a great summer and I wish you the best in the upcoming semester!
