WP4: The Semester Recap
With the final semester of college right around the corner, I am now able to fully take everything in and reflect on my long road as a writer and overall as a student. Throughout the semester, each paper encouraged us to push ourselves beyond our limits to find the unknown of what we thought was already discovered. We were encouraged to dive deep into the understandings of not only ourselves, but also the importance of the environment around us. This process was difficult and sometimes very challenging, but ultimately shaped me into an assured and adept writer.
In the first couple weeks of the class, I was excited go get my writing gears moving again. Prior to this class, I was used to writing academic research based papers due to my major and I was very excited to get my creative juices flowing again. However, it was not the easiest for me to get the wheels turning again. I grew nervous of an empty white page staring at me. Everything I started to write became to serious and academic-like to me and that was exactly what I wanted to stray away from. It was a terribly hard switch to make which seemed so much easier in my head. I continued to bounce my ideas off my classmates, but nothing I came up with came even close to their brilliant paper topics. It was the hardest start to any paper I have ever experienced, but I eventually found a topic that confronts me on the daily that I finally felt passionate enough to write about and feel good about it.
As the semester kept zooming by, I was able to become more comfortable with my writing. The topics still came as a struggle for me as I wasn’t sure what part of myself I wanted to take an exploration down. Once I found my path, I was able to guide myself down a hole of self discovery. Learning to be comfortable with the silence and pointing out my differences became a lot easier for me as I continued to tackle the new writing projects. I did, however, grow to have a love-hate relationship with my approach to the work.
As I was gathering information regarding each writing project, I learned that I did not enjoy waiting for the individual responses for my projects. It delayed my work process and grew my anger and frustration. However, even though I hated that part of the process, it also helped me realize that I am not alone in my own self discoveries. By using Google Forms to gather person information, I was able to write about outcomes that I was not expecting. Once I came to this realization, it helped me start to write from my actual heart and start to incorporate passion in my writing. This became one of the most significant revelations of my process. The moment I started to write for my own personal enjoyment, the words just seemed to flow right out of my brain and onto my computer. From the start, my urge to right came from my anxiety and nervousness to finish my scheduled assignment because it is for a grade. As I started to write due to pure enjoyment, the assignment no longer felt like a chore. It became something I looked forward to completing.
Overall, this writing class exceeded my expectations in helping me grow as a writer. It helped bring me back to a specific kind of writing that I do not get to partake in very often. Although it is very important to know how to properly take on an research assignment, being able to step back and have more of a “mindless” task helps strengthen the creative juices that have been in hybernation for so long.
Not only was I able to improve on my writing, but this class even helped me learn more about myself. As I explored more into a space in my life that I tend to keep more private, I started to notice myself becoming more accepting with it. I grew more comfortable in my skin and more confident in my ability to embrace the differences I hold. I look forward to continue this journey and unpacking more about myself that I have yet to discover. Yes, this class is normally something that everyone “just has to complete to graduate”, but I am now very excited to continue on with these new skills I learned from WRIT340 and strengthen them as I continue into my life post-graduation.
