Blog #5: Reflection
Looking back on the semester, it was a very different experience than any other English class, as we had a whole semester to write about a topic that was of interest to us. I’ve never really had an opportunity to have such freedom with my writing since high school was mostly prompts about whatever book we had just read in class. That doesn’t mean this essay came with a ton of challenges. The biggest challenge I had by far in this class was blog post 3, where I had to write more about the side that opposes the overall idea of environmental justice. There weren’t a lot of articles that had statistical data that would be of use to me. I learned that a lot of the information was very opinionated, which is fine, but that is not something I necessarily want for a research project. The second project, blog post number 2, was not much of a challenge, but I really enjoyed writing about it. I learned a lot about the Indigenous community, and how they are still treated terribly to this day, centuries after they were forced out of their land. It helped me understand the hardships they face, such as not having food and water, which is something I take for granted. It made me think critically and deeply, as I felt a lot of sympathy for them.With me also having some family heritage with the Cherokee tribe, it makes me want to reach out and do some volunteer work for these types of things, and I actually have begun planning to do this during the summer.
This class has definitely taught me a lot about social justices and building a community, along with just growing as a person and learning. Overall, I feel like I have matured a lot over the course of my first year in college. Personally, I have never been someone who was very big in social justices, or going out to advocate for something that I believe in, as I just really didn’t educate myself on any of these important things. I always tried to choose or find a way to avoid the issue instead of talking about it, as I never really wanted to anger people or hear about their political opinions. But now I learned it’s more about hearing the different perspectives people have on the issues we face in America. I’ve also changed from being the quiet kid who never talks, to going out with and advocating for things I believe in, considering I have gone to some marches for the Asian American community along with the black American community over the course of this last year. I have also been more open about having conversations about the issues we currently face in America, especially the absurd amount of racism that has happened during the pandemic. Overall, this class has helped me grow a lot as a person, and find a new interest, as this topic of environmental justice really garnered my attention and kept me interested in my topic for the entire semester.
My final essay can be accessed here.
