Fazenbaker 1

Noah Fazenbaker

Sara Littlejohn

RCO 390-03

18 April 2017

Critical Reflection Essay

After getting thrown into the Strong college by accident my first year of college, I have

been amazed at how much it has affected me in addition to, how much I have enjoyed my time

here. The most important part of my experience at Strong college is the people I encounter and

live with/around daily. Coming from a private Christian school, it is no surprise that although I

knew what was happening in normal everyday life I was not an active part of it. This may have

been because of the bubble that private school has on kids, or just my personal antics, but no one

knew who they truly were until you are dropped in a place so different from ones upbringing.

Once I entered the real world I was surprised at first, not only because of the conflicting

viewpoints but also people's willingness to hold true to those ideals just as much as I held true to

my own. Although, if I could change one thing about my experience Strong college, it would not

be of the program in general, but instead, my own work ethic activity while on campus, that way

I would be able to meet more friend groups and discover how they operate and relate to my

beliefs. I think by doing that I would have a better understanding of people in a general sense

which would serve my true passion; to impact everyone specifically and personally to revoke a

change beneficially to themselves.

While spending my time in the Strong college, it is not always about fun and games or

committees and parties, there are, of course, classes too. As I referenced before, I came from a

small private school which never has a class over 25 students, so transferring to a big community
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college, and specifically, the lecture classes that go along with that, I was worried that I would

not be able to keep up with the information and order of class if it was not directly taught to me

in a closer classroom environment. However, with the Strong college, there was nothing to fear.

The classes were big enough to allow different ideas from other students while also allowing the

professor to get to know each one of the students on a first-name basis, which very much kept

me in the comfort zone of what I had been used too. While being a part of the Residential college

program, I have been a part of many projects that have been recently added to the curriculum.

These projects range from sustainably and fundraisers to simple kickbacks and video game

nights. The ability to always have an opportunity, in a safe environment, to make new friends and

relax is an amazing and crucial part of being a happy college student. Just like I said to a family

while giving a tour at SOUR, The residential college is much like a sorority or fraternity, except

its a whole lot cheaper, safer, and better in all aspect. As well as, your parents will be relieved to

know that you are going to a secret party about pudding instead of one about who knows what!

Lastly, on the same topic of Strong College, my personality and outlook have changed,

but in an overall positive way. As I mentioned before, while living in a community that is

constantly changing with new faces, views, and events, it is important to listen more than you

speak. While practicing this idea, I have allowed my eyes to open too many different ideas and

beliefs of those around me, and start to see how they follow and, eventually, deal with

consequences, in their daily lives. Although I would not say that my own beliefs have changed, I

would be able to show the strengthening and understanding of my personal belief system,

because my passion for listening to everyone elses beliefs that are different from mine.

In my own words, sustainability is defining as a system or way of sustaining life and

development in such a way that over a long period there are little to no adverse effects. As for
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fieldwork, I would define it has any observation that is doing out in the field either up close and

personal or from a distance. That information is then written down and translated in a way that

can be understood to those not present during the observation.

This year while spending a good amount of my time working on fieldwork and

sustainability, I have learned that there is a lot more to it than just memorizing the definition and

then copying someone actions. Instead, a researcher must mold themselves to the situation and

allow plans to change according to the type of responses that will obtain through the fieldwork.

For example, I am most comfortable with fieldwork that requires someone across from you to

simply answer questions, but in the circumstance of needing facts and numbers more quickly, a

researcher must change their approach and open themselves up to new ideas that may solve that

problem. For myself, I decided to solve this issue with the use of a survey, however, there were

problems in the process. If I had the time now to go back in the past and change it, would like to

focus on and improve my ability to formulate questions into a better system that can be sent out

too many people and gather more data, with the outcome being something more credible and

specific.

Back on the subject of fieldwork and sustainability, these two compound words serve a

huge part of everyones lives including what happens in politics. For a closing example, the

education system in America is constantly shifting and changing in accordance with new

information that is constantly being discovered and added to our understanding of the universe.

If this data is not collected in a timely and organized manner, there will soon be a slowing and

eventual stop of progress, that can lead to adverse effect on humanity and even Americas

education system compared to other countries around the world. So, whether it is trying to stop

world hunger or simply attempting the find the best way to print textbooks, sustainability can
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change what the future looks like. The only people possessing this power, however, are the

newest generation and it is up to them to find the path to a bigger and brighter future for all of

the humanity.

My writing process can pretty much be summed up in the way I talk and process my

ideas. Instead of thinking about what I will say ahead of time, I tend to simply write down my

ideas and then leave revising and proofreading to translate my words into accurate depictions of

my thoughts afterward. The reason I choose to write like this comes from my belief that the

reader can draw a closer connection to the author if they can be a part of the process of thought

with the author. On top of that, writing this way allows me to be more open about my thoughts

where others are blocked off, trying to hide in a blanket of big words or intellectual speak,

controlled by the grammar police. My strengths as a writer are my ability to write quickly and

Simi-understand, unfortunately, that means that for a weakness, that my thoughts are not always

represented accurately on the page and it takes a while for the reader to understand what I am

saying. Another weakness that is a result of the speed in which I write, is the way I tend to have

many grammar, punctuation, and tense blunders. In order to combat those mistakes, I take more

time to proofread my works and then I send the paper to a friend who can find the mistakes that I

missed or sections that are still too confusing to the reader.

When it comes to my research process, I use the same rules as my writing process.

Instead of planning every movement and question, I am more interested in augmenting my

course of doing things to allow the subject to show more of themselves and their own

personality. For example, in my most recent fieldwork, looking at the sexual purity standards of

millennials, although I had an outline of questions for the interviewees I tended to take more of

their answers and then mold follow up questions to what they said instead of just focusing on the
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question I had written down. As for citation and other things like that, I feel like the best way to

keep track of what you have researched and looked up is just to simply cite as you go and then

once you are done, collect, organize, and publish the information you have procured over time.

Overall, writing during research can be a beneficially way to organize your thoughts and think

through what your data means. It is almost like looking at the facts through someone elses eyes

and realizing there are certain avenues that you never knew existed until someone else pointed

them out to you.

Blame it on laziness or my acting classes but my punctuality on assignments vary

depending on the day, time, and year. The reason for this is that I do not want to sit down with a

wrong mindset and do work that will not be honest anyway. If necessary, I have the physical

ability to stay up late the night before and quickly put down any words that come to mind in

order to get a completion grade. I can draw out small words and phrases into paragraphs if I need

to meet the word or page count, I can even find random quotes to take up space in areas that I do

not want to write, but I believe that a late paper is worth it when its compared to a paper on time

that is just fluff and scattered nonsense. My goals for education are to learn how to format my

opinions in a way that the mainstream world can understand. I want to focus on learning what I

have no idea about, and moreover, discover how to question ideas beliefs that are taught to me in

a way that dissects them and gives me the ability to make them my own. In some ways, you

could say that I want to discover a way to revolt in a respectful manner to those above, below,

and around me, while also being true and honest with myself. Overall though, going into my

third year of college, I would say there is not much that I would want to change. I have failed

repeatedly, but all those places are now covered with a bridge built by new found understanding.

I have made decisions that were not correct which landed me in circumstances that I never
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thought I would find myself in, but while there I realized that there is a type of truth that comes

from meeting people in the deepest and darkest places in life. In conclusion, I would sum up my

current understanding of the world in three quotes I have been reciting to myself for a while now,

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and expect nothing. Life should be lived learning

from others mistakes and attempting to make the least amount of your own. And finally, Love

is a choice, even if that means making the choice to put yourself below other people in order that

they stand on you to become higher.