When reflecting on this project I am most proud of my Op-Ed part of

the project. I feel that this style of writing really allowed me to write in a way
that was engaging not only to the audience, but to myself throughout the course
of this process, which in turn allowed more of my voice to shine through. In
particular, I am proud of the way that I continually tied in present day events
with the narrative of the past. It began with my first statement, “‘Black Lives
Matter!” has been a call across the world recently, echoing into the recesses
of society. It is the cause for both peaceful and not-so-peaceful marches, a
call for change, but why is it necessary? The answer is as simple in its roots
as it is vast in its effect on the world, colonization” and continued through
until the end, at which point I said, “Just as Nyasaland would later become
Malawi because they all chose to stand and fight rather than sit idly - we too
must become independent of the colonial ideals that created race.” I did this
in order to strengthen the tie between the reader and these events. A hook is
created to draw the reader in, but an effective paper is one that continues to
draw them in throughout its entirety which I think I did through this
continual reference to the modern world.

I ran into multiple difficulties throughout this project, but the most
prominent one in my mind was my visual art piece. I have never considered
myself an artist. It’s not necessarily that I don’t have ideas, but that I feel that I
am technically unable to complete them to their fullest potential, which is
irritating to me. A specific example of a difficulty I faced within my art piece
was attempting to make it all flow together in a way that made sense to the
audience. My first attempt at this wasn’t terrible, but the video was halting and,
upon critique, I realized that the individual details were sloppy, which led to a
feeling of discontinuity. I dealt with these difficulties by going back through
and attempting to polish the smaller details as well as the larger ones. This
particular difficulty could have been avoided if I had taken the time to refine
the small details while originally creating the film.
 The most important thing I learned throughout the course of this
project was how little I actually know. This might seem counterintuitive, but I
am referring to the fact that throughout the course of my many, many years of
history I have covered a large portion of the world, but where Africa is I have a
large hole in my knowledge. This really helped me to understand a) why we
need to update our history books and b) the effect of colonization upon the
modern world. Without colonization, race wouldn’t exist, and without race I
would likely know as much about the current Continent of Africa as I do about
the past City of Pompeii. I feel that I showed this knowledge in the Op Ed
when I wrote, “Colonialism was used in order to make profit and it did this
both quickly and effectively, but when that money was spent, and the land's
resources depleted all that we left behind was a trail of racism and people
who had lost not only their way, but their voices as well. And so now it is
our job and the job of our society to leave the trail behind, and help those
that we have oppressed, in the hope that when they find their voice again,
they don’t whisper, they roar.” It is said that the victors write the story, but
now that we find ourselves in desperate need to no longer look at one group as
a lesser than, perhaps we should let the people who lost help us understand, not
only their history but, our history.

As a writer I have grown in many ways throughout this process. An

example of this, and probably the most likely to be used at a later date, is how
to eliminate words. I don’t necessarily struggle with writing, but my writing, as
you have probably noticed, tends to be long and over-winded. Examples of this
have been mostly cut from my paper, as I said I have been working on this
particular writing adversary, but ghosts of its presence are still visible. ““Black
Lives Matter!” has been a call across the world recently, echoing into the
recesses of society.” This is the opening line of my paper, and yet at one
point it read: ““Black Lives Matter!” has and continues to be a call across
the world, echoing into and through the shadowy recesses of society.” See,
wordy it once was, but no longer! I plan to continue to battle with this
literary opponent in future works so as to prevent my audience from falling
asleep while reading.

I honestly believe that I have successfully earned a 10 in this class so far.

I am prepared everyday for class. I consistently am in class, and do the starter
as soon as it is assigned and attempt to answer questions with a complete
thought process. I complete all of my work on time, and do quality work,
sometimes spending extra time in order to achieve better results, as I did during
Op Ed. I attempt to find meaning and interest in all of the work that we do, and
I stay on task throughout class, listening when I need to listen.