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Lovella Santos

Instructor Judith McCann

English 1302.203

4 May 2022

Final Reflection

This semester has been a full roller coaster. From ups to downs to full circles and mid

way paths. Although it was hard it was also fun to have. From making essays, homeworks and

having fun to having meltdowns that made my days the worst. But at the end of the day I

consider the semester one of the greatest of them all. It helped me understand how the human

mind works all thanks to my essays. Even though it was a hard challenge to take, it helped me

understand that life is not all flowers and rainbows. It helped me understand that sometimes life

can be dark and that in order to cross that dark path one must see the light no matter how small it

is. It made me realize that not all of us have what it takes to make essays.

To begin with 1302. 203 was like I said a full roller coaster. Mostly because it was fun

but also because it was also a little bit bad. The only problem I had was my writer's block which

was a real pain in my butt. Because it challenged me and made me sometimes not do my work at

all considering that the work was really important for my semester grade. But at the end of the

day I think it was worth the challenge. This made me think that writing is not so bad after all and

that even though it has its ups and downs they are there to help you through the journey. Not to

mention my favorite part was talking about something that I considered close to myself in all of

my 3 essays. For example, in essay one I talked about sleeping and how I created an experiment

in which I slept early for 5 days. Although the experiment did not work it made me realize that I

have a problem sleeping and that I need to check that. Another example is essay 2 which I
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basically had to do an annotated bibliography which was my first time doing it and I think it was

really hard doing that and I really don't want to do it again but I know I will make it again in the

future. Anyways, in this essay I basically made a conversation with several authors that have

different perspectives on a certain topic which in this essay was bipolar disorder. My list example

is essay 3. Essay 3 was one of the best. Because in this essay I actually made my stand on the

topic which in this case is also bipolar disorder. I learned a lot about this disorder through these

two essays, mostly since I took my stand and made my stand strong enough for the reader to

understand how it affects the mind of someone.

Now as for my strengths and weaknesses of my journey as a writer, how have they

changed and I think they changed for the better. Because at the beginning of the semester of

English 1301.207 I struggled a lot because writing essays about certain topics and making them

strong was my first time writing such essays. My strengths and weaknesses were completely all

over the place. But if I remember correctly one of my strengths was not not grammar but rather

not repeating and having a strong thesis. As for my weaknesses I believed that grammar was one

of my greatest weaknesses since being a bilingual kid and my first language being Spanish was a

pain. Until someone told me that grammar is not part of my weaknesses in writing so I asked and

they told me that it was making my point in an essay. I took these weaknesses and strengths into

my mind and kept on making them stronger. I made my weaknesses and my strengths become

even stronger to not be my weaknesses but to be my strengths. In this semester my strings have

changed things to this. For example, my strengths are going straight to the point, making my

point, having a strong thesis, and elaborating. As for my strength, repeating was my greatest

enemy.
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If I were to compare this semester to my last semester, make a choice on which was

better I would say this semester. because this semester helped me learn more about myself and

how I feel and what I need helping then last semester. Because last semester only helped me

understand how communities work rather than this semester which helped me explore my

mentality as a human being. Although both semesters work great and amazing I believe this

semester was the greatest not just because it helped me find myself but because it helped me

understand something I didn't know could happen to so many people, which in this case is

having a sleeping disorder and having bipolar disorder. I would also like to thank my instructor

Miss Judith McCann who helped me through my journey as a writer which was also one of the

best things. I would also like to thank my peers who helped me see my essays in a different

perspective. This semester has been a full half year of discovery and it is all thanks to these

people who helped me see myself end my way of writing as one of my greatest strengths in life.

The profolio. In this profolio I focus more on the black and white side of English 1302.

203. because like I've mentioned several times in this reflection this semester has been a full

roller coaster “ups and downs.” The black represents the downs of writing and the white

represents the ups of writing. I chose this because it changed my perspective towards English

1302 and it did ot change for the bad but for the better. If I were to compare this portfolio to last

semester's portfolio. I would say last semester's portfolio is so much more colorful than this

semester's. Because last semester I only focused on the bright side and never on the bad. But I

don't want to focus on colorful things, rather I want to focus on the deeper meaning of English

1302. It was amazing working with this. It helped me see all of my work add to my homework,

essays, drafts, invention worksheets, peer feedback, and final reflection. All of this work is being

added into this portfolio because it was the most important thing I have done in my life to this
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class. I did not have any problems with Weebly although I was stressed because it was not easy

to add the pictures, links, and all of my work into a portfolio. Like I mentioned I did not struggle

with weebly because I used it last semester and this semester I knew my way around it. I did not

have technical issues nor did I have any issues on finding my work since I always downloaded it

as a PDF and added it into a folder which on the last day I had everything prepared. Finally, this

portfolio will show how great of a writer I think I am and not just that but it will show all of my

sweat and tears that was the hard work I made.

Like I mentioned so many times before, this class was an easy and interesting class. I

learned a lot. I learned how the mind works and how it may be affected with our emotions. I also

learned that sleep is very important no matter how hard it may be to do. I learned this thanks to

my research and thanks to my essay as well. This class I know for sure will help me in the future.

Because once I graduate Garcia Early College I either want to be a neurologist, a nurse

practitioner with an experience in neurology, or I would also like to be a physiological therapist.

And I know for sure that thanks to this knowledge that I learned will be useful.

Lastly, I would like to thank my instructor Judith McCann for helping me throughout my

writing journey. She helped me make my essays stronger and she also helped me understand how

to make transitions throughout my essay. For example, in essay 2 we had to include subheadings

and for me that was hard to do in my opinion, because at the end of every paragraph I needed to

include a sentence that would mention something related to the paragraph that was going to

come and that included the titles for my subheadings. And I improved in this thanks to her

because she helped with this problem i was struggling with. I would also like to thank my peers

because thanks to them I got to make my essays stronger and to make them make sense. One of

my peers who really helped me was Nathaly Martinez. Nathaly helped me change my wording,
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she also judged my essay in a really bad way and I liked that, because it helped me understand

how my essay would look to my readers. I did not want that so I would change it and make it

better all thanks to her judgment. Lastly I would like to thank Mrs. Villanueva. It did not matter

how stressed she was, she helped me. She also helped me understand my topic and helped me

through my writer's block. Not just that but she was like my therapist because thanks to her I got

to move through my semester in a good way. I would also like to thank my dear old frenemy

Writers block because of him I got to improve as a writer, student and author. I would also like to

thank those Saturdays when I assisted the SI sessions. They really helped me and my essays a

lot. Although I only attended a total of 3 SI sessions which are basically meetings where I

worked on my essays. These sessions helped me work on my essays and brainstorming. For

example, on the 1st session I worked on Essay 1 and if I recall correctly I worked on my

introduction and conclusion. In the second session I worked on my thesis statement which was a

pretty hard part of my essay, but I also worked on my annotated bibliography which was also

pretty hard. The last session I worked on revising my final essays. Thanks to these people and

my writer's block, I got to completely understand my writing path as a writer in a good way.

In conclusion, I had a great semester in which I learned to be a good writer. I also liked

everything in the way no matter how hard it was I got to enjoy it. I liked everything from the

homework to the essays. It was all a blast. Like I said it was a roller coaster from ups and downs

to full circles and mid way paths. These hard and easy rides did take time and they were hard to

take, but in the end it was worth it. Because thanks to this I got to become a great writer, student

and more specially an author. One more thing to mention doing this reflection right now brings

good memories about all of my semester as a student of Judith McCann. With everything taken

into account, composing might be hard however when you begin thinking of it you would not
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ever stop. I improved and i see it and it is all thanks to my instructor judith McCann, Mrs.

Villanueva, my peers, and god for not making me give up on life and on my writing. With

everything taken into account I thank each one including God for giving me this good and fun

semester since I got to do work, become less lazy, and overall have a great scholarly life. Thanks

to this i got to improve all thanks to my semester.