Reflection Letter

I had been contemplating going back to college for the last twenty years. Being a military wife, I had to put it off over and over. At least twice I had inquired from two different universities in two different states about transferring my college credits that I had earned overseas. By the time my family and I felt settled down at a new duty station, it would be time to pack up again. My college dreams were repeatedly put on hold. Now that my husband is close to retirement from his military career, I have started thinking of what I will do when he is finished. Because job hunting has always been very difficult and stressful for me, I finally put my foot down and enrolled at Everett Community College for this ongoing winter quarter. At the orientation class, I discovered that I would have to take at least one English class given that my English credits are considered ESLs (English as Second Language). In the meantime, I sent my transcript to get evaluated by a company that specializes in evaluating overseas transcripts and is approved by the college. While waiting, I enrolled for English 101. When I saw the requirements of the class from the syllabus, I told my husband that there was no way I could do it. I am a busy homeschool mom of three (one now in college in another state completing her senior year in high school and freshman year of college at the same time), and I worked swing shift five days a week in a stressful environment – the medical field. I had to look for a day job to find time to do my schoolwork. My husband encouraged me to continue school and assured me that my brain cells would start functioning again. After all this, here I am, still holding on after an attempt to drop out in the middle of the quarter. My transcript evaluation finally came back during this time. It is such a relief that all my credits are equivalent to the courses here in the U.S. My hope is that I do not have to take many more courses to satisfy the requirements that I need to earn a degree here at EvCC.

English 101 has been an enormous challenge for me. The requirements were overwhelming. My anxiety level has skyrocketed since I have started the course. I have always considered myself level-headed, and my co-workers always consider me as a calm and joyful person. My demeanor during this quarter has changed noticeably due to juggling home, work and school. I ate, slept and breathed English 101. I do not remember ever working so hard in the past. I always had A’s and B’s in my first two years of college. This class has definitely traumatized my confidence level about school. Thankfully, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is almost over! I cannot say I did not enjoy this class. I actually had a wonderful time reading and interacting in the discussion boards with my classmates. The writing assignments were quite a challenge; I had a lot of brain freezes during the process.

As we worked on the different themes in our class, I learned new things and gained new perspectives about our society. From the Identity theme, I came away with the understanding that our identity is what we are born with or what we can choose to be. The reading that touched me in this unit was Lucy Grealy’s “Masks.” After reading the essay, I felt really sad. She was so right that we take things for granted, big or small. The Community theme was an eye-opener. It was always my perception that a community is a group of people with common goals, circumstances or surroundings. We have learned that we belong to so many diverse communities. I came to realize that I belong to so many other communities besides my homeschool group, church, and neighborhood. My English 101 class is a community, military spouses are community, coffee drinkers are a community, and many other groups that I cannot even begin to list are communities. It was incredibly interesting to read everyone’s thoughts concerning their own communities. We then had the Traditions theme. When I think of traditions, the past comes to mind. In this section, we focused on the impact of popular culture to our traditions as a society or a family unit. From the discussion boards and reading assignments, our discussion of the influence of the television and technology reigned supreme. We almost all agreed that pop culture has ruined or damaged most cultural traditions, but yet we embrace them despite its negative effects. It was also a consensus in our class that reality shows are not “real”; they are twisted by producers and directors to manipulate the audience.

I have chosen four compositions that are necessary to complete the requirements of the e-portfolio. I cannot say if they are my best writings, or not. For my critical thinking, I chose my first timed write. When I sat down to take this test, my hands and knees were shaking. I could not even think of writing a three-paragraph essay in one hour, not knowing the exact instructions until the clock started ticking! I was a nervous wreck. I had a few seconds to spare when I clicked the Submit button. I chose this because I believe I did a good analysis of the movie Spanglish, which was reflected by my best grade. It was a confidence booster for the next timed write. But alas, the second one was a flop! I was very disappointed, but I continued the course, albeit not very willingly. For the revision and rewriting, I chose my community paper “A Source of Support”. I thought I did my best on this one. I had so many revisions. I begged my husband and my sixteen-year old to proofread and critique it. I thought I did fairly well, but it was not satisfactory enough. On my revision, I eliminated the unnecessary “fluff.” For awareness of audience and voice, I picked my thread for “’Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans” because I believe I drew the most response compared to my other pieces in the discussion board. For the Writer’s Choice, I picked my first blog “That’s My Life”. I believe I did rather well on this writing because despite the fact that I didn’t have to do too many revisions, my thoughts flowed given by the inspiration of what is in my wallet.

Well, my dear professors and classmates, I bid adieu. Special thanks to Ann, Sue F., and Tan C. – you were all a great encouragement to me. Marcia and Jeff W., thank you for challenging my thoughts. To the rest of my classmates, best wishes to your educational endeavors. I hope you will enjoy reading my portfolio…

Yours truly,

Trinidad