FINAL REFLECTION FOR WORLD LITERATURE 2020-2021

    2020 has truly been a hellacious of a year. With many things happening this year such as the horrendous wildfires, the death of George Floyd, and COVID-19 being the star of the show, making the year a wild ride. All these changes had an impact on our society both negatively and positively as we have had to time to not only work on ourselves but time to finally bring light on a lot of issues we face as a whole. Being that this year was so hectic it also impacted our education, throwing everyone of guard. How did this impact our education though?  

     To start off we all know this year has been like no other as classes were going to be completely different as school had to take place virtually. Being that courses were completely different, something that made this course distinct from the others was the way assignments were graded and Dr. Preston's understanding of students. This is the first class that I have ever had that assignments were majorly graded on effort and not the traditional "right or wrong" way of grading, which I personally find outdated, making this class unique. This also being one of the first teachers that is very understanding of his students which as a student I appreciate immensely because it makes this course that much more enjoyable as there is that sense that the teacher knows where we are coming from helping us succeed as students. This has made the class feel like we are actually here to learn and not just try to do what we have to do to get a passing grade.

    There was so much we did and discussed as a class even though we were not physically at school. As a class I feel like there was a lot of discussions that made the class more entertaining and made it more than just an English course. Such discussions as when we talked about the presidential candidates and the election was one that stood out as it was such an important moment this year as possibly for U.S. history and hearing different point of views was extremely interesting, people dragging trump was also fun to hear. Even though for most discussions I personally did not take part in it was so interesting to see other classmates opinions and to personally think and process the subject being talked about. I really do think the discussions added so much meaning to this course as well as the flexibility of it.

    This year has been no different to others in terms of learning. There was so much we have already done such as months of journals and our interpretations of LES MIS chapters on our blog posts. One of my personal favorites was my first argumentative essay for this course, on why giving up the right to our opinion is important, is my favorite post on my blog as I feel like I was able to connect the theme of the essay to multiple current world problems and the negative effects they had. It was also the first essay I have written in a while as the last one I wrote was around December last year. 

    We have had so much time to improve on ourselves but being that we had this extra time it brought some bad habits out of us. One of the things I'm still working on is my procrastination if anything it got a little worse which is something I need to work on tremendously. My time management is also something I also need to improve on as I get distracted incredibly quick making me not only waste time but having to rush out work. As you can tell I am not a very sit down and do work type of person which I know is a habit I developed this year. Although there is habits I need to correct there is something this course has taught me and that is the use of meditation to wind down and just let go for a moment. I've known of the uses of meditation spiritually which was something I was already implementing into my life but the use of meditation in a mindful way to slow down has also been extremely useful. As a society we really do not have time to just stop and let go, being able to do this for a minute in class has been so calming. Because of this it is something I have also started to implement in my life and is extremely useful when I am feeling overwhelmed. 

    Although this year has been a hell of a ride, it personally was a blessing in disguise for me. It really just put things I would put to side back into perspective and I was able to work on myself and my mental health. It was also a chance that we were able to slow down slightly as their wasn't much we could do. In all this year has been hectic and I can't wait until we finally get the break we all deserve.