This was my third semester at the City College of New York, and I could also say that it was one of the most challenging ones so far. I had a lot of moments in which I thought I would have no other choice but to drop out and give up on my dreams. This class was a space in which I was able to express my feelings through writing indirectly. This was a space in which I was able to chill but work at the same time, relieving a lot of emotions that the rest of the classes were making me go through. As time passes by, the more I start noticing that there is time for everything and whatever is for you will be there for you on the end of the difficult road. 

When I first came into the class I thought it was going to be tons of readings and essays on top of essays. Now that the semester is almost over I could say that I survived and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. This class definitely challenged me because I am pretty weak when it comes to writing. But at the same time helped me out so much because of the short essays that were assigned. These short essays were a space in which I got to read fun articles and simply give my thoughts on them. Also, the articles really helped me in getting more comfortable with writing a new short essay. Every time a short essay was assigned I would try to make them be the best and just really try to work on my writing and not just write to write. The short essays were a space in which I got to brainstorm a lot. 

Brainstorming I could say is something I was weak when I came into this class, and I’m walking out now from it really proud of how much I improved in getting used to brainstorming and feeling more comfortable when having to start any big writing assignments. Through this class I understood that it is much easier to write fluently and more freely because all the thoughts are already written prior to starting. The more I was able to brainstorm, the more ideas that would come to me as I was doing the big writing assignment. 

Before coming into this class, I would say I’m a person who is more introverted. The one who won’t speak unless someone talks to me first. With the great opportunity that I got to work on the public awareness campaign with my classmates made me feel more comfortable when having to speak in public and at the time of having to give my opinion on a certain topic. Working in this project was a great opportunity not only to learn about the topic but also to grow as a person in terms of having to work as a team and truly have responsibilities. Having to do our own part and then putting all the pieces of the puzzle together was really satisfying because we all worked so well together and enjoyed our topic and at the same time it was all about learning on a very important topic. It was a very satisfying project because it was learning on a topic we picked and then turned it into something we were able to give back to our community. 

I really liked how organized this class was and it really helped me to just stay organized with my own work and on top of it without really getting back up with the assignments. It was very straightforward on what the professor wanted by what date and it helped me a lot in growing on being organized with my work not only referring to this class but the rest of my classes. Before I would be the person who doesn’t really believe in schedules but this class made me change my mind about them and understand that they are not as bad and confusing as I thought they were. I now organize my week in advance and plan more accordingly to what I have to get done and not get backed up with my assignments in general. 

Moving on to how open minded this class made me start thinking about life in general is that not all people have to pick the science that they think is right but that life is about being open to everything. I don’t have to stick to one science just because the people that surround me tell me to but that I can decide as an individual if I want to experiment with other stuff that will probably make me enjoy them more. This class is a perfect example of this because in the group projects the professor didn’t pick the topics but it was us the students that got to decide what we wanted to work on and not feel so trapped with having to think of something I didn’t like. I feel like I grew a lot in my writing because of this because I got to talk in different fields and there really wasn’t a wrong answer to the response but it was more on just giving thoughts. 

This class made me go from shy to feeling confident with what I think and on what I want to say. It helped me grow in my writing a lot because I got to truly learn the difference between different essays that at first I didn’t even know what they were about or the purpose of them were. Reading instructions is something I would usually always ignore because I didn’t think they were really important. But this class made me learn how important these are because I would go as many times as I was able to, to read over and over again the main assignments to really understand them. Reading isn’t as bad and sometimes is for your own good to truly give your best on that writing assignment. I can notice as well that I grew in my confidence when it comes to start writing a big assignment. Before I would tend to panic and would take me forever to even start them because I would go blank and avoid even starting to start writing. I definitely notice how much not only personal but work wise I grew because of how much this class served as a comfort space for me to work on the assignments and on myself.