Goodbye, you wonderfully brilliant and goofy group of people.

I was drawn to this class because Community is one of my favourite shows ever. I loved this class, because you all make up one of my favourite communities ever.

This semester has been such a blessing, and I am so grateful to have met all of you. The assignments were refreshingly creative, and this is one of the only classes I’ve had where I couldn’t wait to dig in to the homework and happily spent hours working on the assignments. This is also one of the few classes where I felt connected to the other students, and the only class where there was a definite, inclusive community between everyone.

I never really had a community on campus. I’ve met a ton of people, but I never found a place where I felt like I belonged. This year I became a hall counsellor in order to give my residents something I found too late- a community. I emphasized it over and over again saying, “Look out for each other, talk to each other, be there for each other,” because it’s difficult to keep going when you don’t feel supported. The emphasis on community in this class allowed me to be open with you all in our discussions and even in my blog posts in a way that I’ve never been able to in a class before. Having our community established, through good and bad, was very meaningful and something I’ll always cherish.

I was surprised by the extraordinary amount of themes and topics we encountered in class. Each assignment felt fresh and each week exciting, because we were always shifting gears. I LOVED the blogging, because it gave me the chance to present my thoughts in a way that does not fit the typical paper. As time went on, I was able to figure out how to make the post flow, add some vibrancy through links and images, and get straight to the point. The flow of the post mattered just as much as – if not more than – the writing itself. The word limit forced me to cut out a lot of material, but it also made me think about how to focus on what was most important in the post. I could have written lengthy posts for these assignments, but then they would have probably resembled Walt Whitman’s, “Song of Myself.”

There are several blog posts I would love to revisit. The final prototype of my book, for instance, is nowhere near complete! There’s just so much I want to do with it once I get it back – and hopefully one day I can pass it on to my kids (if I ever have any!). The blog posts opened up questions I had never really thought about, such as: how and why does a character in a book change when presented in a movie? Some posts, such as the favourite poem assignment, were deeply insightful and meaningful. The favourite poem post shined a light on something I had been ignoring for a long time, and it was nice to be given a chance to explore it.

The discussions were insightful, but the blogposts and student run discussions were my favourite parts. Reading all of your blog posts and exposing our work to each other helped me to understand you all better and definitely strengthened our sense of community. Each of you added your own flair of personality to your posts and student run discussions, which were always fun to witness. Running the Stu-Ru with Helen, my resident, was one of my FAVOURITE moments ever (along with Dr. Churchill playing Otto!) because it really brought us closer. Helen, don’t tell anyone – but you’re my favourite resident!

Honestly, building that sense of community with you all from the very beginning helped keep this class engaging (especially at 8:30AM) and enjoyable all semester long. Thank you all for being such wonderful people – I know you will continue to go farther and be amazing at whatever you decide to do! Even though I won’t be here next year, I’ll always be rooting for you.

Thank you for a wonderful semester and as they say . . .

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, good bye~!