A Year In Review
When I heard that the writing assignments in this class were less formal and more like blog posts, I was nervous but eager to challenge myself and find my voice as a writer. The first blog and comments that I posted were still pretty formal, in my opinion, and they showed my apprehension and unwillingness to relinquish the writing style that had been engrained in me for so many years. In my introduction post, I used a lot of formal language and treated it like an assignment from my writing 101 class. For example, this is a sentence from my About Me post: “I was born in Detroit, Michigan, but most of my formative years were spent in the suburbs, which has informed many of the relationships that I have, the ways in which I act, and certain aspects of my identity.” This sentence is riddled with unnecessarily “academic” and guarded language, especially because it is supposed to provide my classmates with a small window into my life and a glimpse of who I am. Even my second post about, Fun Home, bored me with the lack of personal voice and style in the sentences, and looked even more like something that I would have turned in to Dr. Fackler for grading. As the semester progressed and I read more posts from my classmates and received feedback on my own writing, I became more attuned to my voice and style as a writer, and was more comfortable with stepping outside of the box that my high school English teachers drove me into.
When it came time to turn in my Impersonation post, I started to get the hang of what it meant to be in a casual, yet scholarly, conversation with my classmates. From that moment on I found myself really enjoying the posts that I wrote, making the writing process effortless for me. I learned how to not “just get it done,” but to take a vested interest in the work that I produced. Every time that I pressed the “Publish” button, I did it knowing that I was proud of the work and information that I shared. I used my LOVE for Amandla Stenberg to create my Impersonation post that was grounded in hours of research and hours of fun! I enjoyed watching and reading interviews, scouring blogs and social media posts to learn more about this woman that I adore. Not only was I able to find the information that I needed for my assignment, but I had fun learning in the process.
The range of topics and freedom to write that each post provided me with allowed for me to get in touch with my more creative side and break free from the restrictions that I put on my artistic capabilities. One of my biggest take away’s from this course was learning how to put a unique and imaginative spin on everything that I write. Even an assignment with specific guidelines has room for interpretation, individuality, and a creative flare. I realized this the most during my Remediation post. In a comment on the post, Margaret wrote, “Okay first of all this is SO creative. I love it. I think the way you displayed the poem not only made it more interesting but really helped the audience experience the poem the way you did.” I let my ambition get the best of me and created a sensually immersive media presentation that completely amazed both myself and my classmates.
One thing that I wish I could revisit and tweak is my book. I was able to bring to life a lot of the structures and ideas that I wanted to incorporate in the book, but in a new version of the book I would sharpen my execution of them. I love the idea of transforming the booklet into an actual book, and in order to do that I would need to rework the structures and get a firmer grasp of emotions that I want to elicit in the telling of the story. If I were to write a final essay for this class, I would want to revisit the intent behind my book and discuss the importance if destigmatizing queer love in young adult and child literature–my initial focus. I love that this class let me explore my identity as a writer. It allowed me to develop a close relationship with my classmates, view learning in a whole new light and develop a love for writing that I never thought that I’d have.
