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Post Food Thoughts (Self Reflection)

Gabriel Gjyla

Professor von Uhl

Writing in the Social Sciences

5/16/2018

Post-Food Thoughts (Self-Reflection)

 

Throughout this semester, I have gained valuable knowledge that I believe will only further my academic progress. Of course, I have struggled along the way, due to the fact that this is my first year in college, but I am proud to say that I have tackled it head on and went for the touchdown! When the semester began, I knew I had areas in which I needed major improvements upon, all the while hoping that I would meet some friendly classmates and an equally friendly professor. I took this course mainly to improve my grammar skills, but I have to admit that I learned so much more than I ever expected.  One of my favorite quote is “It’s not how you start the race, but how you finish it.” This speaks of my overall experience during this semester, and especially of how I’ve grown as a student and writer.

Out of all the assignments that were assigned, my absolute favorite was the interview. The reason is because I got to get up close and personal with a member of the sub-community with which I was researching. I got a first-hand experience of how it was like to live in Arthur Avenue. Salvatore, the person I interviewed, gave such invigorating insight about his life, the neighborhood, and his concerns that I felt like I was part of everything he was talking about. I frequently go to Little Italy to get fresh groceries and engage in fine Italian dining, but I have a newfound respect for the neighborhood. I feel like I have integrated myself in it as well, from the evidence that most of the merchants at the Arthur Avenue Retail Market now know my name and greet me like I’ve been there for most of my life. During the interview, I felt the real emotions that Salvatore was going through, from growing up in the crime-ridden streets of the Bronx to having concerns with his neighborhood being flooded with people from new nationalities and having their cultures mixing in with the Italian majority neighborhood. Although he had some controversial opinions, I feel like if he were to join a community meeting, he would benefit from it by listening to the concerns of the new neighbors. This interview was a very important assignment because I had to exclude my opinion and only listen to what Salvatore was speaking about, therefore hear what the true thoughts of the people were.

As the semester moved along, I found out that the free-writes are as important to my writing style as the actual assignments. They have allowed me to openly express my opinion in a way that I would never write in my important papers. For example, I am able to freely talk about anything I want, be able to use “bad words”, and even talk about topics that would be controversial if it were to be spoken aloud. I have grown accustomed to engaging in free writes, and will use them in my future classes. They are like an opening to my thoughts about certain subjects, which is why it is interesting to write about and easy to keep myself engaged in my work. To add, I feel like the free-writes can be seen as a stepping stone for my writing, which is helpful in starting an outline for my assignments. To go even further, the free-writes have assisted me in the other classes, especially the history courses. The reason for that is that there is an abundant source of information to be taught in history classes, and it is difficult to remember every date, event, and person in history. Doing free-writes in history classes helps to get an understanding of numerous contexts and a way to remember the class notes by writing down the information that I find most important.

I have progressed as a writer in large part because of the peer-reviews. Because I have taken five classes this semester, the workload has gotten significant at times. Because of that, the essay assignments were usually finished about a day before they were due, which understandably had some grammar issues. However, the peer reviews in class really elevated my writing to another level because of important and valuable feedback for my classmates. I saw what I was doing wrong, and my classmates pointed out the small changes in my grammar that could have a big difference in the sentence flow, paragraph structure, and overall presentation of the essay. Furthermore, taking part in peer reviews opens up different writing styles that I am not used to. To add, these new writing styles allowed me to find different ways of constructing my work, especially in the introduction. For example, I usually start off an assignment with a general statement of the prompt, but I have been exposed to new methods such as opening up with a question or a quote. For most of my essays, I just start off with the question of the prompt, but I have new methods to make it seem more interesting. After all, if a long essay isn’t interesting, it will just bore the reader.

The assignment that I had the most difficulty in has to be the first observation essay. The reason for that is because it asked me to walk into a sub-community and basically take notes and write a whole essay based on my experiences. That seemed boring to me at first, mostly because I am a social person. I also am a regular at the Arthur Avenue Retail Market, so it was hard to not talk with merchants that I frequently converse with. But it opened up a new way to recognize the community that I am used to. I allowed myself to really see how the retail market was such an important part of the community. Not just because of the food, but it offered a place for the members of the community to get together and interact with one another, whether it is lifelong friends, college classmates, or families looking for a quick bite. As I observed, I found out much more about the neighborhood by staying quiet and observing then usually talking to everyone. To sum up, what started out as a difficult assignment turned into a valuable life lesson and which will be a valuable lesson in my future endeavors!

 


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