Our Personal Journey: A Self Evaluation

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

― Dr. Seuss

I want to say my adventure in Ecological Imaginings was like a journey. Each time I sent in a paper I learned something new, although in some papers I still made the same mistakes over and over. While I am a little disheartened that my Esem is coming to a close, the trials and errors in my writing also reflect the trials and errors that were happening in my life. In high school all I was writing was formal paper after formal paper, I felt like I was never able to take a risk for fear of a bad grade. In the beginning it was difficult deciding how exactly I was supposed to write. I was given the freedom to experiment that is something I had not normally been able to do. I think this is what set the bar for my writing this year early on. I tried not to have the same structured five-paragraph essay each time, which is what I had done repetitively in high school.

When I tried this writing approach my ideas became less centered and it seemed that I was focusing more on jotting all my thoughts down onto paper in some kind of format in order to turn it in on time. I also tried to take on a new voice in my writing. When I read my papers again I noticed I took a different tone in my writing than I normally did in the past. I’m not sure if I was trying to or not but now that I think back to when I was writing these papers there is a slightly condescending attitude in them. I found this tone in my earlier papers and less in the later ones. Toward the end as we were working on rewrites my work became more structured and formal than the earlier papers. 

Another important aspect of our class that I thoroughly enjoyed was the site sits. I feel that this was the most creative aspect of the class because we had free reign to talk about anything and everything we wanted to.  I felt that the more poetic side of came out during my site sits and was able to bloom. Even though my site sits are now over I can still visit whenever I want. There are so many different memories associated with my site that every time I visit I’ll think of all the different blog posts and visual aids I saw. I think that these site sits were very important because unlike other students on campus our Ecological Imaginings class now has memories tied to certain spots on campus, whether they are fond memories or not. 

I also enjoyed the readings and discussion in class as well. I think these are what really made the class into and “Ecological Imaginings” course. I always prefer discussion to reading because I learn better that way.  I felt that I was a vocal voice in the class but I also learned to hold my tongue so that someone else could speak that did not normally speak as much. I really enjoyed the different speculations of the authors and their point of views. Each of the readings allowed me to take certain aspects of their arguments that I enjoyed and use them to make my own ideas and perceptions about the environment.

As Dr. Seuss said “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” Everything that has happened to me this semester has shaped me into a different person than I was four months ago. The papers, site sits, readings and discussions have all reflected and shaped my thoughts toward the environment and the people who live in it. I cannot wait to see what the next three and a half years will bring. So I thank all of you for an unforgettable Esem class and I end my self evaluation with a smile (: