My Reflective Thoughts

Hello, and welcome to my e-portfolio. My name is Kathleen Wahl, but most people call me Kathy. I was married for 19 years and have one beautiful daughter. I have a small but close knit family that I live near and see often. There are times when a little less closeness would be nice, but I wouldn’t trade my family for anything! I was born and raised in Marysville Washington, and have lived within 30 miles of there my entire life. I actually work right next door to where I grew up; right next door to where my parents still live. Let me refer you back to the “a little less closeness would be nice” statement. I’m 47 years old and can’t get away with anything! My parents see all! If I’m running late for work, sure as shootin’ they’ll be leaving home right when I’m flying down the road trying to get to work…….then comes the phone call, “Is everything ok? Why are you late?” I love my family and my job, so I have no intention of giving up either one, but some times are harder than others! In “A Wobegon Holiday Dinner,” Garrison Keillor states that “Families can wear you out sometimes” (116). I of course assumed that he must have met my family at some point!

I am back in school after almost 30 years, and although I’m doing okay, I’m definitely using parts of my brain that haven’t been used for quite some time! When I signed up for English 101D, I thought “I love writing! This will be a snap!” That thought lasted for about a day once the quarter began. I love to write, that’s true, but I quickly learned that analyzing others’ writings was not so easy. I struggled with pretty much all of the writing assignments and did not get the grades I was hoping for. Had I received the grades I thought my first essays were worthy of, I would not have put nearly as much effort into the essays that followed. I now believe the grades I received were high enough to make me not give up, but low enough to make me try a little harder on the next one. So now I’m forced to admit that there just may be a method to my Professors’ madness!

The major themes of this class: Identity, Community, and Tradition, have been somewhat eye-opening for me. I thought I had a pretty good idea of their definitions prior to this course, but I soon learned that the meanings in my head were quite narrow. Identity is who we are; I never really gave it much more thought than that. I never thought about how identities are formed and how everything affects that identity. It made me think about my own heritage, background and history, and how all of that has affected my identity throughout my life. When I read “The cafeteria is high school’s proving ground” (15) in Emily White’s “High School’s Secret Life,” it brought back memories of high school, and what a profound affect that period of my life had on my identity. I am who I am due to a variety of people and situations, and I would not be the same person without them. Community is where we live; our neighborhood, city or town, but where we live geographically is only part of the picture. Work, school, church, and online networking sites are all types of community as well. Anywhere that people form groups and have things in common are communities. Tradition is how we celebrate or don’t celebrate holidays; it never occurred to me that how we communicate, act and treat others are also traditions. Traditions are passed down from generation to generation, and although they are adjusted occasionally to meet current needs, they never go away; they just grow with us over time.

As a final project we’ve been given the task of creating an e-portfolio to highlight our achievements and growth throughout the course. Choosing four pieces to represent my best writing and thinking skills has been very difficult for me, but I think I’ve finally made my decisions. To represent my critical thinking I’ve chosen my final essay, “The Impact of Modern Technology on Communication”. Because I have learned so much since the beginning of class, it only made sense that my final essay would best demonstrate my critical thinking skills. My revision piece is my timed write on the movie “District 9”. I have known from the beginning that I pretty much fold under pressure; I need time to collect my thoughts, and an hour just didn’t do it for me! This piece can definitely benefit from a re-write. The voice and audience piece I’ve chosen is my blog post, “What’s Your Community?” I feel this piece clearly shows my voice on workplaces being communities. And for my writer’s choice piece, I chose my blog post, “You Are What You Eat”. This piece was fun to write, had meaning for me, and I think it does a good job representing my abilities.

My journey through English 101D has been rough at times, but I survived. Now that it is over I look back and see how far I’ve come. When I found out that our first essay had to be in MLA format, I panicked! I didn’t have a clue what MLA format was! But I did it; it wasn’t perfect, but I did it, and I learned from it. The second essay was a little easier, and the third a little easier still. As long as I learn, and the process keeps getting easier, I feel like I’m going in the right direction. And finally, here’s to my Professors and classmates, who helped tremendously along the way – Thank you! I couldn’t have done it without you.