"Today is the start of a new adventure. New challenges to face, new memories to make, and new obstacles to overcome." - Nishan Panwar
Choosing a path:
At the beginning of the year, I was a little bit hesitant about the theme of fear. I had never liked reading scary books or watching horror movies, even comedic ones like Ghostbusters. I hadn’t thought about fear and fascination pertaining to the world around us, and how comparable they are. Things like contagion and sexuality are problems that we face every day, yet I would have never thought of them in the same light as fictional concepts that we read for fun. Although I had my reservations in the beginning, I grew to really enjoy the theme, and surprised myself in the process. I learned that what we deem as scary are things that are rooted in our own fears and insecurities, and it made me pay more attention to what scared me and why.
"Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will"
-Suzy Kassem
The fork in the road:
My biggest challenge throughout this course was not doubting myself. In most cases, when I thought I needed to change something a certain way, it made it much better, but before I did so I had to get confirmation from others. On the contrary, when I thought something was good, I would tell myself and others that it could be better. While that might be true, what I wrote was never “bad”, I just doubted myself too much. Something that helped me was attending the tutoring sessions. Having the constant confirmation that I was on the right track gave me the courage to make changes without worrying if they were good enough. I don’t think I’ve fully overcome this challenge, but I think I’m on the right track.
"If the Path Be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads"
- Anatole France
The side quest:
I feel like this semester has really cemented what I have been previously taught. It gave me the ability to take what I know and push myself to do better. Before, I knew generally what I was doing but I was only doing enough to meet the requirements, but now I feel like I’ve pushed myself to do better than just okay. This will be beneficial in my other college courses as I won’t have to worry as much about my writing, and how “good” or “bad” it might be, as I have strong foundations to build off of. It’ll also be helpful to not need to look up MLA formatting every time I write an essay; my major uses Chicago which is a bit more confusing so I’m happy that I’ll have one format memorized.
One stop reached:
Overall, I couldn't be happier with the results I've gotten from this course. I feel like I've learned a lot about myself, not just academically but also mentally and emotionally. There has been a lot of room for growth, and I am happy with the progress that I have made. I feel much more grounded and prepared for the journey through my college career.