My Reflection of my First Year of College English

As the semester has come to an end, I have had lots of time to reflect on what I have learned about myself as a writer since the beginning of the semester. My professor Linda Norton taught a class which offered lots of opportunities for students to incorporate parts of themselves into projects. I feel the most appreciative of work which involved me reflecting on myself and my experiences. For instance, the first part of the purpose essay is a great example of an assignment where I was given the chance to reflect on myself. The project involved me speaking on things I felt passionate about in my life. Personally, I love projects where I can just speak freely about things that I find interest in which is very rare, because I am someone who is very selective with what I choose to invest my time in. I feel I have learned that I thrive most as a writer when I am given the opportunity to speak freely and with no limitations of what I can talk about. On the other hand, I would also like to mention some of my plans for the future. Ideally I am aiming towards possible transferring in a year or so to a school closer to home. While I have been living here in the bay area I did enjoy much of my time, but I find more comfort and security in being closer to home where my family and friends live. I am hoping by next semester when I take the English 216 course I can become more interested in writing and etc. I find that usually starting writing assignments I can become easily intimidated by the prompts and figuring out what I want to write about. I would like to find new ways to make this starting process easier for myself. Some ways that I may approach this issue is by doing things like outlines and etc to help formulate possible ideas in my head. I think just taking the time to even come up with the most simple topics and writing down those ideas could easily help for me to later expand on. Another part of myself as a writer that I hope to change is my tendency to do revision thoroughly. I understand that I don't always have a professor willing to encourage revision on my work, but I plan to start taking charge myself and properly rereading anything I write to make sure what I have written is always clear and explains the points I am trying to make. In conclusion, I have a lot of goals that I plan on pursuing as a writer for my next English 216 course. 

On the other hand when we spoke of student taught courses at SFSU, I was very intrigued by the concept of these classes. I was never aware of these classes, and I found a lot of the subjects being taught very diverse and unexpected. If I were given the opportunity to teach my own course, it would probably be a class about spirituality or something along those lines. The reason why I would teach a course about this is because it is something I have become very passionate about over the past few months of my life. I find the concept of it very intriguing and that there is so much to learn about it. Personally, I am someone who thinks a lot and always has a certain goal for myself to achieve whether that be physically or mentally. Spirituality can be defined as “a broad concept with room for many perspectives.” This type of topic is very important to me, because I feel it offers so much opportunity to think, reflect, and improve. I find that this topic brings me lots of happiness and interest, and a lot of other students would easily relate with me because I am almost positive that many people have the same interest. The course would probably involved reading several books and etc from other people who are considered “spiritual”. We would mostly discuss and anything and everything, because the course would ultimately offer the opportunity to talk about anything about ourselves and etc.

Learning About my Family and Background

Recently, I conducted two interviews involving my grandmother and my mother. These interviews took place at my home in Los Angeles. Due to certain conditions, I had to contact my grandmother over the phone with the help of my mother to translate for me because I am unable to speak Spanish fluently. When I interviewed my mother I conducted the interview in my living room while my father was also in the room listening. While doing both interviews I took notes of what was said by each participant, and some quotes that I felt stuck out to me I also took note of.

On the other hand, for my research portion of the project I decided to look more into the background and history of Mexican immigrants. What inspired me to do this research was a photograph of my grandmother from several years ago. My grandmother's full name is Maria Munoz and she is currently 68 years old. She first migrated to the United States when she was 18 along with my grandfather in the hopes of having a better life. My grandmother is originally from Jerez Zacatecas in Mexico. At the moment, she is currently living in Jerez Zacatecas with my grandfather, but all her children still live in the U.S. In my research I decided to look up several different topics regarding immigrant parents and families.

For instance, the first article I came across spoke of family life for children of immigrants. Some interesting conclusions that I was able to make based on this article was how important it can be for children to have both their immigrant parents present in order to positively impact their lives. One quote in specific that justifies the conclusion I was able to make is the following; "A significant finding in this regard is that children of immigrants are more likely to live in two-parent families than their co-ethnic counterparts who have native-born parents. Not only do two parent families fare better economically than single-parent families, but also children living with both biological parents are less likely to experience a range of cognitive, emotional, and social problems that have long-term consequences for their well-being" (Landale 45). Due to the quote mentioned previously, I began to consider the idea of interviewing my mother who is a daughter of immigrant parents. I was extremely curious about the effect that a two parent household has on a child growing up with these certain struggles. Another reason for me questioning my mother, was because in the past she has always told me many stories of her childhood and in her eyes she seemed to have an almost perfect life despite any financial struggles and etc. I know from stories from my mother in the past, she mentioned how often her family would move schools and apartments, which I feel probably had to do with her financial situation. My mom has also previously told me how she and her siblings helped to contribute to the family as they got older by working jobs and paying bills for their parents. This in particular revealed to me that it was very likely that they struggled quite a bit. After interviewing my mother, I was able to get a better understanding of why she felt so fondly of her childhood. One question in particular that I asked was "How do you think having two parents present all your life made your childhood better?", and as expected, she answered by saying the following: "I think it just keeps you more grounded and you have more support when you have both parents present in your life." Which led to me thinking about all the children who unfortunately may not be in the same position and are sometimes separated from their parents due to legal status or financial issues.

Furthermore, another article that I came across included discussions about acculturation and the struggles that may come with it. One quote from the article in particular that stood out to me was the following; " Acculturation is a vitally important process to consider when discussing both life satisfaction and resilience among Latinos in the United States. Historically, it has been hypothesized that the process of acculturation is stressful and may negatively impact mental health because it forces an individual to negotiate two potentially conflicting identities (Stonequist, 1935) and integrate into a society that can be hostile to minorities (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001)" (Marsigilia 2). This topic in particular I mentioned in one of my questions which was "How did the american culture affect your culture?". My grandmothers response made me rather proud since she mentioned how she never had the desire to lose her culture, because she loves it very much. Although at times she mentioned how she struggled to be understood, it still never made her feel pressured to try to conform to the norms of the United States. Along with the question about culture, I also asked a bit about her experience with language specifically learning or attempting to speak English. She expressed how at times it did make it difficult to communicate in times that it was important for her to express her opinions or concerns.

In conclusion, I gained a lot of insight into the life of an immigrant family and it has led me to do further research into a city in Mexico which is the one my grandmother lives in. The reason I feel like doing this research is because my grandmother expressed how she found living in Mexico was less hectic, so I would like to research her hometown to gain insight on how it may be there.