Give me an A!!!:)

I believe that I deserve and A in this class. To justify this, I wrote the following reflection on the this course throughout the semester:

Well, the semester is over and I usually evaluate my work, what I learned and what I got out of my classes. I guess I do this because I am paying for my education and I’m not 20 years old anymore. During these last 3 years there have been good and bad courses and professors and sometimes it is difficult to understand why the heck I went through 16 weeks of torture; the answer – the university needs to get every penny it can before you graduate.

In the case of WGS310 I believe I got my money’s worth. Honestly, when this class began, I was not sure I was going to be able to comply with all the work and reading required for this class. I also had difficulty with your accent and my English deficiencies. I felt intimidated by all the young students and thought that maybe I should quit. I spoke to a student that decided to withdraw and I was really tempted.

I decided to challenge myself instead and it was well worth it. I really appreciated every single one of the readings; I have never read so many quality writings. This class made me want to keep the textbook as well, it is a good inspirational tool for the future.

The writing assignments were torture, I feel physically sick every time I have to write big papers; however, I need to get ready for Graduate School. During the semester I felt more and more confident about my writing, I was able to plan on what I was going to write about following the analysis made in class about the writings. By discussing the writings in class, not only did I understand them better, but also was able to connect analysis with my own writing and try to do a better job for my audience. This is a wonderful tool to have.

Last but not least, I feel that I have to explain why I missed one blog assignment. At the time of that assignment, my family was going through a crisis; I’ll spare you from the details…. Sometimes life catches up with you and at that point, I remember reading the assignment and truly feeling that it had little to do with my learning and considered it busy work. With more important things on my mind, I made a conscious decision of gearing my energy where it needed to be at the time.

The absences I had were all justified. I was truly sick for most of them and I believe there was one time my daughter’s school called. As a mother, priorities are not always centered on me. Furthermore, the fact that I even showed up on snow days, should show that I was in class whenever possible.

POST 14

For this assignment, I picked a reading that I had not read before from our supplemental reading list. I picked the speech from Barbara Jordan, Junior member of the committee for impeachment of President Nixon. It interested me because I was not in the United States when it happened; I was also 12 years old but very much informed politically at my young age. President Nixon had conspired with dictators in South America and my country was the home of one of the bloodiest dictatorships, in great part thanks to Nixon himself. Millions around the world watched these proceedings and I remember my parents glued to the TV during this time.

I think what struck me the most was her attitude on reason. From the beginning of this reading you can see how her mind works in logical, structured ways. She had a point when she said, commenting the proceedings, that it was a waist of everyone’s time to have 15 minutes for each member on TV time. She wanted to have discussions with her fellow members and come to a simple logical decision and not have emotions or political leanings obstruct reason. Of course, they dismissed her comments and the show went on.

The speech itself was amazingly well structured. When I read it, it reminded me of some of the readings from this semester because of the use of plain and simple facts and knowledge as a way to logically connect with your audience. The one that came to mind was Catherine of Siena of course, after my research of her but also even in the letter to her mother that we saw in our textbook. She as many other women rhetoricians, always pointed out facts and deduced simple logic from them that no one can argue with.

This speech made me teary eye, it was so simple yet powerful, and it reminded me of an era that changed my life forever. Maybe if there were more women in her position during that time, many lives would have been saved and the world would be completely different place these days.

Post 13

It took a while to choose a writer I wanted to present to the class because there is a couple of writers that fascinate me. I finally decided to present on Isabel Allende, a Chilean writer with whom I have a quasi personal relationship. Apart from being a feminist, she has lived most of my life experiences from the war in Chile and the exile to the US so I can identify with her very well.
My purpose is to inform the audience of this wonderful writer and maybe persuade them to read one of her novels. I will do this by calling their attention to movies done on her books, also famous titles that they might have seen at the book store. I will also explain her feminist views and her activism.

The presentation will be done in a power point slide show with pictures of her and the use of Youtube where I will show segments of her speech that the audience can listen to in its entirety through Ted.com.

Hopefully by the end of the presentation my audience will know Isabel and be intrigued enough to pick up one of her books. At the least I want my audience to know her name just in case the run across some of her work either in novels or activism in the future.

Bubbles

To take the pressure off at this point would have been madness… I needed a bubble bath, that’s all, wasn’t much to ask for was it? Hope the bathroom is free, I need to make sure I lock the door, we have my friend’s son staying with us so there is no privacy lately.

It’s getting late, I have one hour before I have to go to class. Did I read? Any homework I need to turn in today? So, after class I need to remember to pick up my daughter from school, she gets out early today. Oh that’s right, I need to take my friend’s son for some passport pictures and make sure they turn out good this time; then the photos need to be sent express mail to Canada. OK, so school, daughter, photos, then what? Dinner, what are we eating tonight? My husband is sick; I’ll have to cook tonight.

No bubble bath. I keep dreaming about it but just can’t get to it. I’ll have to make a date with myself and make sure it happens before I lose it. The pressure to take the pressure off is driving me mad.