Let's Rewind

Hello all! Or should I be saying goodbye? Anyways, my name is Jimmy Creek and I will be saying goodbye to this class in a little less than a week. However, before the fond farewell, I would like to offer up this chance to get to know me a little bit better and to understand my experience in English 101. First off, a little bit of history. I come from a long line of interesting people that led extraordinarily interesting lives, but unfortunately, the buck stopped at me. I grew up in a bland town called Maple Valley, full to the brim with a lack of diversity. In an act of pure heroism, I decided to break away from my plain vanilla life and to take a diversity course in the hopes of meeting a whole host of people with different perspectives, but not to actually chance my own outlook. This became greatest failure this semester, and I couldn’t be more grateful. My appreciation for this class came from its impeccable ability to challenge and stretch the bounds of my opinions on tradition, community, and identity.

I showed up in this class expecting nothing from it, but in turn was given the chance to see a whole multitude of different viewpoints on identity, community, and tradition. Identity to me was nothing more than a mixture of who one was and who others around that person wanted them to be. However, after reading story after story, I came to realize that identity was so much more than that. Identity was no longer something to be defined, because it was different for everyone. For one person, like Gloria Anzaldua, Identity could mean the language we speak, while for others, identity could simply be who we are at school. There is no way to know this about anyone without engaging him or her and finding out, a guarantee of a pleasant surprise in store. With this newfound blow to my small-town paradigm, I trekked forward, a new target in sight: community. I thought to myself ‘surely community could only be defined by where one grew up and nothing more’. I could not have been further from the truth of things. Community is where we make it. People can find community anywhere a group of people can be found. The only thing holding anyone back is that connection that draws the line between a group of separate individuals and a community. At that point in the semester, I decided that I knew nothing. There was no way that I could see the whole picture with my limited perception. It was only after sharing my life through my traditions that I realized that I was as much a part of the picture as everyone else.

As for this portfolio, I decided to go with my first essay entitled “” for my revision. I chose this piece in order to adapt it to my fresh take on diversity and identity. For the critical thinking portion, I went with my timed essay of “Off the Map” because I think that my analysis of the movie was of the highest caliber in comparison to my own work. To awareness of audience and voice, I decided to go with my blog on tradition. It was the piece that I enjoyed writing the most and I believed it to be the best possible example of my voice as a writer. An acquired taste for most readers, that’s for sure. Finally, for writer’s choice I went with my community blog because it was the piece I was most passionate about, and I think it best captures my versatility as a writer (the little that I have). Without this piece, I don’t think the e-portfolio would be complete.

I’ve never been too good at goodbyes. For the most part it turns into an awkward glance down at my shoes and then I end up walking the same direction as the one I said goodbye to, so I slow down in order to widen the gap and not draw attention to the fact that I made an ass of myself. So instead of goodbye, I will offer up advice. This goes out to anyone curious about taking this class in the future. I say go through with it, but take it seriously. My gravest mistake during this semester was to think that I wouldn’t learn anything from this class. Because of that, I was left with a grade reflective of that mistake, and despite my greatest efforts, I learned much more than I thought I could from the other students in this class. So thank you English 101D OL, I will never forget you.