Singh 1
Jasmine Singh
English Comp 1
Final Essay
12 December, 2022
A Semester in Souvenirs
I had extremely mixed emotions entering this class initially. At first, there was a
combination of agitation and antipathy to having to take another English class in college. After
all, I had spent the past four years of my life dedicating my time to essay after essay thinking that
the sweet relief of graduation would free me from the shackles of an English class. Regardless,
there was a part of me which, truthfully, did enjoy a few of the pieces we got to work on in the
past but they were quickly shoved to the back of my memory in favor of the exhausting and
treacherous assignments my teachers preferred to assign. When we first came into this English 1
class, I was thoroughly convinced that there was nothing that I could be taught or something
which I already didn’t know. However, as each task has been assigned, I have grown a little bit
more each time I turn them in. My personal mindset, my outlook on school work, and my
attitude towards literature itself has completely changed in the few months I have spent in this
class and I couldn’t feel more prepared or enthusiastic for another English class. Overall, the
three most vital things I had learned in this class are the balancing of my work load, the use of
professional writing structures such as MLA, and the power of the words I put on paper.
Firstly, the largest challenge of the class sprouted from when we began to read the “Best
American Essays 2021” because it forced me to reanalyze how I spent my time when doing
homework. Usually, whether it was math or history classes, I had an unbreakable habit of
skimming over the work I was required to do rather than take the time to properly read or solve
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my problems. It was more time efficient for me, but at the cost of thoroughly understanding the
material which is necessary for my degree. Being assigned these readings, which would have
comprehensive quizzes (often in the next class period) it forced me to sit down amongst the
bustle of my busy life and truly immerse myself in the work I had to do. Of course, I had only
done this because I deemed it necessary to receive a good grade in the class. Yet, the reward of
walking into class with the confidence of a well researched assignment or well prepared
knowledge felt more tranquil and sustainable than the lifestyle I was living previously. Suddenly,
I began to subconsciously implement these habits into the work for my other classes. All of a
sudden, the 75 pages I would have to read before a history test turned into just 10 pages a day for
a week. It felt so much less burdensome on not only my mental health, but for my daily schedule.
It allowed me to get work done more efficiently while uplifting the other factors in my life. Once
I stopped doing homework an hour before class began, I had enough time to go for a nature walk
or get coffee with some friends. Balancing work meant balancing my life out by result, and it
was all thanks to those short story readings.
Another thing which I had learned in this English class, which I previously thought I
already knew all about, was MLA format. Having taken AP English classes for two years
previous to attending Pitt Greensburg, it was an unwelcome but present reflex I had when
starting papers. Even when writing the simplest notes, a fear of getting points taken off always
led me to write in the 12 point font in Times New Roman, even if it was against what I had
preferred. However, considering that the advanced level English classes I had taken were more
focused on the interpretations of literature rather than being research based, I wasn’t well versed
in the world of citing my sources. Fairly lazy English teachers would turn a blind eye to the
EasyBib generated citations because it didn’t necessarily matter how academically valid high
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school papers were. When we had begun to work on Essay 4, I was stuck at a mental roadblock
which stemmed from not knowing how to incorporate the text. All of a sudden, I realized that the
way I had been integrating quotes and citing sources was completely wrong and had no
correlation to MLA whatsoever. It was devastating that this type of writing, which had become a
muscle memory skill, had to be changed and redeveloped in order for me to succeed in college.
However, the pace at which the MLA format was taught was with both patience and
consideration for those who didn’t know about it before. By the format being taught like this, it
allowed me to reassess my own skills and slowly reteach myself how to write essays with outside
sources. MLA format was a concept which I thought I knew in its entirety, when in reality I
knew nothing at all. Now, I am comfortable taking on difficult sources and unique references
because I now have the security of knowing how to source (or being able to find the resources
for) anything which I desire.
Finally, the most important thing I had learned in this class was the power of my own
words. Since I was younger, I was always intimidated by writing as an outlet for my emotions
because I felt that my own language either wasn’t sophisticated enough or didn’t hold enough
merit to be considered “important.” In our Essay 3 assignment, we were tasked with writing
about something deeply close to our individual identities, which was already out of my comfort
zone. Writing about detached characters and plot lines was something I had grown accustomed
to, so writing about myself in a vulnerable way felt terrifying. I never like to use methods to cope
and I realize it has a lot to do with the Latino Machismo mindset, where you don’t do anything to
help yourself in the name of masculinity and strength. In this lens, it makes sense why I was
always uncomfortable journaling and venting my thoughts onto a document because it went
against the idea that I was strong enough to persevere. So, for the Essay 3 assignment, I made the
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decision to be brave and write about something which had been heavy on my heart, which was
my relationship with my aunt. It remains to be the hardest essay I have ever written because of
the amount of emotional turmoil which wracked my body when trying to write it. I didn’t want to
disappoint the thought of her and, more importantly, I didn’t want to disappoint myself by
ruining her image. I just so desperately wanted to portray the beautiful person she had been and
how impactful her existence had been on mine. Once I wrote the last sentence, there was a
weight lifted off of my shoulders. The grief I had been carrying with me still remained, but rather
than holding me captive to sadness, it was reflected as an appreciation for who she was. A
physical representation for all that she was and all that she had done for me, the essay was able to
heal my heart and ease the sorrow I felt. It was then that I realized the power of my words and
the strength of my own writing. I could heal myself, work through my emotions, and reflect on
situations from a different perspective by writing. My words were a bandage for wounds that
were left open for years. I doubt that I will ever show anyone in my family that essay because
they didn’t see the beauty in my aunt that I had, as well as the fact that being vulnerable in front
of them is a great challenge. However, there is now a powerful outlet for me to be vulnerable to
no matter the time or circumstance.
In the end, I had learned so much about English as a language but also who I am as a
person in this class. I learned what I want to do with my life with a bit more clarity and I realized
the person I want to aspire to be as well. I will take every bit of information from this semester
and apply it in different aspects of my life for as long as I can. After all, souvenirs are supposed
to be taken with you through all experiences, no matter the time and no matter the place.