My Reflection's on English 101D

          Hello, my name is Julie Hentila. I am a mother of two boys, Tyler 18 and Christian 13. I have always tried to set a good example for my boys but sometimes I wonder if I am doing a good job. I work long hours, usually from 7:30 AM - 8:00 PM, except for the two days that I go to night school; I will leave work at 6:30. I work weekends also. This work schedule of mine does not leave me much time for my family or homework. Working a full time job and raising children is tougher than I thought it would be, and then I had to add school to the mix. I help my kids with their homework and struggle, what was I thinking when I decided I would work full time, raise kids, and go to school? I'm trying to work my way up to the Nursing Program, who knows if I will ever get there but I'm trying my very best. I want to make more money and buy a new house, I want to be able to buy my kids their first car, and get them the things that I did not have when I was growing up.

          English and Math are my weaknesses. I am horrible with punctuation, and my middle nickname should be comma splice. Why are so many points deducted on papers when there is a comma splice? One would think that I would have it down by now. I can speak English just fine, and I think I do a pretty good job when I talk to people (I don’t think I sound like I don’t know what I’m talking about).When I am asked to read something and then write what I thought about it, I freak out. I start sweating and then the anxiety kicks in. It takes me forever to write something (writers block). If you ask me to ramble on and tell a story of my life or what I did the weekend before, I have no problem.

          Everything was going good, I got an "A" in English 97, a “B” in English 98, and now English 101D is kicking me. English 101D has been a very long, stressful journey for me. Since I started this class, I have been having nightmares about writing. It is bad enough that I do not get any sleep, but now the little sleep I get is spent dreaming about English. This is not English bashing time. Do not get me wrong, I have learned a lot about writing, but the grammar part is still shaky. I chose 101D to satisfy my diversity requirement. Without diversity, in all forms, we would just become comfortable with what we do, and not strive to achieve.
          The word diversity has come to describe the difference in religion, race, sexuality, etc, and how we except or not except these ideas in our lives. Diversity is inevitable, everyone is different, everyone believes something different (even if just a little or a lot), everyone has different theories. To embrace this idea of diversity, we open our hearts to the world and allow ourselves to love everyone. This is what I get out of diversity. A longing to learn about the people around me and their emotional standing.
          All of the assignments that I did in English 101D were interesting. I learned a lot about identity, communities, and tradition. The papers were the most challenging for me. I wrote these papers (it took a lot of late nights) and thought I had done a good job. After looking at the grade I had received on my first paper, started the downward spiral. This is when the anxiety and fatigue kicked in. Reviewing the assignments better is what I needed to do, so I did. I still missed important points. I did a lot better than I thought I would on the Discussion Board post. It was fun to interact with the other students and discuss our views on what was given to us to study. The blog assignments were the easiest. It was not hard for me at all to tell my peers what I had in my wallet and the tradition blog was cake. It brought back many memories that I had with my family, memories that should never be forgotten.