I wrote an essay as part of a final for a course I took last year. The course was about Afro Latin America/Americans, their history, and culture. We had used many different sources of information in the course, such as nonfiction, fiction, films, essays, and poetry. And so, we were allowed to reference any and all of this in our final essay to help paint a picture of how we were feeling after learning all this new information. The prompt allowed us to freely express how what we had learned over the course of the semester changed our world view in some way, and how we would take these new perspectives into our future. I was relieved that I had the chance to talk about how I felt, because I had felt a lot. There were so many ideas going through my head, and I was so excited about what I wanted to say that I couldn’t really decide how and in what order I would say all of this. I also remember feeling rushed to get the essay done because it was timed. However, since I did know what I wanted to talk about beforehand, I thought the best thing to do was just get started and organize my writing as I go. In retrospect, the combination of feeling rushed and knowing what I wanted to talk about caused my final piece to feel incomplete. As I read it over, I see that I had a lot to say, but there is something missing. In most parts of the essay, I just scratched the surface of what I wanted to talk about, and was almost just listing ideas. I really prefer having the time to discuss everything that I put into my writing, and timing constraints psych me out of doing so. Having to choose between writing something to completion and analyzing/explaining your writing is a tough choice. Since this essay, and since I began my undergraduate career, I have become more comfortable with writing in general, and switching between different types of writing. Whether I have the entire semester to complete the piece or an hour, I know that I can come up with something good. I’ve also learned that it is a little difficult to be personal in your writing, especially when its not what you’re used to. Writing something persuasive based on objective evidence, or a research paper is often more simple than pouring yourself into something. However, I appreciate the ability to be more creative when working on a personal piece.

I wouldn’t say that my ideas about what I wrote in this essay have necessarily changed, but rather I had then, and I have now even more to say pertaining to these ideas. I would love to explore them more. In other previous writings that I’ve done, I’ve received criticism on a few occasions that I introduce a new idea that I didn’t elaborate on or that I shouldn’t do so in general. What I’ve learned from this is to be extra cautious of when and where in my writings I put these ideas, and I take extra care to back them up. It is always something that I have in the back of my mind because I know that it’s something I’ve struggled with. But I will never abandon this element because I feel it always leaves the door open for the reader to explore what I’ve talked about for themselves, or come up with different idea’s than what I’ve presented. That is my favorite part about writing/reading.

As with all writing that is based on a prompt, I strive to answer all the questions presented. I never look at these questions as a suggestion, but rather a requirement. More often that not, if there are questions that get ignored the piece feels incomplete or doesn’t touch on all the answers that the intended reader was looking for. In the worst case scenario, if I do not answer a question its because I unfortunately didn’t have anything to say.

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