Two years ago I had entered this school as a cliché. I thought that I was a "special" student because I had never gotten a poor grade before, when in reality I was just another run-of-the-mill good student. I was just a dry student that thought he was more unique than he actually was. This misconception caused me trouble at the beginning of seventh grade, but this class helped me realize the fact that I needed to become my own and it also assisted me in overcoming this problem.
Personality is what I was lacking and creativity is what I needed. Along with art, literature and everything else in that realm is, in my opinion, the highest creativity demanding and promoting course that you could take. Since my art skills are that of an incompetent penguin, I took Advanced Language Arts seriously and searched for growth. The first step was getting away from all the artificial writing that would be the definition for a stereotypical school paper. I started to write about topics that are real and topics that I actually care about rather than why I think A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a super-duper novel that every child should read. As I did this my self-awareness and self-confidence shot through the roof. For once, I was having thoughts of my own, rather than those manufactured by the school. I finally became an independent mind talking, sometimes ranting, about what I actually care about, and through this I became a better writer, too.
Overall, this class has helped me find my voice. Sure there were some points where I didn't want to do an assignment or just wanted to sleep, but there were even more days where I was actually excited to come to class, which is hard to find in middle school. At this point, I'm unsure if I grew more as a writer and reader or if I grew more as an individual. Now as I head into high school, I will become more confident and will continue to enhance and refine my skills. All I needed was a push, and that's what I got from this class, and with that push I became myself.
Personality is what I was lacking and creativity is what I needed. Along with art, literature and everything else in that realm is, in my opinion, the highest creativity demanding and promoting course that you could take. Since my art skills are that of an incompetent penguin, I took Advanced Language Arts seriously and searched for growth. The first step was getting away from all the artificial writing that would be the definition for a stereotypical school paper. I started to write about topics that are real and topics that I actually care about rather than why I think A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a super-duper novel that every child should read. As I did this my self-awareness and self-confidence shot through the roof. For once, I was having thoughts of my own, rather than those manufactured by the school. I finally became an independent mind talking, sometimes ranting, about what I actually care about, and through this I became a better writer, too.
Overall, this class has helped me find my voice. Sure there were some points where I didn't want to do an assignment or just wanted to sleep, but there were even more days where I was actually excited to come to class, which is hard to find in middle school. At this point, I'm unsure if I grew more as a writer and reader or if I grew more as an individual. Now as I head into high school, I will become more confident and will continue to enhance and refine my skills. All I needed was a push, and that's what I got from this class, and with that push I became myself.
