Honors 345: Pilgrimages and Idle Travels
This class brought up a lot of different aspects of my past experiences and travels that I hadn't expected to explore in a classroom setting, especially one as intimate as this. The way we interacted in class and reviewed each others papers, I felt open to receiving feedback and excited to hear what others had to say. The papers we wrote were a way for me to hear critiques on my writing, not the validity of my past adventures. I love hearing stories. It was great to be able to read through my classmates' work throughout the quarter, and then more thoroughly for the midterm paper. We were able to have a dialogue about the papers that benefited from all of the previous discussions, and then when I was able to work with the writer.
My midterm paper started as a paper mostly about my grandparent's garden. It's a place where I have some of my happiest memories from my childhood. But my grandparents have also been there throughout the more unfortunate times in my life too. The paper grew from its original focus on their garden to what it meant to me over the years, with my mom, after she died, and now. Most of the notes and changes from the paper are written all over the margins on the different versions of it and on sticky notes plastered onto different pages.
The majority of these experiences, I haven't really written about until this class. I have not even looked back through my journals from Peru and Mexico. There were specific moments from those trips and my childhood that I felt really spoke to me, and continually show up in my day to day life. With these papers, I hoped to capture the in between times and moments; those being the changes and happenings between day and night, stages in life and grief, from one moment to the next, and the process and experiences from going from one place to another. I have felt like may parts of my life have been in transition from one phase of life to the next. It seems like always working towards the next big thing: applying to college, volunteering, interning, research, and setting the stage for the next steps I want to take. Even with that though, there are the little moments that have made a difference in the past and there will be ones in the future. For the past seven years I have babysat for family friends and people in Seattle. I love babysitting because it allows me to spend some time thinking of things through a much different perspective, which can be incredibly refreshing from studying all day. My favorite moments have to be the times reading to the kids before bed and watching them eat, relishing in their excitement and complete entrancement with whatever they are doing.
Overall, the class was wonderful.
My midterm paper started as a paper mostly about my grandparent's garden. It's a place where I have some of my happiest memories from my childhood. But my grandparents have also been there throughout the more unfortunate times in my life too. The paper grew from its original focus on their garden to what it meant to me over the years, with my mom, after she died, and now. Most of the notes and changes from the paper are written all over the margins on the different versions of it and on sticky notes plastered onto different pages.
The majority of these experiences, I haven't really written about until this class. I have not even looked back through my journals from Peru and Mexico. There were specific moments from those trips and my childhood that I felt really spoke to me, and continually show up in my day to day life. With these papers, I hoped to capture the in between times and moments; those being the changes and happenings between day and night, stages in life and grief, from one moment to the next, and the process and experiences from going from one place to another. I have felt like may parts of my life have been in transition from one phase of life to the next. It seems like always working towards the next big thing: applying to college, volunteering, interning, research, and setting the stage for the next steps I want to take. Even with that though, there are the little moments that have made a difference in the past and there will be ones in the future. For the past seven years I have babysat for family friends and people in Seattle. I love babysitting because it allows me to spend some time thinking of things through a much different perspective, which can be incredibly refreshing from studying all day. My favorite moments have to be the times reading to the kids before bed and watching them eat, relishing in their excitement and complete entrancement with whatever they are doing.
Overall, the class was wonderful.