Lin 1

Shulammite Lin
Professor M. Ogbara
English 1A
14 December 2015
Confidence and Focus
I entered my first semester at Pasadena City College determined to apply myself to the
curriculum and to prove that my capabilities as a student exceeded the level I had previously
been performing at. People who caricaturize me often refuse to understand this, but I have
personally battled the most with English courses throughout my entire advanced academic career
due to my inability to understand the work assigned. My problem has always lied in keeping
focus and understanding how to influence others. Though language has always been an area of
fascination to me, my scattered and conflicted thoughts would constantly prevent my written
voice from having any notable conviction. Though my writing style was often deemed as being
clear, grammatical, and sophisticated, my past instructors would often criticize my general and
pointless claims. Now, being desperate for change and progress, I highly prioritized this English
1A course; and after these sixteen weeks, I can clearly see that my written voice has dramatically
improved in structure, confidence, and understanding.
Focusing on working has always been more difficult that my job, itself. I regularly find
myself at a loss for words, and I am unable to express myself without multiple hesitations.
Through this class, however, I was given more guidance towards overcoming my innate writers
and speakers block. Brainstorming and outlining, as tedious as I had originally considered them
to be, are quite effective strategies when building any argument. Prior to this course, I
overestimated my mental organization skills, and often went head-first into writing anything.

Lin 2
Though it made for a less repetitive ride, those works were definitely less supported, less
straightforward, and more confusing to read. In this course, we were given multiple pre-writing
activities to strengthen our essays and reports. These exercises became very useful and my final
revisions were much more powerful due to this.
Prior to this English course, I had almost forgotten how to appreciate literature.
Struggling to keep on top of reading and writing regularly, I had always felt insecure of my
uncultured understanding of literary themes and icons. I soon lost motivation to read, and would
systematically fall behind in all my English courses. In this class, however, I was very pleased to
find myself in the company of a class which emphasized building discussions and asking
questions. The intimidating literature assigned didnt bother me as much, because I was able to
follow the concepts proficiently simply by actively participating in the current of the class. I
began to become more involved in analyzing sentences and dissecting metaphors, which
surprisingly was quite fascinating to me.
In conclusion, I began this course with much more anxiety than the course actually gave
me. Though the assignments and the reading material definitely came as a challenge, I soon
became more accustomed to the flow of the class. With the open-minded environment, I was able
to destroy my pre-existing fear of being judged for my imperfections. I truly appreciated that this
class was not primarily focused on sophistication, but on the sincere ideas and opinions of our
peers.