Right from the beginning of the semester I felt very intimidated and I questioned myself and my writing abilities immediately. Being surrounded by peers who are as strong of readers and writers as they are made me feel out of place, at the same time, however, I was determined to discover why I had been placed in this environment with such strong capabilities.

The blogging assignments appealed to me instantly. For my first posting, I was hesitant whether or not it was appropriate for everyone to be exposed to and I still regret how gentle I was with a topic that I believe needed to be seen in another perspective. From then on I learned from my mistakes and everything I wanted to address was done so thoroughly until I was content with my final result. By the end of this semester not only did I gain confidence in my writing skills but I gained reassurance knowing that my voice was finally being heard, recognized, appreciated and related to.

My reading habits only started to pick up when I was in middle school but because I was never challenged to read, only encouraged, coming to grade ten where reading was expected was a shock, but one that I welcomed as a challenge. I never knew that the level of books I was reading did not meet the standard that I was expected to be at, so to adapt to a whole new world of literature was difficult. Although I struggled with this change I know that staying with the same type of books would not allow me to grow in my writing abilities.

As a learner so far this year I have gained more self-confidence that success is possible for me and that I can contribute to the learning community because my opinion is valued and realistic. Through this course I have been shown support and how important it is to make each topic personal in order to completely understand both points of view to something. Most importantly I now value myself and my talent as a writer because I have been shown that writing is a powerful skill that can affect someone’s opinion through a simple sentence, provide an escape to those who need it, and literature offers a way to express what cannot be said verbally.

For next year I would like to improve upon the level of difficulty of the books that I am reading in an effort to increase my quality of writing and be even more successful than I have been this year.

So far my year has been amazing, it has been challenging yet still filled with success and achieved goals. I could not ask for better teachers, better peers or a better start to a new year.