Blog Reflection

I had mixed feelings when I heard that we would be blogging for the semester. On one hand, I was very excited, even picturing myself in  Amy Adam's shoes when she blogged in the film Julie and Julia. But on the other hand, I wasn't sure if I'd find much to write about. The course required one blog per week, and I figured that writing week after week, I wouldn't have anything left to say. Luckily though, the blog served as an idea generator and creative reflection for the works we discussed in class.

Because of the blogs, I was forced to think about the literature in a new light. I didn't want to write about the same things we discussed in class, so in most cases, I had to dig deeper into the book to see what else was there.This endeavor into the literature caused an even greater endeavor into my learning. It expanded my thoughts, making me think outside the box, and in doing so, made me reflect on the works. Learning how to read literature is much like learning how to speak a different language, you need practice to get good at it. The blogs were an extra practice at analyzing the works. The best part about this practice was that it was individualized. If you got stuck on a blog you couldn't turn to another for an answer, because you had to write your own ideas. The challenge of the blogs made the experience all the more beneficial. If it had not been for my writers block when writing the Persepolis blog, I would not have went on a Google rampage, which lead to my discovery of the term Bildungsroman.Or if it had not been for the blog I had to write on Translations, I would not have understood the depth of Brian Friel's title- Translations. I thought about the numerous types of translations, and realized that the inability to communicate is more complex than a language barrier. That sometimes it is a lack of understanding each other that leads to miscommunication.

The blogs served as an outlet for my ideas. In most classroom settings, there are certain expectations on what the writing assignment should consist of. Usually, it has to rehash everything discussed earlier in class, and in most cases, the ideas that I'd like to discuss I usual don't include because they aren't what the teachers wanted to hear. For instance in Servants of the Map, I wrote on an idea that as really a huge tangent off an idea discussed in class. It wasn't exactly the main purpose of the story, but it was the lesson that I pulled out from the literature. It was the lesson or message that I thought most significant, and because of the blog, I was able to write on it.  Through the blog, I could write about any idea that popped into my head, and I felt like this helped me grow in my perspective and in my writing. In my blog Life of Layers, I was able to incorporate my ideas and my writing style into a homework assignment, two things I never do out of fear that it will deduct me in my grade. Some blogs were purely things I wanted to write, for instance The Old Wood Wall and Just Salmon. I'm a poetry junky, and the fact that that I could submit my own work as an assignment, kind of made my life.

The blog assignments were an excellent supplement to the Lives and Times course, because it provoked curiosity over the literature and helped my literary analysis, but ironically enough, the very things I loved about the blogging, were the very things I disliked as well. If I could change anything about about my blog, or if I had the chance to go back and rewrite some, I would have liked to redirect. When writing my blog, I got carried away with the fact that it was MY blog. I became too focused on MY thoughts and My ideas, and I felt like I could have spent more time focusing on the material rather than using the blogs to serve as an outlet for my endless tangent of rants.In the future though, I could imagine myself using a blog as a type of social discussion network. Two of my favorite pastimes include writing and deep conversations with friends. If I could use blogging as tool to ignite internal reflection within myself or others, I would like to start a mini revolution of some sorts. Not one that would overthrow governments or cause people to convert religions, nothing so drastic, but have people reconsider the way they treat others, their morals, values, and their own personal signifigance. If I could use blogging as a revolution of the soul, that would be pretty cool, highly unlikely, seeing as I'm not a perfect role model for the ideal good Samaritan, but hey...it'd be pretty cool.