This class has been difficult and rewarding for me. My performance in this course, for instance, has been better than I expected. Normally I find English boring; oftentimes it is difficult for me to maintain interest in it. I speak the language, I am able to read, and beyond that I see little use for the subject. However, this class held my interest and allowed me to engage myself in the assignments. Though I did not always get the best scores in the class, I feel as though I applied myself and attempted to learn as much as I could through each lesson. There were times when the material did not interest me; during these times I found it hard to maintain motivation, but I attempted to remind myself of the points in class when I was very interested in the material and this helped inspire me. I believe that I did an exceptional job and will continue to apply myself this way in future courses now that I see the results my efforts can illicit if I apply myself.
My toughest obstacle, of course, was maintaining my motivation. It is hard sometimes to preserve the inspiration to continue working when the material is not immediately interesting or does not seem of any use. However, I found that if I contemplate most of the information I am learning I can eventually find a way to apply it to at least one aspect of my life, if not more. Naturally this was hard to do when I was lacking the motivation even to finish assignments, but I was continually able to remind myself of the payoff my previous efforts had shown me. In doing so I found that it made this specific obstacle less tedious. Something else I found as an obstacle for this course was my attitude, which was sometimes negative. I had to work to make myself by positive about assignments and what I was learning. I found that when I was more positive, the class was easier.
My favorite aspect of the course was that I could take almost anything I learned and, if I contemplated it long enough, I could find a way to apply it to my life. At the same time I was able to learn how to do this in other courses that bored me. I believe tool that serve me through my education. If I am ever bored or feel as though the material I am learning is useless or ineffectual to my everyday life, all I will need to do is think about how I can apply it to my life or use it at some point. Once I can do this, the information will seem important and interesting. My least favorite aspect of this course, if I am being honest, was the work I had to do. It is every student’s dream to be free of homework, or schoolwork in general. While I was not thrilled about the homework, the reading, and the assignments, I know they were necessary to my education. They helped me learn how to motivate myself and taught me the value of applying lessons to other aspects of my life.
I have improved my work ethic exponentially. Normally I would say that my work ethic is average but I decided that this was no longer good enough in terms of my education. I committed to finishing my assignments in this course and taking away all I could from these lessons. Typically when I do not want to work, I do not work but this class was different. I decided to do the work as I was supposed to. I do believe, however, that I could improve my attitude a little more. While I did do the work, and I maintained motivation, I could be more positive about lessons and what I am learning. I could also have a better attitude about the assignments in general. Overall, however, I believe I made a lot of progress in this course and I am happy with my achievements.
