Reflecting Back on English 101D

Reflecting on my work in English 101D for Winter 2010-11, I would like to start by saying my name is Wendolyn Palmblad, although I prefer Wendy.  I am thirty-five year old divorced mother of two beautiful girls, fourteen and eleven years old respectively.  I am also a caretaker to my boyfriend’s three wonderful children, one girl, fourteen and two boys, eleven and seven years old.  I was born and raised in Gresham, Oregon and have also lived in California, Colorado, Arizona and currently, Washington.  As many times as I have left the Pacific Northwest, I always find myself drawn back to it.  It holds a place in my heart and nothing is better than being home in the Northwest.  Although I currently live in Everett, Washington; Portland, Oregon will always feel like my true home.  I adore Portland and know the streets like the back of my hand.  I have many fond memories spent all over the city. Loving a place dearly doesn’t mean you can always be there though.  Life grabs hold and reality sets in.  So here I am back in college and making a fresh start.  In all the goals I have set for myself in life, being a good mom has always been number one.  I pride myself in teaching my children how to be good kids and at the same time, teaching them how to be themselves.  I love people and being a mom plays into that.  I am a caretaker by nature.  I worry extensively about other people and want the best for them.  After years of searching for what I should do with my life and trying my hand at a few careers, I decided to go back to school for Nursing.  Now that the kids are old enough and out of the day care age, it was a good time.  I began my journey towards Nursing five months ago and rediscovered my love for writing.  English 98 was one of my first classes and it brought back my love for writing.  With English 101D, a diversity class, I have enjoyed all the writing and loved the different prospectives offered in the assigned readings.

The class has been divided into three sections: Identity, Community and Tradition.  All of which have really pushed me to think outside my little bubble.  Although I don’t think of myself as sheltered or naïve, I never really have thought much about how other cultures are different yet the same as mine.  The entire course has stretched my brain, forcing it to wrap around new thoughts.  Even thoughts that for other cultures and communities are nothing new, it was eye opening to me.  I had no idea that in the Latino community, there were derogatory phrases only aimed at women.  Never applied to a man.  I learned this in Gloria Anzaldua’s essay “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, “Hocicona, repelona, chismosa, having a big mouth, questioning, carrying tales are all signs of being mal criada.  In my culture they are all words that are derogatory if applied to women- I’ve never heard them applied to men.”  The unit on identity really opened my eyes to who we are as individuals and how we get to be who we are.  In Emily White’s “High School’s Secret Life” she wrote about the different tribes the teenagers encounter.  It brought me back to my own high school cafeteria, but also opened the door to conversations with my children about their cafeterias and what goes on at lunch time.  Being an active parent is important to me and knowing what goes on in my kid’s lives is essential.  For my portfolio, I chose to include my identity blog “What’s In Your Wallet?” so showcase the identity portion of the course.

In the next section, Community, I learned about how we gravitate toward communities that are accepting of who we are as individuals.  A community isn’t just a group of people enjoying the same things; it’s a place to grow as an individual.  A place to feel comfortable or a place to stay until you can move into the community you feel more welcome.  A community isn’t about location or neighborhood; it’s about people who come together.  I chose to include my discussion board posting “The Rules” and my community themed paper “Conjunction Junction, A Community’s Function” as part of my portfolio.  Building on the Identity and Community sections is a lesson referred to as “Intermission”.  For this, I watched the movie “District 9”.  It was a perfect blend of community vs. individual.  Although I love this movie, I really feel like I should have chosen another movie.  By watching it so many times and analyzing it so in depth, I feel like I have almost killed all the fun out of it.  My boyfriend didn’t want to hear a word about my analysis for fear I would kill it for him too.  I don’t blame him a bit!  My teenagers got the earful and I was able for persuade them to give it a chance and watch it.  They loved it too!  It was another thing I took from my learning in this class and applied it to parenting.  I am a multi tasker by nature.

With the final section on the course, Tradition, I was able to read about the traditions of others and laugh.  It’s so great to know that the traditions you carry on aren’t all that weird.  There are others out there doing the same thing.  Some of us are forsaking our traditions to begin new ones, or to put our own twists on them.  Learning about tradition also brought up the thoughts and analysis of pop culture.  Reading how other classmates see pop culture as a positive or a negative was enlightening.  I follow pop culture, but there were many thoughts and discussions I couldn’t have pondered on my own. With so much pleasure in this section in the readings and the writings that I have chosen to include my tradition blog “Green Stuff” in my portfolio.  This blog is one of my favorite writings not only for this course, but in general.  It was fun to write and very rewarding to have others read. 

Although the writings I did for this course were assigned with a prompt, everything I write is personal.  Whether it’s an analysis, opinion or just for fun, it is from the heart.  I try to keep my voice in there and not sound like a textbook or a robot.  I hope everyone enjoys reading what I write as much as I enjoy writing it!