Reflection

When I first signed up for this class I wasn't sure I was going to like it. I like Dr. Maluso, and I like Sarah, Logan, and Casey so I agreed to take it more for the good company than the course material. The three main components were literally three subjects that I extremely unfamiliar with: technology, the environment, and feminism. I would say that I was excited to learn something new - but I wasn't. I hadn't ever really had an interest in any part of what the course material seemed to involve. Fortunately, I was pleasantly surprised.

I've had to blog in previous classes, but I never really liked it. It was always about really dry material. I never played with fonts or colors, I never added in any pictures, and I never spent time trying to come up with clever names. Blogging is actually pretty fun, and I really enjoyed it at the beginning of the term. As the term went on I became more involved in the website and less involved in my blogs, but I did enjoy watching the movies.



I tend to ignore the news, and I scroll over political jargon on my news feed. I'm just too busy for it most of the time. It's not that I don't want to care about farmer's being blackmailed by the large production companies, it's just that I'm so far separated from it that it just seems like an unnecessary burden to take on. But that's the problem, isn't it? People like me don't stop to take the time to become educated on important topics because they just don't want to be bothered, and then they never get fixed. Now that I've seen some of the videos and learned about some of these things, I'm going to be conscious of them all the time. I think it took these videos to make these problems human for me. Underneath the politics and the protests and the things that I feel like I can't change, there are people who are suffering - and that matters to me. While I didn't necessarily like watching all these videos and caring about all these new terrible matters, I'm really happy that I did.

Then there's the website building. That was a challenge to say the least. I don't like computers, I don't like calculators, I don't even like TVs that have too many channels or smart remote controls - I like to do things myself. So I was uncomfortable with trying to make a website because it seemed like a whole lot of frustration to me. But, because I knew it was going to be hard for me, I made myself get used to it. I spent hours upon hours messing with fonts and codes and templates and pictures and photoshop and a bunch of other things that I never would have known how to use if it weren't for this class. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I did figure out how to navigate our site pretty well if I do say so myself. I don't want to ever make a website again, but if I had to I definitely could, and that's a valuable skill.

Now on to our adventure. I had a blast during this term. We had our ups and downs as a group because group projects are stressful, but we made some pretty spectacular memories. We were really fortunate to have the opportunity to take a hands on approach to our website. I really hated hunting. It was cold and boring and I couldn't remember to stay quiet, but it was pretty awesome that we caught a turkey - and let's not forget about the goats. I will be telling people about Nugget and Babbette for years. Our fishing trip was fantastic (for me). I really love the ocean, and just being on the water makes me feel a thousand percent better than I did on land - always. Poor Sarah and Logan had to deal with my entire family for two whole days, but I think they enjoyed the craziness that is the Gillis Sisters - and some Mother's Day Mudslides.

Our adventure was awesome, and it led to a pretty awesome website. I am extremely proud of all that we did. We were lucky to have stumbled across a really perfect idea for our personal interests, and the creativity just kept flowing. Our finished product is probably not even half of what we had originally talked about trying to incorporate. I couldn't have asked for a better group either. Each person really had something unique to bring to the project.



 Over all I would say this class was a success. I'm really glad that I took it, even though it wasn't super sure that I would like it. I learned a lot of cool stuff, and I have some pretty wonderful memories that I'll take with me.