When I signed up for the class the name was INTD 105, Risk, Rewards, and Rent-Paying. I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I knew it was a required writing class that I was going to take at Geneseo. Before starting the class I did not know what the Risk, Rewards, and Rent-paying would mean. I came into class on the first day open minded and ready to learn about the concepts. There were risks about coming to college that I did not realize I was facing at the time. I didn’t know how the adjustment from high school classes to college classes would be. Was I prepared for these courses? Would the professors be nice? Would I make friends to study with? There were many thoughts racing through my brain about my learning, on top of all the other uncertainties that college brings. Through this semester I have learned about the risk and rewards we are challenged with in everyday life.
Looking back, I wrote many essays throughout the semester, starting with the “In This Space Essay” where we were just supposed to show our abilities as a writer. To this “Final Self-Reflection Essay” where we are thinking about our growth from the course. I have changed how I think about risk, rewards, and rent-paying from the first day of class from reading the story “Bloodchild” by Octavia Butler. We looked through the lens of two species on an alien planet; the Tlic and Terrans. Professor McCoy pushed my thinking to relate it back into my own life and journey with this course.
On the first day of writing class I walked into the room and there were a lot less people than I expected. When I thought about college classes I pictured a big lecture all with hundreds of people. This was quite the opposite, it is a small classroom with about twenty students, a professor, and a teacher assistant. I was feeling very nervous to be surrounded with unfamiliar faces in a new environment. But I have learned you are uncomfortable before you can feel comfortable in any new situation. From this first class Professor McCoy made it clear what her expectations were and how the course would be. We would need to be very self reliant with our work and keep ourselves accountable. She did not give us a course syllabus in order for us to navigate Brightspace on our own. Brightspace was the new platform that we were adjusting to. It is where we would get assignments, due dates, and where to be prepared for class. We were assigned the “In this Space Essay” and I was very unsure of how I would be as a writer. I wrote in the essay how I was not confident with my writing skills. I did not feel prepared from my highschool English teachers to come to a college writing class. When I got my feedback from Professor McCoy I felt better knowing that I was in a good place with my writing but there was still room for improvement. I was told to slow down with my work to make my thoughts more clear to my readers. At this time I didn’t really understand what slowing down meant. I thought I unpacked everything that I could have with what the prompt asked.
We continued through the semester and started reading the book “Bloodchild” By Octavia Butler. We had many class discussions along with group discussions. We got very in depth with the concept of risk, reward, and rent-paying. We used the Tlic and Terrans to explore the concepts. The main Terran, Gan was faced with challenges that would affect the rest of his life. He had to decide if he should carry the eggs of T’Gatoi, who was a Tlic. We also looked at the social relationships between the two groups. I was forced to think outside of my comfort zone and unpack my thoughts. When we wrote our first “Bloodchild” essay it took me a very long time to figure out what to write for every move. I wanted to make sure I was taking in the feedback I got with my first essay to make my next one better. I worked with my friends and held myself accountable. Professor McCoy told us to take the essay step by step and not as a whole. Where it can then get overwhelming and harder to get done. I submitted my first draft and I thought I did the best that I could. Until I got my feedback that said I still had a lot of work to be done. I was told it was a rough draft and I needed to narrow my essay to one kernel. I was discouraged at first when I was told I was going to have to write the entire essay over again. I got back to work to continue to unpack my thoughts more and narrow down my essay. I was then rewarded with the outcome of a better essay that was published on First-Year Chronicles. I felt better about my writing after this essay and was starting to understand the concepts of slowing down, unpacking my thoughts, and narrowing down my essay.
It is now the end of the semester and we did many collaborative work with different prompts. We did a collaborative essay and I thought that it went well. We continued to work on the concepts that we have been working on all semester. I am now writing this “Final Self-Reflection Essay” and I would say I am a better writer and a better thinker. From starting with the risks and rewards we talked about in the book “Bloodchild”. I am taking away that I can see the risks and rewards in my everyday life. We make small and big decisions that affect us everyday. You can choose between going to the gym and working out or sitting on the couch to watch Netflix. I can now continue past my first semester and into the rest of my time at Geneseo with the skills I have learned from this course.
