This I Believe-
Project Reflection-
The idea of our project “This I believe” originally came from a 1950's radio station, NPR, who would feature This I believe essays in 2004, that were listened to all over the country. The core concept of this project is not to try and persuade others to believe what we believe in, but to simply contribute personal life experiences and/or stories, and to share what beliefs help guide our daily lives.
"This I believe" is a project our humanities class decided to do, in which we are able to convey what we really believe in, while also getting personal with ourselves and to the audience. The purpose of this project initially is to state a belief that we have and write in some personal stories that support our belief. Before we started to write, we prepared by listening and reading examples from other students’ that were featured on the NPR radio station that was known for promoting the “I believe” statements that were listened to all over the country. We were also given starters that made us think about what was really important to us, and influential people/things in our lives. As our end product we created essays of what we believed in that were 350-500 words, and then we created a podcast that ran 2 to 5 minutes long, which will be then aired on KDUR radio station. The most difficult part of this project for me was trying to connect personal stories to my belief. It was tricky for me because I didn’t necessarily know what direction I wanted to go with my essay, and how I’d tie everything into it. The areas of growth that I saw for me as a writer, was taking out unnecessary words, and sacrificing some details in order to make the word count. What I would do differently next time would to try and connect more personal stories to my belief. My favorite part of this project was being able to free-write something that was more personal, instead of having a bland and boring topic to write about that isn’t interesting nor attention grabbing. The aspect of my essay that I am most proud of is when I compare laughing when you’re sad to getting up really early in the morning to watch a sunrise, “When you are sad and you laugh a good laugh, it’s so satisfying. It’s like getting up really early in the morning to watch the sunrise and cursing at yourself for doing so, thinking “Why the heck would I do this?”, but after watching the sunrise it leaves you so satisfied and content with life that you end up forgetting that you had to wake up so early to see something so beautiful. I think it’s like that. Knowing that, yeah okay I am sad, but I’m not always going to be sad, and if I laugh, even just a little laugh, I am going to feel so much better, and maybe, it’ll help me to forget why I was sad in the first place.” I feel like this piece from my essay reflected well with my belief, proving that when you laugh when you are sad, it makes everything a bit bearable, just like when you wake up early for a sunrise, seeing the outcome makes it all worth it. Participating in this conversation about beliefs really opened my mind about what my peers believe in and how it takes part in their day to day lives, which influenced how I now perceive certain things. Sharing and defining my belief changed my perspective in a way that I am not trying to persuade the audience into sharing the same belief I have, but rather trying to make them understand what I believe in and why I do, and knowing that it’s okay if not everyone thinks the way I do, they shouldn’t because we are all our own person, and our certain credo guides us all in a different and substantial way as to how we live our lives as unique and beautiful individuals. |
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