Acknowledgements: Literature in my Life

            Life offers countless experiences.  Unfortunately, I’m only human like everyone else and can only go down my own self-driven path.  But this limitation is a blessing in disguise – that is what makes life so mysterious and exciting!  If we could foreshadow what would happen in the future, that would demean the experiences we have along the way. For this reason, I am so thankful to be part of 11AP English.  I cannot begin to explain the numerous topics, motifs, stories, images, essays, and more that helped me develop a stronger understanding of my life.  

            I would like to start off by expressing my gratitude to F. Scott Fitzgerald for writing the Great Gatsby.  Words cannot describe how enchanted I was by the mysterious nature of Gatsby.  The fearless chaser of the greatest dreams has inspired me to do the same, not that I would like to go down the same fate, but to enjoy and appreciate life in the moment and continue to aspire the unknown futures.  Thank you for not just providing a novel filled with action, but also offering a unique insight into life.  Also, to Art Spiegelman, author of graphic novel Maus filled with countless hidden contexts.  The drawings and motifs created throughout the novel has never offered me a more unique experience to literature.  Reading Maus was like trying to solve one big and endless puzzle – the opportunities to draw eye-opening conclusions from the extremely detailed frames never end!  To Lynn Nottage who wrote the engaging play Sweat and its sequel Clyde’s, I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity given to discuss nostalgia and its role in society.  Before reading, I have never known what nostalgia even was beforehand, but as I learned to grasp the concept, it made me realize the countless times I felt the same way at points in my life.  I was able to relate to every character from scene to scene, no matter how much I despised or favored one character over another.  From Oscar, to Cynthia, to Montrelous, every character had captivating traits.  The end of Clyde’s where Jason confessed his struggles to Montrelous almost had me in tears when I came to observe the play at the Detroit Public Theater!  Thank you again for providing me with such an enriching experience.

But that’s not all!  I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Judy Brady, David Sedaris, and more that introduced me to satirical writing.  It certainly provided me with a unique experience to my plain and simple writing style.  It got me thinking.  It got me to venture outside of the box.  It got me to engage in paradigm-disruptive exploration.  I would like to sincerely thank Aristotle for appearing in one of my essay prompts about akrasia or lack of self-control. Self-control has been one of the most mind-boggling concepts my mind attempted to appeal toward for the longest time.  It is honor to observe how one of the greatest philosophers of all time interprets the concept of self-control.  Also, a special thanks to Susan Sontag for introducing her take on memorials, photography, violent images, and more in many of our class discussions.  Her unique but powerful pieces especially evoked my fixed perception of most of these topics.  

Moving on, I cannot leave 11AP without mentioning my fellow table mates who enhanced my classroom experience.  To Sriram, I would like to express my gratitude to him for his ability of consistently being on his phone during class but not getting caught, while still actively engaging our entire table in class discussions.  Getting that opportunity to observe how it’s done is something I can’t take for granted.  To Kian, who “diversified” our culture and influenced my will to look into deeper contexts.  I always look up and appreciate your unique interpretations of the pieces we read in class.  I aspire to do the same.  To Dhruv and Mithun, whom have friendly-fire interactions about pieces we read that help me stay engaged in class and magnify the meaning behind some tricky lines.  I could never understand how to throw such “haymakers”, and I’m extremely grateful to be a witness.  And last but not least, Jaesung for leading the table in daily discussions. His participation motivates me to actively participate. Words cannot describe my respect for him.  Thank you all for sharing your moments with me – I feel extremely fortunate to be part of the group discussions at our table, even though I don’t speak too much.

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Ms. Valentino, who provided all of the opportunities in class listed above for us to discover.  For activities and discussions like scoring each other’s essays and seminars.  My parents always state “the best way to achieve a full understanding of a topic is to be able to teach and interpret that topic.”, and I think the activities and discussions perfectly reflect this concept.  For expanding my creativity with weekly blog posts, ranging from topics discussed on the following week to a free-for-all ramble.  Some of my favorite posts include the fan-fiction post of the Great Gatsby and my satirical piece on explaining my trumpet routine.  Before writing these posts, I struggled to grasp the understanding of irony and to incorporate it effectively into my writing.  However, spending time on writing blog posts ultimately helped me eliminate these limitations.  I feel a sense of pride every week when I hit that publish button on blogger.com. 

From the pieces we have read, to the humorous and engaging discussions, I have so much to be grateful for.  At the start of the school year, I felt lost in the world of literature.  However, as time went on, I learned to encapsulate new experiences I had in class thanks to the support of my teacher and my classmates.  I soon began to realize the bigger meaning and purpose of literature.  Literature is like a metaphor for life – a mystery of different experiences for us to interpret and continue down the path of our futures.