Final Run

    During the first semester of AP English, I learned quite a bit about my writing style and myself. First, I discovered that I find a lot of thrill in procrastinating. I hate procrastinating in things non-school-related, but for some reason, I procrastinated so much last semester for schoolwork. I have not had as many 11:58 pm submissions in all of my high school years as I did in the first semester of my senior year. The sense of urgency of starting and finishing a project during the last few hours (sometimes minutes) before a deadline brings me an adrenaline rush like no other. However, that can have highly adverse effects and start to impact various areas of my life, so this semester, I will stop myself from getting addicted to procrastinating the majority of the assignments I have (I say this while procrastinating other homework that is due earlier but yes, I will try haha).

    As for some positive things taken from the first semester, I found a writing style true to me. I used to tend to write in a very formal and straightforward tone while writing, but this year, I began to constantly gravitate towards a more conversational and humorous tone while writing essays and blogs (if the topic allows for it), which I find to be more authentic to me. It may be because the topics discussed this year call for more creativity and self-input than in previous years. Whatever the reason, I started to find and create my true writing voice.

    Through thought-provoking texts such as The Stranger, “Oedipus Rex,” and “Othello,” I was encouraged to be more open-minded toward various personalities and mental states. I learned to think about what might have caused someone to be a certain way rather than judging them immediately. I learned to broaden my ways of thinking from the “How to Read Like a Lit Professor” articles. Learning from each other through the seminars also taught me things I had not even thought possible before, which encouraged me to stop limiting my thinking abilities.

    Though they do not take very long to complete, the essay reflections honestly helped me a lot in realizing what I need to focus on regarding my writing: I need to avoid using figurative language in my introduction (basically keep it simple), use more reasoning, relate my points to the audience, and refrain from being moralistic. Apart from writing, I also need to work on the MCQ section of the AP test, as that drives me nuts.

    I am thankful for everything the first semester taught me, and I look forward to entering the last semester of high school (this is it guys T_T) with a positive outlook. I will work on improving my strengths and weaknesses. I just hope that I can keep myself sane through the AP season.