The first thing I remember from this class was me having to do is record a podcast. It was at this moment where I knew that Mat was not a typical professor, and that this was not a typical class. I hate the sound of my voice, so I tried to make the most of it when we had to record a podcast. Our book was the “Beckford Book of Genres” and it was lengthy to say the least. Nevertheless, I learned a lot of useful tips for my paper. Mat’s unconventional approach made the boring class that we all had to take a little bit more interesting.
Honestly... my first draft was absolute crap. It was off topic, it did not make sense, and reading/writing it was a waste of time. With that being said, my shitty first draft was well needed. It allowed me to see that I was going down the wrong path and what steps I needed to take to show improvement. My one on one conference with Mat helped shed light on what I did well, and what areas I need to work on. Although I am still working on this paper, I am more confident that it is getting better. Overall, this paper is showing a complete metamorphosis.
The second project is by far the worst paper I have written thus far. When Mat was explaining what he expected and the different parts, it did not sound too bad. However, once I heard the word count, my world unraveled. 3,000 words is not impossible to achieve, at least that is what I told myself. Fortunately for me I started two days before the conference like a dumb ass. It is like I set myself up for failure sometimes. My boyfriend was in town that weekend, so this project was the least of my worries. Once reality started to sink that I actually had to start it, the stress increased tenfold. The worst part is that I went to a friend’s apartment Sunday night, so no work was started until around 9 o’clock at night. Once I started, I quickly realized that I should’ve started earlier. That was the central idea for the entirety of this class. While everyone was dancing, eating, and having fun, I was in a room writing away. Every single person who saw the amount that I was writing asked me if I was an English major, that is how I knew I was writing a lot. That night I got to about 2000 words by 2 o’clock in the morning. I woke up the next day at 5 o’clock in the morning to get up to the word count and have something to present to Mat. So, all together I only got 3 hours that night. Tears were shed, my spirit was broken, and I was ready give up. When it was time to have my conference, I ended up going to the Sweet Shop instead of his office, so I had to run in order to make it on time. After receiving my feedback, I was relieved to be finished. God himself pushed me to finish and I did. At least I thought I did. I thought the annotated bibliography was included in the word count, but I was so wrong. This means that I have another 1000 words to write unfortunately. You can imagine how heartbreaking this must be, but I have no choice but to be a scholar. Though this project broke me, it made me realize something: I am very resilient. That is something that I realize about myself because of this class.
The final project happened to be my favorite surprisingly. It was fun to create my own logo, meme, and header for Twitter. I even liked the Podcast even if my voice sounds cringey. ENC 2135 made me realize that I need to get serious with time management but overall, I learned skills that I would not have learned if I did not take this class. I definitely became a more tech savvy student because everything was online. I loved the conferences because where I lacked clarity, Mat helped guide me on the right path.
If I had to take this class again, I think I would because it is a different approach to an otherwise traditional curriculum. However, I would not take it in summer. It was too much to do in a short period of time. AT the end of the day, all this pressure just strengthened me as a student overall.