First Semester Reflection

In the first semester I have learned a lot about writing and history, but there are a few things that I learned the most about.
The one area that we spent the most time on was our writing skills. I am fairly certain that improving the way we write will come in handy in anything we do, which is why I’m glad I had this class. Eliminating clutter was a big help for me because that was my main issue. I do still have clutter sometimes, but it’s not nearly to the extent that it used to be. Using a thesis statement and getting right to the point was another thing that I improved on. It took me seventeen tries one class period, but I eventually got it and it has never taken me that long since. We used writing in every single topic we studied and I, personally, feel like I have gotten at least a little bit better than I was at the beginning of school.
The thing that I felt was the most interesting to learn about was the genocide in Rwanda. Before this class I had no clue that anything like this had ever happened, and now I know more than the average Joe. For instance, I now know that the conflict had been going on since practically the dawn of time (not really, but it went on for a while). I learned what started the whole situation, how it ended, and just about everything in between. The debate that we had at the end of the unit was actually a lot of fun. We got to see the genocide from every side possible; who to blame, who not to, what they were thinking and so on. It got a little out of hand at some points, but we at least got to see how a debate would usually work.
Finding a credible source when researching was something else that I learned a little more about. I learned that it you want to find a website that is known for having good information that is accurate. Also, that you may want to have a source that is not biased, because you’re only seeing the story from one side. However, it is okay every once and a while to have a source from both sides, and a neutral article. For example, Wikipedia might not be the best source because the information is not always correct because anybody can go and change it. Another example not to use would be somebody’s blog because they can say whatever they want and post it.
Another thing I learned about was the history of Australia. The history of Australia was really interesting because you could make connections with the history of America. In Australia, the tried to get the Aborigines out of Australia, and in America, everyone wanted the Indians to be gone. Where the similarity ends, however, is how the people in Australia tried to get the Aborigines out. The white people literally bred the Aborigine out of the natives, and slowly but surely, every generation would become lighter and lighter. We saw exactly how the white people did this in a movie called Rabbit Proof Fence.
At the end of this semester, where we took the four country’s histories and compared them to one another was pretty cool as well. I learned that those four countries have a lot in common as far as colonization went. They all had some sort of racism, slavery (or “workers”), and they all ended up being controlled by somebody else other than who colonized them—for the most part. It was kind of sad to see that they had so many things in common because you could tell that they obviously did not learn a thing from one another.
As you can see, I have learned a lot of important stuff that I am going to most likely use or need at some point in my life and I’m really grateful for that. This semester has helped me a lot and I will never forget the things I learned.

South Africa would be the best place to live as a native population during colonization.

In South Africa the Khoikhoi were indentured slaves. The Dutch made them work for food or anything that they might need. If you think about it, it is the same thing that every adult that has a job does. However, instead getting a loaf of bread, they get money to go buy the loaf of bread. It would not be much different than what I am going to have to do in a few years; work for what I need. If they don’t work, they don’t survive.
Some may say that Rwanda is the best place to live, but I disagree. It may have been the best place to live a while ago, because they didn’t have “slaves”, or workers. But, in the following years hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Rwanda had experienced a terrible act of genocide in the 90s. Most people would not want to be there to see something like that first hand and I’m one of them. Rwanda is the last place I would want to live, because at least in the other countries you could stay alive.

Over winter break I spent a lot of time with friends and family. I got up every day and had to get ready, while other people laid in their pajamas all day. The week before Christmas my family and I would spend time with the same exact people, but each day we would go to somebody else’s house. I love my family and everything, but can’t we just do one big day where we all get together at one house? We watched the college football bowl games, and the college basketball games. We watched Michigan beat Ohio State =] and Michigan State beat Northwestern. That’s all we did pretty much for a week straight. And it was a lot of fun.
Christmas morning isn’t as exciting now that we don’t believe in Santa. It seems like that magical Christmas feeling when you wake up isn’t there anymore, and it’s kind of sad. My brother and sister and I didn’t get much on Christmas, because we each got a trip somewhere. However, my mom and dad got a lot of the stuff that they wanted from us, and it made us all happy. For the rest of Christmas, we went over to my aunt and uncle’s house to watch more basketball and football, and for Christmas dinner. We left around eight and I had to finish packing for Chicago.
My brother mad me get up at seven