Reflective Essay, My Final Goodbye

I have sat in this one spot for almost an hour and I cannot come up with anything to say about this past year which to me is amazement because it has truly been a year of challenges in English 12 Honors. I think for me coming up with the right words is hard because I have not yet accepted the fact that my senior year at Malden High School has come to its end. I remember walking into English class freshman year thinking these were going to the longest years of my life when they in fact have become nothing but the best. The struggles I’ve come up against in English class this year I can add to my list of accomplishments because somehow I’ve found myself at the end of this very long road. With coming to the end comes all the growth I’ve formed over the last couple of months. English has been nothing but a challenge and I'm proud to know I’ve stuck them all out to the very end.

My Jim Dine research paper is by far my biggest accomplishment for this year. I never thought in my life I would be able to come up with 13 pages of words and have it all make sense as you read along. The whole time I wrote this paper it never seemed to be a struggle as appose to other papers I’ve written within the year. I think writing about art is what made my job so much more easier because art is something I am really fond of and love like English. I’m so proud of my final product and no matter what my final grade may be to me it is nothing but an A. An A for amazement in how I managed to finish it, amazement in how I even got through it, amazement in how its now all over. Even as I write this all out I can feel in the pit of my stomach this feeling where I can’t believe it’s now the time to write this all out. I would not change a thing about this year, well that could be a slight lie, but for English class I am proud with how far I have come.

Hamlet would be another accomplishment I hold with me as I say goodbye. I remember freshman year when we studied Romeo and Juliet. I loved the story but I never really got to the core about what Shakespeare was telling me. As I read Hamlet this year I could tell I have grown into a much better English student. I never found Shakespear difficult this year, not one single bit. Somehow it all made sense to me which only made the story seem that much more enjoyable to read. I think after a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet would be my second favorite play by Shakespeare.

So perhaps I lied when I said I could not come up with any growth within this past year but I think its because that after taking this course I’ve finally found something I love and would like to peruse as my future career. The books I’ve read throughout this year and the papers I had to struggle through it has come down to the final end. Overall I am proud of the all the work I have done within the past year and could not have asked for more. I’m sad to see it all end but at the same time I know this is just the beginning. High school is just a piece of the puzzle to life and I am going to take all the knowledge and work I have competed this year and add on to it for my future. College is defiantly something I am terrified of but at the same time that is how high school started out for me freshman year. If I take what I know and expand on it I know that in four years it will be the same thing as this essay has done for me, nothing but a look back at my growth as a student, as a writer, and as a person.