Self Assessment

Vanessa Medina

Human 21

5-14-08

Self Assessment

Some of the things that I learned about taking this class would be: that I come from a culture that is so overpowering at times to other cultures. I also learned that although I do want to learn and better myself, that my resolve weakens when I am stressed out and overwhelmed. I have been taking care of my terminally ill mother now for over a year. She has lived much longer than any of her doctors ever expected her to. I've seen her through neurosurgery, protected her from having her home foreclosed on, and helped her learn how to walk and speak again. At a certain point, I realized that I needed to get back to my life's dreams, such as graduating from college. So I have attempted to go to school this semester. I have to say, that this has been a very humbling experience. I am a very smart person. Who is more than capable of getting A's. But my standards have been so low for myself lately. The most important thing to me is to care for my mother. I honestly feel terrible about this semester. I feel like it has been one big failure. I wish that I had either not taken classes, or had been courageous enough to come talk to you sooner in the semester. I would imagine what you would like this letter to be about would be more in relation to my culture and my place in it, in relation to the middle east. However, the most important things I've learned in this class have more to do with resolve and the courage (or lack there of) to ask for help when you need it.

Regarding the middle east, I learned that my education has been very limited and skewed. That for the most part, our culture is so bent on depicting our culture as being the best, that it in reaction to that, often times depicts other cultures as being the worst. I was disappointed and surprised that we appropriate other cultures so easily, without giving them due credit.