Final Meeting and Reflection

                A couple days ago, David and I met briefly for the final time this semester. We talked about finals and our plans for winter break. He said that he is going to Chicago to visit his wife’s family for Christmas, and he is excited to see more of the country.  

David told me that grammar was his best subject, but he struggled some in writing. I had to agree with him because writing is not my forte either. He told me that sometimes it’s hard for him to get the thoughts in his head onto paper in a coherent and articulate manner. I laughed and immediately thought about blogging.

                Blogging has been a challenging experience for me in this class. I am not used to writing my thoughts and reactions to everyday events or learning experiences. Sometimes it is difficult for me to put words on the page that people will be interested in reading or that really reflect how I feel.

After almost every meeting with David, I would go home and immediately jot down some notes about our conversation that stood out to me so that I would remember the majority of what we talked about. I would begin to type up my blog post about the meeting, get about halfway through, and stop. Almost every time. My half-blogs began to pile up and ended up with me finishing them all around the same time at the end of this semester. Blogging truly was a challenge for me.

But this experience with blogging has made me appreciate my meetings with David even more. I was able to teach him more about our language and our culture. I was able to explain to him why he got weird looks when he said the word “beach” in his accent. I was able to tell him about my college experiences, the relationships I’ve built, and the plans I have for my future.

Looking back on all these blogs, I’ve come to realize I was truly graced with the opportunity to meet him and learn so much from him too. In just the past six months his life has been full of crazy twists and turns and I was able to follow along with him on his journey. We are close in age but our life experiences could not be more different. I am almost jealous because his life seems to be more interesting than mine! But I’ve truly seen him mature throughout the semester as well as myself, and I wonder if David feels the same way. I am beginning to learn how to reflect on my experiences and I feel like writing them down is one of the best ways to do it. Although I still struggle somewhat with blogging, it has been a great learning experience for me and I’m glad David was there with me to help me grow.

PS. David I still owe you a game of one-on-one. Watch out, I can almost touch rim.