The Finale

         Wednesday December, 17th marks the end of my first semester of college...how time flies! This past Saturday marked the official end of my FYS Class, "Talking About Freedom." This is the class that I created this blog for initially; however, as the semester progressed, I began to view the blog less as an assignment and more as a learning opportunity, an opportunity to do something that I should've been doing all along on my own according...becoming a better informed American citizen by reading up on the world news several times a week. When choosing which articles to blog about, I tried to select topics that were relevant specifically to the First Amendment aspect of the course, or topics that correlated with what we were discussing in class. 
       The course itself taught me much more than simply how to blog about news...it taught me several key skills that I know will certainly carry over into my other courses. I have to admit, on the first day, the class intimidated me. I was scared; I thought to myself "this is the real deal, this is what a college lecture course is really like. What if I can't keep up? God forbid...what if I fail?" These little doubts in my mind didn't stay for long thanks to my teacher, Professor Smith. I knew from the get-go that Professor Smith had high expectations for everyone in the class, and that the only way to meet them was through good old fashion hard work. Professor Smith definitely went the extra mile to create a class blog that kept the class informed as well as summarized what we were discussing in class (he even went the extra mile to provide snacks every day for us starving college students! ); his blog quickly became a resource for me the second I became confused about anything we discussed in class. Professor Smith also taught me how to elevate my writing to the next level, the collegiate level. He assigned us two major essays that would weigh heavily on our grades. I have to say, the thought of a 2,000 word final essay definitely intimidated me, at first I had absolutely no idea where to begin, but Professor Smith created an outline to guide our thinking and without it, my essay very well might've been a disaster. 
       The class itself also taught me the importance of teamwork. Many of our assignments were team based. Professor Smith created teams, where we would work with our designated team to participate in moot court or to work on a difficult assignment together. Through these exercises, I learned the importance of responsibility, in order for the assignment to be a success, every member had to do their part. Also, working with a group can make an assignment far less daunting and even enjoyable. I would say that I definitely had fun learning and developing my academic skills in the class. I will miss the fun court case reenactments and the riveting discussions and debates, but I know that I will undoubtably use the skills that I've learned in my future courses!

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