Metacognition: The act of writing about Jane Eyre

Writing about Jane Eyre was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. For me, getting all of my group members to collaborate at the same time and in a collective way proved to be challenging, but we got through it.
I found that the easiest part was coming up with a way to relate Jane's situation to a modern 21st century example. I felt that because this book was so dense, there was much we could relate and elaborate on. However, in the same way, it was difficult, because there were times when we stretched the text too much. It was hard to find the medium between going into depth and plain overanalyzing.
I did learn a lot about my own personal thinking through this project, though. In the past, before I write an essay, I prepare an outline, where I put down the guidelines, what I need to have, quotes, claims, etc. from start to finish. This became the one-and-only blueprint for my paper. However, while writing this essay I did not do that. While at first it was a challenge, because I didn’t know where to begin, once I began fleshing through ideas and concepts, the essay fell together. I found that while writing about something, I would come to a profound conclusion or a different way to look at the scenario. I felt that this really added depth, and gave a whole different layer to our writing. This style helped me expand my mind more, than if I had just followed an outline. Upon thinking about this, I remember what Mr. Allen told us when writing our short stories; that we shouldn't have a clear-cut idea of what the ending will be, but rather we will discover it while we are writing the story. I found that this method worked very well.
One thing that I learned about my thinking, though, is that it is very disorganized, abrupt, and chaotic. I talked about, in this essay, including thoughts which popped-out while I was writing the essay. While these ideas tend to be the one’s most in-depth, I’ve got no effective way to organize and record them all at once. I think that I need to find a system or find some organized way of recording these ideas, so I can include more of them in my writing.
In conclusion, I learned many things about my writing and thinking when completing the Jane Eyre essay. There are many things I wish to continue, while there are some that need adjusting. That's all part of the great process of becoming a greater writer, and thinker.

Metacognition: The act of reading Jane Eyre

While reading Jane Eyre, I was surprised by how much I was pleasantly usurped by the text. In 8th grade I read Little Women, another 19th century American classic, and felt that it was long and boring. So, going into Jane Eyre, I thought the same thing would happen.
However, this was definitely not the case. I think the difference between reading Little Women then, and Jane Eyre now was because 1.) My reading skills have developed and, 2.) I was given a clear focus of what to look for in the book.
Before reading Jane Eyre we discussed the many aspects and similarities between Victorian literatures. In addition, we discussed the life of Charlotte Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre. Lastly, before reading, I looked at what are final project would be for this book. Some of the focuses of the project were: matters of realism, challenging the status quo, feminism: not just for women, etc. Then, while reading Jane Eyre I focused on this cluster of questions, and nearly every annotation had something to do with one of the focuses for our final project. There were many things I would have skimmed over, or completely missed if I had chosen to disregard the prompts. While although these prompts are different from this years, they have greatly enhanced my understanding of this book, and it has really made me appreciate the craft and content in Jane Eyre. In addition, while although there is a different prompt, many of what I already annotated fits in with this year’s guidelines.
I found that these prompts were very effective, and they helped me keep a clear guide of certain things to look for in Jane Eyre.
I only wish that I can have these similar prompts every time I read something. I find it very useful. I noticed this when we read Heart of Darkness. Before we read the book, we disused modernism and post-modernism, which greatly influenced the way I read and interpreted the whole story.
Hopefully, in the future, though, I won’t even need prompts, and I will be able to pick up on themes and concepts of great writing, on my own. However, for now, practice and analyzing skills are the best, as they will help prepare me.
I’ve enjoyed reading Jane Eyre, and I think that is due in part to the fact that prompts have helped me identify and analyze the best works of literature.

360 Degrees: Exchanges

As many of you know, the next two upcoming weeks I will have a French student, named Ambroise, living with me, going to school with me, coming to sports with me... he's pretty much like my conjoined twin for these next two weeks.
Ambroise arrived on Thursday, and at first I think it was a bit difficult. Between the different accents, the different school, the different food, and the big American way of doing things, I felt that Ambroise was kind of startled and overwhelmed by all of it. However, now, while it's only day 3 of his stay, I could say that this anxiety has completely diminished. From bonfires, to movies, to Costco run, to strange French techno music, we've reached a level of comfort, that we both can gain the most from this experience.
And while although this is only the 3rd day of his stay, I've begun to realize something very important about what an exchange actually is.
Webster dictionary defines exchange as a verb that means to give up (something) for something else; part with for some equivalent; change for another.
At the beginning of this, I thought “okay, I'll probably have to skip hanging out with my friends, and do something with Ambroise" or "Oh, I can't finish homework tonight because Ambroise will be here", so in a sense I did think I would have to give up something for this program. However, now, I don't see this French exchange program as an exchange at all. I don't feel as though I am giving anything up, in replacement for Ambroises’ contentment. I've whole heartedly enjoyed his stay, and there has been no 'swap' of any kind of my time. So far, I've learned that for an exchange you don't need to give up anything at all, in fact, you gain something.
I'd like to extend this though to everyday life,too. Why do we feel that we must always give up something in order to gain something else? Why must we feel that are life is a balanced scale between time, family, friends, leisure and work? Why do people always say "I had to give up on that dream, and do something else.”?
If there's one thing that Ambroise has taught me so far, than it is this: if you try hard enough, the word exchange is inexistent. There is no trade off between something worse and something better, there is no scale, and there is no 'giving up' of any kind. If you just look at the situation a little bit differently, you see that there is only gain. No exchange.
And this exchange has taught me precisely that. Nothing has been a weighing of different priorities, everything has been an opportunity.

An Inconvenient Truth: Priorities

Over this past break I spent four days in New York City, and the most memorable place I went to was the United Nations headquarters. Inside, we visited and toured numerous displays and galleries. In one of the galleries a whole wall was plastered with different statistics, some enlightening quotes, but the majority were very unfortunate truths. As I looked over the wall, one statistic I read stunned me the most; ‘Globally, more money is spent developing a cure for male baldness than developing a cure for malaria.’
This statistic was extremely upsetting, and got me thinking about priorities. At what point did our priorities become so jumbled that we chose appearance over human life? I believe that today, more so than ever we need to take a serious look at our values and goals and life, and do some rearranging.
Unfortunately, as I look over my own priorities I find that many of them are in the wrong spot. Certainly not to the extreme of the example above, but there is a degree of bewilderment as I look over my own list of priorities.
For example, last month I was supposed to go out to dinner with my cousins, but instead I decided to stay home and finish my homework. It seems that it’s always been instilled that family comes first, but on numerous occasions I can recall putting other things before them. And, frankly, that’s very sad.
I’m not sure how to fix an issue like this, maybe better time management, but the truth is that I need to take a serious look at what matters to me the most, and center my time and effort on that.
Globally, the world may benefit from doing that same thing.