In English 4, my classmates and I spent a good deal of time talking about our communities. Each person is involved in several different communities and they can have a large role in one’s life.

Throughout this year, each student is challenged to show how a place or community can influence a person. This can take many turns, but I believe I express this through a piece I wrote towards the beginning of the year. This piece, called “The Town That Built Me”, explains how a small town influenced me to be the person that I am today. This completes the challenge because this reflective essay has opened my own eyes about how something that might seem small to someone else, can mean everything to another.

As I see how a community might affect someone, I have also had the opportunity to develop a celebratory and critics, perspective on my community. Another piece I wrote that expresses my community, but in a more critical way, “Journey Through Lincoln”. In their piece, I give my personal view on the Lincoln community, both the good and the bad. Creating your own perspective in your community can help you get out there and explore to learn more about the place you live in or are from.

Continuing on with the community work, as a class, we focused on how to discuss issues in my community. My class spent several weeks working on a research paper. My paper is about agriculture and how America is falling deeper into a farming crisis. Throughout the paper, I shared my knowledge on the topic and how the issues affect my community. I was able to express different view in a formal way and share how different issues can affect my community.

Throughout this year, I’ve grown greatly within my writing. I kept track of some things I didn’t do so well in the past, but did well on some papers and a few of these include transitions, introduction paragraphs, sticking to a structure, and keeping formal. Much of the pieces I talked about above helped me work on these and grow. When I look at papers from the beginning of my senior year to now, I see the growth within my writing.