My TCC E-Portfolio
Home | Curriculum and Career Plan | Tidewater Community College | Reflection Letter

Reflection Letter

Robin Barrow

ENG 111

Narrative Essay

Ms Marits

01 September 2007

First Time for Everything

I never thought life could be so exciting and wonderful, as I lay next to my husband on the beach in the Bahamas relaxed. There were lots of different activities going at once. People were jet skiing, snorkeling, eating, drinking, talking, taking pictures and just having a great time. Nothing could be more exciting being away from work and all the worries I left at home. As I laid there reminiscing for hours, the thought of bringing a life in to the world was the farthest thing from my mind.

After nervously waiting for thirty minutes the nurse called me in to her office. I sat on the chair with my head up knowing for a fact that everything was okay. “Well Ms Barrow your test came positive” she said….at that very moment I thought of nothing, I was in a state of disbelieve. “Would you like to keep the baby,” yes off course, I replied. Then I thought to myself that was a stupid question. The nurse then proceeded with giving me instructions and what to do next. My mind kept wondering off few minutes at a time the entire time she was speaking, but I just kept nodding my head. Finally she says, “Congratulation and I wish you the best.” As I got up and left the room with a shaky voice I replied, thank you. I was so scared; I had so many things running through my head so I cried my self a little as I returned to work.

“What a scary timing.” I kept saying to myself, because my husband just left out to sea two weeks prior. The first time we would both be separated for six months and so I was left with a dog alone in an apartment. Sharing the exciting news in an email with my husband was not the way I wanted it to occur because I wanted to see the expression on his face when he found out that he was going to be a father for the first time. I finally got to hear his voice on the phone a week later, I told him the great news and by the sound of his I could tell that he was overly excited. He was more excited than I was.

With no family around I was scared and nervous, not knowing what to expect in the near future, and my husband gone for six months I kept myself busy in a consistent routine to make the time go by fast. First thing in the morning, I would walk the dog, then eat breakfast and go to work. After work, I was busy with dinner for one, feeding the dog, watching my favorite television programmed, emailing my husband, friends and families pictures of my belly growing and then I would finally go to sleep. These daily routine allowed time to pass swiftly, thus before I knew it I was six month pregnant and my husband was home in enough time to experience the remainder of the few months left in the pregnancy with me. With my husband home, I started to enjoy the pregnancy even more. For instance, we painted the baby’s room, we shopped for baby things, we searched for baby names, and we went to a photo studio and took beautiful portraits of my belly at nine months and did so much more. As we anxiously waited for the delivery date to get closer, I would often wonder how our life would change with a baby in the house so I watched a lot of baby delivery stories on the discovery channel to educate myself and get my mind prepared of what I should expect.

Finally, time was up! The last seventeen hours of intense labor was the most memorable day of my life. After twenty minutes of pushing, the room was in silence for a second then came a cry, a cry I would never forget. A beautiful baby girl Raven Lara Barrow was born. The room was filled with so much happiness, lots of congratulations from the nurses and doctor. My husband was so awed about the whole experience that he couldn’t wait to jump on the phone to tell the family of the new arrival. There is something positive and wonderful in this whole experience that pulls a family together. I am very grateful to be among the select few that had a great family support and a healthy pregnancy. I thanked the lord my GOD for my blessings. Being a first time mom is an amazing experience, which makes the whole pregnancy journey worthwhile. Just like anything else you experience, it has its ups and downs but you have to go through such an experience to understand the way I felt about having a bundle of joy.

Reflection on ENG 111
 

What writing assignment did you enjoy the most? What worked best in this essay? Give specific examples with quoted passages.

The assignment I enjoyed the most was writing an essay on comparing and constrating between two places I lived in. What worked best was writing out the what both places had as far as similarities and comparing both cultures.

An Example:   Odering hamburgers and French fries at a McDonald drive-thru for lunch was definitely a new experience for me in the United States. In Nigeria, my fast food experience was generally presented in a very local manner, a womman would sit in a shed like area cooking, and waiting to serve her customers as they arrive. There were no big time ads for people to hear about these restaurants, just simple word of mouth.

What writing assignment gave you the most difficulty? Why? How did you resolve the difficulty? If you did not resolve the difficulty, explain why and what you intend to do to continue to improve in this area.

The assignment that gave me the most difficulty was the E-Portfolio project, even thou I attended the workshop I was still stressed out and confused on how to get started or where to go to get started. I resolved the issue by experimenting with two different web sites. With this I was able to learn new and few tricks up my sleeves. In order for me to improve in this area i need to learn to search the web more and learn more about my computer.

What have you learned about yourself as a reader?What have you learned about yourself as a writer? What have you learned about yourself as a critical thinker?

I have learned as a reader that I should take my time reading so i can comprehen better. As a writer I learned to brainstorm better and make a sketch list of what am going to write about. As a critical thinker, I over think and give myself  headaches so I need to learn to relax and do not over think.