What I Learned About Journeys in this Class

When I enrolled in this course, I thought I would learn about literature, figuratively “journeying” through readings of books. In reality, I learned a lot more about journeys, and about my own journey, than I learned about literature. This outcome is not what I had expected, but it is something I needed, more than I ever could have anticipated.

During this semester we read excerpts from various books, all about the different authors’ different kinds of journeys. After every reading we were given the opportunity to reflect on how we could see our own lives from a similar perspective to what we read. This lead to me considering and concreting thoughts about my life that had always been in my head but I had never organized or contemplated with such depth.

One excerpt we read, for example, by Peter Roberts, elaborated about the concept of identity and the feeling of “being at home” when around people similar to oneself. This lead me to contemplate my identity, and how most my family background causes me to be very different from the people that live around me on this island I consider home. My whole journey through life, including my education and my relationship with my family, led me to be very different from the people around me, and to have a lot of trouble feeling as though I knew where “home” is.

Besides learning about myself and my own journeys, it was very interesting to learn about all of my classmates through what they wrote and read in class. Even though we wrote about the same topics, since each was related to each of our own life experiences every reflection was very unique and heartfelt. It is obvious that we have all lived different experiences, but it was really interesting hearing how each person expressed themselves about the same kinds of things. One often takes for granted the vastness and complexity of other’s journeys. The things that make them happy, their complications; everything that makes the people one knows who they are is often not on one’s mind, no matter how much time is spent together. It is easy to get caught up in one’s own problems and one’s own life, and to not really consider how other people could be feeling, and what they could be going through. One’s experiences are a direct influence on how one acts, how one thinks, and how one interprets the world. I very much enjoyed hearing so many personal stories from my classmates. It helped me understand them and who they are so much better than in other classes, where classmates are simply taken for granted.