Sep 17 - After hearing your classmates’ storymap presentations, choose one classmate’s story that stood out to you. Write about what you liked or learned from their journey and explain why it was meaningful to you.

Response: I can't remember the name of this student, but their storymap was about how they felt they couldn't live up to the expectations that were put on them. He talked about how he was a kicker for the Lakeside Football team, and all the other players thought he had it easy since he was just kicking the football all practice long. He also talked about being in band and feeling like his skills with the trumpet just wasn't enough for the amount he wanted. I really liked this story because it showed that even though this guy looks very physically and mentally strong, he can still be sensitive and is not invincible to everything that is thrown at him. Being this vulnerable in front of a class of peers who you don't know very well is, to me, very brave and shows a lot of who you are as a person, which I admired a lot from him.

Summary: Today, we finished presenting our storymaps.

Reflection: Not just these storymaps, but every assignment we do in this class (even this blog post) is allowing us to show who we really are outside of the classroom. Before this storymap, I had so many assumptions about my fellow classmates and who I thought they were, but after they presented their story map, I realized that there is so much more character to them than I had previously thought. One kid in the class I had never even seen before (mainly because I'm in the front of the class and he is in the back), told the class about his story of moving away from his dad's house (different student than the one mentioned in the Response), and this is when I realized that everyone has a story of their own they want to share with the world. These assignments are really making me feel closer to my peers, way more than any previous English class I've had (let alone any class!).

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