The first day of class for ENC 1145 with Heather Lang provided me with the information that I had not received prior to the first class and that same information was something I did not want to hear; that we would have large projects with lots of writing. So after that day I expected the class to become a total bore with a huge workload and although the workload was on the heavy sometimes it never got to the point of being undoable. All in all I enjoyed this class immensely because of the wide curriculum it teaches the students rather than the smaller curriculum that I had learned in high school. It opened up my eyes to a new world of writing and that although I tend to be wordy, I like to write as if it’s a book or poem I am writing. I have always been brilliant with reading before this class and occasionally the assigned readings that Ms. Lang had the class read were a bit boring and from time to time unnecessary.
            When I first was placed into this class, I had no idea that it was a community service based writing class and that we would have to be doing five hours of community service for a grade. Honestly I actually would like to have had more hours required so that I am used to and comfortable with the organization that I was placed with. However, the organization I was placed with and volunteered for, the Tallahassee Museum, did not offer me any type of benefit other than be prepared when a big event is going on. Although this was my first impression of the museum, being able to walk around the boardwalks of the nature trail myself gave me a closer look at the nature in Tallahassee. When I was able to take my own moment from volunteering to walk around, that is when I started to learn on my own what the museum was really capable of. The short five hours that I had to volunteer for the museum did not allow me to learn all the different ways in which it benefits the community. I only truly experienced the nature side of the museum. Because it was necessary to volunteer for this class, I felt as if it might alter how I feel about Tallahassee as a new member of the community. However, from what I learned while volunteering at the museum, there was not much that my organization had to offer to the community other than what nature has to offer itself. Therefore, I do not see differently about the community and what it has to offer. But after the presentations in this class and listening to what the organizations that my peers volunteered for had to offer, I am more likely to try out their organizations.
            I have only been a member of the Tallahassee city for a few months so the class has not done a lot to alter how I view the community regardless of volunteering. Unless you are a student who is really involved with helping around the community then this class might not do a lot for you other than teach you how to write better. However, the students in my class who taught me about the various organizations Tallahassee offers has given me a reason to get involved and make this temporary home better while I am living here. As I said before this class will teach you how to write better. I did not know how to properly cite a paper or even write an eight page research paper but I learned it in this class and I am grateful that I did now before I get to the harder classes at Florida State. The research paper is the project that has taught me the most. It incorporated many requirements and I was overwhelmed for majority of the project but in the end I am satisfied with what I learned from it. Because of this project I learned that I like to write but on my own terms; I like to write without being restricted to a format and a guideline. Free-write has always been an outlet for me in my life and this class has taught me how to love it even more and use it for a good cause, such as writing poems for the victims in the Shelter  or speaking to women at the Refugee House.