Chris Phillibert Blog 10 Reflecting on The Journey

Sexyracy I must say, this class has been quite the trip. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busiest days of the semester by far but no matter how much I dread having four classes in a day, I always look forward to spending time in this class. In a lot of my classes, students do not get the opportunity to discuss things for extended periods of time in open forum like we do in this class. I'm always so happy to be provided with the relatively unique opportunity to hear the opinions of my classmates in depth and gain the chance to partially understand where their opinions are coming from. Usually, when I hear my classmates they're responding to a simple question in a linear fashion but in this class we get to explore concepts through conversation with each other. Through hearing more detailed opinions of my classmates, I have been able to reflect critically on my own opinions, defend them, and in some cases, change them. Thanks again to hearing my classmates, I have changed in my ways of thinking and in some ways how I perceive concepts of race and gender especially. Not only have I been able to grow personally, this class has provided me with friends I might not have made otherwise.

In the beginning of the semester, Professor Aguas said that in this class, the Professor brings the ingredients but the students are the chefs. I have kept that concept in the back of my mind whenever I think about this class and whenever I harken back to it I think about how true it is. From this class I have discovered that if you feed concepts to people in an open forum, there will naturally be disagreement. If civility can be maintained in the forum, there will be a general increase in understanding of each other and the world around us by focusing on these differences. Like how we focused on differences by dividing the class by race and forming bridges, focusing on differences of opinion helps establish a broader community and a broader comprehension of more subjects for each member of the community. I have also discovered things about myself from this class. I really enjoy learning about people's experiences and how they shape their opinions.

Now that I have taken this class, I will do my best to apply lessons from it to my daily life. One of the most crucial lessons for me was that engaging in a dialogue with people leads to better understanding of that person and yourself. I will do my best to hear the opinion of everyone and not be so quick to dismiss a person's opinion. Hopefully, this will lead to me being a more well-rounded person.