Written Reflection

Describe what you did.

When searching for a thesis topic, I had to look inward and find out what subjects interest me the most. I completed several activities in order to do so. The first activity was self-reflection. I had to consider things like my milestones, the truths I live by, the circumstances that seem to hold me back, and more. This helped me discover some common themes that seemed to resurface, such as education.

The next activity was automatic writing. For several days, I wrote a page of free-flowing thoughts. This helped my hand move at a steady pace. The idea was to write anything that came to mind without worrying about spelling or grammar. This was perhaps my favorite part as there was no pressure.

Then I scanned the news. I browsed local, national, and international news sites for article headlines that caught my attention. A common theme among the articles I picked was that most of them centered on prevention and change.

Next, I listed things that were wrong with the world, within my location, and within myself. Local news seemed to require the most research as I did not grow up in this area. Looking for problems within myself made me think about what is most important in my life.

The next activity was to list my personal passions. This was a bit of a challenge considering I don't have many interests. But the interests I do have I am very passionate about, such as art and mental health.

Then I narrowed the information down into the following five areas of interest: art therapy, choosing a career, social media addiction, representation in the beauty community, and equality in the gaming industry.

Describe what was successful.

I was successful in answering the prompts to the best of my ability. Narrowing down my areas of interest was a bit difficult at first, but looking at the common themes in my responses was helpful. These themes included art, education, and video games.

Describe what was unsuccessful and could be improved.

I currently need help in figuring out whether or not my topics for investigation are viable. I had a topic I was passionate about last semester (cyberbullying in online gaming) and I am trying to not choose a similar topic to add variety to my portfolio. This is hard, though, because I do not have many interests, as I've mentioned before.

Describe anything new or interesting you learned.

I learned about the problems that were important in my location, such as homelessness and traffic. I moved to my city a few years ago and didn't realize that the lack of affordable housing had such a huge impact on the citizens. The rate of homelessness has grown in recent years, but the government doesn't seem to have a solution to the issue.