This paper was very interesting for me. The topic was extremely personal to me and it was great to get to write about it. The ideas of what I wanted to write about came very natural to me, but how to put them into words did not. It was hard to try and formulate coherent writing about a time of my life that was not very coherent. I spent a lot of time trying to find sources to back my statements up because I know that without concrete facts it is hard to convince someone of something. This paper was very healing in a way for me because I was able to release any pent up emotions I was feeling as a result of this process, even though it has been almost two years. If I had had more time I would have tried to incorporate more sources and I think I could turn this essay into a much longer piece. This is the first time that thinking about a paper over a thousand words does not freak me out.

I have done argument papers before, and I am a very argumentative person, so it felt like second nature. My parents always have made fun of me for “talking about things I have no idea about.” Really what it is happening is that I have some knowledge of the subject but I am able to convince myself and others that I know much more. This assignment made me really focus on discerning what I know and what my mind has made up. I think I did a very good job of it by using the other articles.

I think that I did a good job of displaying why I believe this topic is important and what my stance was. I had a hard time incorporating to opposing side because there was not any credible sources opposing anxiety. This made it hard because I was specifically back up all my claims with evidence from outside sources. I ended up having to use my personal life as a way to show the opposite side, which I am fine with, but was worried that it did not have something to back it up.

I spent a decent amount of time researching for secondary sources for this paper, and trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to write about. Once it came to write, though, it seemed to not take much time at all. I am not sure if it was because I had a little bit of a brain dump onto the page, but I was able to get most of my ideas down on the screen fairly easily. I think I put a good amount of time into making sure that this paper was the best it could be, and had the best information I could find.

The conferences helped me a lot because I was able to talk through my paper and ideas without second guessing myself. I really appreciated getting to talk to Miss. Wilson about things and got me excited for the rest of this year and next semester.