Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post! This post is going to be covering our most recent project, Who Runs the World? Girls! This project was more relevant than ever and I learned so much from it that I can see reflected in the real word today. While the final product was an essay which is not my strongest skill set, I did thoroughly enjoy the process that led up to the final product. In this post, I’ll take you through the ups and downs of this project.
Starting off strong, we read Becoming by Michelle Obama. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was quite long but it was super interesting. I’ve always put presidents on a pedestal because of their level of importance, but this book humanized the entire US government in a really interesting way. One of the most thought provoking quotes for me from the whole book was:
“Yes, you can throw balls in the hallway, I told them. Yes, you can rummage through the pantry looking for snacks” (when talking to her kids after they moved into the White House).
This quote really made me think about how even in the most serious places, like the White House, there is room for fun and normalcy. It also showed me that upholding personal values can be done in any environment which was a common theme throughout the entire book. After the last project, I wanted to take what I learned about taking notes and apply it to this. I made sure to research the book before hand and write down themes that would come up so that I could better organize my thinking. This made a huge difference because it let me see how everything was connected without having to guess. It also let my brain have space to connect to part projects and ideas. While I didn’t use this book as a piece of evidence for my final product, it was still a super interesting read that I think about a lot. You can look at my in depth notes below ⬇️
Next up, it was time to start working on my essay. This, and I will say this right now, is not my strong suit when it comes to the Humanities. Writing formally is something that I really struggle which is one of the reasons I stuck with PLP, but also why I pushed myself into other classes like Spoken Language to try and improve this writing. Anyhow, I picked a topic that I’m passionate about: sports. This is because as a kid, I remember taking a hockey lesson and being the only girl in it. This was super discouraging and I quite after 4 lesson even though I was probably the best skater there. Who knows what potential I threw out the window because of a lack of female representation.
I researched a lot and found some pretty disturbing statistics to help me argue my point. 2/3 of the female population have never tried a sport. This staggering statistic is ultimately what made me choose this topic as mine for the essay because I think that it’s super important to inform about issues like this.
During the research, I decided to use my coach, Devon May, as the guiding force in this essay. I framed her experiences with being one of the only female in a male dominated to help create a narrative of how important girls participation is. Through this interview, I learned a lot about the challenges female athletes face and the importance of representation in sports. Devon shared her own experiences of feeling out of place in coaching environments and how she had to continually prove herself in a male dominated field. Her stories were both inspiring and disheartening and they only made me want to share both the progress we’ve made and the work that still needs to be done to create more gender equality in sports. Check out my interview with Devon here.
After looking into other sources that supported my arguments, it was time to get to the worst part of this project: writing an essay. I’ve always had a huge mental block with writing formal pieces of writing and this was no different. However, I realized how important it was to learn what strategies helped me over come this as essay writing is an essential skill in university. Something that really helped me was starting off by writing a barf draft. This let me get all of my thoughts out without really any constraining structure. By doing this, I was able to start with something rather than nothing. While my final draft looked nothing like my barf draft, it gave me a great point to jump off of. You can look at my final essay below ⬇️
Overall, this project a learning experience that pushed me out of my comfort zone. I gained not only knowledge about the importance of female representation in sports but also valuable skills in the writing process. The ups and downs I encountered throughout the project taught me resilience and the value of perseverance.
Thanks for reading!
Best wishes,
Dana