Where do I begin? I have never had a teacher or professor challenge and push me as much as Professor Brady did. I still remember the first day of class when you said “ You will all participate in this class, you can’t hide anywhere, I
WILL call on you.” My response: “Oh jeeze.” What I will admit though is during the class I was frustrated and felt put down because my grades weren’t as high as I wanted them to be and at first, I couldn’t see why. Now as I look back on my old pieces I wrote in the beginning of the semester, I realize that I had a lot more potential than I showed. I held up my first published writing assignment next to my last one and the differences are profound. I realized that my weakness is explaining myself through paper. I can speak and persuade like I drink water yet when it comes time to writing it out I have trouble. This got a lot better throughout the semester after being told over and over again its language and transitions. Well it finally clicked. I think? Anyway I also realized that if I can put my thoughts onto paper, in the exact way I see them in my mind, I would write an awesome paper. Besides paper writing, I realized that I can dig deep into my mind and pull out thoughts and ideas that seem beyond my years. I want to keep moving forward and challenging myself because there’s no better a feeling than to accomplish something great. I actually made a few friends in the class. The fishbowls and discussions helped me see people for who they really are and I wouldn’t hesitate to talk to anyone in the class because they are all amazing scholars. Honestly, I’m sad it’s over. I would take this class again in a heartbeat because the last thing I realized is that there are a few professors that actually care about the students more than the dollar bill. We would be an Ivy League school if every professor was like Brady. However there are very few professors like you so the only thing to do now, when I need an extra push, is to take everything you taught, and pulled out of me, and apply it myself.(P.S. check out the song "Float on" by Modest mouse and "American Dream" by Sky Ferreira."American Dream" eerily relates to Georgiana from "The Birthmark.")
