Throughout the course, I have been focused with consciously determining my likes and dislikes so I can realize the biases I have every time I approach a different project.

The first thing I noticed is that I tend to like topics that involve entertainment. I believe it is the events that shaped me that led me to this interest. I think I tend to look for what people enjoyed doing as opposed to what people were forced to do. This is probably because I want to see the best of life instead of the worst. I want to believe there is hope in the world instead of despair. If there is too much despair, then how is the world supposed to get better? It is important to address what has to be improved, but it is also important to see ways life is being improved, so we can emphasize and continue the positivity. It is much nicer to live in a world that is full of hope than a world that is full of people who have given up on life.

Something I have discovered that I tend to stay away from is gender and sexuality. Although I enjoy reading about this topic, unlike many of the other people in the class, I do not initially think of this genre.  This is not saying that I do not admire people who have stood up for feminism and gender equality. I look up to people such as Emma Watson who is working with the UN in a campaign, He for She. I also want to make a difference for women everywhere. I just do not to research gender in any of my essays. This is something that I could easily improve on, and it might add to my research.

I also have realized that I like learning about places far away. Even in my essay about Canadian music, I focused the Eastern provinces such as Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario instead of British Columbia. I think this might be because I like to learn about places that seem worlds away because it is different as opposed to learning about something close to home that seems ordinary.

Another like I have discovered is that I like to reflect. Reflecting seems to come easier to me than simply writing essays to just get them over with. I like letting information sit with me, so I can tell my friends and family about what I have learned. I get more excited when I have the opportunity to reflect what a particular event meant, and the connections the event has to the present.

Because this class was so reflective, I was able to focus on my biases in researching, and I was also able to focus on how I write great essays, and things I need to improve on.