Personal Experience In Barbara Mellix's 'From Outside, In'

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In my personal experience I grew up in small town, Tolono, where most of the people are Caucasian and speak English. In third grade we received a new girl to our school and whenever a new student joined our class I was always very welcoming. The new young lady spoke English but was from a different culture. One day in the library I was reading a book with the new girl and some other friends; it was a book on the body and health. The book had all sorts of interactive fold out pages with actual examples. I picked up one of the hair piece examples to show everyone in the group. The hair piece that I picked up that I thought was from the book turned out to be a removeable dread lock from the new girls’ hair that had fallen out. At that time for me I had no clue what a dread lock was or how it could have possibly come from her hair. I am sure my body language and facial expression was an expression of shock and puzzlement, …show more content…

She specifically mentions in the article that, “Each experience of writing was like standing naked and revealing my imperfection, my “otherness.” And each new assignment was another chance to make myself over in language, reshape myself, make myself “better” in my rapidly changing image of a student in a college composition class.” This reminds me of a new stage of my life making new friends and going down a new path. In high school I had one absolute best friend the rest of the student body was hard to connect with. College gives me a new chance of finding my place and connecting with students going down the same career path. Like Barbara Mellix, I too am go through a language change in college and in my work place. I am doing what I need to succeed and not maintain the same language just to be accepted by my own

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