Immigration Reflection
For our first project this trimester we decided to look more towards US history than government. I was in a group with John, Charlie, and Tatiana, as we were drawn together with the interest of learning about Native Americans, the history of immigration, and racism. It was a lofty goal to tackle, even in six weeks, and we slowly scaled away until we were left with what was most important. It was hard for us to decide what we were going to do due to the variety of topics we had chosen. We connected the three topics with the idea that the Native Americans were the first in America, and then the British immigrated to start the colonies. That could lead into the history of all immigration starting at that point, and then going on to look at the struggles faced with the move, including racism. We talked about writing pieces and documentaries , but in the end decided that our main focus would be interviewing people, so that we could get the full scope perspective.
We started off the first couple weeks with straight research, looking for facts we could ask about and starting to assemble a book for our project that at the time we thought would exist. I was miserable those first weeks, and had major regrets about the project. Though I hadn’t lost interest in the concepts that we had agreed to study, I had become more bored with looking things up on Google, searching through web page after web page, and going to the library filtering through all the information. I eventually gave up on research and went into looking for interview candidates. I emailed a few reservations, but never got a response. The lack of contacting resources we had for Native American interviews lead to its removal in our project.
We had divided up subtopics to look at, and I felt like I was in a difficult position with such broad subjects as immigration law, current immigration debate, and the process of immigrating, that I wasn’t sure where to turn. My first approach was to contact lawyers to cover the law aspect of my part, and kicked off day one with a good start of one response out of only five emails with a willing interviewee. When I look back, that automatic success probably lead to my depression with being ignored for a continuous two weeks. It wasn’t until the last week of the project that I was able to get two more interviews that would complete my three interview quota. At the end of the six weeks when we had to present I was told that what we had done was enough, and yet I still felt that the project was a partial failure. However the feeling wasn’t toward the finished product, and more so to the weeks that had lead to it. There were a lot of issues in my opinion, and that’s not just me trying to be negative.
Problem A) The fact that I covered earlier that I was researched out practically by day two. During the middle of the project I thought that we had illuminated the writing portion of it, only to find out in the last week that John and Tatiana had taken the liberty of writing essays. On the last Friday of the project in the afternoon a conversation with Charlie implied that we should probably write essays too. Charlie completed his Monday, and though I tried to write it a couple of times I felt like I was sent back to the first few weeks of painful writing and research. The thought of writing it brought me pain, and so I finally decided not to write at all. When I try and explain my thoughts now I feel like a slacker trying to make excuses, but I know that in the end it was the best decision. I already felt like the interviews were great, and writing wasn’t bettering the project, as well as the fact that if I wrote it I would hate every word I typed and end up with a mediocre result. Now that I think about it though, it does brings me to worry about what this could mean for me later. Yes I am so content with NMYs learning style and loose philosophies, but is the fact that I didn’t do something because I didn’t want to anything good? Am I proud of it? What will this new take do to me in later schooling? Have I become complacent? I don’t know.
Problem B) The next problem didn’t necessarily take away from the project, and although we were reassured that what we had was good enough, rejection still left a bit of a sting behind. I can’t see really any solution to being ignored other than to continue on with projects like this that make us require outside assistance, and get use to being turned down. At the time I wasn’t thinking it could get better, as I felt so down from the cold shoulder I thought I was getting from the universe, and I practically turned religious with my praying as I waited for my email to load, envisioning a response from anyone I could get. I do realize though that I just need to practice.
Problem C) In my opinion, the biggest problem. I think our group dynamic sucked. For God’s sake I didn’t even know what John was doing until the last few days of the project. He had written three essays, and I wasn’t even aware that I should write one. Tatiana and I were okay, but I knew what was going on with her due to our outer school relationship. As for Charlie, I think I felt the most frustration towards. Maybe it was because I had worked with him two other times prior to the project, but I felt a lot of irritation with my desk neighbor/partner. There was a lot of bickering, a lot of contempt filled comments, and not a lot of teamwork. There was definitely some clashing…
In the end I don’t know what to say about the project.I was told it was good, but from the perspective I went through, I’m not sure what my thoughts are on it.
