So the semester is finally over, and I’ve discovered that this term I’ve learned a lot of things, some of which were quite unexpected. For instance, the fact that people in Canada take the immigration experience for granted was a theme we widely explored, especially as of late. People don’t really think about issues unless they are a direct influence on their lives, so although I am an immigrant myself, I sometimes forget the many hardships that accompany that type of change. It’s easy to forget just how hard it really is to pick up your entire life and move to another country, when I’ve been living in Canada for so long and would actually consider myself to be more of a Canadian than anything. Listening to Carmen Rodriguez talk on Friday was quite inspiring: to read a book and get to interview the mind where it all came form is quite a privilege. Carmen really reminded me of my grandma actually, in the way she talked about her book and her grandchildren. I really wish I could be taking her class in the spring semester. It would be interesting to see how she approaches similar issues that we talked about. It was interesting to ask her about the whole fiction/biography issue, and to see her answer be pretty much what we had assumed the reason to be. I loved how down-to-earth she was: it is true what she said about biographies though. It is quite presumptuous of someone to write their own biography. Regarding the rest of this course, I wouldn’t say that I discovered new things, but I’ve definitely learned to look at issues from a different perspective. Reading all these books from the perspective of other immigrants and having people of such diverse backgrounds come together and discuss our own opinions was really quite enlightening. Our discussions sometimes ended with such opposite outlooks, and I found myself overwhelmed with feelings of empathy. I’d definitely keep the Alvarez book and even read it again, however the thought of reading Marti or Ruiz the Burton again is not something I would do in the near future. Overall, I quite enjoyed this class, as it gave me the chance to read these books that one wouldn’t normally find in the curriculum of a regular literature class. I wish you all luck with the rest of the year and finals!