Acknowledgements

     As my year of AP 11 English is coming to an end, I realized the number of people, pieces, and authors there are that supported me throughout my journey in AP 11. It's impossible for me to talk about AP 11 without giving these catalysts to my improvement my utmost gratitude. 

    I (ironically) am deeply indebted to Cathy Park Hong and her piece "The Indebted". Growing up being told by others that I am indebted to America for giving me opportunities made me feel like I needed to give back somehow, but you were the first author to tell me that my feelings of indebtedness should be pointed towards my ancestors, not America. After reading your piece "The Indebted", I started following you on, and as expected, you opened my eyes to the injustices, achievements, and overall lives of people of color. I learned both how deprived and successful people of color have been in America, forever changing my perspective of the country. Similar to "The Indebted", I started to develop my writing to flow as uniformly as yours, with being able to integrate anecdotes to support a broader topic, or your word choice itself. I will never forget the way you used metaphors to describe a term as difficult as being indebted. 

    I would especially like to express my gratitude towards Art Spiegelman for introducing me to the world of graphic novels and in depth analysis of these novels. As an avid Webtoon reader, I was already very much into graphics and art. But as we read further and further into Maus, I learned how many important details I was missing as I read through both Maus and other forms of graphic novels. Who knew small details like a cat's eyes could hold as much importance as you gave them? After reading through Maus, I found myself picking up on little details everywhere. Without this valuable gift, the number of crucial details I would've missed is immense.

    While these two authors changed my perspective, the people in my class helped further my growth. From Angie's rocks to Aleena's refreshing views on all of our pieces, I wouldn't be able to mention 11 AP without taking them into account. Angie, someone who played an important role in keeping me encouraged, made the class entertaining. Your insight differed from most, sometimes making me question my own reasoning. Whereas I found that Aleena shared a similar view as me, making it easier for me to "flesh out" my reasoning with your support. As Angie and Aleena supported me throughout my growth, Eva was the one who gave me the first push. Being new to the school and barely knowing anyone, Eva was the first person who was open to helping me. From our confused texts about what our blog posts should be about, to us blanking out mid speech, the confidence I gained in this class would be nothing without you. But that's not all, the ambiance of the classroom and our wild discussions about the phallic nature of swords, flesh out vs. flush out, or lobsters, made the class worthwhile. And lastly, without Mrs. Valentino's priceless commentary, all the lessons would have been pretty hard to get through.

    Thank you for not only changing my views but also making me a better writer and person.