re·flect
rəˈflekt/
verb
gerund or present participle: reflecting
- 1.(of a surface or body) throw back (heat, light, or sound) without absorbing it."when the sun's rays hit the earth a lot of the heat is reflected back into space"
synonyms: send back, throw back, cast back "the snow reflects light" - 2.think deeply or carefully about.
I had the opportunity to earn some (much needed) points this last week by reflecting over my writing assignments. The amount of growth that I saw in my essays astounded me. I went from basically re-telling the story to somehow forming an entire essay from a single word. Sounds crazy right? It just goes to show how vast the human brain truly is.
Anyways, after re-reading my essays countless times I found a general theme about what I could have improved in each essay. All I needed to do was think more and provide better analysis! Simple enough, I just put a little more stress on my lil noggin. So there I was, analyzing all my essays and quotes again, trying to find that "deeper" meaning. I went back through the title of the books and inferred like the Bedford reader suggested, ANDDDD...I found nothing. Three hours in and still nothing. Four hours in and I fixed a semi-colon issue, 1/15 errors corrected yay me. Eventually I put my laptop down and took a walk outside. -Side note, if you ever feel stressed or overwhelmed I suggest taking a walk. You'll be astounded.- After taking in some fresh air, I decided to approach my writing in a different mindset. Instead of analyzing my analysis for what was wrong, I read my pieces for enjoyment.Like the Bedford Reader suggests, "The first time you read an essay, size up the forest; later you can squint at the acorns all you like." ( Bedford Chapter 1) 
After reading my pieces a couple times, I started to notice what I didn't like. I started to realize my mistakes and slowly but surely began correcting them. In a matter of an hour, I had four almost entirely new essays sitting in front of me. All I needed was a change of mindset to reflect on my past correctly.
There it is folks. My life lesson for this post. I realize that sometimes, to reflect correctly, you must change your mindset entirely. Yes..yes..it's hard I know..I know it's a lot of work trust me i'm lazy too. But if I haven't earned your trust yet through my posts, well...that's your fault because i'm freaking inspirational. No, but seriously if you want a different outlook on life, step out of your old shoes and into some new ones. It's a lot like running! If you keep using the same old pair of shoes you'll hurt yourself. Sometimes you gotta spend the extra money to buy new shoes and save yourself from pain. Just like in life, you have to spend some energy and time to make a new platform for yourself to view life on. Life,after-all, is only as beautiful as you make it!
