Although nearing the completion of a class should feel like progress, I feel this semester that I’ve been spending a lot of time going backwards.

For our first substantial assignment, the literacy narrative, I wrote about why I chose to study English by talking about an influential teacher I had in high school. For the Digital Remix assignment, I’m re-presenting this essay by showing footage of an interview with this influential teacher. It seems that I keep finding ways to return to the place where I started.

It doesn’t seem like this is a good thing–most people have good experiences and move on from them in order to have new (and hopefully better) ones. I’m revisiting old experiences with the ambition of having something new result from them.

This habit of mine reminds me of how often I reread books. If I enjoy something, I will likely read it two or more times after the initial reading. It’s not usually an immediate re-visitation, but something that happens months or years later. It can be good to look over a book again, with more knowledge and ideas to apply to it, but looking back over something takes time away from encountering new things.

Does remembering this teacher’s sponsorship enable me to be a better sponsor? Perhaps, if I can use the same techniques she used, but doesn’t emulating her limit the range I can have as an individual?

How do you feel about revisiting the past in an effort to move forward? A lot of us have shared stories of our literacy practices in this course, ranging from when we were 3 and 4 up until the classes we’re taking at present. While these can be helpful to exemplify ideas, does dredging up memories hamper us from forming new connections or from applying the concepts we’re learning toward future experiences?