The Holistic Nomads' Journey

Since the first day of class of our course, “Journey in Literature”, we were assigned to different groups. As with any other course, I mentally prepared myself by thinking: “Right, this is going to be one of those frustrating times where I’m going to have to do everything alone”. As the professor called out random names, I got into my group with complete strangers. When I looked around, I realized how different and unique my peers were. Everyone had a signature style, a way of presenting themselves, and varied physical traits like curly hair, straight hair, tattoos, glasses, t-shirts and characteristic smiles. When we introduced ourselves, we saw just how diverse we were, ranging from Natural Sciences majors to Social Science majors. When picking out a group name, we agreed to create something that linked our diverse personalities, whilst we’re all on this “journey” together (the English Literature course) and we came up with: “The Holistic Nomads”. I thought it captured our essence, as individuals and as a team, and I knew we were off to a good start.

Throughout the course, we worked together tackling different assignments like analyzing poems, giving our take on current events, and even some MLA practice. While we were in these group discussions, deciding what to write on our group paper, we butted heads several times. A flaw in having such expressive personalities is having too many different opinions, without knowing how to synthesize them correctly. But, I loved having a great group of students who were interested in doing a good job by giving clear and coherent answers. Also, we made sure the work is done properly and efficiently, which made me feel supported and not alone, like in most group projects. We worked together, and we had a perfect attendance throughout all of our group assignments, which proves every student’s dedication to the class and the group project. Overall, it was a great experience to work with people who actually listened to each other and were interested in working together. Everyone had something unique to contribute, whether it was an analytical point of view, sentimental, intellectual, anthropological, or just plain humorous. I believe we always gave an all-around approach to answer the assignments that were given. This further flourished class discussion, and gave every learning experience a new twist. 

In all honesty, I never leave my small nook of the library, as I’m always busy with a ton of assignments to do and tests to study for. But, opening myself up to a new experience at the University to expand my love for reading and writing from back in high school, I decided to take this course. Then, by being placed in this group project, it helped me realize how limited I was in terms of learning new things, meeting new people and especially what you learn from them. Kiara taught me how to be expressive and say what’s on your mind, regardless of what others might think. Alondra taught me how fulfilling it is to be kind and helpful towards others; it’s how you make friends. Anthony taught me it’s okay to be yourself, even when others may not understand. Sergio taught me how to be a bit more chill, even though I was stressed out most of the time. And Miguel taught me to think outside of the box, because what’s important is what you have to say; not being a perfectionist all the time, which I tend to do a lot.  So, I’d say, in the end, we even became friends. Our goal was to learn and work together for an English Literature group project, but ended up being a random set of students from completely different backgrounds, who became friends. Honestly, I ended up learning more about myself through their unique personalities then they’d ever know. From one nomad to another, remember to keep this holistic journey called life, alive!

Left to right: Boys- Anthony, Sergio and Miguel. Girls- Kiara,  Alondra and me, Isabel.