Arsalan Omer

My name is Arsalan Omer, and I am a junior at the University of Georgia majoring in Psychology on the pre-med track. I ultimately want to become a physician and open a hospital in my family’s home village in Pakistan. I have maintained an association with both my cultural background and religious beliefs since childhood. They are core components that make up who I am today.

Sports are a very valuable aspect of my life that have a great deal of importance to me. I enjoy playing many different sports with my friends such as basketball, soccer and flag football. During my time in middle school, I was selected for my middle school soccer A team and we were able to win our districts. I still remember the joy I had when we received our medals. When I moved onto high school, I later joined my basketball and volleyball teams. Each sport offered me its own set of skills from building endurance, to communication, to discipline, and much more. The value of being disciplined, working together as a team, and having perseverance in sports has also taught me how to deal with obstacles whether it be in school or out of school. Irrespective of how chaotic life may become, sports will forever serve as a motivational area of my life for moving forward as well as providing me with connections to others while inspiring me toward new challenges.

Prior to taking ENGL 1102, I had no knowledge of what "writing" meant in relation to being called a "good" writer. To me, writing simply equaled completing assignments. As I progressed through the semester learning the concepts, however, I began to realize that writing can be used by writers to communicate their ideas about topics and create arguments. This past semester changed how I view writing. Through this course, I have learned the importance of close reading as it relates to analyzing literary pieces and I have developed an ability to create a clear and focused thesis statement which is based upon a specific argument or point. I also learned how to use academic sources to provide evidence in written work to strengthen and validate one’s claims. Lastly, I have learned through this course that revising and editing should be primarily used to strengthen your points of contention versus simply proofreading for grammar and punctuation. Overall, what I will take most from ENGL 1102 is the excitement for writing again.

I hope when you read my portfolio, you will see the progress I have made throughout the semester not just in terms of being able to analyze literature and communicate ideas but also in terms of developing confidence as a writer. While I still believe there is much room for growth, I am proud of the development shown through the essays in this portfolio and look forward to continuing to grow as a writer throughout my academic career and beyond.