People are often asked to introduce and/or identify themselves. Some do this by creating a presentation on themselves displaying their likes/dislikes, heritage, and etc, while others show their government issued ID or passport. How do I introduce myself? Simple, my name is Stuti Bista. But I like to identify myself with this phrase, “Nepal Ki Chori” (Nepal’s daughter). This simply means I was born and raised in Nepal. This means I’ve seen the faces of poverty, the piled-up garbage and have dealt with the contaminated food and water. But this also means I’ve seen the beauty of the snow-capped mountains, the vast lush, green hills, and the faces of the different ethnic groups that represents Nepal as a whole. I left my country and moved to New York to pursue a better education and the opportunities that has trailed along. America is a dream for all immigrants whether they’re undocumented or they were immigrants but have been granted a citizenship. Many people give their all to enter the U.S., but only a handful are lucky.
I’m extremely grateful that I’m able to receive a quality education that is regarded highly by nations outside of the U.S. In my student journey thus far, I’ve met some amazing friends, teachers, and professors that all have contributed to my learning experience. The learning experience doesn’t only encompass the work I’ve done in school but also outside of school, and it’s simple as reading a novel. In my early teenage years, I enjoyed reading the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan and learning about all sorts of different animals and their roles in our ecosystem to the anatomy of the human body. In these recent few years, my taste in reading has slightly shifted to dystopian novels such as Anthem by Ayn Rand, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and 1984 by George Orwell, just to mention a few. I feel like dystopian novels are accurate in interpreting the incidences in society today in their own way, and it’s such an eye opener especially in this era where technology governs our daily lives. As for reading poems, I don’t read them often, which I definitely should, but the kinds I read are Instagram poems where majority of them talks about love and heartbreaks. Pretty corny, I know, but I’m open to discovering other poems with fresh perspectives. The only sort of memoir I’ve read are the Humans Of New York posts where it features people from all over the world and serves as a platform to express their peace of mind and hardships.
Being in ENW 210, I’ve had the chance to read more and write the various forms of creative expressions (fiction, poems, and memoir). I don’t think I can recall writing a fiction piece or a memoir. I never really had or have much background experience with fiction, poem, and memoir, it was in this class that I became very familiar with such relatable and engaging works coming from diverse and renowned authors. Most of works we’ve read from each were challenging but also served as a “lesson learned” from what the authors wanted to convey. I took the parts I understood and the discussions we held in class and tried to incorporate it in my learning experience that affected writing my own fiction, poem, and memoir. I would describe the writing process to be intimate because it stems from your creative knowledge and how you express that. Reading and writing the different styles of creative expression has strengthen myself as a writer and that’s exactly what my intention was for this class. English is something I’ve struggled with in terms of critical thinking and analyzing texts, but I’m glad the work I’ve done this semester acted as a guidance to that and my future writing.
