Reflections

The creation of the book has been inspiring and influential in the level of knowledge that has been achieved. We have come together as a class to produce an inspiring and meaningful text to help students and others navigate the complexities of failure and setbacks that are inevitable in life.

The production of the book included students dividing themselves into specific teams that targeted certain procedures that needed to be done for the most efficient and productive method of publishing. I am on the production team, and our goal is to be the leaders in the production process, and to facilitate the publishing process. This role has been quite effective in teaching me leadership skills and obtaining knowledge in how to complete a big project in a set amount of time.

The process of creating this book was very structured and it became a very fun, and insightful project to work on because of that. I personally contributed by writing two chapters in the book itself, as well as designing and finalizing the design for the book cover. Because I was the only one with the software to create the cover from scratch, it was a little tough having to make ideations and then bring it to class to convene with my fellow cover designers. Overall the book itself was a great idea and I was onboard from the start. We were tasked with writing a small section of our final chapter each week, so that we could culminate all the sections together at the end to create the finished product. This process made it easy and fun.

Writing this book has taught me a lot of things, one of them being failure. I never knew so much about a subject that I assumed to be minor. Writing this book taught me to accept failure and learn from it so that way I could succeed. Not only did it teach me about this course but it taught me about leadership, cooperation, and compromise. These were all skills I thought I already possessed, but by taking this course and writing this book I found out that I was really doing the bare minimum in group projects. I always sat back, had others assign me the work, and I’d finish it. Last quarter I got to be the one assigning roles, something I never thought I'd have the skillset for.

This book has been an exciting journey especially seeing how far it has come together in the past three quarters. I never thought I’d be writing a book, especially grammar checking it. I always excelled when it came to English classes yet I always felt that my writing wasn’t good enough. With all the time and effort I spent on my chapters, I can finally say I am proud of some of the writing I did.

Writing my own book has been a small goal of mine and being able to contribute to at least two chapters into this book for my FRINQ has served as a small stepping stone into the realities of book writing and publishing as well as taught me a lesson in meeting deadlines and how much of myself I want to put into it. It has been hard getting motivated to write my parts, I thought that since writing is a small passion of mine, writing for this class would come easily. However, I should’ve known that, most like everyone, I went through procrastination periods and lacked motivation at times. Even with those small setbacks, I enjoyed the topics that I chose to write about as they’re things I still struggle with to this day, and might help someone else going through the same thing. If I were to do this again, I would put more time and effort into the planning period. Planning things such as books has been a struggle for me, I tend to just write blindly, so giving myself a structure and guide on how I wanted my chapter to look would’ve been really helpful. Now, as this book is at its endpoint, meaning it’s getting ready to get published, being in the book production team has helped me see more into what book production looks like for a small team. There are a lot of small details that people purchasing the book may not see, but the team working behind it has to go through every single one of those small details.

Writing my two chapters was a really fun project. It allowed me to learn new things, not just the topics I was writing about, but also how to structure a chapter. The first chapter was where I learned a lot about how to write a book and find my own style that I wanted to use. Aside from making the actual chapter I was part of the publishing team, where I had to find the guidelines to print the book in and prepare it for distribution. That was also a cool experience because I learned the dimensioning of books in general and guidelines to general policies. Apart from the writing and publishing I’m also part of the website team which has been really fun to be a part of. It allows for a lot of creativity and allows me to put what I envision the book to be in a digital space for others to see, appreciate, and best of all learn. Overall it was a nice experience where i learned how to work in a team in a professional setting and was able to actually write something I’m proud of.

My first thought of our class making a book I didn't know what to expect. I wasn't sure how I would contribute to something like this, let alone contribute to making a book. Working through fall and winter term, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would academically. I found some joy in contributing, such as making possible book covers, we could have chosen as a class. I really enjoyed that part because I discovered something I didn't think was possible for me to do, making book covers and symbols just from a website I didn't know about until this class. I also enjoy the fact that we had a choice to write about pretty much anything we wanted to write about, to give advice to future college students who could possibly have the same struggles as I did.

This term at PSU, my class engaged in a unique project: creating a book for incoming students, a process that involved both individual contributions and collaborative teamwork. Initially, we each wrote individual book chapters section by section. This phase particularly impacted me, a returning student after a seven-year hiatus since high school. I found myself needing to re-establish the instincts and habits crucial for academic success, and this initial individual work proved invaluable in developing those essential tools.

Our second term shifted towards greater collaboration. We worked together to produce podcasts and refine the book, while also pursuing individual challenges designed to stretch us in different ways. These individual options included facilitating discussions, developing presentations, or seeking advice specifically related to navigating failure. This provided enriching opportunities to explore topics that might otherwise have remained unaddressed.

Now, in our final term, we are working in teams to bring the book to completion. My team is specifically responsible for developing a website to promote and inform others about our book. I am incredibly grateful that I chose this class, as it has significantly contributed to my growth both as a student and as an individual.

Writing my chapters for the book really made me more aware of my strengths and weaknesses surrounding writing. I think I have become a better writer while working on this project, as well as getting familiar with finding and citing sources. On the publishing side of the project I have learned a lot of new things about formatting for print and the standards for how a book document should be set up. Overall I have become more comfortable using Google Docs and Word to write and edit documents, and I understand more of the settings that I wouldn’t usually have to work with on more typical projects and writing assignments.

Working with a team for a long period of time as well has been a learning experience. It has been beneficial to go through the trial and error process with a team and learn how to delegate tasks, how much time I should be dedicating to my responsibilities on a team, and in general how to manage the unique challenges that come with working with a group.

I had a hard time with creating book chapters because it wasn’t something that I had dedicated much time into. The first term was all about writing blogs for the foundation of the first chapter. I spent most of my time collecting and reading sources because I was so unsure how to incorporate them into my writing. As the weeks went by I was unsure if the sources were solid enough for the topic I was covering which was based on tips in succeeding in math. I didn’t feel that I adequately incorporated good college advice that paralleled my source collection.

The second term I took a writing and composition course and I learned a lot of things there. Mainly on how to approach research papers and read more efficiently. That helped me narrow down my approach for the next chapter. In truth I got a lot of intrinsic motivation from my other classes. It was mostly because I found the other classes to be intriguing and helpful during my term. Besides, writing a book does take some time.

Time management was and still is the bane of my existence. I have a part time job and still feel like I am stretching myself thin. When I got my grades last term I was pleasantly surprised I got an A. I didn’t really do well in the Fall term because I didn’t necessarily follow along on exercises and didn’t always deliver on time. Last term I feared I didn’t deliver despite trying my best to fulfill the expectations in the classroom.

I've had experience with writing in high school and the past year of college, but I've never had a continuous writing project, especially one that was so rewarding. During my extensive research, revising, and editing, I learned so much about writing and about what I can do to be successful in college. I had an entire year of college before taking this class; I struggled a lot with keeping myself accountable and responsible when it came to the workload, and I didnt know all of the resources available to me at PSU. I learned methods for studying, battling procrastination, and skills that I can use as my school career progresses and beyond PSU. It started as something that I was dreading. Hearing on the first day of class that we had a plan to write a whole book by the end of the school year wasn't something that I expected or that I was excited about. As I began the writing process, I was able to break down specific struggles that I faced in the past year but hadn't quite faced head-on. Learning more about not only writing but why most of us struggle with procrastination and what we can do to help our bodies get through all of the stress, mental and physical, that comes with college. By the end of it all, I believe that reading our book or doing research on your own will make this new part of our life easier and help you recognize all of the resources within arms reach.

Throughout this class, I have been more open-minded to failure and how to accept and recover from it. It's also shown me how certain things impact my performance on specific topics.

My book chapter has given me constant reminders on why I shouldn't give up. It goes over historical topics revolving around failure and the power of education. I enjoy reading my chapter as a reminder to myself that I have this privilege to learn, and honestly kind of guilt-trips me into not giving up. It also gives new readers a different perspective into learning and self-accountability. I think it can give a helpful nudge to incoming freshmen who may be feeling the burnout of school that I also have been a part of. I also think it's important for incoming freshmen to have access to older classmates' thoughts and advice because starting college is scary for many reasons. I truly wish that there had been a guide to look over when I first got here.

Throughout this process of writing these book chapters, I’ve had ample amount of time to really analyze my thinking process around failure as a whole and how failure shows up in my life. Writing the chapter gave me a new perspective on how integral failure is to growing and becoming resilient, not only in academics but in everyday life. Failure, to me, has a new meaning and is a motivator for success and doing better next time. Outside of this class, I have also seen improvement in my thinking. I am now finding myself focusing on effort rather than results. In the past, I had tied my worth to my achievement or always discredited myself for reaching goals, so the writing of these book chapters has also been very beneficial to my mental health.

As a co-author of this book, I just want to express my gratitude for this given opportunity of writing a book on failure. This has been such a unique and life-changing experience as a first-year student. The definition of “failure” to me changed drastically while writing this book, and absorbing all the advice from it! If this book was made before I joined college, I would totally have taken advantage of it! The advice each author has put into it has included their own critical thinking and personal stories, which I think has been a mutually vulnerable and valuable experience for all. For me personally, my chapter, "How To Overcome and Prevent Obstacles while working at a Preschool," has made me consider my role as a preschool teacher more seriously, and my heart for children has grown tremendously since writing it. And of course I cannot forget to mention Julia Hollenbach, my lifetime best friend, with whom I co-wrote the chapter “Commuting Through Portland.” I enjoyed collaborating with her and getting the opportunity to bring our thoughts and concerns about commuting into the book! I hope all who read this book take the time to understand what being a student at Portland State is all about!

Writing this book as a class has been a journey. The time, effort, and collaboration we all put into crafting it made the process both exciting and challenging, and I feel honored to have been part of it. I really enjoyed writing my personal chapter, which is basically dorming 101. I provide tips for moving and getting organized, study/time management advice, self-care strategies, and much more. My second chapter, co-written with my best friend Holly Townsend, was dedicated to sharing information about Portland's public transport system, and the 'do's and don'ts’ for new users navigating it for the first time. For both of my chapters I wanted to give more practical and honest advice and refrain from telling the audience what they want to hear.  This is something that I would have loved to read before coming into my freshman year so that I could be better prepared. I hope from writing this book we as a class can help upcoming college students feel more comfortable and well prepared with advice that can help them all throughout their college experience!

Writing my book chapter was fairly easy for me because I chose a topic that I was knowledgeable on. My topic is largely common sense, I was always taught that when speaking to someone in an authoritative position like a professor, you should always speak to them with some sense or level of respect. There are a lot of resources in and out of the institution that discuss how you should behave in and out of the classroom and with your professors. So, researching this topic was rewarding for me because, in a way, it solidified my views on this topic as well. Being able to use those resources and create somewhat of a step-by-step guide was enjoyable for me. While putting the book together, I joined the formatting group and was able to help format all the chapters, and I enjoyed being able to help the look of the book chapters come together.

When I first heard that we would be writing a book in my FRINQ class, I was super excited! I figured it would be way more enjoyable than dealing with quizzes and exams. However, once I dove into writing my chapter, I quickly realized it’s not as easy as it sounds (serious shoutout to authors out there!). There’s a ton of writing, followed by endless editing and re-editing—there always seems to be something to tweak or improve. But honestly, it feels so rewarding to create something that can help future students, using our experiences to guide them through the challenges we face.

In the second quarter, I got involved with the formatting team and even took on the role of editor-in-chief. That’s when I began to appreciate all the hard work that goes into editing and formatting alongside writing. There are so many little details to keep an eye on, like fonts and margins, and ensuring everything looks consistent throughout the book. Fast forward to the third quarter, and now I’m on the production team. After all the hard work we put in during the second quarter, we finally have a version of the book we can review and make final changes to. There’s still a lot to do, but seeing how far we’ve come is exciting.

Being an author, helping with formatting, and now contributing to production has been a whirlwind of work, but honestly, it’s been such a blast! This whole project has helped me grow not just as a student but also as a team player and a writer. Writing, formatting, and contributing to the book’s production has been an extraordinary experience.