Overall the final draft of the third project came out really well with a strong focus on the quotes used from peers, as well as the way I had interacted with them in the paper. The point of the paper was to look into similarities that were seen between a narrative from the influenza pandemic of 1918 and the coronavirus pandemic we are currently going through. One of my classmates in particular had a really strong paper with quotes about how her mental health had been changing due to the coronavirus pandemic. An example of me working with her paper is below:

“Maddy Chu talks about how her life has also taken a different turn and how leaving campus was one of the hardest things to do. She wrote, “I felt like I was trapped in my own skin. I didn’t notice it when it happened but being on campus was what I needed to discover myself. I became more confident in myself.” (Chu). For a lot of us, including Maddy, we have changed so much since arriving at college, and the fact that the opportunities we were given are almost completely gone it almost feels like we are all at a loss. Crisis has taken over the world and mental health outlets are disappearing for the people who really need it. States are coming out with numbers you can call, and counseling sessions are now being done online. I just wish there was more communication out there that these resources exist.”

I lead into her quote by introducing her and what had been happening to her. I then inserted the quote, and finished it off with my ideas off of this, as well as an in depth analysis of it. I believe this is a model example that follows what the materials given to us in class mentioned that we should be doing in our papers. The only thing that I could see wrong with it is that I could have provided a little more of my own opinion to the piece rather than going into how mental health overall has taken a decline around the world. This paper was a really stressful assignment but I believe being able to talk about the different feelings my classmates had about the pandemic overall allowed me to feel a little better about it. Looking into how one of them had feelings lesser than they had before this all began proves that there needs to be more done to help people, and the fact that we all feel the same way it is nice to have other people saying it so you don’t feel so alone.