Freshman Winter English Project

Over the last two weeks, my English class accomplished a spectacular final project as a group. Inspired by the Annaresti spirit of collectivity from our class reading The Dispossessed by Le Guin, I pointed out that our final project could theoretically be completed as a whole class to Ms. Engel and my classmates April and Kian in a discussion after class.¹ However, the idea was well-received, and we spent the next hour theorizing the feasibility of such an ambitious idea. Our final project was to write a creative story of an ambiguous utopia with a scene of arrival, elements of speculative fiction that are found throughout The Dispossessed. The first step was perhaps the hardest; we needed to get all eleven of our classmates to opt into this final project. Fortunately, everyone was immediately willing to participate, at least in part because they trust April’s management capabilities. Their dedication made this project possible, for which I will always be grateful. Coordinating such a large group was not easy, and it was difficult to compromise our own ideas throughout the project to fit into a collectively devised plot. In the project, my main responsibility was to coordinate, facilitate, and contribute to the editing and revising processes after an initial draft of the story has been written. Admittedly, we had an open zoom room that lasted for a full 18 hours on our last day in order to complete the revisions, which was challenging for many of us because we also had other final assignments due.²

But ultimately the efforts were worthwhile. We had the opportunity to read our story (which took 45 minutes to read) during our last class. And, of course, this was truly an incredible experience from which we all learned collectively and grew individually. My biggest takeaway from this project is what I would call the “Art of Compromise,” or making the necessary personal compromises for the interest of the group. These are usually small compromises like meeting at an inconvenient time (perhaps requiring rescheduling) or giving up an idea because it does not fit with everyone else’s. But if everyone makes the necessary compromises, the project will progress smoothly and reach its goal. Doing this project may have also given me additional insight into Annaresti and Odonian values of collectivity in practice in The Dispossessed. Finally, I would like to extend my appreciation to April, Kian, and Layelle for their contributions in the management of the project. And, last but not least, to Ms. Engel’s support and encouragement throughout the project, in dedication for whom this blog post was painfully written in lieu of the word interesting intriguing.³

1. Le Guin Ursula K., The Dispossessed (New York, NY: Harper Voyager, 2011). ↩

2. Picture credits to Caroline Shen. ↩

3. Note: Phillips Academy’s grade levels are named Junior, Lower, Upper, and Senior for grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 respectively. However, I will stick to Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior for consistency. Whenever the term “Junior” is mentioned, it refers to the eleventh grade (or equivalently, the second year of high school or college). ↩