At first, I thought it was really hard to make a collage. And my expectations weren’t wrong, it was really difficult and time- consuming to find the words I wanted. However, I heard Graham Rawle saying “Instead of trying to find one word, set a broad subject and try finding a word related to it.” and that approach helped me a lot when making my collage. Instead of using common expressions like “I like dark, rainy weather” I was able to write vivid expressions like “The view, dark and rainy, it comforted me-the bloody brilliance is very chilling.”. This experience also reminded me of what I heard during Graham Rawle’s speech, he said collage was very time-consuming and difficult, but it gives an opportunity to the writer to use more vivid and vibrant expressions. During the presentation, I was very impressed by Graham Rawle’s perseverance while making the book, ‘Woman’s World’. And it surprised me, even more, when he said he was going to make the movie based on the book like a collage. This approach sounded very fresh and creative to me, and his willingness to express his ideas through ways that were never attempted was inspiring. I also heard that he did multiple retellings of stories, and it gave me a thought that if a retelling was done through collage, common expressions used in the original version can be retold in more creative and fresh expressions.

A speaker talked about tragedies she experienced throughout her life. She had to see her uncles die because of cancer since she was in college, which was tragic to hear because it must be tough to accept the deaths of such close people. She herself also was diagnosed with cancer, but I was glad to hear that her surgery finished without any major problems. She also had to experience multiple miscarriages and also had to hear her that child in her belly had down syndrome and multiple problems. Eventually, the child turned out to be healthy but it was depressing to imagine how much mental and physical pain she had to go through. The part that struck me the most was when she told that her husband helped the most when she was going through hard times. She said that when she was trembling, her husband will calm her down instantly when others couldn’t. It taught me this certain connection that love seems to create.

One of the students in our school shared her story of suffering from ulcerative colitis. It was depressing to hear the time when she had to go through medicine that she was not used to, a totally new diet, and just an overall new life. It also taught me that anyone that is close to us can be suffering from a serious illness as well(she also said that she didn’t tell her friends, afraid of them treating her differently). The part when she said she regretted about not telling her parents about the illness struck me as well because she could have gotten better so much earlier if she did.

One of the speakers talked about his experiences as a criminal psychologist. When he described he was very unsuccessful in high school and finally found what he wanted to do in university(which was a result of a random recommendation from a professor) was interesting because it makes me think that very important things in life can approach in such random ways. The part where he said he got driven crazy by the fact that someone that looked so similar to him, in fact, was a pedophile struck me as well because it taught me that people who seem friendly and normal can actually be one of the evilest people in the world.

One of the speakers talked about 61 Nepali kids who got their full scholarships revoked. 61 students, who were initially accepted to an American university with a full scholarship, got revoked because the university all ready accepted too many students. As a result, the Education USA agency in Kathmandu got flooded with the 61 students. It was shocking to hear 61 Nepali kids, filled with the hope of getting a better education, getting their scholarships revoked because of bad management of the school. People along with the speaker helped out the unfortunate students, and eventually sent most of the students to other universities in USA, Canada, South Korea, etc.. It was also tragic to hear about one student, who got accepted to an American university but had to give up because his Visa got rejected 3 times. It was overall a tragic story to listen, but it was also good to hear that people who got unfairly revoked got help from other people. The story also showed that the American university admission system has a serious problem which makes certain international students get unfairly rejected.