When asking this question to myself, it feels also impossible to answer, as I feel like I have learned so much. When I signed up for this class I hate to say that it was for my requirements, but it was. I will say it also sounded intriguing, although I did not quite know what I was getting myself into. I did not know that this class was going to include mermaids and their rich historical folklore, but it has made this class my favorite that I have taken all year. One of the biggest and most important things I believe I will take away from this class is to never believe that one history is everyones history. I would like to say this is something I have always believed, but this class made it a lot more prominent to me and I have taken a new understanding and appreciation for this. Not only this, but also how important the Ocean is. I have always believed this and hadn’t a great appreciation for its beauty. but now I feel like this has increased drastically. 80 percent of the Ocean is unexplored, a number and statistic that baffles me. A space that vast has more history than we could ever imagine, and this class has helped me imagine that. I learned about the folklore of mermaids from all over the world, how society has so wrongly misconstrued their history and diversity, and also how they are creatures for the Ocean not human entertainment or romanization. I believe that learning about mermaids has not only helped me understand nature, but also how the human narrative is so false and ignorant. Not only all of this, but I also feel that I have improved my critical thinking skills and writing. During the process of our revisions and discovery/close reading papers, I had a hard time trying to discover a solid thesis. I have always seen myself as a decent and sometimes strong writer, but for some reason I kept finding myself stuck. I have been used to already created thesis’s and already ready prompts, that are ready for me to answer. I have never really created my own. This new skill is going to help me further with my English lit classes and for my major, and I am very grateful that our professor and this class helped me learn this. Overall, this class taught me a lot of new things, skills, and ideas to ponder that I have never thought about before. I am more interested in the history of the ocean than I had been before, I have a newfound respect for it, and I also am just more intrigued in this topic of Ocean history versus terrestrial. Thank you so much for making this class a space for us to share our ideas and build upon others, always feeling comfortable to share ideas.