I had to write a short essay (500 words) on a culture other than our own; I researched Cuban culture. It had to talk about the different components of a culture, whether it was individualistic or collectivist, and how researching this culture benefited me and my learning. I think this essay strengthened my Global Awareness skills because I spent a long time researching a culture to do it on, and then even longer once I picked Cuba. Learning about other cultures allows you to understand them, which is a big part of Global Awareness. I’m most proud of the fact that I managed to condense everything I learned about Cuban culture into such a short essay. There was a lot of information, and it took a while to figure out what needed to be in the essay and what I could leave out. I improved my Global Awareness skills because Global Awareness is all about understanding cultures other than my own, and this assignment made me learn a lot about a single culture that wasn’t mine. The most difficult part of this assignment was picking a culture. No one could do the same culture, and people had already picked a lot of my first ideas, so it took a while to come up with a culture to do. If I could start over, I would do more research ahead of time rather than trying to research and write it the day it was due. I waited until the last minute to do this assignment, which definitely had a negative impact on it. This relates to what I’ve learned in the past because I’ve done assignments on Cuba before, but those all focused on its political situation, not its culture. This assignment allowed me to use some of what I’d learned in the past, but focusing on a different aspect of it. I can apply this to future learning because now I know a lot about a specific culture, which could come in handy if I ever have to do another assignment on Cuba.