Reflection 1

This is an extremely late reflection post for the end of the term and I wholeheartedly apologize. It is not due to the class itself but simply my poor management skills when it came to this semester in general. This reflection is going to be more so on the class in general and how it changed my perspective on my every day experiences.

As a whole, this class was exceptional, especially when it came to creating a new way for me to analyze things I never thought about in the first place. The class put into perspective, as many economics classes do, that the every day interactions we have with our environment have a much greater effect than what was previously believed. One topic that stuck with me most of all (it could be because it was on the exam), was the effects of human interactions with provincial parks and open access areas. I always knew people had a negative impact on our environment, but I never really understood why governments, policy makers and other people with power chose to implement certain environmental policies as I believed it was simply the easiest thing to do; in other words a lot of the policies just seemed like a way for municipalities to earn more money off of something that was originally free for anyone. Before this class, it frustrated me to see parks charging more for access, but now understanding the effects the population has on the things we touch and interact with I am able to make more of a connection with the economical side of the industry. On this point, I enjoyed the fact that this class was more theory and case study based rather than mathematical, as I believe in a more discussion based teaching and understanding style, even if I am not the one participating.

In terms of class format, the wiki posts were a smart and challenging way to make us understand the economic concepts while learning more about the issues that are playing out around us. I say challenging because at times it was more difficult to pair economic concepts with some of the news articles, especially with new and complicated concepts. This was overcome mainly due to the quantity of wiki's that we completed, as every time we finished one we had more of a grasp on what was needed to improve. One small critique on the wikis is the timing of when we had to complete the assignments, mainly due to there not being an announcement/ "to do" notification on my phone. I do understand this is more of a personal issue that can be fixed by inputting the wiki dates from the syllabus onto my phone and unfortunately this is something I noticed too late into the semester. More on the positive side, this class helped me grow and understand more on how to analyze concepts, news, and policies through multiple lenses, such as economical, environmental and also simply looking at the negative side of a positive decision and vice versa. This is a strength that I have been trying to improve on not only in my education but also through my personal life as I believe it is an important personality trait to have, where you are able to understand an idea given to you and are able to see all the possible outcomes that could come from that idea. This course did not solely focus on on lens but trained and later expected us to understand not everything can be perfect. I do think this is one of the greater strengths of the course, which again is amplified with the constant discussion between peers and the professor in a no judgement zone.

My understanding of the environment and our impact on it (both positive and negative) has grown exponentially after this class, which I know is beneficial not only for further applications in economics classes but also for my future and its impact on everything around me. Understanding that one small negative change in our environment can be permanent and that we would have to live and change our ways of life due to that change is something that will always affect my decision making in the future, and that is simply due to this class and its structure. My respect for those in the environmental industry has increased tenfold; the issues being dealt with on a daily basis all around the world is astounding and I only really captivated that because of this class. It has opened the door for me to potentially pursue a career in the environmental economics sector, something I was not expecting at the beginning of the semester.

Once again, I do apologize for my work ethic throughout the semester and especially post reading break, it was not my intention at all and regret the way I decided to tackle my work.

Thank you for a great semester.