You are asked to write a five-page paper at the end of your Discovery project. Here are a few reasons why:

• Writing is a way to process experiences and assimilate unfamiliar ideas. Putting pen to paper helps us to think through our experiences and to understand them in a familiar context.
  
  
• By writing about our experiences, we review them and the ideas and images become engraved into our minds.
  
  
• In the course of writing and re-thinking our experiences, we often “see” or “hear” things which we didn’t the first time around, much like seeing a movie for the second time. You may see a certain “theme” or consistent thought running through what people have said to you throughout the day. Recognizing this theme may help you to get a sense of the scope of what people are sharing with you.

To get the most out of your Discovery experience, think about the following questions as you write:

• What (specifically) did people say to you? What thoughts and/or feelings did those words spark within you?
  
  
• What did you observe? What were your reactions? What would you have done if you were “in charge” in that situation?
  
  
• What did you do? How do you feel about the role you played?
  
  
• What parts of the day were difficult for you? What were the most pleasant aspects? Why?
  
  
• Did this apprenticeship turn out to be what you expected? If no, what could you have done to make the reality match the expectation?
  
  
• What have you learned from this experience?
  
  
• Do you feel like Discovery was worthwhile for you?

You may wish to take some daily notes about your experiences that you can refer to when writing your paper.