My Life Reflection

I have already figured out what I want for my future. Where I am going to go and how I am going to get there. I see my life unfolding to were I am working in video production. I will be getting to work in some pretty cool places with an annual income of $40,000. (salary.com) I will be finished paying off student loans because even with no scholarships the loans wont take me ten years to pay of $19,792. (hutchcc.org) I

As I finish my first semester of college in Chico, I now realize how much I have changed over the past three to four months. Coming here was a huge adjustment, but the town, people, and classes I have taken are amazing. The classes I took this semester, especially the U-Course, had a very big impact on who I am as a person since I got to college. The class required me to reflect upon myself, making me realize how much I was changing throughout the course. I can now interpret how much I have learned about one’s self identity, sustainability, and the four general education student learning outcomes.

I'm so glad I've been able to participate in a philosophy class like this. Art of the Living Ethically has made me have many thoughts and ideas about what and how I do things. I never really even thought out my core values or what I fully wanted to do with my life until this course. After sitting around thinking, brainstorming, free writing, and asking others for advice my top value is family and what I choose to stand up for is racism. With values and what you stand up for can be a sensitive and serious subject it was hard to find a poem that elaborates on both topics so I have two separate poems that spoke to me. The first is “A Tribute To Family” by Michelle A Morgan and the other is called “Racism is Around Me Everywhere ” by Francis Duggan.

Dobson’s (2004) book relates to my own personal life episode of receiving spankings during my childhood. The personal life episode of receiving a spanking that comes to mind is when I was about six years old. It was a Saturday evening and my mom, brother, sister, and I were coming home from spending the day at my grandmother’s house. My mother stopped in Florence, SC at the Burger King to get all of us something to eat on the way home. I remember my mother asking each of us what we wanted to eat. I remember my brother and sister saying that they wanted a cheeseburger and fries, while my response was I want a hamburger with cheese. My mother went to the drive thru and placed the order of four cheeseburger and four fries. I remember yelling at the top of my lungs that I do not eat cheeseburgers; I only eat hamburger with cheese. My mother told me to stop yelling and tried to explain to me that a cheeseburger was the same thing as a hamburger with cheese. I proceeded to yell some more and telling her that I was not going to eat the cheeseburger, because that was not what I wanted and that she should of order what I wanted. When my mother gave me my food I took it and throw the burger down on the floorboard of the car and told her to order me what I wanted and that she could eat this cheeseburger because I was not eating it. My mother told me to pick up the burger and that I was going to eat it and that if I did not stop acting the way I was then I was going to get a spanking.

There is a myth that in seven years, your body completely replaces itself. The idea is that in that time, all of your cells will have regenerated themselves, so the parts that make up your body are entirely different. If this is true, this raises the question: are you the same person you were seven years ago? Unfortunately, this myth has been debunked. There are some parts of your body that stay the same throughout your entire life, like your tooth enamel and your retinas. Nevertheless, the original question still stands, and lately, I have been thinking about how I’ve changed as a person.

When reflecting on our lives it is clear to see how different circumstances have molded us into the person that we are today. While we may not understand at the time why this event may happen to us, it is a part of our growth. Dealing with pain that wants to consume everything that makes us unique, we have to find the strength from within to deal with it. Taking a sociology class helps an individual to have a better understanding of what they have been through and why it might have happen to them. Social class, race and gender play a part in the experiences that someone has to deal with throughout their life. In this paper, I am going to reflect on how these three different status have affected my growth and understanding as a person.

Going through the motions of life has always been something I am best at. As a twelve-year-old, sports were what my life revolved around. I would go to softball practice, put in blood, sweat, and tears for my team, and I would listen to my coach’s every word. Eventually, this became a habit- at least before I tore my ACL. However, once I tore my ACL, I had to sit out of all physical activity for a year. I had a negative attitude about changing the habit I loved to follow. Once this happened, I became shaky and sick to my stomach. I clinched my fists so hard that my fingernails cut my palms when the doctor said, “This means surgery, and you know what that means? No softball for a whole year” as if he found pleasure in crushing my dreams. I pitched a fit that I had to be in a wheelchair for a week and on crutches for four more weeks. At the end of the season, my teammates, my teammates parents, and my coaches all hugged me and told me that I was “so strong and such a positive and vibrant team player.” Looking back now, sitting out of softball for a year grew my appreciation for my teammates. I learned to approach every situation, good or bad, with an unprejudiced and positive mindset because a willingness to allow something to alter me might allow drastic revision in my life; now, I can utilize what I learned from the situation to instruct someone else.

Being seven, perspective on life is commonly very optimistic, however when I was seven that all came crashing down in just one day. 08 August 2008 my father was murdered while my family and I were at the house with him. The death of my father changed my perspective greatly, it showed me what community really means, and impacted my school life throughout my elementary, middle, and high school career.

Over the course of this semester me and our group success have participated in a variety of activities coordinated by the Counselor Mrs. Warren which touch on topics oriented around college, careers, and ourselves as people. These activities taught us life skills that we can apply in our life. For example, some of the activities included learning to do or determine our SMART goals, long term goals, skills/strengths, values and making decisions based on them, pathways to our potential career/education. Therefore, what we learned as a group with Mrs. Warren was how to apply those life skills taught in everyday life, How we would reach point A to point B, and learn more about ourselves as people.

Learning is a universal aspect of everyday life; a fundamental development that changes through an individual’s life span. However, every individual learns in different ways throughout their life. I believed learning was standardized, and if someone was not learning at the same pace, they were not trying hard enough or they had some sort of learning disability. I have gone through my life thinking I just did not learn fast enough and/or perhaps I had a learning disability. With that in mind, it is something that impeded me from growing intellectually for many, many years, and is still omnipresent. As I read through my results from the Solomon-Felder Index of Learning Styles questionnaire, I reflected to my early school years and how useful this information would have been.

One's dream and aspirations to supersede in life must be stronger and greater than limitations set forth by others. The experience that were bestowed to me during my short life has elevated me to the woman I am today. Please walk with me as I give you the opportunity to see the world from my eyes:

In my current position I have the unique opportunity to visit all kinds of classes at a variety of times throughout the day and during these visits I have seen the whole spectrum of lessons being taught. One of the most amazing things I have learned is that usually within minutes of entering a classroom; I can instantly tell how a lesson is going for a teacher. If the students are engaged and actively learning or are involved in an activity, it becomes very evident through their facial expressions to me, that the lesson is going well and learning is taking place. On the other hand, if when I enter the room the students give me that look of “please help us”, I can tell things aren’t going well and something is amiss in the lesson. When I see this my curiosity usually gets the best of me and if I see these students later in the day or have a moment during the time I am in the classroom I try to talk to them to find out what was going on. It is amazing to me how there is usually a common thread and that is that the students have no idea what is going on or have no clue as to the purpose of the lesson.

When I started to imagine myself in before starting this class, currently, and in five years as a symbol I had a few different ideas. I first thought more metaphorically, but then decided that it was clearer if I drew myself in actual life situations. In all three drawings, I included a door. This door separates the counseling room from the outside. In the first drawing, I am about to enter my first session with my client. I have my fingers in my mouth, which is a reoccurring nerves tick. I also have sweat running down my face and big eyes. Personally, I was scared to enter the session. I feared being filmed as well as messing up. I have a thought bubble above my head to represent what was going through my head. In that moment, my thoughts were jumbled. Every technique we had learned thus far in class I seemed to have forgotten. I was worrying about making a mistake and I could not think clearly. I was overwhelmed both physically and mentally.

Complete anguish filled my husband 's face as he stuck his shovel into the orange brown clay scooping the freshly dug dirt and flinging it over the plain wooden box that held his brother 's ashes. I wiped my eyes, my heart breaking for not only my husband, but his dad and older brother

As I descend the stairs from the stage, trepidation saturates my body. During my performance, I retained my focus on Angelo 's table to observe Patsy dancing in her seat, while Angelo sat back with his arm stretched along the back of the sofa, wearing a smile on his lips as he watched me. But John, his angry glare remained on his bottle of beer most of the time. When he did glance my way, the fury that spewed forth from his penetrating glare was terrifying.