It was the first day of kindergarten and I remember walking into the classroom feeling like an alien who had disembarked from a spaceship. My mom introduced me in her broken English to the teacher. “Hi everyone, this is Anna Ramashkevich,” the teacher exclaimed. The class erupted into laughter. “Richmanivich, Ramach…” she stuttered, trying to correct herself before accepting defeat and sending me utterly humiliated with my alien-green head and antennas to the ground into a crowd of mocking kindergarteners. In actuality, the spaceship was just an airplane; the foreign planet was Belarus and I wasn’t really a slimy, green alien. But that does not mean I did not feel like one. From the first day, I stood out like a sore thumb. I was the immigrant girl. At the time, I was sure the mocking kindergartners would be my greatest …show more content…
While I thrived on this new planet, my single mother fell victim to her inner anxieties and I was inevitably forced to take on her parental role. That job meant anything from translating at the grocery store to helping her fill out job applications followed by comforting her after being fired. Trying to juggle my mom’s problems and my own at twelve years old was brutal; I couldn’t help but silently resent my friends and their nuclear, untroubled American families. My childhood as an immigrant with a single mom has been my greatest challenge. Trying to learn acceptance has been my greatest challenge. And to be honest, I am still battling. I will continue to battle. I will never be the girl with the typical American family, but I think that’s for the best. I see now that had everything been easy, I may not have found the same motivation that allowed me to excel academically, nor would I have set my sights on a college education. Most importantly, without my struggles, I would not have learned to love the quirky girl who speaks English at school, Russian at home and eats pizza with a side of Kasha for
As my high school years were coming to an end, all anyone could talk about was college. Where they were going, what state they would be a resident in, and what they would major in, what campus they would be visiting that weekend. I, however, thought I had it all under control. I thought that when my Senior year came by it would all fall in to place. That's crazy, right? The shows that I grew up watching did not have to deal with this. That is when expectation went out the window and reality kicked me in the butt. I had five months left to start applying to colleges and looking in to different campuses that offered my dental hygiene program. Lucky for me, my community college had a two year program.
I find myself reading this short paragraph over and over(above). My topic sentence makes me happy and proud. Going back to school was the best thing I have done. I chose to talk about going back to school to the “future employer” because it shows I am motivated as well as dedicated. This class has brought a lot to my attention. The mannerism that is expected in the “business world” is to speak and write well. It is extremely important to know how to write (type) a meaning full and proper paper whether it is for school or work. I have noticed a great impact in my vocabulary and writing skills. My boss told me on Monday he is impressed with the new docs I typed up for our new clients (with no help from him). I was not excited about this class
In this class, I have learned many new skills to improve my writing, and I have also learned new grammar rules. In regards to my writing, I have learned the importance of freewriting when beginning to write a paper. Additionally, I now know to allow ample time for revising and editing because I can look at my work critically for mistakes and make necessary changes. Furthermore, I have learned about grammar rules such as pronoun-antecedent agreement. This rule is something that I know subconsciously, but being made aware of it has allowed me to find mistakes I make more often.
Throughout the ages, women have lived in what can be considered “a man’s world.” Salary gaps, social stigmas, and hypocritical expectations are simply a few of the many challenges that women face even today. In the two articles provided, the authors address distinct differences they feel contribute to the hurdles they face. In Judy Brady’s essay “I Want a Wife,” the writer focuses on the unrealistic expectations and requirements of a housewife in the early 1970’s. In contrast, Anna Quindlen speaks, not of man’s set standards, but of the natural differences in thinking between men and women in her article “Between the Sexes.” Both essays concentrate on the challenges these women are presented within their modern day; however, they are presented from different angles.
It was hard to adapt to the system. I was, and still am an outcast. The language was the hardest thing to learn as a child. It was hard because as a little girl I couldn’t ask my parents, the only people I trusted, for help. They were clueless about the language also. Because of the great language barrier, my full potential wasn’t shown and I was held back. At the same time, my parent’s matrimony wasn’t going so well and they separated. Soon after the separation, my older sister and I moved with our mom away from the west coast. It was just us now. Times were rough. My mom was always working. Her three jobs didn’t permit her to bond much with us. Back in that time I didn’t understand the circumstances, but today I am extremely grateful for her and her determination to never give up and her only reason was me and my sister. Moving to away from the west coast benefitted me a lot. There were less hispanics so I had no option but to learn English. After I mastered English, it would bring me great pleasure to see my name in the honorary roll. I loved the look my mom gave me when I received recognitions from my schools. It was a look of proudness. Our different skin color, language, and culture were motives enough for American people to make us outcasts. I would get so angry when kids would make racist comments about me and my country. I have learnt that some people aren’t educated to know that people are people no matter the culture, the differences. They weren’t taught to respect. I’m forgiving to those who made me feel less because of my
Physics has been both a challenging and deeply beneficial course. The reason this course has been difficult for me isn’t because it is an AP class. It also isn’t because I am only a sophomore, my age has no real impact in this instance. This class has been difficult for me because it presented several ideas in ways I had never challenged before. It has truly made me question my way of thinking and has opened up my eyes to the world around me. Some of the things I’ve learned in class I’ve already observed before but never knew why. Other things I’ve been blind to and finding out the truth gives me a whole new perspective. I have had to retrain my brain out of its misconception of reality. Learning something entirely new is easy. The real challenge occurs when you have to forget what you thought you knew and replace it with something entirely different.
I believe I have grown a lot since the beginning of this course. My writing was severely lacking grammar and punctuation. I didn’t use any punctuation other than periods and very few commas spersed throughout my papers. My papers still need help in that area, but I have improved. I now know where they need to go and when it’s appropriate to use them. My papers aren’t exactly flawless but they are better than before. I would write how I speak at times and I knew it wasn’t right, but I would still do it because it allowed my papers to flow better in my mind. I read my papers out loud to help avoid my problem with writing how I speak. I’ve learned my writing style in this course, or lack thereof. I found a program that would benefit me now and
Thank you for your helping with my case. I am so glad that I don’t need to add another reading and writing class in this semester.
On the first day of class, having forgotten how to write over the blazing summer, I had high hopes I would gain some writing skill. Over the course of the last 10 weeks I learned not only that I am an extreme procrastinator, but that I had a lot to learn in the writing world. I learned many things about writing, including grammar, organization, and expression. Through late nights studying and practice in class, I can proudly say I'm a better writer than I was before.
I can still remember my heart pounding out of my chest. It was my first time in Writing 1, and my nerves were mostly the result of a friend’s advice. Winter quarter, my friend told me about her struggles in her writing class and she advised me not to take Professor Bernstein for Writing because as she said “he is really tough and a very hard grader.” However, I had no other option but to take writing with Professor Bernstein because all the other writing 1 classes conflicted with my schedule. Nevertheless, nine weeks have past since I first stepped foot in Writing 1, and I can certainly say that I have learned more than I ever expected. Yes, it is true, this class has been a challenge like no other, especially for me, being that English is
I've loved writing since I was a young child, especially creative writing. It allows me to express myself, and it seems almost magical to be able to create things simply by writing down a few symbols and twenty-six letters in various ways. I've written many fictional stories of various genres over the years. Unfortunately, while I have done a lot of creative writing, I haven't done as much academic writing. I would like this class to help me become the kind of student who earns A's on her papers by assisting me in becoming more efficient in the overall writing process.
I have truly enjoyed writing for most of my life and after this class I will continue to enjoy writing hopefully with more skill. I have always viewed myself as a fairly strong writer and this class has reaffirmed that for me, but it has also shown weaknesses in my writing. As an introduction level class this has been one of my favorites; at some point I will take a higher level, even though it is not required for my major. Even though this class is almost over I am continuing to learn. I also love that this class will help me with literally ever other class in my college career. I am not a particularly strong reader, but as my writing skills improve so do the reading skills. While in this class I have learned a lot about everything from what I can improve, to subjects that interest me, and constructing a successful paper.
1. The 2nd case study made me reflect on my first head coaching job in football. I was hired by a school in south Texas with the help of a friend I coached with in Oklahoma. He had moved back to his hometown and started teaching and coaching at his high school. He contacted me about the opening and two months later I was hired. I hired him to be one of my assistants and even made sure that he was paid well as a thank you. I was very disappointed with the way he coached that year. I had already make arrangements to move him to a non-coaching position for the next season. I realize I never spoke with him about my expectations or made him aware of how I felt during the season. I identity with Dr. Skinner is some regards. I was caught up in the other aspects of teaching, coaching, and AD duties, I neglected to take care of that issue. I understand that it is OK to hire a trusted colleague or friend but the expectations of them should not be any different of anyone else.
In life do we see that everyone else is wrong or do we not want to admit that we are wrong? In my eyes I don't want to admit that I am wrong because I don't want to seem stupid. I ran into a situation last night during soccer practice that I want to understand where the other people are coming from. In this situation people are saying that a group of us Seniors on the soccer team are favorites and in my eyes I don't see that at all.
English 101 was a challenging course. A constant stream of reading and writing lead to a demanding yet rewarding semester. The variety of texts read and written about provided a plethora of life lessons and demonstrations of values. Now at the end of the course I find myself a better student and writer. The texts themselves were not influential to my growth as a critical reader or college student. Rather, it was my own analysis of the texts that allowed me to consider other perspectives on technology use in the classroom and the importance of revision when it comes to school work.