Personal Reflection

This reflection will discuss personal diffidence and how it has influenced my academic studies, including my practice within placement settings. Gibbs reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1998) has been utilised as it illustrates a clear structure for the process of reflection. To conclude this reflection will draw together the themes which have emerged and highlight a clear action for future learning that will be used in order to enhance my future practice.

When I arrived at the agency, the room was crowded and many people were waiting for their turned to be served at one of the several tables. The person that I interviewed for this assignment was Emily Hampshire, the coordinator of one of a program called 180. Emily has been with the agency for over a year and is currently the coordinator of the agency’s newest program. This program is a gang prevention and intervention program and was created for the local at-risk youth in an effort to prevent gang related crimes and help youth “change their life around”, as Emily mentioned. This program was created in collaboration with the local Police Department and the Mount Diablo Unified School District and in

As a result of the traumatic injuries which I sustained on December 4, 2014, while working as a police officer and on duty, I am unable to perform my duties as a police officer in a safe and effective manner, without jeopardizing the safety of myself, my coworkers, as well as the public’s, which I took an oath to serve and protect.

When I first enrolled in the class, I didn’t know what was to be expected of me. I was scared the first time I logged onto the computer to see what the course entailed. Then, things changed and I was comfortable with my new lifestyle of doing work on the computer. I began by making myself a schedule with things that I wanted to accomplish each and every day. As I continued to do this and the end of the course started to become visible I started to grow more and more comfortable. I am happy with how everything has gone throughout this semester. I have learned a lot of things this year, as well as being refreshed with things that I obviously struggled with. This course developed me into a better writer; educated me on how to begin the

At the beginning of the semester, my main goal was to declare a major and this class was supposed to help me. After attending this class a few times, I was not sure it was the class for me. The syllabus included resumes and activities that did not involve declaring a major. Now that the semester is over, the activities that involved declaring a major helped me tremendously and the ones that did not still have benefited me. Even though I thought I did not need to learn more about those other topics, I learned more helpful tips on top of what I already knew. With this class only being once a week, most of the content has helped me learn about myself, future, and the work place.

This past semester I spent every Tuesday and Thursdays in my business seminar. Prior to stepping foot on campus I didn’t know what to expect from a University Seminar class. I wasn’t sure what I was going to learn, who I was going to meet, or if the professor was even going to know my name. Needless to say all of prior conjectures were proven wrong and I’m glad they were. This class was such pleasure to go to and I learned so many new things that are going to help me in my personal, educational, and professional careers.With this class I would have never learned about personality types, my Personal Strategic Plan, how to win friends and influence people, and personal testimony. All of these things, I feel, have put me at a substantial advantage to all other college students who didn’t have the blessing to be in this class.

Growing up, I was never good at writing and struggled with it. In eighth grade, we had to write a paper on our superhero and I wrote about my mom. I saw everyone wrote two or three pages while I wrote one. I felt a bit weird about that and I knew it was not a good paper. Prior to sophomore year of high school, we had to read a book called Jane Eyre. I did not like reading and read only half the book and just looked up summaries online. I had Miss Figueroa for an English teacher that year, and I was so scared and nervous because she was a difficult teacher. We discussed the book, and then we wrote a rough draft essay about it. In October, we had to take a P.O.W. Exam on this book, which had three essay topics to choose from. I remember my rough draft was the same exact topic as the one on the exam, and I thought this is going to be easy. A few weeks later we got our results back, and it required a three to pass and I got lower than that. I made mistakes on grammar, my paragraphs were not consistent, and my introduction and thesis were not being well- written. This made me so sad because I could not graduate high school without passing this exam. We had to write in-class essay on novels we read and essays at home. I remember struggling to come up with topics to write about and forming ideas. It took me so long to finish these essays, and they were never well written. I was never good with timed essay tests as I felt like I was being rushed and had no time to check my work or

Since early on in life, numerous individuals have been hearing people talk about college. Parents usually encourage their children to go to college, get a degree, get engaged on campus, be someone great in life and be important in the society. Hearing people talk about their college experience can push someone to go there and see what is there and how is that going to improve himself/herself. When actually going there, then come the experiences and the hard work and experiences come along in every aspect, such as academic, career, and personal facets of someone’s life.

For each of us, there comes a time when we can look back and pinpoint the exact day that altered the course of our life, for me, one of those days was April 13, 2010. I was 14 years old when I fell off my bike and broke my elbow. After consulting multiple orthopedics, I was told I would never regain my range of motion, but with the help of a certified hand therapist, I was able to regain full range of motion and prove the doctors wrong. Months later I had surgery to reconstruct my elbow that had not healed properly, but again I was able to regain full range of motion thanks to my therapist. While the doctors were able to fix my arm, it was the therapists who were able to give me my quality of life back. It was at this moment that I knew I wanted to be a therapist. During my freshman year of college, I began to develop an ulnar claw which eventually led me to undergo ulnar nerve transposition surgery. After spending countless hours with a certified hand therapist I knew this was what I wanted to spend my life doing. I had been going to school with plans of applying to physical therapy school, but the experience I had recovering from ulnar nerve transposition led me to alter my course of study and transfer schools. Today no one would ever know that I had something wrong with my arm or hand other than the scars which motivate me and remind me of the impact an occupational therapist had on my life, and my ultimate goal; become an occupational therapist.

My favorite high school English teacher once said, “You have to want to be a better writer. I can’t make you a better writer without at least some effort on your part guys.” The implied lesson in this quote, about writing and effort, is something I remembered throughout high school and coming into college. In English 109H, I wanted to understand how to transition my writing to a meet a college level. Through in-class peer-editing exercises and identifying and improving problems consistently identified in my writing, I was able to improve my understanding and performance in the course goals of Conventions and Critical Thinking and Composing. However, I still need work on wording changes within Reflection and Revision.

Last semester in one of my classes, I was required to write a letter between me and God. I don’t remember what the exact letter says, but I do remember telling him that I make a lot of mistakes and I struggle with issues that Christians should not be dealing with. I told God that I am not sure that I am the type of Christian that others should look to be. Although I knew the Word, I prayed often and never missed church, I still felt a void on the inside of me. I often compare myself to Hannah. I felt a barrenness on the inside of me and did not know how to fill it. On top of the spiritual emptiness I felt, I also had to deal with emotional stress. When I first started attending Regent University, I had several fears that tried to prevent me from proceeding. First, I feared my status as a double minority in a field that is predominantly male would prevent many doors from being open to me regardless of my academic ability. Secondly, I feared having a background in engineering and not biblical studies would put me at a great disadvantage in my classes regardless of my knowledge of the Bible. Whenever someone asked me a question, I would have an answer but I was not sure if i gave the right answer because I was never licensed as a minister as a pastor. My role within the church was a server. I cooked, I cleaned, I played with the children, I visited people, I hugged people, I sewed and I loved working with my hands. In fact, I was the one who usually served the pastors and I

This past semester was a successful one, where I learned a lot about proper writing. I came into the course with a basic understanding of writing academic papers, and left with a good understanding. Throughout the course I became better prepared to meet General Education Student Outlines, and it was evident while revising my first project, the personal narrative.

…The human body's complex anatomy is a phenomenal mechanism. After witnessing my grandfather’s health deteriorating due to a heart attack and cancer of the kidneys, I became aware of how patients and their families can be affected. This made me appreciate how a doctor and their team play such an important part in helping to relieve a patient.

When thinking of class discussions and readings, I do not have difficulty separating my emotions from the content. For the most part, I have not experienced any reaction from a text that elicits a decisive reaction other than empathy. While reflecting on my everyday life, I realized I do have an experience that is a trigger for me. It evokes emotions out of me regardless of how minimal the interaction is. Recently, I have been having more physical and emotional reaction when I see a police officer or their vehicle. Growing up, I was always weary of police officers. I can remember my mother joking that my father was always afraid of police officers. I dismissed my weariness as I grew older because I assume I had such a blatant reaction

For as long as I can remember, I have known who Jesus Christ was. Though, for a period in my life I questioned my relationship with him, and everything that I had grown up knowing about Christianity. Playing with fellow classmates on Sunday mornings as a 6 year old is the first memory of church that I have. Ever since I was a baby to now as a 19 year old I have always attended church. At the age of 12, life took a drastic turn for the worst, making me question all that I knew, and believed about God. Now that I am an adult, attending a college that pushes me everyday closer and closer to God; challenging me in ways that I have never been challenged before, I now see why God does certain things in our lives.