Reflection Paper

My trip to Guatemala helped me realize how great my life really is,and showed me how strong I really am.Many people around the world take Missions Trip every year to the nations of the world. A mission’s trip is mainly meant for missionaries to reach out to the people of other nations and not only share “the truth” but also help them with their struggles in life. Some ways missionaries reach out are building homes, churches, getting clean drinking water, volunteering in orphanages, donating secondhand clothing, giving health screening and checkups, etc. All these not only help the people but in the end give the missionaries a good feeling inside. It takes a special kind of person to go out and serve the people of the world as well as a lot

For my service learning project I worked in Mrs. Evelyn Costa's first grade class at Meadowlane Elementary. Meadowlane is located at 4280 W 8th Avenue in Hialeah, Florida and was constructed in 1957. There are one thousand one hundred and seventy seven students enrolled at Meadowlane Elementary school. Meadowlane has fifty three classrooms and fourteen portables and there are one hundred and seventy nine students per grade level. The school was built on nine acres of land. The student population of meadowlane Elementary is comprised of 97% Hispanic, 2% White, and 1% Asian.

“Writing an essay is not difficult! I am actually great at it.” This is a common statement that I would formally say, and even believe. In the past, I had never felt the need to thoroughly revise my essays before. In all my past essays, I would work intensely on my first draft and then just turn the essay in. I never spent too much time re-evaluating my writing decisions before turning it in. This process had worked well for myself in the past, and as a result, each essay I turned it would be an easy “A”. When I signed up for EN100 I figured that it would be just like the other easy English class that I have taken. I assumed that I would work on an essay, turn it in, and then earn an A on it, but this was not the case. When I signed up for EN100 I figured that I could continue my previous essay writing methods, but that was quickly disproven. When I received my first graded essay, I was unsure why I earned anything but an “A” on it. It soon became clear to me that I was going to be required to change the way I formerly wrote my essays and spend more time with correcting them.

In June of 2015 I went to Sucùa, Ecuador, on my first mission trip. About 5 months before the trip I went to a discipleship weekend with my youth group, and during one of the services a promotional video was played for a mission trip that Alabama Youth ministries was taking that summer. While I was watching the promo I felt the Spirit of God tell me to go on that trip. It was the first time I had actually felt the spirit of God move through me. I applied for the trip, and I was accepted. I did not go on that trip expecting anything. Even when we landed in Ecuador I did not know what I was there for. I did not go to see God move, but He had something else in mind. My goal in this paper is to help the reader to understand how I was called to missions, how God has changed my life, and how God will prepare me for the rest of my journey.

Five things from the book that I find interesting are anxiety disorder, depression/major depressive disorder, sexual harassment, suicide, and panic attack. All five of these subjects I have chosen because, as a female in the 21st century, I have experienced every one of these emotions at least once in my life.

I grew up in church and in a Christian home which I do appreciate because some people do not have the opportunity as I do. Personally, my domination is a Methodist because my father is a full time Methodist pastor. My faith when I was younger was weak, because we for example had a dress code for my family on Sunday we had to wear Sunday best (girls are not allowed to wear blue jeans). We had to set examples for others. My dad talked about it does not matter what clothing you wear if you have clothing on. All that matters are that we are here to worship the one and only savior. Now that I look back my view on Jesus as a little kid would have to be a Judgmental God and a Gocha God because my step mom would want us to seat an example while we were at church and we would always get in trouble if we do something wrong in church. In the summer of my Middle school year I went to Camp Loucon and my faith grew stronger because one night during worship I felt a tug on my heart. The tug you cannot get rid of. I knew Jesus needed a home in my heart. So, I went up to the alter the Dean of the camp came up to me and said what do you want me to pray for I said accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior. When he was done praying I felt this piece of calmness, and such greater joy that I can’t explain. I felt so happy I started to cry. (I usually never cry). Later that night my cabin laid on a basketball court at camp and looked at the stars. I said, “there’s a lot of stars up there”.

I always knew there was a God. That is something I never questioned. When I was little I was taught about the LDS church by my grandparents. My dad always taught me that the LDS church was not true. He would tell me things like “all mormons are going to hell” and he would tell me it was a church based on lies. At such a young age this was very confusing for me, but I have always been a daddy’s girl so of course at one point I started to wonder if my dad was right. I wasn't able to be baptized at 8 because my dad would not allow it. When I was in 4th grade my mom, my sister, and I moved out of my grandparents house and became inactive to the point where I had forgotten a lot of what I had learned from my grandparents and at church. We continued to be in active and would attend church maybe two or three times a year. The missionaries would come to our door occasionally, but my mom would always tell them that me and my sister are unable to be baptized because my dad won’t allow it and send them away.

She compared her life to a hurricane, a natural disaster that took everything in its path and destroy any shred of light in her life. Thus, the weeks turned into years of regressive behavior that led her to believe that she was not good enough to truly be herself. She only allowed herself to be her mother’s puppet, an item only used for public occasions, for if she ever became her own self, she would be outcasted. Yet, during those times I recall a shout in the cave of darkness, a murmured voice saying: Carpe Diem. Seize the day. My brother used those words when I was little —he was an extroverted fellow who vocalized whatever he felt because he was confident in whom he was. Nevertheless, I was an introverted, insecure, and self-conscious kid who was silenced by the public because they scared me. Fear ruled my actions. Fear ruled my mind. Fear ruled me; yet, my brother’s words rang a certain alarm in my head when I grew up. Thus, I realized that my individuality was stolen. My silence was bought, and my uniqueness was used as a weapon for society’s cruel expectations. I noticed that the world has so many beliefs, ideas, and aspirations that I wanted my own drum to beat in my own rhythm.

As a student radiographer I have come across many learning situations that required me to put into practice aspects of the mandatory training that I completed within my first few weeks at university. I have chosen to discuss manual handling as my topic as I feel it is something that is encountered daily in the job role of a radiographer. The everyday positioning of patients and moving them, either physically around on a trolley or moving them from the trolley to the x-ray bed highlights the importance of good manual handling practice. Poor moving and handling practice can injure the patient or a staff member, this can lead to a loss of dignity and cause discomfort (HSE, 2017)

I arrived to the United States a few years ago from Mexico. I was a teenager when my parents decided to move to the United States. We moved here because my parents wanted to give me and my siblings a better education and improve our standard of living. When my parent gave us the news, the first thing I felt was fear, I was afraid because I did not where we were going and what to expect about the new place that we would call our home. I had to leave the place I grew up, my family, and my friends behind, and I felt that I was not ready for that big change. I remember the first day I came to the United States with my family and at the beginning it was a struggle to adapt to a new language, to a new culture.

Over the course of the semester we have done numerous writing assignments in order to help us dig deeper into topics that we might not have known about previously and to improve our writing skills. I have never been an excellent writer. I’ve had trouble planning out where details would go in my past papers. However, there has been a clear improvement in my writing when looking back on the work that I have done in this class.

Since arriving on campus, I have been asked how I came to Miami several times. Some would say that coming here is destiny, but I disagree. Psalm 139 says that before I was born, “in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them” (NKJV, Psalms 139:16). While there are several main components about which I will write, I keep coming back to the fact that God placed me here.

In school, I used to loathe the icebreakers that involved saying an interesting fact about oneself. I would fumble around and iterate some unoriginal sentiment about my favorite color or animal and leave without actually providing substance about myself. This all changed after I lost the vision in my right eye and could tell people about the three-inch needle that pierces my eye multiple times every year. I thoroughly enjoy watching people squirm as I chuckle and explain the process.

To go along with being an athlete, I am a student. To be able to get playing time, you need to have good grades. My parents didn’t just push me to be a good athlete, but to get good grades. I had higher expectations compared to my brother. But that pushed me to keep my grades up and do get an A on assignments and tests. This impacted who I was and what I decided to value. It was important to my parents that I got good grades, but to me it was too because it helped me get into college and it made me feel good about myself. Being a student, just like being an athlete, teaches me to be diligent in the work that I have in front of me. It also teaches me time management, and what I need to get done compared to going out with my friends.

Every school has these four main academic subjects: English, Math, Science, History/Geography. The class I like the most in my eighth grade school year is History. This is because we get to learn about different time periods, different people, different religions, and so much more. We don't just sit in class and read out of a textbook. We get to do fun activities to help us understand more. While we work, we talk to our teacher and have funny and weird conversations. We make fun of each other and have a good laugh. I'm always excited to go to History class.