Reflection Paper

I refused to ever let someone replace me on the track again. Not only did I earn that respect, I demanded it. My workouts were no longer a social hour, but a boot camp. I was the hardest working undersized athlete in the program. My junior track season finally arrived, yet once again I would not have the chance to compete for a junior varsity district championship. No, this year I competed for a varsity district championship. My efforts in the offseason led to a promotion on the team. The lingering emotions of anger and disappointment were replaced with gleaming pride. My previous failure had propelled me to success within a single

A significant challenge that I thought I wouldn't have accomplished was during our biggest track-and-field meet against all of the big schools around. It was the Shawnee invitational and one of our girls on the track team ended up messing up her ankle in her first relay race, which meant she couldn't run the 800m dash or the 1800m dash. I was the only one on the team who didn’t have four events because I ran the 4x2 and the 4x1 which was the main events at the invitational. So the coach asks me to fill in for her, my first thought was ‘oh Nooooooo, i can’t”. Not only did I just finish one on my relays and had to rest up for my next one, but also I was not ready to run only distant runs that day. I had only practiced for my events prior to the

I approached that year’s conditioning with a pessimistic attitude and wondered why was I doing this when I’m not going to run in meets. Just like the year before, I assumed that conditioning and practicing would be obsolete. I braced myself for another disappointing year. Every winter day after school, I braced myself against the cold with a hope that this season would be different. I went into the first day of practice feeling in shape and optimistic. But just like freshman year, there was no preparing for the ache and suffering of the first practice. With the season approaching, our coach timed us to determine who would run in meets. Our coach divided us into groups based on how fast she thought we were. When a senior saw that I was in the first, slower group, he said that I belonged in the faster group with them. Hearing that compliment from a senior changed my outlook on the season might go. As the first track meet approached, we split off into groups so we could perfect our technique based on the event we were running. As I was jogging around the track wondering whether this year was going to be the same as last year, our coach summoned me over to perfect baton handoffs for the 4x100 meter relay. As the realization hit me that I was going to compete, I thought, “I’m not going to relinquish this spot because I labored profusely to attain

When the season ended and my senior year was slowly approaching I knew I had to get better no doubt about it, over those three months of summer I ran harder than i had ever ran with and without hurdles becoming faster and having improved stamina. When it came time for my first senior indoor practice I knew I was a better athlete it even felt like I was better than before.Coach not being sure about how I would preform the only thing left to do was prove myself to him.Durring this indoor season all I had to run was the 55 meter hurdles so itwasno reason why I shouldnt excell in it.At the first meet coach expected me to run at least a 8.50 after I finished the race I immediety looked at the looked at the clock finishing seconf I knew my time had to be decent. I had ran a 8.45 running faster than the time expected of me I was very proud of myself but knew I could go faster.When the conference meet came I still haven't ran any faster but I knew i could at the finish line i wanted and before I knew it the gun was shot POW! getting out of my blocks even faster than i ever had I knew this was the race where I would run my fastest

When I was on the track team I was always the last one to finish and my brothers made fun of me for it. Compared to everyone else I felt like a turtle racing against a cheetah. I just wasn’t a sprinter and I couldn’t jump, so running track wasn’t for me. The one thing I did have though was determination. When I did not want to run anymore because I didn't

Fast forward to the track state meet eighth grade year. As I said before success can be a really tough thing to handle. I had gone through an up and down phase after cross country season ended. I didn’t go to practice, I started to not care as much about school and I was acting the completely opposite of the person I was before. After the upset at the state meet, I just didn’t seem to care anymore. I just focused on getting by the rest of the school year but it just didn’t work. My coaches convinced me to keep going they brought me in and had a talk with me. I still remember that day with my coach, Coach H. He was a really important person to me and had grown on me so much. He cared about his athletes like they were his own children. I sat

I could not even pay attention in class. My stomach twirled rapidly and I tried not to eat too much. I kept my muscles warm and listened to gospel music all day. I remember the meet like yesterday. Twenty minutes before my last race, my coach approached me with words that I could never forget. “Mariah this is the moment you’ve been waiting on all season. You just qualified for state in 300 hurdles, so I know you are excited, but do not lose that momentum. You still have the 4 by 4 meter relay. So remember everyone who steps on that starting line is very talented, but the best will be the person who fights the hardest to cross the finish line. So go all out or go home. Pump those arms and lift those

So I focused on getting faster in the little sprints we did and knew I was quite a bit faster than most people on the team. This started to build my confidence for track season because really I wanted basketball to be done and with. When track season came coach had made a new run called the 60 second challenge, sounds horrible right? Well it turns out that the second week we did that I beat everyone, however coach noticed, but really didn’t pay much attention to it. That very day I was talking to him saying “coach why don’t you put in the 400”. He in turn answered while laughing “your getting a little ahead of yourself”. That very year the 400 was my one and tragically only event I did that year, but it was kind of an “I told you so” moments that you kinda have to laugh about. This was putting me near my goal in lettering by Paul and me being the best 400m runners. When the day of conference came I was nervous, but was feeling good vibes about it. Little did I know I ran the race came in 9th and was literally a one second difference. I was one place, one spot from accomplishing this goal, but poof it just

Belonging to a minority is such a unique and fascinating gift that should be cherished and embraced incessantly. I was born and raised in the state of Guanajuato in Mexico; I moved to the United States seven years ago because my dad wanted my sisters and me to have a better quality of life and greater probabilities of attending college after high school.

The other thing I completely understood was that I loved teaching and working in a classroom. Unfortunately, it would take a lot longer to get back into one than I had originally planned.

Throughout the years I have had several life-changing events, but the one that affected me the most was going up to boundary waters in Minnesota. We went into the wilderness for 5 days with no electronics and limited food. We would have to quickly paddle in our canoes against the strong winds and then slowly and carefully carry our heavy backpacks around in order to get to our next campsite. We had to endeavor all the pain that was brought to us.

As a Nepali refugee who had never heard of football until he came to America, the transition to play for my school team was not easy. I did not have an easy experience so I had to earn to play for the team. In this paper I will use ethos, pathos, and logos appeals to prove that I entered the discourse community of my High School Football Team by developing knowledge, demonstrating my loyalty to teammates, and creating bonds with the teammates who helped me to become a true football player despite knowing I am from another culture who do not speak the same language and do not anything about football. It is important for everybody to learn the experiences of others because there might be somebody out there who wants to be part of any team, but maybe they are afraid to step up to join that team thinking he or she is different among all. It doesn’t matter who you are, but it’s important that you become part of a team you are interested. You will learn to make friends, boost leadership as well as communication skills like I did by becoming part of high school football team.

I chose assessment #10: Authenticity Scale (Biswas-Diener, 2010, p. 122) for my assessment. Between this current quarter and the last, I pushed myself beyond limits on another section of the Appalachian Trail. On the morning of day number 3 out of 6, I snapped a selfie of myself as I crested a ridge line on a bald (treeless ridge line with unlimited views). The photo was unique and looked manipulated with a filter due to the glare from the sunrise burning through thin patches of fog spilling over the ridge as if the mountain was an airfoil. That photo is now my Facebook profile picture and titled, “Nothing artificial.” I have always pushed myself to be true and authentic in all I do. That does not mean being perfect, it means being honest with myself.

There are over 4,200 religions throughout the entire world but I grew up in a Christian home believing that God is the way, the truth, and the life. Christianity is a religion of grace and mercy, but many people struggle to believe in a transcendent figure that they cannot see. I was taught that all concepts in the Bible were valid through the Nazarene church; these beliefs are confirmed, in my opinion by the plenary theory of inspiration. This is what I grew up believing about the Bible.

When I was in 8th grade at Niu Valley Middle School my English teacher assigned a poem project and we had to record ourself reciting a poem that we made about nature. We also had to make a slideshow with pictures that represented what we were saying. The teacher, Ms. Fujimoto, assigned students two weeks to complete the project. During the first week after the project was given, every English class was dedicated to working on the poem project. Throughout this time I decided not to do anything and just go on my phone because I thought the project was very simple and would take little to no time to complete. I was also very tired and the room was like a sauna and it was boiling me until I was soaking with sweat. I vividly remember staring