Reflection Paper

On September 6, 2017, I were documented for an incident that involved a University Housing policy violation. I was charged with violating the University Housing Alcohol 1.2 policy. With my violation, came consequences. I met with The Residence Conduct Coordinator to discuss my actions and came to the conclusion that I would have to schedule a meeting with The Campus Alcohol and Drug Education Center (CADEC) and with that, a reflection paper.

My son was two and I was twenty-seven when I hit a spiritual brick wall. My husband and I were at a party together. I remember looking around and thinking why do I have my son here? I do not want him to grow up to be like these people. I heard God in my spirit say, “you are one of these people.” I really did not know what to do with that thought and it kept invading my mind.

By the time I was around the age of twelve, church was not as big of a deal as it once was. We stopped going to the church I loved due to some very unfortunate events that occurred

Later that year i got baptized! As time went on i kept going to church but then i started to meet new people in high school and lost track of who i was and what i wanted to be. It was a really rough couple months for me i was really lost. One day i was walking down the street and my neighbor had asked me why i haven't been at church and thats when i realized i needed to go back even though i was afraid . I went back that weekend and felt the happiness that i had been missing. At this time is was around early June and church camp was on the 26th. I knew that camp was full and there would be no way i could go so i began to get sad. I had told my mom why i was upset and she insisted on me just emailing them to ask if there were any spots left, so i did. The very next day my mom got an email say there was one i repeat just one spot left because someone had dropped out. If that wasn't a sign of god i don't know what is. So that year i attend camp and i finally understood what it meant to trust Jesus all the way not just part

It was somewhere near the end of sophomore year and we started to go to church regularly. It was really easy to see how the Holy Spirit was working through me and the people at Christ Lutheran La Mesa. It honestly

When we went to church, we “had church”! It wasn’t 60 minutes and go home, we were there for hours. Sunday morning service would start at 9am and end at 12:30 or 1 and Sunday Nights would start at 6 and end between 8- 9pm. The ending time depended on how much the Spirit was moving! Just when I thought church was over, the Spirit would start moving again. At that time, I despised when the Pastor would say, “Let’s sing that song one more time.” I knew what that meant, yep, the Spirit was going to move again! So back under the pew I would go and find rest in Jesus!

Church and God have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, I often joke and say that I was born in the church. As church was a fundamental part of my parents lives and their culture, it so became mine as well. I would go to church every Sunday with my parents, who served in the choir and on the Deacon Board. As I grew older, I would participate in the church youth plays and attend Vacation Bible School every year. Growing up in such a powerful, faith-filled environment I was often memorized by the things going around specifically; seeing people praise the Lord, hearing people speaking in tongues, witnessing people shouting and telling their testimonies, and seeing people slain in the spirit, all these experiences were

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.

       About a week into going, my family decided to stay at this church.  Three weeks into being there, I was on the youth worship team as a pianist and vocalist. That church has been crucial to my life in more ways than I will ever be able to verbally express. I have friends that will always have my back and love me unconditionally.  I have a church who is beyond wonderful.  I have a personal relationship with God that I thought was not possible to have.      And today, I have two amazing girls that I am celebrating my one year of friendship

First I would like to mention that I enjoyed reading this Chapter as it hit home for me because the teachers from Loyola Marymount University believe in building family and community strengths and I fit that mold. Even though demonstrating passion and empathy is mostly frowned upon by many in our institutions due to concentrating on teaching to the test. If you provide your students with a safe learning environment, my experiences have shown that they are more apt to flourish. As a result, I provide this type of atmosphere in my classroom. For example, one of the teachers interviewed, Leticia Ornelas, had “Lotion Day” Nieto (2013). I have shared my lotion with students as well. Some of them fall under the English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. And like she mentions, it provides them with a safe, caring, and passionate learning environment because you build that rapport. Building teacher to student relationships is essential to student outcomes.

“Through salvation our past has been forgiven, our present is given meaning, and our future is secured” -Rick Warren. Sunday, November 30, 2014 around 12:40 was a very special day for me. Life-changing you could say. This was a breaking of a new day to me. A fresh start and a very new beginning. This is a day that I never will forget. The day when my heart was spiritually opened and an opened invitation was held out to a certain someone. The day I was baptized in Jesus name. Baptism is a sacred event for Christians. It is considered an ordinance of Jesus Christ. It is a concept of being submerged under water to be considered ‘’saved’’. Being saved in other words is saved means that you are accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. He is now the center of your life. It means giving up yourself and doing the work of Christ. It means turning from anything that is against the will of the highest. The day I gave my life to Christ was very special to me because I learned a lot that day. I learned who I was, who I was in Christ, and what life after this meant for me.

There I was, standing in the grounds of my school, bound by judgemental onlooking eyes, which studied me for a sign of vulnerability; begging for me to collapse into my self-fabricated darkness. Like a cowardly criminal, I slumped, trembling uncontrollably in the middle of the secluded balcony, where I implored myself to “stop” as I yet again had a crippling anxiety attack which incarcerated my whole body, though this time because my counsellor had called my parents regarding my suicidal ideation. It was punishing enough to wake up in the mornings, though faced with the constant internalization of emotions tore strips off my self-esteem. Tears filled my eyes like an overflowing river and cascaded down my face, though freezing in the silence. Proceeding to tell myself repetitively to “stop it”, as I refused to accept that mental illness was the corruptive reality of my life, I cowered as the flashbacks uncontrollably replayed in my mind. I recollected the words that any mother would dread to divulge to their child; that “sometimes I think that it would be better that you were gone, because then, you wouldn’t have to feel this pain”, contradicting this by expressing to me that “I know it’s selfish, but you can’t leave me”.

I feel that I have achieved the majority of my goals from the end of last semester. Looking back at my first semester writing portfolio, the goals that I tried to fulfill for this semester were either improved, or I fully accomplished. My goals were to use better vocabulary in my writing, and to proofread my essays more often, and carefully. Throughout this past semester I tried my best to keep these in mind, and incorporate them in my writing. I believe I have improved my vocabulary since first semester, and I have made sure to reread my essays, and I even had others read my writing to get other opinions. During this semester I have made new goals for myself. I think it is good to always have different goals that you would like to achieve, and once you do, you should continue to make more. My current goal for writing is to

To honor my ten-year battle with depression, I got a tattoo this year. The small semi-colon represents my active decision to keep going no matter what. Although difficulties come and go, I come out stronger after fighting. Nine years ago, when I thought things were unbearable, my heart broke imagining other people who felt the same way that I did. I promised myself at that moment to have perseverance, and to find ways to help and encourage others.

It was on a cold day in January, 2015 when I thought my whole world was going to be flipped upside down. We were living at my grandmother’s house at the time, and in the back of my mind I knew that we were going to move into our own house because that was the plan ever since we sold our old house. With this in mind, I still remember how I felt when my parents came home one night and said, “Our offer on a house was accepted and that we were moving at the end of summer.” I visited this house with them before, but we visited many houses over the past couple years so it sort of came as shock that everything was official. Living at my grandmother’s house was not ideal and it was no walk in the park so I was happy that I was going to have a place my family could call our own again. Although I was excited, I was also nervous and scared because the house is located 45 minutes away from where we currently live. That meant I was going to leave my friends and family and basically everything I’ve ever known.