Reflection Paper

There are multiple reasons I am where I am today and why I’m going where I’m going. I have struggled in school ever since I can remember but without the people that I have had in my life I wouldn’t where I am today. But as I will talk about the teacher have played a huge role in the reason I am able to be where I am today.

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.

When Jesus was sent to be an example of how we are supposed to live, we were shown how to live out our faith in our daily lives. Jesus was faced with persecution, naysayers and even prosecution for His teachings. He was the very son of God himself, yet he still humbled himself to God and man. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus was witnessed washing the feet of the disciples. He was baptized by John and he taught the disciples how to spread the news about God’s love. He showed them how to bring hope to a hurting world. In some cases, people were killed for their faith, yet they believed so deeply in their relationship with God, that they continued to spread the gospel as Jesus had taught them. He developed relationships with people that were known to be thieves, liars and criminals. He taught us how to work among non-believers and that our life should be a reflection of our relationship with God. We think that it is hard for us to integrate our faith into our careers today, but we do not have to give our life for the freedom of our faith. When compared to the stories in the Bible, we have a great deal of advantages over people back then. King Harrod was willing to do whatever it took to protect his throne. He was threatened by the very birth of Jesus and ordered that every male child under two years old, be slaughtered. This was just the first that wanted to kill Jesus. His life was filled with people who wanted to kill him because they believed that his claim to be

Every religion has different beliefs. I personally am Catholic, so we believe in some things that other people do not. Since I am Catholic we believe in having Godparents; it is almost like having a second set of parents, but they do not live under the same roof. Having Godparents is like having backup parents. If your parents pass away the Godparents would raise you and take care of you. Godparents are the ones who are supposed to help children understand things about God and their religion. They also make sure children are going down the right path in life. Sometimes I still question: What is the correct path in life? There are a variety of different paths that I could take, but sometimes I do not know which one is the perfect one; this is when my Godparents help me discover which path is the one for me.

I have always had a strong faith in my religion, and have never had any shame in expressing it. I never really questioned or challenged it until August 23, 2015. That Sunday was a day that changed my family’s life for what seemed to be forever, since we had to wait until September 9,2016 to get back to somewhat the same. We had to wait a whole year to get the answers that would slowly piece back my family. The day had started out rather normal my family and I had just eaten our Sunday dinner and were all just laying around relaxing for a bit. Well, my mom and dad were in their room laying down watching television, when all of a sudden I heard my mom yell “ Chris, Chris, come on talk to me”. I ran into their room since I had heard the sense of fear in my moms voice. As I got through the doorways I looked over and seen my dad seizing in his bed. My heart instantly dropped, my mind instantly went blank in a sense of shock. My mom instantly had me help her get my dad up and turned over on his side so he wouldn’t choke on his tongue.

I’m a very academically driven student and have several, quite lofty, goals for my time here at Texas A&M. I want to maintain a 4.0 GPA, or at least a minimum of a 3.5 in order to maintain my Cornerstone Honors status. My dream, and biggest goal, is to intern for a congressperson in Washington DC, and I also want to study abroad, hopefully in England.

A Hindu spiritual teacher once shared, “This world is your best teacher. There is a lesson in everything. There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise” (Sivananda). When I take this wise advice and reflect on the past year, I see many lessons that have helped me become a more mature and responsible person. Many of these lessons have been through my English course with Mrs. Frohoff. In this class, we’ve had many units, such as the types of love, writing assignments, including many 1-page reflections, projects, such as a memoir and a PSA, and presentations on themes like identity and critical world problems. It has been through our memoir assignment, the large number of deadlines given, and the presentations required that I’ve been taught valuable lessons about who I am and how to grow as a person throughout this school year.

After reviewing this assignment, I learned that my approached was going to be a little different from what I was accustomed to doing with other assignments. In previous assignments I referred to a project that my company had completed and had control of from beginning to the end. In that scenario we were in control of and responsible for how far off we were from the schedule/task, cost, and projected finish time. Basically in this assignment the manager was there from the beginning as well; somewhere along the way the project manager’s focus has shifted and we have been given the responsibility to re-evaluate the situation and determine which direction should be taken to get back on track with cost and time. In this scenario the project manager has lost sight of his scope and time schedule.

Writing is a tool that will be used throughout my lifetime. It is a tool that is worth taking the time to perfect because it will only be beneficial in the long run. On my writing assignments, I earn A’s, but I still have areas that I need to work on. The areas that I struggle the most would be with simple grammar errors such as the use of commas, writing with an active voice, and writing short,simple sentences. First of all, I often do not know where to place commas in my sentence. I struggle with this because I tend to add commas in the wrong place, so I have become confused with the proper use of commas. This is a small grammar error that I can easily correct by learning where and when commas are needed. I have also found and been told that I write in a passive voice when I should be using an active voice. This is a technique that I have to work on by practicing it and noticing the difference while I am writing and reading. Finally, I often write run on sentences or sentences that include unnecessary information. This makes my writing unclear and difficult for the reader to understand. I could improve by writing shorter and simpler sentences that include only the essential information to get my point across. I have noticed these mistakes in my writing and it has also been brought up by others, so I am currently working on improving it.

I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior when I was 20 years old. At that time I was struggling with my family, problems in school and toxic relationship with my boyfriend. Despite believing in God I still did not have the knowledge of his word and the spiritual skills to find the wisdom and spiritual resources. In the midst of all those difficult circumstances a miracle happened: the Savior chose me, one of my aunts invited me to a Bible study group where I was captivated by the love, forgiveness and guidance that the word of God and His Holy Spirit was giving me in that moment the peace which surpasses all understanding, so from that day I made the decision and went to my aunt's church, to a retreat and then baptized accepting Jesus as my savior.

Pencils rolled and minds drifted. Time seemed to pass at least twice as slow as usual when a usually energetic and lively class of fourth graders was brought to steady silence while their teacher droned on about kinetic energy later passing out a reading and worksheet. In the end worksheets ended up half finished and students left the class full of confusion and disinterest. In a later lesson, the class was transformed. The classroom was littered with poster paper, markers, and ideas. The students were finishing up posters explaining kinetic energy based on an experiment done earlier in the unit using a marble and toy car track. The room was filled with a steady stream of chatter that only diminished once the students sat down to watch a video on the effects of kinetic energy on two very different cars: a toy car and an actual car. After observing these two very different lessons and comparing them to others I noticed a distinct pattern. When learning through experiments, projects, and videos the students were not only more engaged, but they appeared to have learned more that they had in the previous lesson. A question was quickly raised on what we should do as teachers if students do not respond well to our lesson plans.

Looking in the mirror at the actual physical presentation of myself, I investigated what other people view when they looked upon me. At that moment, I began to realize what the features are interpreted as. My hair is pulled up and tight, various people have suspected military, but I have never been enlisted. My glasses and crooked teeth would suggest that my parents were low income, no corrective surgery or braces for me. My body image would be identified, instantly by women, as having children and I do have two sons. After one eight-pound boy and the other almost ten-pound baby my body did not return to its original dimensions, there was no weight trainer or nutritionist for me. My calloused hands will tell anyone that I am a blue-collar worker and the ring on my left tells them that I am married. Progressing through college and beyond will be my way out of the shell that society has created me in, it will be my golden door to freedom.

Thomas was administered the A.P.S. and told about how the results would help reveal his strengths and weaknesses. We discussed how that temperament is the basis for personality. I took down some basic information and discussed how that the additional information would be helpful with the sessions.

We are all strong. Some people never realize this, but everybody has an inner warrior. While it’s true that not everyone has great physical power, but mentally and emotionally everybody has some kind of strength. For me, I am not physically as robust or as athletic as some, but mentally I am strong. There are times when I bring myself down, but I know that my strong mind will soon return to its normal balance and pick me back up. There are times when I am down and I feel I may never be the same, but no matter what my mental strength lends a hand, and returns me to my ordinary routine. The perfect example of my strong mind is my relationship with swimming. My beloved sport, swimming, is meant for someone with a strong mental mind. Therefore, feel like I was born to swim.

While I was duel enrolled in my local community college and in high school, I was wrapped up in the day to day aspects of my life because I had a lot of little things going on and hobbies that I enjoyed. My future career and being in a university seemed so distant so I didn't think about it much. It didn't occur to me until my first week in college that I really needed a plan and that my life is moving incredibly fast. It wasn't until then, that I really started to think about what I wanted to do with my life after I got out of college. I now find myself thinking about it every day, calling friends and family and researching different career paths for different majors.