Reflection Paper

When I first decided to expand my education, it had been so long since I had been to school, and I was very hesitant. I talked at length about my decision with my husband and with his encouragement, decided to enroll but still was not quite sure which degree program to enroll in. I knew that this was something that I had always wanted to do since I obtained my Associates Degree in Nursing, but I did not have the courage, nor did I want to give up the time with my family and children. I second guessed my abilities and my knowledge because it had been so long since I had been in college. Now that my children are about to graduate high school and

Throughout the course of this semester, I have continuously grown as a writer. Prior to taking this course, I had little experience or knowledge when it came to writing. I used to struggle with forming my thoughts into writing, let alone a paper. I was never confident with what I wrote. My writing had no greater purpose other than the assignment. My writing process included: writing my paper, proofreading it, and turning it in. Once the paper left my hands, it also left my mind. Throughout this course we worked with others, visited the writing lab, wrote critiques, and we were able to revise our papers. I believe that all of this is has caused me to grow greatly as a writer.

Procrastinating is my biggest problem it seems, and my lack of self-confidence is really closing doors and windows that have been open and available for years. Honestly I'm very unmotivated about college searching it seems so boring to me no matter how much I try to bring myself to realize how important it actually is. The future is filled with reminders of being away from home, costly things, and more math and perhaps my utter failure at college and ensuing regret that will eat away at me and give me a early mid-life crisis. Senior year will be the zenith of my life and everything will regress from there. Yes I am very optimistic and euphoric as you can see. Graduating does not excite me, if you juxtapose me to my fellow peers I am quite lethargic as if this is the end of a good novel. Honestly I'm not proud of much I've done, because I haven't done much. I dropped Japanese 3, Japan Club, Drama Club, my science class, and went back on my word to get a part time job and start getting

As girls, we are caught up in wanting to be better than everyone else, but want to fit in with everyone else. Since highschool, I believe that I have got over the fact that I won't be like everyone else and that I am my own person. I still have some anxiety in certain social things; I tend to cancel plans last minute, stay at home with my family, and work on schoolwork. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do the best that I can in school, and end up putting a lot of stress on me. To stay positive, I try to remind myself that everything happens for a reason and one day, everything will work out. So as I make my way into college, I hope to learn from my mistakes and learn effective ways to deal with my ongoing

In the beginning I was so focused on, how do I forget about my first love? How do I start to see myself as worthwhile? And how could I live with myself knowing I threw away opportunities that my grandfather expected me to take? After much contemplation, hours in therapy, and the support of family and friends, I finally came to conclusions of my own. These conclusions were that your life isn’t something you truly control; life is just something that everyone around us is trying to go through themselves. Everyone is against you, but not because they’re singling you out; everyone is against you because they are for themselves. What it takes for someone to be happy is balance in all things; Love, Health, Money, Education, Family, Fun and more are all competing for your attention, but one cannot rule your life because neglecting even one for too long will have consequences of their own. And the most important lesson I learned of all, was that I finally learned to love myself. I finally learned to look myself in the mirror and saw not the person in front of me with pimples on his face, with fat on his sides, with tears in his eyes and a negative demeanor about his life; I saw the persons future, and even though he may be what he is now, this isn’t where he wants to be, and

I never wanted to deal with anybody .I started seeing the world as a dark place. I always wanted to be alone and i felt like everyone was talking about me like i was always doing something wrong and something about that feeling played with my emotions. I soon ran into something that felt like depression. I always thought about the negative things that could happen which started to run people away which made me feel like the odd one out of everyone. However, me looking back on how this affected me was crazy. I’m kind of mad at myself for not finding a different way to maintain what i had going in the beginning of junior year. Everything that i felt that year could've been avoided if i just found a different way to be happy. Since all that happened , I've had a different view on how i handle things and on how i see the world. Now I find different ways to stay active, even if it is to clean around the house, help my mom at her job, help someone who seems to be struggling, running a couple of blocks..etc . I found these ways by someone pushing me to be better

I have always enjoyed telling stories, it was just quite difficult for me to express my ideas well. I took this class in the hopes I could form a well written, organized paper. Expository writing has taught me my different strengths and weaknesses and how to use them accordingly. My writing skills have improved and changed drastically since the beginning of the semester. I learned to eliminate wordiness, to add detailed analysis, and improve grammar skills. This has made a significant difference in my writing abilities, preparing me for my future in college.

I have always been a believer of second chances, wanting to help people who find themselves in difficult situations within the law. To help people get another opportunity, that I firmly believe everyone deserves. Have we not always been taught to learn from our mistakes, and become better people because of them? I simply cannot accept that a few poor decisions can and should define a person for the rest of their life.

Stubborn is how my Mom would describe my personality. My Dad, on the other hand, always said I was tenacious. He believed our greatest strength can be found by understanding our weaknesses. As a child, he explained that being stubborn is a negative attribute. According to him, people do not like when they meet an inflexible brick wall. Tenacity, on the other hand, can be a powerful tool. It shows people you are determined and persistent. He wanted me to understand that a strength can sometimes be a weakness made to work in our favor. I have always remembered this advice and have used tenacity to achieve many of my life goals.

Places of worship in New York City are as diverse as the community they are in. Visiting both Park Avenue Synagogue and St. Vartan’s Cathedral, I witnessed a unity of people in which I have never personally experienced before, as I do not come from a religious background. By attending services during prime times of worship for both places, I was able to see the role of the religion in the community along with how the community influences the religion. These experiences have shown to me rather how important they are to growing a place of worship and how important it is to experience religion in action while studying it.

Have you ever thought of the idea of learning? I never really understood why kids my age have to go to school. I mean, here at home you have all the free time to do anything. At school is completely different. The teachers at the schools I’ve attended didn’t teach me anything that I needed to know before high school. At my old elementary school I didn’t quite get what my teacher was teaching. They said I’m above all of the learning at my old school, but when I transferred to Green Elementary I wasn’t at the correct level. I was behind. My old school was teaching, but in their way of teaching I didn’t quite understood what they were asking, and don’t get me started with questions.

Our civilizations relies upon people to develop morals and resilience through family, however, what happens when you grow up in an abusive family? Sure, you develop resilience quickly, unfortunately, you may build your moral foundation over a sinkhole. In addition to family dynamics, by age eleven, I survived being hung by a Mexican gang, three dog attacks and a house fire which left both legs covered in second degree burns. Fortunately, at age twelve, I ran away and a couple discovered me sleeping in their garage. Compassionately, they took me in and allowed me to live in a travel trailer on their property.

I am a privileged person. I am white. I am upper-middle class. I am university educated. I am thin. I have parents who are still married to each other. I have always had some form of part time work since starting high school. I have no student debt. I am straight. I am Christian. I am an extrovert. I have a strong voice and an even stronger opinion. This made a class on inequality difficult to relate to but if anything, its shown that I do not have even the most basic understanding of what some of my less privileged peers go through everyday. Because of my privilege and powerful voice, I found it extremely difficult to express my opinions in this class because I either felt like a hypocrite or I felt domineering thus I took a silent position attempting to not only understand how some of my peers feel but also because I had never understood what it was like to be unable to share my individual opinions and stories. Although the silence was unintentional, as I went through reading my classmates posts I found myself frustrated because of something I differed in opinion on or because I felt that a grouping to which I belonged was being misrepresented and there was nothing I could do to address the situation.

The United States of America is the country where there is a true dynamic of cultures. Culture is capable of affecting the value and reasoning of thoughts. Culture is a sensitive area each human must explore. In class, I learned about cultural awareness and how everyone should be compassionate and accepting of others and themselves. I grew up in a Christian world, however, now I am seeking something more. One lesson that will always be keen to my heart is: to love others as you love yourself; this verse is crucial for one’s growth. If one does not love him or herself than one cannot truly love another for who they are. Consequently, if one loves others, then one should be working on insecurities and gain more confidence so that it does not become an obstacle to truly care for others. Life is about embracing who you are, and in order to succeed in this, one must love others truly. The love for oneself and the love for others, should balance each other out. There are times where one should sacrifice time or other things in order to show love. Love should be unlimited and available for everyone, but unfortunately, some individuals never experience something so pure like love, hence, the reason why we have justice. Justice is embraced in our society, it requires one to become an advocate and learn how to empower individuals to use their voice. One of the reasons why I choose this field is because I want people to know they are loved and provide justice for them. In every

When I was around seven, I learned a valuable lesson of listening to your parents. Even to this day my parents would bring up that time to warm us not to do anything dumb. Whenever I am near the water, it reminds me of the stupid game that my brother and I used to do.