Reflection Paper

This was particularly evident during out student lead rehearsals for our choreography project (Design 4 Dance), as I felt very much comfortable and confident, in leading my own rehearsal, as well as instructing the dancers in a range of different ideas and sequences of movement and maintaining the level of focus and concentration. Another example of times when I have used these communication skills, would be at the beginning of the year, as I had to relay a lot of detailed information about by my injury as well as the amount of rehabilitation I had received so far, to all of my tutors as well as the physiotherapy and Pilates Departments too. Although daunting, I did my best to give them as much information as I could, as well as speaking in a self-Assurant and confident

I have been playing soccer since I was five years old.  As a girl who didn’t have a lot of self-confidence, my ability to play this game well gave me a lot of positive attention.  I made friends and loved the feeling of being part of a team.  The soccer field became the one place I felt the most confident.

Is death meant to be the end of everything? Or is it the beginning of something new? I worked as a Rescue Scuba Diver in my country. This job made me think a lot about the meaning of death. It doesn't mean that life will become sadness and full of darkness, but it might be the opposite. When we lose someone special in our life is not like losing everything. It might be a new chapter in our life. The first time I saw dead body front of me, I learned that death of a loved one hurts but it makes a person stronger.

“A father is neither an anchor to hold us back nor a sail to take us there, but a guiding light whose love shows us the way.” A father is commonly thought of as a protector, a money maker, the one who takes care of issues. They are also known as betrayers, cowards, and boors. When the word dad comes to mind, what do you think of? Your hero, best friend, worst enemy? I think of martial arts, hospitals, and some life lessons that have changed who I am forever.

As a type-A individual, I really do not like it when things do not go as they have been planned. Unfortunately, this has caused some additional stresses and anxieties in my life which I do not have much control over. As a double-major, it is so crucial to stay organized and have a schedule to stay organized and complete everything that is required of me. But, college can be stressful, but I think that I am handling it much better than I could have imagined. Throughout my educational experiences here during my second year at UConn, I have been able to handle stresses much better than I have previously in high school and especially throughout my freshman year. As I am writing this, I realized that by surrounding myself with individuals who I know are positive influences on me and planning time for myself, I am able to reduce stresses in my life.

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.

At the age of 10 years old I moved to the United States after a devastating earthquake that nearly destroyed my beautiful island of Haiti in January of 2010. I was forced to leave behind everything I’d ever known because Haiti was in havoc; I was no longer safe. I left my once beautiful country with one suitcase in hand and a heart filled with sadness. To my friends, I was considered lucky to be leaving, but little did they know, starting over isn't the easiest thing especially in an unknown environment. Although, I myself was a US citizen, I never considered the United States as my true home since I had never traveled there or had the desire to. Everything that I ever wanted, my country provided for me. Life in America was foreign to me, and I’d only heard of it through stories, but now I had become part of that story.

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.

According to John Dewey’s definition of a liberal education, the education that I have received at Jefferson R7 High School has prepared me for life beyond high school. The three Rs of education, reading, writing, and arithmetic, was a large focus of my schooling when in elementary school, which formed the base in which I would later grow upon. The education that was given to me formed a well-rounded student that has the tools to solve problems and find information that is sought after.

When I enrolled in English 330, Writing in Education, I was apprehensive. Over the years, proofreading has been one of my strengths which may be a great attribute, but the challenging part has already been accomplished, writing the paper. So, although I absolutely love to research and write about my findings, I have always found it to be a struggle writing essays. The words seem to come easy in my head, but when the time came to write or type those words into sentences was the most difficult. Even though I have endured difficulties and challenges this semester, I have given 100% into each assignment. The discussions, blogs, letters, emails and assorted categories of papers completed, they have all proven to me that, no matter how good you felt you did, there is definitely room for improvement. There is always room for improvement, whether the task is a school assignment or work done on daily basis for over twenty-five years. My writing skills, my thought process and analytical skills have all improved in the last eight weeks.

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.

Although I have a lot more to figure out about myself, I have learned a lot about myself and the people of America while taking this course thus far. I have been able to, make a lot of connections between myself and the topics we have discussed in class and making sense of things that have happened to me throughout my life. I recall discussing issues such as colorism and white privilege, love, the treatment of blacks in America, the meaning of “African American” and black education plus a lot more during this course.

Have you ever cried so hard your contact fell out? Because you felt so hopeless, crying was all you could do. Don't worry, this is not a typical story about getting dumped by a boy.

New beginnings don’t have to start January 1. The time for a new beginning is always right now; and what better time to embrace the motto “no more excuses.”

This last trimester I attended the class, Introduction to College Writing. I enjoyed the class and enjoyed the challenges the class brought. I have always loved to write papers, but my grade did not always reflect my enthusiasm. I took honors classes most of my high school career, learning how to write a very specific type of essay, with strict structures and numerous restrictions. This class taught me how to write different types of papers, and put my personality into the paper. I am ready for English 102 due to the skills that I acquired during this course.