Reflection Paper

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are,” (Cooley). Throughout our lives, reading has impacted us in many ways. Often times books give people different perspectives on their lives. People with high stress levels often find comfort in reading books to take their mind off of their concerns. Sometimes, people just need to take a step back from their lives and relax for a while; therefore, reading is a great tool. In fact, all kinds of books have also helped me become a better writer. There are many different books that have impacted me over the years.

Throughout the last four weeks, I have been educated on the importance of studying the Bible. As well as how to properly do so and how to apply scripture to my everyday life. There are many tools that can be used for deeper understanding when approaching the Bible. This essay will serve to demonstrate those tools as well as interpret a section in the book of James and apply it to everyday life.

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.

Many people are usually shaped through the challenges and obstacles that they come across throughout their lifetime. I grew up with parents who immigrated here and knowing about their history helped me grow a lot throughout my childhood. I have grown to know about and going through struggles that my parents have gone through. I am now a hard worker and plan to use this characteristic to a good use when going to through college and pursuing my career path. I am also humble and thankful for everything that I have because my parents never had most of the things that my siblings and I have. Throughout my life, I have learned to grow through my parents and their history. Learning about my culture has also helped me grow as a person.

My family, while never zealously religious, spends exactly the correct time in church to remain informed of community happenings and firmly out of the neighborhood gossip. This may, in part, result from our inability to remaining in place. Graduating this June, I will have graced the packed halls of seven schools. Seven institutions, seven communities to learn the social norms of, seven best friends who have forgotten me, and seven libraries. Thus, began my ascent into adulthood.

Growing up, my vision appeared to get worse and worse every year. Until I was in first grade I never thought to told my mom, considering it never caused any problems. It was until I would find myself squinting at the board everyday did my teacher wonder if something was wrong. Shortly after, I found out I needed glasses. From first grade to tenth grade, I went through multiple pairs of glasses, and my vision continued to deplete. I never complained about having glasses because they rarely got in my way. That was until high school, when I started running. Trying to sprint with glasses on can be extremely challenging. It took me two years to finally get the courage to get contacts. As someone who struggled with getting contacts in everyday over the summer and struggles now, I want to help those who go through the same conflict.

For an organizational analysis of my current context, I decided to select Option A: Adizes: Focus on Organizational Lifecycle. Everything has a lifecycle, from geological formations to people, societies, and civilizations. Of course, organizations, too, go through different stages – they grow, change, and then, they disintegrate. Even though none of this comes as a surprise to anyone, yet some organizations and their leadership may not be ready to embrace the change and still be sustainable and efficient. As Ichak Adizes boldly suggests in his book, "The challenge of leadership on any level – individual, family, organization, and society – is to change continuously and, nevertheless, always remain together" (1999, 9). As organizations go through different stages, each time they are presented with the peculiar challenges. In many cases, new difficulties cannot be resolved with the old methods and attitudes. Without abandoning their old customs, organizations can be at risk to stagnate or even fall apart as they advancing through numerous transitions. The majority of organizations would encounter similar lifecycle stages; however, they would need to develop certain abilities in order to advance forward in the lifecycle.

I was 21 years old when I came to the United States and needed to work in order to help my father and relatives with the rent. Three months later, I found my first full-time job making pillow cases and mattress covers at the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, and attending evening ESL classes in a public school twice a week. Additionally, on Sundays, I went to the American Language Community Center (ALCC) in Queens. Since I came from the Dominican Republic, I was on a hiatus from college. Nevertheless, I knew that learning English was the only way back to it. Despite suffering from sleep deprivation during that time, I persevered until the day I received my admission letter.

As what happen in the supervision meeting every week, the students review their weekly activities and tasks at the beginning of the meeting. Thus, I reviewed my activities during the last week in the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh ICP which include contacting some clients to complete their applications, helping one family joining the Food Pantry Program and obtaining Sadaqah, and meeting with the practicum advisor.

Growing up, I considered school one of my safe places. However, this all changed in 8th grade when one of my classmates began sexually assaulting and harassing me. My sense of safety and security was replaced by an overwhelming sense of fear. Simple freedoms such as going to my locker became luxuries that I no longer enjoyed. The harassment both restricted my freedoms and affected me emotionally by inducing extreme anxiety. One classmate had the power to transform a place I had known and felt safe in for over six years into the place I feared the most. But even more disconcerting was both the lack of support and the inadequate concern to my safety and well being by the administration. The overwhelming decision to essentially push the entire case under the rug left me feeling ashamed and powerless. But, the abuse continued and it became clear I had no control over this situation.

What I’ve come to enjoy most about the sky, after years and years of gazing up at it, is that there are no limitations or boundaries. Beyond this planet, there is a magnificent space of experiences; unopened and unrevealed. I know there are endless possibilities when I look up at the sky and when I sit down to write. Writing gives me the same opportunity too creatively think just as the sky does. When I write my essays, I try to stretch my mind too creatively think as far as it can go just like I would when I would look at the sky. However, sometimes my mind can’t stretch that far and I fall into the trap of giving up. I get frustrated because it is difficult for me to analyze instead of summarizing or make my thesis as thoughtful and organized as I would like. Luckily, over this semester in English 1102, I have learned some useful tips to overcome these barriers. The greatest obstacle that inhibits me from improving as a writer is my tendency to give up, which is due to the struggle to organize a thoughtful thesis and analyze properly.

After reading so many books I have come to realize that the only time a character is sad or upset about something is because they aren’t able to share something that has happened in their life. For example, in the book Beastly the main character is popular and has everything he wants but isn’t able to share the fact that he won class president because his father isn’t ever there for him. But because he is so selfish he is turned into a beast and the only way to change back is to have someone fall in love with him not by looks but what is on the inside. He was always sad and depressed because he wasn’t able to find someone that would love him for who he really is, but when he finds someone he shares a connection with her and begins to express happiness. This book is a perfect example as to why human relationships equal happiness.

Every student deserves the best chance at getting the highest level of education they can, however, some students need a little extra support that others may not. A student, Axel, who is currently in my classroom has had a hard time keeping his focus and is often avoidant when it comes to his work. It has become clear that his avoidance becomes a distraction to the whole class. His behaviors currently include but are not limited to: rolling around on the floor during rug lessons, yelling across the room, walking around the room talking to friends, sharpening his pencil five or more times throughout the day, asking to go to the bathroom at inappropriate times, spending fifteen to twenty minutes in the

From the early moments of my childhood, I remember seeing my parents go to Russian Orthodox Church a lot. They would explain to my younger brother and me what was right and what was wrong from the religious perspective. On my 4th birthday, my grandma gave me the Bible for kids as a present, and I remember my mom reading it to me before going to bed. Back then it was just another interesting story that happened somewhere very far away. And yet mom would always find a way to tell these stories in such a manner so they translated really well into the reality we were living in. The more I grew up the more I realized that there was something missing in the big picture of my understanding of the world. I saw a lot of suffering that was happening everywhere, death, natural disasters, and I thought there must be a reason for all of it. Otherwise, the God does not care about any of us. I started to look for the answers everywhere: in the philosophical and religious books, movies, wise counsel from the people who lived a long life. I could not find the truth in church because the whole purpose of its existence with all its rules and restrictions, its idea of God who is something or someone out there, separate from us, and the only being that knows all the answers, was totally alien to me; mainly so due to my unwillingness to accept the fact of transferring all the responsibility for everything one does to someone else. I believed it to be a weakness to acknowledge one’s bad thoughts and deeds as something natural, as an external influence of the evil spirits. For me, it sounded like people who agreed with this concept simply wanted to escape the punishment for what they had done, choose an easy way out.

Many governesses before Maria considered the von Trapp children to be incorrigible. They hated the children for the mischief that they do and the children hated the governesses in return. Hate begets hate.