Reflection Paper

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.

scraping by, just to give you an idea. So in other words, If I plan to stay in Cali, it probably won't be in Frisco unfortunately!

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.

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.

The first of these pivotal experiences goes back to the day when ten year old me getting off my yellow bus and walking down my street approaching the silver fence opening my gate. I entered my house dropped my bag and ran upstairs entered the room she was laying down as soon as I walked in my mom said “I got some bad news”. At that moment my mind was fluttering with possibilities of what could it be. She said “ Your dad was incarcerated”. I didn't really know what to say at that very moment I didn't know what to think or how to act. I didn't see the severity of the situation until I realized he was going to be locked up in a cage for 5 years and then deported. I never visited him in prison because my mom didn't want me to see him. We mainly communicated through phone calls. Five years later when he was released I was already 15 years old. By than I had transformed from being a young naive, innocent girl. To an uprising young female, by the time I reunited with my father I was 17 years old and by than our relationship had become more strained.

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.

Before coming to Radford University, I was very nervous about having to write papers on a college level because in high school they drilled into our minds that it was going to be so much harder. The first day of this class was when I realized that I was going to be okay because I had a professor that was willing to help me and guide me through the process of constructing a good essay. Over the course of the semester my theses have improved significantly, I’ve learned different ways to approach writing paragraphs, and I’ve realized what essays are easier or harder for me to write.

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.

I’m a light skin woman living in south Mississippi. I do not personally identify with a race of people. However, my family identifies themselves as Caucasian, I debunk race identification as an arbitrary made-up system employed to categorize people. I believe we are one race, the human race. I more identify with nationality as an American.

Management is defined as, the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. Some people manage effectively but some manage ineffectively. Everybody has a different management style. My management style is Authoritative, which I will touch on later in my paper. Management is so important because a manager affects everything from production to their employees. A good manager realizes that their employees strive to reach the team’s goals but also individual goals. Another thing that makes a good manager is that they meet with their team individually to discover strengths and try to work on weaknesses. But also understanding their own strengths and weaknesses.

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.

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.

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed" (SparkNotes). My journey starts off on September 30, 1928, when Shlomo and Sarah Weisel gave birth to me, Elie Weisel, in Sightet, Transylvania. I have two older sisters named Hilda and Beatrice and a younger sister named Tzipora. Together, we live in a small village where my father runs a grocery store for a living, while my mom is the daughter of a farmer. Our family is well-educated and is hugely active in the community. Not only that, religion impacts our lives' tremendously. Religion is a powerful influence to me which taught me reason, faith, and trust in God. My life revolves mostly around my loving family, religion, community, and God. However, I was only fifteen in 1944, when I lived to bare the witness of the evilness of mankind. It all happened on a dark, gloomy, uneasy afternoon when I was eating supper with my family. There was an eerie sense in the air, but I did not understand why. My father had heard news from the council and he oddly had a worried look on his face. I was anxious inside, screaming, and dying to know what it was. Later, my dad told me that the Holocaust is occurring due to Hitler's understanding that the Jews were the problem for Germany's misery. After Germany lost in World War I, Hitler thought that it was because of the Jews interference with their bad luck. I was in disbelief. Furthermore,

I like to believe that there are infinite ways to “be human”, all revolving around our inherent desire to cooperate and coexist. We’re an innovative species, driven by our ability to contemplate and united by our need to give meaning to the world around us. Somewhere along this common quest to think in terms of a global context, humans have devised, and continue to turn to, a plethora of institutions be they religious, political, or otherwise. Today, my own collaborative human journey looks toward one institution in particular - Georgetown University.

My mother does genology for my family so I know that I am mostly a mix of African, Native American and not enough European to really think about. I look like a normal African-American girl and most people I come in contact with assume the same thing. To define myself without race I would say I am invested in the betterment of other peoples lives and performing in front of an audience. As a black woman I am affected mostly in my major, theatre, because being black is a factor in whether or not I am cast in certain roles. Personally it has been a rollercoaster going to predominately white-schools and still finding a way to love and appreiciate my blackness. I’m reminded of my race daily when I have to mix my foundations to find a shade that isn’t offered or when my theatre professors suggest I do a monologue from “A Raisin in the Sun’ and as of recently when I look at the news I am affected by the fact that the injustice in the world based on race could happen to me or a loved one in a heartbeat.