Reflection Paper

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.

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.

Looking back on my education career in my life so far I have been one that is highly motivated to do well in class. Even though I am highly motivated to succeed in all my classes, I am not always highly motivated to be taking the class or completing 100 percent of the work assigned. This motivation may be connected to Carsten (2017) ideas of competence, relatedness, and autonomy and how they can play a role in a subjects learning.

Most people do not hit rock bottom freshman year of high school when they are only fourteen years old. However, my experience was a little different. School, friends and peers, and love had an unhealthily strong influence on my adolescent development. External forces like these ruled my mental health and changed me for the worse. I gave power to things out of my grasp which changed the locus of control in my life drastically. From this period of my life, I learned many valuable lessons and have since adjusted my values to reflect them. I no longer live a life where control is out of reach and external factors determine my happiness. Thus, I am an entirely different person now than I was when I entered adolescence, and for this I am thankful.

Growing up in a Christian home, I was surrounded by people telling me about Jesus and what he for me by dying on the cross and saving me from my sins. Not putting together that it isn’t just about the knowledge of God, but fully believing what His word says. However, in eighth grade I started to see faith differently. That winter, four years ago, the church planned on going to Hume Lake as they do every year. I had gone to this camp multiple times, considered myself saved as a result of knowing bible stories. On one eye-opening night, a speaker explained the difference between knowing the real Jesus with all your heart and not just your head. I felt a tugging in my heart that night and decided to give my life to Christ.

Recently informed that my admission has been rescinded has personally taken a toll on me. I am completely devastated to say the least. I never would have thought something like this would have happened to me. I felt as though everything I ever worked for has been taken away from me. I never imagined something like this would happen, especially so late. Before I started the process of filling out college applications I was completely unaware as to where I wanted to go for school or what exactly I wanted to do. For some reason Channel Islands caught my eye. I saw myself doing great things at CSU Channel Islands because it's a small school that's open to new ideas. I saw myself becoming more involved in the school activities, even starting up a fashion club. I saw myself showing my leadership skills not only to others around me but to my younger siblings in hopes that they too will follow in my footsteps.

Writing used to be a challenge to me. Trying to juggle the many nuances of writing such as ideas, organization, diction, and style was always a difficult process and finding a method of effectively handling this issue was a blessing to me as a writer. Writing became a formulaic thing to me. Whenever I was assigned an essay, ideas flow through my mind and I already begin to formulate what I want to do and how I want to organize those ideas. Being able to apply that formulaic mindset of intro, thesis with 3 main ideas, 3 body paragraphs filled with evidence and details to support the aforementioned main ideas, and a conclusion always seemed to give me a solid guideline. From there I would simply fill in the blanks with my information and as a result, the skeleton of my paper was made. My experience in an AP English Literature class during my senior year helped me write more effectively, find the perfect setup for different types of papers, and overall solidify my strength as a writer. Over the course of that class I learned how to be concise and direct with my words, organize the ideas of my paper to flow smoothly, and how to adapt to different styles of writing whether it be personal, academic, or a blend of both.

Everyone has at least one point in their educational life that has shaped them into the student or person they are today. For me, coming together after being separated as the “Germantown” and “Farmersville” kids for the first six years of school changed the way I built myself as a student. Becoming friends with new people, having new teachers for every subject, changing up the routine, and actually having to switch classes has taught me a lot of different things.

Last summer my cousin and I were enjoying a meal with our families in China. It’s been 7 years since I last saw my cousin. We are about the same age and my favorite memory of her was celebrating her 11th birthday. I remember my uncle and aunt sitting to my right and my grandparents sitting to my left singing happy birthday as she blew out her candles. It has been so long I almost couldn’t recognize her when I arrived at the airport 2 weeks prior. My mom receives a call and leaves the room to pick up her phone. She comes back 10 minutes later in tears. She breaks the news to the family and that our trip would be cut short. She was diagnosed with breast cancer. In the following week, we pack up our bags and head out to the airport. She had to start treatment as soon as possible. I knew I would become the man of the house to take care of my mother and brother, who has autism, while my dad worked in New York.

Michael Jordan said talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. This mentality is precisely the case with the compensation project. Individually, everyone could have finished the project however by working with others the project became more polished and finished quicker. In class, discussions with my group allowed me to gain exceptional insight on topics which previously I would have overlooked. Teamwork forced me to open up and look inwards to find how I was limiting the team and way to improve myself.

History allows people to look back on the mistakes and victories of people in past times. Throughout studying the first half of western civilizations, it is easy to extract several key learning principles for the Christian life. All of these principles have to do with the way a Christian should live their life. From the readings and discussions, I was reminded of how we should live our lives by viewing all people as God would view them, with radical faith, intention, humility, and commitment. Christian community is vital for carrying each other’s burdens.

Being in a life or death situation, or at least believing you, can radically affect how you feel about the world, and everything around us. To unknowingly shake loose your repressed feelings and thought, through the rush of adrenaline and reflection on your own actions, is a truly freeing experience. While such a freeing experience comes with a terrifyingly dangerous cost, I was able to find a refreshing outlook on life.

When I was growing up, my father tried his best to teach me the story of my people and our struggle. As a child, I did not believe that things were as bad as he said they were. I felt that the stories he told me were just that, stories of a bygone era. After all, I had plenty of friends of many different races, and never felt the sting of prejudice. As I have grown, I have learned that the stories that he told me were indeed true, and have shaped me into the person I am today.

Life represents a culmination of unforeseen events that eventually lead to success, and in the minds of the majority college symbolically defines the first major obstacle one must overcome to continue that journey. Every year, high school students across the nation eagerly anticipate the coming of their senior year and the rapidly approaching adventure to follow, but for many it simply reminds them of the heartache that is soon to come. My own personal experience began with the blinding influence hope cast over my judgement as inner levels of excitement exponentially increased and my emotions became steadily influenced by the people surrounding me. However, little was I aware that my future had already been decided and no external force would have the necessary impact to reconfigure my current course. In a sense, my ship had already sailed and was leading me in ironclad chains to foreign lands of which my presence was to be forced. College, to me, would soon become an indescribable burden where reality would suddenly become brutally clear and all hopes for a productive future existed upon the fate of an unstable pendulum.

Since 2011, I devoted my life to God, this happened when I get convert and be baptized to the church of Jesus Christ. I was still a babe spiritually. I learned many things in the Gospel and I felt the Love of my heavenly Father. I couldn't speak English back then when I joined the church, but through reading the scriptures daily, the Lord help me learn and understand the scriptures. Today, I can testify to you that I have read the bible many times from the start to the end. And most importantly, I teach the Gospel in English.