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

When I entered into high school nearly four years ago, my motivations were purely academic. I was there to get the best education I could, and to maintain a standard of scholastic excellence. Of course, the only way I knew to measure my own “success” was through concrete and quantitative means; this led me to spend my Freshman and Sophomore years fawning over test scores, GPA points, and even fractions of percents in my grades. I know now that this strategy, while effective in getting me what I wanted (or at least thought I wanted), actually left me missing a huge part of what it means to be truly educated.

As a believer in Christ grows they become more aware of the gifts that they may have been given by the Holy Spirit. It is up to us to use the gifts for the right reasons. We are to allow God to work through us to edify the body of Christ. I see a lot of so called Christians these days using what is supposed to be a spiritual gift to use for ministry of the local church using them for self-edification. They are looking to see how much praise they can get instead of how much pleasure God will get through their service. We as believers need to be able to discern between what a spiritual gift is and what virtue is. A spiritual gift is related to the ministry of Christ and a virtue is related to our character. It is very easy for someone to blur the line between two and get confused. Our spiritual gifts are not the same for everyone, where all who believe should show the fruit of the spirit. To some believers the Holy Spirit gives the gift of serving, teaching, administration, and so on. But in the end it is not what spiritual gift we have but how we use it; this is what makes the difference between edifying the body of Christ or oneself.

Later that year i got baptized! As time went on i kept going to church but then i started to meet new people in high school and lost track of who i was and what i wanted to be. It was a really rough couple months for me i was really lost. One day i was walking down the street and my neighbor had asked me why i haven't been at church and thats when i realized i needed to go back even though i was afraid . I went back that weekend and felt the happiness that i had been missing. At this time is was around early June and church camp was on the 26th. I knew that camp was full and there would be no way i could go so i began to get sad. I had told my mom why i was upset and she insisted on me just emailing them to ask if there were any spots left, so i did. The very next day my mom got an email say there was one i repeat just one spot left because someone had dropped out. If that wasn't a sign of god i don't know what is. So that year i attend camp and i finally understood what it meant to trust Jesus all the way not just part

I had many questions about the city when I first came to Pittsburgh. I grew up in a small town, so my view of the city was based off television shows and music. This gave me a skewed perception of the city. I have found that one of the most challenging parts of moving to Pittsburgh is figuring out what role I will play. Fortunately, I have some time when it comes to figure this, and other complex aspects of city life, out. Since I have began this course not only have some of my questions been answered, but I have explored more important questions that I had not previously been asking myself. Questions like “How will I play apart in the evolution of Pittsburgh” and “What gives me a sense of belonging to Pittsburgh”. I still have much to learn about Pittsburgh, but what I have certainly learned so far is that it easy to watch the city move past you, but it takes much more to become a part of the city.

I visualized the entire process in my head: the light coming from the sun, getting trapped as heat because of greenhouse gases instead of leaving the earth and thus heating it. I started to raise my hand to answer the question and got about halfway before it happened. My hands started trembling. My throat dried up and my voice decided to take a vacation off to who-knows-where. I wanted to keep going, but the anxiety wouldn’t let me. Defeated, I put my hand down and let someone else answer the question. I had major speech anxiety.

I went to church at young age with my parents in the same church they had gone to for a while and so did my grandma. However, church was different at that age compared to now. I remember going to Sunday school at a young age and it was all coloring and crafts. We always had a coloring page or a small craft that we worked on that related to what the teacher was talking about. It was to keep us busy and it's hard to remember many of the lessons we learned in Sunday school. It was somewhat similar to Jr Church. It became easier to pay attention in Jr church we still did a lot of crafts but I

“Because transition is a process by which people unplug into a new world, we can say that transition starts with an ending and finishes with a beginning.” In many ways the previous quote relations to my transition of transferring from Saint Peter’s University to UNC Charlotte. I had to “unplug” from many things in both my academic and personal life, as a result of, transferring to another school.

From birth I have lived in the same little community, a quiet place where literally everybody knows everybody. Come hunting season or Sunday morning the quiet dead little community all of a sudden looks like a metroplex. Everyone shares a common love for God, family, and the great outdoors; these core values have directly shaped me into the person I am today. I have been raised up in a very close knit family, and being that we all live on the same county road, every Sunday evening without exception my whole family gathers together to enjoy a good home cooked meal, and the time spent with each other.

During my first year of highschool, I was held to a higher standard, than my previous years at middle school. A lot of the teachers at my school were preparing us for a college level experience. One teacher, especially, was pretty hard on us and she was the English teacher. The first major paper that was assigned was a research paper that had to discuss a historical event and how that event impacted the world. Since this was my first major paper and I was used to this kind of writing, I ended up writing specifically about Alexander the Great and the wars that he fought in. I specifically detailed the battles and what was going on, but I did not talk about how it impacted the world. My teacher offered to proof read the papers two days before the deadline so we could fix any critical errors. I showed her my paper and she said that if I turned that paper in, I would receive an F on the paper. I always strive to get good grades and to pass with all A’s, so when my teacher said this, I immediately realized how important writing could be and I started to develop my writing skills. All of the factors that were in this situation, made it a rhetorical situation.

A fundamental lesson that stuck with me through my early years of childhood was the importance of loving to write. There are many instances that have influenced me as a writer today, including going through an immense amount of stress from AP classes, writing my own poetry, taking the 5th grade writing exam, and applying to colleges. I developed a love hate relationship with reading and writing and this was strongly influenced by my teachers, parents and tutors throughout the years.

I lived for God after that striving to follow him and praying that he would constantly speak through me and I would be a light for him everywhere I went. It was not until 2015 that God transformed my life and my views of him. During that summer I went with my youth group on a missions trip to Duffield Virginia, this week was a real turning point in my life. We stayed out in the middle of these woods in cabins with no ac, lights, or phones, I believe that not having these everyday objects honestly helped me build relationships not only with my peers but with God.

When taking this course at first I was very hesitant on continuing with it because it went against everything I knew growing up in my home. I’m very glad I continued the course because it has offered me so much in opening my eyes on how life is for people who are women, different race, their sexual orientation, gender, and disabled. I never really realized how much I was limited too growing up as a girl, I was expected to be dolce, pretty and quiet. While boys were expected to do about whatever they wanted, they could get dirty, be loud, and cause a ruckus. I experienced this as a kid; my brother wouldn’t get in trouble for doing certain things. If I tried to do what my brother did, I would get in trouble and be told, “A young lady shouldn’t be doing that”. It irritated me so much because I didn’t know why my brother could get away with certain actions and I wasn’t.

When I was around seven I was sitting at my kitchen table and emotions just started taking control over me. For this was the moment right before I was officially saved. I had talked to my mom earlier that day, and she came out to sit with me around mid-afternoon and we were talking about the Lord and what it means to be saved. I could feel the spirit within me, and I knew this was the right time to commit my life to God. My mom asked me “Do you want to be saved?”, and as I overflowed with excitement, I couldn’t help but cry knowing how strongly I was loved. I responded back to her “Yes”, proclaiming my love for the lord. That is a day I will never forget.

As I was first raised as a child, the biggest influential individual in my life is my mother. Nonetheless, she comes from a background from how her parents raised her to treat others in the same manner as you would like to be treated. With this standard, this has been the “golden rule” throughout our family today. By belonging to a Catholic Church since I moved back to the state of Pennsylvania before entering the start of 2nd grade, I attended St.Ignatius of Antioch in Yardley, Pennsylvania.