Reflection Paper

When I first walked into room 305, I was absolutely terrified. I only knew two of the other people in the class and it was the second class I had gone to. English was never my strongest suit and I had to go into an honors class full of smart, capable people who were surely better writers than I am. So many of them were much more eloquent than me, they were so well spoken. I didn't know if my writing would ever match up, and I hate to be considered subpar. I was really worried for all the peer reviews that I knew would eventually happen. I dreaded the first peer review for the literacy narrative paper because I thought that my paper would be a disaster. However, I learned throughout the course that I wasn't necessarily worse than everyone, I just wrote differently. Everyone writes in their own way but it doesn't mean they one style is inherently better or worse than another.

Also, people identify nursing home as a place of isolation, amidst being surrounded by other people. More often, people who acquire chronic diseases in their late years are unable to take care of themselves, thus requiring assistance from a skilled facility. Because of this experience, the elderly people will eventually develop a feeling of helplessness, because they lose their capability to take care of themselves. Most often, the activities they have grown to do by themselves are now being done for them by a stranger. These activities are done according to a routine to be able to accommodate all the other residents needs in the facility and also to meet the facility’s policies. Living in an environment that is under a constant supervision can make a person lose their feeling of autonomy, a significant factor to one’s self-fulfillment, especially in the old age.

My writing experiences in middle school and high school were pleasant and seem to mostly relatable to the other middle school experiences where I learned a lot of different writing styles in sixth and seventh grade. In ACOW5 it said that most students advance into middle school without being prepared for writing to multiple audiences or in different styles. This was true in my case as well. In elementary school we did not do a lot of writing and when we did, we didn’t focus on revision a whole lot. Teachers would grade my papers off of grammar mistakes and I feel like they weren’t looking at the content of what us students were writing at all. I seemed to be able to keep up with what we were doing and it also was well taught for the most part once I got into middle school and high school. When I was in high school, teachers always clarified what they were looking for from us and also provided us with instruction on how to execute certain papers depending on what we were writing. In middle school my writing experiences were pretty good too, because starting in seventh grade we were assigned five paragraph essays in our grammar course that helped strengthen our capabilities on grammar and context. I feel like in middle school we only skimmed over the different types of writing when the article speaks about the five different styles. My school did a lot of writing to show learning, writing to learn writing and writing to communicate, but we didn’t start to write to express or to write to create until I was in high school and it was for journal entries or as projects in language art classes. As far as self sponsored writing, I feel like I didn’t partake in it until I was in high school, but for writing to learn and formal assignments we practiced all the time.

As a Nepali refugee who had never heard of football until he came to America, the transition to play for my school team was not easy. I did not have an easy experience so I had to earn to play for the team. In this paper I will use ethos, pathos, and logos appeals to prove that I entered the discourse community of my High School Football Team by developing knowledge, demonstrating my loyalty to teammates, and creating bonds with the teammates who helped me to become a true football player despite knowing I am from another culture who do not speak the same language and do not anything about football. It is important for everybody to learn the experiences of others because there might be somebody out there who wants to be part of any team, but maybe they are afraid to step up to join that team thinking he or she is different among all. It doesn’t matter who you are, but it’s important that you become part of a team you are interested. You will learn to make friends, boost leadership as well as communication skills like I did by becoming part of high school football team.

I walked into second period on August seventh and was greeted by my teacher, Mrs Key. She was straight to the point, telling me, “This class will make you work; if you cannot handle it, get out.” I began to question my decision to take her class, doubts seeping into my mind as I knew myself too well as an awful writer. I thought, “Should I really take this class?” Ultimately, I determined that I could manage the work in the class and make it to the final paper. As a student with a four grade-point average, I expected the class to be effortless. However, the weekly papers combined with such a challenging class resulted in a constant bombardment of low grades, making me realize that I was very wrong. I started to put forth more effort in the class, and although I started the year writing atrocious pieces, I can proudly say that my work has improved significantly. I had a tough start to the year, struggling in the areas of my theses, introductions, transitions, and conclusions; however, my effort has been rewarded by their obvious improvement to further emphasize that even the most terrible of writers can experience success.

I can see it now. The day of judgment is before me, and I see the Lord standing in front of me for the first time. There’s nothing here to prepare anyone for this day, but all I know I can do is trust the Lord and know that he will take care of me, no matter what. At times I fear the day of the resurrection, but it also makes me really excited to see heaven and all of my loved ones that have passed away.

A challenge is an obstacle that one must defeat with validity that it has been overcome, while fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that something is harmful. No life-changing challenge worth conquering comes without a dash of fear. In my life, I’ve faced what I thought was a lot of challenges. From having a dad that left to be the first in my family to go to college directly after high school, I’ve confronted a lot of obstacles that have generated fear. However, nothing could prepare me to the fear that I faced at my first SEARCH retreat.

Education has always been something that I value in my life. It is the way that we can share knowledge with each other, and learn to develop as a society. Educating ourselves is the key to be able to connect with others. One of the most common ways we obtain learning experiences is through educational facilities. Every student in the classroom is there for the sole reason to complete the course to get closer to their graduation requirements. I, however, wanted more from my education.

When I was eight years old, my dad being to honor and asked to speak at a meeting for the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS) in Jerusalem. The event happened to overlap with my spring break. We packed our bags and in the morning we set out for LAX. After a rigorous and tedious flight, we arrived at the Ben Gurion airport. Zwe started the trip in Tel Aviv. After settling in to the hotel, we freshened up, and began to roam the streets. We had walked through the Shuk Hacarmel. The whole atmosphere was so welcoming. Everyone greeted us with warm hearts and open arms. My family felt right at home. The next day came about, and my mom had mentioned that we were going to meet one of her cousins, Sharon. Sheron is a consultant for the Israeli Defense Force and has dedicated his whole career to protecting his country. His passion for Israel taught me so much. Although our time was short because he only had a few days off, he taught me the meaning of being Israeli. Israeli isn't just being born in Israel, it means to alwya have a part of Israel in your heart. It is something I carry with myself and is one of my personal core values. After five days in Tel Aviv, we set out for Jerusalem. The night we had arrived in Jerusalem, my family and I could not contain ourselves. We decided to walk around and get to know our home for the next five days. As we were walking through the city, we began to hear the sound of music and people laughing and singing.

My education has had its ups and downs throughout the years. All the way up through eighth grade I got straight A’s and never really got into any trouble. Being a freshman, it was my goal to stay that way. I didn’t know how hard it would be being a freshman but I would soon find out as I continued my high school career.

In my early years of school, I had a general understanding of the math concepts I was being taught. Early on, I learned that I have a very specific way of learning, often needing more explanation and guidance from my teachers than my peers required. My understanding of math really began to fall as I entered middle school. I had no understanding of fractions and how they related to the world around me. In my school, I was taken to a separate room to get extra help on the subjects that I seemed to be struggling in a little more. Unfortunately, the focus was often to work on my literacy skills rather than try to increase my understanding of math. While in middle school, I hovered around the ‘not average’ but also ‘not below average’ in most of the subjects, which meant I wasn’t a priority to spend the additional resources. I was taken out of the program that gave me additional help on the subjects I was struggling in, and I was put back into the classroom, left on my own to try and comprehend the material. In grade 7, we began to use a program on the computer to learn our math, specifically fractions at this time. I struggled to learn math on a computer, as I needed real life examples to explain the material. I struggled to relate what a fraction was, to real world examples which decreased my understanding on the topic. I found out I could press a button on my computer that would pass me through the levels, making my teacher believe I understood the material. I wasn’t typically

Do you remember what your priorities were when you were eight years old? When I was that age (1965), I was in third grade. One of my jobs was to make breakfast on weekday mornings for some of my younger brothers and sisters. At that age, my primary goal was to figure out ways to get out of work around the house, so I could go outside and play with my cousins who lived in the neighborhood.

“We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us.” –Winston Churchill. I do remember my late grandfather narrating alluring anecdotes from his time in the Indian Air Force and a few of my late great grandfather’s heroics while he served in the British Army (1917-1946). I slowly started to develop a taste for war-time stories, military history as a whole which always intrigued me, possibly because of my family lineage. I am always curious to learn more about our past, about the mistakes made by our forefathers that however frivolous they may seem or sound but were enough to instigate a war.

The Medieval Era was a time dominated by belief. People lived with such great superstition and fear of God. Many people were focused not on their lives her on earth, but rather their life after death. During the Renaissance people became more humanistic and focused more on their lives in the moment rather than their afterlife. We can see these changes of Ideas by studying the works of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Thomas a Kempis, and Caesarius of Heisterbach from the Medieval Era and compare it to the works of Marsilio Ficino, Leonardo Da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Desiderius Erasmus of the Renaissance period we can see a very particular change in worldviews.

Blue and red lights flashed outside, while I saw my father being handcuffed; my mother and older siblings crying. I was seven at the time, didn't really understand what was happening but later I found out he was deported. My mother tried her best to raise me, “Sepa como pensar,”my mother would always tell me, which in English it means,“know how to think.” I was raised to face reality at a young age and to know that everything that you want in life comes from hard work.