Reflection Paper

My past writing life has allowed me to learn and grow and develop my voice. The more I write, the more I understand what my voice is and how to use it. Trying to restrict myself to the five-paragraph essay structure inhibits my voice and makes it increasingly more difficult to showcase who I am as a writer in the world. When I remove that structure, I believe my voice can be heard loud and clear. When I write, I can explain my thoughts and ideas succinctly, and I believe that allows me to accomplish what I am trying to do more quickly. I am better at communicating through writing, which has been and will hopefully continue to be a great asset for me as I go through life.

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.

Over the course of the semester, there has been numerous amount of areas where I believe I have improved in comparison to high school. What has helped me in my writing is the writing class and the in-class writing workshop. The writing class that is located in the Kremen education building has helped me with my writing greatly because in the writing center the person in charge teach us lenses and we apply those lenses to the writing, draft, or reading that someone brings in. The in-class writing workshop has helped me because other students get to read my writing. This is helpful because I get feedback from many students and they let me know what needs to be fixed. A new tool I have been using is They Say I Say. The book is very helpful because of the information and examples it provides such as the templates. I have been applying the templates into my essays and I have seen a significant difference.

Since the beginning of the semester, my writing has changed and evolved to accommodate and sustain longer essays. With longer essays, there is more room for in-depth analysis. Further analyzing a topic has led me to findings that I did not know existed. As I continue to write, I uncover addition and superior methods to approach my writing to the benefit of me and therefore, my audience. Throughout the semester, I have incorporated techniques to further my narrative throughout my writing.

Ever since I was born, I was raised in a Vietnamese household where my parents and grandparents always communicated to me in only Vietnamese. Before I was four years old, I slowly learned English from watching television and listening American radio stations. In my elementary school, I learned the American alphabet by memorization and repetition of the sounds and signs of the American alphabet. Then teachers started to make students learn new vocabulary and helping students make flashcards with pictures for visual aid. To improve my communication skills in English, my teachers often made the students work in groups, so students can learn from each other and practice their speaking. English is all about memorization and then applying what I learned to other situations. During the summer, I went to extra English classes, and my summer school teachers emphasized the importance of vocabulary and grammar. I learned how to diagram sentences based on their parts of speech and memorized how certain phrases must correspond to a set of rule to satisfy the English grammar. My teachers in high school tested my English skills through public speeches and numerous essays. During high school, I also went to Vietnamese school for four years every Sunday where they emphasized the importance of memorization and repetition. My teachers gave me homework to read, and I had memorize certain poems or short stories. They would test me by making me recite the poem or write down the short stories by

When I decided to enroll in this class, I had certain expectations I really wanted to achieve. I thought that my moral values and business ethics were set on an unchanged pedal, but I came to realize that I’ve learned so much in these past weeks that I was not even aware of existing. A lot of interesting discussions that had expanded my way of thinking, some them were emotional, and some of them created some doubts. With my experience with the community service volunteering program, I had a chance to get to know the community on a closer look, and because of the fact that this program was mandatory, I felt like it was a smart way of enhancing morality and social

Howard Gardner an American developmental psychologist once said, “There are hundreds and hundreds of ways to succeed and many, many different abilities that will help you get there.” As an early childhood educator, I live by this quote. No child learns in the same way; therefore, no child can succeed in the same way. It has taken me until college to figure out what my definition of success is and how to achieve it. I feel most successful when I achieve the goals I have made for myself. My goals are not only the deadlines and due dates, but also personal education goals. I want to be successful in everything that I do because it gives me pride to know that I have done my best. I will be successful in this class by using Mr. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences to gain insight into what will help me achieve my personal and professional goals.

This last trimester I attended the class, Introduction to College Writing. I enjoyed the class and enjoyed the challenges the class brought. I have always loved to write papers, but my grade did not always reflect my enthusiasm. I took honors classes most of my high school career, learning how to write a very specific type of essay, with strict structures and numerous restrictions. This class taught me how to write different types of papers, and put my personality into the paper. I am ready for English 102 due to the skills that I acquired during this course.

Growing up in today’s America is heartbreaking for most people, it feels hopeless, draining and tragic. It’s hard to feel like anything was will ever bring joy to your life again, especially if you’re one of the people who feel persecuted by the actions of many people. The recent distraught over my own ethnicity and race has caused me to reflect on my life and what has events impacted my own growth. Over the years I have learned how to love everything about myself that I once hated, yet that took 18 years of painful doubt. When I first wrote this list, I was 17 years old, Obama was still president and the world held a light of how. Whenever I feel insecure about my role in the future, I read this to help me realize that the world still

I grew up in a strong Christian family, who are loving and supportive and constantly point me towards God, reminding me that he is in control. my family has always been very involved in the church, growing up we went to church every Sunday and Wednesday. as a little girl, my favorite part of the week was going to church, to hear the bible stories and to see all my wonderful friends. I always thought I had a good relationship with God, but soon I realized that it was not genuine. I knew who God was and I believed in him but I never had a genuine relationship with him. I was only a young girl I did not fully understand the concept of giving my life to Christ. As I grew up, I started to realize more and more what it meant to follow Christ. When I was twelve years old, is when I realized how important it is to have a relationship with God and I wanted my own faith, instead of living vicariously through my parents faith.

Dive into the perils that is writing. All of us have been writing since we were young. Throughout this semester of English, I have learned how to write in APA, and I have learned how to use every detail possible to extend and expand my essays. The literacy narrative essay, research essay, and annotated bibliography have all been essays I have written this semester, and each one has been a different challenge.

There once was a time where I had no expectations on what was to come. Whenever I attempted to picture my future, I couldn’t. I did not know my career goals or any of my hobbies. Fortunately, the summer of 2014 changed everything for me. It was the summer I first volunteered to help with vacation bible school at my church. From that moment on, I had a fresh mindset and new goals. I permanently found an activity I enjoyed doing. Following that summer, I volunteered with VBS the three summers after. I enjoyed engaging with the children so much that I ventured into teaching second and third graders on Wednesday nights. Throughout this journey, I have been greatly inspired. Volunteering with children through my church has transformed me into a better and different person, through strength, career goals, and my faith.

I don’t really know when exactly I noticed that I was “different” but, about 8th grade. My education started in pre-kindergarten where showed my first signs of emotional, social, and communication disabilities, however it was just chalked up to being a little slow. In elementary school teachers and students verbally, socially, and physically bullied me. Students both my age and older would use “dodgeball to physically attack me. I was often made fun of for being slow or “weird” and the teachers themselves would often leave me out of class and would use me as an example of what not to be like. Finally, after being told by my principle in front of my parents that I was “never going to amount to anything” it was right about then when I was officially diagnosed with Autism. After that I left the elementary school and I went to three other schools where I could get help from teachers that were prepared to help. In some of the schools I was still bullied though not as horrible and others were perfectly fine, but I not still didn’t receive the help that I needed to become motivated and overcome “scars” left behind. During my early education mother helped me communicate a phrase that I felt perfectly describe how I felt “Spiraling down in a world that secluded those who were different”. After going to 6th grade I finally meet people who felt the same way as I did, however it was short lived as junior high came around my mom decided I should be home schooled. After a year and half

For the first nine years of my life, I grew up in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood or what others called the “ghetto”. Growing up I knew the skin color spectrum and seeing someone with a different skin color never fazed me, however, I failed to notice who was in the minority. Within my bubble of a community, everyone lived in similar small houses. Our style of clothing wasn’t much of a concern, and what really mattered was just owning something to wear, unless it was a birthday party or any party to be exact. During the week parents worked hard to the point of exhaustion. For children, it meant that we didn't see much our parents and when we did they were too tired for interaction.

There are 7 billion people living on this planet, and I can say that I have something in common with all of them. We have all faced challenges that have made us who we are today. For me, I have dealt with the challenge of my family’s coming to America when I was very young, with no English skills.My family and I come to the US from a refugee camp in Thailand when I was 10. My parents had fled Burma to the camp 14 years before and started their family there. I am the oldest of 6 kids - 4 of whom were born in the camp. As soon as we got on the plane, I could tell that our journey was going to be a challenge. My parents and I could not understand anything that was said, and I was confused by all the new and different food that we were served. When we finally arrived in Charlotte, NC after three days of traveling, nothing was familiar. Even the names of streets were different. I was terrified to start a new school. As it turned out, my first day was harder than I thought. I felt sad and alone and wanted to cry all day because I did not understand what my teachers or peers were saying. Every day I wanted badly to understand what other people were talking about. I spoke only Karen and Karenni at home and English was a very strange, weird, and difficult language to learn. I was placed in an ESL class but it was not very helpful and I was only able to take it for one year. I realized quickly that I would need to work hard outside of school to learn the English that I wanted to