Reflection Paper

Reading and writing is a fundamental part of our learning experience. Reading allows you to enter worlds and experience things you wouldn’t be able to experience anywhere else and writing expands your knowledge not only on a specific topic but you learn more about yourself, you’ll be surprised how far your imagination can take you as soon as your pen hits the paper.

Writing has never been one of my strengths. Even in high school, when I took an AP English literature course, I did not enjoy writing papers if need be. Since I did not fancy writing papers, I never developed a systematic writing process. I would write the paper last minute and pray for an A, but college doesn’t work like that. When I came to college, I placed into music classes first so that I could develop those skills, thus leaving my core classes (including English) on the backburner. Although I do not regret this decision, having a two-year gap between English classes made it difficult to readapt. Instead of spending hours practicing instruments and music theory, I faced the challenging task of shifting gears to spend a majority of my time behind my laptop. How was I supposed to manage this new workload?

Honors 103 presented me an intellectual challenge this semester; It certainly altered many of the expectations and assumptions about writing that I possessed prior to enrolling in the course. Throughout the semester, I wrote a strong paper that I was particularly proud of, in addition to a paper that I felt was weaker, and numerous papers in between. However, the weaker paper highlighted elements of writing that I will continue to refine moving forward. I actively participated in and regularly attended class, which helped me absorb the most amount of information as possible. I did many assignments and activities that were especially helpful, informative, and useful, although there were a few assignments that I would modify. This class addressed all the course objectives, and specifically helped me better understand and achieve several. Certain aspects of writing remain which I would like to learn more about, which goes hand in hand with the message that I took away from this course.

When I was a child, my mother enrolled me in weekly piano lessons. These classes were not relaxing; in fact, it was like school. There were weekly music theory quizzes and at the end of the year, I had to have songs memorized to play in front of a judge who would authorize my completion of the grade level. That annual experience was torture for me because I had horrible stage fright just to play in front of one kind elderly individual. To say I detested the classes was quite the understatement. My brothers adjusted easily and enjoyed learning a new craft. I, however, had complaints going to class, leaving class, and throughout the week. I had no passion for the music, but I had no choice but to force myself to learn. The semester before beginning college, I graduated from the piano program. Years of surface level learning and not really absorbing piano material had finally come to an end. I knew in my heart I would never touch a piano willingly ever again.

Every school has these four main academic subjects: English, Math, Science, History/Geography. The class I like the most in my eighth grade school year is History. This is because we get to learn about different time periods, different people, different religions, and so much more. We don't just sit in class and read out of a textbook. We get to do fun activities to help us understand more. While we work, we talk to our teacher and have funny and weird conversations. We make fun of each other and have a good laugh. I'm always excited to go to History class.

In our everyday lives, we tend to categorize people because of their race, culture, their socioeconomic status, and judge people by their looks, age, ability, and gender. When I was working at a daycare past summer of grade 9, I met one Chinese girl who was around 4-5 years old. One time I witness her classmates making fun of her because she has a asian accent when she talks in English, her eyes are small, her mom works at a restaurant with low pay. Even during break, I would always see her sitting in a corner all alone, while others were having fun. Therefore, I took the courage to talk to her. Throughout the conversation, I realized that she was mad at herself because she has a different race from others, language barrier between her and her classmates and she was ashamed of her mother working at a restaurant because other parents work at a higher pay occupation.

She compared her life to a hurricane, a natural disaster that took everything in its path and destroy any shred of light in her life. Thus, the weeks turned into years of regressive behavior that led her to believe that she was not good enough to truly be herself. She only allowed herself to be her mother’s puppet, an item only used for public occasions, for if she ever became her own self, she would be outcasted. Yet, during those times I recall a shout in the cave of darkness, a murmured voice saying: Carpe Diem. Seize the day. My brother used those words when I was little —he was an extroverted fellow who vocalized whatever he felt because he was confident in whom he was. Nevertheless, I was an introverted, insecure, and self-conscious kid who was silenced by the public because they scared me. Fear ruled my actions. Fear ruled my mind. Fear ruled me; yet, my brother’s words rang a certain alarm in my head when I grew up. Thus, I realized that my individuality was stolen. My silence was bought, and my uniqueness was used as a weapon for society’s cruel expectations. I noticed that the world has so many beliefs, ideas, and aspirations that I wanted my own drum to beat in my own rhythm.

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.

Throughout my four years of high school I have attended many classes, sport events, and had many other experiences that changed my view on life. As i later look back on these experiences. I see how much they really changed my view on people, the way I treat them and about life in general. Over the years, all of these experiences and situations have built me up and turned me into the person that I am today.

My thesis for each essay slowly improved as I was assigned new papers to write each time. When we first started off with the personal narrative essay the first week of class, my thesis was not as good as it could have been. This is what it was, “I have experienced various situations growing up with the constant moving and having to restart over again and again. Leaving the family and friends you meet and grow to love is probably one of the hardest experience I have ever had in my entire life. Although I have moved plenty, I have also traveled numerous places to just visit.” Reading over this thesis, I can now see that it was not as organized and thought out as it could have been. It was not college level material, but when I look back at my final thesis, I can see how much I have truly improved. This is what it was, “I am against young children having cell phones because they are causing children

This summer has been quiet a busy time to say the least. Since I recently started a new job, I was unable to partner with an organization for my community engagement project. Instead, I worked with my neighbor, Betty, who is 78 years old woman who has recently transitioned home from a six week stay in a rehabilitation center due to a severe fall that prompted her stay. Betty was discharged after Medicare would no longer cover her stay at the rehabilitation center. When she returned home, she returned to home where her grandson stayed but could not relyed on. Betty was basically on her own at home, unable to walk, care for herself the way she was used to, and felt that her needs were not being met upon her return. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how my personal involvement has been service oriented, helped her achieve her goal, and ¬¬¬to critically reflect on the integration this course has provided in carrying out this assignment.

I spoke at length with Mr. Rife on 7/5/17. He reports that his pain level remains at a 7. He reports taking his narcotic pain medication twice a day. He said he is going to physical therapy. They are working on Isometric exercises and also heat and ice. He has a home program to follow. He reports he was able to attend his son’s wedding out west. I explained to Mr. Rife that my co-worker Chris Callahan would be meeting him at his next appointment on 7/10/17. The following is the update from Ms. Callahan:

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.

The Jesus and Christian Community class at Fresno Pacific University is a course where a student can further develop their relationship and understanding of the Bible while discovering a relationship with Christ. All incoming freshmen are required to take this course as a part of their general education requirements which focuses on the book of Matthew, his interpretation, and the historical background of the Bible. One of our assignments is to help incoming pupils understand a certain verse and its purpose. The section we will be focusing on is the in Matthew chapter 17 verses 14 through 21 in addition to the Sadducees and other related topics. Jesus has followers which are the general public and disciples who are the people who claim to be devoted to God called the Pharisees and Sadducees. The faction of the disciples called the Sadducees are a group that are not characteristically what one would depict as humble servant of Christ. They followed their own set of rules and had standards that were different from the Pharisees, the followers of Christ, and Jesus himself. As we continue this discussion, we will see the importance of the verse in Matthew along with the roles the Sadducees and the things that influenced their cultural views.

This school year had many concepts for me to learn. I had many ups, and some lows. I believe it will be very hard to top this year off. I had three ways I have improved throughout this year. Here they are.