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

Throughout the course of this semester, I have continuously grown as a writer. Prior to taking this course, I had little experience or knowledge when it came to writing. I used to struggle with forming my thoughts into writing, let alone a paper. I was never confident with what I wrote. My writing had no greater purpose other than the assignment. My writing process included: writing my paper, proofreading it, and turning it in. Once the paper left my hands, it also left my mind. Throughout this course we worked with others, visited the writing lab, wrote critiques, and we were able to revise our papers. I believe that all of this is has caused me to grow greatly as a writer.

In the article When the Mermaids Cry” The Great Plastic Tide by Claire Le Guern Lytle, she wrote “For more than 50 years, global production and consumption of plastics have continued to rise. An estimated 299 million tons of plastics were produced in 2013, representing a 4 percent increase over 2012, and confirming and upward trend over the past years” This means that more and more trash is added to the 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean. Almost everything around us is made out of plastic, this is later misused and ending in the wrong place. The Center for Biological Diversity wrote “In the first decade of this century, we made more plastic than all the plastic in history up to the year 2000. And every year, billions of pounds of plastic end up in the world’s oceans. Most ocean pollution starts out on land and is carried by wind and rain to the sea. Once in the water, there is a near-continuous accumulation of waste.” Our plastic is misplaced and it escalates from there. However, plastic pollution hurts us as well. “Trash in the water compromises the health of humans, wildlife and the livelihoods that depend on a healthy ocean;” wrote a non-profit group called Ocean Conservation. If our oceans are covered in trash, everyone that relies on the ocean is going to suffer. The effect is not just in our health, it also affects our economy. Ocean Conservation also

Attention Grabber: Every year, billions of pounds of plastic and trash end up in the world’s oceans, adversely impacting marine wildlife populations.

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.

An estimated 14 billion tons of plastic is discarded into our oceans every year. (Sustainable Communications, n.d.) At this moment in time there are 5 major areas where plastic in the oceans and travel to. These areas are known as the 5 gyres, areas in the ocean where the currents

In the world’s largest ocean, the Pacific, there is a steadily growing problem, a problem so big it is larger than Texas. This problem has been named the great Pacific garbage patch and it is only getting bigger as time goes on and more waste finds itself into the ocean. It is estimated that the great Pacific garbage patch holds around 3.5 million tons of garbage, of that 3.5 million tons most of it is composed of plastics (Wilson). All this garbage is kept in a big heap due to swirling ocean currents called gyres (Wilson). This plastic has a huge impact on the environment and the people who turn to the ocean for food and income. Since the discovery of the great Pacific garbage patch plastic has spread beyond the Pacific into other oceans

of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the exact size remains unknown. In addition, Doucette warns us that this patch contains more than ten million tons of waste. She describes the area to be a “fetid swamp of debris where tiny bits of decaying plastic outweigh zooplankton- one of the most prolific and abundant organisms on the planet- by a ration of six-to-one”(Doucette). It is now apparent that the amount of plastic particles residing in our oceans is damaging the natural habit and this trash is not going anywhere. Due to the currents in the ocean, plastic particles are

Over the course of the semester, I spent a wide variety of time working with high school students being trained for future employment through the program Project Search. Project Search is a program that serves high schoolers with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities, training them into possessing the skills to transition from the school system to the workforce. In the fall semester of 2017, five students from Blount County high schools who were interested in future employment took place in the program. Two students were female and three students were male. These students were in their last year of high school, around the age of twenty-one. Each individual had various abilities and skills that assisted them in building their skills for their future professions. The most observable skill was their ability to engage in social situations, which roughly ranged from having difficulty making eye contact to have little to no trouble in speaking. They also ranged in their abilities for a variety of other skills, such as staying in professional dress, completing work in a timely manner, and having a positive attitude during the workday. Over the course of the semester, I watched these students shape and develop their skills to prepare them for professional careers.

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.

“We wish you all a productive course.” A simple, dry line uttered by the teacher as I headed in for what I knew would be a grueling experience. A meditation retreat conducted entirely in “noble silence” and dedicated to finally understanding what enlightenment is. Noble silence, they called it, was the act of working as if we were alone in complete silence; alone I was in a secluded place, two hours north of Chicago amongst miles of flat cornfields where the roar of speeding cars overshadows the squawks of Canadian geese flying overhead. The place was the Illinois Vipassanā Meditation Center and it is where I chose to make my final attempt at achieving spiritual enlightenment. This silence was said to help get previous students to the goal of enlightenment. It was a goal that, at the time, I could barely define and had little clue to the gravity of what I was about to embark on. In the end, I would witness one of the noble truths of all existence: Impermanence is inherent in all physical and mental phenomena; all that arises in the Universe will surely pass away.

Within my time in Child Protective Services, I had experienced a consistent amount of lying, which to me was a new experience. I was forced to adapt by listening to, two almost completely different stories, then pick out the similarities, and fill in the blanks. There were several times when a couple would lie for one another but have stories so far off that it was obvious neither were being truthful. We also had a family rehearse a story so that all of their stories did match one another’s but the injuries and marks were not consistent with the story at all. I do not tend to lie often because I found early on that honesty really is the best policy and I have always been my friend and families safe haven so no one has ever felt the need to lie to me as much as I experienced with CPS. I had to break my trusting habits and listen to everything as something that I will be investigating later to ensure it was the truth. In the training I was encouraged to read people or at least give it my best attempt. Investigator Samuel Nunez was extremely talented in this aspect and consistently quizzed me to ensure I was gaining the skill. There would be numerous actions one could do, or even different tones in their speech, or even switching their speaking patterns that he would be able to notice and predict why the change occurred. I found that when one is too trusting when investigating they would often look incompetent at the end of the case. Often times this is before a judge when one

When I was around seven, I learned a valuable lesson of listening to your parents. Even to this day my parents would bring up that time to warm us not to do anything dumb. Whenever I am near the water, it reminds me of the stupid game that my brother and I used to do.

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority,” Colossians 2:6-9 (ESV). The words of the Apostle Paul echo in warning to the people of Colossae, ones stressing the importance of being firmly rooted in the Christian faith. The observations that took place in the classroom and on the playground lead me to believe in the importance of a strong Christian foundation starting at a young age.

Beginning in September 1981, I was cheese-bused (school-bused) from Steele School to Mayfair Elementary in Northeast Philadelphia beginning in second grade. Amazingly, we were accepted in the desegregation program, which allowed minorities to start seeking education outside their own neighborhoods. I thought that the desegregation process began in the 60s, but I guess these Northeast Philadelphia neighborhoods remained defiant on keeping us out. I remember the green application form and clearly written on top of it “Desegregation”. Not knowing what it meant back then, I was clearly blind to the fact that racism still existed and unfortunately still does. Northeast Philadelphia was the place where the Irish lived. Rowhomes lined the streets and were always kept clean on the outside. There was always tension about going to the Northeast for anyone who wasn’t white. Initially, we weren't welcomed from the neighborhood, but the school had no choice, but to let us in.