Self Reflection Paper

As the oldest of three siblings, I have had to do many things for myself that my younger brother and sister had done for them. For example, I had to fend for myself in attempting to obtain a driver’s license even paying someone to teach me to drive and take me to the exam, while my siblings had help from my mother in all aspects of the process. Also, the loss of my father has resulted in conflicts with the remaining parent, my mother. These conflicts were the result of economic struggle and disagreements about how to spend the monetary benefits left from my father’s passing. The position in my family as first‐born combined with the conflicts in my family, have led to life‐changing decisions such where to live, and what careers to pursue.

My siblings are typically very helpful individuals, but on this special occasion my little five-year-old self was left to figure things out on her own. Through this I also learned that young kids don’t make the best of choices. Childhood decisions and experiences can stick with you for a long time alongside the lessons that you learned through these experiences. I offer insight into just a short example, but it has literally stayed with me,

Taking charge in their absence, I drilled into my younger siblings the value of etiquette, manners, chores and the most important of all, love in a family is what keeps it together as we journey through the ups and downs in life. Pushing my siblings each day to love each other, care about our parents and work together to make life easier for all of us, transformed them from being obnoxious rascals to loving, caring children who are obedient, excellent and amusing. Consequently, the persistence with which I pushed each one of my siblings, in the beginning, produced strength and compassion within them while bringing forth tenderness of heart and a bond of love between all of us that is unbreakable. My leadership as the older sister to my three siblings has influenced them in a way that encourages them to be there for one another, trust one another and help one another because they know they are stronger

As a younger sibling, I was compared to my brother throughout my life. Everything he did, I pushed myself to do the same. From joining the school band, to enrolling in the same

Growing up as the oldest of five children taught me valuable lessons such as taking on responsibility at a young age and becoming a role model for my siblings. My fierce independence derived from watching my mother raise us as a single parent for the majority of her life. The hardships of a broken family were rough at times, but in retrospect, they made me the strong-minded and hard working person I am today. I often took on responsibilities around the house and helped care for my siblings as my mother worked multiple jobs to provide for us. The challenges of my upbringing have allowed me to empathize easily with people who face a wide range of

Even at a young age, I could tell that my life was headed in this direction. Though my little brother is only 2 years younger than I, when we were younger, I would be sure to always take care of him. I held his hand, made sure he wasn’t hurt or upset, and cheered him

In this paper I plan to briefly review what happened during the counseling demonstration. Next, I will discuss two basic counseling skills that I believe I used well, and one that I struggled with. Finally, I will discuss the next steps I will take in order to improve my counseling skills.

As a product of a very big family, life with 10 siblings humbled me with patience and selflessness. Childhood was Cheaper By The Dozen. After my mom's first husband passed away, she moved from Peru to the United States with five of my siblings for a safer life. She then met my dad and added onto the family with five more kids-- including me. Mornings had messy breakfasts and fights over shower times, and of course over packed vehicles. The house wasn’t silent, but we survived together. One needed test prep, another a sport practice partner and someone always helped. Because there was such a large number of us; selfishness became a natural factor. Half of my older siblings grew up in Peru, with an entirely different childhood; filled with hardship

Throughout one’s life we are defined by a wide multitude of aspects. We are defined by moments, by people, by society, by our parents; this is just a short snippet of the pieces of our lives that help us- and society- to define who we are. The creation of who we are begins to form from the moment we enter the world kicking and screaming, as if we are already trying to stave off the misconceptions that others will form about us. For many people, including myself, the person(s) who raise(d) you have strong roots in the origins of our attitudes, values, and beliefs.

After just beginning a new position within the company I was asked to attend the Top Gun program. My initial thought was, “this is going to be overwhelming”. It has been an honor and a learning experience being placed into such a prestige program. I was very impressed with the first session we received in Greensboro. The instructors delivered content that was certainly relevant to the way a leader is received. The data that was collected from myself, direct reports and peers appeared to be extremely accurate to the way I was carrying myself. The data provided reports that relayed strengths, as well as weaknesses. The literature provided was to improve on both our strengths and weaknesses. We were also provided a coach who broke down the information and delivered feedback on the reports in a one on one setting. The coaches studied the data and also provided ways to improve. Along with helping us understand all the data. The information I received on the way I was providing leadership made me think about how I needed to try and change the way I was leading. The peer feedback were people from work giving their perception and also made me think about the way I was perceived by my peers away from work as well. Receiving the feedback from them and the way that Rich Clemson and their staff presented it reflected a personality that I felt had improved from the last time I had taken a similar evaluation. We were presented with several areas that need improvement and a systematic

Its easy to forget the significance of independence and how different our lives would be without it. I had the opportunity to meet a young woman, who was in the middle of the hardest time of her life. She had just had all four of her extremities amputated as the result of sepsis, due to rejected pregnancy complications. After spending three helpless months pinned to a hospital bed, she was brought to the semi-acute hospital I was shadowing, where I saw her every day for four weeks. Her initial physical impairments, stoping her from lifting what remained of her arms of the bed, was just scratching the surface of what she was dealing with. She was suffering immensely mentally as well. Over the last three months her independence had been striped from her, and she was completely dependent on the aid of the hospital staff and her therapists. The therapists working with this patient showed the highest level of professionalism through communication and accountability.

I am now approaching the conclusion of my college career and starting to adjust to work life. This is a period of self-reflection and an attempt to put everything I learned into perspective. During this period of my life, I have been constantly thinking and contemplating my future. I feel very anxious yet nervous during this time while I am adjusting to this new stage of my life. When I was in High school my life was very structured, because I could be very dependent on peoples help and I obviously still lived with my family. When I went to college, I had to break away from that feeling of dependency and start the adjusting to adulthood. In college there was more responsibility and I started to become more independent. This was a crucial step in my life but choosing a career is going to be an even bigger step. It is a bigger step because; I have to start structuring my career goals and family goal for the future. At this moment all I can think about is my career, and how I can I keep improving myself for work life.

I am Ethiopian. I was born and raised in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia. I belong to the Ethiopian community, not only in Ethiopia but also here in America. Finding Ethiopian friends who share the same interests as me, understand our culture, fluent in our languages, and plan on returning back to Ethiopia someday, has always been a struggle for me. Most of the Ethiopians who I meet are Americanized. When I was studying at Northern Illinois university, I was blessed to have a small circle of Ethiopians who grew up there. Spending time with them made me feel secure like I actually belonged. Lucky for me, I am also a part of the African community. There are 54 countries in Africa; however, there is an unbreakable bond amongst Africans around the world. We share the same identity and have the utmost love and respect for our continent and the people living there.

To begin I want to state that I had passed all my classes and thus I was allowed to leave early at 1:15 pm. The first week we came back from spring break though, our main goal was to start raising money as fast and efficiently as possible. Starting the week of April 24th my main job in the classroom was contacting and social networking our project, while still helping to fundraise. This week I also created the GoFundMe page and shared it on all my existing social media accounts. My main p.m. goals that week were more centered around linking our prototype ideas and sketches, going to Home Depot for materials. On Friday the 28th, my teammate Laurel and I had to go to set up a conference with City Councilman Mike Bonin. Instead, we set it up with Field Deputy Anna Kozma for the next week.

I believe my testimony is best described in three parts: the beginning, the growth, and the maturity. My walk with Christ began when I was little. I was always raised in church and surrounded by a Christian environment. I got baptized at the age of 10 when my grandfather passed away, and during that time of grief, I decided to take more serious my walk with Christ. The reason I took that decision was because I saw how of a godly man my Grandfather was and I want to be like that. As a result of that, for the past 10 years, my relationship with God has grown every week. I think my faith grew stronger when my father had his first heart attack in May of 2012. I was fifteen and I did not know what was going on. I felt helpless and confused because nobody in my family would tell me what was going on. So, the only person I could rely on was God. Then, four years later in July of 2016, my faith grew even stronger when my father had his second heart attack. This time it was different because he was not in Texas, he was in Pennsylvania. So, this time feeling of helpless due to distance, I needed to rely on the Holy Spirit that my father was going to live. Therefore, I believe, going through these experiences made me get closer to God and grow as a Christian. Finally, I believe I have matured in my faith by serving God. For the past, seven years I have served in my church’s children ministry. I started at the age of 13 as a teacher assistant, then when I turned 18 I became a teacher of