Self Reflection Paper

My story begins with me as a child. Growing up I was very close with my mother and other maternal and feminine figures, so naturally I sought them out in life and found comfort being around them. Throughout elementary school I tended to stick with the girls because this was where I found the most enjoyment. Once I got to middle school, this was still the case. Most of my friends were girls because I felt the most comfortable with girls and they were comfortable with me. I was very naïve at the beginning of middle school and I honestly don’t even think I knew what homosexuality is. This concept was never a concern for me, and never crossed my mind until others forced it upon me.

These standards of men and women are what bring about issues when people try to find their identity and don’t fit into the conventional ideas of society. Their personal identity journey begins with accepting themselves and finding the courage to “come out” to those around them. Some may be lucky and have open family and friends who are understanding of their feelings. Others face an uphill battle. For example, many religions are unaccepting of those who have homosexual or bisexual orientations. Therefore, if you are a devoted person of worship and have a difference of opinion it might be harder to express yourself. Today there are a wide range of services that can assist with the process. Pride resource center provides support to anyone who needs help when proclaiming their sexuality. Their mission statement is, “The Pride Resource Center provides resources and support for all CSU community members to explore and increase their understanding of sexual/romantic orientation, gender, and identity intersection.” (https://prideresourcecenter.colostate.edu/about-us/

Living in a small, conservative town in rural Illinois, I knew there would be many people opposed to my decision to simply exist as I would. However, I knew I couldn’t internalize this. My sexuality was like some sort of horror

I knew it would be a challenging for my family to accept me being gay. Being the only gay male in the family was not as easy as it sounded in my head. I decided to wait for the “right time”. As years passed, it took a toll out of

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.

I grew up in the suburban town of Brunswick, Ohio. Brunswick being a not-so diverse area with most of its citizens being Caucasian and have what some would consider having “old fashioned” values. I went to public school throughout my entire education. I had a typical family, consisting of a mother, a father and two sisters. Many would say nothing about my upbringing was “unique” or “diverse.” However, as surrounded by “typical” as I was, there is something different about the way I grew up. I had to adapt as a gay man in this, very conventional community. Throughout my life I was surrounded by the familiar man meets woman, they have children and start a family. Nobody in my family has ever been associated with the LGBT community and I do

When coming out as a gay individual, there is a desire to be loved and accepted for who they are by the family. When parents reject their child’s sexual orientation it often comes to kicking the child out of their home out of shame for their sexuality. In recent statistics, ‘Studies indicate that between 25% and 50% of homeless youth are LGBT and on the streets because of their sexual orientation or gender identity’ (Pflagnyc, Statistics You Should Know About Gay and Transgender Students). LGBT youth’s also have an increased chance of living in an abusive household with older parents due to a contrast of two different generations. The young generation of today is more susceptible to accepting LGBT members because it is a more liberal time period. However, the older generations are most likely to shun them due to biblical or principals that they grew up with. The more accepting parents are of things they cannot change, the happier the child often is after coming out to them.

The clocks at LIH appeared to be online and communicating to the WDM. I began my check to start data collection that is when I realized the clocks are not operating normally. I tried to reboot, initialize, and test both clocks though it appeared the clocks were in the process of successfully completing the task, it failed. Within the last two hours, I managed to get both clocks to complete a data collection successfully. I contacted Kari, LIH Coordination Center and request to have a TSO swipe their badge on both clocks located at the Checkpoint and Break Room, respectively.

did not fare as well as I expected on my portfolio. I enjoyed this class immensely too, including my professor, Dr. Susan DeLuke. I learned a great deal during the course as well as after the course from Dr. DeLuke, with the multiple homework assignments, and papers, and achieved very good grades under her guidance. However, applying it to the portfolio was challenging. It was a great deal to absorb, retain and get accurate in a short amount of time and I have a tendency to let tasks likes these overwhelm me. I know I could have performed better on my portfolio now. I went from an A in this class to a C+ because of my final portfolio. I thought I did well on it, and I did not. It was very disappointing results for both the student and Professor

After taking the self assessment on sexuality, my score came out as a 38. After analyzing where I got these beliefs from, I came to the conclusion that my family and my friend Kailey were the biggest influences. Growing up my mom was always an open book, not that she would come walk up to you, but she would answer any questions about gender or sexuality if you asked it. I never did but I had overheard her talking to my brother one time and she did talk to me and let me know one time that she was there if I had questions. My aunt is a hairdresser and a social butterfly. While going to beauty school and throughout her jobs at different resorts she has made many friends, quite a few of them gay males. My middle and high school years were spent around her, my family, and her friends. No one ever made it seem as though it was

When asked to write a candid and self-revealing journal about my experiences, thoughts, feelings and beliefs related to human sexuality, I became intrigued. Throughout my early life, my own sexuality has been something of considerable focus because I knew that I was different than the average boy. Later, I discovered this difference was called being gay, homosexual, a faggot, or queer. I remember these names stinging just a bit because I did not want to be different than other boys, I just wanted to be accepted and close to other boys. Consequently, my identity orbited around numerous fears, thoughts, and reactions by others and me to how I subsisted as a person because of what I discovered about myself during my journey through childhood,

Simply put, I have known that I’m gay since the moment I learned what the word meant. In my eyes, I never tried to hide this part of me from my family and my parents knew from a young age that I was different. Being the great parents they are, they occasionally dropped hints that were supportive of the LGBT community to show that they accepted me for who I was. Looking back, I’m incredibly thankful to have such supportive parents, however, I was still not able to fully accept myself and chose to deal with this challenge internally and never spoke of it. For a great majority of early teenage years, I tried to shut away this part of me, but, this method didn’t solve any problems.

When I realized that I was gay, I was faced with the harsh reality that I might be rejected by the society and treated as a pariah by my parents, family, friends and peers. I still shudder at the thought of the gripping fear of abandonment I felt and the countless nightmares that followed.

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.

One crisis in my life in recent years would have been when I was dating a controlling and verbally abusive guy in college who my parents did not like. One evening my parents came to my college to voice their concern and thoughts on our relationship. They were worried about me and the choices I was making. I was frustrated with the tension I felt from my parents and the guy I was dating. I remember telling them to let me make my own mistakes and decisions in life. Looking back on the situation I know they were intervening because they cared about me and wanted me to open my eyes to reality. I think it way they decided to respond was ineffective due making me feel isolated and judged by them. They showed up out of the blue and had not told me they were coming. I would have felt validation if they would have sat down with me to hear how my relationship was going would have made it easier to hear their advice.