Reflection Paper

There are multiple reasons I am where I am today and why I’m going where I’m going. I have struggled in school ever since I can remember but without the people that I have had in my life I wouldn’t where I am today. But as I will talk about the teacher have played a huge role in the reason I am able to be where I am today.

Monks and priests were often considered the scholars of the middle ages. St. Francis wanted to “follow the doctrine and walk in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1). The brothers studied Christ and their religion whilst scholars of the renaissance spent their time mastering the arts and sciences. Francis Petrarch referred to his disciple as “well endowed…[has] a mind that is keen and flexible; and a memory that is rapacious, and capacious, and, best of all, tenacious…[and] is scarcely willing to acquire the necessaries of life” (1). Petrarch’s pupil decided to study poetry like many other individuals in the renaissance did. Scholars of this time period were seen as well-rounded intellects who exercised their skills in the form of music or

“Writing an essay is not difficult! I am actually great at it.” This is a common statement that I would formally say, and even believe. In the past, I had never felt the need to thoroughly revise my essays before. In all my past essays, I would work intensely on my first draft and then just turn the essay in. I never spent too much time re-evaluating my writing decisions before turning it in. This process had worked well for myself in the past, and as a result, each essay I turned it would be an easy “A”. When I signed up for EN100 I figured that it would be just like the other easy English class that I have taken. I assumed that I would work on an essay, turn it in, and then earn an A on it, but this was not the case. When I signed up for EN100 I figured that I could continue my previous essay writing methods, but that was quickly disproven. When I received my first graded essay, I was unsure why I earned anything but an “A” on it. It soon became clear to me that I was going to be required to change the way I formerly wrote my essays and spend more time with correcting them.

When I was born to about the age of 8, I kept to myself and enjoyed playing alone. I didn’t want anyone else’s input on what I had to say, because I was happy with the choices I was making when I was playing with my toys. My mom told me I would sit in my room and play with my stuffed animals and My Little Pet Shop toys for hours on end just talking away, but when it came down to group settings I would just be quiet. I have been trying to figure out why that is. I do not remember being to told be quiet or to listen. I just did it. I enjoyed listening to others, because I was learning from their words. I already knew what I thought and didn’t see the importance of sharing that.

I was one of those people that always had a competitive mind set, whether it came to being in class or outside of it. I had always wanted to be on top and would do anything to get to that spotlight. It was the beginning of seventh grade, this would the first year that I would be able to participate in a school sponsored sport and be a part of a team, which was something I looked forward to for quite a while. I had been running cross country since I was in third grade, but never competitively. Before seventh grade, I ran for a program outside of the schools league for two years, training hard everyday with my teammates. I had not participated in any races that meant anything in serious, nor counted towards anything, so I did ever experience true competition. Through running everyday, I learned new techniques to add to help aid my running and use my body and mind more efficiently. Not everyone made the team, so having some background in the sport and being in shape gave me an advantage over other runners. Soon after trying out for the school team, I was told that I had what it takes and made the team. This meant that I had to start going to practices every day and working out with the new team, something that I was already used to from my previous training group.

Do you know why you are still overweight? Do you understand the reason why you can't lose weight or not be able to keep it down and when you do you just jump back the other side plots as a bonus a few extra kilos you don't want?

Going into this term, I wasn’t sure what to expect. My initial plan did not include taking this course this summer. Somehow, Troy ended up changing the schedule and it worked out for me. At least, I thought it was going to work out for me. This term has been very interesting. The classes that I took are PSY 6645 Evaluation and Assessment and CP 6642 Group Dynamics. This paper is going to be about my experience in PSY 6645. I’m going to discuss concepts that were new to me, experiences that caused me to think differently, if I feel as if this course is meaningful, and what can be applied to my professional practice.

Throughout the years I have had several life-changing events, but the one that affected me the most was going up to boundary waters in Minnesota. We went into the wilderness for 5 days with no electronics and limited food. We would have to quickly paddle in our canoes against the strong winds and then slowly and carefully carry our heavy backpacks around in order to get to our next campsite. We had to endeavor all the pain that was brought to us.

As I was trying to figure out the perfect way to sum up this semester, I stumbled upon this quote by Steve Southerland, “I believe in process. I believe in four seasons. I believe that winter's tough, but spring's coming. I believe that there's a growing season. And I think that you realize that in life, you grow. You get better.” This quote really spoke to me because this semester has not been a walk in the park. As a class we all went through some ups and downs. We were challenged in a number of ways but in the end I think we all really “grew”. For many of us we experienced a tough season of life, but I think as a class we really worked together to lift each other up and come out successfully.

Over the course of the semester we have done numerous writing assignments in order to help us dig deeper into topics that we might not have known about previously and to improve our writing skills. I have never been an excellent writer. I’ve had trouble planning out where details would go in my past papers. However, there has been a clear improvement in my writing when looking back on the work that I have done in this class.

A Hindu spiritual teacher once shared, “This world is your best teacher. There is a lesson in everything. There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise” (Sivananda). When I take this wise advice and reflect on the past year, I see many lessons that have helped me become a more mature and responsible person. Many of these lessons have been through my English course with Mrs. Frohoff. In this class, we’ve had many units, such as the types of love, writing assignments, including many 1-page reflections, projects, such as a memoir and a PSA, and presentations on themes like identity and critical world problems. It has been through our memoir assignment, the large number of deadlines given, and the presentations required that I’ve been taught valuable lessons about who I am and how to grow as a person throughout this school year.

After reviewing this assignment, I learned that my approached was going to be a little different from what I was accustomed to doing with other assignments. In previous assignments I referred to a project that my company had completed and had control of from beginning to the end. In that scenario we were in control of and responsible for how far off we were from the schedule/task, cost, and projected finish time. Basically in this assignment the manager was there from the beginning as well; somewhere along the way the project manager’s focus has shifted and we have been given the responsibility to re-evaluate the situation and determine which direction should be taken to get back on track with cost and time. In this scenario the project manager has lost sight of his scope and time schedule.

I remember where it all started; I sat on the guard stand of an empty pool with a nagging mother texting my phone and time to kill. It was the summer before my senior year, the summer before I would make the most important decision of my life so far. I stared down at the blank list of schools in front of me; where to start? I visited a few campuses, and my mother put a few bugs in my ear, one for her alma mater, and the other for two historically black schools (HBCUs). I wrote the first down, placing it low on my list, but there was hesitation with the other two. My entire academic career have been in predominantly white environments; how would I navigate a majority black space?

I’m a light skin woman living in south Mississippi. I do not personally identify with a race of people. However, my family identifies themselves as Caucasian, I debunk race identification as an arbitrary made-up system employed to categorize people. I believe we are one race, the human race. I more identify with nationality as an American.

My mother does genology for my family so I know that I am mostly a mix of African, Native American and not enough European to really think about. I look like a normal African-American girl and most people I come in contact with assume the same thing. To define myself without race I would say I am invested in the betterment of other peoples lives and performing in front of an audience. As a black woman I am affected mostly in my major, theatre, because being black is a factor in whether or not I am cast in certain roles. Personally it has been a rollercoaster going to predominately white-schools and still finding a way to love and appreiciate my blackness. I’m reminded of my race daily when I have to mix my foundations to find a shade that isn’t offered or when my theatre professors suggest I do a monologue from “A Raisin in the Sun’ and as of recently when I look at the news I am affected by the fact that the injustice in the world based on race could happen to me or a loved one in a heartbeat.