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sophomore artifacts |
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Passage Essay
Transitioning from a freshman to a sophomore was a surprisingly significant change for me. As a freshman, I rarely thought about my life after high school. However, as my graduation day is approaching month by month it has become one of my current greatest worries. For the first time, I have started seriously questioning my future and my identity. Consequently, I have been more aware of the choices I make today and how they might affect me later on. I believe that I have developed many skills that will be beneficial to my future career. Overall, I have strengthened my identity and furtherly matured through new experiences.
Since I made my 10-Year-Plan last year, I have thought about whether the goals I’ve set for my future still reflect who I want to be. When I was a freshman I was sure that I wanted a job in the art field, however, I have realized that jobs connected to science, psychology, and math interest me as well. While I might be confused about who I want to be in the future, I’m glad that I’m taking my time exploring other options and making sure I make the right decision. An important skill that I am still working on to become who I want to be is public speaking. Ever since I moved to the United States I have been extremely shy about speaking English. I always worried about using the wrong words, forgetting what to say, and mispronouncing. The project that helped me work on overcoming my fear is the Monster Closing Statement. For this assignment, we were required to write our own closing statement about a trial, in which we either the prosecutor or the defense attorney. We worked in teams of 4 and together wrote a script in google docs. Finally, we presented the closing statement in front of the class, while competing with a team that wrote a closing statement that opposed ours. Although I was anxious while presenting I have learned how to be more confident in front of an audience. The project also strengthened my communication skills which are a crucial part of my 10-year action plan.
As I’m continuing to mature I am getting more familiar with my identity. One thing I’m unwilling to change about myself is my competitive nature. All my life I’ve always strive to be the best at everything that I’ve taken interest in. Being competitive is what motivates me to work hard, whether it is school, my hobbies, or who I am as a person. I want to be the best version of myself. The project that reflects on this part of my identity is the 2020 Beast Battle. For this school required project, we were challenged to think of a sustainable solution that would solve a problem in the food production or food distribution industry. Students who would come up with the best solutions would receive a cash prize. The Idea of competing against every student of Diamond Technology Institute excited me and I immediately knew that I wanted to win. My partner Luis Flores and I both worked very hard on researching, designing, and showcasing our idea while being motivated by our competition. As a result of our hard work, our project won the second place award. From this experience, I have learned to set higher expectations for myself because I can achieve more if I believe in myself.
I believe that who I am as a person is entirely my choice and it is my responsibility to change the parts of my identity to improve myself. How I choose to present myself influences how others see me, therefore, I want to make sure that I present myself in the best possible way. A misconception that my peers had about me in the past was that I was angry and mean because I wasn’t very social. In reality, I was only shy and wasn’t much good at starting a conversation. When I found out that people had this misconception about me I wanted to prove them wrong. I started socializing more with my peers as I realized that I can’t always expect people to come up to me first. A time in my life when I was concerned about how I would be perceived by others was when I met my boyfriend's parents. I didn’t want them to perceive me as overly shy and awkward therefore I tried to present myself as more confident and polite. I have realized important to be aware of the way you present yourself and that you can always improve who you are.
Throughout the next 2 years as a student at Diamond Technology Institute, I want to work on becoming more confident and comfortable with myself. Confidence is needed when overcoming your fears, challenges, and it leads to becoming more successful. I believe my confidence could be higher as I don’t always believe in myself when trying to do something new and challenging. Therefore, I wish to improve my confidence by stepping out of my comfort zone and trying to learn and get better at new things. Some obstacles that I anticipate experiencing in the rest of my high school journey are losing motivation, struggling to decide who I want to be, and deciding what college I want to go to. As of now, those things are still a mystery to me. Upon entering 11th grade, I wish to be perceived by my peers and my teachers as an independent, responsible, and ambitious student. To ensure that people see me this way I will continue working hard in school and make good decisions that will positively impact my future.
Before I become a Junior I hope to improve my habits and become more responsible. I plan on getting a job this summer to gain work experience and earn money. Although I would prefer a job that would only require me to do physical work, it is important for me to further my social skills. Jobs or internships that would help me step out of my comfort zone and get me closer to becoming who I want to be would require me to interact and talk with other people. Because most careers require social skills, part-time jobs such as customer service, front desk receptionist, and working as a cashier would look good on my future resume. General labor jobs and internships would also help me gain work experiences by helping me get used to working for longer periods of time. I believe that learning new skills from work would help me become more responsible and mature and would be useful for my future.
Overall, this school year I have furtherly matured and strengthened my identity through new experiences and challenges. I have developed new skills and am continuing to work on improving myself to become who I want to be. I have also shown hard work and improvement in school assignments, presentations, and competitions. Finally, I’ve thought more about my future and what decisions I need to make in order to be happy and successful. I look forward to seeing myself continue to improve and grow for the next two years as a Diamond Technology Institute student.
Since I made my 10-Year-Plan last year, I have thought about whether the goals I’ve set for my future still reflect who I want to be. When I was a freshman I was sure that I wanted a job in the art field, however, I have realized that jobs connected to science, psychology, and math interest me as well. While I might be confused about who I want to be in the future, I’m glad that I’m taking my time exploring other options and making sure I make the right decision. An important skill that I am still working on to become who I want to be is public speaking. Ever since I moved to the United States I have been extremely shy about speaking English. I always worried about using the wrong words, forgetting what to say, and mispronouncing. The project that helped me work on overcoming my fear is the Monster Closing Statement. For this assignment, we were required to write our own closing statement about a trial, in which we either the prosecutor or the defense attorney. We worked in teams of 4 and together wrote a script in google docs. Finally, we presented the closing statement in front of the class, while competing with a team that wrote a closing statement that opposed ours. Although I was anxious while presenting I have learned how to be more confident in front of an audience. The project also strengthened my communication skills which are a crucial part of my 10-year action plan.
As I’m continuing to mature I am getting more familiar with my identity. One thing I’m unwilling to change about myself is my competitive nature. All my life I’ve always strive to be the best at everything that I’ve taken interest in. Being competitive is what motivates me to work hard, whether it is school, my hobbies, or who I am as a person. I want to be the best version of myself. The project that reflects on this part of my identity is the 2020 Beast Battle. For this school required project, we were challenged to think of a sustainable solution that would solve a problem in the food production or food distribution industry. Students who would come up with the best solutions would receive a cash prize. The Idea of competing against every student of Diamond Technology Institute excited me and I immediately knew that I wanted to win. My partner Luis Flores and I both worked very hard on researching, designing, and showcasing our idea while being motivated by our competition. As a result of our hard work, our project won the second place award. From this experience, I have learned to set higher expectations for myself because I can achieve more if I believe in myself.
I believe that who I am as a person is entirely my choice and it is my responsibility to change the parts of my identity to improve myself. How I choose to present myself influences how others see me, therefore, I want to make sure that I present myself in the best possible way. A misconception that my peers had about me in the past was that I was angry and mean because I wasn’t very social. In reality, I was only shy and wasn’t much good at starting a conversation. When I found out that people had this misconception about me I wanted to prove them wrong. I started socializing more with my peers as I realized that I can’t always expect people to come up to me first. A time in my life when I was concerned about how I would be perceived by others was when I met my boyfriend's parents. I didn’t want them to perceive me as overly shy and awkward therefore I tried to present myself as more confident and polite. I have realized important to be aware of the way you present yourself and that you can always improve who you are.
Throughout the next 2 years as a student at Diamond Technology Institute, I want to work on becoming more confident and comfortable with myself. Confidence is needed when overcoming your fears, challenges, and it leads to becoming more successful. I believe my confidence could be higher as I don’t always believe in myself when trying to do something new and challenging. Therefore, I wish to improve my confidence by stepping out of my comfort zone and trying to learn and get better at new things. Some obstacles that I anticipate experiencing in the rest of my high school journey are losing motivation, struggling to decide who I want to be, and deciding what college I want to go to. As of now, those things are still a mystery to me. Upon entering 11th grade, I wish to be perceived by my peers and my teachers as an independent, responsible, and ambitious student. To ensure that people see me this way I will continue working hard in school and make good decisions that will positively impact my future.
Before I become a Junior I hope to improve my habits and become more responsible. I plan on getting a job this summer to gain work experience and earn money. Although I would prefer a job that would only require me to do physical work, it is important for me to further my social skills. Jobs or internships that would help me step out of my comfort zone and get me closer to becoming who I want to be would require me to interact and talk with other people. Because most careers require social skills, part-time jobs such as customer service, front desk receptionist, and working as a cashier would look good on my future resume. General labor jobs and internships would also help me gain work experiences by helping me get used to working for longer periods of time. I believe that learning new skills from work would help me become more responsible and mature and would be useful for my future.
Overall, this school year I have furtherly matured and strengthened my identity through new experiences and challenges. I have developed new skills and am continuing to work on improving myself to become who I want to be. I have also shown hard work and improvement in school assignments, presentations, and competitions. Finally, I’ve thought more about my future and what decisions I need to make in order to be happy and successful. I look forward to seeing myself continue to improve and grow for the next two years as a Diamond Technology Institute student.
