32Q Essay Payton J Vaughn
Payton J Vaughn
32Q Essay
12/18/17
Celebrations
One thing I would like to celebrate is my advocacy in my math class. I had forgotten to add my work to a document and that made me have a problem with my grade, so I advocated. I always advocated when my grade was down. I asked my teacher to update my grade, or to check what I needed to do to get it back up. If I had to make anything up, I would do it, but my teacher just forgot to update and put my grade in the grade book. I emailed her and she updated it the next day. I got really scared because my grade went from an A- to a D-, but it was only because my grade was not properly updated. When I had my grade updated, and it went up to an A, which made me happy that I advocated for the grade to be checked. Sometimes it could be you, sometimes I could be the teacher, either way I’d take care of what had to be done to update my grade.
Another thing I’d like to celebrate was my perseverance while playing my bass. It was hard bass line to learn, the song I was playing was called “Beat It”. I got it easily in the beginning, but it still frustrated me so much when I could not play the line correctly. It was absolutely maddening, and it made me so upset. Eventually with extreme playing, the blister grew larger. Even the blister hurt, but I still played through the pain too. I also had to memorize 6 or 7 songs depending on the time. Even though it took a long time and lots of extreme memorization, I got the songs memorized. Which helped me with not having to carry sheets around with me when I go to play. Also to not be embarrassed if I still needed to read my sheet music. Because I played so much I grew a large blister on both of my pointer fingers. Overtime they disappeared, and the only one that stayed was the one on my right pointer. It no longer hurts, but is an absolute nuisance. This is a strong showing of perseverance because it shows that even though that I was frustrated and maddened, I played and kept on going. Until the line and songs were mastered I tried and played almost everyday.
Last thing I’d like to celebrate is that I had a open mindset while going into Spanish class, even though it seemed to be really easy. I hoped it would teach me a lot more than past classes. I had a lot of fun, probably because I had a open mindset. I opened up and thought clearly “maybe this will go somewhere” or “this looks to be fun”. When some people just thought that Spanish was boring and had no point because it seemed so easy. But because I decided to have a open mindset, I realized that I’ve learned a lot and actually have started to talk around the house in Spanish. It has been fun, and I learned a lot and am excited to show my Spanish friends in Mexico what I’ve learned in their language. I really wanted to learn and talk with them, and hold a conversation with them in Spanish. I believe that my open mindset helped me enjoy Spanish class.
Areas For Growth
Something I really need to work on is procrastination in Biology. I forgot to turn in a lot of assignments on their due dates and I also forgot to ask for due dates. I had the assignments done, but I didn’t check or I either was not paying attention when she asked them to be turned in. I had forgotten two assignments, one that was due the day we got it, but I forgot to turn it in and I had to turn it in the next day. The other assignment we had to turn it in on Friday, and I also forgot, so I turned it in on Monday. I really need to work on this because the two that I forgot did not drastically impacted my grade. They could destroy me later on and or I needed to set reminders and or ask to see if or when I need to turn the assignment in.
Last thing I need to work on is socializing with my friends. This year I’ve not been there for my friends. Because of my absence they made bad decisions, or they hung out with new people who made bad decisions. Unlike last year, I’ve not been keeping my friends in check and I’ve not been helping them when they really needed it. I’ve grown closer to my other friends, but have grown farther from my much closer friends. I really should have been there for them because they are not just like friends but somewhat family. I should have been there for at least one of my closer friends, having him gone into depression, actually all of them have gone into depression at some point. I just needed to be there for them, but I hung out with my other friends, slowly losing my best friends. Which made me sad, I really want to be close with these people. Sadly, they had all made some bad decisions and I should have been there for my friends. To help them with their decisions. I should have been there to help, and I’ve grown farther from them, and I am sad to do so. Were still friends, but just no longer as close, they started hanging out with other friends.
Question
What was my best work this year? What did I pour my heart, soul, and blood into? Pondering this question, I believe that throughout this semester I’ve poured my heart, soul, and blood into the Humanities project "The Heroes Journey".