My Learning Experience

On December 17th, 2011 the person who was supposed to guide me through life, watch me grow, and teach me how to get through life, passed away. My mother’s death was certainly out of the blue and has impacted my family and I drastically. About 55.3 million people die each year and one of the most important person to me became a part of that statistic ( ) . My loss changed how I grew up, how things were in my household, and has altered my opinions on life. The experience of losing someone close to me and it being so unexpected has opened my eyes on how I should cherish the ones I love and not take life for granted.

My aunt whom just so happened to be one of my role models passed away. I was devastated. Not only was I confused, but I was lost as well. A woman I looked up to was gone forever. I missed a few days of school and starting falling behind on work. It took me awhile to process my aunt's’ death. I finally realized that I have to move on. I knew that she would not approve of me being sad. I started remembering all of the positive memories my aunt left behind. I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from her. Until this day, I carry what she taught me everywhere I go. I strive harder to make her

On July 10th, 2015 one of my best friends, Lexi Kretsch died in a car crash on her way back from Mankato. Personally, it was a really hard thing to go through and I would never wish that upon anyone, but it is the circle of life and she is in God’s hands. Lexi and I had played softball together for two years. After she passed away prematurely, it was difficult to play the game that brought us together. Jen Kretsch, Lexi’s mom, then started to contact telling me to play for Lexi and her legacy.The item that helped me the most was the Bible. I would take out passages that would pertain to me for that day and I would feel as if she was talking to me. I learned how to play/live with the hole in my heart. Feeling that emptiness made me start to

Whenever something bad happened, i tried to stay positive. I never thought about negative, I looked forward to things like school because I can see my friends or going to church because i felt grown up going up for communion.. That was until I found out my grandma had to go to the hospital to battle lung cancer. I thought that everything was going to be fine, until I woke up one night to overhear my mother crying in the room next to mine. The walk across the dark hallway felt eerie, I knew on the other side came bad news, but I still went. As I enter a chill went down my back at the sight of my mother crying on the opposite side of the room. I ask her what's wrong, what she then told me changed my life forever. I never expected it. She made me happy, she gave the entire family joy, she didn't deserve it, but it happened. My grandma just lost the fight against lung cancer. I go back to my room in disbelief. Looking back at that moment I think of the line “Please don't let my soul drown in luxury.” from “Luxury” by Jon Bellion. The song shows that if you only focus on the good things in life, then you can't cope with the reality of life. Similarly to the way I focused on the positives in life and when loss came around, I couldn't deal with

When I was 11 years old, my father died. Not knowing what to do with that reality and the emotions that came with it, I turned to my mother. My mother has always been my rock, so I was confident that she would put this entire situation into perspective. She explained to me how my dad had been sick for a while, and how god did not want to see him suffer any longer, so he called my father home. When I attended the funeral, it occurred to me that this would be the last time I would see my father. As the time of grieving progressed, I grew unmotivated, uninterested, and depressed. In middle school, I joined an after school program called Teen Hype. Teen Hypes's goal was to empower youth to be their very best self. After joining this program, my

My most significant learning experience this month included becoming familiar with facilitating a group that is not psychoeducational. One group that I recently started facilitating requires more preparation than the previous psychoeducational group I had grown accustomed to. On February 10, 2016, I started facilitating a new group and during this group, participants are expecting me to have the answers to specific questions they have. Through facilitating this group, I have had the opportunity to understand the true essence surrounding of group dynamics I have learned that each group facilitator has a different style of leading, and each participant has different elements they bring to the group as well. In addition, it is beneficial to grow professionally and have new responsibilities within an agency.

Although its not always easy, some days being worse than others, I keep persevering. I’ve developed life skills to help me overcome obstacles and I know I have built up the strength to be able to handle the worst of situations. It’s important to me to live every day to the fullest and never take time for granted. Life can be taken away so quickly, therefore its important to not leave any regrets, do what makes you happy, and always tell the people you love, that you love them. Although I don’t seem much different than my peers in most situations I encounter and most conversations I participate in, I will still always be the girl whose mom passed away. My experience is very meaningful to my life and I feel as if I wouldn’t be complete without sharing. The loss of my mom has impacted me significantly, shaping my personality and all other aspects of who I

I had begun to forget about the caring, exciting grandfather I grew up with and replaced him with the memory of my dying, abusive grandfather. At that time I acclimated to doing my homework, studying in a hospital room and having to repeat every 5 minutes who I was and why I was sitting next to his bed. My youngest sister was very young at this time and did not fully comprehend why her grandfather was behaving the way he was. Throughout this experience, I had to step up and take care of my family members in ways I really was not prepared to do. Having to take care of not only my grandfather, but having to be emotionally strong for my parents and sister. I soon lost the memory of my real grandfather and replaced it with the man laying in that bed that I did not know. My grandfather ended up passing away on February 25th, 2015. The was one day after my sister's birthday. Of course I was upset when he left us, but in my opinion he had left us a long time before that day. Having to stand up and take the responsibility of taking care of my grandfather and being strong for my family taught me lessons in life that some may never

One of the greatest challenges that I have had to overcome is dealing with the death of my best friend, Amreil Watson. It was junior year, April 27, 2015. Amreil and I were close and did almost everything together. We hung out every day, at school, after school, and even on the weekends. On April 27, I received a phone call from one of Amreils’ basketball teammates saying that he had passed out on the court and was being taken to the hospital at that very moment. I knew that no one could make such harsh, cruel jokes, but I still kept asking if it was really true. Later that day, my best friend passed away and I couldn’t feel anything but numbness. Days passed and I still felt so much pain that I fell into a horrible depression. It was hard for me to adapt to not seeing his face every day, and to find the motivation that I needed to go to school, and even just leave my room.

Describe briefly how any idea from the article relates to a specific learning-related event or experience you had last term.

There are two adversities that I experienced that have had the most impact on my life. They both involve family members passing away. Both, occurred unexpectedly in 2014. One is my Grandpa Ron (My mom’s dad). He was an amazing man that changed throughout his life drastically. When he was young he did not treat my grandma and mom like a man should. As they both faded away from him he realized what it was like to be pushed away and he had to change. He was involved with our family more and more as time passed. In the last few years he was constantly trying to get involved with my sports and see us as much as possible. I was closer than ever to him in the last three years of his life. He was the fun, loving grandpa that I enjoyed being around. One night my mom woke me up and brought me into my sister 's room and I knew something was wrong immediately. My parents told us that he had had a heart attack. They said he had died. We were in shock and were devastated. It was very hard on me because he was so

My mom is like a little ray of sunshine. She shines light on every inch of darkness. Back in 2013, our lives seemed so grim. My great grandmother had passed away, our uncle got into a car accident that could have been fatal and my dad went under the knife at the hospital for about three times due to complications. Just when we thought that things couldn’t possibly get worse, my grandmother fell and fractured her spine. Boy oh boy. I wanted to jump off a cliff! My mom was the one who pulled me aside and showed me the light at the end of the tunnel. “Your grandmother is in a better place. Your uncle, well, at least he didn’t die, right? And your dad is going to recover. You just have to be positive.” Those statements were more powerful than any counsellor and any friend. There’s never been a time where I didn’t feel better after speaking to my

Participations in small in-class groups which purpose was to accomplish a task assigned to us by our Professor, were the most powerful learning experiences for me. In developing common focus, as stated in Gitterman and Germain (2008), members need to establish group rules and also remember to “build on one another’s contributions, identify and focus on salient collective themes, invite expression of differences” (p. 174), as well as welcome opinions which are contradictory or different from the majority.

My overall experience from Pre- K to high school was good. Although experience with school did not start off on a good foot. I hated school as a child. Anytime my mom would drop me off to school, I would cry for an hour. In fact, I did not stop crying when my mom would leave me at school until I reached the second grade. School always made me feel anxious, no matter how many friends I made nor how many teachers I liked. Although the anxiety has not gone away, I have learned how to deal with it.

My Adventure to Foushee's Mill began on Saturday November 5th,  2017.  I had three classmates with me, their names were Hope, Joel, and Casey.  We have been told to go to Foushee's Mill by our Focused Inquiry professor, the week before, to take in what we experience. This was a definitely a new experience for me being only a Freshman in college, and changed how I saw my three classmates. This is what experienced personally on this adventure: