Reflection Paper

I got the first and the only job I applied for: a minimum-wage job, bagging groceries. With about ten minutes of actual training, I was thrown, unassisted, into my first day of work. The entire time, I was nervous and unsure of myself in this new environment, carefully trying not to damage peoples' eggs or hit parked cars with my line of carts.

Most people do not get a job their freshman year because they are not yet fifteen, do not want one, or are worried about grades. However, when the opportunity presented itself, I was ready to get my first job working as a salad girl at a family restaurant in Washington.

In November of 2016, I decided I needed to obtain a job. In winter, I didn’t participate in any school activities, so I thought instead of wasting my time sitting at home, so I should pick up a job. I asked some friends and family about where I

Last summer my friend told me he was working at an automotive shop and I, took advantage of asking my friend to ask his boss if I could work there without experience. Luckily enough the boss said “yes”, and eve since then working at the shop has really benefited me in choosing my major and enhancing my skill level and gaining experience. This is a great opportunity to me because I found out what exactly I wanted to do and enjoy doing it. Working at the shop taught me a lot of valuable traits that soon added value to my life such as patience, hard work, dedication, integrity, and responsibility, for example taking a car apart takes a lot of patience and dedication because it's not easy to take apart. Learning these traits has helped me at school and overcome struggling situations such as family problems and money issues.

Throughout this course we have done many writing assignments. These assignments have helped us learn how to use certain tools to help improve our writing skills. After learning these tools, we should be able to analyze other work, write a clear and organized essay, apply our own experiences and also using research to support our essays. My writings throughout this course have come to show that I know how to use these tools to make my writing better and more effective.

My regional minister stopped the conversation and asked me, “What did you just say your metaphor for ministry was again?” I replied, with a confidence I had not felt since I left my high school math classroom, “An empowering agent of hope.” Although a year had passed since writing about my metaphors and functions for ministry, for the first time, I claimed my metaphor to my ordination council not quite a month ago. Through the lens of empowerment and hope, and within my current context of rural congregational ministry, this semester of considering issues for women in Christian ministry revealed insights, questions, and growing edges.

Life represents a culmination of unforeseen events that eventually lead to success, and in the minds of the majority college symbolically defines the first major obstacle one must overcome to continue that journey. Every year, high school students across the nation eagerly anticipate the coming of their senior year and the rapidly approaching adventure to follow, but for many it simply reminds them of the heartache that is soon to come. My own personal experience began with the blinding influence hope cast over my judgement as inner levels of excitement exponentially increased and my emotions became steadily influenced by the people surrounding me. However, little was I aware that my future had already been decided and no external force would have the necessary impact to reconfigure my current course. In a sense, my ship had already sailed and was leading me in ironclad chains to foreign lands of which my presence was to be forced. College, to me, would soon become an indescribable burden where reality would suddenly become brutally clear and all hopes for a productive future existed upon the fate of an unstable pendulum.

All Americans are eventually exposed to politics. As evidenced by the 2016 Presidential Election, many Americans take politics extremely seriously and hold many different social and economic views which mold their political stance. These factors, as well as other familial and social relationships, contribute to the process of political socialization by influencing their political views. My father and I both have experienced formative events in our lives which have piqued our interests in politics. Differences between these two events exist due to the condition my father and I were born in. I was born into a middle-class household which was educated and informed about politics. However, my father was born into a low income household and his family was uninformed about politics. Despite these differences, one similarity between our two experiences is constant: both of our formative events came in the form of Presidential Elections. From what I have witnessed throughout following the last three Presidential Elections, I conclude that most Americans obtain their interest in politics by following Presidential Elections.

From the day I was born I’ve lived on a farm. It’s always been there, like an extension of the house I grew up in, we have a barn, sheds, fields, and pastures that are all as familiar to me as the different rooms of my house. Despite all of these familiarities though, I’ve never defined myself based off of where I came from, I was the same as everyone where I was from we all grew up in similar places and did most of the same things. I was actually the outlier because ever since middle school, I knew that I didn’t want to live in a place like that when I grew up, I knew that I wanted to move on to something else and that I would probably want to go to college. Almost ironically though these things that I never used to use to define myself, are some of my favorite things I’ve done and learned in my life so far. They may seem kind of stereotypical, but small towns having massive senses of community and farms giving you a certain kind of work ethic, are most definitely true. The importance of these things was instilled in me at a very young age, and I firmly believe that they’re what lead me not only to choosing Hamline, but that they helped me figure out that I want to go on to law school after my four years here are over. I’ve been asked so many times now that I’ve lost count if I miss being on my farm or how weird it is moving to the cities from such a small town, and honestly the squirrels are not a good substitute for all the animals my family and I have back home,

Being in a life or death situation, or at least believing you, can radically affect how you feel about the world, and everything around us. To unknowingly shake loose your repressed feelings and thought, through the rush of adrenaline and reflection on your own actions, is a truly freeing experience. While such a freeing experience comes with a terrifyingly dangerous cost, I was able to find a refreshing outlook on life.

What does it mean to be human ? i was a loser full of weakness. I guess were all born unbeknownst to the world and we learn the lessons we need to along the way i was about 10 or so when reality first hit me, i lost the friends closest to me i was broken them memory of them forever dwindling upon me. About 60 percent of my junior high school experience as a freshman entailed sobbing and finding ways to miss out on school. Day after day this similar routine seemed to repeat itself over and over again sob and feel sorry for myself drown myself in the what i was feeling. Until i took a long hard look at myself what i've become to what i use to be and i got tired.. tired of all of it , tired of feeling sad tired of all it, tired of feeling sorry for myself. So i picked myself back up on my own two feet without the help of anyone and so began my eternal struggle to overcome my weakness.This moment, these moments are what impacted my life the most.

A fundamental lesson that stuck with me through my early years of childhood was the importance of loving to write. There are many instances that have influenced me as a writer today, including going through an immense amount of stress from AP classes, writing my own poetry, taking the 5th grade writing exam, and applying to colleges. I developed a love hate relationship with reading and writing and this was strongly influenced by my teachers, parents and tutors throughout the years.

Life can change in the blink of an eye. One moment it is smiles and laughter and the next moment it is tears and feelings of hopelessness. I never fully comprehended the reality of this life idea until I was coming to the end of my freshman year of high school. Just like any other day at school, he was radiating with joy and happiness. However, that night many lives changed. It was apparent to me and many others that the radiating joy and happiness was fake. That specific night, May 2, 2017, his joy turned to sorrow and his happiness turned to an excruciating pain. On this very night, my innocence was stripped away and my outlook on life was drastically changed.

Language. A big part of everyone's life since birth, and for me one of the biggest adjustments I had to face at the age of six. Until the age of six I lived in the Dominican Republic, my homeland. I cherished this country like the holy grail and I could never Imagine leaving it behind. Until then, the only language I would speak was Spanish, the language I was raised on. I was very shy as a young kid, I didn't talk as much as I would now, I didn't really interact with a lot of people besides my close friends, which I did everything with at the time. It was great that I could easily communicate with them through Spanish, this would all change when I had to move to the United States. I had to learn English in order to be a successful as a young kid here. Some kids would take years to learn English, some kids weren't even interested at all, but I knew that I needed to learn it as efficiently as I could, I was not all that excited to learn a new language. I was already used to my first language and was afraid of failure when it came to learning english. However, just one teacher changed the way I viewed learning English and helped me enjoy the learning curves of a new language.

There once was a time where I had no outlook on my life. Whenever I attempted to think about my future, I couldn’t; I didn’t know my future career goals or any of my hobbies. Fortunately, the summer of 2014 changed everything for me. It was the summer I first volunteered to help with Vacation Bible School at my church. From that moment on, I had a new mindset and new goals. I finally found an activity I enjoyed and that I loved doing. Following that summer, I volunteered with VBS for the summers of 2015, 2016, and 2017. I also ventured into teaching second and third graders on Wednesday nights. Throughout this journey, I changed. Volunteering with children through my church has transformed me into a better and different person.