PERSONAL REFLECTION #1
I’ve had some challenges more significant than the one that I’m going to describe right now, which has to do with my face. The challenge is self-love and I know that everyone goes through it, but I had an encounter when I was about 8 years old when the side of my lip was shredded and insecurities kicked in. I lived in a house with my family and two aunts who had their own little family, so the house was full. We had a family dog even though it was technically my uncles dog because he was the one who purchased her. Her name was Cookie and she was a Pit bull. There's tons of stories about Pit Bulls being dangerous and attacking people, but we never felt that way towards Cookie. She was a loving dog and pretty quiet. One day while my sister and cousin and I were playing outside, my sister and cousin went back inside the house while I remained outside. I went to the side of the house where Cookie was laying in a hole that she had dug up. I began to pet her and I laid my forehead on hers and she bit me. She had bit the side of my upper lip with some cheek. My face felt instantly numb, but I knew what had happened. My stitched area wasn’t that big, but I now had a scar that would be on my face forever. I remember the next school day, having to walk in class and go out to recess with kids staring at me like I was some creature. I was 8 years old and I didn’t like my appearance. Im now 16 and although my scar is not as visible, it’s still there and noticeable. This has changed my life in knowing that a scar on my face does not define my beauty that I have within. I am not as ugly as I made myself think in 5th grade. I’ve grown. Self love is an important and healthy mindset and day by day I am learning to have it.
PERSONAL REFLECTION #2
Having the opportunity to go to school is something that I’ve taken advantage of. I’m thankful for public schools existing because not everyone has the money to take their kid to a private school. Not everyone is given the opportunity to go to school and i'm fortunate to be able to. My mother woke up everyday for the three daughters that she has in order to take us to school and that shows motivation to have us receive an education. I’m taking advantage of being able to get an education by completing my high school years and going to college. Not mainly for myself (although it is mainly benefiting me), but for my mom. She has allowed me to do as I please with my life and I plan on doing that with the opportunities that I’ve been given. I’ve also been given the opportunity to have free and reduced lunch, therefore have two free SAT tests. Tests are very expensive and being able to take two free tests are beneficial to me and my family. So many educational opportunities have and continue to be given to me and I’m trying my best to take advantage of all of them because not everyone has the ability to just apply for college. I’m just a regular person with my own problems, but that should not stop me from applying. I can do whatever I believe I can do because I’ve been given all the right guides on how to succeed in life. It’s on me to prove that I’ve taken full advantage of these opportunities that not everyone receives.
PERSONAL REFLECTION #3
My greatest skill would have to be painting. I don’t consider this as a talent because I’m not that great. I believe that i'm fairly good. My mom says otherwise. She thinks i’m great at painting because that’s what moms do, they think that you’re better than others because you’re their kid. I kind of like that though because even though I don’t think i’m all that great, it’s a boost of confidence from her. I sold one of my paintings once for $15. I never thought I’d see the day where I’d actually sell one of my paintings. It was nice that someone saw more than what I did. When i was little, I always drew pictures and my family noticed that that was the only thing that I enjoyed doing so they bought me a pack of recycled drawing paper that I rarely used because the paper was not of my liking. The drawing was minimal after that. I only began painting when I started high school, I don’t remember why, but I did. High school made me feel differently about the world and I needed to express it. I had journals just like every other girl in her teenage years, but painting made the creative and imaginative side of me come out. That was my painting. I did that. I wanted it for myself for safe-keeping because it was one of my favorite paintings, but I sold it anyway. I felt that selling a painting that I greatly wanted to keep was a step further to making myself known to the world. Days after selling her that painting, her friend commented on one of my paintings asking if I painted this certain canvas. I knew she had heard about me from her friend whom I sold the painting to and that made me feel good. I was beginning to be known for paintings that I only did for my own contentment.
PERSONAL REFLECTION #4
I describe my creative side as artistic and imaginative. Usually in a project where a visual needs to be included, I don’t do what everyone else is doing. I try to think of the most creative thing possible for a unique visual. For instance, the final project for my Physics class involves the creation of the Rube Goldberg machine. Our task is for us to create our own Rube Goldberg machine and present it to the class. The purpose for the machine is to have complex steps in order to complete a simple task in the end and most people are creating machines to flip the page of a book or to knock something down, but my task is different. I have created mine to have a paint brush rotate to paint the stem of a flower on a canvas. When i presented this idea, my teacher noted that it was different and that he had never heard of that before. I knew that machine was unique and I'm excited to present it because the project has a little bit of me in it. I came up with this idea because I love to paint, so incorporating what I enjoy doing made it unique. I do consider myself different from others; a lot of people can say that about themselves. We may do the same things, but each and every one one of us is individual. I am my own person and I’m creative in my own way, no matter the few similarities i may have with others.
PERSONAL REFLECTION #5
I am a short, secluded, opinionated, mixed race teenager living amongst the lives of other short, secluded, opinionated girls in this world, but I am different. I am me and they are them. I believe I am this height because my mother's side of the family is not that tall and she herself likes to be all to herself and is very opinionated. The mixed races in me are from both my parents though. I am American, but I am also Chicana, Filipina, and Hawaiian. They may not be fully in me, but I know they sum up who I am. My mother is a full Mexican woman, born in Oaxaca, Mexico, and her side of the family is whom I’m closest to. I don’t have connections with my father’s side of the family, so Mexican culture is all that I’ve been revealed to. I’ve accustomed to having family gatherings with lots of food made by my aunts and grandmother and having to work hard in today’s society because not everyone likes you because of the color of your skin. Racism is still alive and those who don’t believe it are ignorant. I’ve never been a victim of discrimination, but my stepdad has, my mother, and my sister. I know I don’t necessarily look Mexican, but I feel the anger they must’ve felt when it happened. No one wants to ever be in that type of situation, but they did. It wasn’t that serious, but that just goes to show that there are still rude and racist people in this world. I’m proud of who my family is and where they came from. They came for a better life. For their future kids and themselves. I can’t imagine where I’d be or if I would even be alive today if it weren’t for the sacrifices my family had to do. My mother has gone through so much in her life that I can’t even imagine how she must have felt, but she’s here and alive and loves her daughters so much. She made such difficult decisions in her life that affected who we are today and I’m proud of her. She’s a strong woman whom I look up to very well. She wants a great life for her daughters and will stop at nothing to have us be something in life. I’m grateful that she wants us to succeed and cares about what’s going on in our lives because that makes our bond so much stronger. She has a great impact on how I am today and will be in the future because she’s the reason that I am doing all of this for. Everyone is doing something in their life for some reason- their grandmother, themselves, or their kid. I’m doing this for my mom. I’m going to be a somebody for my mom because she deserves to be appreciated. She deserves to know that her sacrifices made a difference in the long run. I am me, but I have a part of her within me as well.