Personal
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The most significant challenge I have faced was my parents getting a divorce. I never asked my parents why it happened, I just accepted it and continued. I have been working with this challenge everyday but some days can be different. At the time my parents told me I was in elementary school and didn’t fully understand the concept and what the future would be like. As time went by I mostly stayed with my dad since I connected more with him and we liked similar things. When I do visit my mom, it sometimes isn’t for very long nor very interesting. She likes doing older things which I don’t like. Later both of my parents were dating people. My dad wasn’t happy, so there were many problems between them, with my brother and I getting caught in between. I didn’t care about it and didn’t ask any questions at all. I should start soon with asking my parents what happened since it has been many years. It has affected my personal life by my decision on wanting to go somewhere and both parents wanting to take me. One parent ends up taking me and the other says, “I thought we were going together”. It makes me feel bad for the one that doesn’t go, when they both should have. It barely affects my academic achievements since they both want me to succeed in what I want to do. My parents can’t afford living by themselves so they both live with their parents. Sometimes I need to print something out but I have to go to my mom’s house. So she comes and picks me up. But luckily, my parents and grandparents are accepting of this. My dad broke up with his girlfriend while my mom still hasn’t broken up with her boyfriend. My dad gets mad when he sees my mom’s boyfriend but not physically. This challenge has partly been overcome. I can overcome this challenge by being more straightforward and making better decisions. Also to be open and try new things. This can help the situations more settling.
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personal Response #2
One barrier I have experienced in life is pronouncing the letters s, r, and w. When I was very young, around 4 years old, it was hard for me to say words that started or included these letters. It made it harder for people to understand what I was saying. This made people not understand most of the things I said. I would get angry, stop talking, and walk out of the room most of the time since I knew what I was saying but not everyone did. My family would sometimes finish my sentences to help. When I was 4 or 5, my parents took me to preschool to practice my speech, and of course, the class name was speech. I don’t remember how often I would go. I would be in a room with one other person which was the teacher and they would show me a word that is on a card and I would have to say it. If I couldn’t or struggled, the teacher would make me say it slow or say the syllables. That’s when my family lived in Arizona, once I was 5, we moved to California. I went to Olive Elementary School from kindergarten through fifth grade. There was where I continued practicing my speech. Again, I don’t remember how often I went. I would improve every time I would go, but some words I would have to practice multiple times. I would still struggle with some words that included s, r, and w. But once I was in third, fourth, or fifth grade, I finished taking speech. I was glad to finish since I thought it was boring, but it was important for the future. I overcame this by practicing everyday and trying my best. Whenever I learn new words and pronounce them, I sometimes would say them wrong. But now, that rarely happens and all of what I did in speech was worth it.
PERSONAL RESPONSE #3
My greatest skill is being creative. Throughout my whole life, I have done many things like drawing, building with Lego, and playing games. Being creative is just part of life. I don’t draw that often, but when I do, I draw things that I like such as Lego and Star Wars. It’s fun to express my feelings about what I love and create my own things. Lego is one of the key components of being creative. I have had Lego, Duplo, and Mega blocks involved in my life basically since I was born. I can build whatever I want and play with them however I want. I have built small houses, villages, trees, and bridges. I can create stories with the Lego minifigures that can never end. Games are another key factor. I have played imaginary games, board games, and video games. My brother and I created an imaginary game when we were in elementary school and middle school. It’s about two people which we named Luke and Han that are well-skilled in different fields saving the world and the galaxy which exists in the Star Wars universe. I later switched to a different game played on our trampoline which is called Bad Company. It is a squad of four men saving the galaxy. These games lasted for 6-8 years. Each time we played, there were tons of situations the squad would go through. My brother and I would use our imagination everyday for 2 or more hours a day on a 14 foot trampoline. Board games have improved my creative skills by allowing me to make my own rules. Video games have helped by designing things that represented what I like. My creative skills have increased over the years by playing games, Lego, drawing, and etc. Being creative is important to me because it can help me for the future, helping others, designing something. For example, a career in engineering and computer programming.
Personal response #4
Everyone has a different way of thinking, nobody is 100% the same. Ways of solving problems can be different from some to most of others. I express my creative side everyday, with actions made throughout the day. I express my creativity by building ideas out of Lego, doing projects, creating thoughtful ways of doing things, and having different perspectives. I can express my creativity with Lego by building anything I want. I can build things about what I like and what I enjoy doing. For example, I enjoy Star Wars, military things, war, and some science fiction things. I can make a scenario about someone being taken hostage and a squad of men will have to come to the rescue, but they have run into some trouble. The environment can be different with desert features, forests, the plains, and the urban cities. Everything can be built the way I want it to be and my perspective on war and science fiction. Lego is a great place to build on creativity and expand one’s mind. Projects can help by being innovative and making a project different than others. For example, in physics, I have to create a rube goldberg machine. The goal is to do a simple task in a complicated way. My partner and I have to think of different steps that can lead to our simple task of scoring a goal. It’s not easy, but with the resources we have, anything is possible. We have thought of many ideas and made it with just our brains and creativity. The objects we have created has been organized by our perspective to complete our simple task. Everyone has different points of view on how to live life and enjoy it. My partner can have different ideas on how to complete the task of scoring a goal and I can have a different way to doing it. Once our ideas combine, the work is simple with the help of trials and errors. Creativity is a major help in life that can lead to success.
PErsonal Response #5
A person can not be known without an identity. Everyone can have different interpretations on how to define identity. Some believe identity is based only on religion, race, or gender. There are many things that represent my identity; my race, skills, family, capabilities, goals, and so on. Identity to me, means representation of yourself, how you show yourself to the world, and how you see yourself. I believe race and ethnicity plays a part of the major role in someone’s identity because that’s how others will perceive of you, it can lead to one’s culture and beliefs. Others’ points of view about someone can easily be made by their color of skin. Some might see an African American and say, he is a thug. They could say it because they are racist, jealous, or for any reason. There could be a lot of stereotypes just because of their race. Race can mean a lot to people. It’s a sad world we live in which is so prejudice. We are all the same, gay, black, white or straight, we're human. Race is important to me because of the past and what my ancestors had to go through and experience. It’s hard to believe that people would use others to do work and undermine them. My ancestors had to be slaves when they didn’t want to and forces to do unwanted work by everyone else. There are cruel people out there that don’t appreciate others, but I do. There are people who died for a matter of equality and rights for this country and world and still can’t be treated the same. Since my ancestors had to go through a lot of things to get my family where they are today, it means a lot to me. Things that influenced my identity is my family, friends, and people I don’t know. They could be people on TV that can influence me and my actions. Family means everything to me and is another part of the piece to my identity that brings me to where I am. Family influenced me because they have been here by my side when I needed them most even if I make a wrong decision. They guided me to focus on school, be a good individual, care for others, make good decisions, and be me. They guided me to like certain things or dislike things, like not liking vegetables and love playing games. Friends have influenced me by knowing the bad from the good and the good from the bad. They can help me go through issues that I don’t talk to my family about. They can help improve my skills in anything, from creativity to helping others learn how to say words. People that I don’t know can influence me by doing bad or good things to show me what not to do and what to do. They can also guide me to be more critical on a certain topic or subject. I think religion has an impact on people’s lives to a certain extent by the amount of their knowledge of religion. For example, someone who goes to church every service and helps out with church related events would have a larger impact on that person’s beliefs compared to a person who rarely attends church. To me, religion doesn’t have a large impact on my identity. Gender also has an impact mostly if you’re a woman. But to me, it isn’t a big deal in my identity.