Semester Reflection Part 2

Describe your vision for yourself in pursuing higher education.

I envision myself studying and learning new words, and reading progressively higher level books in order to expand my vocabulary as well as open my mind to new things. I also see myself writing a lot more notes that have more details, descriptions, and notes to self in order to make sure that I don’t forget anything, and to make sure my notes actually prove to be understandable to myself in the future. I also picture myself asking more questions and participating in more discussions in class to make sure I truly learn the material, and develop my own ideas through deliberating.

What in the world do you care about and what are you doing about it?

I care about the international world, and the people in it. I want to travel the world for its varieties of cultures and history, and have been going on One World Week trips in order to actually do this. I don’t just go for fun, though that is a part of it, but I also go because I find the different people, history, and culture to be so interesting and beautiful. In order to go on these trips, I have to work to earn the money through fundraising, and if I want to travel again next year, in fact, I have to find a summer job, which I’m looking for.

I want to break the stereotypes we have about other countries, because I’ve noticed that a lot of people I talk to say that just about every country hates Americans, and it’s really a downer, and I’ve found that it’s not really the case. In Kurt Vonnegut’s A Man Without a Country, he said “the highest treason in the USA is to say Americans are not loved, no matter where they are, no matter what they are doing there.” I couldn’t agree more. I’ll admit, I used to say this, but that was mostly because it was what everyone else said. But after travelling, I’ve learned that I really just believed what I heard around me, no questions asked, and I want to continue to break the stereotypes we have about other countries. I want to bond our broken world.

While traveling, I learn so much about the culture and history, and it’s so fascinating to me that I want to share the knowledge and use it in my life. This goes the same for the people I meet in these places. I love talking to people I meet in other countries, because their way of thinking is so different, and gorgeous in their own ways. However, I’ve found that I tend to forget a lot of details. So, to counteract this issue, I’ve decided that from now on when I travel, I will write notes on what I learn, and who I meet right after I’ve listened. I want to share the knowledge I gain with the world using psychology (which I’ve been learning about throughout my life, and plan on studying in college), photography (I make sure to take a lot of pictures of what I see), and writing.

In a nutshell, what I’m doing is getting early experience with the world, finding out how I can continue to gain experience, and sharing my experiences with other people in conversations, debates, stories, and pictures.

What is a quality in a classmate that you would like to develop in yourself?

Most of my classmates have the same problem I do, but in other classes I’ve seen that many people don’t have this same problem. I want to be able to raise my hand, and ask questions in class without the fear of seeming ‘stupid’, or like a burden to the class. I want to speak my mind even when the class is silent, as I’ve seen many people in other classes do. I’m tired of being afraid of what other people will think of my thoughts and curiosities, and I want to be able to voice them without as much fear in the near future so I can really learn to the point that I understand in everything that is being taught.

I also have a classmate who has an excellent memory, which has proved to be extremely beneficial, and I would like to commit things to memory more as well.

Beyond grades, what motivates you to work hard at school?

I’d have to say that my competitive spirit, my desire to help those around me, and my desire to better myself are things that greatly motivate me to work hard at school. In academics, if there’s something that seems like a competition to me, I get consumed by it, and try much harder to do better. If I happen to ‘lose’ this competition, I just realize that I could have tried harder in certain aspects, and continue to compete.

I think my desire to better myself connects to my competitive spirit. If I am competing with someone (whether it be a classmate, or someone I’ve learned/heard about), it’s probably because there are qualities in them and/or their work that I want to see in who I am and what I do. In other words, in a way, I compete with people who I find admirable, and I want to work hard to be the better person I want to be.

I enjoy being of help to the people around me because it makes me feel like I’m changing something in them, and making their life easier, which gives me a sense of accomplishment. So, in order to be able to help and explain things to the people around me, I like to work harder to understand the content so that eventually, I can explain it to the people who need help with it.