What Fictional Character Did You Look Up To?

I honestly can’t think of a fictional character that I looked up to.  I never really read to many fiction books, I preferred non-fiction.  I didn’t really have any interest in superheroes, comics, or Star Wars or anything like that.  There were plenty of people I looked up to and wanted to be like but I don’t think there was ever a fictional character I especially liked or looked up to.

I did like Reggie from the TV show Rocket Power.  Rocket Power was an animated kids show on Nickelodeon about four friends that lived in Hawaii and their lives playing extreme sports.  Reggie was the only girl of the friends and she was never let that stop her.  She was just as talented as an athlete as the boys and she also wanted to be a writer and wrote her own ‘magazine’.  As a young girl who always liked action sports, primarily played by boys, I thought that Reggie was really cool and I wanted to be like her.    

I think it is important for kids to find fictional characters they can identify with and look up to.  Seeing fictional characters as positive role models can help motivate kids to accomplish their goals and feel comfortable being themselves, even if that means they are different in some way.

My Favorite Moment In History

I’m not sure why, but it is extremely difficult for me to decide on my favorite moment in history, which makes me feel sort of disappointed in myself because I like history.  I can name a lot of important historical and appreciate their importance but I don’t know if there is any particular moment that is my favorite. 

I think if I was asked this question when I was in elementary school it would be a lot easier to answer because now I have a better understanding of history and I see both sides of the historical events they most commonly teach in schools.  For example, Christopher Columbus is introduced to students as a hero who discovered America, but he also enslaved natives and introduced (unintentionally) disease that killed millions of people.  The American Revolution is another example of a great moment in American history, but there was also so much American and British blood shed and families destroyed.  The Native Americans were also treated horribly during that time.  Even the civil rights movement, which was successful in the end, endured years of murders, police brutality, and the unfair treatment of innocent people for the sole reason that they had a different color skin.  I guess history is just like that, you can’t have change without loss, but it’s hard to accept that and name any moment a complete success. 

If I were to identify moment in history that was most significant to my life I would choose that the attacks that occurred on September 11^th, 2001.  I don’t know if I can say there was anything positive that occurred following the tragic events that occurred that day but I do know that it impacted my life in a way I’ll never forget.  In 2001 I was in the third grade, just old enough to kind of understand what was going on, and plenty curious to want to fully understand.  I remember being outside in gym class that morning when a teacher came running outside and discretely said something to our gym teacher who told us we had to go inside.  We didn’t know why but the teacher that came outside was upset and so was our gym teacher after they talked.  We went back to our class and they told us that planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and that it was a terrorist attack.  My mom came and picked me and my sister up from school and I didn’t really understand why but I asked a million questions which she either didn’t have answers for yet or didn’t want to tell me.  I wasn’t supposed to watch the news, but I did.  I wanted to know and I wanted to understand.  I asked my teacher questions everyday in class and I became obsessed with America.  I wanted to know everything about the presidents and the government.  I just wanted to understand everything.  I read books about the presidents and about Washington DC.  I asked so many questions and people never knew whether or not they were supposed to answer them.  I remember seeing American flags everywhere after that day.  They sold them at the grocery store; people had them on their cars, houses, everywhere.  I remember the red white and blue shirts that said ‘these colors don’t run’, I remember the bumper stickers, I remember the photo of the flag that was torn but still flying at ground zero, I remember that all of the sudden everyone was American and proud of it.  I think that what happened on September 11^th, 2001 was the most significant moment in history for me because I was there and I was old enough to kind of understand it or at least want to understand it.  I think that was one of the first times that I realized bad things could really happen in America.  I think that’s when I understood what it meant to be American.   

Freewrite

A lot of people have teachers who have significantly impacted their lives, helped them discover the career they want to pursue, or helped them develop a specific talent or academic skill, but to be honest I never did.  I was always a very quiet kid that okay in school.  Sometimes I struggled, sometimes I was ahead but I never stuck out so I just went to school, did my work, and that was it.  I never had any kind of real relationship with any of my teachers, but eventually I did meet someone that had a similar impact on my life.  

When I was seventeen and I got my first job at Staples I hardly ever even spoke.  The only reason I got the job in the first place was because my dad’s friend was an assistant manager there and he convinced the general manager to higher me, even though she didn’t want to.  I was extremely quiet, afraid of my own shadow, and had no idea how I was going to work in this new place with all these new people.  The only thing I had going for me was that I was hardworking, until I met Sondra, another assistant manger.  For some reason Sondra seemed to understand me and even when she didn’t she was understanding.  She explained things to me in ways that I understood them and she didn’t get mad at me when she had to explain them again…and again…and again.  She quickly realized that it probably wasn’t going to benefit anyone having me be a cashier so she moved me to office supplies.  She taught me everything and she quickly realized that I was willing to work hard and I liked to learn new things so she taught me so much more than I was even supposed to know.  She listened to me when I tried to talk to her and I stuttered through every question I asked her, all five million of them.  I started talking to Sondra, then I started talking to other people I worked with, and then I started talking to customers.  Sondra was the first person in my life that made me feel like I wasn’t stupid.  She was the first person that saw potential in me and believed in me.  She convinced me to go to college when I wasn’t sure that I could do it, and when I hated it and I wanted to quit she convinced me to not give up, and I promised her I would graduate.  Now I work at another store while I’m at school and they are always so impressed by all the things I know how to do and how I take initiative to help other people do their jobs and that is because of Sondra.  Sondra believed in me, made me believe in me, and taught me how much of an impact being patient and understanding can have on a person’s life.  Sondra’s last day at my store was Monday and saying bye to her was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but she inspired me to finish school, believe in myself, and to pay it forward.

            Sondra made me realize how much of an impact teachers can have on students.  Even though she was my boss at work, not a teacher, she played a very similar role and I now understand that kind of relationship.  Someday as a teacher I hope that I can help my students in the same way that Sondra helped me, because her simple kindness, patience, and understanding changed my life and made me a better person inside and outside of Staples.  

Who Inspires Me

There are many people that inspire me.  There are many athletes, musicians, and other public figures that I look up to and who have inspired me with their accomplishments and the things they have overcome; however, the older I got the more I realized that it isn’t only ‘famous’ people that are worthy of being considered inspiring.  It’s the people in my everyday life that I find most inspiring.

My dad was definitely my first hero.  Growing up my dad coached all my softball teams, was at all my school functions, and supported me in anything I wanted to do.  People always tell me I am a spitting image of my father and there was no doubt I was his kid.  All the things he loved, I loved, and I wanted to be just like him.  He taught me how to play guitar, when I was younger and he was my softball coach he threw the ball harder at me than anyone else because he knew it would make me better, and when he taught me how to ride my first bicycle he pushed me down a hill and screamed at me to use the breaks.  Later he taught me to ride motorcycles and although he didn’t want me to get a motorcycle license he was still proud of me when I did.  My whole life I saw my dad work so hard to provide for my family and me and I always appreciated that.  He worked so many hours a week only to come home and coach our softball and baseball teams, drive us all over the place, and fix all the things we broke.  My dad taught me the importance of working hard. 

My sister also inspires me.  My sister is two years younger than me but she is pretty much like an older sister to me.  My sister is my best friend.  She works so hard and does so much, in high school she played sports, was the drum major in the band, worked, took all honors and AP classes, got good grades, and had a lot of friends.  Now she is at UCONN doing great things and I am so proud of her.  She inspires me to work hard and do well in school.  She is always there for me and she’s my best friend and always has been, even when she was my only friend.  Even though sometimes we fight I know I can always count on her.      

Conflict in the Lives of Adolescents

I think one of the biggest conflicts in the lives of adolescents is the amount of pressure that is on them.  I think high school and even college kids are oftentimes being pulled in so many different directions at one time that the amount of pressure they are under seems insurmountable.   For starters, at the age of about fourteen high school freshmen are told they have to get good grades so that in four years they can be competitive when they try to apply for colleges.  School becomes a competition and parents and teachers put pressure on students to get good grades, take honors and AP classes, volunteer, and participate in extracurricular activities, all so they can compete with all the other students in the country and get accepted to college.  Recently there also seems to be a push for all students to go to college, and while I think that all students should have access to higher education, I don’t think college is for all people and those students are left to feel like failures.  Then four years later some students work so hard for four years, get accepted into the prestigious universities they dreamed of, and cannot afford to go to college.   

Meanwhile, while students are supposed to be getting straight a’s and participating in all their other activities they also want to have friends, relationships, get a license, get a job, and watch Netflix in sweatpants all weekend.  There is also a lot of pressure on students from social media and reality television to look a certain way, dress a certain way, and act a certain way.  Adolescents are afraid of being different, they don’t know who they are yet and they make every effort to be who they think everyone wants them to be, and the kids who are themselves usually end up getting bullied.  Many adolescents experiment with drugs and alcohol, some of them have substance abuse problems.  I think that high school and college are the most difficult years in life, maybe because I haven’t experienced anything beyond that yet, but I think after working full time and going to school full time I’ll be as prepared for life as I’ll ever be.