Sky Fuller

March 22, 2019

McFadden
Senior Year Reflection
Senior year of high school is the final year to get your life together before you enter adulthood. It
is the last chance you truly experience being a child. Senior year has not been all relaxing and fun, but
that is not what senior year is about. Senior year is the last chance you have to prepare yourself for the
“real world,” and is a time to grow. When the graduation project was first introduced junior year, I had no
idea the amount of work that I was getting into. But now that it has been over a year since this project was
first introduced, I never thought that I could learn so many important real-life skills. Through my service
learning experience and creating my product, I can honestly say that the graduation project serves a real
purpose. But as much as I appreciate the knowledge that I gained, I am relieved that my stress level will
go down that it is finally over.
Through my service-learning, I learned about empathy and being grateful. Working at Villa
Heights was unique because of the Title I status that it has. While the students may not have been in the
most ideal situations at home, when they were in music class you would not be able to tell that. I learned
to be grateful when I saw how few amenities the school received, especially the music department, simply
because of the average income of the school zone. Things that I would have considered to be simple, such
as performing in a school musical, were not opportunities that came around to these students. I learned
empathy because having an entire grade in one classroom was a challenge, and there were so many
different personalities and emotions in one room and I had to learn how to communicate with everyone.
My product taught me perseverance. I was working with an unfamiliar music composing program
and it was also my first time seriously composing music. Although I have been an avid piano player for
years and can read music well, writing music makes you see a completely different perspective.
During the first few weeks of working on my product, I struggled to find a balance between all the
different things I had going on between school, work, and extracurriculars. The graduation project became
the center of all my attention. It took many late nights, but I am satisfied with all the work that I have put
together because I kept on working no matter what.
While I am a junior, I have taken up most of the responsibilities that a senior would. As I enter
into my senior year, I can only continue to grow along the way. While I may not remember what my exact
graduation project is 10 years from now, the skills, experience, and knowledge gained with never leave
me.