James Herrera

Mrs Brewer

AVID 10

5-29-19

The Second year of learning

From hearing freshmen getting picked on to Seniors in my spanish class, I’m still excited

for summer and next year. Even though I faced some challenges, mostly spanish and getting sick,

I still had fun with my academics and even had a blast during baseball this year. But the

problems I hid came back and hit me hard. Missing assignments, weird work, random and

changing due dates, and my health deteriorating throughout the year due to stress, work, and

sports.

But modern and harder problems require modern solutions. I solved most of my problems

but taking it slow and talking to others about what they did or how they did it. Even though it

was successful most of the time, I still had to find other ways to solve things. Later in the year, I

found out that asking teacher for explanations, rundowns, and example problems, could help me

so I started to use those more. And that’s been my main academic problem solver. How I solved

my main life problems was different though. All I did for those types of problems was take it

easy, go slow, or see if my sister could help. And solving those problems gave me some new life

lessons too.

Some of those life lessons were simple ones but also really helpful later on in life. I

mostly learned them in my Chemistry, English, Math and AVID class. Especially in my Chem
and AVID class. Those classes taught me how to have and build character, develop connections

in and outside of the classroom, be honest and hardworking, and how to persist even when your

life might seem like it’s falling apart. All these lessons have kept me sane and able to perform

normally in class and perform better in the field. Even my baseball coach reinforced some of

those lessons to make us perform better at a higher level.

3 people that have helped me learn these life lesson are; my Grandpa, Both of my JV

coaches, and both my Chem teacher, Mr. Armas and My AVID teacher, Mrs. Brewer. They all

have shown me what to do if you feel overwhelmed and feel like quitting. And most of them

even related to me and told me what they did when they felt like it was coming to an end. Before

my Grandpa left us, he would always teach me ways to deal with things, albeit some were more

“rambunctious” then others, they still helped me and are still helping me. And some of these

people encouraged me so much, I accomplished some things I never thought I could.

My accomplishments this year have been outstanding. I hit a homerun, haven’t failed any

classes, got my pig to a healthy weight, made even more friends, and became good friends with

my teachers.The last one especially is a favorite of mine. This can and does help me with extra

time for some tough assignments and weird projects that have unreasonable due dates. And

having that extra time has helped me with stress and my anxiety. And yes, AVID did help me

with my problems.

Throughout the year, Mrs Brewer gave us ways and lessons on how to improve our home

life, our academic life, and even our social life. Well the last one not so much, but she did give us

advice on how to be more sociable and how to find similar people like us. Some of the best ones

we had throughout the years was; how to properly write a research paper, how to determine the
type of person we are, and how to use context clues to find a solution to a problem. Even though

some were small, they will really useful and important.

And now the goals I mostly accomplished. Every single goal, I have either met or

exceeded. The only ones I couldn’t however, were the physical fitness ones. I could squat a plate

and a few extra pounds but was not even close to squatting 2. And my benching situation is a

whole other story. My max was 40 pounds, close but no cigar. And my Academic ones were

achieved and kept throughout the whole year, My friends goals, not so much. Next year, my

goals will be similar but still way different. The way I accomplished these goals is by prioritizing

what needed to be done first and working on that first and slowly working on the smaller

assignments.