Campos-Morales 1

Liliana Campos-Morales

Mr. Strosnider

ERWC

February 2, 2024

Reflection Essay

Did I clearly explain the assignment, including its purpose and requirements?
Did I reflect on my personal growth and learning throughout the assignment?
Did I honestly analyze my strengths and weaknesses in relation to the assignment?
Did I make connections between the assignment and my future goals?

There have been many assignments and projects throughout my four years of high school.

Ones that I had to pull all-nighters for and ones that took me five minutes to complete. The one

that I am most proud of, not because of the quality of the essay, but because of the story I was

able to share behind it is the “Bag of Miscellany Narrative”. In freshman year, in Pre-AP

English, Mrs. Woekle wanted the class to choose an object to put in our “Miscellaneous Bag”

and write about it. She wanted it to be something meaningful from our childhood years, seeing as

we were growing up and were now entering our first year in high school; the object I chose was

my pink duffle bag. My pink duffle bag has traveled everywhere with me, from vacations to

friends' houses to going every other weekend to my father’s house, it has seen the world. I feel

successful in this assignment as it made me realize that I needed to share my story with others so

that people could understand not only who I am, but how I came to be and that was through this

pink duffle bag. Another reason why this assignment has made me feel successful is it has let me

see how much growth has progressed in my writing. At the moment of writing the narrative, I
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felt so accomplished as it was my best work at the time. Looking back now, it makes me laugh at

the thought that this used to be my work, but seeing how far I have come is the greatest feeling I

could get.

Everyone always has their strengths and weaknesses in certain subjects in school whether

people prefer the STEM subjects or would excel in the writing department; I would classify

myself as a little bit of both. I was never a fan of English, I always loathed writing even if it was

one paragraph; it would take hours to write a single paragraph as I struggled heavily with writer's

block. Because of this, I chose to stick with the normal route of English writing instead of

choosing an AP course; I had always known I wasn’t meant for a career in English so there was

no need to take an accelerated course. The area I did excel in and was most interested in had to

be science. Learning about the human body and its physical aspects including what it is, where it

is, and how it functions has always fascinated me. Science came naturally to me, this is the

subject in which I have seen the most growth. As for history, it was always a neutral subject for

me, I didn’t like or hate it, it was the subject that was necessary to take to graduate high school,

nothing to excel in. In the foreign language department, naturally, Spanish came easier to me

because I have been surrounded by it my whole life. That being said, my Spanish was somewhat

broken or unknowledgeable; I would speak it, not knowing what tenses I was using or if it was

the right word entirely. As a result of this, I was embarrassed to speak it at all, but thanks to the

Spanish classes at Great Oak High School, I was educated and able to embrace it now with the

new knowledge and growth that has been gained throughout my three years of taking this course.

Looking back at the classes I have taken in high school, there is room for growth in my

remaining classes as well as continuing to grow after high school. The subject that could use
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more growth is math. I am not afraid to take a difficult math class, I will always choose to learn

more even if it means I might struggle in that subject; math being this subject. Because I chose to

take an accelerated math class, the letter grade I received for all semesters was not my best, but

am still proud of the work that was produced as I put my all into every assignment and

assessment that was taken. Beyond high school, I can continue to grow in my college math

courses by asking for more help whether it be through tutoring or staying the extra hours to work

with my professors to get the grade I would like to achieve. The next category that more growth

could be seen in could be natural science. The effort that was put into that course was not the

effort that should have been put in, the grade could have been better. Looking back now, I regret

not putting 100% into it and have learned from this mistake. Beyond high school, more study

hours and effort will be put into this subject as it is a core class for my future career.

Before attending Great Oak High School, I was a new teenager, not knowing what it

would be like to attend a public school. For most of my life, I was enrolled in a private school,

Crossroads Christian School, that had a population of about 80 students in my class. I had grown

comfortable staying in a little bubble with my friends who I had grown up with throughout my

years at Crossroads. I did not want to leave that environment or leave my friends, but the

decision to transfer to Great Oak High School was the best option for me. I had known that I

needed a new environment to grow personally and academically. This school has allowed me to

grow personally by “forcing” me to make new friends and talk to new people that I’ve never

seen in my life. I started as a shy person as I was a person who was used to 80 people versus

being thrown into a school with a population of at least 3,000; I wasn’t sure if people were going

to like me or not. I quickly realized that people at Great Oak were very welcoming and not at all
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how I imagined high school would be. Because of this, I am now not afraid to go up to a random

stranger and say hi. Academically, I have grown through my teachers; they always pushed me to

be the best I could be and were always there if I needed help. I always knew I could go to them if

I had a problem with something. They helped me with ideas for new methods of studying or

trying different strategies to achieve different goals.