Aldana, Andres

Mr. Savard

English 28

July 16, 2014

Hard Work

Learning was never an easy thing for me do growing up. It was as if my head was stuck in the clouds, dreaming of anything and everything and when someone said something to me it went in one ear and out the other. I found myself in bad times, by being afraid of my own work Throughout the years I learned what being a student was about by the influence of my peers, I had to start fresh by gained learning experiences that helped me in education. My style of learning is inspired by the coaches and teachers who helped me shape who I am today.

Growing up was something that I remember best especially third grade, I think this when I had my first reality check also. I didn’t know what was going on at the time the teacher use of high vocabulary seemed like another language so I never did pay any attention. Soon I found myself in a few parent conferences. Soon after the conferences I was being held back. It was like someone was telling me I was not good enough to be with the same crowd. Walking down the halls of the school I thought that everyone was staring and laughing at me and the once easily spoken child was a speechless shell of a human being. It wasn’t until one of my old teachers noticed that I didn’t talk as much as I used to, she came over and asked me what was wrong so I told her, what happened and how I felt. She then put her hand on my shoulder and then told me something I would never forget “sometimes we need to go back to the beginning in order to finish.” As a little kid hearing what she said did not make much sense at the time, but now when I look back at it I think what she meant was that some people just need a fresh start. It felt nice knowing someone had taken the time to cheer me up during a silent period of my life. I didn’t go back to being an out spoken kid again; I instead decided to try and just grow up, so I took my fresh start opportunity and changed my behavior by paying attention and trying to comprehend what said.

Jumping all the way to eighth grade I found out there were teachers that care about their students and I learned the meaning of not letting someone down. Mr. Stowell was a funny talkative teacher, not afraid of being himself. There is probably a hand full of reasons why I enjoyed Mr. Stowell’s history class so much, but the one that stands out the most is that he showed me that exploring new things is how someone figures out how you become a better student. One needs to know where they’ve been before they know where they’re going, therefore if a person has a certain writing style then they try a new technique and they like it now they have more of a variety instead the same repetition in every essay. This applies to all aspects of education especially in college because you could be majoring in math then takes a sociology class and you find out that it’s something that one wants to get into. If a person didn’t take that chance to try new things then he/she could have missed out on an opportunity to enjoy another subject. I utilized what Mr. Stowell portrayed onto his class by exploring more things especially in my English class I had signed up for a writers work shop and ended up getting a story I wrote called Pina Coladas published in a book full of young writers short stories.

It was the start of something new I could feel it in my bones the first time Mr. Rodriguez spoke. It was my junior year of high school when Mr. Rodriguez my English teacher told us his rule for success failure. He told us that you must fail so that you can learn from your mistakes otherwise how else would you improve. When he said this it made my educational experience a lot more comforting because being timid was a reoccurring struggle such as being so afraid of taking test that I would have an anxiety attack and I would find myself holding back my full potential only giving what I thought way enough to get by. The way not being afraid of failing helped me in a big way as a student is I became a little more confident with my class work as well assignments. I didn’t mean that I wasn’t afraid to fail my classes it just meant to be confident enough to trust yourself because if you didn’t do as well as you wanted you at least know why you made a mistake.

I had learned a lot from my teachers, but I also learned a few things from my coaches I remember after a grueling day of practice the head coach told us that in life no one owes you or is going to give you anything, but you can have anything you want if you work hard enough for it. When I think about hard work I think of putting the time and effort to complete an assignment on time, staying up late to finish that last paragraph, not giving up when you failed a class. This gave me a new perspective when reaching my goals. In high school I began to stay after class often finishing up test or getting started on the following day assignments I guess you can say I became the teacher’s pet. In the end all the long nights and sacrifice paid off for I graduated with 20 credits over and a 3.0 G.P.A. I try my best in all my classes and consistent with all my work. Throughout my life I learned a lot form teachers and coaches they all helped shape that I am today. I would like to think that I am a hard worker just trying to make the best of what is in front of me, I may not do the greatest job, but I do everything I can to improve on my assignments and essays. When encountering something new I try to use an open mind and not be afraid to fail because I feel that someone loses more when they hold back their full potential because they’re not sure it’s the right thing to do. Who I am today is a result of working hard, failing then fixing those mistakes with a fresh start. With my gained experiences I continue to grow as a learner as well a student.