Writing this has shown me all the different stages I went through with my parents divorce and I always knew the different stages I went through but I've never looked at them all at the same time and noticed the roller coaster ride I went on and how long it went on for and it has really made me learn that I was a lot more affected than I realized because of the experience. I really listened to Josh's essay because it was also about letting this go and leaving things that are meant to be in the past, in the past. They had two different stories to go along with them but yet they were very similar.
From this writing assignment I learned how much I truly value my family and all of the events of my past in the Cape. Reading it to myself and my family members brought us all a certain nostalgia that was very touching, for as I said in my essay, many of my cousins have moved on in their own lives. I learned that no matter our present relationship, me and my cousins will always have the bonds that we formed in our early youth. One quote that really stuck with me was from Mrs. Gearty's essay about how humans are opposite from trees in the way that they age. I thought this was very clever and deep and could not agree more that as humans age they grow closer to their core opposite of the widening progression of tree aging. Also, my essay and Cassandra's essay had many similarities such as our activities that we partake in in Cape Cod and how we have many memories with our families there.
This Essay made me step back and think about priorities in life. It made me more thankful for the things I have. Everybody had a great story to tell and I feel like I know most of them much better after listening to them. A lot of other classmates talked about their families being important to us. Kirsten wrote about her mom being so important to her, I wrote about how important my dad was to me. We all had really good stories and I think it made think about whats important in life
During our two days of sharing our "This I belive" essays, i had come to realize many new things about people i knew already and about myself. Once writiong my own i came to realize that i am a lot more emonitanally connected with my family than i thouht i was. I realized once writing about my grandfather that people don't need to speak with one another or see one another everyday to know that they truly care about them. I haven't seen my grandparents in a year and writing this assignment showed me that i truly care for them and still remain connected with them no matter how far i am away. I truly love not just my grandparents but my whole family more and writing this helped me remember that. In class many people also wrote about their families and their grandparents. Mrs. Gearty wrote about her Grandmother and Mrs. Vivirito also wrote about her family. Furthermore did John who mentioned his cousin, and Jeff who mentioned his family. I truly liked this assignment as it brought us closer as a class and discovered new things about people that we probably might not have gotten a chance to know.
Writing the This I Believe essay had taught me that the little things I value, ie my dog really has had a huge impact on my life. As I was composing the essay, I couldn’t help but think of all the great impacts my dog has had on my life and how he really is considered a member of our family and brings us closer. I realized how much I am going to miss my family when I graduate high school and leave for college, and overall life but that I will continue to see them and of course stay in contact. Overall, this essay has taught me how much I love my family and the many memories associated with my dog that would not be possible if not for his existence in our home. Furthermore, I really liked Kirsten’s essay about her mom because I can definitely relate to that. I had never really noticed how much my mom had provided for my siblings and how much she listened to us until recently. Now that I am older, I am more observant of the people around me (especially family members who I never really considered their personalities when we were younger). Furthermore, I can relate a lot with Cassandra’s and Jeff’s because I also spend my summers at the beach with my extended family and I am able to reconnect and joke around with them after not seeing many of them for the past year.
Writing my "This I Believe" essay allowed me to resonate with my beliefs, express my values, and sort of open up emotionally. This past week has been very emotional to me and my family because I lost an uncle who was actually supposed to arrive to America for the first time in January, 10. It was very hard for us to lose him especially since we had everything planned out when he arrived. I initially wanted to write my This I Believe paper about him, but it was kind of hard to reflect all of our moments on the paper. Still this paper helped me discover a little more about self and sort of open up a little. Furthermore I was really able to connect with Sam and Josh's paper about loosing someone important to you. In this past week I have been remembering all those I have lost, including my best friend who was murdered by his step-father 5 years ago. Their paper brought back many emotional memories, and actually helped me get through my uncles death. I was also able to connect with those that mentioned their family, since family (especially in my culture) is the most important factor of my life.
1. When I wrote this assignment I learned many things about myself that I didn't necessarily write about. Throughout the process I had many ideas about what I could write that I truly believed in but a lot of them were cheesy and not really something that I started to believe in myself. I started to think of things that my parents told me when I was seven. Morals and the perfect ways that we should be living life. This essay really made me think of what I believe in and not what other people think. I had to think about the things that I have learned over my life. I found something to write about by thinking about something that happened to me when I was a little girl that still affects my life now. I thought about all of the things I believe in but the one that I wrote about was something that truly affected my life. I can really relate to Kirsten's essay in the opposite way. I really do not have a good connection with my mother and I don't think that I could call her my best friend. Randa's essay was the opposite of mine; I hated my fish and she loves her dog very much. Josh's essay was really sad and almost made me cry because his story was very similar to a story of my own.
Throughout the process of writing my essay, I feel I learned a lot more about myself while trying to think of all the things that I believed in. At first, I only thought of very broad topics that I felt were a belief to me, but they weren’t a big part of who I was. So I focused in on my family and still thought it was broad. It was then I realized that my cat is a big part of who I am today and that she impacts my life in a large way. She may be small and although I spend a very small amount of time with her each day, she’s shaped my family and life. This essay has taught me that the little things in life are usually the ones that have the greatest impact. Listening to Vinny’s essay, I can relate that to my own family. I barely see my cousins anymore because they’re off at college, but when we were younger, we would always perform songs off the radio to our parents. Although I don’t see them anymore, I always listen to the music from when we were younger to remember the good times together and not forget how close we still are today.
Writing my “This I Believe” essay had taught myself that overall I truly believe in spending time with my family. Although I don’t necessarily get to spend time with on a constant basis, the little cottage by the beach provides us all with a place to get caught up on each others lives and spend time with one another. Writing this essay had also taught me that I don’t to create a list of possible ideas to write about, that something meaningful could come to mind right as I begin typing. I thought that reading our essays out loud to our peers was a meaningful exercise in which I learned so much more about my classmates. In specific, Jeff and I wrote about our places in Cape Cod. His essay resonated with me because he stated all of the things my family does down the cape as well such as trying to ride our boogie boards, swimming out to the buoy, playing beach football and fishing with our family. In addition, Shelby’s essay also focused on her spending time with her family and being isolated from her friends by not having her cell phone. That is similar to my experience down the cape because not only do I have to search for cell phone service and perhaps look silly standing in a strange position in the front of the cottage to obtain one bar of service, I also don’t have internet connection which isolates me from society even further. Shelby and I both stated within our essays that we didn’t mind being away from our friends in exchange for quality time with our families. I also felt a connection to Kirsten’s essay because both she and I have a great relationship with our mom. I feel the same way about my mom that I tell her everything and I constantly want her opinion on certain situations.
1.In writing my "This I Believe" essay I had learned a lot about myself. When I first started it I was unsure of what I could write that I truly believed in. The first things that came to mind were things that I did not want to read in front of the class solely because they were cheesy and embarrassing. But once I put some thought into it I had come up with something that I really did believe in and had a lot of meaning to me. I also thought that it was a good topic that my classmates could also relate well to. So I had decided to write about friendship. After writing this paper I had noticed that there was much more to this essay and I really had to think about how this impacted my life and why I believe so much in it. It was very hard for me to write about something that was so close and personal with me, but I am glad I did because it made me remember the important things that I need to know in life that matter. 2.After listening to everyones essays I had noticed that I was the only person to write about friendship, which had surprised me because I thought it would have been a much more popular and easy topic for others to write about. But even though no one else wrote about it doesn't mean that I could not connect to anyone elses essays, because I could connect to a lot of people's especially they ones who wrote about family. I could connect to a few people who wrote about how much their family means to them because it is almost the same as friendship. You have someone there that you care very much about that you are comfortable with and someone that understands you completely and is always there for you through the good and the bad. Someones essay that I really liked was Kirsten's essay, even though it was about trust, she wrote about her mom and her being very close and having this special relationship. I connected a lot to that because in a way it was just like how me and my best friend have a special connection between each other and we are very close. So that was one out of the many that I really connected to and enjoyed hearing.
At first, i had no idea what I was going to write about. I had never really though about what I believed in. As i read more about the assignment, i can up with two ideas. The one I really wanted to do was a very personal subject, about my grandfather. I began to write, and just stopped, i couldn't write anything, it was to hard. I began to think that even I did write this, i would be unable to read it out loud to the class without breaking down. So i decided to write about the dream i have of traveling the world. By this, i realized that i am not the type of person that can freely and openly talk about tragic memories with loved ones, for fear that i will break down, and become upset like i did when it happened. I was the only person that wrote about traveling the world, and one of the few that did not relate the assignment to my family at all. I did really like a couple of the ones i heard though. I especially liked how Natasha used the metaphor of the soil. Randas what really cool and funny because i feel the same way about me dog, and my dog acts in the same manner as hers. I really enjoyed this assignment because it was what we chose to write about, and it is only special to us.
Writing the this I believe paper has taught me that I really believe in myself. I have a code of morals that I follow and I really believe in the individual. I think that it is really up to yourself, to determine what you can become or get out of life. Living it the way you want to is in my opinion the most important thing you can do for yourself. As for others that we heard in class, Christian's resonated with me. Self reliance is very closely connected with my topic, in the sense that only you can be yourself and rely on yourself. I believe that self reliance is just as important as my belief and is also one of my core beliefs. Randa's belief also stuck with me. I have 4 dogs at home and they and I have a very strong bond with them as well. They can get me through thick thin, and I sure hope that they make it to heaven because they too deserve it. I also agree with Vinni's and Paige's about the power of music. As I said in my beliefs paper, music is one of the ways I choose to define myself and I now play a bit of my own. Those two really had beliefs that stuck out to me. Overall this whole activity was very well done by everyone and I hope that all juniors will continue to do this activity for years to come.
Writing my This I Believe was really hard for me to decide on a topic. When I heard about it, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about and how I was going to say it, but as the clock went on, I couldn't write about it. It was way to personal a subject for me and I wasn't and still not ready to confront it. But, the subjet I wrote about made me straighten out my priorities a little bit. I filtered through many events in my life and finally decided to write about the one that makes me happiest. I do not like thinking about the negative events that have gone on because there is no time and room for anything that makes me unhappy. Anthony's statement made me start to think about my dad and how much he actually does for my family. He is a sole provider for us and even though I believe that my father has not always been a dad, Anthony's statement made me realize that my dad does a lot for my family. Also, I really connected with what Derek had to say. I have always loved learning about other cultures and traveling, and I too took Ms. Murray's class, but last year. She really opened my eyes as to what is out there, and also because of her I have found what I want to do with my life. Her class really taught me more about myself and what I believe in so it's cool to know that someone shares that same intrest.
writing my own this i believe essay made me feel pretty great about myself because it made me be able to tell people how much i feel about what i think. i mean yes it was somewhat awkward but i felt great saying what was in my mind to others. people know that i have hard feeling on working 100% of the time in my sport. the one person that resonated towards mine was Adam. he Belived that you should work 110% all the time, and i absolutley agree with that and i always will think that because i want to be very successful. i really liked this prompt because it was very easy because i knew exactly what i wanted to say.
Writing "this i believe" taught me that it's hard for me to get what goes on in my head onto paper. When trying to answer this question so many ideas rushed into my head at the same time, that it was overwhelming. The idea I chose was a broad one and one that connects and leads to more beliefs that I have. The essay taught me how hard it is to organize my thoughts. It did not teach me what I believe, because I already know what I believe. I did not learn anything about myself, all of the things I have written I already knew. All of the things I have written, are the things that go through my head everyday and I think about them all the time. I liked Maddie's essay because it has some of the same beliefs as mine.
Writing this "I believe" essay, I really connected with what I believe in. I already knew what I believed in, but this made me really understand what music meant to me. Music is probably the most important thing to me, but it wasn't until this assignment where I found out how much. I really enjoyed it and I could express my feelings and beliefs. for me, this was a very easy essay to write because I already had an idea going into it. The power of music is what I believe and it will always be something for me that I strongly believe in. Hearing my classmates, I found out what they had believed in. Some of them were very unique and humorous which I enjoyed a lot. Some of them were also things that I kind of believe in to. Not all of them were things that exactly agreed with, but the ideas were similar. I learned a lot about myself through this assignment and I really enjoyed doing it.
I learned from myself writing "This I Believe" essay that I should appreciate my time playing sports more. I won't be able to play them when I am older and will always miss being able to. So for now I know that this time in high school is all I have. What I heard from my classmates that really stuck with me was the relationships with their families. They are all different but I am capable of relating to them in my own way. At the end I understand everyone goes through their own struggles and has their own beliefs on them.
During the days we shared our This I Believe essay, I realized so many new things about people that I wouldn’t have expected to know about them. Writing my This I Believe essay made me realize that I am a lot more emotionally attached to my family then I thought I was. Once I started writing about losing all of my family members and being surrounded by illness is that I should make an effort to see people every once in a while. It had been about 3 or 4 years since I had seen my uncles and my aunt and my grandparents all died when I was a young child. So knowing that any day could be someone close to me lasts day, I think that I should make an effort to at least see my family members that I don’t normally see. A classmates story that resonated with me was Dylan’s because he wrote about his family, and so did Ms. Gearty and Ms. Vivirito wrote about family. I really enjoyed this assignment because it was a creative way for all of us to get to know each other in a different way.
Writing "This I Believe" taught me a lot about myself; at first i did not know what i believed in because i never really thought about it. At first I began to think about the things everybody believes in but the more I thought about it and the more I relized what influenced me in life I began to relize what I believed in. I also learned a lot about my classmates and the things they believed in. A lot people wrote about family, which i could relate to. I liked this assignment because it was a good way for everyone to get to know each other and relate to each other.
1.) When I first started writing my This I Believe essay, I had no idea what I was going to write about whatsoever. I had all of these miniature beliefs, that I had thought of that I thought were either not personal and had too public or governmental ideologies and many other people may have thought of them as well. I figure, okay, if the essay has to be about personal welfare, then I am going to write about family and friends, which I did. In writing this essay, it had taught me that family and friends is of the most valued in life. Without them, life wouldn't be the same and would be lonesome. Family and friends is what keeps me going, keeps everyone going. I value my friends and family so much and I talk to them all the time and we are all close. I have learned that, even if I have lost family in my past and have had friendships jostle around with me moving from and to Hudson, I think the change ended up in more than just a result of it all.
2.) When listening to my classmates' This I Believe essays, I connected to a majority of them all. They all seamed to be on the topic of family and friends, as did mine and some popped out to me that resonated with me. I too think that Mrs. Gearty's story resonated to me because her wording and metaphorical speaking about the tree aging being inversely related to people's relationship and oneself aging.she spoke of how like the rings of a tree get more and more grown out ward, people and their self being grow closer and closer to the center core of a person. I also thought Natalya's story was well worded with her metaphor of speaking about her family tree project and how she was the only one on her tree because her teacher said the people on her tree must be of blood relation and she was adopted from Russia, and I find that that also resonated to me. As of connection with my story to one of my peers, I'd have to say peers like Sam and Matheus. Both of their stories had to due with losing relatives, as did mine.
I liked this assignment come to think of it, it showed me a lot of different things that I hadn't known before about my friends and other peers. So now we all know more about each other and about ourselves.
By writing my This I Believe essay, I learned so much about myself. This assignment really made me think about what I value in life. At first I wasn't sure what I believed in because it just wasn't something I had thought about. But as time went on I discovered there are a lot of things I believe in. This assignment really made me think back on all the memories I have had in the past and how those memories have shaped who I am today. In the end I found this project as a fulfilling one that I will remember for a while and really showed me what I truly value in my life. When I was listening to the other This I Believe essays, I found myself making some connections to every single one. It just showed me that although we have different experiences, we all are similar in the end. There were so many that resonated with me, so it is tough to pick just a few. Like others have said, I agree with Ms. Gearty, when she said that as we age we get closer to our core. That line just really stood out to me because it is the truth. I also really connected with Tim's essay. He talked about how he has worked hard and will make do anything to succeed on the wrestling mat and in life. That really stuck with me one, because it was similar to my essay and also because he brings up a great point. You shouldn't let anyone tell you can't do anything because they are wrong. If you put your all into something, you can do anything. I also really liked John's essay. He talked about how no matter what people think, that he will always be himself and not conform to what they want him to be. I have a lot of respect for that and found it very powerful to listen to. Paige and Vinny's essay were great because I also believe that there is so much power in music. Music has the power to do anything. it can get you by, bring you joy, and so much more in your life. I also really related to Jeff and Cassandra's. I also have a very tight knit family and hearing their stories reminded me of mine. Lastly, Sam's essay really resonated with me. I have also experienced loss in my family, losing my grandfather last year. Her story is one that I can understand and relate to. I feel like everyone did a great job on this assignment. It brought us so much closer to each other and taught us so much about ourselves.
Writing my This I Believe taught me how important my mom is to me. Reflecting on my topic to think of a story to prove my statement made me realize the various stages I went through with my mom. Instead of dwelling over the bad ones, I learned to think of them in a positive way and recognize that the weak periods I went through with my mom are partially the reason we have such a strong bond today. I learned how important it is to maintain this relationship because I sometimes take it for granted and it takes me a minute to step back and realize that some girls don’t have the opportunity to have the relationship I have with my mom. Like Sam said, this assignment made me realize how emotionally attached I am to my mom and my family in general. My family and my mom especially have helped me become the hardworking person I am today. Without her help I believe that I would be different than I am today. Prior to picking my topic I learned that I believe in so many things and that I have a lot of things in my life that are extremely important to me. This assignment allowed me to not only reflect on my topic, my relationship with my mom, but to reflect on the things I hold close to my heart. Even though I could only chose to write about a single topic, in a way this was an eye opener to make me realize the important values and standards I hold.
After listening to the rest of my classmates essays the ones that remain in my head are the ones about how they believed in something relating to family. I really remember Shayna’s story about optimism and her grandmother. I cannot imagine how hard it was for Shayna to get by day to day when her mother is sick, and I thought it was really special how she got through some of her toughest days through the wisdom of her grandmother. I also mentioned in our class discussion how Anthony’s story was memorable because he wrote about his dad in a similar way I did about my mom. I really enjoyed Randa’s story about her dog. I don’t have a dog but I have a little cat that I could relate to hers about. I really enjoyed all the stories and emotions she put into hers to describe how her dog was like the “heart” of the family. I guess I can say that the stories that I would relate to were personally more memorable for me. But that is not to say that the others didn’t apply because everybody took a risk and wrote about something extremely important to them. I really enjoyed this assignment and I think our class did a really good job writing.
I don't particularly think I really learned anything about myself when writing my This I Believe essay, but I did find ways to articulate my beliefs. When we got the assignment I absolutely knew what I was going to do, I have very strong and solid beliefs so I figured it would be an easy assignment. When I got to writing however, I found it really hard to write out my beliefs in a simple way that made sense. What I had initially wanted to write about I kept on rambling about and was finding it really hard to put it into a concise form. I revised and changed my paper so much that this assignment helped me figure out the beliefs I always knew I had into an organized manner and really find what the core of what I believed in was. Even though I didn’t end up writing many of the things I believe, I feel that what I did write made me think more and more about the other things. I really related to Kirsten’s, Cassandra’s, and Jeff’s essays. When listening to Cassandra’s and Jeff’s, it made me think about my own family and how close I am with them. On my mom’s side of the family I have over 20 cousins and 13 aunts and uncles so we always do things together. Every summer for 12 years we have gone camping on a lake in Maine and I have so many memories with them there. Listening to Cassandra’s and Jeff’s made me think of my own times with my own family, and I really understood feeling so close with those people. Kirsten’s really stuck with me because my mom and I are also really close. I remember going through times with her like Kirsten did as well, times when I thought she was annoying, times when I wanted her to back off, and now spending so much time with her telling her everything. I really liked Kirsten’s because it is exactly what I feel with my mom, and I could really connect to what she was saying.
Personally, writing this assignment really made me think about what "rules" I go by in my life. But, I couldn't think of any that didn't sound like a Hallmark card or something cheesy that I would just rant on and on about. Therefore, I went with something that relates to me and my life the most. I am a cheerleader. No question about that. I believe in cheerleading. But most importantly, I believe in my cheerleading team because without them, I wouldn't be the cheerleader I am today. My life, outside of work and school, is cheerleading and so I shared it with everyone. Many people in the class wrote about very personal feelings and personal things that have happened to them. Kirsten Lally, for example, wrote about her relationship with her mom. This really made me think about my mom and I and how I really don't know what I would do without her. She made me think about the different ways of how I have grown up, from not wanting my mom to be at the mall with me, to me wanting my moms opinion on everything I buy. Also, Jeff and Cassandra Chaves wrote about their summer and their vacation houses. Their essays made me think about my vacation house in Maine and how that's the time where my family bonds the most and where we always have fun and all that matters is that we are together.
Writing my This I believe essay really made me think about how much my family really means to me. When i was writing it, it was hard to start but then I knew what I wanted to write about and I am really happy about what I wrote. Having no cell phone service is really a great thing sometime for a weekend. But being with my crazy huge family the most important thing to me. I really liked Randa's about her dog it made me think about how important my dog is to my family and really is always there for us when you are sick he can tell when we are sad and stay right with us. I believe that all dogs should go to heaven as well.
Writing this essay taught me a lot about myself. It showed me that I believe in so many more things then I thought I did and that I believed in certain things more then others. I choose to write about second chances and when I thought about that it made me understand myself on a whole new level. I never new that I could believe in something so much. All of my classmates essays really stuck with me because I learned about them one a whole new level that for most of them I had never seen before. Some surprised me and others shocked me when I discovered something that I had not known before. Some even made me laugh a little bit for example when Sullivan shared his nervous pee story. All in all this made me get to now somethings about myself that I had never known before.
Writing my "This I Believe" made me realize that I am an independent person. Before it had not occurred to me as much, but when we were assigned this essay, and the topic automatically sprung to my head I realized it. One thing I heard that related to me was Tim's. He talked about working your hardest to get yourself known, and not giving up. That is something I believe in and should follow more tightly.
Writing my "This I Believe" essay was hard for me not because I had to discover myself, but because when I wrote it was hard to put my thoughts in to coherent sentences. I rambled on and on and had to edit my paper many times. Originally I didn't have a story to tell but after re-editing a few times I remembered the little girl in the square. It was hard to know exactly what I wanted to write about at first because like many people I believe in many things. It was also hard to find a topic that wouldn't sound like I was preaching. I wasn't there for all the This I Believe essays, but I did relate to Johns essay about believing in yourself and standing up for yourself. It was really touching and I actually learned a lot about him. Shayna's essay really touched me and with what I am going through right now it was nice to know what someone else felt like and how they coped.
Writing this has shown me all the different stages I went through with my parents divorce and I always knew the different stages I went through but I've never looked at them all at the same time and noticed the roller coaster ride I went on and how long it went on for and it has really made me learn that I was a lot more affected than I realized because of the experience. I really listened to Josh's essay because it was also about letting this go and leaving things that are meant to be in the past, in the past. They had two different stories to go along with them but yet they were very similar.
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ReplyDeleteFrom this writing assignment I learned how much I truly value my family and all of the events of my past in the Cape. Reading it to myself and my family members brought us all a certain nostalgia that was very touching, for as I said in my essay, many of my cousins have moved on in their own lives. I learned that no matter our present relationship, me and my cousins will always have the bonds that we formed in our early youth. One quote that really stuck with me was from Mrs. Gearty's essay about how humans are opposite from trees in the way that they age. I thought this was very clever and deep and could not agree more that as humans age they grow closer to their core opposite of the widening progression of tree aging. Also, my essay and Cassandra's essay had many similarities such as our activities that we partake in in Cape Cod and how we have many memories with our families there.
ReplyDeleteThis Essay made me step back and think about priorities in life. It made me more thankful for the things I have. Everybody had a great story to tell and I feel like I know most of them much better after listening to them. A lot of other classmates talked about their families being important to us. Kirsten wrote about her mom being so important to her, I wrote about how important my dad was to me. We all had really good stories and I think it made think about whats important in life
ReplyDeleteDuring our two days of sharing our "This I belive" essays, i had come to realize many new things about people i knew already and about myself. Once writiong my own i came to realize that i am a lot more emonitanally connected with my family than i thouht i was. I realized once writing about my grandfather that people don't need to speak with one another or see one another everyday to know that they truly care about them. I haven't seen my grandparents in a year and writing this assignment showed me that i truly care for them and still remain connected with them no matter how far i am away. I truly love not just my grandparents but my whole family more and writing this helped me remember that. In class many people also wrote about their families and their grandparents. Mrs. Gearty wrote about her Grandmother and Mrs. Vivirito also wrote about her family. Furthermore did John who mentioned his cousin, and Jeff who mentioned his family. I truly liked this assignment as it brought us closer as a class and discovered new things about people that we probably might not have gotten a chance to know.
ReplyDeleteWriting the This I Believe essay had taught me that the little things I value, ie my dog really has had a huge impact on my life. As I was composing the essay, I couldn’t help but think of all the great impacts my dog has had on my life and how he really is considered a member of our family and brings us closer. I realized how much I am going to miss my family when I graduate high school and leave for college, and overall life but that I will continue to see them and of course stay in contact. Overall, this essay has taught me how much I love my family and the many memories associated with my dog that would not be possible if not for his existence in our home. Furthermore, I really liked Kirsten’s essay about her mom because I can definitely relate to that. I had never really noticed how much my mom had provided for my siblings and how much she listened to us until recently. Now that I am older, I am more observant of the people around me (especially family members who I never really considered their personalities when we were younger). Furthermore, I can relate a lot with Cassandra’s and Jeff’s because I also spend my summers at the beach with my extended family and I am able to reconnect and joke around with them after not seeing many of them for the past year.
ReplyDeleteWriting my "This I Believe" essay allowed me to resonate with my beliefs, express my values, and sort of open up emotionally. This past week has been very emotional to me and my family because I lost an uncle who was actually supposed to arrive to America for the first time in January, 10. It was very hard for us to lose him especially since we had everything planned out when he arrived. I initially wanted to write my This I Believe paper about him, but it was kind of hard to reflect all of our moments on the paper. Still this paper helped me discover a little more about self and sort of open up a little. Furthermore I was really able to connect with Sam and Josh's paper about loosing someone important to you. In this past week I have been remembering all those I have lost, including my best friend who was murdered by his step-father 5 years ago. Their paper brought back many emotional memories, and actually helped me get through my uncles death. I was also able to connect with those that mentioned their family, since family (especially in my culture) is the most important factor of my life.
ReplyDelete1. When I wrote this assignment I learned many things about myself that I didn't necessarily write about. Throughout the process I had many ideas about what I could write that I truly believed in but a lot of them were cheesy and not really something that I started to believe in myself. I started to think of things that my parents told me when I was seven. Morals and the perfect ways that we should be living life. This essay really made me think of what I believe in and not what other people think. I had to think about the things that I have learned over my life. I found something to write about by thinking about something that happened to me when I was a little girl that still affects my life now. I thought about all of the things I believe in but the one that I wrote about was something that truly affected my life. I can really relate to Kirsten's essay in the opposite way. I really do not have a good connection with my mother and I don't think that I could call her my best friend. Randa's essay was the opposite of mine; I hated my fish and she loves her dog very much. Josh's essay was really sad and almost made me cry because his story was very similar to a story of my own.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the process of writing my essay, I feel I learned a lot more about myself while trying to think of all the things that I believed in. At first, I only thought of very broad topics that I felt were a belief to me, but they weren’t a big part of who I was. So I focused in on my family and still thought it was broad. It was then I realized that my cat is a big part of who I am today and that she impacts my life in a large way. She may be small and although I spend a very small amount of time with her each day, she’s shaped my family and life. This essay has taught me that the little things in life are usually the ones that have the greatest impact. Listening to Vinny’s essay, I can relate that to my own family. I barely see my cousins anymore because they’re off at college, but when we were younger, we would always perform songs off the radio to our parents. Although I don’t see them anymore, I always listen to the music from when we were younger to remember the good times together and not forget how close we still are today.
ReplyDeleteWriting my “This I Believe” essay had taught myself that overall I truly believe in spending time with my family. Although I don’t necessarily get to spend time with on a constant basis, the little cottage by the beach provides us all with a place to get caught up on each others lives and spend time with one another. Writing this essay had also taught me that I don’t to create a list of possible ideas to write about, that something meaningful could come to mind right as I begin typing. I thought that reading our essays out loud to our peers was a meaningful exercise in which I learned so much more about my classmates. In specific, Jeff and I wrote about our places in Cape Cod. His essay resonated with me because he stated all of the things my family does down the cape as well such as trying to ride our boogie boards, swimming out to the buoy, playing beach football and fishing with our family. In addition, Shelby’s essay also focused on her spending time with her family and being isolated from her friends by not having her cell phone. That is similar to my experience down the cape because not only do I have to search for cell phone service and perhaps look silly standing in a strange position in the front of the cottage to obtain one bar of service, I also don’t have internet connection which isolates me from society even further. Shelby and I both stated within our essays that we didn’t mind being away from our friends in exchange for quality time with our families. I also felt a connection to Kirsten’s essay because both she and I have a great relationship with our mom. I feel the same way about my mom that I tell her everything and I constantly want her opinion on certain situations.
ReplyDelete1.In writing my "This I Believe" essay I had learned a lot about myself. When I first started it I was unsure of what I could write that I truly believed in. The first things that came to mind were things that I did not want to read in front of the class solely because they were cheesy and embarrassing. But once I put some thought into it I had come up with something that I really did believe in and had a lot of meaning to me. I also thought that it was a good topic that my classmates could also relate well to. So I had decided to write about friendship. After writing this paper I had noticed that there was much more to this essay and I really had to think about how this impacted my life and why I believe so much in it. It was very hard for me to write about something that was so close and personal with me, but I am glad I did because it made me remember the important things that I need to know in life that matter.
ReplyDelete2.After listening to everyones essays I had noticed that I was the only person to write about friendship, which had surprised me because I thought it would have been a much more popular and easy topic for others to write about. But even though no one else wrote about it doesn't mean that I could not connect to anyone elses essays, because I could connect to a lot of people's especially they ones who wrote about family. I could connect to a few people who wrote about how much their family means to them because it is almost the same as friendship. You have someone there that you care very much about that you are comfortable with and someone that understands you completely and is always there for you through the good and the bad. Someones essay that I really liked was Kirsten's essay, even though it was about trust, she wrote about her mom and her being very close and having this special relationship. I connected a lot to that because in a way it was just like how me and my best friend have a special connection between each other and we are very close. So that was one out of the many that I really connected to and enjoyed hearing.
At first, i had no idea what I was going to write about. I had never really though about what I believed in. As i read more about the assignment, i can up with two ideas. The one I really wanted to do was a very personal subject, about my grandfather. I began to write, and just stopped, i couldn't write anything, it was to hard. I began to think that even I did write this, i would be unable to read it out loud to the class without breaking down. So i decided to write about the dream i have of traveling the world. By this, i realized that i am not the type of person that can freely and openly talk about tragic memories with loved ones, for fear that i will break down, and become upset like i did when it happened. I was the only person that wrote about traveling the world, and one of the few that did not relate the assignment to my family at all. I did really like a couple of the ones i heard though. I especially liked how Natasha used the metaphor of the soil. Randas what really cool and funny because i feel the same way about me dog, and my dog acts in the same manner as hers. I really enjoyed this assignment because it was what we chose to write about, and it is only special to us.
ReplyDeleteWriting the this I believe paper has taught me that I really believe in myself. I have a code of morals that I follow and I really believe in the individual. I think that it is really up to yourself, to determine what you can become or get out of life. Living it the way you want to is in my opinion the most important thing you can do for yourself. As for others that we heard in class, Christian's resonated with me. Self reliance is very closely connected with my topic, in the sense that only you can be yourself and rely on yourself. I believe that self reliance is just as important as my belief and is also one of my core beliefs. Randa's belief also stuck with me. I have 4 dogs at home and they and I have a very strong bond with them as well. They can get me through thick thin, and I sure hope that they make it to heaven because they too deserve it. I also agree with Vinni's and Paige's about the power of music. As I said in my beliefs paper, music is one of the ways I choose to define myself and I now play a bit of my own. Those two really had beliefs that stuck out to me. Overall this whole activity was very well done by everyone and I hope that all juniors will continue to do this activity for years to come.
ReplyDeleteWriting my This I Believe was really hard for me to decide on a topic. When I heard about it, I knew exactly what I wanted to write about and how I was going to say it, but as the clock went on, I couldn't write about it. It was way to personal a subject for me and I wasn't and still not ready to confront it. But, the subjet I wrote about made me straighten out my priorities a little bit. I filtered through many events in my life and finally decided to write about the one that makes me happiest. I do not like thinking about the negative events that have gone on because there is no time and room for anything that makes me unhappy. Anthony's statement made me start to think about my dad and how much he actually does for my family. He is a sole provider for us and even though I believe that my father has not always been a dad, Anthony's statement made me realize that my dad does a lot for my family. Also, I really connected with what Derek had to say. I have always loved learning about other cultures and traveling, and I too took Ms. Murray's class, but last year. She really opened my eyes as to what is out there, and also because of her I have found what I want to do with my life. Her class really taught me more about myself and what I believe in so it's cool to know that someone shares that same intrest.
ReplyDeletewriting my own this i believe essay made me feel pretty great about myself because it made me be able to tell people how much i feel about what i think. i mean yes it was somewhat awkward but i felt great saying what was in my mind to others. people know that i have hard feeling on working 100% of the time in my sport. the one person that resonated towards mine was Adam. he Belived that you should work 110% all the time, and i absolutley agree with that and i always will think that because i want to be very successful. i really liked this prompt because it was very easy because i knew exactly what i wanted to say.
ReplyDeleteWriting "this i believe" taught me that it's hard for me to get what goes on in my head onto paper. When trying to answer this question so many ideas rushed into my head at the same time, that it was overwhelming. The idea I chose was a broad one and one that connects and leads to more beliefs that I have. The essay taught me how hard it is to organize my thoughts. It did not teach me what I believe, because I already know what I believe. I did not learn anything about myself, all of the things I have written I already knew. All of the things I have written, are the things that go through my head everyday and I think about them all the time.
ReplyDeleteI liked Maddie's essay because it has some of the same beliefs as mine.
Writing this "I believe" essay, I really connected with what I believe in. I already knew what I believed in, but this made me really understand what music meant to me. Music is probably the most important thing to me, but it wasn't until this assignment where I found out how much. I really enjoyed it and I could express my feelings and beliefs. for me, this was a very easy essay to write because I already had an idea going into it. The power of music is what I believe and it will always be something for me that I strongly believe in. Hearing my classmates, I found out what they had believed in. Some of them were very unique and humorous which I enjoyed a lot. Some of them were also things that I kind of believe in to. Not all of them were things that exactly agreed with, but the ideas were similar. I learned a lot about myself through this assignment and I really enjoyed doing it.
ReplyDeleteI learned from myself writing "This I Believe" essay that I should appreciate my time playing sports more. I won't be able to play them when I am older and will always miss being able to. So for now I know that this time in high school is all I have. What I heard from my classmates that really stuck with me was the relationships with their families. They are all different but I am capable of relating to them in my own way. At the end I understand everyone goes through their own struggles and has their own beliefs on them.
ReplyDeleteThis had taught me about what I really valued about my life, also what I really believed in. Many of the first I believes statements I thought of were the cliché beliefs that many believed in. I thought that even though many of those cliché’s I believe in, I should find something a little more personal and unique to write about. Since I had to think about what I could write about, it was a great opportunity to think about what I believed in and how important these beliefs were. I thought for a while and realized how strongly I believe in family and that was the start of my “I believe” statement. I think all the different beliefs that my classmates shared really got me thinking more about my beliefs. Also I learned new things about my classmates that I hadn’t known before. For example, Kirsten’s I believe paper about her relationship with her mom got me thinking about my own relationship with my mother. I liked hearing what others believe, finding similar beliefs. I think this was a great activity that many learned a lot from.
ReplyDeleteDuring the days we shared our This I Believe essay, I realized so many new things about people that I wouldn’t have expected to know about them. Writing my This I Believe essay made me realize that I am a lot more emotionally attached to my family then I thought I was. Once I started writing about losing all of my family members and being surrounded by illness is that I should make an effort to see people every once in a while. It had been about 3 or 4 years since I had seen my uncles and my aunt and my grandparents all died when I was a young child. So knowing that any day could be someone close to me lasts day, I think that I should make an effort to at least see my family members that I don’t normally see. A classmates story that resonated with me was Dylan’s because he wrote about his family, and so did Ms. Gearty and Ms. Vivirito wrote about family. I really enjoyed this assignment because it was a creative way for all of us to get to know each other in a different way.
ReplyDeleteWriting "This I Believe" taught me a lot about myself; at first i did not know what i believed in because i never really thought about it. At first I began to think about the things everybody believes in but the more I thought about it and the more I relized what influenced me in life I began to relize what I believed in. I also learned a lot about my classmates and the things they believed in. A lot people wrote about family, which i could relate to. I liked this assignment because it was a good way for everyone to get to know each other and relate to each other.
ReplyDelete1.) When I first started writing my This I Believe essay, I had no idea what I was going to write about whatsoever. I had all of these miniature beliefs, that I had thought of that I thought were either not personal and had too public or governmental ideologies and many other people may have thought of them as well. I figure, okay, if the essay has to be about personal welfare, then I am going to write about family and friends, which I did. In writing this essay, it had taught me that family and friends is of the most valued in life. Without them, life wouldn't be the same and would be lonesome. Family and friends is what keeps me going, keeps everyone going. I value my friends and family so much and I talk to them all the time and we are all close. I have learned that, even if I have lost family in my past and have had friendships jostle around with me moving from and to Hudson, I think the change ended up in more than just a result of it all.
ReplyDelete2.) When listening to my classmates' This I Believe essays, I connected to a majority of them all. They all seamed to be on the topic of family and friends, as did mine and some popped out to me that resonated with me. I too think that Mrs. Gearty's story resonated to me because her wording and metaphorical speaking about the tree aging being inversely related to people's relationship and oneself aging.she spoke of how like the rings of a tree get more and more grown out ward, people and their self being grow closer and closer to the center core of a person. I also thought Natalya's story was well worded with her metaphor of speaking about her family tree project and how she was the only one on her tree because her teacher said the people on her tree must be of blood relation and she was adopted from Russia, and I find that that also resonated to me. As of connection with my story to one of my peers, I'd have to say peers like Sam and Matheus. Both of their stories had to due with losing relatives, as did mine.
I liked this assignment come to think of it, it showed me a lot of different things that I hadn't known before about my friends and other peers. So now we all know more about each other and about ourselves.
By writing my This I Believe essay, I learned so much about myself. This assignment really made me think about what I value in life. At first I wasn't sure what I believed in because it just wasn't something I had thought about. But as time went on I discovered there are a lot of things I believe in. This assignment really made me think back on all the memories I have had in the past and how those memories have shaped who I am today. In the end I found this project as a fulfilling one that I will remember for a while and really showed me what I truly value in my life. When I was listening to the other This I Believe essays, I found myself making some connections to every single one. It just showed me that although we have different experiences, we all are similar in the end. There were so many that resonated with me, so it is tough to pick just a few. Like others have said, I agree with Ms. Gearty, when she said that as we age we get closer to our core. That line just really stood out to me because it is the truth. I also really connected with Tim's essay. He talked about how he has worked hard and will make do anything to succeed on the wrestling mat and in life. That really stuck with me one, because it was similar to my essay and also because he brings up a great point. You shouldn't let anyone tell you can't do anything because they are wrong. If you put your all into something, you can do anything. I also really liked John's essay. He talked about how no matter what people think, that he will always be himself and not conform to what they want him to be. I have a lot of respect for that and found it very powerful to listen to. Paige and Vinny's essay were great because I also believe that there is so much power in music. Music has the power to do anything. it can get you by, bring you joy, and so much more in your life. I also really related to Jeff and Cassandra's. I also have a very tight knit family and hearing their stories reminded me of mine. Lastly, Sam's essay really resonated with me. I have also experienced loss in my family, losing my grandfather last year. Her story is one that I can understand and relate to. I feel like everyone did a great job on this assignment. It brought us so much closer to each other and taught us so much about ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWriting my This I Believe taught me how important my mom is to me. Reflecting on my topic to think of a story to prove my statement made me realize the various stages I went through with my mom. Instead of dwelling over the bad ones, I learned to think of them in a positive way and recognize that the weak periods I went through with my mom are partially the reason we have such a strong bond today. I learned how important it is to maintain this relationship because I sometimes take it for granted and it takes me a minute to step back and realize that some girls don’t have the opportunity to have the relationship I have with my mom. Like Sam said, this assignment made me realize how emotionally attached I am to my mom and my family in general. My family and my mom especially have helped me become the hardworking person I am today. Without her help I believe that I would be different than I am today. Prior to picking my topic I learned that I believe in so many things and that I have a lot of things in my life that are extremely important to me. This assignment allowed me to not only reflect on my topic, my relationship with my mom, but to reflect on the things I hold close to my heart. Even though I could only chose to write about a single topic, in a way this was an eye opener to make me realize the important values and standards I hold.
ReplyDeleteAfter listening to the rest of my classmates essays the ones that remain in my head are the ones about how they believed in something relating to family. I really remember Shayna’s story about optimism and her grandmother. I cannot imagine how hard it was for Shayna to get by day to day when her mother is sick, and I thought it was really special how she got through some of her toughest days through the wisdom of her grandmother. I also mentioned in our class discussion how Anthony’s story was memorable because he wrote about his dad in a similar way I did about my mom. I really enjoyed Randa’s story about her dog. I don’t have a dog but I have a little cat that I could relate to hers about. I really enjoyed all the stories and emotions she put into hers to describe how her dog was like the “heart” of the family. I guess I can say that the stories that I would relate to were personally more memorable for me. But that is not to say that the others didn’t apply because everybody took a risk and wrote about something extremely important to them. I really enjoyed this assignment and I think our class did a really good job writing.
I don't particularly think I really learned anything about myself when writing my This I Believe essay, but I did find ways to articulate my beliefs. When we got the assignment I absolutely knew what I was going to do, I have very strong and solid beliefs so I figured it would be an easy assignment. When I got to writing however, I found it really hard to write out my beliefs in a simple way that made sense. What I had initially wanted to write about I kept on rambling about and was finding it really hard to put it into a concise form. I revised and changed my paper so much that this assignment helped me figure out the beliefs I always knew I had into an organized manner and really find what the core of what I believed in was. Even though I didn’t end up writing many of the things I believe, I feel that what I did write made me think more and more about the other things.
ReplyDeleteI really related to Kirsten’s, Cassandra’s, and Jeff’s essays. When listening to Cassandra’s and Jeff’s, it made me think about my own family and how close I am with them. On my mom’s side of the family I have over 20 cousins and 13 aunts and uncles so we always do things together. Every summer for 12 years we have gone camping on a lake in Maine and I have so many memories with them there. Listening to Cassandra’s and Jeff’s made me think of my own times with my own family, and I really understood feeling so close with those people. Kirsten’s really stuck with me because my mom and I are also really close. I remember going through times with her like Kirsten did as well, times when I thought she was annoying, times when I wanted her to back off, and now spending so much time with her telling her everything. I really liked Kirsten’s because it is exactly what I feel with my mom, and I could really connect to what she was saying.
Personally, writing this assignment really made me think about what "rules" I go by in my life. But, I couldn't think of any that didn't sound like a Hallmark card or something cheesy that I would just rant on and on about. Therefore, I went with something that relates to me and my life the most. I am a cheerleader. No question about that. I believe in cheerleading. But most importantly, I believe in my cheerleading team because without them, I wouldn't be the cheerleader I am today. My life, outside of work and school, is cheerleading and so I shared it with everyone.
ReplyDeleteMany people in the class wrote about very personal feelings and personal things that have happened to them. Kirsten Lally, for example, wrote about her relationship with her mom. This really made me think about my mom and I and how I really don't know what I would do without her. She made me think about the different ways of how I have grown up, from not wanting my mom to be at the mall with me, to me wanting my moms opinion on everything I buy. Also, Jeff and Cassandra Chaves wrote about their summer and their vacation houses. Their essays made me think about my vacation house in Maine and how that's the time where my family bonds the most and where we always have fun and all that matters is that we are together.
Writing my This I believe essay really made me think about how much my family really means to me. When i was writing it, it was hard to start but then I knew what I wanted to write about and I am really happy about what I wrote. Having no cell phone service is really a great thing sometime for a weekend. But being with my crazy huge family the most important thing to me. I really liked Randa's about her dog it made me think about how important my dog is to my family and really is always there for us when you are sick he can tell when we are sad and stay right with us. I believe that all dogs should go to heaven as well.
ReplyDeleteWriting this essay taught me a lot about myself. It showed me that I believe in so many more things then I thought I did and that I believed in certain things more then others. I choose to write about second chances and when I thought about that it made me understand myself on a whole new level. I never new that I could believe in something so much. All of my classmates essays really stuck with me because I learned about them one a whole new level that for most of them I had never seen before. Some surprised me and others shocked me when I discovered something that I had not known before. Some even made me laugh a little bit for example when Sullivan shared his nervous pee story. All in all this made me get to now somethings about myself that I had never known before.
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DeleteGustafson thanks for the complement.
DeleteWriting my "This I Believe" made me realize that I am an independent person. Before it had not occurred to me as much, but when we were assigned this essay, and the topic automatically sprung to my head I realized it. One thing I heard that related to me was Tim's. He talked about working your hardest to get yourself known, and not giving up. That is something I believe in and should follow more tightly.
ReplyDeleteWriting my "This I Believe" essay was hard for me not because I had to discover myself, but because when I wrote it was hard to put my thoughts in to coherent sentences. I rambled on and on and had to edit my paper many times. Originally I didn't have a story to tell but after re-editing a few times I remembered the little girl in the square. It was hard to know exactly what I wanted to write about at first because like many people I believe in many things. It was also hard to find a topic that wouldn't sound like I was preaching.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't there for all the This I Believe essays, but I did relate to Johns essay about believing in yourself and standing up for yourself. It was really touching and I actually learned a lot about him. Shayna's essay really touched me and with what I am going through right now it was nice to know what someone else felt like and how they coped.