Every time people are invited over for dinner at my house, the conversation turns to my artwork, specifically the small paper figures that I make. My mom makes me run up to my room to retrieve them. I fill my hands with a collection of replicas of characters from various television shows, movies, and video games, made from only paper, wire and glue. When I return to the table, the room fills with praise. The main figure of interest is always my five inch tall model of Hiccup, the protagonist of the film How to Train Your Dragon 2.
People are amazed at the amount of detail I have put into this small piece of art. However, the small representation of Hiccup is not fully appreciated until I point out all the hidden details one doesn’t see at
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I knew that the peg leg could change between the two different extensions, but I had no idea how. Figuring out the mechanism proved to be even more difficult than I originally thought. My research turned up little information on the subject. In fact, there was so little information on the Internet that I almost gave up. I first tried making a simpler version of the peg leg. Although I knew that others would be amazed at this basic version, I could not shake the feeling that I had failed. I learned that even when my attempts seem hopeless, another pass can make all the difference. I decided to search even further, zooming in on images from the movie, and countlessly rewatching the only scene where Hiccup changes between the extensions. Finally, I discovered how the mechanism worked. The two extensions pivot on either side of a central rod. Because they stick out in opposite directions, one extension is stowed in the wooden base attached to the leg while the other is in use. Once I understood this, I set my mind to coming up with ideas for replicating it with paper.
Soon after I started, I realized I had a substantial amount of work ahead of me. My attempts bent and collapsed beneath my fingers, unable to withstand the amount of strain I required. At first when my ideas wouldn’t work out, it was extremely disheartening. However, I quickly learned it was more productive to change my
time for slacking. My writing style used to be a “productive” procrastinator effort: I would think
A couple of weeks ago, I was challenged to break a board with my bare hand. On the board, I wrote down some obstacles that prevent me from pursuing things I want to achieve. After breaking the board with my bare hand, I've never felt more alive.
The blinking computer cursor on an otherwise empty screen was the college version of the blank white page of my earlier years, before technology had taken us so far. But for me it was, in many ways, the same old problem. With early drafts of a paper rarely required, I came time and time again to a point where a significant portion of my grade rested on what was essentially a single night’s work. I usually left myself no option but to write in one long session on a computer - there weren’t enough hours remaining to compose a version on paper to be typed up afterward. And time and again, my method, such as it was, worked for me. I not only survived but prospered. But I sometimes wondered, and still wonder: this works, but am I progressing? Has my writing grown? Should it be possible to turn out an “A” paper in a night? What standards are being used to judge these papers? Do my desperate all-night writing sessions somehow, in ways I don’t understand, help me improve? How did I learn to write at a level that has helped me succeed up to this point?
Maria LaMagna acknowledges that “, Maybe the biggest source of hope is how "overscheduled" we were as children. Our parents were criticized for enrolling us in Little League, ballet class and science camp all at once. But when you think about it, we "overscheduled" kids might be the uber project managers of the future.” She is certain that being able to multitask is an advantage in the pathway to achieving our dream
In the past three months I feel like I have accomplished a great deal. As the semester comes to an end I find myself reflecting not only how I have survived the first semester but also what I have learned. The most important thing I have learned so far is how to become a better writer. I did not think it could really happen to me. I did not think I could handle all the work. I did not think I could actually become a better writer. Some how after all the hours of writing, and putting effort into the papers that I wrote this semester, I became a better writer. I did this because I concentrated on two very important areas, with the attitude of, if I could just become better in those then I would become a better writer. With help from an awesome teacher and a reliable tutor I have become a better writer by improving my skills in the areas of procrastination and content.
I was blind to the fact that all the pieces I worked on improved my talent and only saw them as another task. Then, during my tenth and final year of lessons, my perspective began to change; the results of my
At the end, I take this project more to a life change than just analyzing a short period of time of change. I know that this will take a while for me to adjust to since I have been like this since a child and for my loved ones to acknowledge it seems to be affecting me in someway. I know I will face my own obstacles but I do know that I am persistent and I change that aspect of myself in the long
Her aspiration was to write, but fell in love with teaching along the way. My dream is to teach, but I fell in love with creative writing along the way. I think my strengths play a big part in my determination to do what I love. Growing up, I was determined that I was going to be a doctor because in my mind that was the only way for me to help others and make my family proud. I had no passion for medicine only the drive to do something good, and then in high school I discovered a passion for the English language that makes me never want to stop learning. Julia Alvarez proves that I can still help people in my chosen field. I can still make a difference. I want to use my intellection and my context and the vast archives of information I store because of my input strength to help shape the minds of future doctors or lawyers or writers or artists or world
By Tuesday, I was in full panic mode since I still couldn’t find the words to introduce myself on paper, so I decided to use my favorite trick for curing writer’s block: loud music. I sat at my desk and blasted my favorite tunes until the reverberations of the sound waves numbed my mind and reinvigorated my imagination. That’s when inspiration struck. I recalled a teacher referring to me as a veritable machine so turned the comparison into my essay,
I stared at the blinking cursor, unbelieving at what I had just done. I was indeed done; done with a paper I agonized over for 6 hours. The paper was due in a scant 4 hours and I had all week to do it. The radio had stopped working because my brother got on the Internet and thus cut off my connection. That was the least of my problems working on this paper. I got it done, though. My life changed with one trip of a teacher to the chalkboard and one phrase, narrative essay. God, I hate narrative essays.
...from high school with high hopes that college would add the finishing touches to my writing skills – I knew I still had flaws in my style, and I didn’t know how to fix them. And now here I am, aiming to become a successful novelist or screenwriter of some sort (as long as it allows my imagination to run wild).
In the past 4 months I have accomplished a great amount of things. As the semester comes to an end, I keep thinking to myself how I survived such a big workload from this class but also what it has taught me. The most important thing that this class, my teacher and the tremendous workload has taught me is how to become a better writer. I didn’t believe that could really happen to me. I didn’t believe I could handle all the work. I didn’t believe that I could actually become a better writer.
The quarter has finally come to an end, and with that, I close out my internship and this class that went along with it. It was a great experience and I leave equipped with a new set of skills that are preparing me for the world ahead. As I write this reflection paper, I think back to the very first week when I set up two goals for myself to focus on and hope to achieve throughout the following weeks. My first goal was to develop a better understanding of myself within the work place, and my second was to develop a strong network to jumpstart my career. Both of my goals were achieved, however, I don’t feel that either of my goals will ever be complete. I believe that you can always formulate a better understanding of yourself, and you can always network to develop a stronger tree of connections. I know for a fact, however, that I reached satisfaction with both of my goals at this internship at MKI and know whole-heartedly that I did everything in my power to exhaust my resources in
In my life time I have accomplished many extraordinary tasks that I’ve put my mind too. I discovered that my signature themes have greatly affected the methods that I use to complete these tasks. People use their strengths in everyday life as well as in crucial, life changing situations. Important self-building achievement is one factor that makes people who they are. Another is the way that people apply there strengths to different situations.
The time to breathe before advancing further in my future projects, the difficult moments instead of discouraging me, these moments give me motivation and the necessary energy to move forward. I am optimist but realistic. My parents taught me that we live in a world that is constantly changing and to succeed we need a smart plan and the ability to adapt and adjust to the changing world environment but more importantly one need to prepare one’s self to succeed. We need discipline and above all an unshakable will to resist difficulties when they happen. “An ongoing work of art” would probably be one of the best ways to describe my life. From very early on in life, I have learn that I can be the artist of my own life through guidance and hard work, I learned that we are the architecture of our life, the artist of our own destiny through work, commitment and determination. Every route taken or not taken will somehow impact our existence and leave a trail like a shooting star in the night sky, the beauty of the trail depends entirely on the nature of our actions in life. This is the first time in my existence I have had the opportunity to write the story of my life in detail. This exercise