Passion: Ministry, Learning, and Leadership
From a broad perspective, almost every teenager encounters the same daily struggles. We don’t sleep enough, have too much homework, are busy with extracurricular activities and sports, have relationship issues with friends and significant others, and we have parents who are always in our faces about all of the above. However, every teenager is infinitely unique when one sees their life story and future aspirations. Being unique has been especially difficult for me. I have an identical twin brother, and until my junior year, we were the exact same people. Recently, I’ve watched us distinguish ourselves into two clearly different people who are only noticeably similar by our looks. Everyone has an
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So much of my childhood was focused on baseball that I really didn’t do or think about anything else. My days consisted of playing baseball, watching baseball, playing baseball video games, and so on. I do believe that sports are a great way to evade trouble and to establish a group of friends, but baseball prevented me from truly living until I quit in October of my junior year. The only other activity that I focused on at all was academia. More specifically, I have always loved math and science, and I have been gifted with the ability to understand them more quickly than most. My natural disposition has always been to try and figure out how the world works, which has led to a passion for learning about math and science. The results of my appreciation for learning and knack for math and science have been a 4.33 weighted GPA and a 34 ACT score. After taking meteorology, I learned that I also enjoy analyzing. Hence, I plan to continue to study both math and science, but I want to major in Mathematics with an emphasis in Actuarial Science because this career requires heavy analysis. I will take classes in the Honors College to further push myself and expand my academic horizon. Furthermore, I hope to do undergraduate research so that I can gain hands-on experience in a math or science related field and establish personal …show more content…
Ever since I began to follow Christ at the age of 16, I feel that I have grown significantly as a person. I have developed a God-given love for people, and I give effort to treat everyone with love and not simply favor those who have a better socioeconomic status. Another strength that God has helped me to develop is the love to help others. This school year, I have made a firm effort to always put others’ academic needs before mine; simply put, I try and help others with work before I do my own. My volunteering experience in my church along with leading Willard’s Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS) has helped me to be comfortable meeting and working with different types of people. Leading Bible studies along with taking the course of Public Speaking has helped me to become comfortable and organized when giving speeches. Flipping back to the secular side, another strength is strong study habits that I have developed by trial and error by myself and from watching my peers. I have also become proficient with Microsoft Office from taking two computer classes my senior year. While I have listed many personal strengths, I understand and embrace that I am no better than anyone else and that I still have much learning and personal development to do. However, from a university’s
Biological influences combined with societal and social expectations contribute to how well people learn to adapt to their environments (2013). According to Erikson, there are eight stages of development. Within these states, there are different psychological, emotional and cognitive tasks. In order to adjust, individuals must learn to develop these tasks. During adolescence, Erikson states that each person needs to navigate through the development task of ‘‘Identity vs. Identity confusion ’’ (2013). He defined this task by stating that adolescent children must learn to develop a sense of self and establish independence. Prior to this stage of development, a person’s parents largely influence their identity. In this stage the adolescent children begin to explore and develop their identity outside of their parents’ influence (Hill, Bromell, Tyson, & Flint, 2007). Adolescents are generally more egocentric at this stage and have an increased sense of self-consciousness. They also have a strong desire to conform to peer influence and develop concerns regarding their appearance. They develop concern about their level of competence in relation to their peer group as well. As peer influence increases, during this stage, parental influence decreases (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013; Hill et. al, 2007). Conflict generally increases between parent and child at this stage of development (2007).
Throughout my life, I have found myself always striving to help others. This has been bestowed upon me since I was a young child. My brother, Justin was born with health problems. He had to be fed through his stomach from birth to he was five years of age. Because of Justin’s health conditions he was a lot smaller than kids his age. He was held back in school for a year and he was still eight inches shorter than the other kids in his class. With all of his ailments and his stature I felt that it was up to me, his big brother, to be there for him and defend him from anyone picking or ridiculing him. I later helped my mother teach second grade kids in Sunday school. This opened my eyes to a lot of learning diversities
I give in. My passion for writing is growing larger and larger each day, it has become the only thing I think about on a daily basis. It’s turning into a nuisance! I curse it to the back of my head every time it comes to fore thought. It twists my guts into an almost wrenching pain when I don’t have the chance to write something down on a piece of paper and make it my own. It forces the air from my chest as if I were a cartoon character with an anvil flattened. Where did I get this from, you ask? Let me tell you a story that explains my passion. Sit back, and enjoy the ride.
My lifetime goal is helping others and I plan to use my career to fulfill it. The classes I’m taking right now and the ones I’m planning to take senior year are classes I believe will influence my decision in my college major/career as well as counting toward my GPA. This will help me get into schools who have medical programs that I’m considering. Also, taking AP classes can help me save money since I can earn college credit. I’m taking all AP classes, and the electives I’m taking have been classes that have helped me consider being in the medical field. I’ve found that over the years, science and math are what I’m doing better in versus history and english. I believe by being in the medical field, I can help others in the best way I can.
Lastly, we look at identity without knowing it adolescents are searching for the answers to the question, “who am I?”. Although this is an important part of development for this stage it didn’t just being in this stage nor do adolescents have the capability to figure it all out. While growing up children are pushed one way or another by parents and peers some are pushed towards academics while others athletics. But how influential are parents and peers?
Teen years are the most complicated and overwhelming years of a child's life. Every teen goes through different stages while they are in the transition in becoming into an adolescent. For the Virtual Teen program I had a teen daughter, she was very outgoing and social. She enjoyed trying new things and was very involved in school. She also did well academically, and was part of the gifted program at her school. She lives with both her biological parents and a younger sister. Her relationship with her sister was like any sister relationship, they had little arguments once in a while but where are able to easily resolve on their own. As she transitioned to her teen years, she went through many stages like puberty, school transition and experimentation on new things like alcohol. As she went through those stages, there was a lot of changes in her life like adjusting to her body as it changed though puberty and adjusting to a new enviroment while she transitioned to high school. Those changes became very familiar for me because as an adolescent I also went through those stages which made it easier for me to the choises that would help her to get through these difficult years.
When I began high school, I decided to focus on my academics and athletics because I felt those were the most important to my future. I chose my classes carefully so that I would not only be challenged with rigorous classes, but also learn the value of working hard individually and as a team. As I’ve matured over the last few years I realized that I’m able to participate in a wider range of activities and still excel in my academics and athletics. I intend to continue to balance activities such as these while attending
Adolescence is a time when everything we've ever known is being changed. Relationships, friends, thoughts, and other things that shape who we are become more awkward and confusing and are changed from what they have been in the past. Consequently, we will change also because all these things shape who we are. During a period of such change, it's hard to know who we really are. Adolescence is the time when we find out who we truly are, but not until we know who we aren't. Adolescents use common words, actions, and rivalries to try to define their unique personalities, goals, and ideas. They label themselves in different ways, trying to find a single word that defines them entirely. Through this ongoing change of identity, adolescents fully realize who they are by trying on different identities until they find the one that fits them the best.
I have an edge in being analytical and mathematical. These are areas where I feel that I need to focus on more because I have good potential for both. I’m currently a Finance major at Carlson School of Management, and it’s very important that somebody has great math and analytical skills. I did well in my math classes in high school, never falling below an A on any of them. Although I feel that I possess some skill with analyzing tasks, I feel that I desire to further develop in that area.
The period of adolescence is a time of immense changes, both biologically and socially, through self-discovery and identification. During adolescence, the human body goes through a wave of hormonal changes in preparation for sexual reproduction. As the individual reaches adulthood, this process is called puberty (Arnett, 2015, p. 350). In addition to the physical changes, teens undergo many social and psychological changes as they approach adulthood, preparing them for the many responsibilities to come (Arnett, 2015, p. 350). Adolescence is constructed by changes in relation to the physical, cognitive, and emotional states of an individual. Within each of these developmental areas, teens mature in varying ways. In regards to physical changes, adolescents undergo the previously mentioned process of puberty, but they also face many issues such as eating disorders and substance abuse (Arnett, 2015, p. 357-359). For cognitive development, teens undergo
Adolescence is a period of transition between the ages of 13 – 19, after childhood but before adulthood. Adolescence can be a difficult period in a teenager's life. Many teenagers do not know how to react or how to adapt to all of the physical, social, and psychological changes that occur during this period. Some adolescents pass through this period without problem, while for others, it is a period of torture, discomfort, and anxiety. With all the biological and social pressures that occur during adolescence, many teens fail to assume their identity. Sometimes family and society does not help to make this task easier. Challenges teenagers face due to biology and society are body image, hormonal changes, social and parental pressures, family problems, school pressures, alcohol, drug abuse, homosexuality, and suicide.
I have always loved science and math. Although I thoroughly enjoy biology, it is not my strongest subject. To conjure a greater understanding of biology I set some short term goals. I want to enroll in more science based classes in order to hone my skills . Because I wish to have a job that is a hybrid of engineering and medical principles, it is extremely salient that I enjoy a major in biomedical engineering and perhaps a minor in nano engineering. Another of my short term goals that is related to my early statement, is to take a five year route in my collegiate career. The reason is so that i may enter the employment field with a masters in biomedical engineering, thus putting me a step further than many other applicants. After settling down with my engineering occupation I will be able to work on my career and long term goals. I have a laundry list of career goals but I will only explore the ones with the most priority. My first two years of highschool I was
Transition and change are some of the most difficult obstacles for people to overcome. It is no surprise that adolescence, defined as the transition from childhood to adulthood, is full of obstacles (Feldman, 2012). During this time period, adolescents are neither adults nor children; they do not appear to belong in any stable group. However uncomfortable this may seem, it is also a fitting definition. For during the adolescent stage, adolescents face puberty, sexual curiosity, self-esteem issues, and doubts about their future (Feldman, 2012). Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson aptly argued that adolescents pass through the identity-versus-identity-confusion stage in which teenagers search for defining and unique characteristics about themselves (Feldman, 2012). When a teenager struggles with this stage, a crisis emerges in which they are unable to find an appropriate role in life, often acting out or pursuing dangerous behaviors (Feldman, 2012).
In textbook (Berk, 2017), Erickson describes the psychosocial development of adolescence as a time when the individual establishes a new sense of identity or self, which leads to independence or individuation from parents and reliance on peers. The adolescent examines and redefines self, family, peer group, and community, and an adolescent who is unable to establish meaningful definitions experiences confusion in one or more life roles. Parental separation and individuation are critical developmental tasks faced by late adolescents, which can impact their academic, social, and emotional adjustment to college.
Anybody that knows me knows that my passion and goals in life have to deal with fashion. If I could be anything in this world I would love to be a designer of some sort or at least be in the industry. When it comes to clothing and style it just comes easy one of the easiest things I’m good at. Fashion is an art form it allows you to express your view on style anyway you choose. And to me I feel like nobody has the right to judge that. Style hasn’t always come easy to be though just like everything else it takes time and practice it’s still a work in progress. When I look back to my middle school and early high school years I wonder deeply about my choices, middle school had to have been the worst. I was going through a colored jeans faze, I would wear bright yellow, honey mustard yellow, sky blue, purple, and pink. If somebody were to name a color I probably had jeans that color. It gets worse though because I would have the worst possible combination choice of shoes to go along with a matching bead necklace and bracelet set, followed by a grey or navy blue uniform shirt. It’s clear I had no idea what I was doing the best part is I was being myself and that’s all that matters. No matter how much I think my style has grown I’m only human and will look back and probably wonder why I wore the outfit I’m wearing sitting here writing this essay.