Reflection Paper

Since the world is such a vast place and as a result of the diverse places where UMASS students were born and raised, I feel as though many would not know the city in which I came from. I was born in a city called Springfield located in Massachusetts. Back in its prime, Springfield was a powerhouse for gun manufacturing, Indian Motorcycles, the creation of the sport of basketball and countless other things. However as time progressed, Springfield sadly regressed. The city became filled with more violence and poverty, as a result, there were different districts of Springfield: each containing different styles of living. Personally, I was born in the East Forest Park district, which was a quieter, and in my opinion, safer area of Springfield.

Additionally, it allowed me to stay out of trouble and have an abundant amount of teachers who wanted to see me strive and mature. When the time came up for me to choose my high school, obstacles also came up. The price of catholic high school education was nearly triple that of middle school. In addition to my older sister going to college, my parents didn’t know if they could afford it. My options at the time were: Central High School (which was the best in the city, violence was at a low and the teachers were dedicated to the student’s success. On the down side, the classes were larger than I was used to.), Putnam High School (a vocational school), Sci- Tech and Commerce High School (which had more violence and less dedicated students). In the end, my parents were luckily able to scrap the money together to send me to Cathedral High School. This decision primarily shaped me for the future. While here, the class sizes were never more than 20 students, allowing for a close-knit community. The courses offered such as IB Theory of Knowledge involved challenging ones mind and the overall environment involved more heightened language and a higher respect for one another. I also learned the importance of speaking up and making ones voice truly heard. In my sophomore year, the Diosease of Springfield began questioning the financial aspects of rebuilding my school after