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Recognize, Adjust, Navigate, Decide, and Yawn?

Randy Le

Think about yourself. Give yourself credit where it’s due. We all have our strengths and weaknesses but that doesn’t mean I do too. In response, I will be diving only into my three respective strengths which is perseverance—to not give up, determination—to stick with a goal, and lastly, curiosity—to find new things and make mistakes. Also, if you haven’t noticed, the first letter from each word in the the title, spells out Randy!

Just Keep Going, Just Keep Going...

In my eyes, perseverance means to never give up. It is the effort to keep going despite the challenges or difficulties you run into. No matter how many times you may get rejected or how many times you seem to “fail”, you keep going. Ever since I was born, I was one who kept trying even if it took hours or many loses. One time, I was challenged by my cousins to beat them in a game of basketball. It was a 3v3 but they were much older and bigger. Despite the size, growth, and skill advantage, my team was still willing to keep going. I believe this strength of perseverance isn’t only applied to me when given a group situation because it was brought to my teammates and we were able to take the win. Unfortunately, we lost the next game but that’s besides the point.

It’s Hard For a Reason...

When I was younger, I was taught to do one thing at a time and to stick with it. My father would always “If you’re going to do something, do it. If not, don’t do it.” This stuck to my ribs and ever since, I defined it as determination—to stick with a goal. Determination has been a well-known strength of mine. I want to succeed but the main part about how I define determination is the parts where you struggle. The struggle is where you learn the most from and after you overcome them, you become overall stronger.

Did Curiosity Really Kill The Cat?

Curiosity is one of my favorite and respective strengths. While it may be one that can be overlooked, I feel like the potential of the strength can be incredibly important. The new ideas that are formed and accepted allow for unexpected results that can be good or bad. If it’s bad, then you can learn from the mistake and flesh out a new idea from it. To add to that, curiosity has personally brought me to a point of life where I am able to express my creativity in ideas.  

How Does This Help Me With CTE Engineering?

With the combination of the strengths, I believe my time as an engineer would be great. In my eyes, part of engineering is learning through trial and error. Being able to fight through challenges and continuing going for success is a crucial strength in learning. To add to that, my strength of curiosity can bring new ideas in times where I might be stuck or when I am just having fun. Nonetheless, these strengths can positively influence my time in the CTE Engineering Program including my time at JMT Engineering.

Jonathan Rodebaugh

Ms. Shagin

CTE Engineering

9/26/18

Jon’s Three Keys To Success.

Introduction:

My definition of a strength would be a key to one person’s success. Not everybody has the same strengths because everybody is different. I came up with 3 strengths that I personally think to enable me to succeed. The first one would be my work ethic, I believe hard work is a huge reason for success. Second is professionalism if you can present yourself as someone who acts well in a workplace I think that will help you in the long run. My third strength is my curiosity. Not knowing something and not trying is one thing, but being will to try new thing and learn how to do things helps a lot, that is why I try to accomplish this every day.

Jon’s Work Ethic:

I think one of the biggest things that I can do for any task I have, is to put in a good workload, and have a good work ethic. There is a lot of assignments at school or skills I am trying to learn that I am not good at. Even though I’m not the best at them, I show that I work hard at them, and that helps me a lot. I also try to plan out times in my head that I can do the work, or time to study so I can get better at certain things.

Jon’s Professionalism:

Sometimes kids my age got to a public or professional place, and they cause a ruckus. I try to not do that, I try to act with professionalism. When I enter a public place or a business, I try to get to know the place and the people before I get too comfortable with it. I always act with professionalism, with my voice and my actions.

Jon’s Curiosity:

If I am faced with something really hard that I don’t know I try not to just shy away from it because it is too hard. I am always eager to learn new things and experience new things. I think that will help me in the real world. That is because if I am faced with a new opportunity I won’t run away with it just because it is something new.

Conclusion:

I believe these three strengths will help me a lot throughout my time in CTE Engineering. I know this will be hard and I can use my work ethic to help me push through. In my ILP I will be working with a business so I will use my ability to be professional to make a good impression. There will be new things that I will experience, and I will use my curiosity to figure those things out. I also think that I will gain new skills by going through CTE Engineering.

In this blog post, I will be talking about the three strengths that I have. As a student, I gain a new strength every day that contributes to my schoolwork.  The three strengths that I am going to list are the reason I am who I am today. These strengths are what helps me through school, dance, and other activities in my life. When I completed the 16 Personality test, It revealed that I was a Mediator. Mediators have a talent for self-expression, revealing their beauty and their secrets through metaphors and fictional characters, which I find true to myself.

Brooke’s Creativity:

My creativity is something that will always be my greatest strength. I am able to come up with ideas for projects, dances, art, and even music. This is a strength of mine that keeps growing with every new challenge I face. Creativity is a really good strength to have since SLA is a project based school. I am able to come up with different themes and ideas for my projects.

Brooke’s Dedication:

Dedication is also a strength that I have and still developing. There are days where I will stay dedicated to something, but once there is a challenge I start to lose some of my dedication. Besides this small con, my dedication has helped me get through many projects at school and even in dance. I think of dedication as a way to achieve my goals in life. Even now, I am dedicated to achieving good grades and getting accepted into a good college. My dedication is something that I will need for the rest of my life. For all I know, it could get me into a good college or maybe even get me a good job when I get older. It is definitely a strength that has flaws but it is a great one to have.

Brooke’s Hard Work:

I consider myself a very hard working person, especially when it comes to schoolwork and dance. In dance I have to work really hard to learn a new dance or a difficult trick. Ever since I was young, I’ve had to work hard in dance because I’ve always danced with older kids. Even now I have to work very hard in the classes that I struggle in. This is also where my dedication kicks in, since I am so dedicated to getting good grades, I work even harder to get them. I have to work harder to dance with more experienced dancers.

All of these strengths that I have are what makes me the person that I am today. Being dedicated, a hard worker, and creative have helped me with the things that I do in school and my extracurricular activities. It is awesome to have these qualities at such a young age, since they can help me grow and become a better person.

I am a human.  I am an advocate.

I am the type of person whose personality traits may seem to contradict, but end up working together in the end.  I am a soft-spoken person, but I will defend my opinions very tirelessly and meticulously. My will is strong once I have decided, and my actions are filled with imagination and creativity, but I always try to keep my expectations tempered and logical.  I am one of those people who see the bigger picture, the matrix of how the system works together.

Most prominently, I am a decisive person.  Once I have made up my mind on what I want to do, I will be dedicated to doing it.  It’s like an airplane taking off. Once it has reached velocity, it is committed to the takeoff, there is no stopping it in time.  In my life, this shows up in my career choice, which is in aerospace engineering. I decided almost 3 years ago that I wanted to work in aerospace, and I have meticulously inched myself closer and closer to that goal.  

I am a person in which it can be hard for people to understand my reasoning behind my logic.  It is of course very important for me to understand the bigger picture of an entire system. I am a big lover of thought experiments as it helps me sharpen my skills with such understanding of a bigger picture, the complex matrix of how everything goes together.  All it takes is a systematic approach to reaching an understanding of the topic. It’s like Sudoku, piecing the clues together and eliminating red flags.

I am also a deep thinker kind of person where I am quick to come up with ideas, but I often take a lot of time to temper and explain to myself the logic behind my ideas and also how realistic they might be.  This is a sort of double edged sword as in one hand, it helps me to articulate my words better, but as a downside, it makes the process of talking/writing in general take longer.

In conclusion, my skill set is one in which time is at the utmost value.  It takes time to think through my own logic, and it’s that time that I stand to lose in the long run.  Time itself is very important for being accomplished. How much time you have and how you manage it is the very way that dictates what is possible in that time.  It sounds easy but is actually very hard because in the end, wasting things is easier than saving them.

Matthew Nguyen 09-27-18

Frank Ocean voice pierced through my thoughts.

“I thought that I was dreaming when you said you loved me,”

I laid my back on the hard floor surrounded by a wall of boxes. Each box held a part of my life, this room held a part of my life. As moving day got closer, packing got more difficult. The reality was setting in. Watching my life packed away into boxes.

“The start of nothing,”

The bag full of things I meant to throw away but never did was finally defined as trash. A year earlier I watched as my sister things disappear as she went away to college. Now I watch as my whole family and I disappear from this apartment I grew up in.

“I had no chance to prepare I couldn’t see you coming”

I would never be walked home to here again. I would never forget my keys to get into this apartment again. My room would be someone else’s room. The door that was too big for the frame would be someone else's problem. My door had always been broken. It didn’t close all the way and now a new family would come in and probably fix it. My door. They’d take it off the hinges. The song started to fade out. I grab my phone and  hit repeat. I will stay in this moment forever. This moment where my room is still my room. Where my door is still my door. Where my home is mine and no one else's.

“This is it” My mom said unlocking the door to a house I’d never seen before. We walked into a large room. I carried the tiny piano I grew up playing in my arms. I walked up the stairs to see what would become my home. What was meant to be my room was four walls and a hallway that led back to a bathroom. I walked in and the door closed. A door that actually closes. I put the piano down and I sat down on the carpet in front of a window where the sun shone down. I felt the warmth on the carpet. It was so quiet. No blaring sirens, just the occasional hum for a passing car. I put my hand onto the keys of the small piano and played a C chord. The sound rang out and echoed. The echo of an empty room. The echo of my room.

The flaws of this room i’d come to accept. My door would slam when I didn’t want it to, my old door never did that. Carpet, a broken closet door, the sound the ceiling makes when someone is upstairs.

Change was never my strong suit so when it can go moving the effects were immense. Stages of transition always get me, the whole idea of losing a part of what used to be my whole life always causes a shift. I’m tired of shutting down in the face of change. My high school transition took two years. Two years of messing up. Two years of lack of motivation. And everytime I finally adjust to a change it forces me to ask the question is it too late? Am I too late to fix this?

Magnificent.Incredible.Cool.Happy.Awesome.Lovable

Michal Czapla

Over the course of these past 15 years of my life, things have gone pretty well. However, in order for everything to continue being well, you have to have some strengths. Everyone is great in some aspect of life, whether it be public speaking or being great with numbers. I myself have strengths as well that allow me to be good in certain areas. In fact, I’m here to discuss three core strengths of mine!

WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING CONFIDENT?

Just like what Demi Lovato suggests, I don’t see anything wrong with expressing my thought and ideas loud and proud. To be confident in myself means to not care about how others view me based off of my actions in life. It’s one thing to tell yourself that you are a confident individual, but it’s another to prove it by contributing to discussions and Whenever I have an answer to tell in class, no matter if it’s right or wrong, I say it loud and proud. This leads to me either looking bad or great, but I know that I’ll learn something either way. Also, in conversations with people, I don’t do well with small talk, but after I get to know a person I act as myself because I’m comfortable with being myself.

SMILE

Lil’ Duval and I share one thing in common: always having a smile on our face. Most people would see this as an emotion, but to be able to go out into the real world everyday facing constant challenges and tons of work, it can be hard to stay happy. In other words, I am always positive. When you have a positive outlook on life like me, you’re able to not only find the good bits in the hard times to pull through, but also giving out good vibes to the people around you. I can’t tell you how many days I want to just curl into a ball and mope in my seat. I always tell myself, though, that people are going through their own drama in life, so I make it a goal to spread some positivity that’s needed in the room.

WORK, WORK, WORK

Finally, I sit here reminiscing Rihanna’s lyrics: “Work, work, work, work, work, work…”. That ties in to my final strength: diligence. I constantly push myself to keep improving and sharpening skills because I know that if I strive for something, I will be rewarded. If I see that my Algebra grade isn’t doing well and I have Standards coming up, I’m going to make sure that I get a perfect score on those standards. There is no possibility of me failing, because I know that if I keep working on my math skills and practice, I should get rewarded by being prepared and acing the quiz. The point is, whenever I set a goal for myself and I want myself to get it done, I will make sure it does not fall through.

APPLICATION TO CTE ENGINEERING

So, I’ve talked about my strengths and how they help me in my day-to-day life, but how do I incorporate it into my CTE life at Science Leadership Academy?

For starters, having confidence is a good attribute to have when working with a group to solve problems on a design element of a machine or circuit. In this case, I can display confidence by expressing my ideas and opinions on how we can do things in order to make something work without being embarrassed. If I didn’t have confidence, my group could possibly miss out on an idea that could actually benefit our cause. Even in my ILP, if I display confidence in meetings or presentations, my mentor(s) will definitely take me seriously. If they see that I am passionate about my ideas and say them loud and proud, they’ll also start to think “Wow. This guys must know what he’s talking about!”

By exerting positivity, I can make sure that even in a high-pressure situation, I can always make sure that my friends or colleagues are still having fun. The worst thing you could do in CTE Engineering is hate it because it takes up so much of a student’s schedule. People sometimes need a bit of motivation to do equations with Ohm’s Law, so my smile and jokes are always there for people. If my ILP mentor sees that I am not slouching or moping, wishing that I was somewhere other than JMT, they will definitely appreciate that and take a mental note of it.

Diligence is possibly the most important in this case. If I want to keep up with all of my grades without a lunch period to work on homework, I’m going to need an extra drive in me to learn Engineering. Since there is a lot of brain power needed to understand a lot of concepts in Engineering, my hard-working spirit allows me to not give up if I don’t understand what a resistor is or what current means. I simply make it a goal to work on those topics more so eventually I do get it. This ties into ILPs because my determination to finish a project will show when I present at JMT. Being a diligent worker there will improve their overall view of me. They could even see me as a potential candidate for a job there, later in life, after I graduate college.

THANKS FOR VIEWING!

Kayla Kelly                                                                                                                             9/18/18 My strength in clubs/sports

Hi I am Kayla, I am a sophomore at SLA, I am in CTE engineering, which is good, but not my only interest, and didn’t start out as I want to go in to this interest just because, because I wanted to know what it was about, then I go further. And when I am interested in something I never let go , I won't automatically say I want to quit, I say I want to go the extra mile, but if I actually do have to quit, I quit. When I am doing things I stop and try to talk to myself will I be harming myself and /or someone, what am I doing, by listening and looking, very carefully.

Curiosity killed the robot's engineer

One of my strengths is how curious I am, when I look at an interest I could have, I step in the water slowly, not all at once. If I go in all at once I will not know what to do, if I don’t like it I'd be doing something I don’t like it, I can’t go back I am to deep in to it, and I could possibly hurt someone, emotionally, or maybe myself physically. But when I am curious, I think about it theoretically , I also try talking to people about how it is, there experience doing it, I also test it so I am sure I will not hurt people, cause I do not want to hurt people in any way. I am doing a full marathon in november, I didn’t just say I am going to do it right now, I thought about it, I asked about it, and I tested out how physically fit I am, so I will not hurt myself. And when I am curious about something I do not drop it, I am always researching it , and figuring it out, I go all the way most times, if I am not stopped by anything, then I stop if I absolutely have to, to get better, or better at it.

I am not determined, said no best runner ever

I am Determined, when I do something I just don’t quit, I move on, and I just keep moving.And when someone is determined they are not the pretenders as a person who was in the olympics and works for vanguard said that his coach,” rain brings out the pretender’s, the ones who are like oh it raining we can’t run, oh I my ankles hurt , can’t run, my legs hurt everyday running I can’t run,s therefore you're all not pretenders, the ones who attended this race” because rain and pain won’t kill you, in fact it makes us stronger as runners, heck I ran 13 in the rain, while my legs and stomach (side stitches, really bad cramp on the side of you stomach)hurted, I ran though ¾ of a mile, through with bad stitches and they only got bader every time I got faster, so I kept going faster, because I was right there at the finish line, for 10 miles.But determination does reign in sport/activities area, but we don’t think that much over other stuff such as school work, work, clubs, etc. when in a club, the pretenders, it boring it's not fun, it will never ever be fun, but the people who attend there every single day even if it is boring now, or whatever, are the determined people, because if they can’t do this then they first of don’t deserve it , secondly they can’t improve if they aren't there or engaged, and they can learn from what ever happened before , like practice, like work, in practice you/body, don’t know where you pain will be to ice it and then help it grow stronger, work you didn’t do it how will you know what to do when you go back, it will be like as if your sick and didn’t know what was happening, which is weird.when I am determined in something I say my motto, don’t stop now, keep moving,when you stop now in anything it will be harder when you get back to it, like walks if you run , then walk to much your body feels like it needs to have more walk than what you want to have, or in home work you skip you won’t ever don’t know what is going on in the next one, then the next one and so on ,and you feel like not doing more then you or maybe your teacher wants to. You also need to be aware when in doing this, make sure your not too determined and break someone, something, or your self.

Last year philadelphia full marathon, Jeremy Spry, Camil, Charles, jermey 9th (I belive) camils 2nd, and charles 1st.

Observant ones get things done in anything

I am observant too, when in a place, I observe my surround to know where I am and here to go just in case for next time. I I try to use all my senses (unless I have allergies happening and stuff)  to know my surrounding, like if something will happen such as my brother breaking thing, or my dog breaking things.But I also observe from an theropedic/phycologic view, I’ll look at a person's behavior ( little experience in this, mom has depression, me and my dad has mild anxiety, and my brother has a bunch of stuff that I kind of don’t feel like talking about now) if someone skips class many times I either know they have severe anxiety or they are bad at school.Being observant is very important for everything, making sure you have all the notes in class, making sure you not going to make anyone upset either mad or sad, making sure you dog  isn’t chewing on something she can’t have and so she won’t go to the hospital and you have to spend a thousand dollar medical bill for surgerys that pretty much do on humans and cost way less than a thousand.But anyway we all need this ability for pretty much anything, which most people have it high or low amount, we all have it, but having have high mean your very careful which is very amazing and very good, if your caful on doing/saying thing with friend then you're observant in their lives,and if your car in places or situation your observant.

https://www.lynfield.school.nz/Extra-Curricular/Robotics.html

My strength can help me in working because when I am curious I find thing they probably aren't supposed to be there, such ase blowing up LED lights.when I am determined I don’t stop working i want to work after when we are supposed to leave,(with an adult). And when I am observant, well observant is like a catalyst for curiosity, when I am Observant I can find out whether something is going to blow before it does, saving money so some of these are saving techniques too.

Jacob Prunés

Pahomov

English 2- systems

9/21/18

I had just left the youth program and was waiting for my parents to pick up my older sister and I. We were outside trying to find our parents but couldn't see the car because it was extremely dark. We decided that they must be down the alley around the corner because we couldn’t find them.

When we went around the corner and was walking, we saw a very bright light. My sister and I think it’s a car light so we jogged back to the house we were staying in because the alleyway is very narrow. I noticed that it was only one light instead of the usual two, but it didn’t think anything of it. While we waited for the car to pass we realized it isn’t a car but a bike with an extremely bright headlight. The man on the bike was going slow and then he stopped in front of us.

“What are you guys doing here?”, he asks

We weren’t really sure what he meant because it’s such a strange question to ask.

“We are just coming back from a youth group.” my sister says.

“Show me, prove it. Go knock on their door.” the man says.

That’s when I finally realize that he doesn’t trust or believe us.

“Why were you guys running away?” he asked

“I thought you were a car, your light is very bright.” I said, now getting angry that this man stopped us because we were “running.”

He then made a noise that says, “yeah right!” and biked away.

My sister and I just stood there angry and annoyed. It then goes through my head that this man was racially profiling us because we were in Germantown, a mostly white neighborhood. We hadn’t done anything wrong, but the way he was talking about us made it seem like we did. I don’t like to get involved in situations so I just call my parents to find out where they are.

We finally find their car and we climb in.

“How was it? Did you have a good time?” My mom asked.

“Well, it was good until now.”, my sister says, starting to tear up.

My parents ask what's wrong. She then explains the whole story to them, about how we were racially profiled. Now, my mom is not shy or calm in these situations, especially when it comes to her kids. She instantly hops out the car, slamming the door behind her, and goes up to the man, who turns out to be the neighbor of the house we were in. We can’t really hear what’s going on and we couldn’t see very well because it was still dark but when my mom comes back she explains what happened.

When she confronted him she tells him what he did. He obviously didn’t think he did anything wrong and doesn’t really care what my mom was saying.

After she stops talking the man said, “Well, why were they running.”

So my mom explains about the flashlight on his bike.

“What flashlight?” He asked, which is ridiculous because his flashlight was almost brighter than the sun.

“That one!” She exclaims, pointing to the light on his bike. “My kids felt very uncomfortable.”

“I did too,” he said, pretending that he was the victim.

Seeing that he doesn’t care or really know what he did, my mom heads back to the car. When she tells me what happened, I get very upset about the bull**** I just heard. Eventually, we drive away after we talk to the family that we were with.

This was the first time I have ever seen blatant racism and racial profiling, first hand. I knew that people thought that way but I couldn’t comprehend that it could happen to me too. This moment really changed how I see the world. This moment shouldn’t happen to anyone. This needs to stop. I just hope one day I can walk through an alleyway with not a worry in my mind.

My name is Anthony Castro, I am in 8th grade, and I am the typical teenager. I don’t care about school or anybody, I hate homework and socializing, and I just want to get out of this school and go somewhere different because I hate everyone in it. Pan American is an ok school, but the students are constantly bullying each other including me.

However, today was a different day. As the clock on the classroom wall hits 3:00, the bell rings and I finish spacing out, gather my belongings and the students and I head out the school in a single file line. My dad beeps his car horn which alarms me that he has arrived, and picks me up as usual and we begin to drive home. My dad was asking me questions about what kind of high school I wanted to go to and we usually don’t talk in the car, so I knew something was up. I vaguely answer his questions because I just wanted to go home and rest. We arrive to my house after about 20 minutes of driving around Kensington and reaching Wyoming. As I walk through the small hallway before I  enter my living room, I can feel the heat from the many electrical heaters scorching the area, forcing me to remove my coat before I melt. I make my way to the kitchen to smell the wonderful rice, beans, and chicken my mother usually cooks for our daily diet. I serve myself a hot steaming plate and set it aside to cool down while I make my way to my room to remove my school uniform. I walk up the steps by the kitchen and head towards my mother’s room to greet her on this cold, dark, cloudy winter afternoon. I open her door and I see her with a letter in the grip of her hands.

“Congratulations! You got accepted to PMA, I am so proud of you!” PMA, or Philadelphia Military Academy, is a school that prepares the students physically and mentally for the military At this point, the heat from the room is no longer present in my head. All that I can feel is excitement, the blood rushing, my heart racing. I remove my bag and it slams against the floor, I slowly walk and grab the letter and read it out loud.

“Hello Anthony Castro, I would like to congratulate you for being accepted to this academy...We welcome you to the open house next week on...Sincerely...” In my head I am thinking, what about SLA? My mother is very supportive when it comes to the military because most of her family is a part of the military or they have high positions in their branches. I wanted to continue the legacy, but something was telling me that I needed to pick another school. I knew that I needed to go to Science Leadership Academy because all of my teachers were telling me that it was a really good school and they prepared me really well.

“Que paso? ” My dad makes a confused face and my mom explains to him that I was accepted to the school.

“Mom I have to tell you something. I know you love the military or whatever, but for the sake of my education, I think that Science Leadership Academy is a better option. I know that you are proud of me and I honestly would love to go to that school but I like SLA better.”

The smile on my mom’s face instantly turned into an angry frown. She was getting upset with me and I know that I am growing up, it’s about time I start making my own decisions.

“Unbelievable Anthony, why? How are you going to get there, who is going to buy you more clothes? I am not driving there everyday! Esto es increible!! ” Her voice was rising, and I knew that she was not playing games once she started speaking spanish, her entire tone changes

“Sorry mom, I just think it is best for me. I have enough clothes and I can just take the train. They can provide me with transpasses.” I retaliate with the best possible response I could think of.

“Ok, but if you attend this school you better get good grades, otherwise I am taking you out.” She returns back into her bed and I walk out, dragging my bag and coat in hand, depressed that I am unable to satisfy my parents. I know how much the military meant to my mom and she really wanted me to attend that school. I walk up the next flight of steps heading to my room on the third floor, remove my uniform, put on my pajamas, and went downstairs to eat my food. Felt like a black hole in my heart, my emotions twisting and turning like a stomach ache, confused as to what exactly I should be feeling right now. I knew I made the best decision for me, SLA is a better curriculum in my opinion and nothing was going to change that.

After a long discussion talking about “I am very proud of you no matter what Anthony. Military or not, you have a lot of potential and I will allow for you to attend that school.” Relief is all I feel. Does she actually mean this? As long as she is proud of me, I am happy.

“Thanks mom.”

“Ag-ner”

“A-g-ner”

“Anyae”

 “Onya”

It’s what they all said with an awkward expression. My answer was always the same.

“It’s Aigner - “On-ya”  

As long as I can remember I hated my name, especially when it came to the outside world. It would make me mad, because they had no problem pronouncing other people’s name but when they started to stutter I knew for a fact that they got to my name. Every so often I have flashbacks to when the teacher would say

“Agner”

and I would run out of the classroom crying my eyes out, as I heard the echoes of my class’s laughter.

“Why did she give me this name”,

is what I would constantly repeat in my head “Out of all names and I get stuck with this dreadful name.”.

The year of 2012 is when I started to dance. My hip-hop teacher, Mr. Balou had the hardest time pronouncing my name. It was so difficult for him to pronounce that it got to a point that he was purposely mispronouncing my name, insteading of getting to learn it. Hearing the name he gave me made me feel like I myself was not human, didn’t have no respect for me and I belonged somewhere strangely unusual. It made me wonder how my other teacher got the jist of it but he just shut downed and called me whatever was easier for him. My mom pulled me out of dance, not because of the name thing but...to be honest I don’t even know why she did such a thing. Next thing you know, I was playing tennis. For some reason I had a high hope of my coaches pronouncing my name right but I should’ve known that no matter where I go there will always be a mis-pronunciation. For the whole year I was there not once did they get it right. Based on the spelling of my name the word Ag-ner would just slip out there mouth. At time I use to think they would mess it up on purpose cause when they said it they will laugh it off. This ignorance made me mad, so I went up to her one morning and told her I quit. I never thought she would say “Ok, let me know if see other things that interest you.”.

When I would accurately pronounce my name, I would sometime say it’s french. Some people would ask numerous questions about my name. Hearing these questions would make me laugh or it would be so preposterous.

“Are you french?”

“Say something in French?”

“Were you born in France?”

“Do you have French in your family background?”

Still to this day I am ask such ridiculous questions about being French. Every so often when I explain my name to people they are amazed that the letters are silent and realize that they are adding more pressure than needed.

Seventh grade year, I remember that year because that was a year where we had a ton of substitute teachers. As soon as the bell rung at 12:15 me and my classmates rushed down to the computer lab, for the cool refreshing air. Of course, she had to do role call but I had gotten over the fact that my name was quite difficult to pronounce based on its spelling. After the words “Khairiyyah Tumaini” fled her mouth I just knew what was coming. For the first time, throughout all the substitute teachers I had she got it right, with no stuttering nor hesitation. Instead of saying

¨Present¨, I replied with a

“Thank you”.

She looked at my puzzle with her face saying

“Why so she say thank you?”,

“Everybody always messes it up”, my friend replies. For some reason hearing the pronunciation “On-ya” made me realize that I can't make assumptions and judge people's interpretation.

Long story short having this name makes me feel a lot of things, majority of the time feeling peculiar. At times I think to myself that I shouldn’t let this ruin myself.

“Today we're going to be practicing taking a disc from one place to another place he asked us what is that.”

My teamś coach, Kobe, told us that without teamwork there's no team.”

After he said that I felt like we wanted to be a team but we didn't know how to be a team. We were counting on Kobe to teach us how to work as a team.

We split the teams up into two offense versus defense, Kobe threw the ¨discs in the middle and we started playing.¨ Alex cut left and I filled a diss to Alex then he threw it to Phoenix. We were halfway down the field then Kobe said, ¨throw it down the field Amadou then I ran as fast as I could and I felt the green and black turf in between my cleats I felt the breeze go past me as I caught the disc in the air,¨

“Let's try it with no teamwork, and see how that works,” Kobe said.

Then we started it again started with the disc and all Kobe said, “Will someone run all the way down the field .” Then we tried it with teamwork again, so I started with the disc again then I threw it at Phoenix and he threw it back to me. The Ethan had the disc.

Kobe said, ¨Sit down and tell me what were the pros and cons of the practice today.”

Phoenix replied with, “The pros were that we worked as a team and communicated with each other.”

The cons were, we weren’t working together as a team and our communication was not organized.

I finally understood what Kobe was trying to say he was trying to say that if we don't put our head together and work as a team we will never win a game.  when he told us to Try it without teamwork it was an example of how we would play if we don't work together Show us that we have to work together.

Two weeks ago, after school, at 44th and Haverford I had soccer practice. The coach told us we have a game tomorrow and we need to practice controlling the ball, passing it to our teammates,  and getting open. he advised us to gather into small groups where we would pass the ball. There was one defender in each of the group where they were supposed to block the ball, with this drill we improved in our communication skills as a team. There were a couple times we lost the ball, the coach stopped us after five minutes asking why did you lose the ball.

Ash replied “Because we weren't talking to each other and using all the space we have as a team,” Coach made us try it again.

I passed the ball to Ash and then he passes it back and we kept this up for about 5 minutes without the defender getting. The coach pointed out the difference after we played and he congratulated me, making me happy.

I learned that without working as a team and communication we will never learn to keep the ball in our possession. we have to talk because if someone behind Ash trying to get the ball I can tell Ash to pass the ball and as a team, we will learn to work together.

Hector Sanchez

Ms.Pahomov

English II

9 / 21 / 2018

Leaving Home

In June of 2016, my mom told me that we were going to move out of Puerto Rico. A  few months later in August, the day before we left, I was feeling anxious all I could think about was that we were going to move to where my aunt was living in Philadelphia. All throughout the day I was thinking about was my family and friends and how much I didn’t want to leave them behind. I started to think about everything that would happen if moved. I thought about having to start a new life in a completely different environment. I had a feeling of sadness and anxiety.

A few days after my mom told me the news she told me that she was going to leave first and a few months later I would follow. I changed my mind about leaving because I didn't want my mom to leave all by herself. I decided to go with her in August. The day before I left, my mom and I stayed at our aunt’s house. My whole family went to my aunt house to visit us. As I said goodbye to all my family members a feeling of sadness overcame me all of a sudden: I didn't want to leave anymore. After coming to terms with the fact that I was leaving, we got in the car with my uncle and he drove us to the airport.

When we arrived at the airport my uncle got out of the car and helped us carry our luggage to the inside of the airport. Before saying goodbye to him a bunch of memories came to my mind. All of a sudden I was hit with a feeling of nostalgia remembering all of the good times that I had with my uncle.after that we said our goodbye to him and he got back in the car and drove into the distances.

Everything that happened inside of the airport passed kind of quickly. We went to check our luggage and after that, we waited a couple of hours to board the plane. After a few hours of being anxious about the trip. It was time to board the plane. “We will begin boarding now.” As they were calling the groups of passengers to board the plane I thought about all the good times and experiences that I had in my old town. In my head, I was thinking to myself “This is it we are really leaving after I board this plane and it takes off there's is no heading back.”When it was our turn to board the plane my mom looked at me and said, “It’s time for us to get on the plane.” As we boarded the plane I felt like all of my anxiety was slowly decreasing. When we got to our seat I sat down and felt the coldness of the seat on the back of my head. I was really tired so I slept throughout the whole flight.

When I got to Philadelphia, my aunt Karina picked us up from the airport. I was so happy to see her. I quickly went up to her and gave her a hug I think that most of my anxiety went away because I stopped thinking about the things that I was going to leave behind and started to think about new things that I was going to experience. I was happy that I was going to see some family members that I have not seen in a long time and seeing them again made me feel better about the whole moving thing.

That night before I when to bed I started to think about more things that I was going to experience.As I was thinking I realized that when you have thought to think positively about situations that may be hard you start to find positive things about that situation. Me moving to Philadelphia helped me realized that everything happens for a reason and some that somethings happen for the best. After this experience, I try to have a positive mindset when I'm dealing with difficult situations.

Systems. That’s the big word this year, the one nobody seems to stop talking about. In class after class, we’re asked to speak about what systems affect us, which systems are visible and which are not, and what a system is. To define a system, a lot of my classmates turned to the examples of the prison system or the credit system. All these things that make people generally unhappy. I can’t speak for the world, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that as people we don’t like feeling unhappy. We like positive systems that distract us from the negative ones and just make us feel good. For me that’s the regional rail train system.

The regional rail is just some trains. That’s really it. You get on and you get off some time later, surprisingly far from your initial location for how much you paid. I’m less interested with how it gets you where you’re going, and more concerned with the experience. I’m not sure what exactly about it I love but there’s just something meditative and calming about it. As you leave the city, you can see the urban area slowly fade and become more green; turning into a series of small towns and eventually farms and rural areas. To think that people take this ride 360,000 times each day is insane to me.  For me, it’s a calming and infrequent experience but for others, it’s their boring or stressful daily routine.

The really interesting thing with this example, though, is that it can be applied as a metaphor to any number of systems.  When one person sees a just means of protecting citizens from criminals, another sees as a flawed institution that harms minorities and prevents past felons from living a comfortable life. How a system affects the individual directly correlates to how that system is perceived. When I think of systems I think of the regional rail because it positively affects me in a way different than it affects many others. Some people like it because it gets them to work in the morning, (more often than not people hate it because it gets them to work in the morning), some people hate it because the trains usually aren’t the most punctual or clean. The majority of people, though, just don’t think about it.

When was the last time you sat down and thought to yourself, “How does the regional rail make me feel?” It’s a strange question, no doubt, but it’s also one that not many people have an immediate full answer to. The thing about SEPTA, and many other systems actually, is that they’re either not present in someone’s life at all, or all too present and the individual is just normalized to the experience. This happens a lot with systems - good or bad - all the time. Of course we don’t notice this because, well, that’s the point. Since 1976 the US government has executed 1,427 people for a criminal offense and we’re just cool with that? I mean, of course we’re not, but it’s become normalized to a point where we don’t even realize it’s scale. This example is especially true in states like Texas, where more than a third of these executions have occured.

But we don’t think about that on the regional rail because the regional rail is for peace of mind and enjoying nature go by. The regional rail is for getting your ticket after you’ve gotten on the train so you get one of the big tickets that they punch a bunch of holes in. It’s like an unintentional anti-system system. It’s this 403 mile web of steel tracks and cars going roughly 100 miles per hour, all communicating with each other over invisible waves in the air and I sit myself down and don’t exist for a few hours. It’s cathartic.

I laugh in between fast breaths. My twin brother and our friends chased each other around a field fearing nothing except failure. Nothing could be worse than getting frozen in freeze tag, I thought.

As my feet hit the ground, a sudden heaviness wrapped around my ribs. Wisps of constriction began to infect my throat, and I notice that following each inhale, there is a noticeable croak. I stop running. Forget being frozen, I remember being told  ‘an asthma attack can hurt you very badly’. I reach into my back pocket, where a blue inhaler hides. By now however, all my friends are familiar with my asthma. They keep playing, my brother nods to me,

“Are you okay?” He twin-spoke, using the noiseless and lucid language that only two people on the entire planet know.

“Yes, just a second.” I reply, taking the protective cap off of the device I’ve used many, many times now. I sit cross-legged in the dirt, as I feel an invisible twine wrap around my throat. I hold the inhaler to my lips, and pump the device twice. Almost instantly, I feel medicine charge down my throat, and rip through the constriction. I inhale all the air I can, again, again, and again once more. I take a moment to stuff the inhaler back into my jeans, and I stand, catching up with my friends.

I cannot remember a point in my life where I was not carrying an inhaler. I’ve always had a weird relationship with it. When I was very young, it was something that I just carried wherever I went. Sometimes, I would pretend that it was something very special, and I was chosen to carry it. As I got older however, I became more aware that this device was made to save my own life. I was first introduced to the idea of death by asthma when watching a news segment where a woman mourns the loss of her husband, who died during an asthma attack. I remember being paralyzed with fear, and very confused. I knew having an asthma attack was dangerous, but I never imagined myself being seriously injured during one.

For a few years after that, I remember becoming aware of the fact that medicine cost money, and ultimately that inhalers weren’t cheap. Most of the time, I was afraid to check the counter built inside the inhaler, which counted how many more doses were left. If it was too low, my parents would have to buy a new one. This made me very nervous, I thought that my parents buying me an inhaler would make our family go broke. I was almost always fearing an attack, not out of fear for my own health, but out of the idea that the medicine I would always need was expensive and would be always be expensive.

After over fifteen years of living with Asthma, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are many others with the disease, and most of them live perfectly normal lives, and are able to enjoy the things they want to learn. This realization helped me grow out of the complex I grew to have, in which I believed I was a sick child who could not do things normally. Truly, you can live a normal live with Asthma, you just need to be willing to do things you’re excited for without fear. As I continue to learn more about Asthma and how it affects me, I understand my own body, and my own world better. I was intimidated by Asthma when I was younger, but as I learn more about myself, I learn how to worry less, and breathe without much worry.

It’s 5:30 am and it took us about an hour to get there, we were due to board at 8 o’clock. There were seven of us and only two bathrooms. Everyone had to be dressed and ready to eat in a hour and thirty minutes. I can’t remember the last time I got up so early, but that was this morning’s issue. In 2 hours flat I’ve conquered up another issue.

People. So many people. How do you even control such an establishment? People with suitcases and backpacks, all in line waiting for one thing.

Security Checks.

I don’t know why I got so nervous, I didn’t have anything to hide, not anything that might trigger the alarms. I took off my hoodie just in case. I put my side bag and backpack in the bin and waited for my turn.

“Next,” said security.

I held my arms up above my head and spread my legs like the picture showed. Patiently waiting to hear the “clear”. But, I didn’t and my heart started racing. Maybe the machine is broken,  maybe I didn’t have my feet in the right position.

“Step out and then come back in,” the women said.

I stepped inside and mimicked the picture a second time, making sure that I did it exactly. I watched as everyone around me went through the metal detectors. I kept hearing the “clear” over and over again. Patiently waiting for the women to give me my clear.  Instead, I was told to come out and stand on the silhouettes of red feet as the women asked my age and where my guardian was.

“Since she’s under 18, I have to ask your permission to pat her down,” said security.

A pat down? Pat down what? How much could you hide in a T-shirt and tights? The lady explained that my shirt set off the system. I wore an embroidered grey shirt that had the word “Aero” spelled in jewels and glitter. They weren’t even the type of jewels that you could pick off the shirt. I guess the machine had other plans. I never got patted down before and I’ve only seen it happen in the movies. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but by the time the woman was done, I went from being nervous to being irritated. It was almost as if I thought she was going to find something. And of course when she didn’t I felt like the whole process was a waste of everyone's time. My family and I could have already been to the Florida Gate 34 by now.

However, my relief quickly turned back to nervousness as the women came walking towards me with two brown papers in her hands. She swabbed me. My palms were sweaty, I wish she could take retest me. I was frightened because I didn’t know what they were looking for. I didn’t know what type of things could affect the test. I especially couldn’t wrap my 13 year old mind around what “results” they were going to get from wiping paper on my hands. I didn’t know if they were looking for traces of chemicals or testing something completely different. Even at that age my overthinking got the best of me. I tried to slow my heartbeat, thinking that would change the test. Not realizing that a brown paper swab rubbing across my hands could have no correlation with my heart beat. Then I thought about everything that I have touched in the airport. Thinking about that made it worst. I put myself in this guilty position even though I knew I had nothing to hide.  

I didn’t really understand at the time, but people’s jobs have meaning and value. Even the littlest job has a reason for all of it’s tasks. I think about all the horrible plane attacks that have happened over the years. From suicide bombings to gun attacks. As nerve racking and pointless as I thought the checks were I respect that the women took her job seriously. You can not have a truly secure facility if there are special rules for certain people. No matter how simple something could be protocol was made for a reason.

The language teacher pointed at me and began to beckon me with her finger.

“Come here. I have something I want to say to you,” she said.

So far, seventh grade had not been my year at all. I walked around unexplainably miserable and tired all the time. I couldn’t seem to focus long enough to do my homework until the late night or wee hours of the morning, making my grades take a major hit because of it. I also hated my life and everything in it. Why? I couldn’t tell you, especially not without falling apart and bearing what felt like the darkest depths of my soul and inner psyche.

Now, anybody who knows the slightest bit about me knows that I’ve always been that kid that loves school and is always at the top of her game no matter what. For the opposite to now be true, panic spread around me like wildfire. Teachers were concerned, pulling me aside for “talks” with looks of sympathy, and my mom was yelling at me every time she saw anything less than an A on every piece of paper from school. Meanwhile, I was scrambling to fix it all, still trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me.

We walked over to the side of the gym before she started to speak.

“Now, I’m not sure what’s been going on, but I’ve been hearing your name come up very often.”

My heart began to race as my emotions and words got caught in my throat, rendering me speechless.

“I don’t like that and I found it weird because in my mind I’m like, ‘They can’t be talking about her because she’s always on top of her work and she always tries to do her best.’ ”

My eyes welled up with tears as she continued. I blinked trying to keep my composure and hold back the tears threatening to fall from my eyes. It’s never a good feeling having your teachers talk about how poorly you’ve been performing. Not only do you know you aren’t performing up to standard, but you also hate yourself for it and beat yourself up over it every waking moment of every day.

She doesn’t even get it, I thought.

She kept talking, but my thoughts were louder. I felt the first tear roll down my face, my hand flew up to catch it before anyone could see it. Just as I had done so, another fell from the opposite eye and my world crumbled down around me. She ended her spiel by hugging me. I had never felt so trapped before in my life.

As she turned around to walk away, I quickly turned about face, darting for the bathroom to clean myself up. With my luck, it was inevitable for me to run into two peers that I rarely talk to who’d definitely never seen me with tears streaming down my face.

I dodged their questioning, left the bathroom and sat with my friends, making sure nobody was looking at me funny along the way. Just like that, I had managed to pick my entire life up off the ground and bandage it together just enough so that it would appear like I had everything together like I always do.

School for me had become stressful. Waking up early to get to school early, rushing around to classes, and then going home to do more work was a lot and it took a toll on my mental health. I had to realize that it was okay to not have everything together all the time. I learned that it was okay to just cry it out sometimes and let yourself feel. Maybe not in the middle of the school gym like I did, but you get the point. School is a challenge and your mental health is a lifelong battle. Though it may be hard, you have to speak up for yourself and do what is best for who you are and what you’re capable of. You're going to struggle without a doubt, no matter who you are, but you get to decide how you overcome and learn from each challenge you face while being in school.

Justine Koffi

Pahomov

English II

21 September 2018

The First Day

SEPTA stands for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, but that’s really code for a very confusing system of of buses, trolleys, light rail, and commuter rail. My first time falling victim to this intricate, complex system was the summer of sixth grade.

It was the 29th of June, the first day of Breakthrough, a summer program that I was attending.  My sixth grade teacher encouraged me to apply to further my education during a time most people would be on vacation. At first, was reluctant to apply because it was all the way at 34th street, but I thought it would be be beneficial in the long run. Since that morning was my first time taking SEPTA, my friend agreed to to take the bus with me. This brought me great relief but unfortunately, I was running late that morning so she left me.  She instructed me to take the bus that stops right in front of her house. So I did.

“Next stop, 57th and Spruce!” As I sat on the bus, I thought it was kind of peculiar that the numbers were increasing rather than decreasing  since I had to be at 34th Street. She’s taken SEPTA so she knows more than I do, right? I  then dozed off a little, only to hear, “This is the last stop.”

I knew I was nowhere near where I  needed to be and I started to panic. My eyes started to fill up with tears. I had no idea where I was and I was already late. I finally decided to just go home and start the process over.  It took about 30 minutes, but I got back to my house. I called my sister and she told me to walk to Market and take the Market Frankford Line to 30th street.

The first thing I did when I   got there was go to the bathroom and get myself together before classes started. I was nervous to meet everybody, and I was determined to not let anything get in the way of me having a good first day.

The day was a success, despite my horrible morning and it was now time to leave.

As we were waiting for the bus, there was a woman who was acting kind of strange. She was talking to herself and screaming randomly. I just ignored her. I caught my friend looking right into the eyes of the strange woman, and just before I could tell her to look away, the woman started to walk towards us. My heart was racing. My first thought was to run, but that was quickly shot down because she may have tried to chase me which was  even more scary.

“What are you girls doing here?” she screamed as if she was my mother and caught me somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be. I thought I was going to have a panic attack. “You’re too pretty to be in these streets!” she said as she slowly walked towards us. Was she delirious? I could smell cigarettes and weed all over her. I was lost in thought when she just shifted and bolted towards us, as to chase us away because we weren’t meant to be there. We ran, without looking back for even a second. I ran out of breath at the end of the block and turned back only to see that she was still way back at the bus stop.

I wanted to just leave and never look back, but my friend was convinced that we had to go back to that specific stop in  order to catch the bus, when we could've actually walked two more blocks to wait at the next bus stop. She wanted to go back, for the thrill maybe? I don’t know but being the follower I was back then, I went with her blindly.

As expected, the strange woman got angry and started screaming at us. All I could think was how much of an idiot I was to follow her knowing that it wasn’t right to come provoke her more. The same thing happened and my friend wanted to go back again. She had a smile on her face as if this was the best part of her day. I decided to walk to the next bus stop and she didn't follow me. I was proud of my decision, in that moment I stood up for myself which was something I wasn’t familiar with.

I couldn’t help but to look back. I saw that my friend picked up a crate, probably to fight back instead of running. To this day, I don’t know what happened and I honestly don’t care.

Although the day started and ended terribly, I still considered it one of the most influential days of my life.