Christmas Break

Over Christmas Break, I plan on relaxing and enjoying the time off of school. I am very excited to be finished with my homework for the semester and I hope that I am exempt from all of my finals. I love to spend time with my family and I believe that I will have a large amount of time for that over the break. I don't think that I am going out of town over the Holiday Season, except for Paris, Texas with the basketball team on December 28th-30th. I don't want much for Christmas this year; just a couple books and some money for clothes. However, I am hoping that the gifts that I have bought for my family will be much appreciated and I can hardly wait to give others their Christmas presents. Nevertheless, I hope to celebrate Jesus' birth by praising him at church with my family and I anticipate on having a very enjoyable time at various Christmas and New Year parties. I hope that everyone has a wonderful time over this break spending time with family and friends. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

College Expectations

By attending college, I hope to accomplish many educational achievements. I would first like to earn my Bachelors Degree in exercise science or kinesiology. In doing this, I hope that I will have furthered my knowledge enough to assist at an independent Physical Therapy clinic. After that, I would like to earn my masters degree and continue to immensely further my knowledge of the human body. Finally, I would like to earn my Doctorate in Physical Therapy and open my own practice. Throughout my career, I would like to prove myself to be knowledgeable enough to aid others in a Physical Therapy clinic and perhaps become a very well-respected Physical therapist myself. I am going to attend college for myself and my family in order to help my friends and family as much as possible. My parents will most likely be helping me through college, so they are a big factor. I also am going for my brother Jonathon, who wants to major in Physical Therapy as well. In my opinion, when choosing a college, it is very important to know what the college is known for and the quality of the program that you wish to take part in. It is also important to find out the average semester expenses of a student attending that college and how long it will take to finish your degree so that you can get an estimate on how much your college career will cost. Other important factors include location, size, and (if interested) their athletics. I will definitely consult my mother and father when choosing which college to attend, as well as Mrs. Shull and Mrs. Just. I believe that by attending college, I will learn valuable life lessons and experience the living by myself, which will definitely prepare me for the challenges I will face later in life.

Thanksgiving Plans

Over Thanksgiving Break, I don't plan on going out of town, which is somewhat different than previous years.butt I do plan on spending time with my family throughout the week and having a large Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with all of my family. Earlier in the week, I plan on going with the basketball team to their practices and games so that I can film, which should be more interesting than sitting at home all day. I will have to study for a couple tests that will be on the Monday that we return from the break, but I am still very excited about getting a week long break off of school. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Possible Employment

After searching for a job online, I found an opening at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Waxahachie as a cashier. This job is appropriate for adolescents because it does not require any previous job experience and it does not require any special skills. While employed, you are expected to communicate properly with customers and answer phones in an appropriate manner while organizing the cash drawer. If I were to apply for this job, I would make sure to have my high school transcript, numerous recommendation letters, and a reliable mode of transportation. I would also research common questions that employers ask to prospective employees so that I can prepare adequate answers in order to present myself in a proper manner to the employer. In all honesty, finding a job through the internet was probably the easiest way possible to find a job. There are numerous websites that offer many suggestions for high school students in the Waxahacie area. There are many opportunities that are offered for adolescents that require little to no previous work experience and provide for a very school-friendly schedule.

Homeless to Harvard Reflection

The movie Homeless to Harvard was very inspiring and much more interesting than I thought it would be. The story of Liz Murray is one of heartache and challenge, but after watching the movie I believe that it should be shared with a much wider audience. Many adolescents in today's society have little to no work ethic and couldn't care less about working hard now in order to reap the benefits later in their educational career. The most inspiring and influential part of the movie to me is when Liz states in the beginning and in the end that she always remembered that her mother loved her. She went through so much trouble as a child because of her mother's addictive habits, and often times it seemed that her mother never even cared about her well being. However, through all the suffering and torment that she endured, she never lost hope in her mother and always believed in her mother's ability to show her loving nature. Many people, most likely including myself, would have given up on their family had they been in this situation. Liz never lost sight of her mother's true self and everything that she did during her childhood was for her mother's comfort and health. I have never had to endure the amount of despair that Liz went through, and I am almost certain that had I been in this situation, I would have given up on myself and on my family because of the absence of love and affection that is prominent in my life currently. Nevertheless, I hope that I would have been able to have the amount of resilience and devotion towards my family as Liz Murray. Hopefully, I would have also had her immense courage to break out of the way of life that she had always known and attempt to venture into a new and unfamiliar world full of judgement and punishment, yet still succeed despite her burdens.

My Budget

My budget was fairly normal and expected. However, one of the most surprising things about my budget was that I had extra money left over at the end of every month. This amount of money wasn't very large, but it was still surprising that I wasn't in a lot of debt. I probably missed and expense or calculated one incorrectly, which makes me very nervous for my financial situation in college. Having complete responsibility over my expenses is definitely intimidating and I'm not very confident at this point that I will be ready for my college career. I realized that having an accurate budget of your income and expenses each month can be extremely vital if I want to save enough money for later in life. In order to prepare for college early, I could start heavily researching ways to save money such as cheaper apartments and textbooks, and I could begin to put my money into a savings account for tuition and other expenses not included in my budget. 

My Top Career Choice

If I had to choose one career to follow, I would definitely choose Physical Therapy. I would love to be a Physical Therapist because learning about how the body works and how to help people after they get injured interests me very much. Also, I would love to have a career in which I directly help others medically, but I could never be a doctor or surgeon because I can't stand the sight of a lot of blood. I also get sick at sight of someone's internal body components on the outside of their body or broken bones, so working in an ER is definitely out of the question as well. However, being a Physical Therapist is perfect for me because I am able to help injured people rehabilitate after they have mostly been repaired by other medical personnel. Furthermore, the other careers that I have listed on my career project are mostly hobbies that I can do outside of my full-time job.

Stress Test

I got a 5 on the stress test and the website said that I probably have very little stress in my life. It also told me that I shouldn't try to shy away from stressful problems in my life. In my opinion, I think that I have a fair amount of stresses in my life. However, I think that I have just gotten good at letting things go, especially when it comes to blowing up or frequently being rude. One of the main stresses in my life is definitely school work. I have acquired the bad habit of putting off assignments until the last minute, which definitely adds stress to my life. Another one of the stressful factors is trying to handle my schedule (whether it be trying to make it to a party or go to a church event, or spend time with family). I constantly stress myself out because I always look at the bulk of my work instead of taking it one step at a time. However, I have gotten very good at organizing my work in order to complete it in a timely manner and juggling my calender. I also think that doing assignments one at a time instead of trying to finish them all at once really helps me stay calm.

What makes me tick

My current method of organization is a planner that I use to daily record my homework and tasks to do. It works very well for me and I am usually able to get a lot of my work done very quickly without confusion. Procrastination can be very harmful because it forces you to try to accomplish work quickly and not at your best effort. One of my favorite quotes relating to procrastinating is, "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" and it's true. If you aren't able to do the assignment correctly, you are basically wasting your time because you will eventually have to do it over again. One way to fight procrastination is to stay organized so that you always know what you need to get done and what date it is due.

What I plan to accomplish in this class this year

This year, I plan to further my knowledge of the colleges in the area so that I can be better prepared when it is time for me to choose what college that I would like to attend. I'm not very familiar with the colleges in the area and what each one is known for, but I intend to research as much as I can this year about each one. I also have no idea how to fill out college applications, or applications for a scholarship, which is something that I hope to learn this year so that I will be better prepared for my senior year. I want to make sure that I take advantage of all of the scholarship opportunities that are available to me so that I can get as much money laid aside this year and next year for my college career. I am very excited for what I will accomplish this year that will help me when I graduate high school and attend college.