{"id":25,"date":"2023-09-08T22:29:42","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T22:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~NadineS\/?page_id=25"},"modified":"2024-11-15T01:43:40","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T01:43:40","slug":"reflections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~NadineS\/reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The first half of Senior year is a time of questioning. Surrounded by old memories and knowing you are in your last year to make new ones leaves oneself pondering about how they got where they are today. With college applications forcing you to summarize who you are, it can be overwhelming to think about. That’s where the reflections unit comes in. It forces you to imbed yourself in each and everything, as well as add new skill to enhance your way of communicating about yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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English<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Personal Essay<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Personal Essay is a nonfiction piece all about the writer’s experiences and how they shaped who they are. For our assignment we had the option of writing our Common Application essay for college that follows all the 650 word count they have or to create our own piece of writing with a 500-1000 word count as well as being able to change the font or formatting. Regardless of choice, each student used Ethan Sawyer’s College Essay Essentials as a reference text to help us in creating our essay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following list if the first assignment we had, where we had to list 20 “essence objects”. These are objects that each have significance to me and an integral part of who I am (in no particular order)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Jar of my bird’s tail feathers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. My earbuds and their usb-c adapter to connect to my phone<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. My copy of the book “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon”<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. My families “Cars” DVD<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. My green “My Neighbor Totoro” mechanical pencil<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. My Biology Honors notebook<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Polpol’s tofu dish<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. Drawings of Kermit the Frog I made for Max<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. My sketchbook I started in 5th grade and haven’t finnished<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  10. All of my backings I put in my clear phone case so that I can change it whenever I feel like<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  11. My blue Athena Camps hoodie with everyone’s signature from the last week of camp on it<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  12. The pinecone I won with Ishana at a Science Olympiad tournment<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  13. The Wacom drawing tablet I got for my 13th birthday<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  14. Julis’s pastel drawing of an apple<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  15. Some unsalted unbuttered popcorn<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  16. Horsey and Spot<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  17. All the origami cranes I have on my wall, forming a rainbow<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  18. My copy of the magazine that holds the outcome of my documentary project<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    Brainstorming<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    We had to do a lot of other brainstorming and exercises from the College Essay Essential’s book. All of which can be viewed here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    Essay Brainstorming<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Drafting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Ultimately, I decided to change my essay to a D type essay which is a montage essay that doesn’t have to do with the career you intend to pursue. Writing this essay took multiple drafts<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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    View Drafts<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    View Final Draft<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    Listen to Final Draft<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    The unit was hard for a multiple of reasons. It was hard writing about myself, especially with so much change going on my life, I questioned who I was and what I wanted to do multiple times in the process of writing the essay. It made me second guess if I still was who I thought I was. I also had moments where I was struggling with the topic of my essay and wanted to completely scrap my drafts at some point, but every time I got new feedback, it restored my confidence, not only in what I had, but what my essay could be. Things have constantly changed in my life, but ultimately, one thing that has remained the same is admiration for other people, hence why I stayed with my topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Digital Media<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    Mandala<\/h2>\n\n\n
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    Mandala Templates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

    For our return to Digital Media, we learned about how to create a mandala template in Adobe Illustrator. We used the transformation and clipping mask tool to make templates for an eight slice, ten slice, 12 slice and 16 slice mandala. We were then tasked to create a mandala based on something personal to us. I choose to do one based on my family, so I drew a flower and designated each petal to represent a family member. We had to use line and shape but not value or color, so there was an extra challenge to the Black and White Mandala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    I choose to use the eight slices mandala template for my “Black and White Mandala”. The large petals were crucial in having enough space to fill up the petals with representations of my family. The order goes me, my cousin Max, my older brother Pete, my older sister Julie, my mother, and lastly, my father. We used pen pressure a Wacom Intuos to get different line thicknesses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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