{"id":23,"date":"2022-08-22T05:59:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T05:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~SofiaD\/?page_id=23"},"modified":"2024-03-25T22:25:27","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T22:25:27","slug":"reflections","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~SofiaD\/reflections\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why this unit? Why “Reflections”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s so hard to know what you’ll want in four years or even four months at this age. I’d even say it’s impossible. Even if we plan every detail step by step, when things change (which is inevitable), it will be much harder to let go and adapt. But if we let ourselves get carried by expectations and impulsive whims, we may end up choosing paths we regret. And being at the midpoint of one’s time at Freestyle, it’s important to slow down and force yourself to enjoy the limited time you have left. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in Reflections, we wrestle with the big questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

who am I? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

what have I done?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and how can I tell my Story? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We focus on thinking back on what we’ve done, how we’ve lived, what we’ve used our time on, to try to piece together what we want for our future. The Personal Essay project in English is one of the foundations of this unit and a really useful unit to write the college essay for the Common Application. The Mandala project in Digital Media is another highlight of the unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking the idea from the famous book College Essay Essentials <\/em>(by Ethan Sawyer), we started the unit by creating a list of our “essence objects”, in other words objects that represented us, and a lot of brainstorming for potential topics to write about. Here is my list of essence objects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Lula-my childhood stuffed animal<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A Totoro DVD<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Albrijes-little hand-painted wooden animals from Mexico<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Sheet of squirrel stickers<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Tiny dessert spoon<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Jello with fruit<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Shirts I painted in Middle School<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  8. My favorite picture of myself as a four-year-old eating dirt<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  9. And more!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Recalling my childhood memories was a bit of a cathartic experience for me. It really made me think about the fact that I’ve been alive for seventeen years, and how each moment piles up to define who I am in the present. I felt nostalgic, and a bit of grief, because by going through so much change you are bound to lose parts of yourself. But it was a nice exercise that helped me start on my Personal Essay and even influenced my Mandala project (so read on!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We also created a Core Value video after learning how to animate text! We recorded a voiceover in the new Isolation Booths (or IsoBooths for short) in the Digital Media room which was pretty cool, and then I spent way too long timing the text animation to the music (so please watch the video with audio to really enjoy it!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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