Elementary School Reflection Paper

I have grown since my first day of school. I have learned, academically, spiritually, and socially, I have also faced personal and academic challenges. Throughout all of my academic journey my personality, along with my maturity has changed. All my highs and lows have made me the person I am today.

My first positive experience that I can remember from elementary school, is the time I won the school spelling bee. This was a big win for 8 year old me. I remember studying for weeks and practicing every minute of the day. This is when I found out how competitive I was, which led me to many other competitive things in the future. The competitive side of me just grew stronger from there. When I got to middle school, I joined a competitive cheer team, which challenged me physically and mentally. My team practiced but for some reason we weren't winning, which challenged all of us. We not only had to rely on our coaches for help but something bigger, we had to have faith. We finally figured out what made a good team into a great team and won nationals that same year. I will always remember this team, and how great it felt to finally have a title behind our name. This experience was the start to my faith. I had belonged to a Catholic elementary and middle school, but it wasn't until high school, that I came one to one with my spirituality. We went on many retreats, and the experiences gave me the strong faith that helps me in the day to day life of a college student. My positive experiences growing up will always be a part of me, but “We don't grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.”( anonymous)

My life has had many ups and downs. Part of my personality is to stay positive and learn from my mistakes. I have always been this way, but my first challenging experience in elementary school was learning how important learning in school was. I never wanted to stay inside and write or read, I was an active girl, who wanted to run and play outside. Sitting in a classroom all day and then having to go home and sit some more to do homework wasn’t what I considered fun. I was very inconsistent in doing my homework and studying at home. This put me behind the other kids who were excelling in their classes. The result of that made me more serious about studying and being consistent with homework. From that point on