Learning as I Go

Learning as I Go

To become the best learner, one needs to know on what one needs to work and with how one can improve. With the adaptation of learning process, people can maximize the ability to gain knowledge and information rapidly in the society, helping ourselves to achieve better in the future. In order to become a successful person, he or she needs to follow the steps to the point where he or she can develop the best product, as a learning process to academic success. Every step we do in the early age represents a process to bring us to the society as we become older and more mature people. In the academic society, students need to know the learning steps in order to become successful in writing and reading. Facing obstacles during the process of learning helps me to improve my writing and reading processes, which benefits me to become a better learner as I can adapt the process to the future.

Reading process helps me to become a better learner in writing. Beginning of the class, I thought that I could read without taking notes or annotations. Missing the details, I only learned about the summary. As the time goes on, I learned that annotation is important part of the reading process in order to become a better learner in class. Annotating helps me to keep track of the information I read and gives me easier time to find quotations. In order for me to write a good essay, I need to know the details of the articles or books to integrate the quotations into my essays. Looking back to eportfolio, I found the journals very helpful that they kept me to understand the text of the articles, such as the sociological imaginations and Warriors Don’t Cry. As I annotate, I can learn more about the article or book that can help me to write a better essay in the future. Annotating while reading is a part that helps me to become successful in writing, bringing this skill to my future classes and even jobs.

A Way to Success

A Way to Success

Many people have impacted me and changed who I am; because of these influential people, I better understand my own process of socialization and its effect on my future career. Helping me to become a mature individual, they teach me necessary life lessons and grant me the courage to express my own ideas and follow my own path. Ritu Ghatourey once said, “Some people come into your life for a SEASON. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. But only for a season.” Surrounding friends, family, teachers, and community elders shape me into who I am today. Even though they are not with me on a daily basis, the days we share have left a lasting impact on my development. Without their presence in my life, I would have become an ignorant and immature person who did not possess the ability to make the right decisions for himself and his future. One family member who has shaped part of me and taught me how I should pursue my future career is my cousin Arthur Kuan, whose experiences shaped who he is and continue to influence me as I become a mature and confident person.

Essay #4 History and Me

  The Impact of History

   

    As history changes, so do the people who live through it and see it pass. How we contextualize history in today’s society defines us. Through many historical events and movements, we have become who we are, and many of our individual lives have improved and changed as a result of their coinciding with specific historical movements. Cicero once said “History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity.” History illuminates a path to today’s society and lights the way ahead. Society changes mirror history, which directly influences how people act today or how they may act in the future. Additionally, people's beliefs and paradigms are also continually evolving as a result of historical changes. If certain historical events had not taken place, people's ideas and identities, along with political and national ideologies, would be drastically different from the way they currently are today. As time marches on, history will keep evolving and changing our society, furnishing each individual of society, including me, with different perspectives on how I view today’s society or even my future career. Through my lifetime, I have encountered historical events and obstacles that shaped who I am today; history has strongly impacted me and defined major aspects of my identity, paralleling the experience of Melba Beals, who also became who she is because she lived through the time of racial integration.

    History shaped who Melba Beals became. In her autobiography Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Beals reveals the struggle of her lifetime as a young girl who faced racial discrimination. Her experience with racial discrimination and racial integration eventually helped her to overcome obstacles and changed her perspective on discrimination when she grew older. Because of her experience at Central High School, Beals became a stronger person after a year at Central. Nine courageous black students were forced to integrate into a white school, facing all the challenges and hardships to show themselves equal to other Central High Students. As the book depicts, Beals changed into an independent woman as a result of her time at Central High School. If she had not attended Central High School or if her grandmother had not provided such strong encouragement and support, Beals would have remained a weak person who stayed at her original black school instead of becoming someone who braved shaped history. Towards the end of the book, she stated that she viewed the “Little Rock integration experience as ultimately a positive force that shaped the course of [her] life” (Beals 222). Her experiences led her to become a journalist after graduating from Central High School. She sees her work as a journalist as an extension of that battle at Central High School. Because of her experience at Central High School, the adult Beals finds she can no longer back away from a fight and must champion and advocate for just causes. As an adult, Beals better understands the influenced and impact the historical movement of integration had on her character and on her life and credits her  grandmother as the strongest support she received during that difficult time, the support Beals needed to triumph over her horrible experience throughout high school.