Gabriela Del Valle

May 26th, 2019

Period: 4th

FOUR YEARS LATER...

High school has been a journey. Freshman year was rough at first trying to get ahold of

what high school is and figuring out how to do things differently than middle school like teaching

myself to stay up late to finish an essay or DBQ. Sophomore year was probably my easiest year

for school because I knew most of the teachers, I felt more secure, and there wasn’t a big

workload all the time. Junior year was one of the toughest school years even though I only

played one sport. I was always tired and I felt drained because every teacher kept reminding us

about the SATs and I felt like I could never get away from it. I didn’t get the scores I wanted, but

I managed. Senior year everyone says is easy, but I took on two AP classes to really push

myself my last year and to show colleges that I will not slack off my senior year like most people

and it was a struggle. Overall I know I have changed a lot over the year as a person and a

student. I definitely know that my writing has changed, whether it was a short story or DBQ or

essay. Looking back at my ninth grade essay’s just remind me of those good days, how I wish I

could make it better and how I got an exceeds on that because it was poorly typed. After

reading most of my old writing I noticed that they were all boring and it just felt like I wrote what

was exactly in the exceeds rubric. I did exactly what I was supposed to do to get an exceeds

and that was it. I didn’t try to add anything else or change anything and I just followed what the

teacher told me to write. After these past four years, I have found my way of doing my work and

I feel proud of all the work I turn it now, freshman year I wasn’t confident at all in my work and it

showed, but now whether I get a meets or exceeds or approaches, I know I did my best work.

Freshman year I went into my english class very scared because in middle school I

always got a decent grade in english, I told myself that english isn’t my strong suit. When we

had to do our first argument essay for english on ​To Kill A Mockingbird, I​ was very nervous I felt

like I had no idea what I was doing because I didn’t ask for help and I remember constantly
looking at the rubric to make sure I did it right. I didn’t understand the book very well, so I asked

my friends for help and I got an idea on how to write my essay, but I still didn’t like it. In the

essay I didn’t have a great analysis on why Atticus was the bravest character and it didn’t really

show that I cared who was the bravest character in the story. While reading it, it doesn’t seem

like I put any emotion or effort into the essay and I just picked a random character and found

some evidence and that was it. In the introduction of that essay, the last sentence is my claim,

but I don’t have any reasoning behind it. The last sentence says, “Atticus Finch is the bravest

character in To Kill A Mockingbird” and this shows that I didn’t really think about it and I just did

the essay for a grade. For my creative essay in english class, we did a narrative. We had to pick

a moment in our lives and do a narration of it. Looking back on it, I didn’t put any details in it and

it felt as if I was reading a conversation. The paragraphs were very short and I didn’t add

anything to make it better, the dialogue was not the best and it sounded very rushed and

inconsistent. I remember coming up with the idea and I thought it was a great idea, but I didn’t

really do that much with details and I just told a story like I was talking to someone. All

throughout the essay it was just me saying, “I did this and then it ended and then I did this and

had fun and then I did that” and I didn’t put any other details into it about why it was fun or not

fun and I think I was like this because I didn’t know how to word things to make it better. I didn’t

know how to add details to something because I never asked and got help. For my first research

essay it was again very boring and it lacked ideas, detail and it was very unorganized. In the

introduction it was again very generic and there were no reasonings to why being part of the

Chicago Academy community affects the decisions I make, I just said it. After that then I start

putting in statistics on why Chicago Academy was great, but there were no transition sentences

and it was very sloppy. I again just looked at what the rubric wanted me to do and I did it. If it

asked for five pieces of statistics then I went to the Chicago Academy website and I just pasted

it in my essay. It seems like I didn’t put a lot of effort or time into this essay because it is all over

the place, but I knew what I was trying to say. I had the right idea, but without being organized

and detailed about it.

 Sophomore year is the year that I feel like I did the best in with all my classes. It was the

first time taking an AP class and I was determined to get good grades. I really enjoyed my

english class and I learned a lot of things. I never knew what pathos, logos, and ethos were

before that class and we spent a lot of time on that and I understood what it meant and how to

out it in my essays. There is a huge difference from my ninth grade argument essay and my

tenth grade essay. In the Letter from Birmingham Jail, I can see that I took the time to put

definition of pathos, logos, and ethos and connect it back to my essay and make it stronger.

Going back to read it made me feel proud of my work sophomore year, I really tried to

incorporate what I was learning into that essay and I did it and I remember getting a good grade

on it. I took creative writing my sophomore year and it was hands down my favorite class ever. I

really liked the teacher and the class. I loved when our homework was to come up with a short

story about a single picture. I really enjoyed the class and I put one of my favorite works in my

weebly. For the piece we got to choose a picture and come up with a short story about it and I

was extremely proud of it. I felt like I was really able to connect the picture of the spooky bench

and make it into a place where ghosts go and talk to people who are still alive. I loved being

able to be creative and make up anything I want. When I went back to read it, I noticed that it

definitely had details in it and that is because I finally knew how to add details and how to make

something sound more realistic. I feel like this piece was really organized and detailed and it

was a great story and it was the start of who I am as a person. In creative writing we had to

choose a famous novelist and do a research presentation about them I did mine about Alice

Walker. For the project we had to read some short stories of her and explain how it was different

than what we were reading in the class like the figurative language and the dialogue. It was very

interesting to compare the two and doing that helped me become a better writer because I got

to see how authors use figurative language differently and it helped me show how to make my

stories and essays better. Sophomore year was the turning point of finding out what kind of

learner, reader and writer I was, but Junior year was the year that I learned a ton of new things

that helped me so much more in my writing.

 Junior year was the toughest year for me, but it was definitely the year that I learned the

most. I loved my english class. I liked all the books we read and I loved the teacher because I

actually understood what I was doing right and wrong in my writing and she really helped

explain how to make it better. We were always taught lessons about how to structure our

essays like when we were doing our first literary analysis essay. When I had to write the

argumentative essay about the ten rules to live by project I felt very prepared and I knew what I

was going to say. While writing it, I added as much details as I thought it needed, the structure

of the essay was very organized and it was all my ideas which really showed what I believe in

and what rules I believe everyone should follow, so it showed my voice. When I submitted the

piece I felt huge relief because I felt like this was the first time I wrote something so amazing

and it was just showing who I was. When I got an exceeds on it, I felt so proud of myself and

accomplished on my hard work. Going back to read it, I understood what I was trying to say and

I was able to get my point across for all the rules very clearly. For my creative writing for junior

year it was a small short story. I again was very proud of this because of the details in it and

when I showed others, they said it was very realistic and that is what I was aiming for. I started

to develop my ideas about how I want to write and it really shows that I am a more confident

and outgoing person than my freshman year self. I did my first literary analysis junior year and I

was so afraid that I wasn’t following the rubric and I kept thinking that I was doing something

wrong. I remember constantly asking Ms. Carroll if I was doing it right and say would always say

yes, so I started opening up to my teachers and asking for help if I was confused about

anything. Making the powerpoint took a lot of time, but it was worth it. I loved how it came out

and I was able to come up my own theme and back it up with enough evidence from both the

book and the movie. I took my time doing it because I wanted it to come out great. My

organization definitely got better as I got older because it’s starting to make more sense as I

went up each grade level. Senior year, I worked as hard as I could. I didn’t want to slack off

and not do my work and I wanted to get the best grades I could get my last year. I went up to

my teachers to make sure that I understood everything and I asked tons of questions to clarify

everything. When I was reading my first AP Literature book it was very hard for me to
understand, so I took the time to go and get help and it really helped me when it came to taking

tests and answering short response questions about the book because I was able to catch all

the symbolisms and patterns and figure out why the author did that. In my literary analysis I

wrote about Ceremony, Their Eyes Were Watching God and Of Mice and Men. I was extremely

pleased with myself because I was able to use book from my junior year to help me write a

literary analysis about a book senior year. I found it amazing that I was able to take what I

learned last year to help me a lot this year. I felt very prepared to do the timed writings and the

short response questions because I was learning and taking the time to understand things. I

furthered my ideas even further because I read more books this year, so I can take all of this

information with me next year in college when I have to write essay about a book.

In conclusion, I have learned a lot these past four year of high school. I feel like I have

evolved into a better and more knowledgeable person. I know what to do and what not to do in

essay’s. I feel very prepared for college with all of this knowledge. The teacher here have

helped me a lot and I would like to thank them all for teaching me new things. I will take all of

this with me to college because I know this will all help out in the future at some point.