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I found my Element when I was in high school, when I took the biotechnology class there. I almost didn't pick that class, but I'm grateful that I did. I think I'm in my Element when I'm doing lab work. There's something about following procedures and jotting down your data that makes me happy to do it.

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When I did labs back in high school, sometimes we needed to really understand what the procedures were. Not just the text saying vague directions. This would help my lab group truly understand what we needed to do and we did that well. And as we did each task, we had to do different things. We needed to use our intelligence in different ways. And we need to do this for our Element as well.

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Being imaginative is one thing, but being creative is something different. You need to use your imagination to be creative. And this can be done in different ways. If we didn't have all of the required materials for a lab, we sometimes had to improvise and use something else to do this one thing. For example, if we didn't have a table-top weight scale to measure grams with us, we'd improvise by using the more accurate scale that only measures in 0.1 milligrams and convert whatever we weighed back to grams.

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Usually when I am doing a lab, I am only focused on following the procedures and jotting down data. In other words, I'm 'in the zone' when carrying out a lab. I never get distracted by my phone or anything like that. I want to finish the lab with as accurate data as possible. And by the time I'm done, class is about to end.

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I may not have a tribe in regards to science, but I do have a good group of friends nonetheless. Our group is pretty diverse too and we're all interested in different things. This is what makes being apart of the group fun. We can talk about different things that we care about and we can even learn new things. And when we work together for things like homework or studying, we help each other out to understand the material and we actually feel like as if we're learning something. It's also good for our mental health to have some people to talk to when we need it. Hopefully I can find a biology tribe as well. Maybe we can make something special together!

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After finding my group in high school as a high school junior, I definitely changed my attitude a bit to be more like my friends. So that I can be a bit more like them. My friends have definitely influenced me a bit more than my parents. And luckily for the better. But sometimes being in a group is also bad. Because you may be afraid to say your own opinions about something. So you just go along with whatever the rest of the group is doing. I know I've done this many times with other groups. But this can make it harder for us to find our element. I've been trying to not just go along with a group in making decisions and having my own voice. This will help me in the long run.

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Sometimes I feel lucky. But now I know that "lucky" people actually took steps towards success that other people may think is because of luck. At Skyline, whenever there's an opportunity to do something related to STEM, I try to participate because it'll help me in the long run. Like right now, I'm participating in the STEM Employer Series every Friday to learn about different STEM companies. And when something isn't going well for me, it's easy to just give up and say I can't do it. But if I can develop a positive attitude to make a bad situation into a good one, that'll help me find my Element.

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Throughout my life, I haven't met a mentor like those mentioned in "The Element". Not one that helped lead me to my Element. But hopefully I will in college. Most likely, my mentor will be in the STEM field. Or they'll be in a completely different field. But there was one English tutor I had when I was in middle school named James. He helped me improve my English and grammar skills. My grade in English classes are because of him. I had a lot of fun being with him and learning from him. I guess in a way, he was my first mentor.

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I can't really say anything about this chapter because I'm still very young. I haven't really noticed that I missed out on great opportunities. But at least I know that when I'm older, there's always time to look back and find my true Element. If I haven't already found it by then.

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Even though doing lab work in a biology lab is what I think is my Element, there is something else that I really enjoy. Video games. Usually, I play video games to keep me going through the mundane tasks of school and other things. Maybe it's video games that are my Element. But I know that I can't really be a "professional" gamer. That kind of profession doesn't have a steady income. Maybe I can play video games as I do my real job. I might need the leisure of video games so I can keep doing bio lab work.

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School's are supposed to help students find their passions. But many people find it after they graduate or leave high school. The teachers and curriculum taught there wasn't supporting them and letting them use their creativity. We learn from using our minds, not by just doing an endless number of problems. Luckily, my biotechnology teacher, Ms. Rustia, helped spark my interest in biotech. She told me about an event where I could visit Skyline College and see their laboratories. I would even be able to talk to people in that field. This would've really helped me if the pandemic didn't make school online learning. I was supposed to go during March, and that's when everyone quarantined. But I still enjoy biotechnology.