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From now on, I want to challenge myself. I refuse to settle with being “average”...I want to be greatness. This means stepping out of my comfort zone and doing things that will truly make a change in my life. I need to have goals set in my mind and be on a “quest for the gold”. Meaning, I need to continue to be dedicated and relentless in my journey to accomplishing my goals. I refuse to let anyone/anything prevent me from become the best ME.

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“She believed she could, so she did” This quote reigns true to my life.  I believe that if I believe that I can do it, then I will be able to accomplish it with hard work and determination. My goal is to finish my senior year with As and Bs, as well as successfully completing honors forum. I would also like to finish my college applications by the middle of November and apply to all the scholarships I qualify for. Another goal is to spend more time with my family and friends and complete a slideshow that will played at my graduation party. My dream school is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Georgetown University so my goal is to get accepted into both schools and from there, decide which one will better accommodate me. Also, I have competed in the Miss Blythewood pageant for the past 3 years because my ultimate goal was to become Miss Blythewood. This year, I hope to be granted that title and get the opportunity to represent my school around the town of Blythewood. My last goal, is to win the title of Miss South Carolina Teen United States in January and win the title of Miss Teen United States in August.

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If I don’t know what to do, I will sit down and come up with possible solutions. These solutions would be well throughout with pros and cons. From there, I will begin eliminating choices I don’t feel 100% about. I will also ask my family and friends for advice and take their responses into consideration as I should be the final say-so. Once I come to a decision, I will make sure I remain flexible to possible mishaps and the occasional change of heart.

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I can learn more from my peers who may grasp the concepts better than I do. I always ask people in my class that are very knowledgeable in the subject to better explain to me a topic or to look over my work and make sure I am doing it right. I also can learn a lot from my teachers. They’ve experienced high school, college, and are now living the adult life. Through their lessons, I can learn life lessons that will help me be successful later on in life. When Ms. Bird was discussing how grade’s don’t matter and how it’s all about how much you grow and learn, that resonated in me. I’ve learned that I need to focus less on trying to make a passing grade, and more on making sure I am grasping the topic.

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The strategies I will practice to become a better ME would be reviewing what I have been doing wrong in the past, and coming up with ways in which I can change my approach so that those mistakes are not repeated. To make new friends, I will attend more social events and spend less time on my phone when I’m around individuals. I also want to have a better attitude about situations and not allow small instances bring my mood down for the entire day. A strategy I will implement into my life to ensure that this will occur is focusing on the positive side of a situation rather than the negative side. I will also tell myself before heading off to school, “Today will be a good day”. Taking a deep breath when I am beginning to feel stressed or saddened, will help improve my overall mood.

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A new idea that I will try will be placing task in my agenda for each day that work to complete a specific task days to come. For example, if I have a paper due in 5 days, I will allot time in my agenda each day to come up with an organizer, write an outline, write a rough draft, get peers to edit, and write my final draft. By doing this, I won’t be so stressed once the due date rolls around. I also will start this new thing where I turn my phone off before entering my house and not turning it on until all my homework is done. This lifestyle change will allow me to not be so easily distracted and be able to complete my work in a timely manner. The risk I want to take this next semester is meeting more people. I am sometimes reluctant on making the first move in making new friends. By stepping out of my comfort zone, I will be able to gain a better knowledge and appreciation of people who have similar and different qualities to me. I also want to try a new sport. For right now, I am thinking track. I want my senior year to be focused on trying new things and HAVING FUN. I love running and being able to be apart of a team and get to run everyday for a school I love so much would mean the world to me.

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I believe wholeheartedly in constructive criticism. It allows me to become a better ME! This semester, I relied heavily on peer editing when it came down to essays and writing supplements. My mother has been an angel this year. Anytime I send her an email, she replies my quick, fast, and in a hurry with corrections to the writing in question. This semester, she mainly helped me have better word choice, sentence structure, and making sure I stayed on task when it came to the topic of my conversation. My friend Cambrie Hayes, a college student at Howard University, is an English major and loved looking over my assignments to make sure they reflected my intellectual ability. Having family and friends look over my writing allowed me to catch mistakes made that I completely looked over, have better word choice, and making more clear and concise sentences.

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Whenever I am in a bind, I list out possible solutions to my problem. I have a section in my notes (on my iPhone) that is dedicated to Carlisle’s Problem Solutions. I’ll list out what the problem is with a specific task and all possible solutions. For each solution, I put a pro and con. If the con’s outweigh the pros, I will toss that idea out. The only problem with this method, is that I don’t always rely on this to help solve my problems. At times, I will irrationally act while heightened on emotions and the result won’t be what I hoped for it to be. For example, earlier in the school year, I had a lot of homework to complete Thursday night. The assignments included studying for the government test, studying for a Calculus test, studying for a economics test, finishing work for my Honors Seminar class, and finishing a project for AP Lit. I didn’t get home until 6 and I didn’t know how I was going to complete all the task at once. I decided that AP Lit was the most important so I completed that and wasn’t finished with it until 3 in the morning. I worked on Honors Seminar and finished that work by 4. I started dozing off and told myself I would wake up at 6 and study for 3 test (yes 3) in an hour. As a result, I didn’t perform well on any of my test and my grades took a hit. Through this experience, I’ve learned that you always have to have backup plans and plans for those backup plans. In this situation, I should of studied first and completed the project and finished the honors seminar work in the morning. I also learned this semester that I must be willing to change based on situations. Not everything is going to go my way, so I must be flexible and act fast so that time is not wasted. When a plan isn’t working, I need to sit down and make sure I am making a logical decision that I will proud of once school rolls around.

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A lot of mistakes were made this semester. But hey, what’s life without mistakes. A major mistake I made was not dedicating 110% to my studies. For example, I would choose watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy, than spending an extra hour studying for a calculus quiz the next day. As a result, my grades suffered. I also didn’t pay much attention in class and would be very confused once I went home and reviewed the material I learned. I made the decision in my head that what was happening in my group messages and who was posting what on social media was more important than the lesson being taught in front of me. To bridge off this statement, I also wouldn’t ask questions while in class. I had this “I can learn this myself” attitude that didn’t quite work once put into action. Because of this, I wasn’t fully grasping the topics being covered in my classes and performing to the best of my ability. A school year without procrastination isn’t practical in my life. This semester, especially, I would constantly put off assignments until minutes before they were due (literally). I was constantly stressed out, sleep deprived, and my anxiety levels were on 1,000.

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I have mixed responses to the question of “Have you put in the effect to achieve a result you are proud of?” For the most party, I believe I have somewhat put in the effort to achieve a result I am proud of. In certain cases, I put in lots of effort and that showed in my grade or level of completion with the task. Every day, I list out the things I need to complete for the next day. Due to this choice in task completing, I don’t always get to put 110% into a task because I may have so much to do that night, or another task may arise that will need my full attention. I have seen that when I start working on a task days before it’s due, the end result ends up being much better than a night before shenanigan. For example, when I study for my math test days before the date of the test and ask my teacher questions as I go about my study, I perform much better than cramming the night before. I wish I was able to do this for all my assignments, but there isn’t that much time in the day.