Bryce Johnson

Period 3/4

 

Synthesis Essay

 

            As a almost graduated senior in highschool, I have reflected many times on my years in school. I have grown a tremendous amount from experiences and people put into my path that helped me change for better or worse. Not just academically, but more personally and deeper than I had ever thought. Of these, the class that I would credit a lot of that change to would be to Senior Inquiry. A lot of growing up happens in Senior year. you look to the world you will be soon thrown into with a lot of hope and optimism, with enough faith in yourself to be successful and accomplish the things that you desire. The areas in which this class has helped me grow is in my writing, socially, public speaking, perspective, finding sources, being more critical, artistically, finding applications, and it has prepared me for college.

           

           The thing I most wanted to get out of this class when I signed the forecasting sheet as a Junior was I wanted to come out of it a better writer. It was something I have never excelled in and probably still don’t. However, I have grown, and that's the important thing. I am better than i was yesterday. I have learned through assignments like the research papers and writing the essay tests that forced me to open up new ideas and gave the opportunity to practice conveying my thoughts into writing. Sometimes the ideas get messed up and come out disorganized. The research papers gave me resources that organized my thoughts to make them more structured. The flow of the essay after doing this was greatly improved. Not only that but the research papers helped me greatly improve my ability to find evidence to support my claim. I’ve found that finding sources is actually, often, somewhat difficult to do and this class was really one of the first to introduce me to this. I know I will have to do this in college and it was very beneficial for me to get a jump on learning how to adequately search for and implement self-selected sources that not only relate to topics but help prove my arguments. With the tests on various literature, I found early on that I wasn’t the best at analyzing the messages and connecting those with other sub-readings that were given. By the end of this year I proved to be proficient in doing this, showing that I actually did have improvement in this area. That came with practice and doing the work to get the results I wanted.

           

           My biggest fear is public speaking. Not only that, I get anxiety from talking to people in general. It has taken years for me to break gradually out of my shell and be more brave when it comes to talking. Senior Inquiry put me in a class with about 80 students, and I don’t think I voluntarily said a single word in front of the entire class. However, just about everyday we had to get in groups to discuss various topics. This made me talk up close and personal to people and even get to know them. I was out of my comfort zone every day and eventually it became my comfort zone. The Public Art Project was one that I think really helped me the most in the class. I got up in front of a significant amount of my peers and argued my points that I had prepared. This class has helped me fight my fear and develop a skill that is much needed for my future.

           

          I knew what assignments were going to be given through the year and the level of difficulty they provided. I wanted to stretch myself to new lengths so I would prepared for the rigorous workload that college promises. I’ve never been in a class before where I turned in every assignment in, on time. I’m not bragging but I wanted to point this out because I chose early on that this class is a big deal to me and I pushed myself harder than i ever have before academically. It was a new experience to go through that and end up with some late nights that in the end were worth it even with balancing sports and other various activities. In the real world it’s important to balance precious time and organize work. This prepared me for college. In college professors aren’t going to chase you down if you don’t do an assignment, so I really made it a priority to get things done. I became a little more mature, and in turn, got the grades that I earned.

         

        With all the ways that I have developed this year, I am filled with a mixture of emotions that include gratitude, sadness, hope, and excitement. I don’t know what the future has in store for me, but I know that I am better prepared because of this year. I’m not quite yet to the point I want to be. I still have time though. Hopefully what the opportunities that I have capitalized on are enough to get me to where I want to be, and I am optimistic looking to my future.