My Journey

This class has been quite the amazing experience. I didn't really know what open source learning was upon entering this class, I had heard from previous students of your class that we had to have our own blog. I thought having our own blogs sounded neat, but I was extremely nervous with this change, as I have never previously done open source learning. I guess you could say I am a person who isn't too fond of change. Once I am used to doing things a certain way, I like them to stay like that. I had also heard from previous students that there was a lot of assignments, and this course requires a lot of independence because you must stay on top of your blog. That was the main reason for the nerves I had before entering the class, the independence, but I figured I was going to be a senior in high school so this would be a great learning experience before college.

Ince the school year began, I quickly adjusted to using the blog, in fact, I began to enjoy using the blog, and learning and exploring the blogs was fun, just as John Savage in Brave New World enjoyed learning and discovering the new world. For someone like me who is constantly busy and not home and usually training in the gymnastics gym, this was perfect because I almost always have my iphone with me, and I was able to post wherever I was, especially during snack breaks at practice. I feel that we definitely earned and deserved the trust you placed upon my colleagues and I with our blogs. We were able to reach out and receive help from one another by using our blogs to communicate. We were able to go and comment and ask questions on each others posts. When I needed help, or had a question I always had someone there to answer me.

This year was my last year/season as a competitive gymnast, mainly due to a knee injury that occurred at the beginning of the school year. I knew it was going to be hard to say goodbye to this sport as gymnastics is in my blood and I can't even describe how much I love the sport, even though I say I "hate" it all the time. When you dedicate so much time to something as I did with gymnastics, you feel like a part of you is ripped out when it suddenly ends. Now I have really discovered through out high school, and especially this year, that I want to study and pursue my other passion which is performing arts. This year I auditioned for the PCPA program, as I have performed for them since I was 12 as a child actor. I auditioned and beat out over a thousand other applicants and made it to the final callbacks which was a group of only 70 people. Only 30 spots were available this year of that 70, and I was unfortunately told that they did not except me this year based on how young I was because I will still be 17 when the program starts and that they had many people apply that already had bachelors degrees, but they would like me to reapply next year. When I found this out my heart was crushed. I was extremely upset and angry at the world all because I did not get in. I soon realized maybe this was for the best, I could get my GE done this year, which is what PCPA prefers, and then reapply next year. Then there was still the heart break of about a month ago when my gymnastics season ended, and it was officially time to say goodbye. As I previously stated, I love this sport with all of my heart, and on my last practice I was an emotional wreck, I couldn't say goodbye to my teammates who are basically my sisters because I was with them in the gym more than my own family. But more good was to come, as my gym owner pulled me aside and offered me a coaching position. I really believe everything happens for a reason, and now this year I will be able to get my GE done and reapply to PCPA and still be involved in the sport that I love just in a little bit of a different way.

I'll never forget when Caroline, Micaela, and I wrote the character study about me being an alien. We were literally laughing so hard we were almost in tears as we were writing the story. My group especially had fun including making fun of me and my Justin Bieber music in the story.

Passion is clearly a theme that was common in many of the presentations in the class. I saw this in Daniel's passion for learning, Maira's passion for helping others, Allyson's passion for biology, Rudy's passion for music, Becky's passion for dance, and Jason's passion for wrestling. I loved watching these presentations because I could clearly see that they were very into what they were speaking about.

I am proud of what I have accomplished on this journey so far. I took the challenge of my masterpiece which I was extremely nervous about at first, but once I took the plunge into the water I realized this was a new adventure. Michaila and I went on to seek a mentor and were successful. After all the dedication Michaila and I put into our masterpiece we were ecstatic with the final result and it showed that all our hard work really paid off.

Thanks Dr. Preston for believing in every single person in our class, and pushing us to do our very best. Yes, it was rough waters at times but I always made it out stronger. I learned so much this year and am so grateful to experience open source learning and become closer with many of my colleagues.