Week 15 Reflection

 This week concluded the spring season for soccer. We have been training for the past five weeks for almost 4 days per week, so I have been feeling busy but also worn out. We had a game this weekend where we played Benedictine, and this was the first game we played all together since October. We switched up our formation since last fall, so getting use to it and playing it for the first time in a game felt weird. However, we ended up winning 1-0 after scoring off a corner in the first half. This was a exciting way to end off the spring season.

In addition, I continued working on my rational essay this week, finishing up my second and third body paragraphs. This leaves me with finishing my rebuttal and conclusion paragraphs and revising it for next week. We turn it in on Friday, so I'm going to try and finish all of it by Wednesday, so I can have Thursday to read through it and fix any errors. 

With only a two weeks left I am feeling very burnt out and ready for the school year to end. I'm looking forward to summer and having the free time to hang out with my friends. Not having to worry about having any homework or assignments due for a while will feel very refreshing.

Week 14 Reflection

This week in class we continued working on our rational essay, and I was able to finish my introduction. I also was able to find a couple sources that worked well with the outline I created. I began working and almost completed the first body paragraph which is about how affordable college creates a better workforce leading to more economic gains. My second paragraph is about how it encourages students to go to college thus increasing graduation rates in high school. My third paragraph will be about how lower tuition cost creates less debt. This is going to be the bulk of my essay and will hopefully be done by next week.

The rest of my essay will include one or two rebuttal paragraph depending on if I felt if my argument was effective enough. The rebuttal will either be about how only tuition is free and not room and board, books, etc. or how it creates limited resources. I'm leaning towards the first option since it will be easier to rebuttal and find sources to back up my side of the argument. I will conclude my essay with a strong conclusion bringing all my information together, but also providing additional information on the topic. 

Week 13 Reflection

This week we continued to work on our Rational Essay in class and outside of class, however, I ended up going backwards with my work. I chose to scrap my original idea of Electric Cars vs. Gas Powered Cars because it didn't seem like it fit the description of what the project is about. In addition, I didn't really enjoy the topic I chose in the first place. I decided to change my idea to why college should be cheaper. I thought that this topic would be more interesting to research into and write about. 

Since, I chose to switch my topic, I had to delete everything I had done. Overall, it wasn't much, all I did was my introduction paragraph and come up with ideas to write about for each of my paragraphs. I am now left with nothing but my new idea as I haven't started to research or even begin to write anything in regard to why college should be cheaper. This upcoming week I plan on drafting an almost complete outline by Friday since that is when the rough draft is due. However, I don't know if that is reasonable because I have soccer practice almost every day next week with 2 tests and a project due. 

Outside of school, I had my Grandpa's 88th birthday party on Saturday, so my family and I went over to his house with a lot of my extended family. That took up most of the day, so when I got home I just relaxed and waited for Easter. On Sunday, I went to church for the Easter Vigil and then went to my Grandma's house where we ate a late Easter Lunch, played cards, and watched the Masters. 

Week 12 Reflection

This week in class we are working on our rational argumentative essay. I have had a hard time finding a topic that interests me but also has plenty of information on it. I have yet to start it, which isn't good because I already know I am behind. However, I have been very busy with soccer spring season starting up and other classes, but I hope to finish close to half of it this upcoming week. The one idea I have had for my essay is on why electric vehicles are better than gas powered cars, since I find this interesting and also useful. If I don't think of something better by Monday, then I will probably end up choosing that topic and go from there. 

This weekend I went home to watch my dog and spend time with my grandparents. My parents and sister went to Breckenridge, Colorado to ski for Spring Break. I would have gone, if it wasn't for school since I haven't been skiing in many years. They left on Thursday, so my Grandpa had watch my dog Thursday night until I came back. I came home on Friday, but wasn't able to do anything since the weather was so bad. On Saturday and Sunday, I made sure to play with him and take him on multiple walks and car rides, since he is very use to it with my family.

Spring Break

Over Spring break I visited Italy with my soccer team. This was my first time going to a European country, so it was a very exciting and new experience. I left on Friday around 1 o'clock to get to the airport where I would take an 8 hour flight to Madrid then from Madrid to Rome. The worst part of the trip was probably the flight there and back since it was so long and boring. All I could do was sleep, watch movies, or play games which after a while got repetitive.

We got to visit three different cities while in Italy; Rome, Florence, and San Gimignano. My favorite thing that we did in Rome was visit the Vatican. The outside was incredible to look at, but it didn't even compare to the inside. The amount of artwork and sculpture was breathtaking to look at. Everywhere you look there was something new to admire, it was truly amazing. The best thing about Florence was just being able to walk around the town with my friends on the team. We were able to just go do whatever we wanted, getting food, gelato, and presents for family. Florence is much smaller than Rome, so it was much more enjoyable to walk around. My favorite thing about San Gimignano was the game we got to play. We played a team that was in the 5th division in Italy and won 3-0, so it was exciting.

Although, Italy was an amazing experience, being able to go home Saturday felt very relieving. I was able to do whatever I wanted and catch up on sleep, which I needed. Even though I got back around 4 and was exhausted due to the time difference, I went out to TopGolf with my friends were back in from college. I almost enjoyed that as much as Italy since I haven't seen them in a few months. On Sunday I got to just relax and spend time with family before heading back up to school to start on Monday.

Week 9 Reflection

This week we were focusing on finishing our documentary project. Prior to this week I had a majority of my essay done, so I just worked on adding my citation and a conclusion paragraph. In addition, I read through and fixed any grammatical errors such as misspelled words or sentence structure. I also, worked on incorporating active voice instead of passive voice throughout my essay. Ultimately, I finished everything a day or two early and submitted on Thursday. 

Over Spring break, I am going to Italy with my soccer team where we will be playing three games and practicing once. On our trip we will be visiting Rome, Florence, and Siena. Our first three days will be in Rome where we will play one game, go visit the Vatican, and visit the Colosseum. The next 2 or 3 days will be spent in Florence where we will also be playing a game, but also visiting a museum there. After that, we are leaving to go to Siena where we will play a game and go shopping,

I'm mostly looking forward to seeing the Colosseum and the Vatican because they are very old and interesting historical sites to see. The weather is suppose to be a lot nicer than here in Illinois, so be able to go somewhere were it is at least somewhat warmer is nice. Hopefully, the weather is perfect to play soccer since we will be playing 4 out of the 7 days we are there. One thing I'm not looking forward to is the long plane ride there and back since it is about 10 hours long.

Week 8 Reflection

This week we were focusing on the analysis part of our essay which included writing on the three types of rhetoric. I found that this part of the essay was easier than the summary as in the summary you had to be very attentive and take notes. In my rhetorical analysis, I began with ethos and found a few different examples in the film and then applied them. I used the same technique when writing my logos paragraph.

Since my documentary focused on using pathos the most, I spent most of my time focusing on this part of the analysis. I described multiple different scenes and displayed how the viewer or me in this case, felt after watching the scene. I thought that this approach was the best since it gave the reader a clear picture of the scene while also providing a possible different way to look at it. After finishing writing, It felt very relieving knowing that I only have revise this week.

Outside of class, I had to work on my statistic project which is a 5-6 page paper on this data polling we have been doing. We have had this project assigned since the beginning of the semester, however, collecting the data took us all the way up to the middle of February. So, we have really only been working on the actually paper part to it for about 2 weeks. This weekend we worked on finishing it up and finalizing all wording since it is due this week. It felt nice to be done with not only this, but also the essay in Card class.