“Change and growth take place when a person has risked himself and dares to become involved with experimenting with his own life.” - Herbert A. Otto

In the past two years, I have grown.  Yes, I have grown physically but most importantly mentally.  Four areas I have grown the most in are in my relationships, friendships, having respect for myself and others, and my love for myself.  The state I was in two years ago is nowhere near where I am.  I feel as if my mental stability has done nothing but strengthen and become more stable than what it once was.  I have progressed and plan on to keep progressing.

Two years ago I got involved in am unhealthy relationship.  I was foolish and didn't realize that it would merely blind me from reality.  Mistakenly, I continued on with this relationship until about December last year.  Finally being able to see through all the crap and just being able to see the facts, I realized that being with that other person was destroying me.  I realized that it all was just a mess and I needed to clean up my act an get out of it.  From then, I learned from my mistakes now knowing not to make the same ones again.    I have a better understanding of what I tend to go for and not can just avoid it. 

Now I know no matter what people come and go, but true friends last forever.  Despite how long I have known this it never seemed to have mattered until now.  I used to be the kind of person who fully and deep heartedly cared what people thought of me.  I wanted to be cool with everyone and have no enemies (which is nearly impossible).  I didn't understand the true value of friendship until a lot of them started ending. which is sad that it took me loosing my friendships to learn the importance of them.  By then, I felt more alone than I ever had before.  That feeling forced me to grow up and turn things around for the better.  Not only did it help me look at people with better discretion but realize who my real friends are.  From those two years, I have two friends still who have remained sincere to me the whole time.

I believe to get respect from someone else, you really needed to learn how to respect yourself first.  With this comes loving yourself.  Two years ago, I doubt I had any respect real respect for myself.  Yeah, I could have sworn up and down I did but did I really, probably not.  I didn't love or respect myself as I should of, which affected many if not all my relationships with all sorts of people.  I let me get me.  I haven't necessarily fully obtained the ability to love every aspect of me but I  have learned to have more love for myself than I used to. Also, I respect myself more than I was did.  I stopped really caring what people had to say about me with their pointless criticism.  With this I have changed for the better towards myself and others.  Therefore, I have grown in a sense advanced in this particular area.

I do not think that out of nowhere I decided to grow in these areas. That just for some reason, magically, I grew mentally without a cause.  Many different factors play in to the reasons why I have grown but overall it was a realization for myself.  Something happened that caused me to think and with that thinking I took it and in a way "planted it" in my life and grew from it.

Homework Number 3

The ideal group work for me is no more than three people. I prefer two but then that is just a partner not a group. I would also prefer picking my group partners because I HATE when I am partnered with lazy, rude, obnoxious people. Although Radford made quite the impression in class today, I think our group did not work well at all. In a more simpler word, we sucked. No one was working together and the other 2 in my group just kid of blew off the assignment. I took my own notes of what I thought and didn't share. Obviously things could of been better if we would have worked together and brainstormed more than just nothing.

Final Check in Letter

Good Bye for Now to You My Friend
Dear Ms. Priester,

I know this is a check in letter but I felt like giving it a title. The significance of the title is from a T.V show that I used to watch when I was younger called Out of the Box. At the end of the show, the two hosts would sing a song, which I do not know the name of, but the song would start out with “Goodbye, for now, to you my friend”. The meaning of the song was to have a proper way of saying goodbye to all the viewers but, let them now that it is not the last time they will “see each other”, that this goodbye they are saying is just temporary. So, in my letter I will be expressing how being in English 9 and 10 has helped me and changed me.
       In all of my Language Arts courses throughout middle school have not been supportive at all. I can remember how each teacher had at least six classes with about forty students in each class. This made it hard for each one of my teachers to be able to focus on my needs. For example, in eighth grade I lived in Hemet temporarily and attended the middle school Diamond Valley. At that school I had a language arts teacher named Ms. Laura (I think), who to me was a complete wreck. She would have us do work out of a handbook in to a journal she gave us at the beginning of the year. Before class would begin, she would make us line up outside to prove to her we did our homework. What I and many other students did was either show her someone else’s journal (since it was just a check, mark or no mark) or show her an old entry in our journal. So, since it wasn’t a big deal whether or not I did my homework I never paid attention in class and slacked off. Also, as a foster youth that is what is expected of me and back then I really didn’t even care about what anyone thought. Especially since bullies feel the need to always pick on someone that was the motto I was taught. When I came to SPA as a freshman, you opened my eyes about many things. I could no longer get away with slacking off or I would be put on the spot about living in a cardboard box. I learned a lot about grammar and now love correcting people. I noticed how my writing skills from freshman year pretty much sucked. The papers I would write were horrible and for some reason I still received an A or a B (or my paper would be forgotten about and not graded). Now, as a sophomore my skills have greatly improved. For example, when we have an essay many of peers ask me to peer edit their paper because they know I will do an extraordinary job (many upperclassmen have asked for my help as well).
        Some skills I have learned throughout the two years in your class are to have better responsibilities, set realistic and hard goals that make me want to actually achieve them, and never give up even when life seems pointless. This class has made me more determined, confident, and a perfectionist (which could also be a bad thing). Now, I know to never settle for anything less than I am worth. You have always been there when I needed someone to talk to and lean on. I know that I can always come to you with any problem I have. You gave me plenty of advice that was hard for me to put in to action but eventually did and in the end it was what was best for me. I always want to maintain a good grade in all my English classes. I know that any career choice I choose is going to require for me to communicate with other people. So no matter what proper English is required in life. I don’t want to sound or be thought of how many people believe I should be as a foster youth.
               So, in conclusion thank you Ms. Priester for everything and hopefully I get a good grade on this letter as well.

Sincerely

Jessica Galkoski

APA Format...WHOA!

APA format? What's that? Well, kids I am here to tell you exactly what APA Format is. In a research paper, APA format is commonly used amongst many writers. You have a choice of which style you would like to use whether it is an intext citation, or a reference list. Citing a source means letting the readers know where you got the information you are giving them. For example, here is an intext citation: He "already hold[s] more elections that virtually any other country on earth...504,404 elected officials, one for every 182 voters" (Osborne & Gabler, 1992 p.74), and where I received this information is from Matt Van Someren, APA Format Prezi. In order to cite a source however, a writer need to know the author of the source they are citing, the year it was published, and if it is from a book the page number. However, you use intext citations when it is a direct quote but if you paraphrase a text you need to include the site of that information on a reference page. A reference page is a little different. A reference page is a full list of all the sources you have used in your essay and the need to be in alphabetical order. I will use APA format in my research paper so if my audience is in disbelief of anything I am saying, they can refer to my sources. Also, it helps keep your ideas organized.

10SS

Well, in my Biology class, I was far behind since I have been missing a ton of school. I had a very very very sad F. I have been determined to make it up as much work that I possibly could, well stuff that wasn't due more than 2 weeks ago. So, just today I managed to accomplish all of it. YAY! I know have a C, which still isn't all that great but at least it isn't an F. Despite that one good thing, I have been having a very irritating day. First the day was ruined because some immature naive kid in my house ( I am not sure who) decided that it would be okay to steal my money. It is irritating that I cannot trust my own house. The worst part for me however is the fact that I already had to hide it. So, that means whoever took my money obviously had to snoop around my room, through all of things just to find my money. Very very irritating. Then in my first period teacher's class, I told him about the frustration of my morning. About 30 minutes later he decides to argue with me and already knew how I was feeling that morning. I know it isn't just on him that we argued but, he made a big production about it. Then it made me even more mad when he told me that i just do not understand him. I am not stupid, I do understand you, I just don't care. Exactly what I told him as well. But, I think I may of hurt his feelings by me saying I do not care. Even if he doesn't show it.

Barbeque!... WHAT? YUM!

So, on Friday April 30, 2010, the day after Prom, our principal Mr. Major decided to drag all of the students back to school. Many people were not to thrilled about it although he did give us a late start. Instead of coming to school at 8:15, school started at 9. The day was filled with competitions between the classes. Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshman all competed to be pronounced winner! My favorite part of the whole day is when we were making our banner in class. Everyone was contributing to make it the best one while others were thinking of the official cheer that the Sophomores would have. I helped with the cheer, the main contributor was Mr. Walker. In the end we came up with:

PARTY HARD, ROCK AND ROLL
WE'RE THE CLASS YOU CAN'T CONTROL
2012, WE'RE A HIT
IF YOU AIN'T US, YOU AIN'T Ssshhh...(we put our finger to our mouth =] )


For me, I loved seeing all of the Sophomores come together and learn the cheer as a whole. I also just loved seeing us be a team because I always thought the majority of us hated each other for no reason. Obviously I was proven wrong and am very glad that I was.

Paul Berlin in the Vietnam War