I took my first Mandarin Chinese class my sophomore year in high school.

In high school, you are Deleted: freshman

required to take 2 semesters of a language. I had also always been intrigued by the Chinese culture and I Deleted: school
already spoke Spanish so I decided to take Mandrin Chinese I. Our teacher was part of a teaching abroad Moved (insertion) [2]
opportunity, this meant she was originally a teacher in China who taught English but she came to the
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USA to teach Mandarin Chinese. Chinese I was where I gained my KNOWLEDGE OF CONVENTIONS by
Deleted: so I felt that this would be the best for me., since I
focusing on the basic rules of Chinese. I remember the first thing I learned in the class was that there
already spoke Spanish, I believed Mandarin was the way to
was no alphabet. There was something known as pinyin which was like the alphabet but the purpose go. I had also always been intrigued by the Chinese culture
was to aid in pronunciation and had nothing to do with how a word was spelled. We used pinyin to and so I felt that this would be the best for me. This is when
I decided to take Chinese I.
establish a basis of how certain letters and letter combinations sounded. I remember spending months
working on pronunciation but I enjoyed it. It was so interesting to me how different the pronunciations Moved up [2]: I had also always been intrigued by the
Chinese culture and so I felt that this would be the best for
were in Chinese compared to in English. My favorite letters to pronounce were b, p, m, and f. In our me.
class, we would have competitions to see who could pronounce the letters the fastest. When you
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pronounce certain letters together, they sounded like a mini tongue twister, so it was a lot of fun
Deleted: American students
hearing people stumble over some of the pronunciations. I was one of those people, so I rarely won in
the competitions. After working on pronunciation, we moved on to simple translations. For example, Deleted: Rather t

apple is ping guo and American is mei guo ren. We mainly focused on the names of fruits, Deleted: Chinese I was where I gained my KNOWLEDGE OF
CONVENTIONS. This class focused on the basic rules of
vegetables, nationalities/ countries, and family members. I learned that my family consisted of my baba Chinese.
(father), mama (mother), didi (younger brother), and meimei (younger sister), and I was the jiejie (older
Moved down [1]: My favorite letters to pronounce were
sister). Just like learning any language, learning Mandarin was challenging but I loved it. b, p, m, and f.

In my senior year of high school I decided to take Chinese II. Our first activity of the class was learning Moved (insertion) [1]
the chant to the famous Rock, Paper, Scissors game, Jin dou, shi tou, bu. We ran in a circle around Deleted: Learning Mandarin was 10x harder
the room and whenever our teacher would yell stop we would be faced with the person we had to Deleted: than what I believed it would be but it was okay
battle. My opponent and I would repeat Jin dou, shi tou, bu until one of us won. It was a bit because I knew once I got the basics down I would be able
challenging because that phrase translates directly to, scissors, rock, paper not rock, paper, scissors to learn how the words in pinyin would translate into the
beautiful Chinese characters.
so I would get my hand motions really confused. I realized that Chinese II was where I applied
Deleted: Since I took a yearlong break I had to sharpen my
RHETORICAL KNOWLEDGE. Every week we would learn something new and expand on what we already
knowledge of conventions.
knew. I first learned how to compose basic sentences. My favorite sentence I learned was Wo shi huan
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nai lao which translates to I like cheese. Although it sounds strange, learning this sentence was an
accomplishment for me because of my knowledge of conventions from Chinese I, I could correctly Deleted: until I finally got it down packed.

compose sentences with proper grammar. I had moved on from simply translating words to now being Deleted: and began learning how to write Chinese
characters.
able to express myself through actual sentences and phrases. My favorite part of being able to compose
sentences was now I could sing songs in Chinese and know what I was saying, for the most part. I must Deleted: actually know
give a lot of recognition to my Chinese II teacher, Mei Lao Shi. He pushed me to continue working on
learning the language and falling in love with it. Without him I wouldnt have passed the HSK, an
International Mandarin Chinese Proficiency exam. I scored high on this exam and received a certificate Deleted: I
that grants me the chance to study in China if Id like. Because of this literacy, I now wish to minor in Deleted: ability
Mandarin Chinese and to hopefully get a job in China one day.

I have always been the photographer in my family. At any family event, Im the one they call to Deleted: to
photograph someone blowing out their birthday candles or opening their presents on Christmas Deleted: get
morning. My passion for photography blossomed my sophomore year in high school when I took Design Deleted: a good picture of
and Photography. The class focused on different forms of photograph and the rules to get a great
picture. I learned how to master what I believed was the perfect picture but for some reason my teacher
never thought my photos were good enough. He would say they were decent but there was something Deleted: good
missing. I never realized what he meant by this until a year later when I travelled to Mexico. I took my Deleted: y
Canon camera that I had gotten for my 17th birthday and I was ready for sightseeing. I went to San
Miguel de Allende, its a small town my dad grew up in Guanajuato that is gorgeous. Everywhere you
turned was a picture-perfect moment. I visited the town center where you could see food stands and
children running around with their faces covered in ice cream. I visited old ruins that were cracked and
falling apart. I even went on a bridge that overlooked the entire city. I returned home with a SD card full Deleted: went
of photos. I looked back at the pictures and did some CRITICAL REFLECTION. It was then that I realized Deleted: ictures
what photography meant. It was not about the mastering the perfect picture, it was about taking
pictures that capture a story. I looked at every single one of the pictures I took and I could remember
what I was thinking and feeling when I took it. This is what my teacher was talking about when he said Deleted: I think t
there was something missing in my pictures. What was missing was substance, feelings, I was missing in
those pictures, not me physically but emotionally. From then on, I no longer took pictures just because
they were pretty. I like to take them now so I can tell a story. Although most of my pictures are of
landscapes, a story of how I got there and what I was feeling in that moment can still be told from them.
I hope to continue photography and maybe one day one of my pictures will make it into a magazine so
others can experience an emotion when looking at it. Deleted: feel some type of way

I was first interested in baking when I was about 5 or 6 years old. For Christmas one year I got an Easy
Bake Oven. It was cute toy oven for young children to pretend to bake. I thought it was the best thing in
the world but after a couple of weeks I was no longer amused and I wanted to do what grandma did in
the real oven. You could always find me in the kitchen watching my grandma make everyones favorite Deleted: I would go into the kitchen to watch
desserts; cheesecake, pumpkin pie, banana bread, you name it. She had this giant cookbook with all her
famous recipes. I knew it was time to make something yummy when she would ask me to go and grab it. Deleted: and
I would help her with small tasks but I would mostly just watch how she made everything. As I got older Deleted: good
and I began to bake on my own, I was really interested in making vegan desserts. My mom is a Deleted: t ultimately,
vegetarian so whenever I would bake she wouldnt be able to enjoy what I would make. It really
Deleted: her and see how she made everything
bothered me that she wouldnt be able to enjoy the different desserts I would make so I started looking
Deleted: de
into making vegan desserts. My first vegan dessert was peanut butter cookies. I had been watching Food
Network with my brother when I saw a recipe for egg free peanut butter cookies and I really wanted to
Deleted: . I personally dont like peanut butter cookies so
try it. I remember them smelling like peanut butter cookies, being the same consistency as them, and
when they came out of the oven ready to try I was so
even my brother said they tasted them but I knew my ultimate test would be my mom. She LOVED nervous about what everyone would think
peanut butter cookies so she would be able to tell me if they were truly good or not, luckily, they were. Deleted: anyways
As I continued to bake vegan desserts, CRITICAL READING was my best friend. It was time to adapt my
Deleted: telling
grandmas famous dessert recipes and make them vegan. By this time, I had more vegetarian/ vegan
Deleted: e
family members so it was crucial for me to make grandmas desserts vegan or they wouldnt be able to
enjoy them. At first my grandma wasnt very open to the idea, she believed breads and cakes wouldnt Deleted: s

rise without eggs. I convinced her by informing her of all the egg substitutes that were available. We Deleted: it for the regular people.
made a vegan banana nut bread together and no one knew the difference! From then on whenever we Moved (insertion) [3]
make desserts together, I make the dessert for those who are vegan and she makes desserts for those Deleted: with her.
with that have non-vegan diet. Deleted:
I started taking Zumba class when I was about 12 years old. I was never really into dancing much but my Deleted: when I went to my first Zumba class I was so
mom had convinced me to go to a zumba class with her. I remember stepping into the class and bein so nervous

nervous. I noticed I was the youngest person there which made me even more nervous because I felt Moved up [3]: I was never really into dancing much but
my mom had convinced me to go with her.
like everyone would be watching me. The instructor introduced herself and I remember her saying she
Deleted: When I first got there,
had one rule, Dont worry about what Im doing up here. Keep moving your feet to the rhythm of the
beat and do your own thing! Even with this rule in the back of my head that class was intense. We Deleted: T
would go from slow bachata to fast merengue then to choreography intensive hip-hop, all kinds of Deleted: ,
genres in one hour. After class the instructor came up to me and told me she enjoyed the energy I put in Deleted: ,
class and she wished to see me more often. That night I went home and added a Zumba station on
Moved down [4]: It was from that moment on that I
Pandora. It was from that moment on that I began my COMPOSING PROCESS. I recalled some steps I had began my COMPOSING PROCESS.
learned in class and I began to make my own choreographies to music I was familiar with. I started off
Moved (insertion) [4]
with a simple bachata warmup to a song by Romeo Santos and ended with a routine to a Pitbull song,
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classic Zumba. The days Zumba wasnt being taught at my gym, I would have a mini Zumba class in my
own living room with my family members. I would start off with the choreographies I learned in class
then move on to choreographies I had made myself. It was a great time watching everyone smiling and Deleted: up
enjoying themselves just as I did in my first Zumba class. Almost 7 years later, I am still taking Zumba
classes at my local gym. Its a way for me to deal with a lot of my stress and have a great time. During Deleted: forget
my free time I still make up some choreographies and Ive even thought of becoming an instructor but
that may have wait for a bit longer.

Deleted: I want to start off saying I am not the best writer

and I dont enjoy writing. Im worried that I wont be able to
express myself through my writing the way I want to.
Whenever I must write, my thoughts are all over the place
and theres just a bunch of useless writing with no main
idea. I really hope this class helps me with that because just
last semester I learned that my major requires a lot more
writing that what I initially thought. Not being able to
communicate through writing will not help me in a
professional career and that worries me. Ive always been
told that my writing is too colloquial. Some teachers have
enjoyed it and others hated it. I want to learn when being
relaxed in my writing is acceptable and when its not. I just
want to learn how to write with a purpose and for the
purpose to show through my writing. The only thing I do
enjoy writing is poems. Ive always had a love for poems so I
hope well be discussing some this semester. Besides that, I
really dont like writing.