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Intro

My time at ACLC has been a learning experience that I will never forget. I didn't just learn facts from a textbook, I grew as a person in ways I never could have imagined before I went to ACLC. ACLC was more than just another school to me, instead, it was the place where I became a better person. I suppose you could say that some of my growth was caused by the experiences of puberty, but ACLC truly was a unique place to learn. 

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Personal Qualities, Work Habits, And Attitudes

In elementary school, I was a serial procrastinator who would always put my work off until the last minute possible. ACLC changed that. This school was such a drastic change from my elementary school that I ended up floundering for nearly the entire first year, but I adapted. Now, I make sure to get all of my work done as soon as possible while still maintaining a high quality of work. I have rarely had a single late piece of work for the entire duration of high school, and I only miss class if I am sick. You could say that ACLC changed me from a procrastinator to a workaholic.

In a similar vein to the issue that I used to have with procrastination, when I first joined ACLC, I wasn’t particularly good with people. This problem continued for years, all the way until halfway through high school. However, I am much better at social interactions than I was before, and I am on good terms with my whole grade. In particular, I am good at interacting with the newer students and helping them settle in. I wouldn’t say I am a mentor of any kind, but I try to help them because I know that just talking to people can make life so much better. I don’t know what ACLC did to change me, but I do know that I am better off and happier than I was before.

 

New Basics

I have had a complicated relationship with books throughout my life. When I was very young, I hated reading in all its shapes and forms. However, as I grew up, I came to appreciate books more and more. They let your imagination take you places you never would have thought possible and let you truly understand the characters inside and out, but I digress. This love of reading has given me the ability to understand the meaning and subtext of nearly any book I read. However, I do have one weak spot that I never could understand, and that weak spot is none other than Shakespeare.

On the other hand, I have always been good at visualizing my plans, and it has been a boon in helping me plan for anything. I can see where certain paragraphs start or end in an essay, where drawings or writing should be placed on a poster, or just where in my schedule I can fit work in. However, I do have a weakness in visualizing equations on graphs, which can sometimes make math more difficult than it has to be.

My main strength throughout my entire life has been my ability to learn. However, it is the way I learn that gives me a real advantage. I am that needle in a haystack that can learn the lesson from just reading the textbook. I don’t need teacher oversight or assistance to learn, except on rare occasions, where I don’t understand a topic at all.  I realize that this form of learning can become a handicap in some places, for example, I am bad at explaining complicated topics to other students. Yet, this ability to learn from the book has made school a lot less difficult for me than it is for other students.

 

Thinking and Reasoning Skills

I don’t like going to work blind. Therefore, whenever I start a project, I at least have a rough idea of what I plan to do. I admit that I usually get a bit of tunnel vision and end up only making one plan, but I am good at adapting to change once I get past the initial frustration. Whenever I fail in something, I have the initial frustration and grumbling that everyone goes through, but after that, I learn what I did wrong and try to do better in the future. Also, tying into what I said about hard work earlier, I am very good at dealing with time constraints because I try to get my work done as soon as possible.

As I stated earlier, I have always been good at visualizing my plans, and it has been a boon in helping me plan for anything. I can see where certain paragraphs start or end in an essay, where drawings or writing should be placed on a poster, or just where in my schedule I can fit work in. However, I do have a weakness in visualizing graphs, which can sometimes make math more difficult than it has to be.

My main strength throughout my entire life has been my ability to learn. However, it is the way I learn that gives me a real advantage. I am that needle in a haystack that can learn the lesson from just reading the textbook. I don’t need teacher oversight or assistance to learn, except on rare occasions, where I don’t understand a topic at all.  I realize that this form of learning can become a handicap in some places, for example, I am bad at explaining complicated topics to other students. Yet, this ability to learn from the book has made school a lot less difficult for me than it is for other students.

 

Interpersonal skills

I have already stated earlier that I work well with others, one of the reasons for that is that I am completely open to new ideas and negotiation. If I’m perfectly honest, I don’t consider myself a leader in any capacity. That’s why whenever I have to work on a project with a group, the first thing I do is make sure to hammer out a general outline with the rest of the group. Then we work together and adjust the plan from there.

Due to my nature as a workaholic, I am usually the one to do the most work in any group project. That’s not a slight against any of my fellow students, it’s just that I want to make sure everything is up to a high standard. Also, as I stated in the previous paragraph, I like to make plans before I start any group project. As a result, I’m rather good at contributing ideas to my group for any project.

Once again, I’m on good terms with everyone in my grade.  It doesn’t matter what gender, race, or religion they are. Then again, my school is not some bastion of diversity where every student is unique in one form or another, something like 3 out of 4 students is white at ACLC. I treat everyone the same when I meet them, I meet them intending to make another friend. As a result, I’ve never had any issues with people who weren’t exactly like me, they were just people like everyone else.

 

Technology

I grew up during the information age, and as a result, I am very technologically literate. I know my way around computers, and I know how to use technology to help me in school or outside of it. I know what technology to use for every situation, computers are required for the vast majority of homework, calculators help you get your math work done, and phones can be used for pretty much anything considering they are just smaller computers now. I would know about phone versatility, you don’t know true suffering until you write a Spanish essay on your phone at 9:00 PM.

I’ll be honest, I’m not some computer wizard who can fix everything and anything wrong with a computer at any given time. However, I do know a little bit more about computers than most because my father is an I.T. manager and has taught me a thing or two when he gets frustrated that I broke something. You’d be surprised at the sheer amount of people who don’t know that a good chunk of computer maintenance is plugging the cables into the right inputs. In other words, I am no I.T. employee, but you can trust me to not break anything.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, ACLC did what all schools are supposed to do, but few actually accomplish it. ACLC tempered my weaknesses and brought out my strengths. Before I came to this school I was smart but lazy and unmotivated, but ACLC changed that and made actually me want to learn. I will never forget my experiences at this school: the friends I made, the teachers I learned from, and the lessons that will stick to me for a lifetime.