Autobiography

7th Grade Reflection

The 7th grade year had started, and I took a look at my schedule. I saw Encounters, and I felt a confidence wave hit me. I made it again! I was excited to see what this year’s encounters experience held for me. I was barely getting used to getting upstairs on the A Building, and I had just finished my 1st period class, Pre-AP Science. I caught up to somebody I knew, Raymundo Ruiz. We saw that on the schedule, it said “WAMS CAFE” as the class location. We went to the actual cafeteria, and saw nobody there but who I remember may have been Mr. Merino. I asked him where the Encounters class was and he asked to see my schedule, so I showed it to him. He said that the class was in the old Elementary cafeteria, and me and Raymundo looked at each other and we went to the old cafeteria. I felt really stupid, and I could tell he did too. We got to class, and our Encounters teacher, Mr. Skipper, introduced himself. He started talking about how this year would be different, and if I recall correctly, he told us a story about himself. He said he’s worked many teaching jobs, even worked at a prison. He said he had been teaching at WAMS since 1991 (or at least I remember him saying that). He talked about so many more things, things I don’t remember. I realized this year would feel different, not only because the schedules were different (they were also messed up throughout half of the year), but also because it would be more different. It was a new experience, we didn’t go to another school to do Encounters work anymore, but instead we stayed at our school. We would spend most of the day at the school we went to, but this year instead our Encounters class had the duration of a regular class. It felt as if I had just started Encounters all over again, and everything would eventually become more difficult. I saw new faces in the Encounters class, and realized that this meant Encounters would be VERY different in middle school. There were more students, a teacher that reminded me of my dad and uncles because he told many stories, and the classroom was big, making it a perfect environment for our Encounters work, as this work requires drawing and painting, even big papers to write on. Throughout the year, we did projects such as a number burst, which I don’t remember well but I believe this number had to do with something about you. He showed us examples of the project work, and explained what we had to do. I realized projects here would be unique, as 6th grade encounters had gotten me used to this. We did more work there, and I was already starting to think we would do even more work here. We even had our own binders, and we used a program called ThinkCERCA to do some ELAR related work. The class was creativity projects mixed with essays and other Writing teaching works. We did many projects, and some were never finished due to a pandemic, which is actually still happening at the time I am writing this paper (December 19, 2020). We had to research people who had companies named after them, and I chose William Wrigley Jr., the man who made Wrigley’s gum. This company has many brands to this day, such as Juicy Fruit, Silver 5, and many more. I learned of a man who went from selling soaps to gum, and even had a stadium named after him. I got to talk with more people and share what I worked about, and we were supposed to make cars out of paper mache to represent the person we worked on, and I already had in mind what my car would look like. It was too bad that I did some of it, then Spring Break came along, marking the start of what would be a pandemic that drove many people crazy. Coronavirus, or COVID-19 (named that way as it was discovered in 2019 I think) had broken out, and it cancelled school for a week. I was excited, as at the time I was in Mexico and I knew this meant we could stay there for more time. Me and my brothers were happy, not knowing that 9 months later, we would still be stuck in this sad outbreak. It went from one week, and increased, until eventually, the entire school year was cancelled. It made me happy, but I knew nothing would get better soon. I could tell this was gonna go downhill, lives had already been lost (none of my family’s lives) and my family was crazy worried about staying safe. This felt as if the end of the world were here, and sadly the rumors were right. The rumors said that in 1920, there was another outbreak, the Spanish Flu. In 1420, there was the bubonic plague, a disease that killed ⅓ of the world’s population. They said that the years with the “20” as the last digits would not go well. It was a simple joke and a rumor, but it became a harsh reality. We went through what I believe was the last three months of school online, and it was just another thing to get used to in the crazy 2020 year. The year was halfway done, and it was already hell. People kept saying the disease would eventually leave, but that was just crazy talk to keep people positive. I knew it wouldn’t get better. The Spanish Flu lasted 2 years, and we aren’t even done with a full year of this hell. 7th grade’s year had its ups and downs, but encounters was fun, and it brought new challenges to me, challenges I thought I was ready to face, but I actually was not. 2020 was believed to be a fresh start as any other year, instead it was a hell-inflicting nightmare to Earth. Encounters was fun, it brought some brightness to me during dark times. I enjoyed it, and this year I have the same teacher. I am ready to face new creativity challenges, and I already have missing assignments. We are 5 month into my 8th grade year, and I remain online. 7th grade is an unforgettable encounters experience for me, it was a new start in encounters. More independence, a honest teacher (by honest I mean doesn’t lie and say well your work was good, you just needed… instead he says, this is GARBAGE!) and more classmates, more difficulty, and much of what you need to grow up. The teacher is the kind of teacher every student needs, not a sweet teacher who will give you a grade even though you did nothing, but a teacher who will give you a zero if your work is late. Thanks for manning everybody up Mr. Skipper, and I look forward to this year’s work and challenges.

.