The time I faced a challenge during the school year was the first semester of ELAR. I remember walking into the room for the first couple times, thinking that the class would be level to that of Mrs. Damante's, but that would be far for the truth. I was crowded with papers, materials, and a notebook that would be growing constantly by the days I would have the class. I was also pressured from the new forms of work that seemed to be identical towards from last year, but it wouldn't have the same results. Eventually, I became accustomed with the class and became more relaxed and prepared to enter and complete work from the class. I learned from my own resilience that classes aren't the same level of calmness than others, so I have to adapt in order to keep myself from falling.

My most significant academic achievement was placing in the math UIL event. The event is a rigorous challenge, since North Shore is the dominant school for every math event. I was nominated for the event a week before the actual competition, so I had to act fast and prepare myself. Despite practicing for only a week, I found new strategies and processes from previous tests in order to maximize my score for the event. This process of finding out how to solve the problems that would be guaranteed to be on the actual test made me more confident and prepared for the event. These factors led to me getting 2nd place in the math event and showing that the most dominant people can get overshadowed with underdogs.

My personal values during the school year remained the same for some of the activities, but I ended up acquiring new ones. My values of being able to have consistently high grades in classes and staying in NJHS stayed the same, but they had to be performed at a higher degree for the 7th grade. I learned new expectations and rules that had to be done for those activities, and I'm still able to be able to perform roughly the same as I did last year. I picked up the value of being able to make the school teams and perform well, for I could be able to do sports now; however, I still have to work on some factors of it. Practicing to be a good fit for the team did help me succeed, but there are some flaws that still have to be smoothed out if I want to have another shot in the following years. This impacts my future goals as I plan to become an engineer in the future and to play at a higher level of sports rather than staying in the fundamental level.

I contributed towards my school by participating in the basketball team and the track team. I performed well during the district meet in track, but I still had stuff to work on during basketball season. I also participated in UIL, and I got 2nd place on Spelling and Math, where I was the only 7th grader that placed in Math that wasn't in North Shore. I contributed towards the local Mobile Market during the times I wasn't doing sports. I went to the choir region auditions, and I got first chair out of the group and section that I was in. I participated in the choir UIL, and our groups contributed to get straight ones in our performances and won trophies for the school.

My friendships this year have been about the same as last year; the only difference was meeting a few new people and deepening our connections. While I have met some people I haven't seen, or only caught a glimpse of, the connections seem to be vague, with nothing special added to them. I wish to deepen my friendships so I can talk about the things my friends typically talk about, usually sports, not the boring, typical conversations. The qualities that I value most are the personality that the person holds, for that should set the foundation of how people should be together. A relatable personality means I can talk to the person without feeling nervous/anxious, which makes me feel better about how I communicate with people. I consider myself to be a bit loose with the personality that I have, so I have strong connections to those that I relate to the most, but I also talk to those whom I relate to as well. 

I had various failures related to sports during the year, but a really drastic failure was during one of the track meets I had. The track meet had more rigorous competition, and I'm incompatible to do good with the rest of my team with harder teams. I did bad in the 800m, my main event, and I made my team go from a comfortable lead to getting second place in the 1600m relay. This really demotivated me, and I felt like the team was on my back after the bad performance that I had during the meet. These bad results made me focus more in preparation for the following meet, the district meet, which was the polar opposite from the meet I had. It made me realize how much practice I needed in order to be even a comparable opponent for the people, and it encouraged me to practice way more than I need to be.

The people that inspired me this year wasn't one individual person, but rather an individual team. The basketball team is what I'm a part of, which should be a good thing, but I'd say I'm an under performing scorer for the team. I admire that the team has a good chemistry across all the players, but I feel like I could've contributed better towards the team since I had a lack of points. I envisioned myself to be a better player because of that, for I felt like I was doing bad with the team, slowing down our success that should've happened. The team influenced me to practice more and improve my game IQ with better shot attempts to prove myself why I should be in the school team, with some hope of being on the better team. The team made me open my eyes with my flaws on the sport, and that inspired me that I shouldn't be slacking off on the sport that defines who I am.

A memorable moment from this school year was the success that our grade had for the district track meet. The district meet is an important event for the track and field team, for it determines who the best school for the sport is from 16 events. Our grade's team was a threat for the rest of the schools as we dominated the rest of the schools that were in our district. All of our grade did good, and we destroyed the competition by over 50 points across the second place school. Our 400m and above and 1600m relay was a big contributor to our points with 24/20 points for each event, and the 200m and certain field events were satisfactory as well. I did excellent in the district meet, for I was able be in the top three for the 400m and the 800m. I was proud of myself and the team for the incredible performance that we had during the meet.

I have two areas for improvement that I really want to strengthen for the upcoming year: sports and academics. I want to be better at sports as I plan to pursue them for the upcoming years in middle school and high school. Playing sports is a passion I want to pursue, so I will continue to focus and practice for what I need to learn and improve at for my sports. Even if I don't make it towards professional sports, I still want to continue my sports until I'm ineligible for playing them. I also want to be better at academics, for I have more things to worry about for the upcoming years. Even though I excel in areas such as math and my electives, I need to sharpen my skills in subjects such as science and social studies for the future years. I will focus on the material to be able to fully understand the concept and master questions that are related to the material.

My hopes for the upcoming school year is to become more focused on athleticism and singing. I did basketball and track during this school year, but I want to try to perform successfully on every sport that the school has to offer. I aspire to be an athlete in every sport, even if I'm not a star player, so I will practice my abilities on the sport and learn new ones in order to secure a spot on the team. Even though I'm a good singer according to many, I want to make myself better in order to show people what I can achieve from singing, hopefully having a career from it. I'll continue to push myself in order to become a notable face in singing that after I leave the school, people want to aspire the success that I had from what I did. I aspire to be a successful athlete and singer in my life; in result, I will become a more sport-and-singing-focused person to achieve my dreams.