Over the course of the year I learned ASL, and eventually interpreted The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. I also studied certain aspects of deaf culture and about past and current discrimination. I then wrote my senior project paper about this discrimination and how it has affected deaf culture. I learned that I am able to learn a language fairly fast. I had only met with Erin three times before we had finished The Lorax. I also learned that I had strong visual memory. I was able to learn most signs after only 2 or 3 times practicing them, even when I had all the other signs to memorize as well. I think one way in which I grew was meeting with Erin. I typically wear my mask, and I'm not a very expressive person. Learning ASL, however required me to do both of those things, which was a little difficult for me, but which I did in the end. I also learned the basics of new language. Obviously I'm not fluent yet, but I have an understanding of the fundamentals, basic concept of ASL. The process of learning ASL went pretty well. It only took a few days to learn The Lorax, and the process of learning it was pretty enjoyable. I also enjoyed working with Erin, she was a good mentor. One low point was the paper. It was very challenging to turn in, and there wasn't much good research. Of the little research I was able to find, there were severely flaws with how it was gathered. I also, stupidly, decided to put off working on the paper until the last minute, meaning I had to rush to get it in. I also had this same problem with the portfolio, but greatly exaggerated, because there were many more parts to it. Unlike the paper, the portfolio was done late because of this. Completing each individual part of the portfolio, regardless of time constraints, was also difficult. I found working with my mentor to be very helpful. Meeting in person greatly increased my learning experience of ASL. I also found working with Heidi to be helpful, as she was a great help during many parts of the project, especially when I was behind. I learned the origins of ASL. I found it very interesting how ASL was a descendant of French Sign Language. I also found Martha's Vineyard Sign Language interesting. It was a sign language once used on the island of Martha's Vineyard, from the early 18th century until 1952. It was used by both deaf and hearing people in the community, so deafness did not become an issue. I also learned about Alexander Graham Bell. He worked as a teacher, teaching deaf students. While he was working as a private tutor, Helen Keller was one of these students. During his lifetime, he sought to assimilate the deaf world with the hearing world. He encouraged lip reading and speech therapy over ASL for this reason. There isn't a lot of research into the deaf community. I spent hours looking for good research documents but I wasn't able to find any. Despite deaf culture being around for hundreds of years, little interest seems to be taken in it. Despite there being a massive body of deaf people and deaf literature, almost no research has been undertaken. I would tell myself to start working on the different aspects of senior project earlier. I started to work on them a little late, meaning that I didn't get a lot of them in on time. This meant I had to do a lot of work over the course of a few days to finish everything. Due to this, my work probably wasn't the pinnacle of my work, and I felt I could have done better. I would be more in contact with Erin. We didn't really talk or meet with each other for well over half the year, meaning I wasn't able to get her advice on a lot of things. Since I didn't talk with her much, this also meant I started work on my project late, the same week it was originally due. Thankfully, I was still able to finish it before too long, but I wish I had started work on it earlier. I would add more research due to my project, Due to time constraints, I was not able to find any good research to add into my paper, which I felt made it worse as a paper. I would make sure to go back and do proper research into the topic to try and find more to write about.