Okay, so,
Not very long ago, I was told that I had to type an 800 word narrative for our algebra PBL. I honestly do not get the reason why. It's not like I'm an author or anything. So why do they expect us to do such a thing? And the thing is, my whole team is counting on me. Plus my algebra teacher, and the stem coordinator. Basically all the teachers in HSD. Yes, I feel stressed. I always do. It's been known for me to get stressed easily. But you know what, who would care at this point? So I decided to just type this. A first person narrative about how i feel about our "Infinite Chocolate" PBL.
The PBL was okay. It involved chocolate. I guess that was our favorite part about it. Because...chocolate. (Honestly, I think vanilla is better, but okay) Anyways, all in all what we did, we cut a bar of chocolate in half diagonally and broke the two pieces apart from there. We left out a small piece of chocolate from the other pieces. Then, we put the chocolate pieces, except that one small piece, together and we were still able to get a full chocolate bar, plus that one extra small piece of chocolate. It was all based on geometry. It was based on shapes, dimensions, puzzles, and illusions. So yes, the project was successful. That's probably the only good thing that happened, according to me, Juliane Mabilangan. After that, we were told that we had to make an ELA component. It gave us six choices to do. Our group decided to pick a narrative. Basically, what I'm doing right now. But again, what I did not know was that this narrative has to be at least eight-hundred words. That was the moment when my self esteem was lowered drastically. That was also the moment I realized that my group was dead. Obviously, not physically, but mentally. None of us know how to write well and I mean no one. So, we just went to a conclusion where I write this narrative. The reason why was because they knew that I used to write stories.... bad stories. But just because I wrote stories doesn't mean that I am able to successfully write an eight-hundred word narrative about an algebra PBL involving chocolate and geometry. It somehow always makes me frustrated every time I think about it. And to make it a little worse for my group, we not only have to make an ELA component, but we also had to make a Social Studies component for this algebra PBL. For Social Studies, we were also given six choices on what to do for the component, just like the ELA component. Our group chose to do historical connections. All we had to do for that was to search up the history of chocolate and geometry. Pretty easy, right? Compared to making an eight-hundred word narrative. Ah, it still gets me irritated. Anyways, continuing the mini story of our journey through the algebra PBL, we got the social studies component done quickly. As for the narrative, we had to speed it up a bit. "Don't procrastinate, Juliane.", I always tell myself. "Do not get lazy. Do not let your group get lazy. You all want good grades, right? So do the project and work hard!" Long story short, we did the opposite of that. All of us got lazy for a week. I got lazy for a week. The narrative never crossed my mind. That is until I realized I was procrastinating after one of our classmates were having a loud conversation about the ELA component for the PBL. "Oh no..", I thought in my mind. "I broke my own promise. That's great." After I realized that, I immediately went to my group, suddenly all stressed, and said, "Guys, the ELA component!" "Did you get it done?", one of my group mates asked. I sadly nodded my head no. "Then get it done!", they said. After that little realization, I started to work on the narrative. I ended up asking for ideas from my group mates. And they gave me some pretty neat ones. Now here I am wondering why I didn't use any of them. Regrets, regrets, regrets. I went to a last resort and decided to make a narrative in my point of view about our journey through the whole algebra PBL. I included what our group did, my thoughts about the PBL and some of my group mates' thoughts too. I did my best to include who, what, when, where, why, and how, just like my ELA teacher always says whenever we make narratives in her class. I'm pretty sure that I did, but then I also feel like I didn't. But oh well. "What you write is what YOU write. No one can make you change that.", my mom tells me occasionally. "Well, what about essays? The writing STAAR? College entry essays?", I always think right after my mom makes that statement. Oh, and not to mention that ELA component we had to do for our Algebra PBL. So much writing, that it's kind of overwhelming if you ask me. But I understand. We understand. We understand why we need to do it, to write. It's good for our future, and it's a good talent to have. It's just that we already get a good amount of homework from other classes, maybe even some other PBLs. And then we still get this PBL? Ahhhh! Anyway, continuing from my messy story about this PBL, I did the best I could to write as many words as I could every night. One of those nights, I was on the verge of giving up on everything. Because I was just so stressed from school and from personal problems. In the end, I knew that I could not let my group mates and my school down. So I continued. I continued to write, and write, and write, and write until i reached a minimum of eight-hundred words. It basically became a goal of mine. "Julez, you got this, don't worry. Don't stress about it, okay? If you don't get it done in time, it's okay. Nobody's perfect." Those were the words I told myself that somewhat motivated me to continue to write more. Another way that motivated me was listening to music. It helps me focus in some way. Apart from my strategies for motivation, I wrote more, and more, and more, and more. That is until I realized that the deadline was coming closer and closer by the minute. That's when my anxiety started to kick in. I had to be tough and just ignore it. Surprisingly, I was able to. It was difficult though. As soon as the deadline came closer, I thought, "Maybe it doesn't need to be at least eight-hundred words. Maybe it can just be close to eight-hundred words. They won't be mad about it, right?" My anxiety started to lower as soon as I kept that thought in my mind. I just had to put my effort in to it. I had to do it for my group. Then finally, after about one hundred later, I brought myself to a stopping point. By that, I mean that I finished the narrative. You do not know how relieved and happy I was when I finished it. So relieved. It may not have been eight-hundred words, but I felt as if I put a good amount of effort into the narrative. I took a look at the narrative myself. I thought, "It's good enough to pass." Hopefully it is. My group told me that it was okay. So that's somewhat a good sign. I just hope that the narrative pays off.
And there you go. That's the story about how me and my group were able to finish this "Infinite Chocolate" PBL. We did the best we could. Even if it's not considered enough, we tried. We all did. And that's what counts. I'm proud of us. And honestly, i'm proud of myself. That's not a feeling get often. This whole PBL may have been stressful and considered "torture". But let's be positive and not focus on that. But yes, that concludes everything.
I tried
-Julez