Everyday has been an adventure in eighth grade.

We have done so many things in and

out of school that I know will enrich my life forever. Mr. Blair has made my eighth grade year an

unforgettable experience, full of positive learning experiences, and learning from my mistakes.

For me friendship, service, hard work, and love represent this eighth grade year.

I can say that I am a very amiable person who makes friends easily. I have made many

friendships over these past few years and some even across the world on an educational trip.

Every relationship that I go through is a learning experience for me. From the situations that I've

lived with each friend I have learned that everyone has their background story. What happens at

home impacts them in their lives and during the day at school their lives impact mine in a way. I

am thankful that so far my life has been full of positivity. My family is full of love and we have a

close relationship that is understanding. Over this year, Mr. Blair, teacher and coach has

become my friend because in a friendship you teach, but you also receive. I learned so many

important things from him, from academics all the way to how to cut a banana in half. From me,

he received a student that put 100 percent effort every day in everything he asked for.

It is important to always share your blessings with others. The theme of service has

been present throughout this eighth grade year from serving God, to serving the needy. To

serving my family, teachers, and friends. Serving makes me happy. I serve others not because

I'm forced into doing it. It's something I like to do as a kind deed to others. Service has helped

me mature as a person because it has taught me to value what God has blessed me with. I try

to remember to be thankful for everything that I have that others may not. This self reflection

helps me to serve others throughout the day, whether it may be a small or big act.

Mr. Blair always says “If you work hard, I’ll work hard”. In general, life is about working

hard. Everytime that I work on a project for school, I made sure to be as organized as possible

to produce and outcome that will satisfy me. I always strive for good quality work in all that I do.

I know it is important for my future and everything that I have worked on during my schooling at
St. Charles will pay off when I’m older. I come from a family of hard workers and a family that is

determined in what they do. My parents have had a great impact on me of teaching the value of

quality work. Quality work does not exactly have to be perfect. Quality work is something that

you worked hard on, you put your time into, you learned from it, and made a product in which

the glue is what bonds it all together is the energy you invested while working hard.

Love is something that should be present in every day, specially in the life of a child.

Love is something my parents have made sure that I have received since the day that I was

born. My parents have given me unconditional love, no matter what the circumstances are. The

love that I get from my parents has strengthened my attitude in everything I do. My classmates

have noticed my positivity since I was small and I thought everyone else should be positive, until

I realized that not everybody gets love. My family and I are lucky to not have gone through

difficult situations in the past and present because this gives more space for love. The outcome

of love is my positive attitude and the confidence that I have for what I am and what I do.

I have had a very strong passion for art since I was a toddler and thankfully we get to do

a lot of art projects in the 8th grade. We did approximately 1 art piece every week and that has

let my passion of painting continue and evolve. All of the art projects that I have done this year

are something I am mostly proud of, especially a replica I did of The Wave of Kanagawa, a

pointillism piece, a Mondrian art, and an art piece I made for a freind.

One of my favorite lessons this year was one of the first lessons that I learned from Mr.

Blair. This lesson happens to be the tea party that we held in our classroom. Mr. Blair had made

tea for us the previous night but before actually drinking the tea we were told to make

placemats. But not just any placemats, we had to paint a perfect circle on a white paper with

black paint. The circle we drew was to represents a cycle in life and since none of our circles

were perfect that was okay because sometimes life is not perfect. After getting everything ready

we all sat down with our placemats and our tea cups in front of us. Then Mr. Blair said that it is

important to serve others before serving yourself. He told us to be observant of each others tea
cups and when they were halfway through their tea it was our duty to serve them. I liked this

lesson because Mr. Blair took such a simple idea of service and produced it into an

extraordinary moment of bonding and service between friends.

I have grown in multiple ways during this year especially with the help of all my teachers,

but especially Mr. Blair. I have grown spiritually, academically, emotionally, and personally. My

religion teacher, Ms. Islas, has helped me develop by faith and therefore help me to grow

spiritually. In Ms. Islas’ class we do weekly packets called Visions. Visions include Sundays’

gospel, stories that we have to read and answer questions to and sometimes small games

relating to the lives of the saints. I can confidently say that out of my whole life I have grown

mostly spiritually wiser this year. Mr. Blair always reminds his students to find the light of Christ

in everything. Mr. Blair took my class to a spiritual retreat in Julian for three days. Those three

days were for us to find God in ourselves and others. After looking for God, I reinforced my faith

with the help of my teachers and my friends.

The first step that I took to advance academically was to move to the higher group of

math in my class. Even though math is not one of my strengths, I defelenly enforced it. Mr. Blair

kindly helped me to easily learn it. Over this year Mr. Blair taught me and other 7 other students

to learn the whole 8th math book and the freshman math book. This step that I took helped me

at moments when I am in doubt, and then I remember that it's important to believe in oneself.

While others say this year was a rollercoaster, I had my emotions all in place. Even so, I

still grew emotionally. Going through situations with my classmates and situations in the class,

definitely helped me to get stronger. Both Mr. Blair and my parents have helped me grow as a

person. I can tell in myself that I am a whole different person from who I was last year. I grew in

so many ways and I am proud of who I am right now. I am a more confident version of myself.