Armando De La Torre

10 April 2019

Dr Loza

Growth Trajectory

When I came to HPIAM as a freshman, I had a lot of things I would learn and many

things to improve. One ninth grade skill I had to work on was my presentation skills. I had poor

communication skills and I would always be nervous to present in front of class or in front of

many people. I would hardly ever give eye contact during presentations and I would always

stutter and forget my lines which would result in bad grades. This all slowly started to change

over the years with the help from IDPs and several group class presentations. The more and more

I would present, I would get more comfortable and prepared when presenting in front of a group

of people. Now, I feel more confident and don’t stutter as much. I try my best to memorize my

lines. I have not fully improved my presentation skills as I still get nervous at times but I will

keep practicing to become a better speaker and on top of all that, just more confident. I will even

take a speech class in college where speeches will be given more often. This will get me out of

my comfort zone. That will help me be more confident in myself. This skill will help me when I

attend college as presentation skills will be used when there are any debates in class or

presentations in general.

One ninth grade behavior I had was that I was very unorganized. When we would have

binder checks, I would always get low grades on them. I had loose papers and some would even

be crumbled. Not only that but I would always lose everything which would result in poor

grades. Lastly, I wouldn’t write down my homework in my planner so at times I wouldn’t know

if there was homework to do. It all changed when I started getting bad grades due to not being
organized, and I wanted my grades to be better. I also started becoming more of a clean freak so

by 12th grade, I am now more organized since I keep everything in binders and folders to make

sure I don’t have any loose papers. I now write down my homework in my agenda and make sure

I keep everything up to date. In my new path I will keep having all my work organized but also

organize everything in general. I won’t lose track of anything if I keep my behavior like this.

Keeping this behavior up will help me in college as being organized is an essential and will help

me keep all of my assignments in tact and to not lose anything.

Lastly, a trait I had my freshman year that I had to work on was that I was very

unmotivated. I would always procrastinate, wouldn’t do my homework, would never study, and

on top of all that, I wouldn’t have any motivation to do anything. Once I started getting low

grades in my report card, my parents started to be disappointed in me and they wanted me to do

better. I started realizing that in order to get into the college I wanted to get in, I had to try my

absolute best and also do my best to make my parents happy. I strived for success so I started

doing all of my work. That resulted in having a 3.8 GPA. Now in my senior year, I am more

prepared and determined as I get good grades now, I study often now, and I feel very dedicated

to finishing all of my work as soon as possible instead of waiting last minute. Though I may still

procrastinate at times, I will keep improving and stay away from my lazy behavior. I will keep

trying my hardest to keep up with my grades and not fall behind as I know what the

consequences will be. Having this trait will help me in college as being motivated is what’s

going to make you keep going, losing motivation will only make you fall off and that’s

something you wouldn’t want, especially in college.