Science can be tough for every child growing up. We learn about these different topics and theories that seem to come from nowhere. This culmination of ideas are given to children to help them gain a more diverse sense of knowledge about the current world and how things and life function between one another. These different properties are a bore to most, but to some it is a new way to express ideas. The most common expression in the science/education community of these ideas is by having students research topics and ideas on their own and present them at a place we all know as the science fair.
For many, expressing their ideas and findings in a neat poster may be simple and come as second nature, but for second grade me it was cruel. I spent countless hours planning and researching ideas that might appeal to me, and when I found one. I decided that it would work and I carried out the experiment and recorded the results. Now for the tricky part which was spending the next couple of days typing out pages of reflection about my process and how I came to my final conclusion. Transcribing so many thoughts took a lot of time and energy out of me, but I had to keep going, regardless. From this I was able to build upon my mental endurance as a writer, in retrospect the longest I had written up until this point in my life was an elementary five paragraph hamburger style essay.
Honestly another point in my life that helped me finally reach where I am currently in my english career was writing my college application. I was not your normal student who did the 650 words of common app, but instead I applied through Questbridge (an organization that helps lower socioeconomic, high achieving students attend college.) Their application consisted of sx essays that all dealt with personal life issues and questions that allowed applicants to share their individual story, something I was not used to from my traditional writing courses in high school. This allowed me to develop personal matters that I didn’t know were such a big issue when defining myself. I had a sense of purpose in life, but not so much a reason for where my beginnings had come from. This hindrance blocked me for many years with writing personal narratives.
These two skills allowed me to become a stronger and more confident writer. My science fair project allowed me to develop a passion for scientific research and build up my writing skills. My college application although short in space allowed me to flourish my emotional side of writing. This expansion of skill that was gained from my getting in touch with emotions now feels stronger compared to the endurance that I learned at a young age. However, my emotions and ideas can not be expressed without having just one or another. Learning how to utilize both skill sets has allowed me to become a stronger writer by being able to express myself in a way that allows for full coverage in many forms of writing, not just lab reports.
