Life is a garden. Similarly, like a garden our lives are filled with different and colourful flowers like our emotions, relationships, eduction, knowledge, circumstances, lessons, mistakes, etc…. Everyday we all learn from our actions and we all teach someone from our experience. Therefore, in the past six months at Foundations For The Future Charter Academy (FFCA) I have learned lots of things like to read, write, adjust into a new environment, being independent, hardworking and more from my teachers, peers and my surroundings.

As a learner in my English Language Arts 10 (ELA 10) I’ve learned lots of things, but the one that was new to me was to write a strong essay with a strong theme statement. In my past years I never learned how to write a critical essay or even a theme statement. So this was all new to me. As a learner, my strengths are that I can learn anything that’s new and I can learn it quickly. My greatest challenge is doing my work perfectly, especially when writing essays. There is a saying “practice makes perfect”-anonymous. I do not follow that say at all. As a learner this is also my greatest challenge that I do not practice what I learn. Honestly, I find it a waste of time and sometimes boring to practice the same thing again and again. This is where I a trying to keep working on. Well, I am good at learning everything, but I am best at learning new things and the things that I find more interesting; I tend to go deeper and learn some more about them. As a learner there is lots to for me.

For some people reading is their interest, for some people it is their passion; and for others it is their life. As a reader I did not really have any identity before. In my past years I would only read around five to six books a year. However, in the last six months I read more than five books. Everyday my reading is improving, as well my vocabulary. As a reader my significant goals for this year and for the future are to read more challenging books, to read all the books that are on my reading list and to read at least thirty books a year. Mostly my interest are in reading science fiction, historical fiction and drama. However, I also enjoy reading romantic, comedy and fantasy books. When I read I find peace, I feel relaxed and I find solutions for all my problems. For me, reading is now my life. 

 As a writer I believe that a paper and pen are always a writer’s best friends. They don’t complain or demand; they bring our emotions, our imagination into words. They keep an individual’s writing a secret. As time passes my writing is improving everyday, especially when I came into FFCA. I see a huge improvement in my writing and the way I organize my thoughts. Right now I only have one goal in mind which is write strong essays especially the topic sentences and the theme statements. To improve my writing I am trying my best to write a journal everyday about my day and what I learned or enjoyed.

As a grade 10 student I feel really confident that it was a right decision for me to come to FFCA as I learned so much from there. At the beginning of the year I sort doubted my decision of coming to FFCA as it was completely a new environment for me and I had never been to a charter school before. The greatest challenge for me was to adjust at FFCA. My goals for the next semester is to work hard. As I said before that life is a garden and there are always changes, fun, lessons and mistakes that happen everyday in our lives. In general, my life is full of changes, challenges, lessons to learn, the mistakes that I regret and fun that I have with my friends and family. Life’s keep moving on. I want to say thanks Ms. Hunnisett for being an awesome ELA teacher and for helping me throughout the semester; because of you I am able to write a good essay and a good theme statement. I wish that I get you every year. Thanks Ms. Hunnisett!!!