Gymnastics Skills for Life free essay sample

Manystudents in my school excel in sports such as soccer, cross-country and football.But my activity is uncommon for young men my age. It is gymnastics a complexyet invigorating sport that, as I have learned over the years, not onlychallenges ones physical state, but also ones mind. Gymnastics has taught meself-discipline and given me confidence, more so than any other sport I everattempted. I have felt pain and pleasure, faced fear and adversity, but most ofall, learned resiliency. Each of these life lessons has helped not only myacademics, but also my character. They will help me in the workplace,too. The sport of gymnastics is very time-consuming. I work out between 17and 20 hours a week, not to mention the two hours it takes to drive to and frommy gym every day. Some would think such a time-consuming sport would harm myschoolwork. Instead, it gives my life a sense of urgency that not only causes meto spend more time on homework, but also helps me with time management skills andaids me in the composition of quality work in a shorter span of time. We will write a custom essay sample on Gymnastics Skills for Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Also, thehard work involved in gymnastics is reflected in my schoolwork because it puts mein a mindset to work to the best of my ability. Gymnastics has taught methat hard work and dedication are not always greeted with immediate rewards. Lastyear was my first at a new level of gymnastics. I worked hard all season, butreceived few awards. I learned that although I didnt receive many prizes, tryingmy best was what was important. Sometimes in the workplace hard work is also notrewarded. With the proper mindset, however, knowing that the job was done wellwould be enough of a reward for me. To be successful in school,intelligence and hard work will get one very far. To be successful in theworkplace, one must also have maturity, confidence and discipline. Few activitiesteach these better than gymnastics. To accomplish particular skills, ones mindmust be so disciplined that the individual is in perfect control of his/her body.The slightest distraction or feeling of fear will not only jeopardize the qualityof ones gymnastics, but also possibly even ones safety. An individual must haveextreme self-confidence to prevent hesitation while doing an intimidatingskill. Gymnastics is very demanding of ones body. My hands are constantlychapped and raw from swinging on the high bar, and my legs are often cut andbruised from relentlessly pushing my body to its limit on the pommel horse. Ioften do not get enough sleep, since I dont get home from gymnastics until10:30, and still need to eat dinner. But certain occupations will demand that Ipush my body. If it is not in the best condition at a certain time, theself-discipline I have learned helps me keep my mind in as good a shape aspossible. In gymnastics, I often cannot perform a skill either because offear or because I am just not physically able. Whatever the reason, it isextremely frustrating and discouraging. It sometimes makes me feel bad aboutmyself and where I am going in the sport. Although I may feel unhappy for awhile, I have learned to be resilient and bounce back by being energetic in myschoolwork and gymnastics, and taking pride in myself and putting myself in agood mindset. Although I will lose my ability to do gymnastics as I age, I willnever forget the life lessons this sport has taught me.

How to Do College Research Right Step-by-Step Guide

How to Do College Research Right Step-by-Step Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips College research can be an overwhelming task, and it’s not easy to know where to begin. In this article, I’ll help you sort through your options and find your dream college. If you work through the following four steps, you'll be well on your way to compiling a list of schools that fulfill all your most important criteria: Identify your priorities Search withan online college finder Consider your chances of admission Finalize yourlist In the next few sections, we'll cover how to research colleges in a straightforward and effective way. Step 1: Identify Your Priorities and Preferences The first step in tackling the college search process involves thinking about what you want out of your college experience.There are some essential qualities that differentiate colleges from one another that you should consider first, such as location, size, cost, and academic programs.You should also contemplate what you want out of the social scene and academic climate at your college. Then, you can search for schools that fit your needs across a variety of different dimensions. Primary Factors Here's a list of the first four factors you should consider when searching for colleges: #1: Location Do you want to be far awayor close to home? Attendingan in-state school can mean a lower tuition price, but it may stunt your college experience if you continue to rely on your family and old friends.You should also consider whether you’re interested in a rural, urban, or small town college environment. The surrounding area can have a big impact on your happiness and comfort level. #2: Size Large and small colleges often have very different vibes.You’re more likely to get personalized attention at small colleges, but they might have fewer resources and less diversity amongst students.You should research each college individually, but there are certain characteristics shared by most large or small colleges that might lead you to prefer one type over the other. #3: Academics You’re going to college primarily to learn stuff, so academics should be up there on your priority list. Just how serious of an academic environment are you looking for?Do you want a school that focuses on undergraduate teaching orresearch?What types of programs interest you?If you have any ideas about your potential major, keep that in mind as you search for schools so you can apply to places that offer the best programs for you. Selectivity and reputation also come into play here. Based on your test scores and GPA, you can predict your admissions chances at different schools (more about this later). It's advantageous for you to attend the most competitive school possible based on your stats.This will provide you with the greatest number of opportunities both in college and in your post-graduate endeavors. #4: Cost Tuition prices are something you should think about in your college search, but don’t let a high price prevent you from applying if you really love a school.Right now, you should just work on determining whether cost is an issue for you. If so, focus your search on schools that offer generous financial aidandmerit scholarships. You can also investigate colleges with no application fees. College represents a crossroads in many ways. Secondary Factors This list goes into some other factors to think about in your college search that are less fundamental but can still have a really strong influence on your experience. #1: Social Scene This is a vague term, but you should have some idea of what type of social environment you’re looking for in college.Do you want to be at a party school? Or are you more of a library-all-day-every-day type? Are you at all interested in Greek life? Do you want to be able to go out to bars and clubs? Make sure the environment at the school you choose will be a fun place for you to spend four years. #2: Housing Is it important to you to have a really nice dorm? Do you want to be able to live off campus at some point?Schoolsmayoffer more or less variety in housing, so this is definitely worth considering. Universities located in rural areas may have fewer options for living off campus. #3: Dining Are you looking for a school with lots of dining options? This is important to consider especially if you have special dietary preferences or requirements. Whateveraccommodations you need, make sure the schools you choose have the ability to provide them. #4: Extracurriculars Think of any extracurricular activities you want to pursue in college.If these are priorities for you, you should ensure that any schools that you’re considering have the appropriate resources.Extracurriculars are a huge part of the college experience for most students, and they provide a great social outlet outside of the party scene and classes. #5: Athletics If you're hoping to play a sport in college for fun, you should make sure that anywhere you apply will give you that opportunity.Are you planning to work out in college? If this is a priority for you, look for schools that have high-quality athletic facilities and give students full gym access.Many schools offer exercise classes for students at their gyms, which is a really nice perk. Spinning is a great workout. Just make sure you never talk about it outside of class, or you will instantly become basic. Seriously, if you react with an acid you'll produce a salt. Sorry I took this way too far. As you consider these factors,you can continue to customizethe priority order to fit your needs. Some of the factors I listed as "secondary" might actually be of primary concern to you.If you feel that something is a priority, don’t discount it just because other things are â€Å"supposed† to be more important. You may even be totally indifferent to some of the factors I've listed (for example, "athletics" are a foreign concept to us hardcore nerds). That's fine too! You can choose to ignore these factors in the next step. Now that you’re armed with your preferences and priorities, it’s time to start your college search for realz. Step 2: Search for Schools Using an Online College Finder After you’ve figured out your preferences, the easiest way to find schools that you like is to use an online college finder tool to search based on your criteria. One option that you might consider initially is College Navigator.You can specify location, size, major program, public or private, tuition, test scores, and more in your search.This tool will give you all the statistics on different schools and help you locate options that seem like the right fit.As you investigate the results of your search, add schools to your â€Å"favorites† and compare them side by side to see how they differ.This might eliminate some options based on factors like cost and admissions rate. A screenshot of the College Navigator search tool Another site to investigate is Cappex. Cappex isa college matchmaking site where you can fill out a profile and get matched up with schools that align with your preferences. The site provides suggestions for schools that you might like after you complete your profile.It has a pretty complete overview of each school including student reviews and information about campus life that might not be included in the College Navigator statistics. If you find schools that you like, you can add them to your running list and compare them against each other. Cappexalso links directly to the application pages for schools on your list of favorites, so you can check out what materials you’re expected to submit. The "fit meter" that you'll see on every school's page on Cappex. It shows you how well you match up based on your preferences. There are also a number of other sites you can use at this stage.The link at the beginning of this section will take you to my reviews of the ten best college search websites.Feel free to use whichever one seems most accessible to you! Step 3: Consider Admissions Chances and Reputation Once you’ve figured out what you want from a college and have gotten some solid suggestions from search sites, you should step back and take an objective look at your results.It’s important to maintain realistic expectations in the college application process, so you shouldchoose schools where you have reasonable chances of admission. Though the sites I mentioned above may give you statistics for a school's average test scores and GPA, it’s difficult to understand your chances of admission just by looking at statistics.I would recommend that you Google â€Å"(name of school) PrepScholar admissions requirements† to access our database pages about each school. Use the tools on these pages to enter in your GPA and SAT scores and calculate your chances of admission. In general, if your chances are below 30 percent the school qualifies as a reach school.A school with an admissions rate that’s below 15 percent is a reach school for all students regardless of scores and GPA.If all or most of the schools you’re interested in are reach schools, it's time to adjust some of your criteria to allow for other options. Only a third of the colleges where you apply should be reaches. This is also a good time to check ranking lists like US News and Forbes to see whether the colleges that interest you have decent reputations. However,be careful when considering these rankings! If two schools are within ten or so ranks of each other, there probably isn’t much of a difference in quality between them. Rankings are a tool to be used afteryou’ve already picked out schools based on other factors.If you’re trying to decide between two schools and the lower ranked school is a much better fit for you, then you should still apply to that one.Rankings are more of a tie-breaker to be used when all other measurements are equal.Prestige can be important because it generally means a more intellectual student community and greater academic opportunities, but you should put your personal goals and priorities above the prestige of the school. After consulting these resources, you'll end up with a better sense of the quality of your preliminary list of schools.This leads to the next step, making your final college list! Williams College: The #1 National Liberal Arts College (according to U.S. News) Step 4: Make a Final List Now that you’ve gathered all of this information, it’s time to tweak your list of schools so that it has a nice balance of different options. As I mentioned in the previous section, it’s important to have reach schools, but they should only make up about a third of your list.Another third of the schools should be likely options, and the last third should be safety schools. You can use the same process as above to look up potential likely and safety schools and check your admissions chances.Safety schools are schools where you have at least an 80 percent chance of admission.Likely schools are schools where you have a 30 to 80 percent chance of admission.These can be further divided into â€Å"possible† and â€Å"probable† options.Possible options will be in the 30-50 percent range, and probable options are between 50 and 80%. Most students end up applying to around 5-8 colleges in total.Start out with three schools in the reach category, three in the likely category (two probable and one possible), and three in the safety category.Then, if you find that you’re overwhelmed by the application fees or the supplementary essays, you can always cut out 2-3 schools.Be honest about whether you can realistically see yourself attending all of the schools on your list. You should also do some research to check whether the schools on your list use the Common Application or if they require you to fill out separate applications.This can have a big impact on the time you spend on the process.You might decide to eliminate a school from your list if you’re not super attached to it and it’s the only option that requires an individual application. Once you’ve balanced your list, begin brainstorming your application essays and deciding which accomplishments and activities you want to highlight for colleges.Read this article about how to create a versatile application for some more tips! This is what your college list will look like after you get back those acceptance letters! What's Next? Now that you know how to do research colleges, you should also be able to put it into practice. Learn more about the application deadlines that will be most critical for you. College ranking lists can be helpful tools if you use them in the right way. Find out about all the college ranking lists you should read and how much you should rely on them. Looking to attend a top-notch liberal arts school? Here's a list of the 28 best liberal arts colleges in the country. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

How to contribute to a community of difference and being a global (See Essay

How to contribute to a community of difference and being a global (See Guideline) - Essay Example As a means of this reality, it is incumbent upon the individual who wishes to integrate key level of change to understand that such a level of change does not only impact upon their own local community, it has global impacts in ramifications. In such a way, this brief analysis will discuss some of the key ways in which an individual can interact with different people, cultures, politics, and/or ideas as a means of effecting positive and lasting difference within the global environment. Furthermore, if brief discussion of what it means to be a global citizen in some of the ethical constraints that that’s necessarily entails will also be discussed. One of the most important means of contributing to a lasting degree of change and difference within the world is perhaps with regards to the video featuring Sir Ken Robinson available from TED. Although the video in question was specifically interested in education and the means by which future generations are being prepared for the c hallenges that await them, the reality of the fact is that this subject matter is applicable to all individuals (Garr et al, 2012). Ultimately, as a means of making sense of an increasingly complex world in which fewer and fewer elements of knowledge can be obtained and leveraged by anyone individual, society and the education system as a whole have sought to limit and ultimately constrain the extent to which individuals are exposed to certain ideas and/or types of education. However, such an approach is damaging due to the fact that it restricts the potential that the creative young minds could bring to a world that they might otherwise engage with a more complete approach. In short, although the impacts upon students are most definitive, such a faulty approach also impacts upon adults due to the fact that encourages each and every member of society to limit and constrain their worldview into a shallow rather presumptuous model of limited understanding. Similarly, another means by which the global citizen and seek to integrate change of a systemic level is with regards to the level and extent to which he/she understands the far-reaching replications of choices and models by which they ascribe to follow. What is meant by this is the fact that an appreciation for culture and key differences with regards to individual backgrounds and ethnicities is necessary for any change model to work effectively (Hornstein, 2012). As a corollary, the reader can easily understand the situation in which a simplistic model of changes advocated however, it is completely and entirely unsuited to key realities that exist in different parts of the world, different religions, different political associations, or different ethnicities/racial backgrounds. As a means of being mindful of such a reality, it is necessary for the global citizen/individual agent of change to perennially be mindful of the means by which such realities can impact upon their decision and framework. Finally, it must be understood that due to the fact that so many issues face the current generation means by which change can and should