Slingluff 1

Mason Slingluff
Professor Debra Jizi
Writing and inquiry academic context I and II
5 October 2015
I am a person who is very competitive. Throughout my life I have always strived to
better myself through hard work and determination. I have always been very disciplined and
compassionate in anything that I want to achieve. I think this started when I was younger
because from an early age I have always been surrounded by more mature and goal oriented
people. Because of this I consider myself to be more mature than a lot of my friends. Even
though this can sometimes make me look quiet or not social its not really how I am, I am just
used to being friends with people older than me. My competitiveness has steered me toward a
career path in the racing industry because racing is a highly competitive area. I also have a
natural ability in math so that also was a factor in why I chose engineering. I think I will be
successful in this area because of my drive and passion to work and reap the rewards from it.
I value achievement a lot because that is what truly makes me happy. I am at my
happiest when I have given my all to something and get a lot out of it. I do not value things such
as spirituality or family very much because I am a very busy person. I find that these things can
pull the focus away from what I am trying to achieve. This being said I do recognize that family
is important but I do not invest much time into that part of my life because I am a very solitary
person. I guess I got this mentality from my interest in competitive sports. My coaches and my
parents pushed me in the sports I played. At a young age I realized that hard work is not
sufficient enough to achieve what I wanted. I found out that constant improvement is what

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makes someone truly competitive. Its not just giving it your all but giving more effort than you
think you have. Doing things that you never thought were possible by pushing yourself past the
breaking point. Although sometimes this mentality has gotten me in trouble. While in high
school I was on the wrestling team and developed bulimia in order to maintain my weight class.
I pushed myself too far and by the end of the season I decided to quit because my health was
greatly suffering from my eating disorder. This is when I realized I had a very competitive
mentality because I was willing to do great harm to myself in order to achieve what I wanted.
After this experience I have learned to sometimes take a step back from what I am doing and
make sure its in my best interest. I hope that I dont get into a situation like that again but
because I can get so focused and invested into something I feel like it is inevitable. I dont have
too much fear about this though because I have friends and family that can let me know if the
path I am going down is not healthy. But sometimes I dont tell them that I am doing something
and they might not realize I am going down a destructive path. This could be bad because I may
not decide to share what I have done until its too late and too much damage has been done.
Something significant that happened in my life that helped me become who I am today is
when I was accepted into the honors math program in middle school. Before that I knew I was
pretty good at math but after being involved in a class that moved at a fast pace I was able to
reach my full potential. Without joining the honors math program I believe I would never have
excelled in math as much as I did. This was the first honors program I had ever joined and
before the end of the first semester I was in the top of my class and I realized that math was
really my thing. Since then I have taken the highest possible level of math offered to me and I
have been able to achieve very good grades. On the other hand I never attempted to join the
honors English or history classes because I didnt think I was good at it. But by the end of my

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senior year in high school I decided to take all honors courses and found that I actually excelled
in my English class. This made me think that if I would have joined an honors program in
middle school maybe I could have improved my English skilled and be a much better writer than
I am right now.
My mother has always told me that I am similar to her in that I have a natural ability in
math. This has influenced me a lot because it gave me the confidence to try harder courses and
know that I can do well in them. My dad has always told me that I am a natural athlete. He
started taking me to the gym at a very young age with him. This gave me an appreciation for
hard work and pushing yourself when I was very little. This gave me the confidence to try many
different sports. My dad telling me I had talent in athletics sparked my passion for fitness.
Because of him I put a lot of effort into going to the gym and I am current in very good shape.
He was a tennis player in college and because I wanted to be like him I joined the tennis and
actually had a lot of fun and still play tennis today. He probably had more of an influence on me
than my mom did.
My top character strength was self-control and self-regulation. This is because I am very
determined to work towards my goals. Especially in academics I have always been very
disciplined with my studies. Throughout high school I was able to get very good grades with
very little effort. But when I would notice that a grade was not up to my satisfaction in a
particular course I would immediately bring it up to an A. When I took Spanish three in high
school it was close to the end of the semester and I only had a B in the class. So before the exam
I studied very late into the nights and achieved the highest final exam grade of anyone that had
taken Spanish three that year. When I did that I showed myself that I know exactly when to put
in a large amount of effort and to get what I want.

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I believe that how someone is valued is how much they value themselves. If someone
believes in him/herself then that person can have the confidence to go out into the world and
become who or what they want to be. I dont think any other person besides oneself can tell
someone what they are worth. Over the years I have heard many people tell me that you have to
make money to be happy or you have to have a good family life. I dont believe in any of that
because as long as someone is happy with their accomplishments and who they are as a person
they can be the happiest person in the world. This means that a homeless man can be happier
than the richest man in the world. I developed this belief by observing other. I have noticed that
all different types of people can achieve happiness. I have seen someone become incredibly
unhappy because they dont have something and I have seen people who have nothing be the
happiest people alive. I also believe life is too short to be unhappy. This is why I try to choose
to be happy whenever I can and I try not to get hung up on the little things. Although sometimes
this is impossible especially if something very tragic happens in your life.
I have learned that I am a very serious person. I value working hard and achieving goals
over most other aspects of life. Because I have learned this about myself I know that whatever I
want to do in life I will be successful at because thats who I am. I know that I will always be
passionate about fitness and sports. I noticed that what my parents tell me Im good at are
generally things that I develop an interest in. Talking to my friends and family more needs to be
a goal of mine because I tend to keep things balled up inside and I may end up in a situation that
I need help with and I would shut them out. As long as I can keep those who are in my best
interest close to me I think I will be fine though. I hope that I am able to be happy whenever I
achieve my goal whatever it will be.

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Questions

While I was writing the essay I mostly used my memories of doing the assignments in
class. I remember the more important realizations and incorporated them into the essay.
Writing this essay was much easier than essays I have done in the past because I was able

to free write on things that I knew a lot about because I experienced them.
Some of the choices I made were to keep it relatively shorter so that I stayed on topic and
not ramble on about specific topics. I also chose to talk about my past experiences a lot

because they were very impactful on what makes me who I am.

The first paragraph went well for me because I could set the pace and format for the rest
of the essay. The last paragraph did not go as well because I ran out of things to say and I

am not good at summarizing.

I didnt really learn anything that I already knew about myself so there werent really

many surprises.
Is the essay repetitive? Do I display the message I am trying to get across well?

Revisions

I added which parent had more influence on me in the essay.

I did not have any issues with the peer feedback and I like getting positive feedback
rather than critical feedback.

Three Step Response

Mason

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1. Velcro Words and Phrases

- Started developing character at a younger age
- Valuing achievement
- Giving more effort than you think you have
- Doing great harm to myself to achieve great things

2. Feelings
- Competitive
- Confidence
- Solitary

3. Questions
- Do you think that you enjoy achieving great things/ pushing yourself rather than having
focus on family/spiritual life as well?
-

Writer: Jon Pauli

Reader: Mason

Three Step Response

1. Velcro Words and Phrases

Taking a step back to know if its in your interest
Honors Math Club
Highest score in Spanish

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That you dont need to have good family relations as long as youre happy with yourself

2. Feelings
Competitive
Engaged
Destructive
Distant

3. Questions
Are you the youngest one in your family?
Since your mom said that you guys are similar, do you think you have a better
relationship with your mom than the relationship you have with your dad?

Reader: Mason
Writer: Lizzy