{"id":29136,"date":"2018-05-02T22:07:05","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T05:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westriveracademy.com\/?p=29136"},"modified":"2023-03-16T13:45:52","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T20:45:52","slug":"why-personal-growth-is-the-bedrock-of-education-michaels-monthly-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/why-personal-growth-is-the-bedrock-of-education-michaels-monthly-report\/","title":{"rendered":"A Graduate’s Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In our Graduation Program we not only want to hear about the curriculum you might be doing, but we want to know who you are, what influences your thought process and the person you are aspiring to be. Because in a society that has forgotten to value wisdom, curiosity and introspection, young adults who are nurtured in this way during the most developmental period of their life are an incredible asset to our world as whole.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

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Prospective graduate, Michael Heaton, delivers a reflective report of his personal growth and shares his thoughts as he navigates a trivial time in his life.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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If I\u2019m honest, I could call February my realization month. I read many books from prophets to philanthropists, philosophers to fables; everything. Many of them had different messages and sometimes they were conflicting. But the things I have learned have helped me to see where I truly am, where I will go if I continue doing what I am doing, and where I truly want to end up.<\/p>\n

In the beginning of February I had a huge personal expense come up. The good news is that I finally paid it all off. But that whole month I felt totally broke. Which is not a bad thing to feel at my age because I don\u2019t have a family or spouse depending on me. It just makes me realize how much growing I still have left before I am really ready for the real adult world. In a nut shell I\u2019d say the beginning was humbling.<\/p>\n

That works out perfectly for this type of education because it proves the old story of Socrates. Most people know about the young man who goes to Socrates and says something to the fact that he wants to learn from Socrates and be wise like him. Socrates then walks down to the beach and shoves his head in the water. The young man fights to come up to breathe. And finally when he almost drowns Socrates lets him up. Of course the young man is furious. Socrates responds calmly saying that once he wants truth and knowledge as bad as he wanted air, then he would teach him. That very desire that Socrates points out, is what I had in February. I got tired of settling for the life I had. My income seemed capped. My friendships, limited and self absorbed. My spiritual life, mundane and routine. My physical health, mediocre at best.<\/p>\n

After I realized where I was at, I wrote some things that I wanted to change. I put up a white board where I can track my progress in different areas in my life to see what I needed to work on. Although I\u2019m not perfect at updating it, it is in my room and I constantly look at it as I do my schooling. I\u2019ve learned that if you want something to improve, you need to track it. The moment you do that, it becomes a priority. That has really helped me appreciate the gift of a day. There will never be a day like today ever again. And each day we are given, we trade for the things we think are important. Whether we are just killing time, or investing it, we can never get that day back. So we must use it wisely.<\/p>\n

Previous to February, I often found myself bored, unfulfilled, and not where I wanted to be. If that continued, I\u2019d follow the saying, \u201cSome people die at 25, and aren\u2019t buried until 75\u201d. I don\u2019t want that by any means. When I was bored and unfulfilled I also found that it effected my relationships. Not because people were all a sudden being jerks. But because I was focusing on myself so much more because I had nothing else to do. And lets be honest, none of us like a friend who is self centered.<\/p>\n

Once I realized that my laziness was effecting who I was becoming, I decided to change. I started passing out flyers to expand my landscaping business in South Phoenix. I\u2019m reading deeper into the words of God. I\u2019ve tried to be less task oriented and play with those around me when they ask for my attention. When I think of old friends, I send them a text to let them know that I appreciate their role in my life. If I have down time, I invest it into my future. Just those simple things have revolutionized my life; not to mention my self confidence.<\/p>\n

Now I know a lot of this could not be classified under math, science, or history. But I still believe that it is education. I believe that education is supposed to make life easier. Without knowing the things that I\u2019ve just shared, life would be much harder. And if I could narrow down everything I\u2019ve learn last month, I\u2019d say this, success is never an achievement or trophy that we can attain and lock away for the rest of our lives. That is what you call a goal. Most people, including myself, think that success can eventually be achieved once we do this, or accomplish that, or face a certain obstacle. But the truth is success is only realized in the pursuit of your goals. The moment we stop stretching for what we want, and becoming a better person each day, we are no longer successful.<\/p>\n

So thanks again for this program of credibility, and accountability. It\u2019s helped me a lot already. Talk to you next month.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our Graduation Program we not only want to hear about the curriculum you might be doing, but we want to know who you are, what influences your thought process and the person you are aspiring to be. Because in a society that has forgotten to value wisdom, curiosity and introspection, young adults who are [...]","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[139,1],"tags":[104,105,106,107,109,112,115,116,117],"class_list":["post-29136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english_post","category-student-writing","tag-homeschool","tag-school","tag-unschool","tag-worldschool","tag-graduation","tag-program","tag-growth","tag-high","tag-personal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29136"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33712,"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29136\/revisions\/33712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westriveracademy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}