Self Reflection Paper - Grade: A PDF

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This paper's topic was a self reflection of events in your life that helped shaped and develop you, focusing on the main developmental stages in life. ...

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THE ROAD OF LIFE

ASHLYN 11/16/2017 Developmental Psychology Dr. Lacy Overley

The scientific study of human development aims to understand and explain how humans change throughout their lifetime. The three goals of developmental psychology are to describe, explain, and optimize development. The main branches of this subject are all the aspects of human growth, such as emotional, physical, and social development. Humans have a set of developmental milestones that they will all reach at some point in life. There are factors that can come into play that can cause the milestones to vary such as cultural, biological, and environmental. The three life stages I will examine in this essay are middle childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. According to Erik Erikson, the age ranges are 7-12 for middle childhood, 13-19 for adolescence, and 20-40 for early adulthood . Playing sports was, and still is, a great way for school age children to be involved. That specific time is where friendships begin to become solid. Being a part of a team and learning those team building skills together only strengthens those bonds. Another added benefit is the activity itself. Child obesity affects one in five children. During my middle childhood stage, the biggest focus of my life was playing sports. I was always at some kind of tournament or competition for softball, volleyball, or cheerleading. I began t-ball at the age of five. Around nine years of age, I started dabbling in the other sports. I feel sports is worth mentioning because they not only played a huge role in my physical, mental, and emotional development, but also in the development of my personality. The general physical growth during this stage of life is large muscle coordination, fine motor control, and hand-eye coordination improvement. With softball, I learned at an early age how to catch and throw a ball. I developed the skills needed to be able to hit or stop a moving target, depending on which side of the

field I was playing on. With volleyball, I learned about rotations and how a team works as a whole, as one big entity. Volleyball is very similar to chess, in the fact that as a player, you have to be able to predict your opponent, and even your teammates’, next move. In a split second, you have to be ready to react to the different possibilities of where the ball will travel next. It is really more of a mental game than people realize. As for cheerleading, that is a whole different ball game, pun intended. There are several studies on the effects of gymnastics and cheerleading on the body; it is a very tough sport physically. I began tumbling when I was nine years old. I was in my prime time for joint and muscle growth. The stress of the constant impact on my ankles and wrists did eventually take its toll. This leads into my actual milestone involving sports and their inevitable injuries. Volleyball cut me some slack and I managed to make it through without anything worse than a jammed finger, or maybe ten. Through cheerleading, I broke both of my wrists. The left one I broke twice. I also broke my ankle once. Then there is softball. As much as I love the sport, it was my enemy. It hated me. I broke the same ankle again. The worst injury I ever sustained from any sport-the reason I was forced to resign and hang my cleats, pom-poms, and knee pads up for good-stemmed from softball. I was too young and devastated my career had to end so soon. Long story short, I ran into a girl and we fell. The way my knee collided with the ground tore the cartilage and ripped my kneecap out of place; it was on the side of my knee. Safe to say I could not walk for a few weeks. I had to attend physical therapy sessions for a little over a month. My doctors informed me that I had developed very little cartilage growth behind my kneecaps. Because of that, I have always had knee problems. Upon injuring my left

knee further, I ended up having to have it operated on, and I fear I will have to have it, if not both, replaced in the years to come. I chose this as my milestone because of how important sports were in my life and how much that injury impacted my physical development. I am twenty-one years old, and still to this day I suffer knee pain. I still feel the effects of every sport I’ve ever played. My joints are sore and worn out way earlier than they should be. Playing sports not only took a physical toll on my body; it also affected me emotionally. I believe it is what strengthened my personality and made me tougher. I will admit, I was a whiny little brat. I had anger issues, severe enough I spent about a year in counseling. Being able to take my aggressions out in sports instead of on my siblings or other kids at school helped tremendously. According to Erikson, this is the industry versus inferiority stage in life. This is the point in my life where my relationship with my father was at its most strenuous, surprisingly more so than my teenage years. He was the dad that wanted me to be the best at everything and expected me to be perfect and do no wrong. While I respect that now, it was emotionally draining at that young of an age. I could not even count how many times I cried on a field, a court, or in a gym. If I left a softball roll between my legs or fall just shy of my glove, if I served the volleyball into the net, if I missed my count or didn’t extend my leg fully while ten feet up in the air, my dad would make sure I, and everyone else around, knew I messed up. My mother is a very soft-hearted person and absolutely hated how hard my dad was on me. Sure, he may have been a little too hard, but all in all his pressure is what led me to be who I am today. I may not have been the very best, but I was at the top. I have always strived to

work hard and be the best at what I do. I believe that ambition stems from my father’s expectations of me. This stage in my life impacted me in so many ways. Aside from the life changing injury, I learned several life lessons, created numerous memories, gained physical skills, and made lifelong friends. During the tail end of my adolescence stage, the time of risk-taking and opportunity, it sounds crazy to say, but the main focus of my life was beyond incredible. His name is Kaleb. My relationship with Kaleb is perhaps the biggest milestone in my life up until this point. We met when I was sixteen and he was seventeen. I immediately fell head over heels for him and knew I had to make him mine. I spent two whole years chasing the boy no one thought could ever be tamed. On November 1 st, 2014, it happened. I wrangled him in. We spent the next two and a half years living a fairytale. We were the two most in love people, playing house and dreaming of the wedding we would have one day. All of our friends envied us. You can literally ask anyone in my hometown, and they will tell you we were perfect and meant to be. In January of 2017, life decided to throw a wrench in our plans. We fell apart wanting different things, because we were at different points in our life. It has been ten months since I lost the best thing that has ever happened to me, and I still feel the impact of it. I still hurt. I say Kaleb was the biggest milestone in my life, but truthfully, he should count for two. I experienced falling truly, madly, deeply, in love, followed by losing that love without the hopes of ever getting it back. To tie this tragic love story into this paper, it helped with my social and emotional development. I grew up at a young age. I learned what it was like to live with someone

else, to compromise, to communicate, to sacrifice. We had to incorporate each other’s social, school, work, and family aspects into our joint life. I experienced what it was like to love someone unconditionally and put them first. I learned several lessons throughout this experience. The biggest of all is not to take anything or anyone for granted. I do not regret getting involved with someone so serious at such a young age, even though I blame our age on the outcome. I got to experience true love and know what true happiness is. I grew as a person and found myself along with the help of someone who knew me better than I knew myself. Overall, this milestone impacted me in a positive way, even though it ended in a negative light. During my early adult stage, I made a crazy decision. In January of 2017, I took off a semester of college, loaded down my car, and moved 17 hours away to Orlando, Florida. All my life I have dreamed of working at the most magical place on earth. I decided to apply to the Disney College Program internship, with the support of Kaleb, and by some miracle got accepted into the program. Did you happen to catch the date and reference to my ex? I’m not saying this decision was what ended our relationship, but it did not exactly help. We ended things three weeks after I moved. I consider this opportunity to be my second biggest milestone. It was the greatest experience of my entire life. It impacted my social development tremendously. I moved in with 3 strangers, one of whom became one of the very best friends I’ve ever had. I met people from all over the country and all over the world. I now have connections in places I would have never dreamed. I really came out of my shell. I believe it had to do with me being in a new place surrounded by brand new people. It was a chance for me to start over, and I did exactly that. The fact that I moved down on my own was a huge ordeal. Sure, I

moved out of my dad’s house at seventeen and in with Kaleb, but I always had him there to take care of me. I was 100% on my own in Orlando, bills and all. I grew so much as a person. I may have missed out on working things out with Kaleb and set myself back almost a year in college, but I knew that going into it. I do not regret my decisions at all. The positive impacts outweigh the negative. The networking and resume building alone will, and have already, benefit my future. I have learned to focus more on myself instead of others; that was one of my biggest issues . I am still very young and have a long life ahead. I have several more milestones to hit in my lifetime. I am thankful for the ones I have surpassed and somehow survived. I feel I am an excellent candidate for a psychological study, as I have already had so many life changes at such a young age. Examining these points in my life in depth after learning about the stages of life has helped me learn that much more about myself....