1 - Going to Portugal for the first time during the summer before my junior year of high school. This is where most of my family is from, but when I visited, I felt disconnected; this new place felt strange and made me uncomfortable. I could explain how this trip challenged me to think about my cultural background and what it means to me.
2 - My grandpa’s sudden death (cliche). I wouldn’t just talk about his death, but more so on how his death affected my life afterwards, such as learning to take more risks, saying yes instead of no, not letting my anxiety control my decisions, etc, as these things are hard for someone with anxiety. This is because I only visited him once in the hospital because of my anxiety/fear of hospitals, and it just so happened the day I visited was the last day he would was alive. I would have regretted not going and seeing him for one last time. Also, his death made me realize I wouldn’t want to be in his position and thinking of how my life could of been if I wasn’t scared to do this thing, or that.
3 - Growing up in a Catholic household and going to CCD since first grade, while having a gay brother and being a LGBTQ+ ally. I faced an internal struggle of deciding what was “right” vs. what was “wrong,” starting at an early age into my teenage years.
4 - Tutoring kids in grade 5-6 at my local intermediate school who had bad grades. I tutored this one boy who was one of the most intellectual people I met for his age, so I was confused why he was in the tutoring program. We ended up building a good/close relationship, and I found out his home life wasn’t that great. Learning this made me realize a lot about my own life. I was his tutor, but he taught me more than I ever taught him.