Here I had teachers who pushed me to go further and think bigger, not to reach their standards but to raise my own standards. I was not told what to do, I was told to have my own ideas, come up with my own projects, and then execute them by giving them my best effort. They showed me to find value in failure and that is a mindset that has become a core part of my life.

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[In my senior year] we read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and here is a quote that I recorded in my reading journal… "I don't like work, no man does, but I like what is in the work; the chance to find yourself. Your own reality for yourself, not for others, what no other man can ever know."