Reflection Letter to Judges -- Overview of Graduation Project
To the Senior Board Judges:
For my project, I taught young girls about having a positive self-image. The majority of girls start out their lives playing princess--dressing up and watching princess movies. However, as they grow older, they seem to grow out of believing that they are a princess. They trade gowns and royalty for make-up and poor self-image. After completing my research paper, I concluded that having a positive outlook is healthier than a negative one; in the same way, having a positive self-image is healthier than a negative. I can’t bear to see anyone, particularly girls, hurting in that way. So, I decided to teach girls that they are still princesses, and don’t have to give up their crowns. I held an event at my church where I taught about self-confidence, with the theme that every girl is a princess.
While completing this project, I learned that it isn’t easy to plan something that isn’t done every day. I also learned that there are several other people and organizations out there that care about the way that girls see themselves. Before teaching at the event, I was skeptical about how open the girls would be with talking and learning about confidence. However, after completing this project, I realized that the girls are willing to talk about confidence; I only had to begin the conversation.
Ironic as it may be, it was difficult to maintain confidence in what I was doing. Throughout the majority of my project, I didn’t feel as though I would be able to pull it off successfully. I worried that I wouldn’t have much of an impact on the girls, or even that I would have to find something else to do. However, my project was a success. The part of my project that was the least stressful was having the event, and speaking to the girls. Though it was a learning stretch to be in front of people by myself for an extended period of time, my desire to impact the girls outweighed my nervousness. It was more difficult for me to actually come up with the lesson plan, and delineate how the event would go. I wanted to impact the girls, and show them about having a positive self-image; however, I had to narrow down the subjects I touched on because of the broad audience I had. All in all, creating the lesson plan for this event will help me with my future career. It is my plan to become an elementary school teacher, and with this career I will be working with many lesson plans. Also, I hope to continue teaching girls about being confident in themselves, and now I have some formal experience under my belt.
Sincerely,
Alice Bond
