StudentsXpress Winter 2022

Myrsonal Pe Best

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respectfulways.com/home-connects Respectful Ways wishes you all a happy and joyous Thanksgiving! Feel free to use some of these home activities as a way to bond as a family this holiday season.

Dear Readers, www.studentsxpress.com Publisher Rachel Switall Magazine Group, NFP Rachel Switall Editor, Art Director, Production Manager rachel@studentsxpress.com Pam McNall Founder, Respectful Ways Social Emotional Learning Program

Cover art by Lily C.

This issue is about being your personal best. I loved reading what the students had to say on this topic. From sports to school to just being an overall good person and much more, you will find it here. And I hope you are as inspired as I was when you read what everyone has to say (and draw) about the topic.

A special thank you to Pam McNall, founder of Respectful Ways, partner to StudentsXpress and an overall wonderful support as I continue this publication.

I’d also like to make a note that I had a little difficulty reading some names this issue.

In some cases I took my best guess. In others, I was afraid to be too far off, so those are credited to “Anonymous.” Some entries came to me without names, so those are “Anonymous” as well. Teachers, if you can please print your students’ names neatly in the future, that would be appreciated. I want students to get the credit they deserve for their creativity and hard work. If you notice any mistakes with names or credit or anything else, feel free to let me know. A correction can be made and the magazine can be re-uploaded—one of the benefits of being digital.

I hope you enjoy this issue!

—Rachel rachel@studentsxpress.com

Students— When submitting work, please be sure to write neatly.

Spell check does not check names and if they are hard to read, I just do the best I can, so I apologize if I got any names wrong!

Teachers, it always helps if names are written out clearly.

Also, if you’re turning in artwork, unlined white paper is the best.

And please write your name on every page submitted.

Can you find these pictures throughout the magazine?

Thank you!

Contact rachel@studentsxpress.com if your school would like to participate in StudentsXpress.

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I believe that I am at my personal best when I am playing soccer.

I just feel like my legs are joy, taking the ball into the goal and winning for my team. When I train, I will get stronger and stronger until I will be ready for the championships.

I feel like I’m playing a real-life video game. I feel I am the most successful player in the world.

That is when I feel at my personal best.

—Jakobi S.

Being my personal best for me means taking care of my pet. My goals are to get pet lizards because they help me be my personal best. Another goal I have is to get a bearded dragon in a few months and to take care of it a lot. Something stopping me of being my personal best is lizards are hard to take care of and aren’t cheap. When I’m older I can be my personal best by making a reptarium of lizards. —Adrian H.

I choose 3 things that I have worked really hard on for this year and the past years. Something that I have worked hard on would be math. I have been trying to get my math grade to an A for a long time, and my goal is to get an A in math this whole year. And so far I have been getting good grades in math and right now I have an A in math.

Something else I have been working hard on out of school is basketball. I have always wanted to be good at a sport and so I got good at basketball and for the last 5 years of me playing the sport I put in a lot of effort to be really good at basketball. I have improved a lot so I joined a basketball team and over time it helped me become good at basketball and how to work in a team. It feels so good to know how far I have come in basketball.

The last thing that I worked hard at was reading. I was never good at reading because I would always read really fast and I would blow by the periods.

And so I got into the habit of reading out loud to my parents or in front of the mirror and that helped me get used to reading slowly because you don’t want to read fast in front of an audience. And over time my reading got better and better. This helped me out so much. In getting good grades in school and to just read in general.

These were my 3 things that I have worked hard on.

And by doing all of these 3 things have really helped me understand how to work hard for something.

—Mason M.

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I feel my personal best when I clean my room, and take showers but mainly I am a bath person. I also feel my personal best when I Iearn something NEW or when I feel the best of me.

One time I was doing this project and I was working really hard on a project and I was using marshmallows and Qtips. My Qtips were NOT staying up! So I did not win the contest but I was still feeling my personal best!

—Eliana S. I feel my personal best when I clean up, it’s refreshing after spending a while on one thing for days, I feel my personal best. I also feel my best when I finally learn something I’ve been trying to learn. I really enjoy doing things I love as well. Another thing is when I finish all my homework in a decent amount of time, or when I complete something I’ve been dreading. I love cooking and baking and I feel really happy when my family enjoys the recipes I’ve made up. —Charlotte A. I am at my personal best when I play baseball. One time I was in a tournament and me and my team got second place that was me at my personal best because I was working hard to get second place.

Something that motivated me to be at my personal best was winning that tournament. Something that stood in my way of winning that tournament was the other teams competing to win the tournament. After I felt proud of myself for giving such a big effort into that tournament and it made me want to play more baseball. —Lucas K. What I am Proud of “What is one thing you are proud of?”

A dreadful question.

How can I say one thing I am proud of, When I don’t know the answer myself?

Something I’m extremely proud of is winning the Spanish spelling bee for the whole school. I’m proud of that because I’ve never won the spelling bee before, and I was born knowing Spanish before knowing English. When I was in fourth grade, I heard about the Spanish spelling bee. I wasn’t interested about it, but then my teacher convinced me.

Afterwards, I started practicing more Spanish words and started to know them more. Then, it was the day of the spelling bee, I started to become a little bit overwhelmed because I thought I was going to be in front of everyone pronouncing words, but I was wrong. We went inside a room and sat down, we started with simple words, and ended up with hard words. First, I competed with fourth grade and I won, then I competed with a kid from each grade, I ended up winning for the whole school. I’ve never felt so proud of myself before. —Coral T. Zariah

I’m proud of my piano skills, My grades, My artistic abilities, And so much more.

I wish I could fit it into one poem, But I can’t.

There’s just too many things, And too little space.

What are you proud of?

List as many things as you wish.

With no limitations.

Well, I guess I just did.

—Kailyn M.

Winter 2022

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I feel good when I dance.

I am at my personal best when I am Majorette dancing. Majorette dancing is a different type of dance from Hip Hop and Jazz. Majorettes dance at Christmas parades, Halloween parades and parties. We dance all in line together.

My team is called Dynamite Daze. We have a contract and they buy us matching outfits and I guess you have to pay $25 to get them. They make sure everyone has their outfits and shoes.

I like Majorette dancing because we learned lots of dances and we perform in front of thousands of people. We travel around the country. We will be going out of town next summer.

When I dance I am at my personal best.

—Amber H.

I am my personal best when I play soccer. I feel positive about that because it is what I most practice on. It is something that I work hard on and my friends practice on it and at home I play with my family. What motivates me is soccer icons that are really good at the game and I can improve on lots of stuff this year. My goal is to become way better than now at the end the year.

—Adam A-A

When my classroom is in line and doing the right thing.

—Kori T. I feel motivated when I do art and play video games and when I have to take care of my dog. One of my improvements this year will be doing all my homework in time so I can pass and go to six grade. One of my goals I will be achieving is getting all A+ and going to six grade. And something I been working hard on is trying to put all my effort on my homework, quizzes and tests. And how I help others is by when I get home I clean my room and the living room also the dishes but to help my teachers I sometimes give them cards and say that they are the best teachers. Also how I help my friends is by saying how are they or like how they have been or that they are a good friend. And last is for an example of when I put my biggest effort in is when I first got a dog I had to take care of him the whole day and sometimes at first stuff can be hard but then it gets easy. —Heidy L.

I am good at playing Roblox.

—Miguel

When I take a photoshoot.

—Serenity

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We are listening to the teacher.

I love to roller skate —Pareese

I’m me you’re you. To be my personal best I have to come at it with a good attitude. I love to play sports but I won’t wear a dress that’s me. Some of my goals are to become more organized and not to keep messing up my room. A lot of people that help me are my dog mom and teammates, coaches. I have a lot of fun playing softball, what sport you want to play.

Some things I like to do in my free time is run practice. I love to do art for fun. I love dinosaurs I have a sweatshirt. I’m also really good at drawing them.

To be my personal best is to be myself. —Avery T. What makes me my personal best is when I’m painting, I do a lot of art projects and I paint wooden houses and other wooden things. To be my personal best this year I want to improve my art skills/my art work, and to smile more. I believe that you can make someone’s day a whole lot better if you just smile at them as they’re walking by, it’s so simple that I feel like I should do it a little more. What makes me really proud is when I finish an art piece and it looks just how I imagined it. —Ella C.

—Manon

Winter 2022

To be my personal best is when like when I get good grades and when someone asks me for help and I help them and to be my personal best is when I do something nice for people and to be my personal best is when I do good at my grades.

What motivates me to be my personal best is when like I get something right and when like when someone ask me something and I answer.

—Allison C.

We are playing with toys.

—Damiyah P.

Doing my best. I am doing my best work.

I did good at learning the sight words.

Family helps me do my homework.

—Jade H.

I love hearts.

—Nakayla

Taylor L.

Samuel is my friend.

—Anonymous

Winter 2022

yo estoy cantando Y me gusta mucho cantar me hace sentir muy contenta y me ambien me ase sentir mejor a unas personas les gusta cantar pero ami si y amifamilia tambien soy muy feliz asistir mui aconpanada y adoro cantar porque es mi distracción favorita y que eso encanta porque a mi familia también personal best.

I’m singing And I really like singing. It makes me feel very happy and it makes me feel better. Some people like to sing but me and my family are also very happy to attend and I love singing because it’s my favorite distraction and I love that because my family also has personal best. —Genesis M. C.

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What does it mean to be your personal best? life was normal, I was a kid, I didn’t think twice, as nobody else did.

For me, being My Personal Best means: Be yourself and don’t let the haters get to you. Something that makes me My Personal Best is my passion: Dance.

When something is hard for me, I like to think of it as something I just learned in my dance classes, I won’t get it right the first time, but I may get it the next time. One of my goals this year would be to try to do an aerial, and I will do that by practicing every day. Well, now I know what makes me My Personal Best, but, now I have is to help my sisters become their Personal Best. and I’ll do that by helping them improve on stuff they need help on. —Naomi M.

the path was clear, nothing in the way, but suddenly covid-19, had a lot to say.

Schools were shut down, it wasn’t the same, our lives went to pieces, with ourselves to blame, soon I went back, and made some new friends, but it went downhill quickly, and had a bad end.

Ameya

I thought to myself, maybe I was in the wrong, so I tried to improve, to be helpful and strong. now I can help, and fix my mistakes, the optimistic friend, who’s in the right place.

This poem is a reflection of my personal growth over the past few years. When quarantine shut down school, my entire life changed completely, and brought me down a bumpy path. It led me to not make the best decisions, but as I matured, I realized right from wrong. I reflected on myself, and now am a much happier and optimistic person.

—Megan B.

When I’m outside playing!

—Demari H.

Kanani When I get older I want to start working out for a few months. Then I’ll get a job at Amazon. I will take the driver role as a good employee. I will work for Amazon for three years then I will become a Fortnite YouTuber Mickey. I will create Fortnite Quest videos and some funny videos and workout videos.

Once I become famous I would like to go on a trip with my parents to Canada. I will also get a new house.

That’s all I want when I get older.

—Jaylen W.

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I am the President.

—James

I’m proud of my persistence in conquering my issues.

I put my heart into working on my anger, and anxiety.

I am also proud of my compassion because it has kinda forced me to help people. —Benjamin H.

Winter 2022

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Cute Girls My goal is trying to get girls. I think girls are cute.

No, I know girls are cute.

To get girls I’m going to get buff and work hard and ask her out. I am going to get buff because girls like buff guys.

Girls also like people with a lot of money. To make money, I am going to the NFL to play. I am going to be a wide receiver. They make good money.

Girls like boys with clean clothes. I’m going to make sure my clothes are clean and ironed.

To summarize, I’m going to work out, get a good job to make lots of money and look sharp, so I can get a girl.

—Marcellus T. A goal I have for this year is to get straight A’s, get better handwriting, and get better at football. I also hope that by the end of the year I will be a lot better at basketball. I hope to become very good at guitar.

And lastly I hope to get better at drawing. Bye have a nice day. —Avi K.

When I feel my personal best is when I sing. I like singing because you sing whenever you want. You can also sing whatever you want and how you want to sing, I like that. When I have free time I like to sing. My goal for this year is getting into choir because I think that would be really fun to be in. To achieve that I will sing as good as I can so I can get in. —Keira K.

Me and Ameya are playing.

Some of my goals are to find my personal best. I also want to get to run really fast so I can do football. My last goal is to play in a soccer league. —Vincent C.

—Kaleah How To Be Personal Best: Work hard and don’t give up.

What Motivates Personal Best: To do the best I can.

How Adults Help Me: My mom wants me to do something at my house that lets me feel good about my grade.

Something I Am Proud About To Myself: How easy schoolwork is, and my amazing grades.

About A Year Change: I think I should be better in 5th grade against all other grades.

Something Blocking My Best: MY HANDWRITING! How I Can Be Better: To practice how my handwriting can be better.

—Aries R.

Makayla

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Today I was at football practice. I found out my personal best is to get in the game and make that tackle or catch the touchdown. In practice I can do all these things. When I get into the game though I choke and I will stay away from the ball. I won’t make the tackle or I will drop the touchdown pass. These are all stopping me from achieving my personal best.

I need to make all my nerves disappear. I need to put all the pressure on myself in practice so when the game comes I will be used to the pressure and I will succeed. I need to do this because if I push myself really hard I can be proud. I can not be afraid to go and tackle a kid twice the size as me because in the end it really depends on who wants to win more.

It doesn’t matter if he is bigger and stronger than you as long as you reach your personal best you have succeeded. Once you have reached your personal best you can make new personal best until you are getting 5 tackles and 4 catches a game. —PJ H.

I do my best at my house.

—Ava J.

Winter 2022

When I’m at My Personal Best Listen to my mommy and teacher.

Brush my teeth.

—Alannah

In the playground.

—Kamden

Walk in the classroom.

—Cadele H.

—Harmony

Sharing with blocks

I take turns.

I use walking feet.

—Noah

—Kacey

—Desean

When I listen and I say yes!

—Kristan

I follow the rules and walk in school.

I listen.

I use walking feet in the school.

—Arien

I share my toys.

—Amari

—Elijah

I am sitting at my school listening.

I listen to my teachers.

—Raniyah

I help others.

I listen to my friends.

—Stephon

—Anonymous

Sharing toys with my daddy.

—Anonymous

—Empriss

An example of something I gave effort on was when we did the star Assessments. I gave a lot of effort because it probably was my grade. And since almost all the questions were about stuff I haven’t learned yet. That was almost a month ago and I still wonder what my score was?

The topics were reading and math in English and Spanish. I understood it because I’m bilingual. Each of the tests took like 2 hours or less. We took 4 days to do all of them.

—Matthew O. What motivates you to be your personal best is being positive and focused on going fast, keep going, being there for others, being a friend in swimming. In swimming I always can ask for help or give advice to others at a meet or in class while we are swimming. My goals are to be there for others when they need a friend or going faster to win for my team in meets in races. —Sloane I.

Winter 2022

—Bryson

My Personal Best When I feel I am at my personal best, I am usually reading or writing a story.

I love to write about my day, I like baking cookies with my friends, I like to feel productive.

I am at my personal best when, I am with people I can trust, my friends and family I trust the most.

It is in those times, When I am at my personal best.

—Elsa L. I think being your personal best means to be your best self and to be in your best mood. My mom and dad are the people that keep me motivated. My mom and dad keep me motivated to be at my personal best and be at my best self.

My goal for this year is to keep my grades in order and just be a good person overall. I want to achieve that goal by being my personal best and being the best person I can be. I am confident in myself and believe in myself to be my personal best and be a good person overall when I’m older. —Jackson J.

My personal best is reading more and writing more, and learning my best and learning more of science and social studies and meeting more teachers and having fun with science and social studies.

I can achieve my goals by paying attention and doing my homework right, and being a good listener.

—Yanely D. In many situations, I think that it is essential for yourself to know that you did everything you could do to be your best. I think being your personal best is a way of improving your self-esteem and lifestyle. This year, I would like to attempt to do everything, as best as I can. I will explain why being your personal best is beneficial to your productivity, and health.

First of all, being your personal best often requires compromising less important things for productivity.

If you are striving to be your best you won’t have time to procrastinate because your number one priority is to get better at something. I also think that striving to be your personal best is part of a creative mindset.

Why try to do something, if you are thinking about something else half the time?

Another reason to try to do your best at something is to boost your self-esteem. A lot of people think worse about themselves when they compare themselves to someone who is trying their best, and they aren’t. —Eryk K.

11

An improvement about me that I would like to make this year is that I want to learn how to read and write and get better at math. I have a lot to work on but practice makes better. It’s going to be a little hard but I will try my best to make my teachers and my parents proud. —Jordan Z.

Being your personal best is something what I’ve been working on. (On just ONE goal) This year, I would like to improve my baking skills. But my laziness of measuring things won’t make very good cookies and cakes... So I always ask my dad to measure them. But next time, I would like to measure by myself, and achieve my goal during this year. (Probably, it will take maybe... 2 years? to achieve this goal. ) —Itoha K.

When I am at a party with my friends!

—Courtshawn

Tavon I have a goal that I want to be a soccer player when I grow up. I am my personal best when I play soccer because I am good at it and I don’t want to give up on my dream of becoming a soccer player when I grow up. My dad helps me a lot because he wants me to become a pro soccer player so we sometimes practice and my mom motivates me with that. We watch soccer games together so maybe I can learn some new tricks and when I see a trick I like I practice with my dad and he will help me with that. My dad and mom put me in a club for 4 days so I can learn how to play better and play games against other kids who want to be soccer players when they grow up.

At recess I play with my friends so they can help me become a good player. —Benjamin W.

I like to play dance freeze.

—Jaicee

Having a good support system at school motivates me to do my best at school. I have friends and teachers who are always there for me and want me to succeed in whatever I do. I need someone to talk to and motivate me to finish the school day strong whenever I am having a bad day or feeling down. I have a good relationship with some of the teachers and can talk to them when I’m feeling down. When I talk to a teacher with whom I can be open, I feel better and am able to move forward. It improves my self-esteem and motivates me to finish the school day on a positive note.

Having a good support system motivates me to be my personal best when it comes to swimming. My coaches all want me to do my best at every practice, swim meet, and event. They want me to stay positive, and even if I don’t finish every race, they always find something positive to say about it. I’m learning to be less critical of myself after an event in which I don’t perform to my full potential. Being at my personal best means doing my best. My friends all inspire me to do my personal best because they always cheer me on and are there for me when I don’t.

—Kailey T. I plan to achieve my goals by exercising daily and doing my homework and eating healthy. Walking my dog. I could also complete daily objectives. I could shower more often. I could play outside and breathe air in nature. I could go out more and hang out with my family. Also I could not eat so bad like hot cheetos, pringles chips and la michoacana. Maybe I shouldn’t eat so badly to complete my goals. Finally I could read one more hour to be smarter or teach my dad English.

—Natalie H.

Personal best to me is to be in my best habit when I’m doing something personal. I have worked hard on art.

I’m proud of making kind and good friends at school.

My mom motivates me to get good grades in all subjects. Others can be kind to me and I be kind to them. My goal is to get good grades. —Cassian L-S

Being your personal best is important. Being your personal best means that you are trying your hardest for yourself. I am being my personal best to impress my soccer coach because he’s really strict about being fit, being fast, and more active during practice.

So I try to be my personal best during our practice.

And being my personal best paid off because I made the first team of the academy and I played the first real league game with my new team. I was also very surprised and happy to be chosen by the coach to be the captain of the team. We won 3-1 and I scored two goals. People have been motivating me like my dad, mom, sister, friends, and even my own soccer coach has been motivating me to be my personal best in soccer. —Andrew M.

I am feeding my pet.

—Lakenya

12

Winter 2022

Me, Marshawn and Adonis are having fun.

—Da’Vion

Me and Da’Vion are having fun.

—Adonis When I’m at my personal best I am on task, I always participate, and I do my hardest. I wish I could reach my personal best in my sports such as baseball, basketball, and flag football because when I’m older and better at sports I can have more job opportunities and get into better schools. I can also work at places that specialize in sports activities and I can coach other teams. My dad helps me with this because I pitch with him daily and practice daily. A goal I have for this year is becoming the best player in my baseball league and show other coaches how good house league players are. I plan on reaching this goal by practicing more and working on my arm strength. That is how I can be my personal best. —Liam S.

I want to be The President of the United States.

—Andre I’ve been working really hard on math these years, I learn things that normal students haven’t learned yet, when I was in second grade I can do fifth grade, and when I am third grade I can do sixth grade, and when I am fourth grade I can do eighth grade, I’m actually not kidding, you can look at my IXL eighth grade math, I did it all by myself. My dad was the one who bought me math books, and he sometimes teaches me some skills too! This year I wanna learn more math, and maybe I can try something different this year, maybe science, literacy or history. —Rex C.

Winter 2022

I am extremely proud of my swimming ability. I am like a fish in the water. I love swimming because it is so fun and easy for me. I love when we do races at practice because then I can compete. When I don’t get first I can learn what to do better from other people.

Swimming is one of my things I can do my personal best because you can do any thing in the water.

—Aivan M. An improvement I would make this year is to not procrastinate as much with school work. I need to make this improvement because procrastinating makes me very stressed and I rush and second guess myself. Also doing it now could mean I do it in the future which is not good when getting more homework and responsibilities. When I rush I feel like my project is incomplete and that it doesn’t look good enough. It also makes you tired from staying up to complete it and the adrenaline of getting the project or paper done. Also getting a bad grade on something that you could have done better on if you had just done it earlier you second guess yourself on your decisions even though the past is in the past. I am going to start projects and papers earlier and if I need help not to wait till the last minute and will make a plan on how I want it or want it to look so I can execute it faster and if I am running late I will at least know exactly what I want to do. This is what I will do to improve my procrastination this year and help better myself. —Maeve O.

Volleyball One thing that I have really worked hard on this past year is volleyball. During the summer, I gave my best effort to volleyball. I did camps and clinics so that I could improve and move on to joining the team.

I was working really hard on my serve for the whole summer. I was practicing it by just hitting it on my wall.

I was eventually doing a few clinics weekly. They really helped me and showed me the right form.

After that, I signed up to try out for a volleyball team called Energy. I got accepted and right away they started also helping me get my serve over the net.

In the future, I hope to go to an open gym to practice hitting the volleyball over the net. Currently I can hit the ball over the net. It’s a lot easier with a volley light but because of my age I have to start using the heavier ones. In conclusion, in order to become a better volleyball player I will practice every day.

—Maya N.

So: Being your personal best. That’s something I do not have much experience with. I usually take the easy way out, as long as it doesn’t bite back. I think again: What does it mean to be at my personal best?

And I think I know. Me being at my personal best would mean a lot of things. So I’ll just make a short list: I’d have decent self control. I could stay calm. I wouldn’t be so filled with nervous energy. I would think before I speak, not second guessing oh-sooften. Having these traits would mean a lot to me.

But they are still a long way away. In order to get my personal best, it truly would be unimaginable for the advice. Not because it’s not needed, (Advice is quite needed.) but that it has so many things to advise on.

So, in order to achieve (part of?) my personal best, I will clear my mind more often, only keeping my mind on the topic. Possibly try to achieve autopilot. Then I will try to still (calm) myself, hopefully succeeding.

Things will get a lot easier from then. I hope I can achieve my personal best, and shall keep hoping until I do. —Sevah W.

I am feeding my spider —Anonymous

I can babysit and clean really good.

—Kamia W.

13

An example of something I’ve worked on hard is my art skills and it felt so good and awesome to see a piece of art that was mine. Something standing in my way was my little sister because I had to take care of her but I still love her and school is in my way too because I spend 8 hours of school and it takes away my time to draw at home. p.s. I still like school anyway.

—Ivan P. When I’m at my personal best I’m usually in art class or with my grandma painting. I like to express myself with art, my feelings, my imagination and my originality. Personally to me being at my best sometimes means I’m original. It makes me feel phenomenal. Another time I feel I’m at my best is when I read quotes. Whenever I’m mad I read quotes it doesn’t exactly make me feel phenomenal but it makes me happier. I have 2 favorite quotes 1. “It’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.”

2. “I am Woman, Phenomenally, Phenomenal Woman that’s me.” —Gwyneth B.

I am standing still in line.

—Keyonta

I do my personal best when I do my homework or a project I’m doing a project and my homework. In my project I’m drawing a mountain with the water. And I’m painting on my uncles painting board with his brushes I am painting the sun with the sky.

—Mariel M. My motive for being my personal best is playing sports and to play sports I have to go to a good college and get a good education. A way how others can help me at being my personal best is by standing with me even when times are tough. An improvement I can do to help myself is when things go wrong I should not be discouraged I should push through it. Something that I am proud of is that I am a natural athlete and I have straight A’s. An example of something I have worked on is good grades and sports. Finally, a goal I have for myself is to continue to work hard for my A’s.

—Liam M.

14

A few goals I have to be my personal best are participating more in class, and hanging out with more people/being more inclusive. What makes me my personal best is when I am doing something I like.

This includes, calling my friends, and making art.

When I am at my personal best I am happy and excited.

—Marlowe F. I have many goals this year. First I want to try to get better at keeping track of doing homework. Second, getting better grades. Third, I want to get better and practice more on my gymnastics and trampoline. As you can see I want to get better in sports and in school.

Also I want to do more basketball with my family. I have many goals for this year and maybe for next year.

I am proud of myself for doing much more gymnastics this year than last year. I can do more. I think at least 2 years 1/2 ago I didn’t know how to do a roundoff but this year I can do one with one hand and many other things. When I first came here I didn’t know one sentence in English. Now I have an English passport! I would like to improve on my grades and math but then I am good. —Louise P.

Everyone needs to improve in a way, even you but especially me and I’ll be showing you what improvements I need to make and how I will go about them. An improvement I’d like to make is to study more and be more prepared for tests. Well, let me tell you about this improvement I want to make and how I will go about making it happen!

So, studying is a pretty important part to getting good grades but I don’t do it as much as I should, especially for Math. Math has always been my weakest subject mainly because I didn’t study hard enough or even at all but I’d like to improve this so-called “skill” of studying. But I would also like to improve my amount of studying to possibly get into a good high school and a good college even though I’m not quite sure where I want to go.

There are a lot of ways to improve the amount of studying I do but let me just tell you a few. The first way I could go about this is trying to stay away from distractions, as a lot of people tend to get distracted whilst doing activities like electronics and just things around them which also happens to me. The second way I could go about this is going straight to homework instead of waiting to do it late that night or the day before which will get me to get it done quicker and leave less stress on my part. The third way is to stop waiting to study, I usually wait till the last minute to study because I think that studying earlier in the morning and on the bus will make it easier to remember but that is not it at all.

In conclusion, it would be a lot easier to improve if I actually gave more attention to studying instead of leaving it to the last minute. Also what I’m trying to get at is that no one is perfect and we all have our flaws and things we need to improve on but you just need to put the work into it.

—Ava S. I am proud of my work and the grades that I got and all the work that I try my best. I hope to learn a bunch of new stuff in 5th grade. Also, I hope to learn a lot about Native Americans in social studies.

What I do best is I work really hard hope I learned a lot thank you. —Robert W. In order for me to be my personal best in class I need to WANT to go to class. I will have to go to class even if I didn’t want to, but what I mean is the teachers have to be nice. Like last year, one class was very boring and the teacher was kinda mean, but this year the teacher is nice so now it’s my favorite class. Last year when we learned about Indian Americans, it was SOOOOO BORING!!!! This year the teacher is nice, so now it’s more fun. =D —Laura N.

Winter 2022

A lot of things motivate me to be my personal best.

Sometimes I want to be my personal best for my friends. I want to impress my friends sometimes.

Or sometimes when I meet little kids I want to seem cool to them. My neighbor is 6 and she likes to hang out with me and I want to seem really cool. Another thing that motivates me is when I think of my younger self. I think if my younger self were to see me now would he be happy. I also want to be my personal best for myself so that I can feel great about myself. I also want to be my personal best for my family. I really want to learn how to do a handstand pushup and my parents would be amazed if I did it and it makes me feel good about myself when I impress my parents.

—Chris H.

I like to play outside.

—Zamora

When I am doing my personal best I am working hard, focused on my task and doing it with confidence. I’ve always been working hard on language arts! In fourth grade every single grade in literacy was a B! Doing my best isn’t hard but it’s very complicated to do my best 24/7 365! But I can always TRY to do my best even if it doesn’t work. I’ll always TRY. —Nora M.

I am at my personal best when a family member visits, I try to have manners, and I try to be polite and respectful. Another time when I am my personal best is when I am at my friend’s house. I try to be understanding, polite and kind. I try to be respectful with their stuff. These are the times when I am at my personal best. Thank you for reading! —Blaire K.

I think I’m not my personal best yet because I feel like I do a lot of things wrong such as math in school.

Another reason is because I feel like it’s hard for me to sleep at night because I’m never tired.

I feel like I’m closer to being my personal best but I’m not there yet. Sometimes when I feel down I feel like I’ll never be my personal best so when I do something right I feel really happy and feel like I’m closer to it.

One time in school I did a test that I felt like I did badly on but then I got the grade back and I did really well. Sometimes I feel like I am at my personal best when I do something well like in the example but most times I don’t think that. Something I feel like I should improve on is keeping a good spirit to encourage myself to be as best I can be. —Sloan S.

Winter 2022

Lyric S.

Being your personal best means that you are challenging yourself to learn new things. Being your personal best means that you don’t do things because they’re easy, you do things because you want to challenge yourself to do new things. I think that after you challenge yourself you end up feeling better than if you didn’t challenge yourself. An example of this was when we had to do IXL and instead of doing skills I know I could do and were easy to me, I decided to do some skills that I didn’t think I could do. It took me a long time but after I was done I felt really good. If I had done something that was easy I would not have felt this good about myself. Being your personal best also means that you set goals and you really try to accomplish them.

Setting and completing an easy goal can make you feel okay, but setting and completing a challenging goal can make you feel really good about yourself.

It also gives you a sense of accomplishment. Doing and being your personal best can be challenging, but it feels much better than doing something easy.

—Alice C.

Love makes me do my best.

—Paris

15

Best For Me My best is helping my family and friends…

My best is learning new things that interest me…

My best is getting better at the games I enjoy…

My best is being the best I can for myself and others…

My best will change and stay but in this moment, I care about myself and the people around me…

—Skip

I’ve thought a lot about what my personal best has been and I realized my personal best has been me.

This is because mine and everyone else’s lives have been based off of mistakes, failures and achievements and it is important that we learn from that and I am proud of myself for learning, growing and failing in the process. I have made many mistakes in my life.

Trust me a lot. Things I’ve learned from that is I will always have my family. When I fail I know my friends will be there and when I achieve something the people I care about and the people that care about me will be there. This is why my personal best is my life.

—Maya R. My personal best... is the version of me that focuses in on one assignment and finishes it.

The me that can walk for an hour and 10 minutes.

My best is completing assignment after assignment in a 30 minute time frame.

Doing things I do not want to when I know they need to be completed cause I have nothing else to do.

My personal best is setting aside time for everything before it happens and actually following through with it.

My personal best can sleep in an hour more on weekends.

My personal best pushes me to my limit.

—Jane

My goal this year is to pass 4 grade and to go to 5 grade.

And to get good grades this year, I want to learn brand new things this school year.

And to go to school every day in this school.

I also want to be good at soccer and basketball I want to learn baseball this year.

I want to learn electrical energy in school too.

And I want to learn new things this year and learn about Chicago history in school.

—David S.

16

Something I worked hard on not so long ago, was a google slide. I was done with it in 4 grade.

It took a couple of days to finish. This project was about Hispanic Heritage month. I really gave a big effort on this project because I tried to finish before time ran out. Also it was kind of hard. I had to work every day nonstop on this project. Finally when we were all finished we had to present it. When it was time to present I was really nervous because I had to stand up in the front of the class. I really tried my best to give the best presentation. When we were done with our presentation I really felt proud of myself because I was finally done with my presentation.

—Jaden D-R

Olive G.

Aniyah N.

Being my personal best is to have goals, some of my goals are to get good grades, find new activities, and make new friends. Some things that push me to be brave and strong are baby monkeys, tennis/ getting better at tennis, getting good grades, winning, competition, and getting my way. One thing that gets in my way of achieving my goals is homework. I always have homework which doesn’t bother me much, but I usually get a lot. Sometimes I don’t get time to do the things I want to do or get better at, such as tennis. I work hard for tennis, for example I spend 2-3 hours at a facility called McFetridge and then after I spend 3, maybe 4 hours with my dad for tennis. —Nikita C.

I took a risk. I started my 8th grade year at a new school. I’ve been working really hard on trying to get used to the new environment I am in. When I first arrived at Wildwood, I was both excited and nervous.

I was excited because I got to see some of my old friends. I was nervous because I didn’t really know what I was doing and it took me a while to get used to new routines. With the help of my friends, old and new, I got used to things pretty quickly. Starting over at a new school felt risky and a bit scary. I feel super proud that I took that step and gave it my all. When I compare myself in the past and me right now, I genuinely feel like I am happier here at Wildwood. I am well on my way to accomplishing my goal of having a terrific 8th grade year.

—Teddy D.

My goal for this year is to get all A’s this year if you’re wondering why it’s because my big brother said if I get all A’s this year I can play with his video games so I will work hard on my school assignments so I get all A’s. That is my plan to achieve to get all A’s in school. That is my explanation to get all A’s and use my brother’s ps4. My other goal is to get more faster so I can become the fastest in my family and in the school. So I can play soccer and out run people.

Another reason is when I am in a race a can beat them or if I’m playing tag I can win.

—Daniel G.

Winter 2022

Caroline K.

I worked hard at ballet, it makes me feel strong. I love ballet.

—Kamillea

It’s about me scoring 2 goals in soccer against the number one team.

I am proud of myself because I built a lego car that was big and it had so many lego pieces and it had 1,780 pieces and the name of the lego car is mclaren senna. —Enzo H.

—Kai Me at my personal best is when I am swimming. I believe I am a very strong swimmer. My favorite stroke for swimming is front crawl. I am also on a swim team and our meets are on every Friday. For our warm up we do 100 front crawl. Next we do 100 kick and then we do 100 with just using our arms. After our warm up we will usually do a 150 of something like backstroke or front crawl. We will keep doing this until we are finished. Then our teacher will dismiss us to go and change. This is why I believe that I am at my personal best when I am swimming. —Natalie T.

I was at my piano recital and played well.

—Anonymous My Dad and Mom motivate me to be my best in soccer because they both played and they were good and I want to carry their legacy, so I train with my parents to be really good at soccer and dedicate some of my time at practice to running until I am tired and throw up. When I see Leinol Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo they dedicate so much time into soccer and that motivates me to become really good at soccer because I want to be like them. —Washington M.

Winter 2022

I am good at being a big sister.

—Anonymous

2017, feeling happy, joyful, and on top of the world.

Hot summer days with the sun laying on top of me.

My mind was overflowed with tag, giggles, and Mickey Mouse. Stress was not ever a word that came out of my mouth. We never said mean things through text or followed people on Tik-Tok. I did not check Aspen every 20 seconds of my life worrying about my grades dropping. We were all so innocent and pure. All relatives were still alive and we never worried about getting sick. 6th graders looked like adults and I always wondered what it was like to ride at the big kid rides. 2017 my personal best.

—Caroline K.

The goal I have for this year is to get better at Mandarin. Also, another goal is to run faster in cross country. I hope to get better at soccer and go and play travel for basketball. I really need to get better at grammar. I want to improve at art. —Rohan M. Something that I’m extremely proud of myself is that we went to Mexico and my aunties and grandparents houses. Another thing I’m extremely proud that we went to a field and we climbed a mountain and we went to the top of the mountain and went down. Next thing I’m proud of myself is that I saw my dad’s house from Mexico and I felt like my dad. Another thing is that we went to the rancho with my grandparents and we clean the plants and with my cousin and my other cousin was in school. Another thing is that we left in 1 month then my grandparents came in 4 weeks they came in Chicago and saw their children and my dad.

The first week they stayed with me in the end they left from Chicago. —Kevin L.

17

To be your personal best you are being your best, not best compared to everyone. Just yourself.

I put a big effort into a baseball game at my old program and we won and when putting in that effort it was tiring but definitely worth it.

The thing that motivates me to be my personal best is probably my family cheering me on and motivating me into being my personal best.

I can help others also known as family and friends by motivating them as well as cheering for them.

Something about myself that I am extremely proud of is winning my first baseball game with only a little bit of practice.

An improvement I’d like to make this year is getting better at focusing on my work instead of getting distracted. And I will go about this change by trying not to pay attention to others.

A goal I have for this year is getting better with math also known as solving the area better.

—Lillie

In my opinion being my personal best means to complete my goals for the year. For example, one of my goals is to focus more. I would complete that by listening to other people like the teachers and other students. I have a really hard time trying to focus/pay attention so this would be a hard one. Another goal of mine is to turn in assignments on time. Like homework and things that I did not finish in class.

We are only four weeks into school and I was not focusing in class so did not turn the assignment in on time. —Charlotte L.

My goal is to know how to play soccer and be on a team. This is why I want to play soccer because it’s fun. If I can win badges I would save them and remind myself that I should not give up on what I want to do.

And what I dream on doing, I really want to feel good about playing soccer. The real meaning of me playing soccer is because my uncle was playing soccer and got hit hard by the ball and never woke up.

It’s not because my mom is forcing me it’s about I want to do it that’s all:) —Joana N.

I’m Spiderman.

I am great at drawing and to nail and to hair is easy for me.

—Amaya M.

I wake up and I walk to my mom and I said can I have breakfast and my mom said no because we are going to McDonald’s to get breakfast then and I said yes I am so happy we are going to McDonald’s.

—Livy Z.

18

—Liam My goal is to get all As this year. I will try to get all As by learning more about what we are learning. I want to get all As because if I study a lot I could be any career I want. Because if I don’t do well at school I’m going to have a hard job and get paid a little amount of money when I grow up and I won’t have enough money to pay rent, food or anything at all.

And if I work hard at school I will get an easy job and get paid a lot and could do anything I want. I at least want As or Bs because that is a good grade.

—Jaynie H.

I’m brave. I’m not really afraid.

—King S. I am bad at everything, spelling, drawing AND TYPING. I like running but, I have asthma.

My goal is to spell better.

—Daniel S-K Winter 2022

My best is good All I can be My best is anything but free It’s hard work It’s dedication It’s working harder It’s focus and temptation Temptation to try harder It’s pushing me so hard That I might explode It’s working dawn till dusk and more It’s getting the ball over net jumping when I serve It’s working hard to make sure the ball falls right where it should It’s winning all the races in my heat Waiting in the bullpen Though it’s not sports it’s activities within my head in a different world It’s getting all my work done at home on the weekends

or learning at school it’s putting in the hours until I am done It’s my best when I think When I grow My best is reaching out Chatting till sore I talk and grow around the people I know I love to speak I want to keep going and top top my best not say hey don’t worry about the rest I want to think hey how about a chest a chest of ideas to improve My best doesn’t stay It likes to move move higher set a new bar every time like this rhyme I love to create

to express through shapes and color create a best in art to improve means to be less less technical and work on a nest a nest to nurture my ideas and then raise them raise them onto paper paper that is new just like my ideas like a new tune a tune on a radio so fresh and nice like a breath of fresh air but a punch an aggressive hello a hello of the era a goodbye as well though with my best I can’t tell my brain can’t sit still when that happens chaos ensues

I sit there and wonder then a waterfall of ideas ideas for me ideas for everything yet when I sit there time passes it happens to pass then I am sent to bed though I don’t sleep at least till I can’t can’t keep my eyes open till I drift drift away till sleep sleep huh my best though keeps me up makes me think about civilization of heights I get frightened get scared though my best it doesn’t care it keeps me thinking about life

Charlotte

My personal best is an overhand serve, bump, set, and spike.

I hope for these but there’s not enough time to do it all.

My personal best is getting all A’s in math social science and science.

My personal best is getting into Lane Tech and striving to achieve.

My best is reaching out to everyone, seeing what they need to succeed.

My best is answering all the questions I am asked.

My personal best is reading one big book in a day.

My personal best is finishing all of my homework then helping others with theirs.

My personal best is not fighting with my brother giving my parents their much-needed sleep.

—Abigail S. Motivation Not fame or money.

All of it for my family.

Then, only then, will I be happy.

It’s easy helping yourself.

But helping others is better.

Eventually, what goes around comes around.

My family is my motivation.

My future is my motivation.

This is what my motivation is.

To help others.

Pave the way.

Pave so you can lead others.

Lead others.

Pave the way so they can too.

—Romeo Winter 2022

about my day life how weird how my thoughts affect time how my best my best is hard it gets in the way of my enthusiasm as I sit there I ponder why though I stop think how I can do then I realize Stop Wait I am me my best is no different I stay I sleep then I think I dream of my BEST —Zara

Caroline R.

Sarah G.

In the picture I am doing a test I am doing my best to get a A. —Andrew H.

19

When I am playing with my friends!

—Marshawn I do my very best in my video game and fail sometimes, I also take my time during work, do my best, and try not to get a single F. I take my time to THINK about my answers in my work assignment.

All I do is try to do my best. I make mistakes, I never give up, and I do my BEST. My 5th grade grammar is timeless and fun. I am respectful, and I think of my focus function when I’m at work. Video games and work are making you do your PERSONAL BEST while focusing, DON’T GIVE UP and stay FOCUSED. That’s it, have a wonderful day!!! :) —Leo R.

I am my personal best when I am climbing. I am my personal best when I am climbing because I know that people are watching me and that makes me nervous because if I mess up then people will see me mess up.

Also I am my personal best because I really really like climbing and when I think positive thoughts it helps me become a better climber. Finally I do my personal best when I am climbing because I want to get better and if I don’t do my personal best then I won’t improve I will just stay at the same level.

I want to try to be my personal best in school because I get distracted and then I don’t focus and when I don’t focus I don’t learn. A way for me to be my personal best is to ignore Aiven and Cassian being annoying. One last way for me to be my personal best in school is to try not to put my head on my desk when the teacher is teaching. That is how I will be my personal best in school. —Hailey E.

Shale

2020 Winter This was when I was 8-9, this was my personal best because in winter it was really nice and I got to go sledding with my mom and my friends. I also remember drinking hot chocolate with my little sister and my mom while watching the movie Elf. —Olivia V.

20

My Dream is to Become an Amazing Runner.

My sister is a competitive runner.

I want to be more competitive just like her. My mother told me that she was going to help me to become an amazing runner. I am going to get up early, train hard and improve my speed.

First: My mom is going to help me get up early in the morning. Getting up in the morning is going to be hard but I’m going to have to do it. Then I will have a healthy breakfast before I go train. I don’t know a lot about training, but I’m going to research it.

Next: I’m going to improve my speed, first by adding tempo runs; “Tempo runs are 10 to 45 minute runs at the speed at which a passage of music is played” (marathonhandbook.com).

In conclusion, with my mom’s help, I’m going to get up early, train hard, and improve my speed. I’m definitely going to be an amazing runner, then I will be at my personal best!

—Madison M.

This year I want to balance my school life with my athlete life. I need to organize both things and be able to do them both well. I’m on 2 travel teams, meaning both teams want all of my time, which is very challenging to manage because of everyday homework and team practices. One way to balance them out is by trying to do the majority of my homework assignments during school hours, therefore I don’t need to worry about them when I get home late at night. I will do this by using my flex periods wisely. I will get as much work done at school including my IXL minutes. I will try to complete all of my monthly time on a more regular basis. If I still have homework I will do it during breaks, between practices, before I leave for school, and any other downtime that isn’t spent needing to chill.

In addition, another goal I want to achieve is getting straight A’s this year. This is my goal because the high school I want to go to requires all A’s in both 7th and 8th grade. I plan to achieve this by always paying attention in class and making sure I understand the class material. Writing stuff down will also help me because I can easily know what has to get done, and what is already completed, thus making me not forget when some of my assignments are due. Getting my work done and on time will significantly help my grade stay at an A and help me with my goal. Also, I will communicate with my teachers and seek their knowledge and guidance.

These two things will help me because ongoing communication with my teachers is what will help me stay on top of things. All of this is what’s going to help me out in 7th grade and ensure I am on the right track. —Valentina K.

When I see a rainbow I am my best.

—Zyrhi

Winter 2022

My dream is to be a teacher because I can help kids with their education. I want to teach children addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They can learn how to read and how to spell, because “No one can steal your education.” (Ms. Shelagh Jackson) That’s when I will be at my personal best.

—Jasminia T.

What I’m doing in the picture is that I’m getting a book to read because I like to read too much. First, because reading helps me more my reading and my level, second it helps me too much to tract docts.

Third, it is important to read every day. Fourth, one idea that I notice is important because I can learn too much about what the author is trying to tell me.

Finally the author wants me to understand and like I read too much I can understand more and it is easy to do the text and what mostly about.

—Jade Q. C. My goals for this year is I want to achieve my grades and also my effort to be a good student. Also to be a good person, to be kind and also awesome and a fun person. Also another goal that I want to achieve is to be in college so I can get a job and money. Also, I want to be a happy student so my parents think that I’m happy. And a good person to share my stuff and my food so I can be kind to other people.

—Madelyn M.

My personal best is just trying to work hard. I do it every day. It is sometimes hard. I try my hardest in sports. School can be hard so I try to do my personal best most of the time. —Michael R.

Winter 2022

Being your personal best means to work as hard as you can at all times even when you don’t know how to do something. Your personal best is when you really think about how you do things and how you will get it done. Personal best is trying something new and working on it until you get the right answer.

You can also be your personal best by going over your thinking level and trying something new out and reach for something hard but not too hard. If something is hard and you don’t know how to get it done, don’t give up. Instead, you can ask someone for help and take a short break. You can also keep practicing and try it again the next day. Personal best is not just about winning on your own, it’s also about helping people and encouraging them too. Your attitude impacts your personal best and how you treat others and what they think of you. If you are being your personal best with your attitude that means that you are showing respect and kindness to others instead of being mean to them. That is how you can be your personal best.

—Ellie M. I am taking care of my dog and she is a girl. She is already old. But I still take care of her and I love her.

She is really friendly but when someone is annoying her she gets angry and kinda wants to bite them.

Her name is weird but that’s ok her name is peris kinda weird for a dog name. And I feed her food but not that much because she doesn’t eat that much.

And since she gets so fluffy with her hair so we need to cut her hair.

And that’s all.

—Mitzy J.

My goals for this year is to get A’s and B’s because then I would get a good job. Every day on school days I work hard,and try my best every time. I also want my parents to get their passport. I also want to get better at art and speaking but I know I could do that. And I want to at least train my dog this year and hopefully to get a baby frog :) Those are all my goals for this year.

—Ximena L-G

I can help others by if I see someone on the streets I will help them out by giving them money. I can help my mom around the house and when she needs me I got her. I can help my grandma with things too.

I could take out the trash and other things.

—Daylin S.

21

What does it mean to be your personal best? There are many opinions, studies, writings, and more of what this means. From Philosophists to Psychologists, to normal people, the answer is different. An article written by Colorado State University talks about the purpose of life, which also skims across self best. These two subjects are actually closely connected. The article states that “An individual may find meaning in various domains of life, including work, relationships, hobbies, and interests.” I believe that these would be your standards, what you want to be your best in, in a philosophical eye. The article later on states that “Researchers actually consider meaning in life as a core component to living a successful and happy life.” These two sentences are enough to show that your personal best is directly related to what we think the “meaning of life” is. We find meaning in life by finding or feeling your best in one of your mental domains of worth, like relationships or hobbies. Now let’s look at this question from a philosophical viewpoint. A subsite of Stanford, known as Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, talks about this very subject. The study describes what your personal best is not based on reflection on how you are completing your meaning of life. It more describes your personal best as how good of a person you are compared to others, where you stand as a person. There’s one statement that stood out to me. It reads, “...Rovane argues that, in self-reference, the way one thinks of oneself can be analyzed as “the series of psychologically related intentional episodes to which this one [the current intentional episode] belongs (Rovane 1993: 86)...” This implies that your personal best is when you reflect on yourself or how others think you belong or is meaningful to others and yourself. Finally, the National Library of Medicine states that your personal best and your self esteem is very connected to the health of your relationships. The study states that “but has mostly ignored self-esteem at the relational level. According to social identity theory, individuals can maintain and enhance self-esteem through personal traits (personal self-esteem, PSE), relationships with significant others (relational self-esteem, RSE), and relationships with larger groups (collective self-esteem, CSE)...” This shows that your health of relationships you are a part of or how they think about you through the traits that we talked about earlier can affect if you think you are at your personal best or not. In fact, most of the articles I read say something along the lines of, “self esteem plays a big role in how you think you are related to your personal best.” In conclusion, your personal best in psychological terms is how others, especially ones you are in a sort of relationship with, think about you as a person in the certain described criteria. Though it can be looked at philosophically as well, that is when you find your meaning of life for a period of time, or when you feel you belong and you follow your set ethics well. That is the meaning of your personal best.

—Ian J. Sources: -Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy -National Library of Medicine -Colorado State University What is something about yourself that you are extremely proud of ? (Song) When I was two I started gymnastics then I stopped I did dance when I was four then I stopped like 2 weeks after.

When I was 5 in the fall I started cheer for the Wildwood Seminoles.

I kept doing cheer, lalalalalala, I hated it.

When I was six I practiced so hard because we had a really mean coach and she worked us so hard.

When it came to competition day we won first place.

I was very proud of my team and I, I thought it was amazing because I was only six at the time.

I kept doing cheer and other sports then comes 2021.

We worked so hard and we were very proud after our competition lalalalala.

Even though we didn’t win we did an awesome job and I was very proud because I was a base and held up a girl in a very tough stunt and I did a good job and my partners who helped me.

I have also done gymnastics again since 2019.

I started in purple then to silver, it took me a year to move up levels.

After a year and a couple months I moved up to gold, I tried and tried until I moved up. Yayayaya I learned all the moves fast!

I love gymnastics, and I’m very proud of how much I have accomplished in a couple months. Owowo Oh yeah and don’t forget cheer was canceled because they didn’t have enough girls.

—Athena K.

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What helps me do my personal best is when it is quiet space and not that much people are around me. People aren’t asking me questions and not crowding me and not trying to whisper to me. No people doing conversations around me and not doing distracting things like throwing paper around.

When I make myself feel confident and thinking of good things not bad things. Getting help from friends or people. My goal is to get a A in writing I’m going to ask people for ideas to help me make good stories or writing I will ask for more help so I can get better at writing. I will believe in myself to help me feel more comfortable at writing. I will not give up till I get it correct. I will study for my upcoming work.

—Owen T.

I am being nice to my friend Keyonta.

—Demari J.

Planning to go to Ballet to work hard for my ballet show.

—Zoe O-P

Winter 2022

What it means to be my personal best is be yourself don’t copy other people just be yourself if you want to be unique or you are unique don’t change that just stay yourself. Me showing my personal best is to make sure I do all my homework from school, listen to all my teachers, parents. How I can show other people to be their personal best is to compliment them, and show them how to do new things. This year I want to listen to my family, teachers and everyone else. Something that is in my way is to do good in school so I can get good grades in school. —Steven D.

I am on my phone.

I play Roblox.

I am good at it.

—Josh My dream is to be a zookeeper and to feed the animals and take care of them.

I want to feed them and make them healthy. I will keep the animals safe and take care of them. I will be a good zoo keeper. I will get a lot of money from my boss and buy food for the animals.

That is when I will be at my personal best.

—Jeremiah T. Personal Best means to go beyond your limits and be the best person you can be. You can’t be a bystander and do your personal best, you have to be an upstander. Help people in need, donate and be overall a good person to go beyond. —Mateo F. Jamir No one can tell you what your personal best is. LIke you’re the worst at math or something, because only you know that. Something I’ve worked hard on is to try not to make anyone’s feelings hurt. At camp someone felt useless because she was 7 and we don’t want her to use a knife, to make weapons out of sticks.

We decided she could be a messenger. Everyone is useful in different ways.

This year I would like to find more hideouts at camp.

To make more secret bases. To not only help people.

I’m planning on being more helpful than I already am.

This might not be my personal best because I don’t know what else to write. But I hope I write more next time! —Tatyana K.

Winter 2022

In this picture, I am about to cross the finish line at my first cross-country meet of the season. This year, we had a new coach and he has done a much better job coaching us and training us for the cross country meets. He has been very supportive and has helped me really push myself. One of the reasons I did so well was because of my teammate.

It was about the last 600 meters and I decided, why not walk a little. The second I started walking, she came up right behind me and said “Hey Lily!” and passed me. The second I saw her, I screamed “What?!” and immediately stopped walking and passed her. She motivated me to go faster because I wanted to beat her so badly. By the time I got to the finish line, I saw the time 9:58 and felt a little burst of happiness inside. I began to sprint even faster and passed the finish line at 10:06. I got a new pr the first meet of the season, even with a big hill. Last season my pr for the mile and a half was 10:16. So not only did I break my pr by 10 seconds, it was the first meet of the season. This is why I was at my personal best ever in cross country.

—Lily C.

Jaylin T.

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