I believe I have grown substantially throughout this year. What I believe that truly helped me grown throughout this was the Research Project. Along with the Research Project, I believe that the time I spent editing and reediting my work and research helped me improve my skills on understanding the writings of others. I also feel successful in the ability to research information and to transcribe it to a better use. The reason I feel this way is because when I get bored sometimes, I get on my computer and just research anything that interests me and it has gotten easier since I finished the Research Project. Along with the Research Project, I did a Theme Analysis, a Freshmen Fears essay, and a Personal Narrative. My understanding of why these pieces were written was 1) to improve my writing skills 2) to improve my understandings of other written works and 3) to improve my overall ability to think up of information in a quicker way. I gained these skills and I believe they still help me today as I write this letter. I gained other skills as well, my analysis of information has improved. Finally I believe all of these skills were completely pushed to my best when I acquired my determination for achieving the title and career of Navy SEAL's. In addition to the skills I acquired, my ability to read fast and analyze written works has improved ten-fold. I read many books this year, most of which were by my choice. To name a few that I think helped the most were the Inheritance Cycle ( Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance), the Percy Jackson series, the Kane chronicles, and several books about Joseph Stalin. I feel successful in the ability to assess information of a book and to be able to summarize it CORRECTLY. I feel this way because when I summarized the chapters of Animal Farm, it made more sense to me and would still have few sentences that had enough details to explain the chapter CORRECTLY. This skill is continuing to improve as I read more and more books in their genre. To conclude this article, I believe I have become able to organize my time so I can do my school work instead of putting my business ( I have my own amateur landscaping business ) and other issues with family and friends. Along with this I believe my maturity has grown substantially as well and that I am more serious than I was in the past. My maturity has helped me conquer my fear of pain and anger. Now instead of getting angry I lock down my pain and anger in a metaphorical box and I just forget about it. I have gained the habit of doing my work to the fullest because of this class, which I believe will help me to get accepted for SEAL training. I have applied organization, determination, increased intelligence and several other skills to my life that I believe will help me throughout high school and my life in the military.