Spirit Of Challenge Research Paper

The spirit of challenge is when we are truly tested to realize who we are and who we want to become. Personally, my spirit of challenge was sparked when I came to the University of Iowa. My high school graduating class had 52 students. To get an idea of how tight knit our school was, I could tell you the parents names of 30, if not more, of the students in my high school graduating class. Currently, as a junior at the University of Iowa, I could maybe tell you 5 of my friends’ parents names. Coming to a place, like the University of Iowa, which was completely out of my comfort zone, was an interesting experience. Looking back now, I have had such growth. My freshman year I was a confused mess. I had classes with 300 people, I was asked more about my ID number than my name, I was no longer playing three sports, I had no accountability, the list goes on. The fact is, I had 30,000 peers at my school and had the flexibility to do what I wanted; no one was there to tell me what to do or watch my every more. I did not even realize this was a thing. Independence was new to me. Not having everyone know everyone was new. Being in a place where there was not a community who watched your every move was new. Furthermore, this new idea of independence was especially unusual because I had grown up in a very strict household with a narcissistic father.

Thus, resulting in furthering my eligibility to be considered for these programs. Learning how to speak another Spanish has been a goal of mine after I came back from my service – learning trip in Mexico. I was only there for a week and picked up on the language quickly, but I wanted more. Spanglish only took the conversation so far and since I am someone who loves connecting with others I was frustrated that I could only communicate on a limited