carters senior project

 Week 2 Reflection. By the conclusion of week two, I have finally wrapped up my project in its entirety.  What started as a  small project on a topic I knew little about, I was able to come together, relate to the topic at hand, and  learn on a personal level the importance of my work.  This week I tested running, weightlifting, golfing,  and yoga, along with many hours spent learning from my mom.  This was a tremendous experience and I  am more than excited to share my work upon my arrival back on campus.  So happy I was able to put my  work to paper and hopefully help the Proctor community.

 Saturday, May 21. Today I tried my hand at another popular activity of Golfing.  After a workshop about Ester Leutenburg's book, Teen Conflict Management, I was more than happy to get out of the classroom and into nature.  The book is a brief adage of how teens deal with their anger and frustration, what causes it, and different strategies on how to better deal with social and self conflicts.  There was a ton to learn especially being of the targeted age.  I took the course open-minded and optimistic that afternoon, unfortunately, it did not last for long.  Golf, although distracting, did not do a very good job of relieving my stress.  I was constantly infuriated by chunks and shanks.  It's a good kind of frustration that did have me stop thinking about my outside problems, but had me mentally enraged multiple times.  Although definitely better than being at home alone, golfing does not compare to some of my other activities.

 Friday, May 20. Today I participated in the third popular strategy to relieve stress for Proctor students in my survey by going to a typical social event.  Although extremely stereotypical and boring, Proctor has a point that things can be broad and basic and still work wonders to relieve stress on your mental health.  At first, I wasn't thrilled to participate because it was something I had already done but what is different now is my mindset.  I soon realized the popularity of and simplicity of just being around those friends and people you love is completely valid.  It's as easy as that, being around people is a relief.  Everyone like their alone time every once and a while, but at the end of the day being around those who lift you up is never a bad thing and only helps from there.

 Thursday, May 19. Today I tried a Proctor student favorite, weightlifting.  Although being an athlete throughout my 4 years of high school, the gym has never been a good place for me throughout my athletic career.  I mostly saw the gym as punishment or something negative prior, so for testing, I made sure to go in with an optimistic mindset.  I completed the first of my summer workouts today, and to be honest, I was a little stressed throughout.  Personally, I am usually the tallest guy in the gym, and I always feel as though people view tallness as associated with strength.  This always is in the back of my mind and sometimes makes me feel self-conscious about the amount of weight I am putting up and struggle to find confidence.  Although this is a necessary activity for me, as of now, this may be the least stress relieving activity for me yet.

 Wednesday, May 18. Today was a day of action.  I began my day by testing some long-distance running.  At 6am I headed to the Rose Bowl to complete the 3.5-mile run-around.  I popped in some earbuds and began the run.  Once concluded, I felt great.  I started the day with a small accomplishment that put me into a very productive mood for the rest of the day and refrained from thinking about a single worry for the entirety of the run.  This segwayed into the second activity of the day, controlled stretching and yoga.  I am definitely not a flexible man, but completing a class with a yoga pro made it able for me to get in a great stretch while being able to take the exercise seriously.  Once again, the entirety of the lesson had my mind completely relaxed and focused at the task at hand making me feel significantly better after completion despite my lack of knowledge and flexibility.

 Tuesday, May 17.   Today I studied the results of my survey, "Stress Relieving Activities" while meeting with my mother to better understand outlets for our youth and why they chose what they chose.  The results were as follows, the most chosen was listening to music in a close race with spending alone time.  These results shocked me.  Although I believe that music is a good stress reliever, with all the intense physical options I was surprised something so simple was picked.  I completely did not understand the alone time option.  Personally, when I am feeling at my worst, I depend on those closest to me to help lift me up, which I now see is not the case for everyone.  After meeting with my mom to discuss the survey and different strategies, she then explained to me the importance of convenience.  Music and being alone are always available and can always be depended on when other activities such as mountain biking are much more time-c...