September's "Three Good Things" List

1: I watched a scary movie with my friends
2: I went to Olive Garden and stuffed myself
3: I beat my grandma at cards
4: I finally did my laundry
5: I made $5
6: I got to have my favorite tea (Honest Tea) after they restocked it in the cafe
7: I saw the sunrise this morning
8: I took a relaxing, late-night walk alone
9: I got Tutti Frutti
10: I slept in
11: I enjoyed the rain
12: I went to the beach
13: I finished all my homework
14: I found $8 in my old jeans
15: I binged on "The Walking Dead" and caught up to the latest season
16: I finally got my book for freshman composition
17: I went to mass
18: My little sisters visited me today
19: My stickers came in
20: I went to the gym
21: I went shopping at the mall
22: I slept in
23: I saw a good movie
24: I petted a dog
25: I finished my homework
26: I got exercise by walking to the store
27: I took a nice nap
28: I got an A on both my French and math exams
30: I finally had steak

The 29^th was the best day of September for me. It was my grandma’s 76^th birthday, so I got to see my whole family. My little sisters, my cousins, my aunts, and uncles. We all went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. I got to order my favorite steak dish and we had a huge chocolate cheesecake afterwards. The whole time we were laughing and smiling, it was such a good time. Everyone in the restaurant sang “Happy Birthday” to my grandma when the staff came in with her cake and candles. Her reaction was so cute and she looked so happy in that moment. Seeing her happy, made me feel happy. I felt really good in that moment – I guess I was just feeding off of her positive energy. That moment was really memorable to me because my whole family was there and everyone was smiling and I could feel so much positivity coming off of our group.

Word Count: 160

Applying Self-Regulation

Last week, I had to turn in my first essay for Freshman Composition. My applied signature strength was self-regulation. I had to work on dealing with negative feelings while trying to complete the assignment. I had to keep reminding myself that I had to finish and that it would help benefit me in the future. I knew it had to be done and I couldn’t keep putting it off because of these negative emotions. I forced myself to go to the writing center again. I told myself that I wanted to finish the essay more than I wanted to sit around and feel bad. Composing a well-written essay became my main focus. However, when I did go to the writing center, the lady there barely made any corrections. She just wrote little notes about grammar and punctuation. She said my paper was "great", signed my check-in sheet, and sent me off. I was relieved and disappointed. Relieved because I was done with going to the writing center (for now) but disappointed because I thought she could help me improve the actual content of the paper. I felt like there was still more to be done, but I didn't really have any guidance or any time left to get some. So, after taking my paper to the writing center for final “revisions”, I was able to turn in my essay. I knew I was going to turn it in, but I’m not sure how I feel about the outcome. I know my paper is good, but I’d feel better if it were great. My goal was to complete the essay and turn it in by regulating my emotions and I did.



Word Count: 278

Self-Regulation

Hello everyone

So my first big assignment for my Freshman Composition class is due this Friday. It’s an essay about the media’s influence on my life. It seems like an easy task, being that all I have to do is write about myself, but I’m actually finding it quite difficult. Lately I haven’t been feeling well and I’m losing motivation to finish my paper. Even though I’ve already written 5 drafts, there’s still many revisions needed. I want to succeed, but these negative feelings are making it hard to continue. I sound dramatic because it’s only an essay, but I know I’ll be in distress if I don’t do well. One of my highest strengths is self-regulation. When I get upset like this I step back and remind myself that these negative feelings are only temporary.  It helps me keep the bigger picture in mind -that all this work is going to benefit me in the future.  I’m going to go to the writing center one last time tomorrow for my paper’s final revisions and then turn in my essay Friday. Self-regulation helps me deal with my emotions. I hope to get better at separating facts from feelings because sometimes I’m too emotional over things that don’t you don’t need to be emotional over.

Thank you


Word count: 216