Ester's Perspective

Over the past 7 years I have reflected and found who I am, what I believe, and how I work. This has been a long journey and it will never end. But it is so worth journeying. because when you improve yourself you can better serve others. I believe that we came to this earth to learn, make an impact, and then get home to heaven. When your in doubt or don't know what to do simply serve and you'll figure it out.

While finding who I am I have done 15+ value reflections, cards, and tests over the past years. what I found is they keep changing as I improve. In my time of life right now my top 5 values are:

1. Inner harmony - I love myself inside and out, I am a whole person, I'm in harmo

   ny with God's will. and in tune with why my heart, mind, and body want.

2. Empathy - the ability to feel for others and jump into their perspective. This helps me not hurt others because when I do I feel it too.

3. Trust - I trust you, you trust me. It's very difficult and painful to work with someone you don't trust. Trust leads to a real relationship and deep love.

4. Confidence - you can do anything. If you believe in yourself then you will push yourself and grow. Your awesome no matter what so believe it. Confidence helps your ability to help others.

5. Open-minded - be humble and open to new thoughts perspectives and opinions. Gain feedback it will only help you. Openness is how you grow and avoid conflict. no one likes someone who they can't work with.

I have discovered that everything you do has a lesson to learn. Your able to find the lesson with humility and reflection. Some things have bigger and better lessons to learn but anything you do you can turn into a lesson good or bad depending on your perspective. Everything has a lesson to learn.

If everything is valuable then what do you pick to spend your time on? Well you have to get your priorities very clear. You really believe those priorities for yourself not for someone else. So right now in my life I prioritise learning how to write a speech over learning math perfectly. Doesn't mean I won't learn math. Simply that I think that learning how to be confident in speaking in front of people is more important to spend my time on then learning math. So that is my priority and what I spend my time on. Remember that everything you learn will help you sometime in your life no matter how irrelevant you think it is. So learn all you can!

At Acton Academy I just keep learning and learning. Stretching myself one step at a time with new experiences. That has grown me to who I am today. Witch is AWESOME. With these experiences, I have made a new friend. Failure. I have understood that failure is the only way to learn. Once you learn that, you’ll find that learning is supper fun. When you give yourself the freedom to try anything, learning something is the best way to spend life. It’s how you grow. You stretch, fail, reflect, grow, repeat. If you stay on this hero's journey, then you will go to great places. I am on this hero’s journey and hope to impact this world in a good way.

I learn in the scientific method. So rigid I know. But really that is how my brain works. You observe, make a hypothesis, fail, reflect, improve, then wait till you don't fail and you get your answer. this works with anything from math to social situations. It's not rigid scientific hypothesis thoughts. I think in all casual Ester thoughts. Here is the one pager I wrote on how I learn.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely and only god can keep someone from becoming corrupt. Corruption isn't just bad. It messes everything up. and sadly it is unavoidable but we can spread it out in smaller doses and we need to learn what places it makes the biggest negative impact.

For Example:

The eldest sibling has the leadership and the responsibility. They have a big role of being a good example to their younger siblings. The most important thing for an older sibling is to not be corrupt. NO CORRUPTION ALLOWED. If you have corruption then relationships are really hard to build. and your home won't be a comfortable place. the eldest sibling really has control over the mood of the house they see or do all the little moments that the mom doesn't catch or have space to think about.

At the start of my freshman year I went to public school for 2 weeks to get a new perspective and to see what it is like. I wanted to see how people learn, act, think of themselves, what they value, and what our next generation will be like. What I saw shook me to the bones. I have gone on a journey to find who I really am I have found a little bit but these kids who are my age and older have 0 ideas. They put such a fake face. It's awful. They are so externally motivated. The thing is I see the possibility and they are missing out. Our world is going to miss out. I am very passionate about this subject and I wrote and recorded a speech about it. Why public school isn't teaching us what we will need to know in our future

I truly love feedback and discussions. I want to learn more. I would love to talk and hear your perspective!

Email: Ester@actonbeecave.org