Our Wildwood, Summer 2017, Volume 41

Perspectives

by Aidan S. ‘19 Failure and Redemption ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE L I FE SK I L LS Wildwood taught me is the ability to reflect on what I’ve learned. When asked to share a story of reflection, my 2016 National History Day documentary immediately came to mind. Let me set the stage: I am a 9th grader attending my third year at Wildwood School and first year at the upper school. It is the eleventh hour of my National History Day project, a project that is supposed to take months of research, analysis, and critical thought and culminate in a historical presentation in the form of a documentary, performance, or poster. I have chosen to procrastinate and leave all the work until the last few weeks before the county competition. Amazingly, I have pulled it together. All I have left to do is finish up the final few details on my film. And then the unimaginable happens. During the week of the Los Angeles County National History Day competition, my new MacBook is hacked. Specifically, my computer is attacked by “Ransomware,” malware that holds your computer files hostage until you make a money transfer. The virus targeted all my documents, photos, videos, and data. My documentary is gone. I have a choice: I can surrender to my situation and withdraw my bid from the competition, or I can go to the Apple store and have the tech advisors wipe my computer clean and . I can remake the entire documentary in two days. I choose . the latter. I remake my documentary, and it wins first place . in LA County and qualifies me for the California state competition, where it wins fourth place for best individual. high school documentary. I titled this article “Failure and Redemption” because my interest in documentaries didn’t end with a fourth place win at the California state competition last year. The confidence I gained through reflection and resilience with my first documentary empowered me to strive even further as a documentarian. This year, I made a new documentary that won the California state competition and is going on to the national competition in Washington, D.C.! As I prepare to move forward to the national competition, I cannot help but reflect on my experience with the National

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The confidence I gained through reflection and resilience with my first documentary empowered me to strive even further as a documentarian. “

History Day competition. I have changed so much between last year in 9th grade and this year in 10th. Not only am I more confident as a researcher, historian, and documentarian, but I also have grown as a person. Overcoming the loss of my entire documentary the same week of the county competition taught me about myself; it showed me a determination that I never realized I had. Reflecting on my experience with the documentary improved my confidence as a learner, giving me a deeper understanding of my self-worth. Reflection has been an incredibly valuable tool in my life, not just as a student but also as a person who is prepared and eager to benefit my community, too.

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