Culture and Character #2: Self-Directed Learning

All of the following must be revised and completed

Who are you? How do your peers and community view you? Thinking through the answers to those questions in an
identity essay is a way to explore, discover and share your own identity perceptions. The purpose of an identity
essay is to answer questions about who you are, how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you as well. For
an identity essay to have impact, it should cover different facets of your identity from your name's origin to your
character, principles and values. Your friends, family, community and culture are also part of your identity. They are
a part of shaping your identity as well and an integral part to your essay. Exploring your personal life thoroughly
helps you understand the impact of people and experiences in forming your own identity. A well-written identity
essay tells the reader how you view yourself as well as the role in finding that identity related to the people and
experiences in your life.

Using your Identity Chart to create My Final Word. In your AOL reflection on your Identity and how it shapes who
you are, You are to contain a separate paragraph that addresses the contribution or not that the Greene School has
had in the the years you have attended

Introduction: Introduce yourself, where are you from, What makes you who you are, gender identification, family,
ethnicity, community, travel etc.. what is/was your perspective when you came to the school?

Hello my name is Alexander Dilone, I am a seventeen year old boy who currently lives in Cranston Rhode Island.
I come from a family of loud, loving, and proud Dominicans. I am currently a Greene School student in my senior
year of highschool. When first coming to this school I felt that I was going to have a different experience in
highschool than most other people who go to other schools since it’s in the woods and very far. Going here taught
me a lot not just academically but also helped to shape who I am and know what I strive to be.

Transitions in thought and perspective. Not just what the school has brought to who you are, although that is more
than welcome but also how have you grown in your perspective and relationship to the communities you are a part
of over the last four years of your personal growth. What were the catalysts for this change if any? What have you
learned about yourself that either confirmed your perspective or changed that perspective. Are you still the same
person from your freshman year? If not, what were the perspectives that may have morphed, stayed fast or
completely changed?
 From the start of my freshman year I was always an outgoing friendly person who was friends with almost
everyone but ever since covid started I feel that I changed a lot and become more to myself. Now I am not so
outgoing and contain a small group of friends. I think people held me back from becoming a better and mature
version of myself. So I used the pandemic to reflect and help build myself up to becoming who I want to be.

Final Word: This is the part you leave to the future students of Greene , be it advice or perspective on education.
What did you take from your time at Greene , what would you tell a student ten years from now that is sitting in
your seat about the experience you had and how that shaped the college student you are becoming,

What I learned from my experience while going to school here was to cherish all your moments with your friends
and community, work hard on your academics, and don’t let others affect your goals and throw you off course.
What I would tell students 10 years from now is to take care of myself before taking care of others, figure out
who you are and who you want to be, and to surround yourself with positive people. I would finally tell them to
enjoy their time at the Greene and make the most of highschool because you'll regret it one day.
Meredith Brewer
My Final Word
21 March 2017

As a student at The Greene School, I have grown tremendously over the last four years
both academically and personally. I am very grateful that I chose to go to this school because not
only do they try to cater to multiple styles of learning but my teachers have all been very
supportive and they truly care about me. There is no other school like this one and we are all so
lucky to go to a school where we can learn more about the content and the world around us but
also more about ourselves and where we fit into the communities we are a part of.

It may be hard to believe that our four years at The Greene School are coming to the end.
When I think about meaningful things that have happened to me while at the school, one specific
story sticks out in my mind. It goes back to freshman year, our first wilderness. The field work
journal included sections of solitude and reflection in which we were supposed to sit alone and
think about the questions and answer them. The questions were along the lines of “who are
you?” or “where are you going?” essentially questions about who we thought we were, certain
beliefs that we had, or things that had happened to us to shape who we were. I remember this
part of the wilderness being kind of difficult in a sense that I did not know what to write. I wrote
about the stuff that everyone knows about me such as the fact that I play soccer or that I have
been going to church since I was little. However, I did not really write about stuff beneath the
surface. About a week after the wilderness, we had an all grade crew meeting and the crew
leaders were explaining how a lot of us did not really go into detail about who we are or didn’t
attempt to scratch beyond the surface. I guess the real answer to why this was a difficult
assignment was that as freshmen, many of us didn’t really know who we were yet. We hadn’t
figured out where we fit into the community yet.

That is what the past four years have been. A journey to figure out more about who I am
and where I fit into the community. From freshman year until now, I have grown so much as a
student and also as a person. The school was a huge part of my journey because not only was I
supported in my academics but I was just supported as a person. When things got difficult in my
personal life, I knew that there was a teacher I could go to just to talk. The school also taught me
about how to look at situations from more than one perspective and over time it changed my
perspective on things. I learned how to form my own beliefs, separate from my parents, and I
became more confident about standing up for what I believe in. My parents are very stubborn
with their beliefs and I don’t always agree with them. For example, my parents do not believe in
climate change but I decided to go on the climate march because it was something that I really
wanted to do.

Another part of my journey has been discovering my sexuality. This is what I was talking
about earlier when I wrote about how freshman year I still didn’t know who I was. It took me a
long time to admit to myself that I am gay, let alone other people. I was in denial for such a long
time and I was just trying to be the person that everyone told and expected me to be, But then I
was just lying to myself and I could never actually be myself. When I first realized that I was
gay, it hit me really hard and I was terrified. My parents had always talked about how it was
wrong to be gay. What they don’t understand is that it is not a choice. You don’t choose who you
fall in love with. Recently, I came out to my mom and she wasn’t as accepting as I would like
because she doesn’t understand it yet. Although I have come a long way in accepting myself, I
still have a long way to go. My final word is that you can’t change yourself to be what other
people want you to be because then you will continue to lose pieces of yourself.