Junior Year Reflection

Junior Year Reflection When I started Junior year, I had absolutely no idea what the Graduation Project was. Previously, I had only heard its name in groans and whispers. After starting the foreboding project, I now realise why. While not unique to Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, or North Carolina, a significant fraction of North Carolina districts opts out of assigning the Graduation Project to their students. This mandatory project intended to thrust the young Seniors into the real world where they would make a lasting impact while gaining invaluable experience in their career field. However, the success rate of the project is highly dubious. I have heard anecdotal stories from old coworkers and friends who attend subpar high schools being passed along with mid-to-high grades, despite missing significant requirements, such as Service Learning Hours. Since I fully intended to complete every requirement of the Graduation Project, I picked a topic that I was interested in, that was not impossible to complete. After looking at the requirements Junior year, I assumed volunteering and creating a product would provide me with the greatest difficulty. This lead me to my topic: Effects of Regulations on Small Businesses. My career aspirations lay in the medical field, but few medical facilities allow 17-year-olds volunteer. Taking my English class during the second semester of Junior year gave me the opportunity to watch my friends struggle to find volunteer hours for topics where few, if any, volunteer opportunities exist. However, I have always been interested in opening my own private practice and know many people who own businesses. I decided I could volunteer with the multitudes of small business owners I know, then disseminate the information that I learned to the student population of CPCC. Thinking ahead to the product and volunteer side of the graduation projects has made it easy now, but made it extremely difficult Junior year. I had to start from scratch with the research since I knew literally nothing about Regulations, and do not subscribe to the Libertarian belief of little regulation. This made it extremely difficult to argue we should abolish all, or most regulation because it harms small businesses. When I sat down to write a six-page argumentative paper on the subject, I immediately began to think about the positive impact regulations have on protecting consumers and employees. After receiving a troubling grade on my first rough draft, I brought my worries to my teacher to no avail. This led me to make a slight modification on my argument: Effects of ​Over ​Regulation on Small Businesses. Churning out six pages plus a graph on regulations was still extremely difficult, but now it was doable. I no longer felt as if I was taking an absolutist argument against my beliefs since I believe government overreach can pose a problem if not effectively curbed. The Graduation Paper was not the longest or the hardest to research for, but the legend and weight associated with it made it one of the most stressful papers I have ever written. I wish prior to writing the paper, someone reminded me of my abilities and the relative easiness of this paper to relieve some of the tension and stress this paper created.