Reflection
This autobiography lays out me, Joseph Cavera, as a person; showing where I came from (my history) and how I developed psychologically. It's a pretty concise summary of my life so far, so if you've wanted to get to know me without going too deep into me, this is a great place to start. I reread this before I began my other pieces; I felt like it let me reanalyze the life i've lived so far, letting me consider my options for describing my young life further.
My life began a little over 20 years ago, in Westwood, New Jersey. For the first few years of my life, I spent much time at home, and with my cousins both near and far. My parents used to tell me all the time that more than anything else, I was curious; always exploring and examining any environment I was put in. Those early years were peaceful for me, and I began learning to be social in my first few years of elementary school, around 1996.
I went to a small public elementary school called Grant School from K-4th grade, getting to interact with other kids on a basic level for the first time. My first experience with classes began around this time as well, and the introduction of both new aspects simultaneously into my young life led me to develop my personality. While I did take classes, at this time, they weren’t an enormous factor in my conscious thinking (just how closely are they going to look at your work in 2nd grade anyway). My curiosity, for the first time, had been limited to what I could ask and do within the classrooms and on the playground. I continued to ask others questions, about their families, or what they did for fun, and sometimes, they’d refuse to answer.
I transferred to a catholic school in 5th grade, having found that my curiosity wasn’t quite appreciated in the public school system, and that I wasn’t intellectually challenged enough either. I found that my new school, St. Mary’s, had smaller, more personalized classes, and that with more attention from both peers and teachers, I began to psychologically and mentally grow faster. The math class I was placed in in this new school would cover intermediate algebra and trigonometry before graduation, and only had five students including myself. Able to interact with the same people everyday for years, I learned more about other people’s lifestyles more closely than I could at the larger public school, and began to develop a more active lifestyle with it.
After graduating salutatorian in a class of 11, I attended Bergen Catholic High School, an all-boys catholic high school, in Oradell, NJ. In Bergen Catholic, my curiousness and friendly personality were tested, and I began to grow more competitive, and become more focused in my studies, and analytical both in and outside of the classroom. I had always been analyzing, ever since I was little, but now, it had become a necessity. I had to become more organized, more efficient, and learn to work with others to remain on both the soccer team and the honors track. Keeping up my grades was no longer just for me, and I began to understand that my social standing could now change depending on my performance in the classroom, and that added further pressure. Despite difficult classes and athletic challenges like nothing I had ever seen before, I graduated in the top 10% of my class, and applied to Stony Brook University, hoping to pursue a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies.
In my first year at the university, I attended Stony Brook’s Southampton campus, finding that I was mostly among other students with majors like my own, with an affinity for nature or for the sea much like my own. I took the drive that I had developed in high school, and set out in my first year to continue both academic and social success. At the end of the year, we were informed that our campus would not be able to remain open, and that we would have to either transfer to West campus, or find another college. I chose the former, and have continued for another year and a half since then, exploring my major, my career options, and of course, myself.