"Dear Reader"

Welcome to my portfolio website. My name is Aaron Paul Pangilinan. I am a Filipino. I have a happy childhood memories with my family and friends. I had a simple life when I was young. I love playing basketball and hanging out with my friends. The biggest change in my life was when my family migrated here in the U.S. I lived in Connecticut by myself for 3 years trying hard to be an independent person, because I know in myself that I have a capability for doing well and making the right things in my life. After 3 years of struggling I realized that it’s still hard and it’s not easy living by myself especially when you don’t have someone to help you and you’re far away from your family so I just decided to moved here in Washington to be with my Mom and my brother. I had a hard time finding a nice job in this State. After one year of waiting, I decided to take a Medical Assistant course to help me have a better and brighter future. I am in an entry-level in Everett Community College. Although English is our second language in the Philippines, the first few weeks in my English subject was hard and tough for me because I am not used to going to school anymore and mingling with new classmates. But I can say that taking up this class has helped in many ways. In High School, I never really liked English, because I was never a good writer, but I can say that enough practice made me better.

I can’t believe that this semester is almost over. I thought I would never come closer to this almost end of the subject. I think I have improved a lot over this quarter. It has been very stressful, and sometimes overwhelming. After 9 weeks of staying up late doing my assignments, writing my journals and reading my English book, pre-writing, doing my drafts and being organized has helped me become a better writer. Now, I finally have the knowledge to create a strong paper.

One of my weaknesses in my writing is how to perfectly start the piece. Thinking of the perfect title, the best subject, and how to start the writing was my biggest struggle. You don’t know how many hours I spent writing, deleting and re-writing the first part of my paper. Next would be how to use right grammar and punctuation. It was really bad during my first few weeks in this class. Then my next weakness is how to be able to give sense to my writings. I believe that everyone can write, but not everyone can write with sense. It takes time and effort, to finally write a piece that can make it interesting for the readers. Over this subject, I believe that I have grown to be a much more concise and productive writer. Writing journals every week is something that I have become much better. I have also learned to develop my ideas much quicker than I used to. I now see the great importance of proper use of grammar, when to use or not to use a comma and I became better with past, present, future tense.

This is a summary of my works that I have done in this semester in my English 97. I have put together, all my favorite journals and major writings. I have chosen these pieces, because I believe that these are the strongest pieces that I have written in this quarter. Also I have put some pictures of my two beautiful princesses who always give me strength and encourage me in everything, especially when I feel like giving up. As you view my electronic portfolio, you will see how my life was, what is inside my heart, my deep emotions, my thoughts, what makes me happy and sad. As you go through each of my writings, you will see many experiences that I’ve had. In this e-portfolio, I have included my 2 major writings and 2 of my favorite journals. Thank you for your time, and I hope you enjoy reading my portfolio.