My research centered around something that was very unfamiliar to me. The definition of gender, gender identity, was never something that I carefully considered, so my project was also a pursuit of my own personal curiosity. I learned about the theory of “Gender Constancy”, which differs greatly from ideas that I was familiar with. Gender constancy describes the theory that children inherently grasp the concept of gender and come to an understanding that their biological sex is fixed and unchangeable through societal cues. I thought it was intriguing to discover the stance on gender from over five decades ago, and reflect on how those ideas have changed over time. It was not an idea that I strictly agreed with, but there was a supporting study in the article that children start differentiating gender-labeled behaviors from an early age. A more influential idea for expanding my perspective on how the conflict of gender identity has pervaded throughout history was comparing Shakespeare’s ideas, conveyed through his play “Othello”. Through a female character, he communicated how no matter the gender, there is still the shared experience of being human. Specifically, he wrote, “let husbands know their wives have sense like them. They see and smell and have their palates both for sweet and sour, as husbands have”. Even if it might not be a direct reflection of his own thoughts, his play demonstrated that those types of ideas were still considered. I found this a relatively forward-thinking idea for its time, and it demonstrated how the progression of gender identity exploration was not as linear as I had thought. I felt that my project was mostly a summary of various gender identity explorations in different pieces of media, so if anything, a takeaway I hope people get is the opportunity to see different perspectives on gender throughout varying time periods. The full google slides project is linked here.

I have always heard that high school was a time where many people transitioned to becoming more independent in preparation for what comes after, be it college, work, or travel. There was definitely a lot more freedom in choosing our courses, the direction our interests will take, and especially during the last year, learning more effective time management skills. I discovered how to motivate myself in order to allocate my time better between recreational activities and school-related pursuits. During the four years, there were times when I was careless and faced the consequences of my inattentiveness, but it was necessary in order to recognize where to improve. From my experiences, I would advise future seniors to start assignments earlier and not push back work until the last minute. Especially during the college application season, I found it particularly difficult to not sacrifice sleep time for writing essays, so it may also be a good idea to start applications during the summer if the student has a good idea of what kind of college or what kind of major(s) they want to pursue in the future.