My grade 10 winter exhibition taught me the importance of presenting my passions, strengths, and learning in clear and creative ways. I created a business card and resume, which showed me how small details can make a big difference in how I market myself. Hearing the reason why a guest speaker does many acts of services was especially helpful because they made me realize the importance of finding things you are passionate about, find time to do an act of service every so often, because the impact could mean a lot more than you think. I learned how to explain my future career goals clearly and confidently. I found starting out with saying “I want to help people” drew people in from all kinds of backgrounds. Whether it was through one-on-one conversations or planning my display, I realized how important it is to stay focused on what I care about and think ahead of how I can accomplish my goals.

One of the most exciting parts of this experience was exploring my passion for studying psychology, but mostly criminals. I focused on clinical, school and criminal psychology, but more specifically criminal and a little bit of education. I’m really interested in understanding how criminals think, why they make certain decisions, and how their environments affect them. Most criminals become criminals because of their childhood, I would like to work with kids or to do research to prevent the amount of criminals in the future. These ideas made me even more excited about working in psychology and finding jobs within psych like a criminal analysis, especially in roles like working with CSIS or even becoming a body language expert, where they work with the police in interrogation. I want to help prevent crimes by figuring out patterns in behaviour and understanding how people’s minds work.

This exhibition helped me see how my interests could become a future career. By planning my display and sharing my ideas with others, I realized how much I want to keep learning about psychology and criminal behaviour. My trifold poster, with the red string connecting all my ideas, really showed how everything ties together. I want others to understand some people can’t control things, but with some guidance they could live their life to the fullest, I want to help with that. This exhibition gave me more confidence in my goals and inspired me to keep researching in this field, so in the future I can make an impact.