My social forces paper really displayed my growth as a historical thinker and writer. In this piece I had to write a essay on the social forces that impacted youth activism and organization. I connected the terms that we learned called G'GREASES, which  stands for geography, government, religion, economics, arts/architecture, science/technology, and social/cultural values. This was one of the long essays that we had to do, to display the forces that impact the youth. I connected the Lowell Mills in the 1830's, the busing era in the 1970's and the DSNI (Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative) in the 1980's.Social forces have influenced youth in Boston's history by causing youth to go against impediments to become active in improving their communities.Throughout the essay, I connected the lives of youth in Boston with the eight categories of social forces.

    In the process of writing this paper, I had difficulties in the beginning because I didn't know  which forces connected to which era of youth lives. But with the help of my student teacher, I was able to connect the forces with the right eras. After getting all my ideas together, I was able to write my paper with a breeze, but still had a problem in adding important facts in to make better. Some of the writing didn't make sense so I had to keep going back to make corrections. But after multiple corrections from my teacher, I finalized the paper and turned it in.

    This paper definitely showed my learning as a capstone student because it showed my growth as a writer and historical thinker. In this assignment, I was  able to think back to the readings that I had to connect them to each other. Highlighting the important facts helped and  taking notes that  would benefit me showed my historical thinking. In writing the whole paper, I am now in an advanced stage of writing papers because I was so used to writing essays consistently in class, that it was easier for me to write the 4 page paper. As a capstone student, I was able to show my growth as a historian and a writer by using what I learned and bringing it in my process of this essay.