5V; Natural Benefits

 "As precious as life itself is our heritage of individual freedom, for man's free agency is a God-given gift."

--David O. McKay

 The word agency is one I’ve heard only related to law enforcement or business, but there is a second meaning that can pertain to the topics we have covered in class. When looking at the readings for this week, they all involved advice on how to succeed in college and better time management skills, along with the time study we completed this week. Moving forward, I need to rely on my agency to move me and initiate changes so that I can fulfill my days efficiently. Agency is a power we all are born with and can activate it in order to manage our time or become the best student we can be. It can be used to critical think, take our thinking out of the box, and simply push us to learn more than surface meanings of the material. It can also be a subconscious decision to complete homework and assignments that we know will help us to succeed in a class. In this way, agency is a benefit to us in that we are so used to having our lives scheduled out for us, but with our own willpower and own initiative, we can use the agency we were born with and figure out life for ourselves. Essentially, it is an action we take to have a certain effect. For instance, we can manage our time and set goals to ultimately get good grades and eventually graduate. 

                Carrying on through this week, a new word to my vocabulary was hegemony. I found this noun to mean, “leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others” It was used in media however to mean, “the domination of culture by one particular cultural group, resulting in the empowerment of certain cultural beliefs, values, practices over others.” Using this definition, I automatically think of the Woman’s Suffrage through the 1920s and how society was dominated by men, and how different society is now as we see more and more successful and powerful women. Another word stranger to me this week included permutation. In this word, I see the root word of mutation so I can infer that it meant something to do with change. The verb permute in the dictionary means, “to alter; change.” I can now permute my schedule in a way to make room for my top priorities!

5I; Friday Night Lights

“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.”- Friday Night Lights

We waved our flags and screamed our hearts out in spirit of SCSU’s football team this past Saturday. Colors of blue and white streamed across our faces as the Owls were ready to fight and take on Merrimack College. Through perseverance and hard-work, Southern came out on top to win the game 40-34, which serves as their first win.

I am more than overjoyed to know that there is a football team here on campus and home games that we can attend because football is my favorite sport to watch. It also gives us, as a university, a chance to come together and support each other outside of the classroom, as we also do inside of it. It was nice to look up and see the entire set of bleachers engulfed in fans who came out to route on Southern. Although the cold crept up our bodies, we were able to witness the entire game and the outstanding game played by our team. I think a lot can be learned through football and through watching it since I was little, I have learned that it of course takes physical strength and training, but is also a very mental game. The motivation and will power put into going to practice every day and always getting knocked down, can show to get right back up. I loved attending the home football game and tailgating beforehand and will definitely be in attendance with my parents on Family Day for the next home game!

5B; Balancing Act

  "Make use of time, let not advantage slip."

William Shakespeare

  As mentioned by a lot of students here, especially freshman, these four weeks we have completed have flown by to say the least. Reflecting back, not only have the weeks flown by, but the days are gone in the speed of light. College is all about time management, the way in which we use our time is crucial to how well we succeed and also crucial to the efficiency of gaining our education. After carrying out the Time Study activity for one week, detailing each hour we spent, I quickly appreciated how much time we really do have.

                It is always suggested that in order to make the most of our learning experience in college, we are to complete forty hours a week on reading, homework, studying, and thinking about the material. Seeing as school has always come first for me, I was definitely shocked to see my total hours spent on school work was about twenty-two hours, half of what is expected. However, I do feel like I am completing all of the work given to me to my fullest potential so it could be that last week was an abnormal week in terms of how much school work was assigned. I am sure once midterms come around along with the end of the semester, I will reach the forty hours as expected. Furthermore, I can admit that I should start paying closer attention to my reading assignments in that it will not only enhance lectures, but also can develop my reading skills and therefore make me a stronger reader. Analyzing my schedule, I had over seventy hours devoted to sleep which took me a little by surprise. I am glad to see that I am getting a more than a sufficient amount of sleep, but sometimes too much sleep is not good either. To tweak this, I will start setting alarms for myself, about an hour earlier so that I can prepare for class, workout, or do a little more homework.

Socializing is one of the biggest distractions for me here at college. There are always fun events going on throughout campus, and I feel as if my friends are always going out to have fun. From the Time Study, I have spent more hours socializing than school work and it didn’t sit well with me. I would like to have spent a little more time on school work and have a parallel amount of social time.  I am so glad we had a discussion on Tuesday in Inquiry about this because a lot of others in the class felt the same way and I was reassured by the professor that college is essentially about the education. My priorities were set straight after this class as I began to open my eyes to how much money is being spent on my education and how I’ve worked so hard to get where I am.  

As a whole, I feel I do not procrastinate a lot, although I do find myself procrastinating when presented with larger assignments that may not be due for a longer period of time. It is now spelled out for me how many hours there actually are in a day and knowing this, I can pick apart these more project-based assignments and find time each week to complete a portion, so that I do not find myself cramming. From this assignment, I can conclude that I am good at managing my time so far, and am receiving the grades I want based on how much time is put into my work, but there is always room for improvement. Starting next week, I will definitely be devoting more time to school work and might also try setting actual time frames so that I do not lose sight of this. If mapping out my week between coursework, free time, and allowing time to process and analyze the information works, I will definitely carry it out for the rest of the semester to create a nice balance. I am confident this will work in that it is mentioned in the “How to Become a Deeper Thinker at College” article a few weeks back.

As long as my grades and progress in learning keep boosting my confidence to push harder, I will keep up my time management strategies, with a few changes of course. Balancing all of these responsibilities can be overwhelming as we have always had them laid out for us, but I feel as though I am really doing a swell job. There are so many hours in each day and we don’t even realize it, but it now lies in our hands to exercise the lessons we have learned from our time study, and use them to better ourselves. 

Can an organized schedule help you maximize productivity? Are you making the most out of each day? Are you satisfied on the results of your hard work?

5A; Looking in the Mirror

“We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.” 
― Henry Ward Beecher

Walking around campus, I am no longer an alien here anymore. Recognizing more faces, saying hello to new friends, attending club meetings, and developing relationships with colleagues is more than I’d ever thought I could accomplish in just four weeks in a new environment. Not only have I learned so much from teachers and new material, but I have already learned a lot about myself. As far as self-evaluation goes, we all have our strengths and weaknesses to continually assess in order to keep laying our path to success.

These past four weeks have flown by, but I have noticed that being able to get all of my work done on time is really helping me to be organized and be able to follow along with the course material. But, I have noticed a change also in the way in which I think about course material. Taking two critical thinking classes has really pushed me take my thinking out of my comfort zone and consider many different angles of the material, which is promising and also intriguing. Furthermore, my positive attitude has really pushed me to reach my fullest potential and has also helped me to wrap my head around the fact that I won’t be good at everything, but need to still put my best effort forward. However, in the readings for this week, one titled “Success for Students” stated, “don’t ask what you are good at, rather, what are you willing to get good at.” Reading this really opened my eyes as it shows that there may be potential in places where we aren't necessarily looking.

They say change is a good thing, and I can definitely say that I am happy with the school I chose, but I knew from the start it would be a big adjustment from what I am used to. Coming from a smaller town and a close family, it is a little harder for me to get used to seeing new faces every day and not knowing as many people as I did in high school. From this, being able to meet new people every day can be overwhelming but I definitely enjoy seeing and hearing the diversity we have here at Southern. To add, it has been difficult to be away from my family and knowing they are going apple picking, or attending a family party without me. They are my rocks, and I am blessed with such an amazing family, so I will have to settle for phone calls and going home here and there. I understand this is the next step and I am only bettering myself here. Therefore, I have recognized that change may be a positive thing.

Going along with the readings in the “Tips for Studying” category, I find that if I repeat back what I need to learn and attempt to teach it to others, I get more out of the material. This way, it is not just straight memorization, as that should be the last resort, the reading suggests. Also in this category, it makes certain to get across setting a specific time to study, which I also have done these past four weeks. From now on, however, I definitely need to fight the temptation of being on social media sites while doing my assignments, because as the readings say, we think we can multi-task, but end up losing focus and do much worse than if we were not on them. My short-term goal to prevent this is shutting off my phone during the hours I do homework or study, or keep the phone on silent and out of sight. This goes along with the self-control reading from last week as it says, “the key is to avoid even thinking about it in the first place.”

Being in class on the edge of my seat, I suddenly get a heat rush and anxious as I attempt to answer a question. Initially, I have never been a big participator, but as I get more comfortable with the class, I start coming out of my shell. I can distinguish this as one of my downfalls, especially now in college that it actually counts towards my grade. To cure this, I feel I need to start asking at least one question in every class and answer two questions. If I start off small and gradually participate more, I can reach my goal of self-improvement and potentially learn a lot more than I would just sitting in my seat. Lastly, I want to bring up a question in the “Eliminating Stress” category which gave me a reality check and might actually change the way I go about each day. It asked, “Am I living well now or preparing to live well later? If you’re not trying to live well now, what are you waiting for?” It took me about a day to take this concept in but the truth in it is so real. I know too well that each day is not guaranteed for all of us and that we need to make the most out of each day we are given. Of course, we like to look at life preparing for our future with a positive attitude, but the reality is that life is what happens when we are busy making other plans. I like having these reality checks from time to time so I don’t lose sight of what really matters. Being the most we can be today is what matters.

Now that I have set goals and devised my plans of action, I need to follow them exactly and once reached, set new goals!

Are you living well now? How can we continuously create and complete goals so that motivation is not lost? How can we use self-evaluation to better ourselves?

http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/09/09/are-you-living-well-or-preparing-to-live-well/

http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/05/18/the-power-of-demolition-why-the-best-study-strategies-are-new-strategies/

4V; A New Paradigm

“There's no advantage to hurrying through life." -Shikamaru Nara” 

Who knew that the best part of a s’more could bring about new ideas, conflicting theories, and different ways in which we go about our lives? Resisting it for fifteen minutes can actually foreshadow our future success! Prior to discussions this week along with readings, I had zero idea about the definition of delayed gratification. I knew that delaying something obviously meant to slow it down, but gratification was a new word to me. Now, I am able to confidently say that gratification is the state of fulfillment and therefore delayed gratification means to wait for this satisfaction. I always think of a complete opposite example to delayed gratification, which would be fast food. Fast food is an enemy of many people here in America as it gives great instant gratification, but leaves you with a terrible “reward” further along down the road such as feeling sluggish and weight gain. With willpower and motivation, we can have the option of saying no to that delicious Big Mac, and spend time cooking a healthy, more enjoyable meal.

This week, the word paradigm came up in two of my classes which really stood out to me. Paradigm is a noun which means, “A set of forms all of which contain a particular element, especially the set of all inflected forms based on a single stem or theme,” or can mean, “An example serving as a model; pattern.” One example would include social networking as it represents a paradigm shift in communication. An additional word I came across this week was finite. I never made the connection to the word “infinite” until this week, so I wasn't surprised when the meaning in the dictionary said, “having bounds or limits; not infinite; measurable.”

4B; Don't Blink, Life Goes Faster Than You Think

My question to explore from this week’s readings is-

What are ways or strategies to better our ability to delay gratification? Are we even able to better this or are we born with it?

                One way to look at this question is the nature versus nurture principal. Some may believe that the ability to delay gratification is something we are born with. These same people would say that people are born with a set amount of patience and cannot build up patience. With that being said, it connects to the fixed mindset in that having this mindset considers we are born with a certain amount of intelligence. To go along with this, the willpower article brings up that, “You only have a finite amount of willpower as you go through the day, conserve it, save it for emergencies.” So, maybe we are born with it but deeper, maybe it is the way in which we choose to use it, not so much the amount we have. If not used efficiently, the lack of willpower could turn into ego depletion where everything feels more intense.

                The other way of looking at this argument is that we are able to better our ability to delay and it seems more logical to me. Most of the articles spelled out different strategies to help exercise our abilities. In “The Secret of Self-Control” article, it suggests that one makes the situation work for them. An example of this would be if someone is hungry, and tempted to eat an unhealthy snack such as cookies, to not even have cookies in the house. This way, they still can satisfy their hunger, just in a different way, hopefully with a healthy option. The most effective strategy I found in these articles was that the key is to avoid even thinking about it in the first place. By distracting ourselves from the rewards and plugging away at the challenge little by little, we will stop focusing on the reward so much and before we know it, we will reach the end result. I never realized it, but this can relate in my own life to high school. My high school experience was absolutely amazing and I will cherish the memories forever, but I think we all have a point where we just want to fast forward through the four years and just move on to college. But, by involving yourself in activities, attending school functions, and building positive relationships with teachers and peers, four years goes by in a blink. This is exactly what happened to me in high school and hopefully will carry on through college. Getting all of my work done, but dismissing the thought of it will help me make the most out of my college experience. These turn out to be examples of meta-cognition  or thinking about thinking. Therefore, the strategy goes further to focus on what works for you personally and applying those approaches to difficult tasks in particular. Ways to do this include planning out each week for yourself and also clearly recognizing your priorities. Prioritizing time, work, and fun, can really help to balance what life throws at us and I believe is the right path to success.

                After considering both sides of the argument, I think it is a mixture of both. I do think we are born with a set amount of patience and smarts to an extent, but there are definitely ways of us improving on them. All we have to do is outsmart our desires and find an efficient way to use our willpower throughout each day so that we do not suffer from ego depletion. So, to answer my question, I do think there is enough evidence to prove that we can develop our delaying gratification skills through constant exercises and practice, with the foundation of what we are born with.

How can we educate others to practice delaying gratification? Will they be more interested if they know it is the key to success?

4A; Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

    "Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a positive attitude while waiting"

  The American dream, to be successful. No matter who you are, everyone would like to reach the point of their opinion of “success.” But how is success measured and how can we achieve it? In this week’s video of Joachim de Posada, he makes a very blunt statement, “the most important principle for success is the ability to delay gratification.” Delaying gratification involves the ability to resist temptation of an immediate reward for a bigger reward in the future. This form of extrinsic motivation was tested in the Marshmallow Test which consisted of three, four year old kids tested as to how long they could wait until eating the marshmallow placed in front of them. If they could wait the full fifteen minutes, they would get two marshmallows, a better reward. But to a four year old who has no concept of time and feels like they're waiting forever for what they want, it is much more difficult to resist. The results of the test were that only one-third of the children were able to wait the amounted time, which is not surprising in the least bit. Furthermore, the researchers followed up on those who participated in the experiment and found that the low-delayers had lower S.A.T scores, behavioral problems, and even drug problems. When I first read this, it was a very shocking correlation because it seemed a bit extreme that a marshmallow test could actually predict future life success. This is where I found the “Just Let Them Eat the Marshmallow” article intriguing. It carefully detailed the statistics saying that of the five hundred fifty original participants, only ninety-four children’s S.A.T. scores were actually collected and a vast majority did not participate in the original experiment. It also questioned the validity of the experiment and saw the test as more of an ADHD test. This article also went on to say that the time avoiding the reward had zero correlation to IQ or self-control at age eighteen. Although these articles contradict each other, the idea of self-control, self-discipline, and delayed gratification are explored.

                In general, I would describe myself as an impatient person as I do not like to wait. But as I think about my life and life-goals, I begin to rethink this analysis about myself. Enrolled in a four year university, I never looked at school as “waiting” to finally get my degree. Although I am thrilled this will be the end result, I feel as though school is part of my normal routine and I truly enjoy having the opportunity to further my learning and grow as a person. This may be because of a growth-mindset I have towards school or maybe my ability to delay gratification. Both of these I believe come from both being born with it and also from the nurture I have received up until this point. The support I get from my parents especially, teachers, and colleagues is more than I can ever ask for and really keeps me going. As I apply the daily willpower I instill, I take each day to complete tasks thrown at me, while also looking at the bigger picture and realizing I have four years to finish.

Another reason I would re-think my patience level is the fact that my boyfriend currently goes to school in California. He moved a few years ago and I have had to wait a year each time to see him. Although we talk daily, the instant gratification is not there. With effort and willpower, I know the end “reward” will be completely worth it. As Americans, we thrive on instant gratification as technology is a huge part of our everyday lives. We are so acclimated to just typing something into the internet and getting our answers, instantly. Ever since our phones have become computers, this has an even bigger impact on us. Now the phone companies even have “express plans” so customers have to wait a shorter time for an upgrade on their phone. To improve our ability to delay gratification and make it more readily practiced in society today, it should start in the home. As discussed in the “Don’t! The Secret of Self-Control” article, parents should be establishing rituals daily such as, saying no to snack before dinner or saving allowance.

If delaying gratification really is the secret to success, it must be practiced from when we are young, strengthening our willpower, and resisting that urge to eat the marshmallow. Patience truly is a virtue.

How can we improve delayed gratification? Can we learn to delay or is it something we are born with?

4I; All That Jazz

    Known as the heart of the American theatre

industry, Broadway is one of the oldest boulevards which dates back to the first New Amsterdam settlement. Along with this, it is one of my oldest dreams from about the time I started dancing. Seeing a Broadway show just seemed so intriguing and I have always looked up to each and every individual who is a part of them.

                This past weekend, I had the chance to make my dream come true. As part of Southern’s Programs Council, they offered a trip to see the show “Chicago” on Broadway. We stepped foot on the bus on Saturday and rode into the city. As the lovely smell of New York City smooched our noses, we obtained our tickets and we were off! Seeing the bright lights of Times Square, to a whole new level of diversity, the city is always an interesting yet completely exhilarating experience. Feeling like a little kid in candy shops, my roommate and I ventured into several Fifth Avenue stores, to window shop of course. Five hours came and went and with throbbing feet not being able to breathe in our boots, and filled stomachs from the delicious dinner we had, it was finally time to make our way back to the Ambassador Theatre. We reconnected with the forty other members of our group and followed the line inside where we were greeted by a spunky man who took our tickets. He exclaimed, “My dream girls are here!” While making our way up to the mezzanine we went to discover our seats, I was awestruck by the beauty of the architecture in the theatre and blown away from the chandelier delicately hung from the ceiling. The show finally started and my eyes were fixed wide for the entire two hours. The precision and passion put into each move by all of the dancers was amazing. In its entirety, the show was flawless.

What are your short term and long term goals? How can you use people as resources to motivate you?

3A; Keep On Keepin' On

            Arguably one of the greatest writers in English, Shakespeare has influenced many people over the past four hundred years. Although his pieces may be toughly worded and sometimes confusing to comprehend, they include lessons and thought-provoking ideas in which we can apply to our everyday lives, even in such a different way of life today.

                When I first took a stab at this quote, I was not easily able to wrap my head around it and how it could relate to this week’s class discussions. But, after pondering it further, I realized that it was trying to get across the fact that nothing is actually good or bad itself, but rather the way each person perceives it provides the way we feel about it. For example, we live in a country full of luxuries such as clean water, nourishment, and shelter. We perceive other countries that are less fortunate as something we could never get used to, but still take these things for granted. How can we remind ourselves that there are always others who are happy with less than what we have?

                We are all human, which means we do think differently and each person has their own point of view. The way in which we approach daily activities and challenges are also varied among the population but as we discussed in class from the readings, there are two mindsets we can use to approach these different tasks. Someone who believes that knowledge is a biological trait that cannot be altered is classified with a “fixed mindset,” while those who believe they can constantly better themselves and learn to love challenges would be classified with a “growth mindset. Clearly, we discovered that having a growth mindset will not only lead you on the path to success, but also better yourself and your outlook on life. With this, Carol Dweck’s article suggests that we must take responsibility, be our own advocate, and learn from setbacks because these will only motivate us to grow.

Motivation is elusive, hard to express, hard to have complete mental grasp upon. It is the force behind accomplishing our everyday encounters. Like mindsets, motivation is broken down into two categories which include extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Within extrinsic motivation, is focusing our attention on the post-task reward and or punishment to promote action. The example used in the article, “Motivation, the Elusive Drive” was baking. I thought this was clever because it detailed the hatred of the process of actually baking, but indulging in the product that was produced. Extrinsic motivation can be very effective in that it can be tempting to start action, but sometimes will hinder the discontentment of our minds. If we only relied on this type of motivation, in my opinion, there would be no desire to keep that drive of going above and beyond. Intrinsic motivation may be difficult to achieve and create inside ourselves, but taking steps such as providing an autonomy environment, appropriate challenges to eliminate boredom and increasing competence, can be factors to start building it, the article suggests. “We all assign different levels of significance and meaning to different things.” This goes back to the Shakespeare quote in that our different levels of meaning and significance towards different things can lead us to concluding whether they are “good” or “bad”, depending on our thinking.

I finally found the intrinsic motivation to really dig deeper about this quote I had no idea about and was able to satisfy my questions about it. My growth mindset allowed me to climb this mountain of challenging quotes placed upon me and not give up. Extrinsically speaking, I can enjoy my trip to Broadway this weekend, knowing all of my blogs were completed!

How can we reach our fullest potential in life?

http://blog.clerestorylearning.com/motivation-the-elusive-drive

http://mindsetonline.com/whatisit/themindsets/index.html

3V; Just Do It.

       Running five miles on the treadmill to feel satisfaction or studying diligently for an exam for a result of a good grade. Often times, we have motives to push ourselves to complete tasks and hurdles in our everyday lives. We all want to be successful, we all need drive, and all would like to be seen by others as motivated. But, where does this come from? I was very interested in this topic so I furthered my research to get some conclusions. Some interesting points I came across included our biological makeup and the simple feelings of thirst or hunger. These internal feelings essentially motivate us to eat or drink so that we are provided with energy to keep going. Another theory that came up was Freud’s psychoanalytic theory which states that we have two drives called “Life and Death drives.” These drives simply reach the goals of helping us to survive, or prevent our destruction and the example used was that we go to school believing it will help us to obtain a good job, or even a spouse, which I found intriguing. All in all, to me, motivation would be the reasons or underlying forces for why we do things.

http://www.swiha.edu/articles/198-motivation-where-does-it-come-from.html

Extrinsic Motivation;

This type of motivation often times uses rewards for getting through different events such as participating in a tournament and receiving a trophy at the end. As discussed in class, it can be part of a fixed mind set because just providing effort will get you the reward. What I find interesting about extrinsic motivation is that there can be a negative side to it. A punishment can also enhance our motivation and drive to do better.

Intrinsic Motivation;

One of the hardest things about this type of motivation is that it has to come from yourself. You are the only one who can motivate yourself to accomplish self-satisfaction. Creating measurable and appropriate challenges with progress we can easily see can be a jump start in creating intrinsic motivation. I like this type though because when you want to do something and you want to apply yourself, it is so much easier to accomplish and do well. For instance, lately, I have really been trying to push myself in classes and I found that lately, I have been thinking about the material we learn outside of each class more and more. This allows me to really understand and soak up the information so I can further analyze in future assignments or classes.

How can balance be achieved between the two types of motivation? Which type of motivation is more crucial and helpful to our own lives?

New words I stumbled upon this first full week of classes included tampered and variance. I had a prior understanding of the word tampered and found in the dictionary that this verb means, "to meddle, especially for the purpose of altering, damaging, or misusing." However, I was not aware of the alternate definition that included, “to engage secretly or improperly in something.” The second word variance is one I came across in Statistics and means the square of the standard deviation, but in the dictionary, it is a noun meaning, “the state, quality, or fact of being variable, divergent, different, or anomalous.” 

3I; Ballet Boxing?

 “If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door” 

― Milton Berle

            

      #24 “Okay, first position everyone!” exclaimed the blonde standing in front ready to instruct. Was I back in ballet class? No, but I had stepped foot into a “piloxing” class. To my surprise, there was a happy medium between boxing and Pilates, and is apparently becoming even more popular than Zumba. Through tough, meaningful punches, and delicate, fluid motions, piloxing is definitely a fitness class I will attend regularly. As sweat rolled down my face, I took a step back and realized how lucky we are to have these very diverse opportunities on campus. Even though it doesn't count as a grade or community service, group exercise classes are such a worthy way to meet new people who enjoy pushing to better their bodies as well. I am beyond excited as I keep building on my goal to meet as many different colleagues possible, and having fun while doing it is the most fulfilling!

                What are ways to keep our bodies healthy while dealing with the stressors of college? In what ways can we push our brains, as much as we push our bodies, to its fullest potential?

3B; The Sky is the Limit

      
"Our thoughts and imagination are the only real limits to our possibilities."- Orison Swett Marden


   As my feet creep against the hard wood, my smile kisses both ears, I am safe here. My mind is wiped of anything poking at it and there is no such thing as worrying in these ten hours. The fluidity of my movements allow me to let my body go and open my mind to new thoughts such as choreography or interpreting the music to find an appropriate mood for the dance.

Dance has been such a big part of my life for the past fourteen years and has impacted me emotionally and physically. Through my knee surgery, I still was able to enjoy my dance school’s recital and help, even though I was not physically in it. In states of sadness or anger, dancing is used as a coping mechanism for me personally. The way I am able to improvise during dance according to what I feel that day, is such a rewarding as well as self-assessing process for me. But, interestingly, one of the best things about dancing, is the way to be able to pretend to be something or someone else that you’ve never experienced before. If a monster has overtaken my day, I could completely turn it around and have a huge grin on my face, produce a strong performance by being serious, or let it all out and cry to create an emotional performance, the possibilities with dance are endless. Looking in the mirror at the studio, a feeling of high sense of self control, a focus and attention to detail are very present in me.  A favorite routine of mine incorporated many African movements which was amazing because it was an experience not many people will ever get. Along with this, I am free to be who I really am whenever I step onto the dance floor. Through my movements and expressions, on stage especially, a stranger would never guess I can be as shy as I am.

Throughout my dancing career, I have expanded my horizons to about six styles of dance which include; tap, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, ballet, Irish step dancing, and African. Because of this, I feel like dance has taught me to have an open mind, be proud of my successful performances, and also to be able to cope with failure. Therefore, I can say with confidence that dance is a strong supporter in having a growth mindset and being a mastery-oriented learner. I say this because dance is not even close to being an easy activity and in one style or another, you are not going to succeed or be criticized on the way you interpret that style. For me, and for most, this was ballet. Challenging your balance and nit picking every position you form, ballet is very difficult to master, but is a style everyone would like to. So yes, dance can generate goals that are although challenging, still attainable.

Dance can be similar to obtaining an education here at Southern in that even though there may be roadblocks and difficulties in the way, perseverance will always come out on top. It has taught me to never stop giving up and also that I am beautiful the way I am. Treating my education like dance can be difficult, but can be accomplished through enthusiasm and positivity. The sky is the limit both in dance and in education or careers as long as you apply motivation and effort, continuously.

How can we guarantee to have as much passion in learning as we do in our favorite hobbies/activities? What are ways we can begin to experience “flow” from learning?

2V; Taking Action

“If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.” 

― Thomas A. Edison

       Take initiative to better yourself, to challenge yourself. Take the initiative to share your opinions and views, to get involved. Take initiative to find who you are. To me, this word means the act of taking something upon yourself or in other words, doing something on your own. I feel it is a word of empowerment and can also show independence. In class while discussing the readings for the past week, we discussed tips for success and this word came up. Taking the initiative to ask questions when unsure is one we conversed about and one I should really take into consideration, even though I can be shy at times. I see this word to be of importance pertaining to our class and others because we all need to take initiative to share our ideas; bring them to the table. Each individual will have something different and interesting to say and could really create an interesting, intelligent conversation to enhance our learning.

      This week, I came across the word discontented in the article, “The ‘Learning Knights’ of Bell Telephone.”[1] Using the dictionary, I found this adjective to mean, “not content; dissatisfied.” I know I am discontent with people who are constantly negative and will use this meaty word next time I come across someone of this nature. In history class, the word divinity came up. After looking up the definition for the noun, it instead included the adjective form, “divine” and this word means, “of pertaining to a god.” It was used in the context of talking about various civilizations and the religions supporting them. All in all, I am very content in taking the initiative to expand and enrich my vocabulary as required in these assignments.

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[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/opinion/16davis.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

2B; Involve Yourself!

"A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step"
-Lao Tzu

       Free your mind, open its doors to the endless possibilities. In life, I believe that recognizing your weaknesses and downfalls and improving upon them is one of the most important lessons we can learn. High school was an opportunity to begin the process of finding ourselves such as what we enjoy, or who we belong to be around. One of my biggest regrets from these past four years was the failure to join and participate in more clubs. The French National Honors Society was the solo club I was a part of because I was so focused on getting back to playing soccer and dancing, that I was close-minded to becoming part of more academic clubs or community service based organizations.  

      This year, I have decided I would like to join at least two clubs at Southern and stick with them to get the experience of what they really are about. Surprisingly, I have taken action already by attending the street fair the first week and actually taking the initiative to go up to the tables and inquire about them. After many conversations with all different types of people, I decided to put my contact information down for the Symphonic Pulse Dance Team and the Programs Council. Dancing all my life, I was so pleased to find out the chance was there for dance being an actual club. Sending chills from the tips of your toes, to the top of your head and cutting ties of any stress, dance allows me to fly away. Words cannot describe how excited I am to be able to continue this onto my college career. Secondly, Programs Council grabbed my attention in that I will be exposed to all different types of activities here on campus and be able to actually plan them. From the way the two ladies who run this club described it, Programs Council sounds rewarding and a lot of amusement is involved. Monday is the first meeting and I am excited to be able to meet a bunch of new people and be able to offer my suggestions to ensure these events have high attendance and therefore will be even better.

     Goal setting is nothing new to me, but optimistically the ability to fulfill my goals will come through and will only help me in the end. My hopes are to become a better-rounded person, interact with new people, and have fun in the process by joining these clubs!

2A; Illusions

   Optical illusions, I thought this week’s readings were straight forward in that they listed possible tips for success and ways to improve our college career but what I didn't realize right away was that they triggered my brain to really get in depth and essentially, self-assess. I found myself thinking about completely complex things rather than the surface meanings.

After reading and class discussion, “Work Hard, Work Smart” and “How to Become a Deeper Thinker at College,” were two articles I found the most practical and useful. I learned to constantly be aware of what is being taught and why and also to self-assess periodically to give ourselves a chance to recognize downfalls and learn from them. Furthermore, I obtained to play to my own strengths and to frequently ask questions, even when I might think I am sure.

Right away, I will definitely begin making a schedule for myself to allow time to do coursework, have free time, and most importantly to allow time to process and analyze the work and discussions on my own, as suggested in the deeper thinker article. I also feel better about taking classes that don’t pertain to my major directly, because in the “College Advice” article, it detailed that the courses in various areas are vital in forcing you to use your imagination and challenge us to prevent the mind from narrowing. This is also talked about in the Bell Telephone article as they discuss how crucial it is to obtain a liberal education, the foundation of your life ahead.

   I found the most new ideas came from the article about Kafka. “People feel uncomfortable when their expected associations are violated, which creates an unconscious desire to make sense of their surroundings.”[1] It took me a moment to take in this quote, but the truth really shined through it. I thought back to the first day of college, nerves filling the classrooms, all of us put in a new kind of situation. Most of the time not knowing a single person, we were all anxious to meet our professors and classmates, and most of us took risks to find something in common or strike a conversation with someone near us. “This may be the one time in your life when you have a chance to think about the whole of your life, not just your job.”[2] This quote was the black sheep of all of the articles as it really made me re-evaluate why I am in college. Prior to these readings, I was going through the motions, getting my work done and enjoying the college life but being in various critical thinking classes, I find myself stretching my thinking and taking mental leaps, more so than I did before. It is one of the most rewarding things to ever happen to me as I always thought I was incapable of this.

How can we continue to challenge ourselves every day?

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[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090915174455.htm

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/opinion/06nussbaum.html

2I; The Climb

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.” –Andy Rooney

               

      #18- Crashing down like a bunch of bricks on me in the Lyman Center, it finally hit me. I have taken the initiative to further my education and landed right here at Southern. Looking around, I saw some recognizable faces, most were new to me, and saw faculty members I have not yet had the chance to come in contact with. Those strangers are my classmates, and the faculty, I will soon learn, are my support here.

                The new student convocation today was a humbling experience that I am glad I attended. It was a scarce chance for the university as a whole to come together and show just how eager and excited each one of us is to be starting our college career. As members from the class of 2017 got up on stage and read pledges, I was so proud and realized how lucky I am to be here. Furthermore, I enjoyed hearing the president of this institution speak about the changes and improvements they are constantly making here to ensure we are surrounded with the best education and environment possible. “This university constantly grows and develops, just as all of you are,” she proclaimed. I liked these words she gave to keep reminding myself that I still have so much ahead of me and excites me for all of the endless possibilities. 

How can we constantly push ourselves to ensure our full potential is reached?