Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Another Check-In
Well it’s been quite a while since I last checked in…again. I’m kind of embarrassed at how badly I’ve been keeping up with this. I should probably update you on my project and academics. For my project, I have finished conducting the interviews and have started on the writing process. It’s kind of hard to measure progress in that area but I think I’m about half way done with those. With math, I have finished all of the chapters and I am going to take my final this coming week. I am a little behind with my English standards, but I am confident that I can get them done by the end of the year. I am finishing up a book to write a paper about, and I’m turning in an essay this coming week I did about racism in present day. Well that pretty much sums up my academic life right now, and I promise to actually check in more.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Overcoming Obstacles
Last week I completed something I have been avoiding for the longest time now. I made phone calls. Sounds like such a simple mundane task, right? To most it seems to be just that, but to me it was a monumental road block. I’ve never been comfortable making or receiving phone calls unless it was someone I knew personally. At work, I used to avoid being near the phone just so I wouldn’t have to answer it if it rang. It causes me such incredible anxiety that I almost can’t place the call, so I am very proud of myself for completing this menial chore. Especially because it was so essential to my project. It’s the only way I can set up interviews. When I get stuck in situations like this, there is always one question: why? Why do phone calls give horrible anxiety? Well, I did some research and it turns out that telephobia is an actual phobia. That surprised me because it sounds so silly; it’s simply the fear of telephones. Though that doesn’t answer what the actual cause of anxiety is, and that is very vital information because truthfully I can be a very anxious person. According to WebMD the most common external cause of anxiety is stress from any number of different sources like school and work. That was expected, and with deadline of semester project looming in front of me it is understandable why I could be stressed. I also found that anxiety can be linked to medical causes such as hypoglycemia, or abnormally low blood sugar levels. I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia about two years ago, and while it doesn’t account for the anxiety I experience specifically when I need to use the phone, it does account for the day to day I endure. If any of you also have trouble making phone calls the biggest tip I can give you is to make a script for yourself! It makes the ordeal way less stressful and unpredictable. I hope this helps anyone who experiences the same thing or entertained the people who don’t!
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Updates
Before I update you on the events that have happened since I last posted I would like to formally apologize for being absent from my blog for so long. I believe the last time I updated you was back in October....embarrassing. And kind of unprofessional now that I think about it, but it's in the past now.
Let's start with acquisition of skill. If you have forgotten because it's been so long, I was supposed to master ten yoga poses and present them to the class. That presentation happened back at the end of November, and I feel like it went really well. I managed to perform my poses all successfully. It surprised with how well it went because I was nervous, so I thought I might fall or something. Looking back on this now I realize how much I miss doing yoga. I have not been doing it due to lack of time and commitment, but I think I am going get back into it because it was a good stress reliever. And I have a lot of stress right now.
That brings us to my next update. The project. For my semester project I am conducting interviews with residents at my local nursing home and compile those into a book of memoirs. I doing this with two purposes. Firstly, I am hoping to make an impact in younger people's live by helping them to understand the importance of learning from people who have already gone through adolescence, so the teens do not make the same mistakes. Secondly, I want to provide the residents at the nursing home with company. So back in December, we had two presentations. We had the Open Faire. That was a public presentation where anyone from the community could come and see what anyone from the Open Program was doing for their semester project. Then we had our presentation to the school board. This presentation was used so the school board could approve our project and our continuation in the program. Since I am writing to you now, you could probably assume it went very well. Currently, I have conducted four of the nine interviews I plan on completing. Also, I have finished writing the introduction and first chapter of the book. I working on the second chapter right now. Those are all the updates I have for now so hopefully my absence from updating will significantly less than last time.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Does Talent Actually Exist?
Recently
in Open English we have been reading a very interesting book called Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin. The
book begins with Colvin explaining that few people will ever achieve what we
call true greatness. In that chapter he
also explains that hard work and experience is not what makes people great. In some cases it can make them worse. He also goes on to try and prove that talent
does not exist. That natural born
abilities are not real and they are not the key factor in someone’s amazing
success. He examines the rise in
greatness standards throughout history to now.
So by the end of the first chapter he has his audience questioning what
does lead to success, and he give them the answer in the next chapter. Practice.
It all has to do with practice.
How you practice, what you practice, how long you practice; it all is
the key to greatness. Also it opens up
the fact that anyone could achieve greatness. The topic he keeps coming back to in these
first two chapters is that what you need to achieve success and greatness in
any field is to use deliberate practice and to have the drive to achieve.
I was a little skeptical about
Colvin’s claim of talent not existing at all.
And Colvin admits in chapter two that maybe talent does exist, but it doesn't matter because even if talent is real it seems to be irrelevant. Colvin had proven through studies and
examples that having a slight ability for something does not people at a high
vantage point over others. That’s truly
amazing! If what he is saying really is
true it opens up a whole to world to achieve in for people who thought they could
never doing anything because they didn't have a magical talent. People often bring up two examples when faced
with anti-talent thesis, Mozart and Tiger Woods. But in reality both of them just worked
incredibly hard from a very young age, and this caused them to achieve
greatness at a young age. The main
influence on both of them was pushy fathers who wanted them to achieve. Teaching Tiger was basically an obsession of
his father, and Mozart's father strived for
him to be amazing. These two stories
make me think of a quote from the author
John Green's book An Abundance of Katherine's. "The vast majority of child prodigies don't become adult geniuses." I think this quote really connects because
it's saying you can't rely on a "God given talent" per say to carry
throughout life. I think that's a main
point Colvin's trying to make; you have to work hard to achieve and there is no
way around that. To conclude, though I
was kind of skeptical about Colvin's original claim I think that he has proved
his point, and he was able to portray his ideas to an audience in a clear
connectable way.
If you are interested in reading this book now
I'll put a link where you can buy it down below.
Monday, October 20, 2014
The Acquisition of a Skill
In open lab, we had to pick a skill to learn that could be physically demonstrated in front of the class. For my skill, I chose yoga. It's something I've always wanted to get into, so this was the perfect opportunity. So, by November 24th, I will have mastered at least ten yoga poses. Yoga has always been intriguing to me because it's supposed to be very good for you physically and it is supposed to help with stress. I am a very stressed person that last part was the real seller on the topic. I hope to continue to use yoga in the future to keep me stress free, physically fit and flexible. So far I have already mastered the forearm bridge pose (first picture) and the first preparation pose (second picture) to successfully complete a supported headstand. The link below discusses the physical and mental benefits of yoga.
Question of the day: If you could learn any skill what would it be?
Let me know down in the comments!
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Creative Problem Solving Interview
We had to Interview someone on how they use creative problem solving in their everyday lives. I interviewed a friend of mine named Micah. His interview was very....interesting. I hope you guys enjoy it!
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