"I wrote the book on procrastination" and Other Goals

It’s the middle of October, so all this midterm talk is very new for me. I've got all of my midterms this week, so it will begin soon. As far as personal goals for the beginning of the first semester, I feel that a few of them have been achieved, from finding my way around campus to getting all of my homework done; they seemed to be the easier of the goals I've set. One of my goals was to branch out and meet new people and try new things. It isn't as easy as it sounds; I have met a few new people though and I have been to quite a few things that I never would've if it wasn't for persistent hassling of a couple friends, but I’m glad they did. In college, it’s a time to explore and take risks and find out things about yourself. I've learned quite a bit about myself in these past few months, and I wouldn't trade anything for it. For the second half of the semester, some of my goals include participating more in class and procrastinating A LOT LESS. The procrastination goal is probably going to take effect sooner than later (she says hopefully). As of now, I will probably continue my homework habit, because I make sure to get it done. To achieve these goals, quite a bit of change will need to happen with myself and how I manage my time.  As of now, I like to multitask while doing my work and that usually leads to majority of my procrastination. If I got rid of distractions, my work would more than likely get done faster. Applying some of the time management strategies that I learned earlier in the semester would definitely help me as well, because then I’d have a schedule set for each day of things that need to get done and I wouldn't have to worry about “am I supposed to be doing something important?” 

Campus Safari #19 : Not at all what I expected

I guess the saying “the early bird gets the worm” is somewhat applicable in this situation. Attending the Majors Expo wasn't all that helpful to me. I had gotten there within an hour before it was over, and there was barely anyone there. Despite this, I decided to walk in anyway to see if there was anything interesting that would catch my attention. Unfortunately, a table for my major wasn't there any longer, which disappointed me. I walked around the rest of the expo, and there weren't any other majors there to catch my attention, so I left. Upon leaving, I was greeted with a survey, which I couldn't really answer because I didn't learn anything. I feel that no matter what time you attended, all the majors that had a table there, should remain until the end so that everyone would have a chance to find out information on their major or possible majors. 

More Than Lost

In and Out of Love (Butterfly Paintings and Ashtrays), 1991 - Damien Hirst

Usually, I’d say that I’m more of a reserved and introverted type of girl who doesn’t like going out much. I tend to have moments where I want to get out and explore, and that’s what I did this weekend. For the first time in my life, I used a city bus and went downtown. Now I’ve never done either of these things on my own, so it was a bit discomforting.  Getting on the bus was a bit difficult when it came to putting my card through properly, because I didn’t know what to do. Luckily, Taiesha was there to help me figure it out.  We decided to go exploring downtown New Haven and walk around. While we were there, she had me try bubble tea for the first time. Personally, I don’t like it. The tapioca tasted like licorice. It felt a lot less weird as the day went on and we went to a couple museums, but while walking through them, I felt really strange.  I always thought that I liked art, and had an appreciation for it. But, I felt awkward being in those museums, like I didn’t know what I was doing.  Walking around these museums definitely put me out of my comfort zone; the security guards watched your every movement and followed you around. I distinctively remember one of them telling me “you look lost”; it made me feel like an amateur walking around looking at everything because he must’ve been addressing the confused look that I probably had on my face. For me to be more comfortable with this, I’d probably have to go back and walk through them again. It was definitely something that I won’t forget because of how strange and new it was, but it was a thrill for me as well. 

It's All Based on Interpretation

An email my dad had sent me as I was typing this blog post.  Example of growth mindset?  and good timing.

Failure is seen and interpreted differently for every person. Depending where it comes from, be it a parent, teacher, coach, or some other authority figure, it can help you or completely tear you down.  In chapter 7 of mindset, they touched on praise again but in terms of failure. A fixed mindset child or student would see the statement “Wow, good job! You learned this so quickly and did amazing on this test” as a sign of praise, but only for the fact that they learned quickly and did well. So if they don’t continue this path, they will be seen as a failure. Same with a child with the growth mindset, they’d see it as praise and continue to learn and challenge themselves. In mindset, they also mentioned ways that parents and teachers can encourage their kids without hinting at failure, and helping them learn and grow. After reading, I thought to myself “I’ve heard some of these statements before”, but they’ve never influenced how I work and think. Reading about the students whose parents would only support them if they went on to fulfill their wishes of going to Harvard, showed me how much easier I have it. My parents didn’t care where I went or what I did as long as the price was right. My independence was my motivation to get where I am now. No label or specific profession or suggestions motivated me. We all look to our parents for support, and when it’s a spur of the moment, it’s hard to think through what you’re about to say and how it will affect your child when it comes to consoling them or telling them what they could do better next time. Reading the article on 32 innovations gave me an eye opener for what people are working on. It’s guaranteed that some of these things will fail, and make society lazier than we already are, but they are a work in progress and when they fail the first time, the inventors will be right there doing everything they can and working to make it better. The article/ debate on “Are We Getting Dumber” showed the evolution of society and how we live today. I don’t believe we’re necessarily getting dumber, but we are getting much lazier and reliant on technology to do our work for us. 

Campus Safari #10:I get a hole in one, and it STOPS RECORDING!

Two of the haunted house crew members allowed us to get pictures with them :)

Ever since college begun, I told myself I would do more and get involved, and so far I've been true to my word. Last night I attended the Friday Night Free for All to Decimation Scream Park. It turned out to be more fun than I expected. There was mini golf, go karting, and a haunted house. It takes a lot to get me scared, and I was screaming the entire way through, and I think that if it makes you scream, it’s generally a good haunted house. I wasn't expecting to scream as much as I did. Go Karting was fun, especially for it being my first time. Planning on crashing was something I could’ve done without, because I didn't crash once. There was an awful lot of rage playing mini golf, my friend Taiesha came with me, and we let out a lot of rage playing because of how frustrated we were. We thought it would be funny to film our game; and of course the one time I get a hole in one, the camera decides to stop recording. I also thought it was awesome that some of the people working the haunted house would interact with us and try to scare us while we were sitting down eating, or waiting in line to get food. 

Which way do you fall?

I’ve always noticed that people react differently to things such as bad grades, bad days, exciting news, and good moments. It only recently occurred to me why, because of their mindset. They either have a fixed mindset, or a growth mindset. Reading the mindset book allowed me to learn about myself in some ways, for example what kind of mindset I am. At first, I felt like I was a fixed mindset, but then concluded that I’m a fixed mindset when it comes to certain situations. This book seems to be favoring a growth mindset over a fixed one. They tend to put a negative spin on someone with a fixed mindset, which in some ways irritates me because it makes me feel like if I've got a fixed mindset on something, that I’m wrong.  In relation to the topic of motivation, I feel that mindset really does play into it quite a bit. If you’ve got a growth mindset, you’re willing to keep going and do what it takes to reach your goals. Whereas someone with a fixed mindset won’t, and they’ll accept where they are right now. This mindset theory can be applied to nearly anything and everything.  The 10,000 hour rule is a perfect example. Having a fixed mindset in terms of this theory won’t do you much good. You will feel that if you just put in the time, something will happen. You will watch and wait for something good to happen to you. With a growth mindset, you will put in both the time and effort to produce something of good quality. A growth mindset will motivate you to keep going and move forward. The path to success is different for both those with a fixed and those with a growth mindset. If you have a growth mindset, you know that the path to success isn’t a straight road, there are a lot of obstacles and opportunities along the way, and someone with a fixed mindset probably won’t agree with that, and they’ll try to stick to what they have to do to reach their goal as fast as possible. 

A New Kind of Medium: Finding Stuff to Do on Campus

It’s not every day you get to go out and stick a camera in people’s faces, but I was lucky enough to interview people who wanted to be on video. This video gave me a chance to become more comfortable in front of a camera and a little more comfortable with myself. My video was about Campus Life in relation to clubs and activities. The main question that I asked was, “What is there to do on campus?” because, let’s face it, there’s a lot to do and we may not be aware of everything that’s going on. My other question was “how do we find it?” because if we know about something, we’d want to know where it is, and more information about it. As far as managing my time, I think I did a pretty okay job.  I spent a couple of days filming, and then a day or so editing it all together. Windows Movie Maker doesn't allow you much creativity and flexibility, as say iMovie or Final Cut Pro does. The overall quality, I feel is pretty good for a first video, you can’t expect perfection and high quality from someone who’s never made a video in their life before. I have to say, it seemed very overwhelming at first because I didn't know what I was doing. Once I started, it became easier. Achieving the goal of making this video informative was reached, I learned where to go to find all the information needed on clubs and activities, and hearing other’s input really helped broaden what there is to do on campus. I could’ve done more to make it entertaining, it was somewhat difficult to add entertainment into this video because my topic isn't exactly, entertaining. Being technologically polished, my video is almost there. Depending on how you did your interviews (with a camera, phone, webcam, etc), your video is going to look very different and have different qualities. It was hard deciding what to keep and what not to. There was a lot of good information that I received, and it took time to really decide what I should keep and what not to. What I decided to do was edit all the interviews that I had together first, and then decide how I would film myself in there. It ended up where I was at the end of the video only, and to introduce, I had a title with some text. I think it worked out well. Everyone had a lot to say, and it was generally the same response, there is so much stuff available to do and it’s easy to find it. All you have to do is look.