Major Time

For this weeks campus safari I decided to go and attempt to finalize everything for my major. I went to the athletic training department and asked about declaring and how to go about it. They said that I need to fill out some paperwork that is fairly basic. Once completing the information, the department can set me up with an advisor who can further help with deciding classes and answering questions I have as far as catching up for lost time and how to make it up. I'm pretty happy to have this all cleared up because I'm kind of tired of worrying about it and it was better to just get it over with.

Troubling Realities

I did activity four on page thirty-two which addresses going a week without someone that you value. Since I don’t have a week, I decided to just go twenty-four hours without the object. I decided to go without my I Pod for a day. This may seem trifling to some people, but to me it was actually a big deal. I usually always have my I Pod with me because it gives me a sense of well-being and enjoyment in whatever activities I have throughout the day. I listen to my I Pod walking to class, on car rides, doing homework, workouts, running, even before I go to sleep. Without my I pod, I almost feel as if I’m missing a piece of me.

            I found that throughout the day I was much more social. I walked with several of my teammates to classes that morning and had a conversation with them. It encouraged me to ask more questions that involved doing everyday things I normally do alone like eating at CONN or walking to Moore field house for skills practice and lift with others. I found that I enjoyed doing the little things during the day a lot more with people around me rather than just going alone.

            While at Millbrook I rarely used my I pod except for workouts and when I came to Southern, I began to rely on it. I’m not entirely sure why, but I think it has to do with the fact that I moved to a new school, meeting new people, and starting something new as a whole. My I pod may be acting like a crutch at the moment until I can begin standing on my own two feet socially. It’s tough having realizations like this because they become concerning and you want to repair what damage has been done as soon as possible.

From Dreams To Reality

            From what I can tell the exercise wants you describe some of your biggest fears and note them down. I don’t have a ton of fears.  Most of them are related to social anxiety. I often have trouble having conversations with people I don’t know and meeting new people. I think the reason for this is because I often worry about what people think of me. For some people a fear like this is extremely trivial because they honestly don’t care what people think of them and have no problem with just being who they are. As for me, it can be difficult sometimes to watch people who posses what I believe is a unique trait.

            Another pretty big fear I have is actually quite funny. It is actually a dream that I’ve had several times throughout my life. The dream is extremely surreal and literally almost lifelike. If you have never heard of lucid dreaming before, you may be interested to Google it and do some light reading. The dream is pretty simplistic as it starts off with extremely random things that aren’t of any significant importance. The dream always ends in the same way with someone chasing me. As the chase progresses though, I always begin to slow down and can’t control it.  I always wake up extremely distraught and always to think myself why I would have a dream like that again, and again, and again.  Thankfully the dream only re occurs over extended time horizons.

            I think the last thing that I actually really fear is being hit in the head by a baseball while batting. Even though this fear is subtle, it comes alive whenever a ball rides in close to my upper body. During my at bats though I’m so concentrated on hitting the ball that I completely forget about the fear, but every now and then when a wild pitch is thrown, the fear immediately comes alive. I don’t worry about the fear too much because it doesn’t affect my batting.

A Learning Experience

For this weeks campus safari I think I learned a lot about the school in terms of deciding a major and how to go about it. I also learned a lot of information regarding picking classes for next semester. I have been doing a lot of soul searching and have been trying to decide what I’d actually like to do when I leave college.

            I would really like to do something involving athletics. I am interested in pursuing a career that involves being in an environment where I get to work with athletes. I went to the athletic training department in search of information on how to get involved in the major and ideas for classes to take in the upcoming semester. I was told that I missed a fairly significant course because I came into the university undecided. I was advised to take a summer course that could be transferred over for the missed class along with taking anatomy and physiology one in an effort to complete a tier two course related to athletic training.

            I also learned how to obtain a course that is classified as needing department permission and who you need to contact. At first I thought you would need to contact that teacher for the course itself, but it turns out that you need to contract the department head and have approval before your pin will be accepted to sign up for the course online.

            After learning all this information, I know what I need to do in order to begin my journey in a career related to athletic training. Overall it was a pretty informative week and gives me something to talk about with my parents when discussing pursuing a career.

            

The Creative Genius

After reading chapters one through three of Twayla Tharp’s The Creative Habit, I have actually come to enjoy the book. Even though I’m not a big fan of all the dance jargon she uses in the book, she brings up some very relevant points that not only have to do with stimulating a sense of creativity, but also important aspects of life. The beginning of the book really interested me because it had do with rituals and the importance of them when it comes to getting anything done. Tharp portrays our biggest fears associated with accomplishing anything having to do with procrastination. She believes that procrastination is driven by five factors including,  “people will laugh at me, someone has done it before, I have nothing to say, I will upset someone, Once executed the idea will never as good as it is in my mind” (22). I believe that Tharp is spot on even though she is making a generalization towards “everybody” who reads her book. When I read that excerpt, I could definitely see myself fitting the mold she portrays with several personal real life examples.

            Another aspect of the book I came to appreciate that we have already gone over in class is that there are no natural geniuses. I really liked the fact that Tharp drove home this concept with examples of people who literally grind out the hours until they are good at something. Tharp then connects this concept with what she refers to as “Creative DNA”. Tharp draws a fine line between what it means to be a genius and what it means to be creative. Even though you can’t be born a genius, you can be born with creativity. She makes a subtle connection between the two points that stretches far further than what she actually explains in the text. She is making the point that creativity is what leads to people who are considered “geniuses”.

           

            

INQ Video #2

Video #2 Reflection

I completed my video and am pretty proud of myself for how it came out. Even though it didn't come out exactly as I was hoping, it still portrays my initial vision. When I initially read the video assignment on the INQ page, I read about the hike up West Rock. I immediately thought to myself of how cool it would be to have the chance to go on a hike during a weekend when I had some free time from baseball. Little did I know, it would be probably one of the most relaxing experiences I've had since coming to school. The assignment though was to document something about Southern that is unique and distinguishes itself among other colleges. I think West Rock definitely does that. Even though I'm sure other colleges have surrounding opportunities for a student to become more in tune with nature, Southern has that opportunity right in its backyard. I thought it was amazing that all you needed to do was go in back of West Campus dorm to reach the trails for the hike up West Rock. It takes a little intuition though to find the trails because you initially won't find the trails for a good fifteen minutes after going in back of West Campus.
            When I first thought of the opportunity to go on the hike, I thought it would be a great idea to document large portions of the hike and fast-forward them for the video. The idea at first seemed like it would be really good and actually interesting to watch. When I had the footage though and came back to work on the video, I honestly didn't realize how shaky the camera would be during the hike. I thought the footage would be a little more stable than it actually was. Even though the footage didn't come out the way I necessarily expected in that sense, I still think the actual footage came out very nicely. I also really liked the way the video looked fast forwarded because you could take parts of the hike that were ten minutes and consolidate them to a minute or less.