Relationships

   It's  strange to  think about how relationships can help to form your identity. When you think about the about the person that you are, it's easy the credit yourself  with the making of that person and overlook the relationships that got  you there. But how much of yourself is actually a reflection of the influential relationships in your life? I think that it varies from person to person how much of an impact relationships have on their identity, but everyone's identity is influenced at least somewhat by relationships they've had in their lives.

   The most significant, identity forming relationship I've had is probably with my mom. I've never been super close with my mother, so it took me a while to realize how much she's actually influenced my personality. Unknowingly I picked up traits and ideas from her. I think that the biggest trait that she influenced is my open-mindedness and willingness to embrace diversity and change. I always took this for granted, but once I came to college I realized that this is not a quality that everyone has, and I started to think about why I am that way. I also think that it's because of her that I'm more apt to doing creative activities than sports. If I hadn't moved away from my home and from my mother, I might have never realized how much she influenced my identity.

   I also wonder how influential my friends are in forming my identity. While I probably owe the largest part of it to my mother, I still wonder how different I would be if I had had different friends in middle school and high school. It's interesting to think about how different parts of your life have influenced your personality. 

Reflecting

The reason that I wanted to be in this seminar class is because I felt so unsure of my path coming into college. I was (and am) unsure of what I want to study and do, and I thought that being in a seminar class would help me to figure myself out. Right now my path is uncharted, and there's nothing wrong with that, but by the end of the semester I hope I have more clarity with what I want to do.
So far seminar has been a bit different tan what I expected. It's a lot more interactive than what I would've excepted, but I'm enjoying it, and I'm enjoying getting to know other people in my class.
On the wandering map we did in class last week, two major themes I found were places and hobbies, although they rarely overlapped. Places and hobbies did both tend to overlap with people, though. I found that most of the places that I love are intertwined with memories and dreams that I share with friends and family.
 One place that I listed is New York City, which I've always dreamed of living in. My friends and I used to go visit and see plays often, and now a few of my friends are living there. It will always have a fond place in my heart.
Another place I listed is Lexington, Kentucky, where I visited a few years ago for my cousin's wedding. That struck me as an important place because all of my family was together at once, which hadn't happened for about 6 years before that.
With my hobbies, I noticed that they are social hobbies, which surprised me. Almost all of the hobbies are things that I do with friends, such as going to baseball games with my dad and brother, and making music with my friends.
I guess the overriding theme of the web was people. Although there are not a lot of people that I specifically listed, the people that I did list connect with everything else. It is interesting to have what is important to me laid out on paper and to see how everything connects.

Time Management Part 2

Well the results are in, and it turns out that I'm not great at following a set schedule. Other than classes< I didn't really follow any of the set events on my schedule. Here's what I ended up doing this week:

The interesting thing is that although I didn't follow the set times on my schedule, I did end up doing most of the things that I wanted to do. While planning out every second of my time didn't work for me, I found that having everything written down helped me manage my time and be more productive. I didn't like planning my time on a schedule because I tend to be spontaneous, and the schedule didn't allow for that. I think that in the future I am going to write more of a list as opposed to a schedule because I've learned that is what works best for me. So although this exact method of time management didn't work, it did help lead me to something more efficient. 

First Impressions

The concept of first impressions is strange. I feel like it's not something that is usually consciously thought about, but when you dwell on it you start to wonder. How much do first impressions actually affect the way a person perceives you? In class, we each wrote our first impressions of each other on notecards that we passed around. When I got mine back, it made me wonder how true I am to my personality when I first meet people.  Here's a picture of my notecard with the responses:

I thought that the comment that I was "reasonable" was interesting. I would say this is fairly accurate, as I am a logical person. It's interesting how team building brings out traits in people that might otherwise take a while to find.

Two of the comments on my notecard are contradictory. I was called both "outgoing" and "quiet". I don't know how I could make such a strong impression on one person to be called outgoing, and such a weak impression on another to be called quiet.

I also wonder about how I let subconscious first impressions of other people affect the way I perceive them. How many times have I let something meaningless negatively affect the way I saw them after the meeting was over? For example, I felt irritated by one member of my group, but when I actually broke down the each thought about them I had to write on the notecard, I realized that they weren't as terrible as I had thought at first. As people we are so judgmental, and that will never change, but sometimes it does good to step back from a situation to figure out where the judgments are coming from. 

Time Management

Well, I made a schedule for this week. Let's see if I can stick to it. More news to come.

Who Am I?

There are only three words, but it is such a loaded question. While I believe that it’s next to impossible to try to describe oneself on paper, I am going to try my best to do just that in the next few lines.

         I am logical. I enjoy when things are logical. That is why I like math so much.

         I am theatrical.

         I am musical. I like to make music. I like to listen to music.

         I am very opinionated. And I tend to be loud about my opinions.

         I am excited to be in college and studying subjects that I enjoy.

         I am bad at making decisions. I am very indecisive.

I am a big fan of comedy and satire.

         I am appreciative of and interested in other cultures.

         I am loving Temple (especially honors!)

         I am a friend, a sister, and a daughter.

         I am a perfectionist, which is one of my best and worst traits.

         I am blonde. I am average height.

         I am unsure about my future and my course of study.

         I am a bookworm.

         

While none of these words by themselves describe me completely, together they start to make a bigger picture of who I am.