Self-Reflections
In this blog, I have written as a self-reflection to my life and life during school as well as my stance on social-identities and issues on privilege. Although these have been assigned by my University Studies 10D class, I do not see these as school assignments, but more of a way to express myself and clear my mind. This would also pertain to me striving to become a writer, so this assignment was able to come significantly easy to me.
Self-Identity and Issues of Privelege
Throughout this class, I have learned my social identity defines who I am. Although race is one of the main things people are getting a first impression of me, my social identity also plays a huge role. However, once I am gathered in a specific group as my social identity, I am not portrayed as who I fully am. This is where my self-authorship comes into play. Here, I am able to specifically choose how I am portrayed to the public, giving myself the power to mold myself and refrained from the social stereotypes of society. It is also important to acknowledge the issues of privilege. To me, a lot of privilege can be spread out across numerous issues such as ability. For example, before tearing my ACL, I never noticed how privileged I was when I could walk freely and take any routes I wanted. But after tearing my ACL and being stuck on crutches for 2 weeks, it really opened my eyes. I had to leave 20 minutes earlier than usually just to get to my class. I also had to go up hills around campus that were so much harder than being able to walk without crutches. And just thinking about people who aren’t able bodied and are maybe stuck in a wheelchair their whole life, it really brings to attention how privileged people are just with something many people overlook daily.
Self-Reflection #3
At the beginning of this course, I thought I was set with how I studied and how I looked at the progression of my academics. However, throughout this course, I was introduced to so many different types of concepts, tools, and strategies to help strengthen my learning experience and academic progress. A couple of concepts and strategies that I have found myself sticking with and using religiously is the concept of having a growth mindset and using the pomodoro technique.
First, the growth mindset has appealed to me from the beginning. I love the fact that a human being is able to change the way they are able to think, which results in an improvement on their well-being. I think the growth mindset has been the most important thing in my life during this remote spring quarter. Whenever I am having a problem with critically reading a certain text or figuring out what a text is actually saying, I think and remind to myself that I am not perfect and that human beings are able to make mistakes and get stuck in life. The growth mindset is able to show that challenges and failures are the things people need in order to improve themselves. Challenges and failures should not be seen as a breaking point, but more of a place to learn from those failures. This has definitely helped me with my studies and motivation to become a better student during this quarter.
The pomodoro technique has also been a huge factor into my learning and academic growth. Before, I thought that I was a pretty well-organized person who had good time management. However, I just wasn’t enjoying the content I was learning because I would push myself to finish that task until it was done, which could take from 1 to 3 hours. At the end, I was a mess and just didn’t enjoy learning what I loved to do. But with the pomodoro technique, I was able to stay focused and enjoy what I learned through the 25-minute increment study time. This really helped me stay on top of my work as well as making it bearable. I love this technique because it was something I had never tried before and it allowed my learning experience to become a bit more interesting which has helped me retain information better than before.
At this point in my academic journey, I think my academic, personal, and professional development has been positively increased. With the use of these two concepts/techniques, I have been able to become a better student and most importantly, a better person to myself. I am now able to study for all of my classes with excitement of getting it done, rather than dreading the 2 hours of sitting in a stationary position. I am now also able to take these two concepts and apply them to my life after being a student because these are all applicable in any workplace. Having a growth mindset is crucial in a workplace because you won’t always being given the perfect situation, and some situations may take me down. However, I will see those failures and challenges as a way to learn and grow to become better. And lastly, my personal health has benefitted since the change since I am now able to live a better life where I am not being as overwhelmed with assignments and projects, as I would get before learning these two concepts/techniques. I am so grateful to have taken this course, and it couldn’t have come at a better time, especially during such a stressful time of working remotely. I will undeniably be taking these two concepts—as well as everything I have learned throughout this course—and apply it to my last year at UCLA and life afterwards.