Week 14: To wrap things up...

This week it was pretty hard for me to focus in class, to be honest. I had a lot on my mind...basically everything I had to do before the end of the semester. Looking back on my notes from this week's lecture, I see a lot of check-lists, things to do, and doodling to try and de-stress myself. I wish I could hide from the world like my cat hides in my backpack haha. However I did take notes on what I thought was interesting based on this lecture...

The first exercise we did was one in which we had to think of any creative research activities we've been involved in. The first one that popped in my mind was from a musical anthropology class I took last semester. For our "big" term project, we were assembled into groups and had to observe a cultural/musical occasion that was taking place in the BCS area. My group went to a coffee shop in downtown Bryan that hosted Salsa dancing lessons every Wednesday and Saturday night. We actually had to participate, which was something totally different than I'd done before. After leaving the lesson, I came away with knowing (slightly) how to Salsa, and a better understanding for the Latin community as a whole.

When I came to that conclusion, it hit me that that's probably what Dr. V wants us to do in our creative ventures--he wants us to discover things we hadn't done/heard of before. Seriously. This ALL clicks now! I just had to apply this simple idea into something I had already done. All semester I hadn't really understood why Dr. V wanted us to do so many crazy projects with "innovations", but now I get it. Just like my salsa dancing experience, Dr. V wants us all to strive to go out into the world and experience different things. In doing so, we might be able to better understand ourselves, how we work, and in doing so, we might be able to create greatness along the way.

Speaking of greatness, my group (well, what's left of us) got together Thursday to start brainstorming for our final project. Reading the guidelines at first was a little scary, but after talking it through with them, I'm actually excited. We talked about creating a video in which we would illustrate what the future would look like. We would do this by acting as news anchors (which is a career I've seriously been thinking about lately) and people of the future. I'll be able to let myself enjoy this project instead of stressing about the grade, and dream about a life I could have if this were my eventual career choice. This class has actually taught me to take tasks and try to enjoy them instead of just getting through them to reach the end.

So here's to you, ENDS 101--thanks for teaching me how to appreciate difficult tasks and take pride in my work. Although I don't think this way all the time, I'm a work in progress and I do truly want to integrate this thinking into my future endeavors. So here's to not hiding from the world--I'm here and I'm ready for some greatness! Goodbye for now...