Tuesdays with Morrie

Although this wasn’t the first time I read Tuesdays with Morrie, I feel like I appreciated it more this time. In fact, I feel like my appreciation for the book will continue to increase as I begin to resemble the main character, Mitch, and his preoccupation with all of the superficial things life holds. However, reading this time I felt a bit conflicted. Last time I read it the concepts seemed so simple: don’t get bogged down in things that don’t matter, stay close to your family and friends, love everyone. As a college student—especially at a school like Southwestern—I think I’ve become very caught up in planning for the future: internships, grad school, careers, etc. As a result it’s difficult to acknowledge the fact that a job/salary/position is not going to be the end all/be all of our lives. So when I was reading about Morrie “scolding” Mitch for getting too caught up in his job, I was torn between all of the planning that’s going on and the idea that there are and will be more important things in life.

However, I don’t want this conflict to negate the fact that I really like this book. The idea of “love or perish” is one that is very familiar and comforting to me; my family lives by the words “love one another.” This is something that I feel any and everyone can benefit from, and a goal I try to aim for in my daily life.

I think that it would be impossible to fully discuss our topic of Understanding Human Behavior without covering death. Morrie often mentions, and I think we can all agree, that people’s priorities and outlook on life changes drastically when they discover exactly how much of that life they have left. People who had no interest in their fellow human beings suddenly crave relationships; people who continually put things off become eager and anxious to begin those same things. I also think that how a person handles their own death says a lot about them. Morrie’s response, for instance, suggests that he is happy with the way he lead his life and how it turned out. I also think that by being at peace with his situation, it shows that he is confident that everyone he loves is quite aware of his feelings.

I’m interested to see how everyone in the cohort feels about the conflict of striving for a successful career versus focusing on the more personal things in life, or if they think it’s a conflict at all. I definitely believe that both can be achieved, though I’m not sure how easy that may be.

Boys and Girls Club

We talked a lot about what, if anything, we’d like to get out of our service project. I think we toyed with the thought that we shouldn’t want anything out of volunteering, and that wanting to be personally fulfilled defeats the purpose of a selfless act. However, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to personally benefit from a volunteer project. I love kids; they make me laugh. In the long run, I think going to the Boys and Girls Club could have a great impact on these kids, but I’m sure that one day in the near future when I’m stressed and just want to get away from school, this could be the perfect way to do that. We also have the benefit of being with the kids for a limited amount of time. That sounds bad, but I simply mean that by visiting once a week, or once a month or whatever we decide, we won’t become bogged down in the everyday stresses that working with kids can bring. I worked at a kids’ summer camp for two years and by the end of two months I’ll be honest I wasn’t as excited about going to work as I was at the beginning of the summer. For this project, though, we won’t have to worry about that and we can just enjoy spending time with the kids. So I guess one goal I have for this project is pretty selfish (come on, we’re all selfish, it’s not just David): a way to escape from my hectic schedule for a bit and do something that I enjoy that actually benefits others….rather than just watching TV or Facebooking…..

Another goal I have for this project is kind of a smaller version of our group goal (to form relationships with others). While forming relationships is the long-term goal, I think that the being able to interact with people who aren’t just other students to complain with or a study buddy is a great opportunity. I genuinely enjoy being around/getting to know people, and when you’re at a place like Southwestern, though we certainly have a diverse set of personalities, we’re all somewhat alike: hard-working college student (hopefully), teenager/young twenty-something, etc. I think that getting outside of the SU bubble will be a breath of fresh air that might keep us a little more sane as the semester goes on.

Personally, I would like to go to the Boys and Girls Club with a small group at first. I’ll be more comfortable that way which I’m sure will make the kids more comfortable and fell more at ease. As far as structured games/activities are concerned, I think we would be better off just hanging out with the kids and maybe just participating in whatever they’re doing at the time. I’m afraid that if we come in right away and say “OK now we’re all going to do this…” we may come off a little more authoritative than we would like. Eventually, I think it would be fun to incorporate some group activities, I just feel like we’ll have more success with that after we’ve gotten to know the kids a bit.

I think it’s kind of pointless to go to the Club for less than an hour at a time. It will take a little while for the kids to warm up to us and if we take off right after that happens it probably won’t work very well. Honestly, though, I don’t think I’ll be able to go more than 3 times a month…..probably more like 2. I don’t know how often everyone else thinks they’ll be able to go, but I think if we’re going in groups of 2-4 at least every other week, then we’ll have at least one group there each week. Maybe that’s less than everyone is wanting to go, I guess it just depends on how all of our schedules look.

End of semester reflection

So far, I’ve enjoyed Paideia much more than I was expecting to. I didn’t exactly expect to hate it, however I’d heard from several upper-classmen that it really depends on your cohort and your professor. Fortunately, I feel that our cohort meshes pretty well, and Dr. G is just awesome. I think the night on the sport court really helped with that, it’s hard to still be unfamiliar with people after some friendly competition.
I really like the way our class is set up, with the Newsweek readings and blogs. The readings were really beneficial, considering I probably wouldn’t otherwise be keeping up with current events. I think the blogs added to the “informal” nature of the class, for some reason I don’t mind writing a blog as much as I would mind a response paper.
As negative as this seems, one of the best parts of Paideia for me has been being required to do things that I would never do on my own. For instance, I wouldn’t have normally attended a luncheon about the campaign (hence the “personal stretch”), but it was definitely something I needed to do. I think this is somewhat common, however, since I remember people saying they were glad Paideia would force them to study abroad; which is another thing I’m grateful for, because I’m sure I would find some excuse to avoid going abroad if it were not a requirement.
I think we made definite progress as a group. We covered a good amount of the 50 facts and got to talk about some really interesting topics. I enjoyed getting to know everyone’s opinions and where they stand on different issues. This is particularly valuable, since I know that one of the main objectives of Paideia is to bring together students of different backgrounds and majors. I honestly don’t think I would get to interact with this type of diverse group without participating in the program.
This blog wouldn’t be complete without a little discussion about our civic engagement project. While I didn’t vote for the Boys and Girls club, I’m still excited about the project. In my actual CE blog, I was totally in support of the BGC, and I have some fun ideas. I’m just a little hesitant about going one at a time, though I think that if we go in small-ish groups we could organize some sports/games/activities, which I think we somewhat discussed earlier in the semester.
I’m looking forward to next semester and putting our CE project into action. I think that once we start going to BGC and interacting (with the kids and with each other) and discussing our experiences our group dynamic will improve even more.

For my off-campus event, Brady, Cait and I went to play Bingo at Creekside Charity Bingo in Round Rock. Our original plan was to go play in Sun City, hoping for a specifically older demographic. However, I think this experience proved to be just as much of a personal stretch, if not more. While playing Bingo in Sun City would have placed me among many elderly people—something relatively out of my comfort zone—they would have been very similar to me in most other ways (white, upper/middle class, etc.). Creekside definitely provided a more foreign environment.

Upon entering, I felt lost, embarrassed, and honestly a little nervous. It was like walking into the cafeteria with no friends and looking for a place to sit (except that Brady and Cait were there to alleviate some of the discomfort). I immediately felt judged. More than likely, I’m just being arrogant in thinking that anyone would care enough or bother to judge me. However, I got the familiar sensation that these people were pigeon holing me as a spoiled, ignorant, white girl. While I’ve gotten somewhat used to that feeling—upper/middle-class was definitely the minority in my high school, as was being white—it was still pretty unsettling.

Despite this, when we sat down and started fumbling through the sheets of Bingo cards and colored “dabbers,” the woman sitting next to us immediately began explaining what to do. She almost completely stopped paying attention to her card—something that was NOT done in this hall—and showed us where to mark and told us the wild numbers and even came over and helped us dab so we could catch up! We finally got the hang of it, but the woman continued to tell us little helpful bits throughout the night.

This interaction was more than I could have hoped for from this experience. I am so glad that I chose to do something like this instead of attending a meeting or other event that wouldn’t have involved contact with other people. I think this experience was so appropriate to our topic, Understanding Human Behavior. It was very entertaining to watch people throughout the night, so many different types of people were there. I kept wondering what it was that brought each person there. Several older women were there with what looked like groups of friends who attended regularly. There was a group that looked like an elderly woman and her two grown-up kids. From the middle-aged man who had a pizza and a whole stack of cards for the night to the pair of chatty older ladies with their totes specifically made for Bingo—I kid you not, they had pockets along the outside for all of their dabbers—they were all in the same room just trying to relax or get away or get a little competition. The woman who helped us was cracking me up with her husband, who clearly did not have the interest in Bingo that she did; he kept pushing his card over to her and she would tell him no that he needed to play it. Another lady at our table just laughed at us every time we started arguing, but not in what I felt was a cruel or judgmental way. It was more like the way someone would laugh at little kids playing…I think we amused her.

Everyone was so welcoming, which was not the impression I got upon entering. I ended up having a really good time. When we left, we gave our dabbers to the woman who helped us the whole night. I wouldn’t even mind going again, I think we should make it a Paideia activity, the place was overflowing with wonderful human behavior to be analyzed.

Civic Engagement 2

I think we made some progress during our meeting; we actually somewhat narrowed down our ideas a lot more quickly than I was expecting. I really like the concept of doing something with children and elderly people. I think the contrast and varying experiences we will have through those two outlets will lend itself very well to our specific topic. While I am much more partial to a whole group project, I think that this could allow enough interaction within the group to be effective. I am concerned about the number of people who seemed opposed to the idea of working with elderly people. Though I have some experience with this type of interaction and am comfortable with it, I completely understand others’ unease. I think that it’s reasonable to expect to have to stretch ourselves a bit, but if the project becomes something that some of the members dread then I think it kind of defeats the purpose.

Honestly, though I like the idea of the split project, I really would prefer to do something as a group. Like I said during our meeting, I think the more think we spread ourselves the less effective we’ll be. For instance, if we start our civic engagement project as one group, and then as we get more involved in it we realize there are one or two ways within this one project that we can split, we’ll have that option. On the other hand, if we have only 5 or 6 people working on a project and we think of two specific ways we want to go within that project, it would be a lot less likely to work out. That sounds pretty confusing, I hope I explained that well enough.

As far as our actual ideas for the project, I really, really like the concept of a sports program for kids. There is myriad research that shows how beneficial physical activity is for children. (As a matter of fact, I’m doing a research project loosely based on that concept!!) Not only does it improve self-confidence, but it even affects things such as on-task behavior, academic achievement, and involvement in other extra-curriculars. Some people expressed concern in the meeting that they don’t have any expertise in any sports, but I don’t think we necessarily need to teach “sports” as much as just a combination of physical activity, competition, etc. We can all play nuecum!!

As most of you are, I’m also a bit hesitant to commit to something on a weekly basis. While I’m not sure what else we should do instead, I think we would be better off aiming for something less demanding so that we aren’t burned out after a semester. I’m not sure who brought it up, but I liked the idea of forming groups of 3-4 and just making sure one of the groups was at the site once a week. (I forgot to mention, this is all assuming that we work through an already-established program, which I think is going to be our best bet.) If we have 3 groups then we’ll each be going to the site once every three weeks, which I think is more than reasonable. In addition to this, I think we could do a Saturday event once or twice a semester. This could be the “fundraising” aspect of the project, if we wanted to attempt that.

On-Campus Event, for real this time

I went to the brown bag luncheon about foreign policies in the 2008 campaign. I felt that this was an appropriate event considering the goal of Paideia to “force” us to become more socially/politically/internationally aware of our world. I know it wouldn't really be a stretch for most people, but I'm not quite as politically involved or aware as I should be. Regarding that, this was a pretty interesting event for me. I wish they could have talked a little more about each candidate’s views on foreign policy, just because I'm not very familiar with them. However, I'm sure I was one of the only ones in attendance who needed a review session.

An aspect of the program that I found borderline irritating was the seeming preference of the speakers for Obama. Although it’s something that I’ve come to expect from Southwestern, and I’m aware that everyone has their own political interests, I think that events such as this one should remain completely objective. While I am by no means a die-hard Republican, nor am I anti-Obama, I would still like to listen to a lecture about the potential presidents with both sides equally presented. This wasn’t, however, and overwhelming issue and I believe that overall I benefited from the experience.

One thing I was particularly interested in was the emphasis the speakers put on Pakistan and the danger it poses. Their argument was that, since Pakistan has developed nuclear bombs their potential threat to us and other countries has drastically increased. I really hadn't considered this as an issue and I'm glad they brought it up.

A question was asked about the opinions/preferences of foreign countries as far as our next leader and how the speakers thought the election of either of the candidates would affect that opinion. Again, I am not as politically knowledgeable as I should be, but this question really got me thinking about America’s role in the world, which led to my thinking about my own role in the world, which is a thought I believe Paideia is supposed to stimulate, often. Though I came to no mind-blowing conclusion, I did decide that one of my roles in the world is to be an informed citizen; one with opinions about what’s happening around me, as well as a desire to do what I can to affect those things about which I have opinions. (That has to be a run-on sentence)

In general, my knowledge about the political situation has really improved since I started Paideia, which is definitely something that needed to happen. Between our discussions and reading Newsweek I feel much more informed about the goings-on of the world and the US. However, I still have much more room to improve, and I think that the various aspects of Paideia, as well as the ways in which I can expand on those aspects, will help achieve that goal.

For me, civic engagement is participating in or creating some activity that benefits someone not directly connected to you. I feel like this is different than doing something that helps a person or group close to you. I really don't think there's a strict limit to what counts as civic engagement, and while I don't think it's synonymous with community service I don't see a huge difference.
As far as our own cohort is concerned, I feel like we have a good amount of resources and commitment and that we should be able to do something fairly significant. We're all pretty dedicated people and if we can find something that we all want to commit to, I don't see any reason why we couldn't do something really great. Personally, I'd like to do something with a tangible result, but that's just me being selfish and wanting to physically see the results of our hard work.
I've always had a passion for working with kids. I've purposefully surrounded myself with kids as often as possible for most of my life. In addition to my personal interest, though, I think doing something that benefits children is always a good bet because they still have so much time to change their paths, if they even need to be changed. Another area that interests me for civic engagement is low-income families and neighborhoods. The cyclical nature of this issue makes it such an obvious possibility for me because making one simple difference in a life can completely change the cycle.
One of the main challenges a foresee is coming with a goal that we can all agree on. I think it's become obvious that we're a very opinionated group and I know that will each have our own ideas that we're passionate about. Also, one thing that happens to me pretty often is setting an unrealistic goal. I'm not sure if this will present a problem as a group but I know that I've often encountered it. While I think that we're capable of coming up with something really meaningful, I don't want us to aim for something and then realize that we just don't have the time/money/resources a year into the project.
Overall I'm excited about starting to brainstorm, I'm pretty interested in hearing everyone's ideas.