Daisies and Tulips

 When I was younger, my mom bought me a little blue book called “the 411 on Me”. On each page, there are questions about me, my hobbies, my friends, etc.  One page is titled “My goals” with the question, “Where do you see yourself in 20 years?” I wrote, “I see myself working in a laboratory with different formulas. Or I see myself teaching a group of kids about atoms and elements.”

12 years later, I think those goals have changed quite a bit. After taking several classes throughout high school and college, I don’t think I took that great of a liking to Science. As for being a teacher, I can still see myself educating kids, but with the subject I’m pursing (computers), these “kids” would most likely be in their 20s.

As of today, I have a vague idea of what kind of job I would like to have. I envision myself working for a company doing some kind of networking job in Florida. In order to obtain that job, I’d need to take some certifications that would make it easier for me. As for being in Florida, I’d be able to do so as soon as I finish college here at Baruch. It’d be fairly easy to move down there since my mom resides there. The first step to making this vision a reality, however, is getting these certifications done before doing anything else. I’d like to start studying for them during school so that I would not have to waste time studying after I have already graduated.

A personal vision I have includes getting a house, of course. The house, I want, however, is just not any house. Every night, I dream. Every morning, I write down my dreams and title them. A few years ago, I had a dream titled “Living with the Superheroes”. In this dream, the house I was living in was one I’ll never forget. The interior and the design was one I could only dream of—quite literally. I’d like to build that house and make that that house a reality. Doing so, however, is easier said than done. It’d take a lot of money, an architect, and an advisor I can trust. When I come to that point in the future where I have enough money, I’ll make that decision on whether or not I want to take the necessary steps to build my dream house.

Looking back, I can see how much I’ve grown by simply looking at the goals I’ve had when I was 8 and the visions I have now. I’m thinking more realistically and practically now, but it really is true when they say that anything is possible. As long as you list and take the action required to live your vision of you in the future, life begins to look like daisies and tulips.

Decisions of the Group

Making sure I made my way to class on Monday, I had a different assumption of what class would entail. After being told that we were to make an immense decision with such little time and guidance, students got right into it. Luckily enough, Abe and Juelz  jumped up to assume the roles as “leaders” and guide the mass of ideas that would arise. Even though Abe and Juelz’s power was low compared to the class group, their roles were necessary. Without their assistance, I doubt the class would have moved as quickly when trying to make a decision.  As leaders, Abe and Juelz helped push the class to keep with our time constraint and communicate the decision proposals clearly.

                As I look back at the entire process and how I acted during that activity, I find that I can easily place myself into the Accommodation category. After the curve, I would receive a score I was happy with. Knowing that there were still scores that were low with the curve, I just laid back and let those who needed more help engage in the activity. Overall, I think our class worked really well while trying to make a decision. I think the only way we could have improved during the activity was if we split up into smaller groups early on in the process to generate more ideas. I think that within smaller groups, individuals would have felt more at ease to contribute.

Which Strategy to Choose?

Although our egg, Pebbles, didn't do too well after free falling from Juelz's hands, I can say that a fair share of planning went into Pebbles' safety.
After Professor Kurpis laid out the goals for us, in effect completing step one of the planning process. Step two of the plannning process was not completed as easily by our group. We got off on the right step by attempting to assign positions to our group members. I was assigned "team leader", but my position as well as my group members' positions were quickly lost.
On to step three, we did better than expected. There had to be at least five to six plans that our group came up with.
It's during step four that our group ran into problems. With so many plans and alternative solutions, our group could not collectively decide on one plan. Half of our  members were voting on a separate plan that we had not decided "officially" on.
When it came to step five, we had a tad trouble implementing the plan we had chosen because it seems we didn't fully understand our own design.
Overall, I think that if we had enough time, we would have created a better design that every member in our group could agree one hundred percent on.