A Poetic Take On Class

A mere three months ago, I declared myself a fairy

on our blog and assumed the space as a personal prairie

As I started to reveal the multiplicity of my true colors and self

I also discovered the cultures of others as if stacked on a shelf

Together, we undertook a variety of tasks

“What’s your favorite?” you might ask

I never thought placing an order might be so hard

Five pickles, fries, sauce, receipt- do not discard!

Faced with these instructions, all I could think about was Maslow’s human needs

How was I going to handle cashiers whose physiological needs were all they plead?

So, I forecasted my actions and made a contingency backup plan

I was sure that things would not go smoothly- Oh man!

Because I forced the cashier to make an non programmed decision

She had to deal with an order- something she had not envisioned

And oh, when the manager came, he gave the cashier such a look

It was clear he was a Theory X Manager who thought she was a crook

And when the manager took control because there was a “need for action”

I got my order without any sort of distraction

And as I walked out of McDonald’s with a smile on my face

I thought I would give that burger a taste

It was not the best of self management actions to do

And I won’t go into elaborating about how much it tasted like goo

But I will tell you,

My classmates, my crew

That it gives me satisfaction to know I was not alone in this quest

Which Professor Kurpis sent us on, let’s not forget

It was great to be a part of a team,

A decentralized communication network, it seems

So, I give my thanks as I take my leave

If you see me in the hallway, be not afraid to holler as many times need be

The Path of the Blog

Having to maintain a blog was a first. I had never been asked to do this for any course before, but looking back, I can say that I’m highly pleased with the experience of keeping one. One of the aspects I liked best about keeping a blog was that it allowed students to connect with each other outside of class. Not only could I see a person’s face in class and listen to them talk, but I could also sit and read a bit more about them through their blog posts. The blog was a medium that allowed us to explore other students’ personality and beliefs more thoroughly, which I liked a lot. I was able to connect on a more in depth level with my peers than how I would have connected with them without the blog

On top of learning about our peers, I do think that the blogs facilitated learning about the management topics we covered when doing class activities. Not only did the class activities help make the topics interesting and fun, but the blogs helped keep that class activity and the topics in mind. It further engraved- for the best use of the word- the material in our heads.

I do think it might have been better if we had more blog topics about classes in which we didn’t have any sort of class activity. Perhaps, we could have wrote about something interesting we discussed in class. By doing so, not only could we have made the classes in which we did activities memorable but other classes as well.

Lastly, I liked the fact that the blogs gave us a chance to write freely. It’s not often that a lot of us get to sit down and just write nowadays. I appreciated the opportunity to express myself. In a way, outside of the course material, it gave me a doorway to let things go and explore new things I didn’t know about myself. My favorite post was the Vision post, which allowed me to really sit down, take a look at where I’ve been, where I am, and where I want to go, which is something I didn’t do before.

With all these experiences, what more can I ask for? I am grateful. Thank you.

I Am Your Steady One

I’m not in the least surprised at my personality results. The personality profile system characterizes me as Si. I am , for the most part, steady but also influential. Some of the characteristics of being an S include being consistent, patient, predictable, loyal, good listener, and developing specialized skills. I have a normal routine that hardly changes. If you know my routine, the chances are that you can guess what I’m doing at that moment correctly. So, consistent and predictable check off. I do see myself as loyal and patient, and being a good listener. I don’t know what “specialized skills” are exactly, but the closest thing I can compare to that is my hobby of playing piano. I took up piano about two years ago from YouTube. For some reason, I felt the urge to develop that skill and now I can’t seem to stop my fingers.

                Some of the characteristics for I include making a favorable impression, generating enthusiasm, entertaining people, viewing people and situations optimistically, and participating in a group. When I go out to different places, I’m always interested in getting to know different people and trying to make them feel good. In addition to meeting new people at social events, I like to treat everyone the same and make them feel good. I realize that my brother and I, who is only a year younger, are very similar. When we go out, we socialize with everyone, always have smiles on our faces, and adapt to fit the environment we’re in.

I feel like being the steady and influential person I am, it’s not only easy to get along with me, but also easy to count on me when work needs to be done. If I had a choice, I think it’d be nice to have a bit more of the D traits, but I feel like I’m happy as is. :)

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.

Why Do You Have Powder on Your Skin?!

You can imagine the amount of comments I received after posting this as my profile picture on Facebook. There were some who knew exactly what this picture was about and then there were those who were utterly clueless. It was funny to read the comments from those who were confused, but it was difficult to explain my picture to them.

Phagwah a.k.a. Holi is a Hindu festival in which we throw colored powder onto each other and into the air to celebrate the coming of Spring. . .  That's the simplest definition I can use to describe the holiday to someone who previously knew nothing of it. But, even with this definition, it's hard for those to truly understand the essence of what happens during this holiday. It's probably even harder to imagine participating in this gathering when they most likely won't consider it "normal".

"Normal" it is to us to rub powder on a stranger's face and say, "Happy Holi," on this day.

I'm happy to have been born into this culture to celebrate Phagwah with nothing except comfort, love and excitement.