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Beautiful Question Final Post

How do we travel without disturbing the cultures and places we visit?  This is my beautiful question, inspired by global learning and our Journeys trips.  A beautiful question should have no easy answer, one should not be able to simply say “yes” or “no” and leave it at that.  It should require deep thought and subsequently, more questions. I believe that a beautiful question should seek to be a catalyst for change, the first step towards action.  My question is indeed beautiful because it embodies all of these qualities. You cannot “solve” my question with a quick answer. One might say “Don’t make fun of whatever culture you’re immersed in”.  Well, that’s a start but it still does not answer my question. What happens when we do everything in our power not to disturb the culture and places we visit, and yet, somehow we still do? My question raises these follow up questions.  Is it even possible to travel without imposing ourselves? All of these questions have stemmed from my one beautiful question, and they have the power and potential to create change. If we are aware of our disturbing and imposing actions, we can change them.  

Dr. Regine Jackson focused on sociological mindfulness in her presentation and is what informed me the most for my beautiful question.  Sociological mindfulness is the understanding that you do not have all the answers or the complete truth. What you have interpreted as fact might be interpreted differently by someone else.  This does not necessarily make them wrong, nor does it make you wrong either. This is important when listening to the thoughts of the people whose home you are touring. Be open to new ideas that may contradict your current beliefs.  Many people believe they are doing good by going on mission trips to places they perceive as helpless, but what if their help was not wanted? It is this sociological mindfulness that is important when questioning and answering.

Professor Heather Scott discussed authenticity in leadership and its importance.  She also questioned how gender affects authenticity and why that is. Authenticity is arguably important in the workplace because it allows leadership to be interpersonal and transformational rather than transactional.  Being an authentic leader is about remaining true to yourself and values instead of making yourself look more important or stronger to prove that you deserve respect. When questioning, it is important to remain authentic to your own values and beliefs.  I believe that if you are trying to impress someone or gain respect/admiration, the answer to your question will have a skewed effect. We ask beautiful questions as catalysts to create change. So what happens when an unauthentic question is asked? And what qualifies a question as unauthentic?  I think it is when a person asks a question with no real intention to answer it. Or maybe the answer to the question will have an undesirable effect. This is what needs to be taken into account when questioning.

 

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Pictured are six images of reminders on my iPhone.  The top row consists of three reminders that are what I consider “must complete” items.  The first picture shows that I have an LDR paper due tomorrow, with the reminder set for today at 10:00 am.   The second is reminding me of a group meeting I have at 3:00 pm that day.  I set an alarm for 9:00 am for that task.  The third non-negotiable item I have pictured is “Work @5”.  My alarm was set for 4:30 pm that day.  On the bottom row there are three more pictures, all labeled “Sacrifices”.  The first reminder is for the “Gym @7”.  The second is “Hang out w/blu”.  The last image in the row is “SLEEP”.

 

My experience with LDR 101 and school in general has taught me valuable things about leadership.  One of those is time management.  I have never had great time management skills so coming into college was stressful to say the least. I had told myself that I wouldn’t procrastinate and that I would do all my work way before the deadline so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it.  Turns out that’s easier said than done.  I had so many things consuming my time that, in my head, seemed so much more important that writing that paper that was due tomorrow morning at 9 am.  At some point I knew that I would have to put all that aside and put school first.  I was forced to do just that with group projects.  Specifically the WomanHouse project in LDR 101.  With that project we had to read, research, and create a presentation based on WomanHouse, a revolutionary feminist art project from the 1970’s.  The project forced me to consider other people and their grades, not just myself.  For this final project I wanted to show how I learned to better manage my time and prioritize my activities.  I chose to use my phone as the medium because that’s what I used for time management during the semester.  I set alarms and reminders, and checked the time constantly.  By literally setting reminders for things that I would have during school, I am giving the best, most accurate representation of my time management and leadership.  The top row of “must complete” items are all labeled “School” or “Work” and they all have the urgent exclamation marks attached to them.  This shows that they are at the top of my priority list.  Below are the three recreational or negotiable activities.  Every one of them is labeled “Sacrifices” and are without those urgent exclamation marks which shows that these are things that I have to sacrifice for school.  I might not be able to get to the gym every day or get a consistent 8 hours of sleep.  This is a concept I had to come to terms with.  For the project we were required to meet with with a tutor in the CWS which meant that all of the members of our group had to coordinate schedules.  We also had multiple meetings to work on our project and I realized that I needed to be flexible because there were four other peoples’ schedules we had to take into account.  Part of being a leader is being able to make sacrifices.  Those sacrifices for me were sleep, the gym, time with friends, etc…  Knowing what’s important and considering others when making those sacrifices is what made me a leader with the WomanHouse group project.

LDR 101 focused heavily on leadership and what that meant to us as individuals.  Leaders don’t look the same and leadership doesn’t either.  The StrengthsFinder test told us that even those that don’t have the personality traits typically associated with being leaders, are just that.  What I learned was that to be a leader takes sacrifice.  You have to do things you don’t want to do and push aside the tempting activities so that you can support those around you.  That’s what I did with my time management and prioritization. I put school first and pushed the rest aside for later.  That’s what makes me a leader.  

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Why Travel?

Are we travelers or tourists?  To do service work or to not do service work?  Should we even be traveling to our destinations in the first place?  These are questions raised by our recent Journeys trips.

Merriam Webster defines “tourist” as one who makes a tour for pleasure or culture.  Is that not what we did?  Did we not go to the Galapagos to immerse ourselves in the culture of “island life”.  Did we not take pleasure in swimming and snorkeling on the beaches and spending our money in the shops designed for us to shop in?  We were tourists, yes, but what is so wrong about that?  We’ve heard about the impact of tourism, we know the damage that is being done to the environment, but we still go anyways.  So if we’re going to go anyways why not do it in a mindful way?  Oh, wait.  We did…  We educated ourselves on the flora, fauna, and culture of the Galapagos before we even stepped foot there.

 one that travels: such as
a : one that goes on a trip or journey
Above is the definition of “traveler”.  One that travels.  I don’t want to hear any more about the high horse that travelers sit on above tourists.  Whether or not you call yourself a tourist or a traveler is irrelevant.  Throw an adjective in there and make it matter.  Say you’re a “mindful tourist” or a “respectful traveler”.  That’s what matters.
So why travel?  Because we can, because we want to, because we should…Traveling is important because it lets you see a different part of the world other than the city you grew up in.  Why does it make you bad if you want to see the sights just for the hell of it?  Traveling is crucial to understanding the difference between cultures and people, and ultimately recognizing that we are all the same.  It opens doors for research and science; how can you study an organism that lives a continent away if you can’t even see it in person?  There are reasons for travel, and none of them are lesser than the other, despite what I think we’ve started to believe.

 

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Final Project

 

 

By Rinaldo Wurglitsch – originally posted to Flickr as Ceviche, Ecuador, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9688817

 

Ceviche is a seafood dish that is popular in the coastal regions of Latin American and the Caribbean.  It is usually prepared from raw fish that has been cured in lemon or lime juices and spiced with chili peppers.  A lot of times other spices and flavorings are added like cilantro and salt.  ceviche is not cooked with heat and therefore must always be prepared and consumed fresh to avoid food poisoning.  

Around 2000 years ago, a coastal civilization known as Moche used fermented fruit juice to marinate fish.  Another source reports that prior to European colonization, fish was consumed with salt and aji and only after they arrived did the use of citrus begin.  There are numerous explanations for the origin of ceviche but most historians agree that it originated from the colonial times of Peru.

I chose ceviche because it is a typical dish in Ecuador and the coastal regions and it represents the common use of coastal ingredients like fish in recipes.  I had heard of ceviche before but I have never tried it.  I didn’t know exactly what it was until I started researching it.  Given that I’ve never tried it before I have nothing to compare ceviche in the Galapagos to, but I assume that it would be more authentic that ceviche here in Georgia.  

 

I wonder who traditionally makes ceviche?  Does anyone, or is it made by everyone?  Is it a typically expensive dish or is it more like street food?  

 

Because ceviche is made with raw fish, there are health risks involved with consumption.  The FDA warns against consumption of ceviche during pregnancy and there are specific diseases that are specific to ceviche.  

 

Because the Galapagos Islands are in fact islands, it makes sense that a common dish would be fish. Ceviche is very basic in how it’s made too with it being uncooked and simply marinated in fruit juice.  Maybe throw in some salt or spices.  It speaks a lot to the origins of the dish going back to Peru and the tools they may or may not have had to prepare food.  

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Action/Reflection-Topic 3

On November 17th I attended Ignite The Flame: A Poetry Slam.  It was a competition to determine the 2017-2018 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational team. In three rounds, five poets poured their hearts and souls into the words they had written as they spoke them into words.  The way it worked was each of the five poets would perform one poem each round.  There were three rounds total.  During performances, if you heard something that really hit you, you’d snap applause.  At the end of each performance a panel of judges would score the poet and then “God” would announce the total scores.  If the audience or fellow poets didn’t agree with the scores they would yell “Listen to the poem!”  “Listen to the poem!” was yelled pretty much every time…  After round two,  Alysia Harris took the stage.  Harris is a founding member of the performance poetry collective and has been touring nationally and internationally for the last five years.  She has her MFA in poetry from NYU and completed her doctorate in linguistics at Yale University.  Alysia performed pieces that she said were “works in progress”, never even rehearsed.  But she could’ve fooled all of us in that room from the way she delivered her words.  After Harris, round three began.  Once the poets had finished their last poems the middle score, not the best or worst, was calculated.  “God” announced the winner and all was said and done.

All this is to say that every one of these poets is a leader.  They have taken charge of their thoughts, emotions, and experiences.  They wrote them down, put them to paper, and spoke them into words.  Whether they are reflecting or processing they are leaders in their own right.  William Cronon states that the liberally educated can “write clearly and persuasively and movingly” and that “they read and they understand”.  When Cronon lists his fourth point he stresses the importance of the writer’s ability to express what is in their mind and heart so as to move the person receiving their words.  Does the poet not do just that?  The connections between Cronon’s list and leadership qualities are clear and I have argued before that there is not only a correlation but a causation between the two.  Having said that, I believe that It is fair to say that because Cronon says that a liberally educated person should be able to read and write, the poets are therefore leaders.  

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Action/Reflection-Topic 5

Empathy, Woo, Developer, and Communication…These are four of my strengths from the StrengthsFinder test I took over the summer.  All of them connect with people and the ability to understand them.  Empathy is quite literally understanding people, their emotions, and where they’re coming from even though I might not agree with them.  Woo is winning others over, the ability to have conversations with people and make connections.  Being a Developer is helping those around you reach their full potential.  These four strengths correlate to William Cronon’s list of key attributes that he believes a liberally educated person should have.  About Empathy Cronon says that the liberally educated person can “ultimately empathize with the person who is feeling those emotions”.  The connection here is stated plain and simple.  He addresses Woo in his third point when he asserts that that liberally educated person can talk with anyone and make connections easily.  Both Woo and Communication deal with people and the ability to connect with them.  The final parallel between my StrengthsFinder results and Cronon’s list is that between his belief that a liberally educated person helps those around them grow and prosper and the Developer strength.  I am making these connections because I am at the beginning of my liberal education reflecting on what it means to be a leader.  So, what does a leader look like?

My experience with LDR 101 and school, in general, has taught me two standout things about leadership.  The first is time management.  I have never had great time management skills so coming into college was stressful, to say the least. I had told myself that I wouldn’t procrastinate and that I would do all my work way before the deadline so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it.  Turns out that’s easier said than done.  I had so many things consuming my time that, in my head, seemed so much more important than writing that paper that was due tomorrow morning at 9 am.  At some point, I knew that I would have to put all that aside and put school first.  I was forced to do just that with group projects.  Specifically the WomanHouse project in LDR 101.  WomanHouse forced me to consider other people and their grade, not just myself.  For the project, we were required to meet with a tutor in the CWS which meant that all of the members of our group had to coordinate schedules.  We also had multiple meetings to work on our project and I realized that I needed to be flexible because there were four other peoples’ schedules we had to take into account.  Part of being a leader is being able to make sacrifices.  Those sacrifices for me were sleep, the gym, time with friends, etc…  Knowing what’s important and considering others when making those sacrifices is what made me a leader with the WomanHouse group project.  

The second skill that I used was social skills. More specifically knowing how to handle a group member that raises an issue or creates unnecessary difficulties.  During my group project in Sociology, we had a member that arguably didn’t have the best social skills.  They could be rude and bossy and also have a problem with the way in which we had all agreed to complete the project.  Dealing with that situation in a calm, diffusing manner was vital to keeping the group functioning so we could get the project finished.  By speaking up when everyone else kept quiet to try and work the conflict out, I took on a leadership role.  Leaders can recognize the discomfort of a situation but that doesn’t stop them from taking charge of it.  

Reflecting on this semester, I realize that I have had many opportunities to lead.  Some of them I passed up and some of them I took.  But with those that I took, I know that I made an impact in that situation.  My leadership supported others and myself.  It’s important to be a leader in whatever you do but the question is-what does a leader look like?

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Action/Reflection-Topic 1

My academic interests are currently revolving around the social sciences.  I am taking Psychology and Sociology this semester and my schedule for next semester includes another Psychology class and an Anthropology (Introduction to Queer Studies) class.  Presently, I have not declared a major or minor and am enjoying exploring my options.  However, as I look at my current and future schedules I can’t help noticing the similarities. As I reflect on my semester and what I want my education to look like here at Agnes, I find myself coming back to Psychology.  My Psychology class has been 50 minutes that I have thoroughly enjoyed and I am eager to learn more about this discipline and what I can do with it.  

I interviewed Dr. McDonald in the Psychology department, who is also a licensed counselor.  Her experience in college was not unlike many of ours.  She came to college knowing that she wanted to major in Psychology, but what exactly she wanted to do with that was unknown.  She took initiative and started taking classes towards her major early on and also explored career options through classes and internships.  It wasn’t until around late sophomore year when Dr. McDonald realized that she wanted to be a counselor and that’s when she began to think about graduate school.  I asked if her participation in PsyChi (the honor society for Psychology) had taught her anything about leadership. She said that even though she did have a leadership position within the group, she strongly believes in “servant leadership”.  Being a member of PsyChi taught ownership and responsibility and these are values she uses to this day.  

Like with any major, success comes after you put in the work.  I believe that if a person really had a passion for psychology, they could successfully pursue that major.  For me personally, my strengths and personal qualities will benefit me if that is that path I choose to follow.  My StrengthsFinder results included Communication, Woo, and Empathy, all traits I would associate someone in the field of psychology having.  Psychology is about understanding people so to have strengths that are so strongly geared towards connecting and understanding people is extremely helpful and motivating for me.  Taking into account my personal qualities and also reflecting on my interview with Dr.McDonald has given me a clearer view of what I want my education to look like.  No, I may not know what I want to do with my life yet, but I am beginning to realize where my academic interests lie.    

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SF Reflection

My Strength Finder survey resulted in my top five strengths being Empathy, Woo, Developer, Communication, and Adaptability.  What I’d like others to see most is that I have really good communication skills.  I am able to to easily talk to people whether it’s to resolve some sort of conflict or simply making conversation.  Communication has always been a strength for me and I think that’s in part due to the fact that I value the ability to convey one’s feelings to others.  It’s an important skill that a lot of people have but aren’t comfortable using.  However, communication is vital in being a leader and creating the change you want to see.  I want others to be able to see this strength through my ability to speak confidently and respectively and also form relationships through casual communication.  

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