7V: Failure

Failure is not an option. This does not mean that you are never allowed to fail, ever.  It just means that if you fail, you have to keep trying until you succeed. It is hard and it takes a lot of work but, it is worth it.  After all, no one wants to be a failure.

Failure is when a person or thing is proven unsuccessful.  If you fail at first, you must check everything and figure out where you went wrong; the moment you realized that you failed. Once you figure out what you did wrong, figure out how to fix the problem. You only fail when you stop trying succeed. 

7A: You only fail if you stop trying.

Failure has a big impact on people in their everyday lives.  I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.  Not everyone can win, not everyone can be successful, and not everyone can achieve that complete comfort zone in their everyday life; that place in life where there is no room for improvement, known as “winning.”  Based on the culture we live in, people are taught to believe that we can achieve anything if we try hard enough.  Unfortunately, that is just not true.  Failure is inevitable.  People don’t always understand how hard it is to face and achieve all their goals on their first try.  Sometimes you may get lucky and the first try is all you will need to overcome something.  But, that does not happen every time. You need to fail sometimes in order to improve and accomplish your goals.  According to J.K. Rowling, “Achievable goals: the first step to self-improvement.”

Failure is important for children to understand and they should be able to experience it.  Children are absolutely allowed to fail and it should be expected.  In fact, when they first start competing or playing games for more than “fun”, they are encouraged to fail.  Failing teaches children how to win and lose.  After all, no one likes a sore winner or a sore loser.  Failure will help children learn to cope with whatever happens at the end of the game.  Also, failure eventually helps children to become winners.  No one likes to fail.  The natural thing to do after you fail at something is to practice more and keep trying.  This teaches children to develop goals and a good work ethic.  It teaches them to see things through and to be persistent.  I am not saying that children must fail all the time, because that will cause self- esteem issues.  Children should fail just as much as they succeed. 

When it comes to children, it is important to talk to them about their failures.  You have to make sure they know that it is

ok if they failed, as long as they learn from it.   This is important for adults too.  Especially people that are under pressure.  There should always be a safe place for people to go and discuss their mistakes, learn their lesson and be supported in a judgment free zone.  No one should be embarrassed of their failure.

7I: My new den.

If you go to Engelmann, head down the hallway to the B wing, stay on the first floor, keep walking until you reach the end there you will find my find den.  My math class is later in the day, about 3:30 p.m.  My other classes end around 1:00 p.m., so I have a two hour break before my math class begins.  Some days I go back to my dorm room.  I usually don’t get much work done when I do that.   I easily get distracted.  In this den, I am focused and get a lot of work done.  It is quiet, peaceful and the couches are surprisingly very comfortable.  When I am here I usually do my homework, sometimes I catch up with friends and family and, on a rare occasion, I might take a nap.  It is so nice to have a place to go to really focus and get stuff done.  

6A: No Hablo Español

Spanish is my least favorite subject.  I started taking the class in 6^th grade.  My teacher was amazing and I had a lot of friends in the class.  That year Spanish was a lot of fun.  It was almost easy learning the basics.  That is where it stopped, though.  After that year, Spanish became a real challenge for me.  I don’t know why exactly.  I always had a friend in my class.  All through middle school and high school my teachers were very nice.  They would always give extra help when anyone needed it, especially me.  I studied every day, did all my homework, and did my best to participate in class.  For some reason, I just couldn’t grasp the language. 

With a lot of help from my friends and teachers, I was able to pass each year with a good grades and minimal understanding and retention.  By some miracle, I ended up in Spanish 200 this semester.  I have no idea what’s going on in my class.  My professor speaks only in Spanish.  Apparently, my Spanish professor is funny because she said something, in Spanish of course, the other day and the whole class laughed.  I hope it wasn’t at my expense. Even the directions in my workbook are in Spanish.

Since it’s too late to drop the class, I have no choice but to pass the class.  I make an appointment with my Spanish tutor, Ursula, every Wednesday and Thursday, the only days she is available, at the tutor center.  I make flashcards of the vocabulary for each chapter and I have even started watching my favorite movies in Spanish with English subtitles.

I clearly have to put more effort in, based on my first exam grade.  I passed but, not with the grade I had hoped for.  I will have to study a little more every day.  I would like to finish my online lab homework early, so I will have the time and energy to go back and edit it. I will not let this language get the better of me.

6V: Persistence

Persistence is the ability to do a continuous action in the hopes of completing a difficult task or obstacle.  This trait will allow you to finish anything you are working on regardless of all the challenges that are put in front of you.  Being persistent is a nice way of saying you are stubborn.  Stubborn is easily being fixed on a purpose or opinion. If you are persistent, or stubborn, you have grit.  Grit is firmness of character. This means you are tough and willing to take on challenges.  Basically, if you are persistent you won’t easily fail, making you fixed on a certain obstacle.  This is when your grit will help you overcome this obstacle.  With these traits you can take on the world and win.  Who knew being stubborn would be a good thing.   

6I: Day of Service

On Saturday, September 21, 2013, the majority of the school participated in the Day of Service.  This meant that the students, teachers, and graduate students that signed up to help, were separated into groups and sent to different locations around New Haven.  This was after breakfast, of course.  People cleaned up litter at some locations, other locations painted fences and some locations even cleaned graffiti off of buildings.  Everyone was then taken back to campus for a free lunch from Verona’s Pizzeria, a pizzeria in New Haven.  I am a member of the service commission but I didn’t get to go to a site.  Instead, some of the other members and myself, set up breakfast; checked everyone in; broke down breakfast; set up lunch; then broke down lunch; and cleaned up after the day was done.  It was a great bonding experience for all of the group members and we had so much fun!!

5B: Time Study

According to my time study, my days are pretty well balanced.  I had time to eat, do homework, go to the gym, be with my friends, attend club and activity meetings and, I even had time to do my laundry.  Everything I needed to do this week, I was able to finish.  The week was very relaxed and almost stress free.  I even found time to call my family!

I was surprised when I realized that I devoted almost 40 hours of homework, outside of class, without even trying. I always thought 40 hours was a lot of time just for homework but, it really isn’t enough time.  I still can’t believe I did 11 hours of homework all in one day!  It didn’t feel like that long while I was doing it.  If you can believe it, I still haven’t even finished all my homework yet! This weekend I will make time to finish it up.

 

I didn’t expect to be at meals so much.  Granted, I do need to eat, but I go quite often.  I think it is because my friends and I have different schedules.  We always try to meet up for meals whenever we have some mutual free time together.  It actually has nothing to do with whether I am hungry or not. 

It doesn’t seem like I procrastinated with anything; almost everything I do is determined by other people’s schedules.  Whether it is my Spanish tutor, who can only see me at a certain times, or my class schedule, or the group classes schedule for the gym, I am always working around other people’s schedules.  I find this to be easier for me because I am able to plan my day out ahead of time and prepare for what is to come.  

This study made it easy for me to see how much time I was putting into everything.  I realized that I do a lot of little things in the middle of the day and it can get kind of crazy.  For the rest of the semester, I hope to focus on one thing at a time to calm my afternoons down a bit.  

	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
6 am	Prepared for the day	Slept	Prepared for the day	Slept	Prepared for the day	Prepared for the day	Homework
7am		Prepared for the day	Day of Service				Slept
8am	Class- Zoology				Laundry	Class- Zoology	Prepare for the day
9am		Breakfast		Prepared for the day	Homework
	Class- Inquiry			Homework	Breakfast	Class-Inquiry	Breakfast
10am		Class- Spanish			Class- Spanish		Class-Spanish
11am	Class- Zoology lab	Lunch			Class- Spanish lab	Homework	Lunch
12pm		Class- Media			Class- Media		homework
						Lunch
1pm	Lunch	Decorated friend’s room			Homework	Hung with friends	Service Com.  Meeting
						Homework
2pm	Homework			Lunch			Homework
3pm	Class- Math			Homework	Class- Math	Class- Math	Class- Math
4pm	Homework				Folded laundry/ cleaned room	Homework	Homework
							Spanish Tutor
5pm		Tailgate #2	Homework		Talked on phone		Homework
					Midterm Workshop
6pm
				Dinner	Homework
7pm	Dinner	Football game			Zumba	Dinner
8pm	Hung with friends					Homework	Rush event
				Homework	Prepared for bed	Rush event
9pm		Hung with friends	Slept		Homework
						Homework
10pm							Homework
11pm
12am