Learning Challenge: Coffee Shop Thoughts

(Personal Image taken in Bristol, England 2016)

I believe everyone has their own way of paying attention. I think it's up to the individual to figure out the setting they work best in. For me, it's a chill coffee shop with music and a little bit of background noise. I think I work best in an environment that inspires me to be creative and surrounded by people who are also working.

Gray Owl Coffee off of Gray street in Norman is my favorite place to study at. The art hung from the walls and the trendy people at every table inspire me to also be creative and get my work done. There is something about being surrounded by like-minded people who spur you on to be a better version of yourself.

The environment has everything to do with how well you pay attention to your work. Maybe a coffee shop is too distracting for some people, that's why the library and the great reading room work great for other students. Figure out what setting allows you to pay attention best and work there. That's my little tidbit of advice.

Tech Tip: Pinterest Embedded

Week 10: The Will to Explore

(Growth mindset meme sourced from the Growth Mindset Blog)

I believe in my heart of hearts that I was born with the innate will to explore and go. When I came across this Growth Midset meme, I was like "Yes, this is me." I don't think curiosity is something that can be learned or taught, I think it is natural. I believe people are born with curiosity and that is as springboards them into the fields that they are passionate about. 

For me, I'm passionate about traveling the world and people, this curiosity about what the world offers I believe landed me the job I now have working in an International Travel PR firm in New York City. 

The things that we are passionate about will push us forward. Be curious about something, whether that be far off places, people, computers, or history. It can be anything. It is better to be curious and say yes to exploring that field in depth than to do nothing at all.

Reading Notes A: Pacific Northwest, Part A

(Image sourced from topsy.fr)

The Pacific Northwest is something that has always intrigued me. The multitude of hiking trials, the mountainous landscape, and the abundance of coffee from PNW has always seemed to call my name and lure me in. For this very reason, I picked the Pacific Northwest unit to read for this week.

I liked that the stories in Reading A incorporated a variety of mountainous animals and related many of the stories to the landscape that I so want to be apart of.

I noticed that a majority of the stories were about the creation of the world and how it ties in with the nature surrounding the PNW. If it wasn’t about the creation of the world the story humanized animals to steal something, such as fire.

I think I can incorporate humanizing animals in my stories and bringing them to life in a new way, or even come up with a creative way of how I think the world came to be.

Bibliography:
Pacific Northwest: Part A, link to online reading.

Week 8: Growth Mindset

(Grow Image sourced from Flickr)

After looking back and reflection on the growth mindset challenges that I have completed I realized (and already knew) that my biggest challenge deals with time.

I feel as if there are not enough hours in the day to get done what I need to. I looked at this chart and recognized a few things about myself and the way that I grow.

I noticed right off the bat that I do the minimum in the things I'm not passionate about and in the things that I passionate about I push myself to go as far as I can. I research and spend time on the things that captivate my heart. I find the motivation inside myself to do the things that I know I want to do. It’s not like pulling teeth, it comes naturally. That’s why in life I desire to pursue a career that I’m passionate about. If it’s void of creativity then it’s not for me.

I think with this class I want to be a perfectionist in my story writing, I want it to be good and I mull over sentences for a long period of time in hopes of making it the best I can be. However, I think short-term in that sense and haven’t completed as many stories as I should because I take too long on one post.

In life and even in this class I see myself comparing myself to others. As a woman in college, how can you not? I find myself critiquing the way I look, the clothes I wear, the stories I’m writing, and the job I’m pursuing. I firmly believe that we are our own worst critics. I am harder on myself than I should be, which is a blessing and a curse.

I enjoy that this class is not only acting as an outlet for creative writing but it pushes me to critically think and grow as a person.

Week 8 Reflections

(Image of Belle from Beauty and the Beast sourced from Angela's Blog)

Overall, this class has been a joy and stressful all at the same time. I feel as if I am behind and playing catch every week. This class has pushed my creativity in my writing which is something I have been looking for in a class throughout my time at OU. (Of course I would find it in my last semester of college).

Reading: The hundreds and hundreds of stories and units we have been able to choose from is something that I love. You can always learn something new and there is enough stories to go around that if you don’t like one you can always switch to another. I find myself now thinking of what I want to write when reading stories because I’m picking up on the authors; writing techniques which is something I didn’t do previously. I am looking forward to the reading in the European unit. The culture of Europe is something that I have always been intrigued by.

Writing: I am happy with the stories that I have been writing, but I do know that there has been a lack of them. I taking my creative writing seriously and my creative always seems to take longer than most. I can sit down in one sitting and write a story at the snap of my fingers. I slowly piece my stories together and that has been my struggle in this course. I reread and rewrite until I think it’s good enough and that takes more time than I have. In fact, on blog post that I wrote for my own personal website (amandaleighclark.com) took me over a year and a half to write. I compiled travel notes, dreams and thoughts and then pieced it all together over the course of a year. I love to write but I feel pressed for time. Writing in one sitting and then editing later is a skill i’m hoping to master by the end of this class. I can’t dwell on a sentence for hours, I just no longer have time in this hurried semester.

Connecting: I often compare my stories to others that I am reading and I find myself wishing I had he skill set of others. Never would I think of writing in the same dialect or would I be able to write a long drawn out poem like I see others doing. I enjoy reading others stories and then seeing what I can do to make mine better. The feedback is something I look forward to receiving in my inbox.

Reading Notes: Stories from Congo Part A

(Children from the Congo sourced from Public Domain)

When I came across the word Congo, it was as if my heart could hear the beating of the drums and I could feel the african heat encompass my body in a blanket of warmth. There is something about Africa that has magic behind it. It was as if these stories were calling to me read them.

R. E. Dennett collected these stories over four decades. These stories included spirits, supernatural powers, and the embodiment of this magic in the form of objects, animals, and other humans.

One thing I noticed right off the bat was that these stories all had some sort of family member in the title. That struck me as important because it showed that the African Culture values its people and the families found within their physical borders.

After reading through a multitude of stories, I realized that a lot of them were centered around this idea of love or not being lonely. Whether this comes in the form reviving husbands to life or dreams of future loved ones. Stories from the Congo embody love and relationships.


Bibliography:
Stories from the Congo: Part A, link to online reading.

Wikipedia Trail: From Navratri to British Raj

I am a naturally curious person so this extra credit assignment was enjoyable to me. If we're being honest I often click through wikipedia links in my spare time and get trapped into clicking on article after article. However, I never thought about covering my tracks until now.

I first looked at the class announcements to get some inspiration on what my starting point was going to be. After scrolling through them, I decided upon learning more about Navratri the nine day festival dedicated to worshiping the hindu deity Durga. This sparked my interest because I had never heard of the festival and who doesn't love a good festival?

This article led me to click on the Diwali link, which was an article all about another festival. Diwali is the festival lights. This peaked my curiosity because the first thing I thought of was the movie Tangled, which had a festival of lights in it. After reading this article, I thought the photos attached were stunning. The way the Hindu's celebrate the festival was stunning in the way that they strung lights. It reminds me of my love for Christmas lights and all that the wintry season entails.

(Lights strung in celebration of Diwali sourced from Wikimedia)

The Diwali festival led me to click on the Sikh link. The reason I clicked on this link is because when I was back in high school I actually got to go to a Sikhism temple. I went to France as a missionary my sophomore year of high school and got the privilege of getting to know and love on the Sikhs while I was there. I haven't researched them in years, so this was a good reminder on what I once learned.

The last article I clicked on was the British Raj. If you've read any of my previous articles including my introduction, you know that I have a deep seeded love for the Brits. My passion for all things english urged me to click on this link. This was probably the most intreating article for me because i had no idea that the British Crown ruled over parts of india back in the day.

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

For all of us Oklahomans we live in the world of sporadic thunderstorms, unannounced snowstorms, and random tornadoes. In Norman, no one truly knows what to wear in the mornings because no one knows what the day actually holds. Will it rain? Will it hail? Is it hot? Is it cold?


Due to the uncertainty that we all feel about the weather I decided to implement the Weather Widget into my blog in hopes of my readers gaining a better grasp on what the day holds for them.


Here's to hoping we dress for the right weather, always.

Learning Challenge: Time

(Image sourced from Pinterest)

I feel as if this poem sums up how I feel about time perfectly. In my world I firmly believe that there are not enough hours in the day to do everything that I need and want to get done. I know school should come first, but this being my last semester of college I can’t help but feel like my priorities are different this time around. I find myself valuing meaningful conversations and quality time with loved ones hold more value to me than homework.

I feel as if time is slowly slipping away and as hours, days, and months march forward and I can’t help but think that what I’m doing will be forgotten. I want to be able to leave an impact on this world and be intentional in my friendships and relationships while they’re still near by. In 3 months I’ll either be hopping on a plane to New York or London to start the rest of my life...

I can only hope that my yesterday’s will be remembered and treasured by the people I spent them with.

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folktales Part A

(The Tiger and the Frog image sourced from illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925).

This week has been crazier than usual so my extra reading for this week is over the Tibetan Folk Tales found in the African Unit.


After reading through the multitude of stories collected by Albert Shelton, I discovered that there were a plethora of stories that were centered around Buddhist legends and the gods and goddesses of the Tibetan culture.


I noticed that all of the Tibetan folk tales began with a short proverb that was essentially the main theme of the story and then it was followed by short paragraphs which was essentially a longer version of what the proverb was trying to portray.


Another a thing I noticed was a majority of the tales had animals incorporated within them. They had thoughts, feelings, and carried out the message of the story. These animals often held value and deep seeded meanings in the Tibetan culture.


When writing my own story based upon the strategies I took notice of from the Tibetan Folktales would be to incorporate an animal and give the character real life feelings and emotions and to either make up or take a Tibetan proverb and make the story my own.


Bibliography:
Tibetan Folktales: Part A, link to online reading.