Safety First. Then Teamwork. Mostly Teamwork but Wear Shoes in the House

For this teamwork session, I decided to invite my mother, Cynthia Ball, to be my guest for the challenge. Allow me to first start my saying that I LOVED THIS CHALLENGE!!!!! I enjoy cooking and also interacting with my fellow fellows to learn something that i didn't know before or even becoming more diverse so much and this challenge brought all of those things together. My mother and I worked with Beth and her guest, Bob, and Mariam and her father to create a spicy vegetarian chilli and curry chicken over a bed of white rice. Working with my mom as my partner was a very different concept than our normal relationship. I doubt that we have ever done something where we had to work as a team to complete a common goal. We have helped each other over the years in working to achieve various goals but never has it been as involved or intensive as the teamwork challenge. It was a little challenging to work with other fellows and my guest due to the fact that my guest was my mother. Differences in addressing elders was very common to me. I would never call an adult which I just met by their first name but it seemed second nature to beth and Mariam. I am not saying that they were being disrespectful to her, but I definitely noticed a difference in how i addressed Mariam's father and the way she addressed mine. But these are simply differences in how we were all reared growing up. Everyone seemed to work well as a team. After deciding on the dish, Mariam and her father took the lead on this project because they had the most experience making this dish and knew the proper procedure. No one challenged this structure for the good of the team. Mariam definitely took authority which is something I learned from our past challenge that must be done in order to be successful. One person or a small group must take initiative to lead the team. After selecting the entree, tasks were divided up based on cooking experience and relative skill of the culinary arts. Every person had a specific task and the success of our team was dependent on how well each person completed their own task because each small part comes together to make up the meal for the entire team. Therefore, if one area was lacking, it would bring down the score for the whole team. We succeeded in making a delicious meal and working as a team with great communication and team cohesiveness. One part where we failed was in the execution of timing. We took too long prepping the food and we almost ran out of time while plating. I think the value of teamwork comes down to how i described the dish. Everyone's part may seem small or insignificant but in actuality, each section is paramount in the final product. The small pieces are what come together to give the overall product and if some of these small pieces are not handled properly, the entire structure will come crashing down. Taking this knowledge into the upcoming challenge, I will not let myself or my teammates feel as if their work is too small or that it does not mean anything to the group. We all must understand that every task goes towards the overall end result of this challenge and you never know what small step may be the catalyst that sends our team skyrocketing towards new heights and ultimately success.

Metacognition ! Thinking about the Thought We Were Thinking Before We Thought It!

Going into the critical thinking workshop, I did not have many specific expectations. From working with BLF, I have learned to keep an open mind about EVERYTHING and to expect the unexpected. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems and nothing is ever as surface deep as it appears. I was very excited to go to Museum because analyzing art has always been a favorite activity of mine. After going through the workshop, I learned to look at everything deeper than the surface. If one takes the time to sufficiently analyze something, he could probably find a much less superficial meaning than the one that is present. The woman's comment about how most people only take about 7 seconds to view each piece really resonated with me about my own world. One thing that I learned, which is pretty consistent with the aforementioned concepts, is that I do not take the appropriate time to properly analyze the world around me and that I could probably find more beauty in the world if i did. I am almost positive that I was able to say anything and everything about the workshop during the workshop, due to the fact that I was very active and talkative during the session. But during the workshop, a strong appreciative emotion hit me hard! I'm not sure why, but at that moment, I realized just how blessed I am to be in a premier leadership program such as Buckeye Leadership Fellows. All of the resources available and the connections which could potentially be made are so imperative that one would kill for such an opportunity! I have numerous opportunities to make and maintain many connections with so many other students and alumni through this program. I can truly say that this program has impacted my overall college experience in a positive way! I feel as if BLF values Critical Thinking so much because they are trying to develop us into the best leaders we can possibly be. Being a great leader involves being able to think fast on one's feet when times are not going as planned. One must also be able to think abstractly and outside of the box. Most times, in order to achieve something, one must contemplate an idea in a way which it has never been thought about before. BLF wants us to be innovators, therefore we must be able to think like innovators. All of these lessons will be utilized in the upcoming challenge because I am going to take my new pattern of thinking and analyzing to into the forefront of the challenge. These things will be used when the initial planning and executing of the challenge is taking place.



Part Dos!!!

 This scene here is the path that I walk across every day when I am going to class. I will use the ODIP method to analyze this picture.

Observe:
I see wet decaying leaves on the ground. The air is very cloudy. It appears as if it had rained recently. The trees are still bare and the grass looks muddy and soft. Many students are walking across the yard and it appears as if there is an increase in traffic influx at the corner of the intersection.

Describe:
The ground looks as if one would slip and fall if he were running too fast. Someone would sink into the marshy grass if he stepped on it. The ground is saturated with water and very moist. The scene is gray and appears very sad and depressing. The glass structure to the left is like a prizm that was placed in the ground.

Interpret:
The area gives me a very depressed feeling, especially on this day. The picture is gray and wet and cold and simply gives an overall unwelcoming feeling. However, the glass prizm on the left side makes one think of innovation and what could possibly be done to the land to improve its current state.

Prove:
I do not exactly remember how to use this point in the ODIP system but i  feel as if this is the section where we reveal what exactly was going on when this photo was taken. I had just gotten out of a midterm, and the weather was particularly bad on this day. I was already overwhelmed by the midterm and the thought of all the work i still had left to do and i believe that this was incorporated into the picture and was essentially carried over into my interpretation.

360 FEEDBACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My initial reaction to the assessment was very docile and relaxed. I was not shocked by what my teammates selected, because I had already had somewhat of a similar ideal of myself about the challenge. I was not able to be as involved as I would have like to have been due to scheduling conflicts and my faulty ability to juggle multiple big projects at once. There was a major discrepancy between what I rated myself and how my teammates rated me. I believe that this discrepancy came from the fact that I was not able to truly open up to my teammates and reveal what I was capable up due to the fact that I was not able to be physically present for alot of the meetings which we had. I knew what I was capable of and knew my qualities but my team was not able to recognize that which cause a major gap in the two scores. I loved the experience of soliciting verbal feedback from my teammates. I think our inability to do this initially is one of the factors which lead to our shortcoming. One thing which i felt from my team was that we were afraid to insult anyone or step on anyone's toes. Therefore, everyone took some sort of a passive role and was not open as much as we should have been. I have a tough skin and am not really hurt or offended by much, so taking feedback from my teammates was relatively easy. It seemed as if they were still reluctant to be one hundred percent honest, with the exception of Jenny, but after we had a good dialogue flowing, everyone had opened up and was accepting of everyone's opinion. We MUST begin to practice this within BLF if we are ever to success in becoming the leaders in which we have the potential to be. It is critical because feedback is the only way we are able to evaluate ourselves unbiasedly. With the feedback I received from my  teammates, I plan to incorporate that into my daily life and especially into this next challenge.

Happiness

Describe 3 experiences or environments that have been a source of happiness for you. What about them made you happy and what impact did that source of happiness have on your life?


As of late, one thing which has made me extremely happy has been being with my girlfriend Kia. She and I have truly been through many ups and downs in the short eight months in which we have been dating, but I believe that she has shown me what it really means to love someone. She does make me angry and we fight at times, but in the end we are happy and that's what matters. This source of happiness has impacted me in such a way that I no longer have to look for something I was seeking. I found love and now I'm just looking to build upon that for the future. Another source of happiness i have found is simply being here on campus. I am ABSOLUTELY INFATUATED with The Ohio State University and all that it has to offer. When I look across campus, all I see is opportunity. There is so much that is capable of being accomplished and achieved and I am going to tackle it all! Being here and seeing all that OSU has to offer has made me strive for greatness and has encouraged me to take full advantage of every opportunity presented. Never turn down any opportunity, even the smallest ones, because you never know what one conversation could do for your life. I've learned so much about life from being here and I want to learn as much as i possibly can. The last experience I will discuss here which has been a source of happiness for me has been being in church. I am a Baptist who has attended New Salem Missionary Baptist Church my entire life. The feeling that I get when I listen to my pastor speak or the choir sing fills me with a joy which I can't describe. It's as if nothing can go wrong in the world and I am in a place of pure happiness. Church has definitely been a place of strength and peace for me. Recently, I have not been going as routinely as I have in the past, but I have started attending more regularly as of late and I am loving the happiness that I used to have all the time.

Challenge Check In

When it comes to Team First Gear, I believe that my entire team has been motivated to complete our task and to be great! Even though we all have individual talents and strengths, we have come together and put these talents collectively into one pot and stewed up a meal of success. Jennifer Mayer is one of the most motivating people I have ever met. In my opinion, she has a done an excellent job taking the lead on this project, especially when it has come to the videos that had to be made. She has great skill with a computer and video editing which has contributed to some of our success thus far. Libby brings a hardworking and jovial spirit to the team. She is always laughing or giggling about something which adds a comic relief to the stress of this challenge or to our meetings and videos. Jessica has a great go-getter spirit and a drive that is unmatched. She has been great with contacting different sources and seeking out help. Finally, Ian is amazing at using his resources to help the team. He was able to reach out to multiple contacts through one main contact that sent out our email. He is also very hardworking but I feel as if our entire team is hardworking and motivated towards success. I feel as if we have meshed as a team and work great together. Often, we recognize others for doing a great job verbally. Everyone receives recognition so that we can stay motivated as a team. Any time someone has made a new development, the team is quick to shower them in thanks and also collaborate on any ideas they may have for that person. Recognition has not been a problem for Team First Gear.

Stress Less: Just Do It!

Being a biology major/ business minor, being heavily involved on campus aside from the Buckeye Leadership Fellows program, and trying to maintain an active social life, one could say that my life is pretty stressful. Time management is one of my biggest struggles, but I am getting better at it. When it comes to relieving my stress, one of my favorite techniques is sleeping. Seriously, I feel as if i never have time to get a good night's rest due to everything that I am involved in. So when life becomes too much to handle, I just head back to good 'ol Jones Tower and take a long well-deserved nap. Another stress relieving technique I use is physical exercise. Basketball is one of my favorite sports and I love to hit the RPAC after a long week for a couple (actually 8-9) games on the courts. I also love to exercise when I have the time. Most people may not like the sore body feeling one gets after a good workout, but I LOVE it! It's so relaxing and the sleep I get is so amazing! Aside from physical activity, I also enjoy simply sitting in a silent room just thinking about my life and the world around me or people watching. Due to the increase in stress I am anticipating due to the approaching finals, I realize that my stress levels can be greatly reduced by managing my time more effectively. Being a big procrastinator paired with a slightly faulty memory, I often forget about things until the last minute but always manage to accurately finish them and get them turned in on time. Possibly creating a hard schedule that includes every aspect of my day will be helpful.

RETREAT !!!!!!