Week 3 Story: Left in the Dark

Five thousand and five hundred years. This was the sentence of exile given to Adam and Eve from God. Adam and Eve had gone against God's command and had eaten the Forbidden Fruit. Eve had been enticed by the serpent while Adam had listened to her, and now they were both fit for punishment. This punishment came in the tall order of five thousand and five hundred years kicked out of Paradise. They now had to learn how to live on their own in a place that did not account for their every need. Outside of Paradise, they took up residence in the Cave of Treasures, and here is where Adam and Eve went blind.

"What is this darkness? Eve, where are you?" exclaimed Adam.

"I am over here," echoed Eve's voice throughout the cave, "but I cannot see you."

"Losing my sight is too great a burden to take, why must I be punished this way?" roared Adam. His voiced ricocheted violently off the hard rocks. "I have already been forced to leave Paradise, and now you take away my ability to see this wretched part of the world? Will you just strip me apart piece by piece?" he implored of God, whom he knew could hear him.

God took pity and responded to Adam, "Just as the angels who obey me are allowed to live in the brightness of Heaven and not deal with the dark of day, you are also held to the same standard. Once the angel has turned their back on me and betrayed me, they are cast out of the brilliance of Heaven to the world that has darkness. For your betrayal, you have been cast out of Paradise to experience the day and the night."

Adam exasperatedly said, "Please, oh Lord, take us back into your Paradise! Take pity on us as we confess our sins! We know what we did was wrong!"

"Five thousand and five hundred years have not passed yet, as you know that is the length of your punishment. I had to command that you not eat the Forbidden Fruit or else, I would have committed sin for not warning you first before doling out punishment. Once this time has passed, I will take you back into Paradise," admitted God.

"Take heart in the fact that this darkness was not intended to be part of your punishment. This is merely what is called night. This darkness will end. Night only lasts for 12 hours, and you will see the brightness of day again. The night time was intended to be a good time for rest and reprieve from the toils of day for yourself and your children. Take night as a gift and understand I did this to help you and not to hurt you," comforted God. God then let them be in the Cave of Treasures.

Adam and Even, disgruntled by this conversation, cried to themselves in the wake of God's words. Though God had tried to comfort them, they were discontented by the steadfast choice to keep them out of Paradise. Adam and Eve stayed like this until morning came, the only reprieve to their long night.

Author's Note

This story was inspired by the The Darkness from The Forgotten Books of Eden edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. I was first intrigued by this story because of the title, The Darkness. I thought this was an ominous way to bring light to this part of Adam and Eve's story. This is a retelling of The Darkness where Adam and Eve have been kicked out of Paradise and have experienced night for the first time.

Bibliography

The Darkness from The Forgotten Books of Eden edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr.

Image Information: Sunrise, Pexels

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part B

To continue the unit about Adam and Eve, I read the story The Darkness from The Forgotten Books of Eden edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. This story stood out to me from the others because of how Adam dealt with the new things in life outside of the Garden of Eden. Adam had been coddled while in the garden, so each new thing was basically a fright to him. The mere aspect of not being able to see was enough to essentially give him a heart attack. Before this part of the story, the reason he died was because it was night time, and for the first time in his life, he had to experience darkness. This was enough to fully give him enough of a shock that he just died and left Eve in the Cave of Treasures to deal with the blindness caused by darkness and his death alone. Luckily for Adam, God looked down and saw his death. Upon seeing this, God brought Adam back to life and tried to explain the reasoning for the darkness. In God's mind, the darkness was there to give life a chance to take a rest from the toils of each day. I appreciate how God explains why the darkness is not necessarily an inherently evil thing. The darkness is only temporary, and the light will come again. The light is for Adam's children to do their work, and through the light and dark there is a balance. Unfortunately, Adam does not deal with change very well, and in this version of events, he pretty much dies when something new happens that he does not like.

I like how God explains what he can for why he made the choices he did. I think this adds valuable dimension to the character and does not try to make God an unfeeling and without reasoning type of god. This shows the development and attempt at doing justice in a way that God deems as fair. This shows that God has not abandoned them, and he truly cares for them in His own way. God does try to stay with them and let them know they are not alone.

Bibliography

 The Darkness from The Forgotten Books of Eden edited by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. 

Image Information: Darkness, Pixabay

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part A

This week, my reading was from Adam and Eve from the Biblical reading options. I have known about Adam and Eve since I was a young child. I decided that reading their story again would refresh my memory, and I would have a chance to see how other parts of the world tell their story. I particularly liked how The Punishment by Louis Ginzberg (1909) was told in a way that was not as traditional as the way this tale was told in the Bible. This telling helped give more insight into the thoughts of the different characters. The characters were Adam, Eve, the serpent, and God. Walking through their punishment, the reader sees how Adam makes excuses for eating the Forbidden Fruit and following this behavior, so does Eve. This was not what God was intending, as had they confessed to their sins, the reader learns that God would have let Adam and Eve stay in Paradise.

More motive is shown behind God's intentions as well as the serpent's. God wants to truly let Adam and Eve stay, and He gives them a chance to make up for their mistakes even though they had the ability now to discern between good and evil. We also see that God is wary of the serpent, so He does not even let the serpent speak to defend himself. This was surprising to me, as this behavior seems to be out of character with God's since He gave Adam and Even both a chance to make up for their sins. The serpent's reasons for convincing Eve to eat the Forbidden Fruit to try to bring Adam's death was new to me.

I liked how this story had motives behind each character's actions. We see a play of power and deceit unfold in a way that does not go unpunished. I would like to be able to create characters that have concrete motives and desires that drive them.

Bibliography

The Punishment by Louis Ginzberg (1909)

Image Information: Serpent, PxHere

Wikipedia Trail: Persephone to Aristaeus

I was first intrigued by Persephone when I was doing an extra credit reading on the Overview of Mythology. I have heard many tales about her, but I have never sat down once and truly read her tale all the way through. I wanted to know more about the different versions of her story. I found that she was categorized as chthonic. This means "under or beneath the earth." I had never seen this word before, and I was curious as to what this meant. I really like learning new words I do not often hear, and I wish I could use new words more often. I found that chthonic can also be related to the earth which is where Gaia came into my trail. I have heard about her many times, but I have never known specific details about her. Looking more into her, I realized I have heard of her by another name which is Mother Earth. While reading about her, I saw that Gaia made Aristaeus immortal. I thought this was pretty neat because it is not every day that one comes across someone that is immortal. His name was also unfamiliar to me, so I decided I should look into him. Apparently, he is famous for the art of bee-keeping. This trail was fun to learn more about goddesses.

Image Information: The Return of Persephone by Frederic Leighton (1891)

Reading Notes: Overview of Mythology

In the reading for Crash Course Myth: Overview of Mythology, there were three videos listed to watch to get the introduction to their approach to mythology and theories they do or do not ascribe to for the videos. The video I liked best from this list was The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth. I have heard stories of many heroes growing up and the different variations of each of their tales. This video helped break down the different segments of telling a hero's journey. The main parts are when a hero separates himself from the world, trials and victories, and a return to their home. While seeing this all explained, I thought of the heroes I had grown up learning about and saw how their stories somewhat followed this progression. I am a major Avengers fan with an emphasis on Captain America, so I am no stranger to watching how their stories play out while watching them struggle to defeat the villains.

In America, I feel that we have a lack of mainstream female heroes though, so when the video brought up a tale of seven sisters, I was intrigued. Their story took a path off the traditional path of super heroes, and they were wanting to overcome hunger, pain, and fear. So this was more a personal journey to become better versions of themselves which resulted in them becoming cosmic beings for succeeding. I appreciated how the story was told in the third version. This was more of an approach of a retelling to get the ideas of the story across to the viewer. The storyteller clearly sectioned the  story into three separate chunks to show how the trend of call to action, road of trials, and returning home were relevant to this story.

Bibliography

The Hero's Journey and the Monomyth by Crash Course World Mythology

Image Information: Hero, Wikimedia Commons

Tech Tip: Canvas Gradebook

The Canvas Gradebook was a new addition to the list of Tech Tips. Apparently, Canvas updated the way they work their gradebook just this semester. Reading through this Tech Tip helped me learn a bit more of how this class is arranged grade-wise. I learned that the current week's assignments are at the top and the previous week's assignments are moved to the bottom. Luckily, each week's assignments are grouped together, so this makes finding your grades for that week super easy. I have already been referencing my gradebook a lot to make sure that I am staying on track of the assignments that are due.

Another useful part of this tech tip was that the weekly totals are located at the bottom of the gradebook page. This will help me know that I am hitting the required amount of points each week to stay on track. I am hoping to do some extra credit each week, so this will help me figure out how many points I should aim for each week to achieve any goals I may have of finishing early.

Feedback Thoughts

Feedback can often be a critical tool in progressing and growing as an individual. If there is no feedback, then there is often a lack of an outside perspective which is helpful in knowing what cannot be seen normally. In Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head, feedback is addressed as a useful way to learn how to be a better leader. This article expanded on how many people most often only address negative feedback as they see this part as the most important. I believe people do this because they think the positive aspects of their behavior that was mentioned is something they have already mastered and, therefore, do not have to work on in the future. What this leads to is only having the negative parts to focus their attention on for improvement. While this can be meaningful, I think the article brought up a valid point that people should not just brush aside the positive comments. There are pros and cons to essentially everything in life. Focusing on the positive every once in a while can become a refreshing exercise to those that constantly feel overwhelmed with the negative parts of life.

Overcoming the mind is a challenging task for those that have not already achieved it. Those who still experience struggles and new difficulties in life each day are especially prone to doubt themselves when attempting to do something new. In Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work, the author details ways to try and circumvent the self-doubt many people may feel. The author brings up how people should abandon perfectionism which can be useful because trying to be perfect can negatively affect your performance and mood. Trying to be perfect is a nearly impossible standard and those who try to meet it can often find themselves unhappy with their life situations or will refrain from attempting new skills to avoid being bad at something. This happens to me in my own life, and I hope to one day get past the perfectionism I feel is necessary to achieve everything I want to in life. Once I fully believe that making mistakes is an acceptable part of the process of learning, and not something to be punished for, I believe I will be more willing to learn about subjects that do not initially capture my interest.

In general, I have learned from constructive criticism the most when their is a clear list of what I did wrong. I try my best to do what is right, so when I have a list of skills to work on, I have a focused way to approach what I need to improve first. My most feedback negative experience happened when I was not asking for feedback, and I was bombarded with numerous negative things with no clear advice on how to fix what was wrong. This was not helpful for me as it destroyed my motivation to want to fix anything since nothing positive was listed. Moving forward, I want to incorporate more positive feedback when evaluating myself and others. I believe this will help the learning process be less discouraging.

Image Information: Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down: Pixabay

Topic Brainstorm

The topics I am interested in are Filipino Tales, Japanese Fairy Tales, creation stories, and dragons for the topic of my project.

Filipino Tales: This topic interests me the most because I am half Filipina. Since I was born and raised in America, the most exposure I have gotten to my culture is whenever my dad makes us Filipino dishes. I feel that reading these stories will expand my knowledge about my culture past just the food aspect. Just as I have grown up learning stories about princesses and heroes here, I am excited to learn about what children in the Philippines may learn as they grow up there. I hope this opportunity will teach me more about part of my identity that I never had the chance to know.

Creation Stories: I have considered before, as most people do, what came before us. I think pondering the idea of creation and how we all came to be is a meaningful exercise. Was there a greater being that simply wanted more life to help fill the meaningless amount of space? Or were we just a mere accident that happened in the massive expanse of nothingness? I am intrigued to see the approaches that different places from around the world have taken to try to answer these questions for themselves. I believe how people decide to answer these questions tells a lot about them and their mindset towards life.

Japanese Fairy Tales: Since I was young, I have had a fascination with Japanese culture. Their culture seemed so different from mine in America while growing up, and their stories often captured my attention. My family realized how much I enjoyed Japanese culture that they even planned a special visit to Japan for the whole family. They had great food, clean cities, and so much culture embedded in the makeup of their towns, clothes, and people. The incorporation of good and evil, heroes and villains, and princes and princesses often capture the whimsical side of my mind and keep me entertained.

Dragons: As numerous others have over the past few years, I have developed an interest in Game of Thrones. The most captivating part of this series for me is when the dragons are involved. I have enjoyed seeing the dragons' stories play out more than any of the character arcs in the series. These creatures are so pulling on my attention because of how majestic and ethereal they are compared to the boring repeats of every day life. We do not have a chance to witness dragons in real life, and this sparks imagination in me that pulls me deep into their story.

Image Information: Earth Dragon by jaci XIII at flickr.

Week 2 Story: Never Trust a Jackal

A tiger was searching for sustenance when he came upon a box-like structure. The tiger's curiosity got the best of him, and he investigated further. From behind, the tiger heard a clank, and he was trapped. The tiger did his best to free himself, but all this effort was to no avail. Three days passed before a Brahman came near the cage.

The tiger, now desperate to be free of this cage, called out to the Brahman, "Please, Brahman, set me free! I have been here for three days without food or even a drop of water!"

On edge, the Brahman replied, "If I were to set you free, what guarantee do I have that my life will not be endangered at the moment of your freedom?"

"Please, I beg you! I just need to be let go from this horrible place!" 

The Brahman and tiger exchanged this way for awhile until the tiger began to cry.

The Brahman had never before seen a tiger cry, and he felt pity arise in his heart for the tiger. Even though the Brahman knew this could be a life threatening choice, he decided to release the tiger from the cage. 

Once free from his holding cell, the tiger turned on the Brahman and said, "Oh my, the hunger in my body is so strong. Brahman, your scent is too enticing to turn down."

"I just let you free! Why would you turn on me so quickly? Let me leave with my life!" exclaimed the Brahman.

"Fine, fine. I will let you ask three things their opinion of this matter. Choose carefully."

The Brahman thought for a moment. The pressure of needing to save his life prevailed, and he hastily chose a nearby tree his opinion.

The tree dryly answered, "I have provided nothing but cool from the sun and places for wildlife to build their homes. Yet, those like you cut my kin down merely to feed your cows. As my life is meaningless to you, yours is meaningless to me. The tiger may do as he wishes."

Taken aback, the Brahman chose the road next as he thought there was nothing he had done directly to offend the road.

"You stand on me now with me below you, and you ask me to give you a pardon? All of you walk across me relentlessly everyday with nothing even close to a thanks. The less of you there are, the less I have to be walked on each day. Let the tiger eat," smirked the road.

Dejected, the Brahman made his way back to the tiger. On the way, he heard babbling coming from off the path. He saw there was a jackal muttering to himself among the trees. The Brahman was disoriented by the jackal talking nonsense, so he tried to discreetly slip past the jackal without being noticed. Unfortunately, the jackal perked up as the Brahman neared him.

"Why do you look so down on a day so sunny and bright?" inquired the jackal.

Unwillingly, the Brahman stopped and explained his situation with the tiger. The jackal seemed spaced out and kept looking around while the Brahman told his story. Once the Brahman finished his telling, the jackal asked him to tell him again as the first time made no sense. This time, the Brahman tried to take the story slowly and simply in a way that even this dull jackal could understand. This seemed to provide no help as the jackal still decided that the story was too confusing.

"I have an idea! Take me back to where this story occurred! I understand tales like these much better when I can see what happened, and right now all you are doing is throwing words at me!" barked the jackal.

The Brahman reluctantly took the jackal back to where the tiger was waiting.

"Ah, you have returned," smiled the tiger, "I have been waiting for dinner to be served!"

"This jackal is my last chance at getting an opinion. He is slightly slow at absorbing information," explained the Brahman.

The Brahman then proceeded to go through the story in excruciating detail to the jackal. The Brahman relished this time as he had decided he was doomed to be eaten by the tiger. Each word was a precious gift. Finally, he finished telling his story, and he asked the jackal if this time he understood.

"Hmm, not exactly, so you were in the cage? Or was the tiger?"

"I was in the cage," snarled the tiger.

"In a cage? I do not understand how or why you would end up there. How does one even get into a cage?" laughed the jackal.

"You simply walk inside, and then you are in the cage. This is not a hard concept," glared the tiger.

"Yes, but how did you get in the cage? All these words are just floating around, and I still do not get how you ended up there."

Losing his temper, the tiger decided to prove his point by going into the cage himself. "See? Like this, now I am magically in the cage, you dull jackal."

As the tiger was turning around, he heard that dreaded clank as the jackal locked the tiger, yet again, in the cage.

"Oh, I see now! You are in the cage! And now, it will stay this way," said the jackal triumphantly.

Author's Note

I wrote this story as a retelling of the tale of The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal. I chose this story as I did not expect the ending. I enjoyed the twist that occurred which set this story apart from the others. This version set me up in a way that I thought I knew what would happen at the end, but I was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.

Bibliography

The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal, Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912)

Image Information: Jackal from Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

Indian Fairy Tales: The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912) was the story that stood out the most to me from the Myth-Folklore Anthology. This story began as most other folklore stories with a general setting with a proposed problem. In this case, the issue at hand was if the tiger should eat the Brahman. This story went on in the normal rambling sense of stories of this nature. I was expecting this story to go along the guidelines of trying to teach the reader some important bit of wisdom through example, so I initially thought the tiger was going to eat the Brahman. Where this story diverged was when Brahman encountered the jackal.

(Illustration by John Batten)

When the Brahman asked the tree and road, he did not have favorable answers to keep the tiger from eating him. When the Brahman met with the jackal, the jackal came across as a very confused character that did not seem at all to know what was going on at the time. This is why I believed the Brahman's fate was sealed. At this point, I thought the story would end with the Brahman being eaten by the tiger to teach the reader to follow your instincts and leave dangerous problems, like a tiger, where they cannot hurt others. This was where I was wrong. I had underestimated the seemingly dull jackal. This twist was quite pleasant because by the jackal playing dumb from the first telling of the Brahman's story to the last, he cleverly knew how to manipulate the tiger and save the Brahman.

This twist in the plot is a technique that I would like to incorporate in my story. I thought using the underdog in the story was a refreshing way to turn the story around in a way that I did not expect. Creating this sort of suspense about the Brahman's impending doom with no clear way out kept me intrigued. In addition, having the resolution at the very end helped drive the conclusion home.

Bibliography

The Tiger, The Brahman, and The Jackal, Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912)

Week 2 Reading Overview

Below is my list of reading that I have chosen to do throughout the semester.

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4.

Week 3: Adam and Eve

Week 4: Saints and Animals

Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6.

Week 5: The Voyages of Sindbad

Week 6: Turkish Fairy Tales

Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9.

Week 7: Japanese Mythology

Week 9: Filipino Popular Tales

Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11.

Week 10: Eskimo Folk Tales

Week 11: Great Plains

Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13.

Week 12: Beowulf

Week 13: Faerie Queen - Britomart

Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15.

Week 14: Dante's Inferno

Week 15: Hans Christian Andersen

I looking forward to the Asian unit during weeks 7 and 9. I am half Filipina, so I am quite interested in reading the Filipino Popular Tales. I have not heard of any from my family, so this will be a great chance to learn more about some aspects of my culture. The description for the Japanese Mythology stories look fairly interesting as there was mention of gods, goddesses, and dragons.

(Japanese Dragons: Wikimedia Commons)

The stories about Saints and Animals is something I looking forward to reading mainly because I have not often thought about how animals played a role in some saints' stories. I have heard of Beowulf and Dante's Inferno, but I have never made the time to read these stories. I am intrigued as to what their stories hold and what has made them so popular throughout time. Reading these stories is a wonderful opportunity to bring back some imagination and creativity into my weekly routine.

Time Strategies

How to Beat Procrastination mentioned several ways on how to try to deal with procrastination. Some of these strategies mentioned were balancing pros and cons, asking yourself why you are procrastinating, and trying to tie starting a project with a reward. If I am honest with myself, these are all strategies that I have tried. I will say at one point in the beginning of trying these strategies, they used to work for me. The further along in college though, they have stopped working as effectively. Confronting the consequences of not completing a task is often the exact opposite way of how I would get myself to be productive. Once I think about all the bad that can come from me not completing something, that sometimes completely shuts down my motivation, and I am no longer productive. I will say her suggestion of pre-committing early does help me personally feel responsible to more people than just myself to get a task completed.

(Time Never Stops: Pixabay)

The Myth of Too Busy had a nice way of rephrasing "I'm too busy," that I believe is more honest. Life truly is about how you invest your time. I am constantly prioritizing what I believe is important. This can be done in work, school, and relationships. This was eye opening to read, and I actually needed to say out loud, "I've chosen not to prioritize that." Doing this helped me reflect on what exactly I am putting on the back burner. With a schedule full of classes, work, and extracurricular activities, I often choose not to prioritize my mental, physical, and emotional health. I realized this should change for me to have semester not completely full of stress.

I think the strategies I learned from these articles can be helpful for this upcoming semester. I need to be honest with myself about what is the underlying cause for my procrastination. By sorting out why I do not want to do something, I can more quickly brainstorm a plan to make doing the assignment more bearable. Additionally, I want to focus on what I am prioritizing in my life. I know what goals I have for myself, so now it is time for me to appropriately prioritize what I should to make those goals possible. My biggest challenge for this semester will be making sure that I am spending enough time prioritizing myself.

Technology Tools

This course is set up in a way quite unlike my other classes. I usually do not like when professors deviate from using Canvas, but this course is effectively organized and laid out in a way that is easy enough to navigate. By making the switch over fairly easy, I do not mind the change from the standard setup for a course. The more I dive into this class's contents, the more I discover new and interesting tools that I have noticed before but never spent the time to learn how to use.

(Laptop with Tablet and Smart Phone 

by Emma Drews: GoodFreePhotos)  

I can already tell that a majority of the links in the assignment posts are useful and full of intriguing information about topics that make me think. I have thought about making a website or blog before, but now I will have the steps to actually implement and create my own. This is exciting for me because I do not normally have extra time to dedicate towards learning fun skills like these. I think learning how to better edit photos will be an enjoyable way to put together part of an assignment. By using all of these technology tools, I hope to better develop my blogging skills by the end of the semester.

Assignments

The assignments for this class are much different from the assignments I have in my other classes. First off, I have never had to make anything like a blog before for a class in college. This is an exciting opportunity to take back the skill of creative writing that I left so long ago in my high school years. I often got discouraged when writing papers or assignments for a grade because the focus was quite often based on a rigid rubric about some topic that I had no great interest. This approach often made me write up ideas that were completely forced just to get the credit for the assignment. My words had no meaning or passion behind them. They were simply what I knew would get me the best grade for the paper.

(Pen Writing on Paper: PxHere)

This class seems to have additional flexibility compared to most of the writing courses I have been in before now. In result, this is a nice break from my strict engineering courses where there is often only one correct answer. I am most intrigued by the storytelling assignments of this course because I have not had much reason to exercise my storytelling skill in years. I would like to develop this skill to make stories that compel readers to want to keep reading. I have often thought that a great story is one where the reader keeps wanting to know what happens next.

I am looking forward to the extra credit assignments as they can help me get ahead if I have enough time. Being able to finish this course early is a really great option since I have four other courses to take care of this semester, and I know finishing early will help me focus on them for finals week. The tech tips, Wikipedia trails, and H.E.A.R.T. are all extra credit assignments that intrigue me, and I cannot wait to look into these assignments more to see what I can learn. Extra credit is refreshing because I rarely have any courses that provide extra credit opportunities at this point in my academic career.

Growth Mindset

(Reset Your Mind: MaxPixel)

While learning about the Growth Mindset detailed by Carol Dweck, I felt personally called out by a lot of what she was explaining. I definitely have had a fixed mindset growing up in life. My parents have usually praised me whenever I did well on an assignment or a test. There was never really constant support for the process or learning material. I distinctly remember being compared to my sister, and my parents would say that my sister would usually get the answer faster, and that was seen as better. To be fair, this is quite a common mindset for the professional world. Employers are constantly looking for the best, smartest, and fastest people they can hire. The professional world can simply not go fast enough. This is probably a major factor into why the majority of people have developed this fixed mindset and used this methodology to define their learning processes.

This fixed mindset has had a detrimental effect on my college experience. I made straight A's in high school, and then when I got to college, that was not the case anymore. I was told that a B was a good grade when my entire life I had been raised with the idea that an A was always the goal. Engineering is full of difficult classes, and the Growth Mindset would have really helped me push through when I did not understand a concept. Instead, I was usually graded harshly, and there was no real encouragement for trying harder on the next test because I often already had a poor foundation. This often led to me not even wanting to attempt some assignments because I knew that even if I tried, my answers would never be good enough for the professor at the time.

I really do wish more professors spent more emphasis on teaching us about the process instead of just caring about the right numbers. The concept of not yet is appealing to me because I know I am capable if given the time, but I am usually heavily scheduled throughout the semester. This usually results in me not being given a decent chance to fully understand all of the material. Not yet would provide me with motivation because this mindset helps one think that they can learn the material versus the alternative of that they will never get the concept. If Carol Dweck conducts more studies and finds more positive responses to the Growth Mindset, I firmly believe that education as a whole should be restructured to make learning a more positive experience.

Introduction to Jaclyn of the Angels

My full name is Jaclyn de los Angeles. My last name quite often causes people to question me about the meaning of my name. I have heard various guesses as to what my name means, and I will tell you now that no, I am not from Los Angeles, California. My last name "de los Angeles" translates to "of the Angels" in English. I will say my last name has been one of my favorite last names that I have encountered. I am half Filipina on my dad's side as he was born in the Philippines which is where my last name originated in my family.

(Printed Circuit Board: Pixabay)

I am currently in my third year at the University of Oklahoma. I am studying Computer Engineering which I think is pretty neat since I get to work with software and hardware. Many people like to relate the technical workings of technology to black magic in my degree which I cannot always argue is far off from the truth. Engineering is definitely not the easiest major offered at the University of Oklahoma and requires full dedication and hard work if you want to stay on top of your GPA. Computer Engineering does offer lots of opportunities in interesting fields. I tend to like the software side of the degree more, and essentially, every company with computers or websites need people like me at some point or other. Someone has to make the programs that run the technology of today.

(Me next to the rover taken by Clayton Smith)

At the end of my first year at the University of Oklahoma, I first discovered that my college had a team that built rovers. In my second year at college, I joined the Sooner Rover Team and have learned more practical information by being on that team than I have in any of my engineering courses. When I mention building a rover, I mean like the Mars rovers that NASA has been building and sending to explore Mars. The Sooner Rover Team goes to a competition at the end of the school year to the Mars Desert Research Station to compete against other teams from all over the world. Being able to be apart of this team has definitely opened my eyes to the practical application of my degree and what I am capable of with this knowledge.

When I am not busy with the bustle of my courses and work, I enjoy movies, music, and art. My favorite movie that I have watched was The Fault in Our Stars. This story of life and death is truly heart wrenching and celebrates the joys of life but not without the pains of death through a life ended too early. I have enjoyed music for the majority of my life, and I have learned how to play the piano, flute, and alto saxophone. Playing music was a constant for me for over half of my life, and I found that playing music was a way to let out emotions when I could not put my feelings into words. The arts have always been something I fall back on when I need to relax for awhile, and they have truly changed how I see the world.

Storybook Favorites

Choosing Paradise is about the nuances and wonders of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). AI and ML are both topics I have developed an interest in since I began my path on becoming a Computer Engineer. This storybook does well at conveying what someone who wants robots to truly be human-like must go through to create a being that behaves naturally. The process the creator goes through is similar to what most inventors must endure, but his endeavor is focused on creating life. Since I have held programming jobs, this story really jumped out to me and made me want to read more about someone's take on how they think intelligent robots would evolve. In addition, the clean floral design of the home page helped to capture my attention. The flow of the story was easy to follow since the next story was easily accessible in the top right corner. Overall, this storybook had intriguing content and an effortless design.

(Banner Image of The Mystical Horses of Hogwarts:

Hogwarts at Night, Wizarding World of Harry Potter)

The Mystical Horses of Hogwarts instantly caught my attention by mentioning Hogwarts. As I am a major Harry Potter fan, I absolutely wanted to know more about the mystical creatures that roam the grounds of Hogwarts. The writer gave a nice explanation about why they chose this topic. By having the background of their main page as the Hogwarts castle, they greatly increased my excitement in reading this storybook. This storybook was a nice reminder of my childhood heroes and definitely brought back some life into these characters after all this time.

(Fire Blaze from A Story of Blood and Fire: Pexels)

A Story of Blood and Fire had an aspect much different from the other storybooks that I had reviewed. This storybook had a song that played for each new page of the storybook. I am always looking for ways to incorporate music into my life, and I love the idea of having a relevant soundtrack in the background while reading. Music enhances everything it is apart of, and by incorporating music into a storybook, the reading gets another layer of drama and emotion. The topic of the storybook was enticing as well. Since the Introduction was from the perspective of a dragon, I truly got removed from my normal thought processes and considered life as a mystical beast.

Cinque Terre - My Favorite Place

I found my favorite place all because of the opportunity to study abroad. I had never been to Europe before in my travels, and I knew that this was where I wanted to go next in my life. Luckily, there was a wonderful program where I could get credit for a college course and visit numerous places that I had spent my life hearing about since I was young. My journey to Europe led me to a destination I had never heard of until I arrived in Italy. This place was Cinque Terre.

(Where Our Journey Began - 

Riomaggiore: Wikimedia Commons)

In English, Cinque Terre translates to Five Lands. The name of Five Lands helps truly bring the wonder to this gorgeous piece of Italy. Cinque Terre is composed of five closely positioned coastal cities in the northwestern part of Italy. This place has breathtaking views, challenging hikes between each city, and colorful architecture characteristic of the culture.

(Manarola: Pixabay)

The names of the five different cities that make up Cinque Terre are Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare. In Monterosso al Mare, our group was able to get into the water and climb atop a rocky outcropping which provided the view in the following picture that I took. 

(Monterosso al Mare)

Even though my time in Cinque Terre only amounted to a day trip. This place become one of my most memorable adventures and has become somewhere I would love to visit again one day.

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