Don't Matter If You're Black or White

Hey everybody!
So after bringing up diversity in class, its pretty apparent that its everywhere on campus. Its also very obvious how many diversity related jokes I see or say myself. As you all have noticed I can be one to put my foot in my mouth sometimes, and usually it doesn't even pass through my mind that something I can joke about could appear offensive if the wrong person heard it. I think this might be a struggle for Hixson's that we'll all be teaching, even if it doesn't come up in our presence. A vast majority of the new freshmen we'll have will have grown up in similar cultures, more than likely in small towns where there wasn't much diversity, therefore no reason to hold back from telling an off color joke, or making a racist remark. I think that's something we're all going to have to be aware of, and we're going to have to set the example for out students to see how we deal with diversity on campus. Not only because we are their peer mentors, but because we all come from pretty similar backgrounds and have been through the same transition they had.

Yes I AM Finally Thinking Before Speaking :)

This week was quite an enlightening one in class I must say. I didn’t go into class with the mindset that I was just going to sit back and let my fellow mentors lead the discussion, but as class continued I just felt more and more comfortable letting that happen. Or it might be that I couldn’t get a word in edgewise sitting next to a Mr. Matt Allbee… just kidding!

Anyways, I loved hearing everyone listing out and discussing the things they hold so important in their lives. I found it quite challenging to narrow down my list to only a handful of values, but I think the ones I came up with were very fitting of myself now. Since no one got to hear my list, they were listed as family, friends, positive outlook, sense of humor, intelligence, and confidence. When someone brought up that they didn’t think the list they made on Wednesday would match the same list they would have made a year or more ago, I looked at my list and completely agreed.

Family will of course always be number one to me, and good friends a close second, the following four values are some I’ve just come to realize in myself after coming to college. In high school, I never thought of myself as an optimistic person per-se, but looking back I definitely was. Also, I would say that I considered my intelligence to be more of a burden then a blessing. I mean come on, who wants to hang out with the new super smart girl? Uuummm… not many. And after coming to college and seeing all these aspects of my personality were valued by so many others, my confidence in myself exploded.

This week I decided that I was going to work on laying back a little bit and trying to not monopolize discussions and conversations, not just in class but in my life as a whole. When I announced this in class, I was shocked to hear such laughter, considering I was being quite serious with what I was saying. I guess that just goes along with the whole topic of how others perceive you, because that reaction proved I am perceived as far more outgoing and outspoken as I perceive myself to be. I’m honestly going to try to work on this, but don’t worry you all will still be hearing from me plenty!

Happy weekend everyone! If you don’t have a Valentine, go out and find yourself one! :]

I wanna get to know ya... and myself

Hi Everybody,

I was just getting my life together in the Hixson computer lab and remembered I should probably take a much needed study break and bloggg...
This past week in class I noticed our whole class really opening up around each other and acting more as friends then as classmates, which I quite enjoyed. I like getting to know all of my fellow peer mentors on a deeper level, unlike in most classes where you just know each other on a superficial basis.
I could also see us all opening up on the inside, and the wheels turning in our heads about who we really are and how we act around others, whether we're in a leadership position at the time or not. I know our discussion helped me realize how I have trouble taking people who are only a year or 2 older than me seriously when they are in a leadership position, and how I might have trouble having confidence in myself to be an effective and influential leader to the mentees in my future class. It's going to take me time to learn how to separate being a fun friend, and being someone who is "in charge" and who can be a person a mentee could come to for guidance and advice, and someone they can respect as well, instead of someone who is just entertaining during class time.
When reading other mentors blogs, I saw Austin also had realizations during class about things he needs to improve upon to become more effective... must be an ENFP thing ;)
Hope everyone had a good weekend and also has a great upcoming week. Good luck on any tests or assignments you might have! (Lord knows I have lots!)

See everyone Wednesday!!

Chels :]