10/13/11-THE Assignment to my Honors O group

Service: I like secret service. It makes me feel like a spy. This week I 1. Every time I went to put my food on the conveyor belt of cleanliness in the caf, I would throw away all the napkins and disposable things that were left on all the other dishes on the belt with mine. 2. I took a few friends to Wal-Mart at 2 in the morning even though I didn't need anything there and was very sleepery. 3. I took excellent notes for an upcoming test and sent them to the absent students.

Service doesn't have to be some huge deal. I think that's why I like little service so much. We can get super focused on trying to accomplish some huge service work and making it like a once in a while deal that we forget that service is a daily discipline. One that keeps us humble.

Borderline-Stalker Encouragement: 1. I sent one to a girl who has lovely eyes. 2. One girl who looked very put together and was friendly in a coffee line. 3. A boy in the Freshmen play who did a very splendid job. 4. A gentle giant. 5. Who knows what tomorrow will hold. :) I loved looking for people to encourage. It forced me to pay much closer attention to those around me instead of tunnel-visioning to people I already know and love.

BIG GOAL: Learn how to dance.

This involved a whole lot of mockery via my roommate and hallfriend. And there was videotaping involved. Yes. I really am that bad. I learned how to armroll and the hoedown throwdown. I figured if one white girl could do it, this white girl could do something that resembled it. I get really self-conscious learning things I am not good at. Especially with someone who is good at them (like my roommate). I want to learn how to dance really badly. It's such a wonderful expression of emotion. I, however, look like a barbie doll. Tall, awkward, and stiff. Oh my. :)

SMALL GOAL: Climb 3 trees.

There is physical evidence. So I am not lying.

Tree 1: On the quad. I grabbed on and hung upside down for a bit. Fail.

Tree 2: With my roommate, on the quad, hung upside down for dear life. Fail...funny video though.

Tree 3: Pine tree. It was pretty easy!! I liked it! I got halfway up. But it was right by the construction crew that, of course, wasn't gone by 6 when I was climbing. They laughed at me. a lot. And chatted in spanish about me. Awkward moments....

Tree 1: Retake: my friend Busecruz decided to teach me once he heard my failing plight of trees. After he picked the easiest place to do it and got up himself, I swung up and got it my first try. It was quite the exhilarating experience. I felt insanely accomplished. Then, like a Disney movie, all my friends appeared out of nowhere. That's right. I have witnesses to my tree feat! MUAHAHA! Then I didn't know how to get down....for a very long time...

7 Impossible things:

I rode my bike to the cemetery and lay in the grass in front of Maudie and Robert. Sounds a lot less morbid than it was. The sun was butter warm and the faint sound of chimes sang in the air. At first, I lay and thought of absolutely nothing, reveling in my very sacred, very rare peace.

1. What if all our blood was made of glitter/glitter glue and when we bled it would spread joy and cheer!

2. if when it rained, all the raindrops were magical seeds that sprouted immediately so the world would spread with flowers to frolic in when the rain was over.

3. If clothes automatically grew or shrank to your size so you never outgrow your favorite outfits.

4. If when you were driving somewhere GPS style, the path you were supposed to take on the real road would turn purple and a huge flat would be sticking out of your destination site.

5. If your ears were little speakers to your brain, so the theme music YOU hear that's playing in your head can come out.

6. If you could capture smells in jars. Or like have the ability to recall smells.

7. There was some button in your mouth or something that when you were experiencing a really intense moment you could secretly press so that it would record the whole situation and you could watch it all later. Say goodbye to "you had to be there" moments! FOILED! :) Good moments, bad moments, funny moments, super romantic moments, super awkward moments.

12/7/10

To reiterate the point made by the narrator, life without "quality" is not a life worth living because quality is the penultimate in zestful living. Without it, there would be no incentive to work for anything or to enjoy anything simply because there would be nothing to work for or to enjoy because there would be no standard by which to hold ourselves to. However, Pleasantville seemed to think that they had good thing going for them and they were more bland than anything I could imagine. So I suppose, while this is not my point in this blog post, I have cause to argue that you were never exposed to any standard for quality, then life would still be worth living. It would only be if quality were removed after a period of its constancy in life that the loss would be felt enough to cause a loss of living enjoyment. To my called point, however, God and Quality are similar in the fact that they both provide a reason to live. Just as God calls Christians to be the salt of the Earth in Matthew 5:13, God is the salt in our own lives. He livens up our ultimate purposes and provides a reason to wake up in the morning. While he isn't definable, much like Quality, His presence is undeniable and is in fact necessary. Beyond that, little comparison is to be made for the simple reason that God is the epitome of all good things and Quality tends to lean towards the side of human comparisonism.

12/1/10-Dumb Dumbs for Smart Smarts

Personally, I believe that brighter students are in fact very desirous of grades. However, I will agree with Phaedrus' belief that the lazy students desire them too. The way I see it, the desire of grades is more like an inverse bell curve. Smart students want to consistently be validated on their brilliance and lazy students want to be kept accountable for passing the class. The students in the middle, though, probably don't care about knowing their grades because they recognize the quality of their work and are content with not being reminded of their mediocre stance. I will however say that there are two different kinds of "good students" that would prove Phaedrus' point. The first group is the group that desires good grades for the sake of having good grades and allowing that part of their personality to define who they are as people. The second group of brilliant students are the ones who don't neccessarily care if they are brilliant or not. They are passionate about learning; being good at it is just a perk, a coincidence if you will. Thus, they don't really care about knowing their grade because they recognize the information that they have gained and are content. In this way, both Phaedrus and the inquirer are correct in their assumptions.

11/17/10

Rotisseries and sculpture, while bearing no similarities on the surface level, deeply unite in an unexpected foundation. Sculpture hinges on passion and creativity and an intricate understanding of both the material being used as well as the tools being used upon it. Rotisserie assembly can be the same. The rhythm and understanding that your hands and mind experience as they knit together the seemingly dissociated parts into one united whole can be exhilarating in a similar fashion as the rhythm and understanding of a piece of sculpture coming together. The roots that they have in common are the basic understanding of a creation of sorts: taking dissimilar pieces or nothingness and turning it into something beautiful or functional. You see it's not about the sculpting or about the assembly of a silly tool, it's about beauty and oneness with your personal sense of inspiration and transferring that inspiration into a tangible form. We ought to care because without that oneness or passion, we as a people group are nothing. We have nothing and we are nothing if we have not this innate sense of self-awareness and creativity.

11/10/10-Phaedrus Schmaedrus

The "real" university knows no bounds. Like God, it transcends all and its omniscience arouses all mankind to a certain level of scholarship. Reason and rationale pass down through the generations, gaining momentum and souls. JBU doesn't escape from this all encompassing wealth of understanding. Those that profess to be "poor students" may in fact prove themselves to be harborers of vast seas of knowledge in the right setting. Similarly, some "students" in classroom settings appear to have all the right answers, but their useless garbage means nothing to the world of thought. Look and learn in the hidden corners of the University; a "Where's Waldo" of sorts. Theological discussions with friends, enamored listening to an impassioned professor, private discoveries in books; the realm of possibilities extends through all regions of thought, relationship, and tangibility.

11/4/10-Switch

"How Should Colleges Prepare Students to Succeed in Today's Global Economy."

Deeper level thinking plays a vital role in both preparing students to succeed in a global economy and is one of the Nine Holistic Outcomes discussed in class. Thinking ought to be done for the sake of learning and thinking and not for any type of end result. Businesses, according to this article, look for some basic communication skills, analytical skills, and critical thinking. Although college GPA is important in the initial interviewing process, it is not the the major deciding factor in the end of the hiring process. You see, big companies have figured out that they can teach their employees the skills necessary to do their job, but they need to at least have the inherent skills necessary to achieve this future knowledge. I agree with this. I honestly don't think that I can "prove" how I've made progress in these areas. The only way that I know how to gage my growth is by asking people that have been around me for an extended period of time. This would help me understand who I was and who I have become as well as my strengths and weaknesses.

10/27/10-Solomon Style

Wisdom, as an entity, cannot be "given" nor can it be quickly gained or learned; it is a continual process. Thus, colleges cannot bestow upon their students this virtue. Even if they could, colleges wouldn't choose to teach their students to recognize or practice wisdom. Copious reasons could exist for this, but my thoughts about it are rather simple in form. When students learn wisdom for themselves, they become less reliant upon authority for guidance and wisdom. While not a negative quality in and of itself, they become more difficult to "brainwash" to the opinions and worldviews of professors. Some professors pride themselves on their ability to rock their students' minds. When a student becomes wise, however, they learn to take in others' opinions, but only for the measure that they are worth. The honors program can learn to teach their students wisdom in a variety of ways. Because wisdom, like leadership abilities, is gained primarily through experience, more opportunities for wisdom growing ought to occur. Mentoring is an excellent start to this as it forces students to interact with each other on a deeper level. Service within the community could also serve as a useful device for gaining wisdom as compassion and humility are intrinsic qualities of service and servant leadership. There aren't too many ways that I can pinpoint as "things that the program should add to help their students gain wisdom," but I also believe that the simple act of "forcing" us out of our comfort zones and into the arms of people that are different from us is something that could definitely make us grow as wise individuals. However, wisdom is a choice. It is something that every person has to strive for at an individual level, in the heart. It cannot be thrust upon you through a program or through an activity. Wisdom must be sought after and worked for.