Growth Mindset: Re-do's

“Try Everything” by Shakira from Disney’s “Zootopia”

It seems appropriate to appreciate this Growth Mindset inspired song what with the streaming service “Disney +” having just recently been released as well as this concept that started this class this semester coming to a close. This song is not only catchy, but the message is something I have only just now internalized in a new way after being introduced to Carol Dweck who started the craze. For kids hearing this song at such a vital time in their life, this song could be future changing. By encouraging someone that they can choose their battles and not let their initial setbacks scare them into abandoning ship. I was the poster child of the kid who never chose to try new things. Ice-skating, cheerleading, piano, art lessons, dance—these are just a few activities I never attempted thanks to intimidation. During that fanciful and free time of life when time is abundant and responsibilities absent, this could have been the time for me to find my calling. Instead, I still enjoyed those formative years in other ways conducive to how I turned out today but I still think it could have been constructive had I taken a chance on even one of those listed. These days, this young version of me still has me sit on the side-lines when it comes to many things. However, even in little ways I’m leaning toward considering spending time on my short and sweet bucket list. Some of these include getting back into baking or taking a pottery class again since it stirred such an interest the first time I took it. Trying everything means new things as the tides turn and happiness and fulfillment in putting time and effort into things which contribute to these takes on new forms. I think foremost is this underlying presence of an attitude that is more calm and collected about not forcing yourself into self-fulfilling failure since some things inherently take more tries but at the same time indeed forcing yourself to circle back to square one when you do have to give yourself grace and do something a second or third or fourth time.

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Learning Challenge: Sleep Study

“What Would Happen If You Didn’t Sleep?” by Ted Talk Speaker

I have been waiting to watch this four minute video for this precise week: week 15, most appropriately is referred to as “dead week.” This week before finals it is all too real for my fellow students (myself included) to be unsafely sleep deprived. Or to add insult to injury, sleepless but bugged out on sugary caffeinated soft drinks and Starbucks coffees. This video put into perspective just the result of such activities on one’s health. We learn about Randy Garner, a 1965 High School student who in order to do a study he stayed awake for a whopping 11 days—264 hours. The results were extreme to say the least. The hallucinations by the final day of his experiment are explained by his growing his lack of coordination and concentration. A tired brain unable to process physical stimuli seems the environment one would expect for one to become out of touch with reality, paranoid, and unable to remember short-term. It was said that he didn’t endure long-term effects, but goes on to explain that it can be cause for more prominent and prolonged side effects like hormonal imbalances just to name one. It even said that death could come from such serious cases of insomnia! Some of this taught me nothing more than I already had a hunch about or learned about in school (the science of sleep, that is), but it is a good reminder that shut eye is so necessary.

I myself have been up for a total of 4 days several years ago and can say that it was definitely a terrible experience. It started after I experienced my first full-fledged panic attack. What I recall about the incident is trying so many quick-fix methods to force myself into slumber that simply didn’t work, whether teas or medicines or exercising to the point of exhaustion. Physically, I can’t forget the unfamiliar and scary feeling of losing the ability to discern my surroundings through sensory signals. Most prominently probably is how my distorted my sense of touch was that somehow I couldn’t make sense of the tactile stimulants around me from one another. It shot me into this realm of feeling outside of my body, almost detached. This, along with my body naturally having an increased heart-rate from my lack of rest made the anxiety that threw me into this sleepless episode only worse. I can’t remember how or why this period ever ended or I would share the secret, but I hope that in the next week or so I don’t relive this!

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Famous Last Words: Almost Done

These last couple of weeks have been challenging. I can’t believe that the end of the semester is so close, I feel like it’s been such a short time since it started. Since about the end of October, every day seems to have melted into each other and I’m not sure which way is up and which is down at this point. I’ve made such slow progress on my Storybook project after my “full steam ahead” attitude not long ago and am not sure if I even have the time in the next couple nights to do a story about Draupadi.  Since my project focuses on “twins,” I had the intention of doing two chapters featuring female characters with opposite gendered “other halves” as they make for a good comparing/contrasting pair. However, I have SO FEW points left to earn since I have done so many Extra Credit assignments it really just will take a few of these to earn my “A.” As such, since I am graduating and since the likelihood I can keep my website up and running in the months afterward are slim—I think this is what I will do. At this point, my remaining finals and post-graduation job hunting has taken full priority. Luckily this class is just that flexible that I can still earn an “A” this way.

In other news, I have a new tortoiseshell kitten. She was a stray that a family friend found her on Halloween, and we were chosen to take her in after they began asking coworkers and friends to give her a “forever home.” She is curious and spunky in comparison to my carefree and calm cat, so she’s been a welcome addition! Otherwise, outside of this class all is as usual- just trying to stay afloat until freedom when I complete college and can tie a bow on this chapter! I’m gearing up for the career-level job application and interview process ahead. This is making my motivation and focus fluctuate, but someday I imagine these days will just be like a dream forgotten! I do want to enjoy these days while they last, but I also want to make them worth it! So every bit of free time and wiggle room I can make I am taking full advantage of.

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Reading Notes: 17 Fascinating Women from the Mahabharata (B)

“17 Fascinating Women from The Mahabharata” by Sharath Komarraju

Since I bought the book, I figured I might as well do my last “Reading Notes” with final thoughts about my reading in a more general way. A sort of parting thoughts about how this book ties up some of the major characters which I have gotten to know over the course of this semester. I have to say, some of the themes of womanhood, feminism, family, and other related commonalities which seem so unapparent at first really are fairly significant with a critical eye. For example, these final chapters—after the ones which focused on the woman most “center stage” in the Mahabharata—also are incredibly interesting to read about. The way this author has emphasized their qualities individually and communally. In Part B,  out of Ghandari, Amba, Subhadra, Ulupi and Chitrangada, Uttara, and Renuka I think it’s just the last three or four whose names escaped me. That being said, most interesting was tying the authors facts, figures, and theories of Ghandari, Amba, and Subhadra. With Ghandari particularly I liked how he tied her emotional states to that of other women’s—emphasizing this maternal, feminine bond with women so different in circumstance and importance. Furthermore, the interpretation on certain women’s upbringing as far as education was concerned was another vital takeaway which made me think back to the men whose skills and knowledge set them apart. Given their educational journeys being so noticeable a feature of the epic, it’s interesting to contrast and compare that of women like those in these chapters. I see how their wisdom and guidance in some ways, like those in former chapters, set the stage for various series’ of events that occurred. They seem to have great power in using their unique gifts for love, war, or otherwise. How these overlap with moments where they seek vengeance for loved ones slighted or slain—like Subhadra for example—really emphasized for me how savage women are with particular causes. Many of them likely to do with emotional or traumatic scenes, like children or husbands’ deaths.

Bibliography:
Author: Sharath Komarraju
Title: "17 Fascinating Women from The Mahabharata"
Source: Kindle

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