I have compiled all my posts together because I just started writing them as a Word document because I have not had access to any internet for awhile (the hazards of living in the country). Each post is dated according to the session it corresponds with.

Sept. 6^th- Jung Personality Test

My score was:

• slightly expressed introvert
• slightly expressed sensing personality
• slightly expressed feeling personality
• moderately expressed judging personality

The percentages that went with each of the personality traits are pretty much summed up with those few sentences.

I recognized the introvert score and I wasn’t surprised by it at all. I love being with people, but I have always been most comfortable in my own space. I have never needed to be with other people to be content. Many of the people who know me are surprised by this because I always seem so comfortable in crowds, but the truth of it is that I am a country girl at heart. I am an only child so I have always had to accept the pleasure of no company but my own, and I can see my introverted tendencies are a result of that.

I don’t understand the second personality trait… sensing personality? I’m guessing that that means something along the lines of empathy. Which is a very useful thing to have in one’s personality; if I assume that we are talking about empathy, then I must admit that it would be very unfortunate for any woman to not have empathy. What else could you use to describe a mother listening to her children’s worries and then comforting them? It is difficult to sincerely comfort anyone if they see that you can’t empathize with them, and children are very observant of their mother’s sincerity.

Feeling personality… I group that with the things I said about empathy above.

Now the one that makes me cringe is the “moderately expressed judging personality” that makes me think of my father about thirty seconds after the first time he met one of my best friends. Of course this best friend was a boy… and he was very gay. I thought this kid was great, and we still are good friends. But my Dad was and is very judgmental of any of my acquaintances that may be a bit different from his 1950s Midwestern background ideas of who is good enough to deserve his “precious princess’s attention.” I’ve never thought of myself as very judgmental, but maybe I am always judging people and it is because I see it that I am able to control it and appreciate pretty much every person I meet.

Oct. 11^th- Get Your Message Across

I was immediately amused by the first sentence of this article: “The purpose of communication is to get your message across to others clearly and unambiguously.” This statement reminded me of my 8 year old cousin who is incredibly smart but struggles sometimes with communicating what she knows. I have seen her start talking about the animal she just learned about on Animal Planet yesterday and then she starts talking faster and faster in an attempt to get all of her ideas out before she forgets them. It is always funny to see how she rushes to convey her message when she has so much life left ahead of her that she needn’t rush so much.

I can sympathize with her because I struggle to get all of my ideas out fast enough as well. My struggle comes with writing my thoughts down. I can’t always type fast enough and when I re-read what I wrote sometimes I wonder how I ever manage to successfully communicate everyday because the words I just pulled out of the air make no sense even to me. Communicating to yourself is as important as communicating with others. I don’t know how many times I’ve written myself a note to remind me of something, only to discover that the secret language I developed for that specific note is no longer a language I understand. I have managed to perfect this in college because I now take all my class notes on my computer. This creates a challenge when I need to convey a visual idea, but I am learning my own language for that.

Oct. 25^th- Random 1 videos

Watching the Random 1 videos certainly gave me a new way to think about some things. It never occurred to me that a group of people would be willing to tour the country and just help people. It breaks my heart to see people who have given up, or are close to it, but it is a beautiful thing when they find a new purpose and pick themselves back up. The trouble is that not everyone has enough steam left in them to do it alone. I love helping people, but sometimes I feel like I am limited in the ways that I can help other people. I don’t have a team backing me up to help find the answers to whatever struggles I might find in someone else’s life. I have always felt drawn to helping people who have had trouble in the past that has scarred them in some way. In the future I want to have the opportunity to be a foster home. I might not be able to help every child who needs a home, but if I focus on the ones that do come into my life I can hopefully make their life richer.

It’s not difficult to send some money in the mail to some cause that helps starving African children, but it’s not enough to just stop there. The true leaders in the world go out and change the world with their hands and hearts and not just their checkbooks.

Nov. 1^st- Ben Zander

After watching this video in class I was both inspired and amused. Ben Zander’s philosophy hit a chord with me that I hadn’t expected it to hit. I have been struggling with my first semester in college… much more than I ever expected to. In high school everything pretty much came easily to me and even thought I had to work hard because of a big work load I never struggled. Since August I have felt like I have been drowning, and only just keeping my head above water. It’s a terrifying feeling, made all the more difficult by the fact that while I am at Coe I am over 800 miles away from anything familiar and comforting. In my struggles I have found one great strength, if you could call it that, in myself… my strength seems to be my great aptitude for stubbornness and commitment to something once I make a decision. My stubbornness has kept my head above water for a very long time, but no one can tread water forever.

When I watched that older, well dressed, English man throw his arms up and shout “stop taking yourself so damn seriously!” it startled me, and then it made me chuckle because that was exactly what I needed to do. So I did, and I don’t feel like I’m going to drown anymore. The waves are still crashing into my back with surprising force, but I am slowly wading to a dry beach where I will find comfort, if not the familiar, from somewhere in myself.

Home is still 800 miles away. I’m still terrified of being on my own, but now I am able to see what I have done- that I have accomplished what I set out to do- and I will stand on the beach and let the warm rays of the sun shine on my face as I shout to the world “How fascinating!” because I know how to save myself from drowning again.

Nov. 8^th- Campus Café

1. Laundry machines on each dorm floor

This is one thing that is a bit too ambitious to actually be put into affect at Coe because a laundry room on each floor takes up too much space and is not energy efficient. But it emphasizes the frustration that many of us feel at only being able to wash our clothes at 3am because all the machines are taken every other time of the day or, if they aren’t being used, they’re broken. It’s a petty thing to worry about, but it just another thing that adds stress to a day at college.

2. Outdoor Activity/ Camping club/organization

There are a lot of people on campus who are interested in getting more involved in the outdoors. Coming from Colorado myself, I miss being able to drive an hour and be someplace to camp and hike or go river rafting or rock climbing on naturally made rocks. I understand that Iowa has its limitations, but sometimes my friends any I feel fenced in by the fact that we can’t easily pursue healthy and safe outdoor activities because we are not familiar with the outdoor recreation that Iowa might have to offer.

3. regular Friday and/ or Saturday night activities in the Café to help encourage students to pursue activities that don’t include alcohol

I think the FREE club is an amazing idea. I totally support everything they do, but I wish that there were more activities offered on a regular basis. As I spend more and more time in college I am beginning to get a bad taste in my mouth for all the partying that goes on. I like to have fun and occasionally make myself look like an idiot just as much as the next person, but sometimes things get out of hand. I was motivated to become more supportive of what FREE does when I had to call a friend’s parents at 2am because she was in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. It made me feel awful that my new friend had gotten herself in this position because she just fell in with a group of kids who drink regularly and she had never been exposed to alcohol before college. Sometimes I can see her inching her way towards alcoholism, and that scares me but I hope that a good influence from people who care about her will help her see that you don’t need to look through the bottom of a bottle to have fun.

Nov. 29^th- Service Learning

When I was told that part of my graduation requirements at Coe were to do 20 hours of service learning I didn’t think much of it. I had to do 200 hours of service learning in the International Baccalaureate program at my high school, and I completed my Girl Scout Gold Award, another service learning-esque project. I think that my exposure to all of this service learning has given me a greater appreciation for my community in Colorado, and now my Coe community. When you do service learning you are not just giving from yourself, you are also receiving. It is a wonderful thing to teach a child to read at a volunteer tutoring group, but it is even more rewarding when you are learning from that child too. Service learning is not your regular community service because you will get as much out of it as you put into it. The only problem with this is that if you don’t engage yourself you wont be able to gain anything from the experience. Service learning teaches you how to be a more rounded leader because leaders don’t just give orders, they learn from the people they work with and for.