Multi-Modal Final (Part 4)

Reflecting on Reflection:

I took note of and documented the beauty of nature around me, and it even inspired me to be poetic. Poetry is a form of expression that I hadn't explored yet in this course during this quarter, and I felt there was no more appropriate time to utilize it than when we were immersed within the nature of the mountains (with nature often being a topic of poetry for good reason since it inspires us to look inwards and outwards). I achieved a feeling of relaxation of being freed from the struggles of studying for finals and ultimately appreciated the simplicity and slowing of time in an overall hectic end to the quarter.

I can really see what Thoreau was talking about in Walden in that living off of the Earth can be so fulfilling and reveal truths about ourselves and society in general. On campus, we are within a pretty big urban community where so much is going on at once (it can be overwhelming) but looking at the city from afar you start to realize that it isn't as big as it once seemed and you start to recognize it for what it truly is (a conglomerate of people all deciding to co-exist at a high population density). The sunset was really pretty and helped me further remove myself from my stress and I cleared my mind temporarily.

Reflection allows us to look upon things from a different perspective, which garners a more holistic conceptual understanding. We have often look at reflection as a means of narrowing in and finding out the specifics to solve a problem but reflection can also help us take a moment to step back and see the big picture. When we are in the action of doing something, we are usually so focused on what's next that we lose sight of the overall goals and the driving factors that are providing us our motivation to act how we do.

Going forward I will continue to use reflection as a means to help me form a deeper understanding on concepts, solve problems in a wide variety of contexts, quickly adapt to new situations by transferring past experiential knowledge to new scenarios, continue to evaluate what I wish to be my big picture objectives and continual reassessment of whether or not my current efforts are effectively leading me down the right road in life. Even though it often takes silence (or removal and inner focus) it is not a passive act, but I will continue to make time to center my thoughts and actively think about what is going on- both in the process of action and afterwards. To me, the small amount of time and directed focus is a great investment as it makes life so much easier in the long run. It does this by preventing unnecessary mistakes as we are continuously learning- building a foundation for us to grow upon. BUT, Reflection is hard and sometimes you are going to fail, but it is how you bounce back up (or regrow after you have been decimated by fire) that defines who you are as a reflective practicioner. We will all face adversity, but we must stay calm, believe in ourselves and use our skills as a reflective practicioner to handle the situation the best we can. My personal definition of reflection is that it is personalized experience that allows you to utilize your continually increasing knowledge bank and apply it in your quest of learning more about the fields you are passionate about and perhaps more importantly yourself. It has helped me realize my boundaries (what I am good at and what I'm not so great at; what I feel comfortable doing and what I am hesitant to do; how hard I can push myself and when I start to lose my creativity). Now that I have realized these boundaries it is my mission to break through these walls. I will continue to grow as a scholar and as a person!!

And Just like this picture I will absorb all of life's lessons like this book, take time to define what they mean to me, and inscribe the knowledge attained from all around me into my brain ;)