Retreat

Being an Ohio State student who is involved in multiple student organizations I have been to a plethora of retreats.  But, I have to say that our BLF retreat last Sunday was probably my favorite.  Going into the retreat I did not really know what to expect.  I was just hoping we didn’t do all of the typical icebreakers and I was pleasantly surprised when we didn’t.  There were a few things I wanted to get out of the retreat.  I was really hoping to get to know all the fellows better particularly the senior class.  Before the retreat I had not really many interactions with the senior fellows and I did not even know most of their names.  I really enjoyed working with them and getting to know them better.  It was good to see them outside of a semiformal meeting setting.  I was also looking forward to getting to know some of the junior fellows better.  The fellows who are not in my pod or challenge group I had not really had a chance to interact with.   Overall the retreat was great for getting to know all of the fellows.

Going into the retreat I was also looking to build a better since of trust between the fellows, and that is exactly what we did.  I think it is very important that we all trust each other since we spend so much time working together.   We did a number of trust building activities.  I think my favorite one was when we had to guide one of group members to find an object on the ground.  But the twist was that one person could see but not move or talk, another person could move but not talk or see, another person could talk but not see or move, and the last person was a spotter who could not do anything beside stop the person that was moving from bumping into things.  I think that activity required a lot of trust with each other because we had to depend on everyone to help guide us.

The retreat definitely showed us a lot of things that will help all the fellows with our challenges.  We were able to get to know each other better, build a better since of trust, and learned how to think outside of the box.  The retreat was a lot of fun.

            

Managing Stress

I like to think that I am a pretty organized person, so I try to plan things out so that I do not feel overwhelmed or stressed very often.  Although I am organized, sometimes I still procrastinate.  It is typically when I procrastinate about something that I get stressed.

            When I feel like I am starting to become stressed about schoolwork I like to breaks to give my mind some time to relax.  Typically for a break I will take a short nap, watch a show on Netflix or even paint my nails.  I just like to give myself about 30 min to relax and not think about whatever it is I am working.  I also feel like the student organizations I am in relieve my stress.  They are just another way to take my mid away from schoolwork by doing something else I enjoy.  When things other than school stress me out, such a friend or family member is adding stress to my life, I handle my stress the same way.  I just take a little time to calm down and relax and then refocus on what I was doing.

            I think I need to work on not procrastinating.  If I did not procrastinate I would not become as stressed by schoolwork.  I do think that I procrastinate less and less each year, but it is still something I can definitely work on.   Overall I think I do a pretty good job managing my stress, but there is always room for improvement. 

Definition of Sucess

Over the last couple of years I have changed my definition of success.   Growing up I thought the only way for someone to be successful was if they were at the top of their company making a lot of money, a student who has a 4.0, or an athlete that continuously comes in first place.  But recently I have come to realize that success if not all about money and being on the top.  I have come to understand that in order to be successful you have to make sure what you are doing is something that makes you happy and something you are really passionate about.  Success if is about finding something you enjoy and working to be about your personal best.

            I know that everyone has their own idea of what success means to them.  Over the summer I was worked on a group research project that was part of a summer program.  Within my group there were many different ideas about what would account for making our project a success.  A few members of the group thought the project would be a success just to have it completed, while others thought it would be a success only if the paper was published.  I thought the project would be a success as along as it was completed and everyone gained some type of knowledge and experience from the whole thing.  Our research was on obesity within America and I wanted to make sure I expanded upon my knowledge about obesity.  It was challenging to work with the people in the group who did not really care about the project and did not want to gain anything from the experience.  However, that is just a part of life.  Everyone views things differently and has different onions.  In the end, even though people had conflicting views about what needed to happen in order for the project to be called a success we were able to complete the project.

            Success is different with regards to every of a person’s life.  But, in general I think as long as a person is doing something they enjoy and are passionate about and are working their best at it, they will be successful.

How I see myself as a leader

My first video blog :)