I am super proud of my team! Everyone is working hard and doing all that they can to get this event up and running. We are all doing separate things to get ready but everyone is engaged and excited. One challenge we are facing at this point is just racing against the clock. We have a lot to do this week to get ready and we are depending on some outside sources to help us with finances so I am a little nervous about getting that done with enough time to spare. I don’t know if we are struggling with anything except time and making sure it all gets done. We didn’t have much we wanted help with last Wednesday. I suppose we could reach out to the teaching team but the website doesn’t have resources to help with time or getting others to respond. Otherwise, I’d look at the website.
Our plan of action at least for myself is to contact the businesses we are going to be working with and get them prepared for our scavenger hunt. I will need the help of all of my team to do this. We will also have to complete a mock hunt to make sure it works properly before Saturday. We will also have to collect the prizes from businesses, and set up the online transaction link through western. We have a lot to do this week! I am excited and nervous but if we continue to work together we will be able to pull off an awesome event!
Much shorter journal this week, I am super busy with the event and all that jazz. But here is one thing outside of E&I. My friend and I went to Seattle this last week and the sunset was beautiful. Also, Ducks!
The IDI test is always interesting, I don’t think I ever saw my results when I took it in Fall quarter with Art. I was surprised to see that I received myself to be more accepting than I actually scored. I am very interested to know how they differentiate and determine that through the questions given. How can you record both the perceived and the actual orientation in the same test? It was super cool to see though. I have had very minimal experiences with other cultures purely because of a financial state not because of lack of interest. I have not been able to interact with many other cultures, so most of my answers were based on how I think I would act in the given scenarios. I’d Like to take the test again after having traveled and actually practice what I think I would do.
On Monday during the debrief, enjoyed the presentation of the giving tree, I thought that was a cool way to show equity and equality. Though I am still unsure how it directly relates to the E&I program or why we did it in the entrepreneurship class. But it was cool to see nonetheless.
E4 Shift and Share:
I loved how the three ladies combined their projects. Very neat! It was fun taking notes with mind mapping but it got a little too messy and all over the place for my liking.
I am a visual learner. Powerpoints or demonstrations make my brain happy.
I don’t use a method for time management. I go on a day-by-day basis. What works for me is a whiteboard in my room with the tasks I need/want to get done that day. my day changes so much when it comes to mood, energy level, and amount of work. It is hard to have a set schedule to stick to every day. I like the system I have now.
I am currently trying to establish a consistent morning routine but that needs to start with a consistent wake-up time. I really like staying up late way too much. I feel so creative in the evening when people are asleep and it’s dark outside and I can just watch tv or listen to a podcast and paint for hours. Art is my happy place for sure so I like to do that whenever I can, and usually, that is at night after all my work has been completed. My school schedule doesn’t help much because every day is a different start time, or one day has more classes and work than the day after. I am not entirely sure how I will nail all this down but I’m sure I will figure it out. I am also trying to meditate daily which can be really hard for me with anxiety. My anxiety makes me want to get all my stuff done right away so I am not anxious anymore but then after that, I am so drained. I’d like to meditate in the mornings but it’s a nasty cycle of being tired or anxious about the day ahead. It is getting better though, the nice weather is helping and so are the longer days for sure. I am also signing up for yoga classes too which I am excited about because I will have a class to hold me accountable and I will learn some good flows and salutations to do on my own. I am also trying to reach out to my loved ones on daily basis to tell them I love them and I am thinking about them. My friends deserve all the love and blessings in the world. Lot’s to do and I am excited I am feeling inspired and energetic again. I was in a slump for too long.
I think I feel impostorism too often with the anxiety I experience. I talk to my therapist about it and she reminds me most of the thoughts I have aren’t my fault and it is really just the disorder talking, not me. which is helpful to remember. anxiety is an uphill battle but I am getting a lot stronger and tougher because of it. It has definitely been hard but I wouldn’t change it at all. I think I have learned a lot about emotions and how to express them and handle them in healthy ways and that is a very valuable skill in my opinion. Impostorism is a dangerous trap. No one deserves to feel lesser than they are!
{Sorry for all the anxiety talk. I have decided that hiding it from people is useless and being open about it helps me feel in control and empowered. It’s not some dirty secret, it is a large part of my life and daily struggle but I love who I have become because of it! }
Something extra: These are all three of my roommate’s cats on the three piles of stuff on my bed depicted in a blurry photo. I would love to know why cats lay on objects when there is so much bed available.
During the BMC workshop, I don’t think I was super surprised to see the actual order of operations, it made sense, I do think the order my group came up with made sense too, and sawyers group. So it kinda feels like it can go any way, to be honest. But maybe not the first 4? I would like to understand the elements of the BMC a little more than I do now. I think using the BMC is the trickiest map for me, probably because I have not completely understood everything until recently and I still can learn more.
Arathi is my favorite speaker that we have come to talk to us. I really like her long in-depth answers. I feel like I learn a lot from her. I was really glad she said that 70% of our thoughts are negative, I have heard that before and I find it to be very true. I have struggled with generalized or extreme anxiety my entire life and it has been a long journey to get to where I am now, I still have a lot I’d like to do! But sometimes it is nice to know it isn’t my fault for my negative thoughts, my brain simply tends to favor them more for some reason. Maybe it’s a fear reaction and my brain thinks it’s harmful thus triggering anxiety. At least that could be what it is for me. Nonetheless, it was a good reminder for me personally.
I’m not entirely sure what coaching is to me. I know what it means but I don’t know how it fits into my life at this moment in time. I suppose I could use coaching for myself but I don’t think I am in a great spot to coach others simply with school being my main priority. Coaching in the program? I feel like I haven’t had a long enough session for it to be as productive as I’d like. I feel like if we do another coaching session I’d like to spend the whole class period doing so to make sure everyone gets what they need. I also feel like most other students don’t make the best coaches, I don’t think I would, I have too much on my mind some days to be able to help someone out and give them my full attention. I think coaching is a great tool but if we use it in class I think we need to really spend time with it to get a lot out of it. For example, Arathi has what I assume are hour-long sessions with one client and it is solely focused on them and what they need help with. I think coaching is supposed to be a little more like that just from a one on one standpoint with designated time for helping one person.
This weekend my friend and I did some tie-dyeing with Rit dye which I don’t know too much about but I know it’s one of the best dyes for fabrics. They look very red but it was much more orange in person. I am so excited to see what they look like!
When Jonothan/Komodo came to present, I really liked how he talked about communication between everyone. I like that he brought up that making sure everyone feels included and that no one is above another is important, some people just have different jobs. For example, Jonathan seems to be the main idea guy (or one of them) behind the whole venture but yet he didn’t identify himself as the CEO (correct me if I’m wrong). He said he was focusing on the financials at the current moment and some of the hiring. He seems to do a little bit of everything, and he hires other people to take on the things he doesn’t have expirence with.
One question I have is I want to know how the boat covers are sustainable, and do they pay themselves off at any point? Why is this a better investment besides easy installation, and new technology? Overall, I really enjoyed the presentation though, at some points he lost me and I spaced out when we went on tangents but for the most part, I was engaged.
I wasn’t a fan of when he said small business owners aren’t exactly entrepeneurs or that there is a big difference. I don’t think there is a difference at all between small business owners and entrepreneurs. Same thing different words. Being an entrepreneur is finding a creative solution to a problem you’d like to see fixed. My mom owned a wine bar downtown for a number of years (she sold it right before covid which was a pretty good move in my opinion) but that is all she did. She didn’t expand or try to do other things and that is totally fine! That is all she wanted to do and I don’t think it made her any less of an entrepreneur. I think being an entrepreneur can mean owning a small business or creating a huge corporation or even writing a travel blog and doing that for a living. I think it goes against what entrepreneurs stand for when we put limitations around the word and its meaning. Anyone can be entrepeneur and I don’t think its fair to exclude anyone. Starting any sort of venture or business is hard and that should be acknowledged, not used to discriminate against the people who don’t want to expand and keep creating once they’ve established a business.
VPC’S
I like the vpc’s I think they are a loose, easy, forgiving way to start generating ideas and the bones of a venture. I use them often to come up with quick iterations of different propostions, or the same idea. I think they do help by allowing me to see if I am on the right track when it comes to helping my customer and figuring out how to solve the pains. The process is going well overall. My group created 3 different maps to showcase 3 ideas we had so we could have a direction to follow when we picked our final event idea. I think the Product matches the customer for the most part. The event is hard to come up with the customer side because I feel like we are picking and choosing the problems people have. For example we chose very general problems like bordeom and it being winter and covid etc. The event has very broad problems because the main reason people go to ANY event is because they want to or they are bored. Unless the event is for work or school. I hope that makes sense.
But things are going well with the vpc although we would have liked to have done an outdoor music event, that seemed to be more challenging than we had time to wrestle with. our first survey indicated that was the prefeered event college kiddos were interested in. But we found the next best thing that maybe hasn’t been done in the E&I world at WWU in a while. Perhaps next time or for another venture I could follow in Zosia’s footsteps and make my own festival haha.
I dont have a lot to share besides my answers to my questions this week, so here is a funky picture of my friend in a tiny green hat in the sun.
