Thursday, July 19, 2012

No! Couldn't Be!

Today is the day before my last day. I am excited to go home but I am also sad because I am leaving all the people I have met and the wonderful class I took. 

During today's class we practiced our action plan presentations. Breaking into smaller groups, I volunteered to present my action plan first. At first I was a bit uneasy because I did not know if I was starting off well or not. The feed back was great because I was peer evaluated and it helped me prepare for tomorrow's presentation. Listening to my classmates action plan was great because I learned what was important to them. A few people even had the same goal but the steps were different which demonstrates the variety of ways you can handle an issue. 

Hi-ya! The second half of class focused on self-defense. I have taken two self defense classes and I still learned new things! Today the instructor told us that when you are sexually assaulted 90% is mental and 10% is physical. One important thing is that when you are in a situation you should not scream but yell from your diaphragm. I shouldn't even be talking about this because this is something only women should know about. It is empowering to me if no one but women know these techniques. 

By taking this self defense class it allowed me to become self-confident and indestructible. We actually practiced blocking and people said I was intimidating due to my stance. That was validating because I think I am capable of defending myself when necessary now. 

Community time concluded the first half of my night. One thing that I found ironic is that during the first community time someone mentioned that one of the ground rules should be no clicks. That did not turn out so well because everyone sat with people they associated with. I think tho was the biggest challenge and I felt we all should have gotten to know each other. I reached out and started a conversation but people were dismissive. Because my efforts were not recognized so I just stopped because nothing would change. Aside from that community time was interesting because we had to secretly identify people who had impacted my life during trip and I only tapped about 4 people on my floor. If I got to know the other 15 then there would've been much more tapping. 

The second half of my night consisted of preparing for my speech and hanging out with the wonderful friends I have made through this trip. My speech preparation was great because I wrote down things I wanted to say instead of a full speech. I think having an entire speech makes me stress out and I have this pressure to fulfill perfection. That's actually one of the things we discussed, what do you define as perfection? I said that perfection is self-determined. I loved spending time with my friends because it shows that you can become close in a matter of days and I hope to keep in touch and even visit them! I will definitely miss them all and this has been the best summer of my life!

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