Reevaluating

Today was the start of our second week here at Brown. We leave on Friday; I cannot believe it is so quickly approaching. I feel like Brown is my home now. As I walk down the streets, things are familiar, and normal. It's not such a strange world as it was last week. The new summer@brown students are here, I wonder if I looked that confused. 

My Leadership Map

Today, for the morning class session, we spent most of the morning creating a map that showed how we have become a leader throughout our life. At first, I wasn't sure what to say, I couldn't exactly pinpoint the day I became a true leader. I then started to create a model of my life and fill it in and I realized that I couldn't pinpoint the day I became a leader because I am constantly growing and each day gives me new experiences. I decided to break up my map into sections of my life that changed who I was and make the lines rigid because the transitions of each step were rough and a process. I then added my colors to show my feelings during each stage. The pinks were crazy times, the yellows were times I embraced others, the reds were times when I was controlling, the blues were times of exploring who I was, and greens were moments of extreme independence.My time at Brown is golden because it was a discovery of who I was, and these are precious moments to me. The middle of my spiral map is the future. It is white. I want my future as a leader to reflect all of the parts of me (my colors) and help reflect myself onto helping others. 

It was such a simple exercise yet it opened me up to new reflections on myself. Everything at Brown is like that simple, yet complex if you look deep enough.  Brown causes me to reevaluate myself and question everything I have been told to be true thus far. It is a great privilege to be able to be here. 

The glass building we had class in today.

After lunch, we watched "Miss Representation" a documentary on women's oppression. The movie impacted me in numerous ways. It showed me just how ignorant and subjugated I was in society, always believing everything and never questioning why.  I was a curious child, but I had never questioned society itself. "Miss Representation" opened my eyes to all the subtle and internalized oppression society puts upon women. I had never before questioned why women where always the ones in laundry commercials before coming to Brown. I had never viewed society from an enlightened view point, where I could decide for myself if things were moral or unjust. I encourage everyone, both males and females to watch this documentary, if simply to see a different opinion. 

Miss Representation

After classes I wrote first 2 pages of my action plan. I then went to dinner in the Commons, and then had a meeting with Ms.Neal about how the whole Ivy League experience had been going. 

It has been a great day reevaluating everything I have experienced up to this point and I am so glad to be blessed with this opportunity.