At times, we are too immersed in our personal thoughts and opinions to see what everyone -- or the rest of the world -- has to offer. We must step out of our own comfort zone to view the rest of the big picture.
Waking up an hour earlier than usual, our Women and Leadership class left to Bristol, Rhode Island to participate in the ropes course at last. There was a possibility of rain pouring down on us, but fortunately, that did not happen.
View from along the trail to our ropes course.
I see a sailboat.
Some of the girls in our group listening intently.
La Fuerza de la Mujer!
The Atlantic Ocean
Some of the awesome people we've met! Lina from Boston and Thara from New York.
Trying to figure out things.
Trina (Chicago) and I hugging! Otherwise, we would have fell on one of the tasks.
Many times throughout the ropes course we had today, I thought about how each person in our group repeatedly forced their idea to use to solve the mission we had to complete in several exercises. However, because everyone was speaking out too much and listening too little, it just became a very loud chatter that no one could comprehend. After a while, we realized that we should implement the skills we've acquired over the last few days: listen and understand. So eventually, we tried one of Trina's (a girl from Chicago) ideas to get us across an "island" (or a block of wood).
Thinking...
Through the many exercises, it dawned on me that the more we tried to listen to each other, the better our results came. If we do not step back and try to see everyone and everything, we could not proceed in a smooth matter.
After we made it to our home, sweet home, we met with Ms. Stewart for dinner. In the Dining Hall, we reflected on the past few days we've had at Brown. We shared some laughs, we shared some thoughts and we shared some opinions. For me, it was great to be with Ms. Stewart again. We've haven't seen her in awhile; there was so much that changed in a couple of days. I liked sharing my thoughts about Brown and the class.
On the way home...
To me, this thus far has really been a life-changing experience. Others in the class, and possibly in the whole program, do not seem as excited as I am about being at Brown. To me, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I appreciate it differently and focus my whole self to this class.
In the evening, Lucero, Irene and I decided to go see "The Bicycle Thief", an Italian foreign film in black and white. It was a great film, but rather different from my tastes. The ending, to me, ended in an abrupt, unfinished matter and left me wondering about what happened to the characters in the movie. Irene told me it was because foreign films do not typically end in "happy endings" like American films do. I was surprised by this, but nonetheless learned something else today.
Tomorrow, the weekend starts. Now what to do...
Lupe,
ReplyDeleteYou are definitely getting this class and this program. I especially like the way you’re analyzing what’s going on and can read between the lines. It’s inspiring and affirms your selection to the ILC.
AND, you post lots of pretty pictures. My kind of gal.