Halfway Reflection

1. To be honest, I haven't totally kept up with the requirements of this course. I estimate I'll earn a B+ in the class. I can tell you the two character traits that I haven't used or developed, that if I had I would be easily gliding on an A right now - foresight and diligence. I am working 2 jobs this summer, one of which (the one my career will stem from) takes up more time than I honestly have in the day, and I somehow fit the other in, along with a couple personal hobbies and keeping up my friendships. So I tend to forget I have an assignment due until the night of the grace period (like this assignment right now), which means I don't ever get the interview assignments done. If I had the diligence to stay on top of my classwork and the foresight to know that I will have 2 or 3 assignments due at the end of the week, I would think to work on them throughout the week.
2. I felt like giving up in week 3 or 4, when I wasn't able to complete 2 of the 3 assignments due for the week (because I had waited until the night before to remember them). I got through this feeling of failure by, first of all, closing my computer and going to bed and getting a good night's rest. When I woke up in the morning, I opened up Canvas and counted up the total number of points I had earned, plus how many were left to earn, and I realized I could still get an A- in the class. That one week hadn't gone so well, but that wasn't indicative of my overall standing in the lass, especially considering how many more points I was able to earn. I don't feel that I formed a tenacious attitude about this class in the past 2 months at all, and that feels pretty awful to type, but it's true. I'm just scraping by in this class with what I can work with,
1. As a side note, I want to say that I definitely feel that I am tenacious in my job (research assistant in a biomechanics lab). In 2 months, I went from an unpaid RA to the first and only paid undergraduate RA, I am submitting an abstract to present a poster at a conference in San Francisco next summer, and I am treated as/seen as a "mini grad student" in the lab with some of the same responsibilities as the PhD students. All of this I achieved through a year of hard work, long hours, and absolute devotion and dedication to the lab as a volunteer, through always going above and beyond my duties, and through my passion for neuromechanics research. I would absolutely say I have developed tenacity as a personal trait.....but not when it comes to ENT3003. Sorry, Dr. Pryor!
3. Tips that I would tell next semester's students to foster tenacity in the class:
1. Make sure you pick an opportunity/business idea that you really love for "Forming an Opportunity Belief" - you will get real intimate with this idea real quick.
2. Do as many assignments as you can ahead of time, so that when you get longer/more challenging assignments (like interviews), you can devote more time to them.
3. Read the posts by your fellow classmates and really thinks about the comments you give, and make sure you read the comment that they post; seeing similar people get passionate about their own ideas, feeling good about giving them constructive criticism or a big pat on the back, and seeing how others would tweak or improve our own idea will really help you get involved in your business idea and in the entrepreneurial community, and maybe foster a tenacious mindset.

Here's a picture of me in the Applied Neuromechanics Lab "markered up" in the reflective markers that make motion capture possible. We were trying to get a shot of me mid-jump...it didn't turn out so well!