Top Iron BLF

This was probably one of the funnest things I've got to do through BLF! While I'm no master chef, nor a chef at all, one of my favorite activities involves eating. Since my family is in North Carolina, I brought one of the closest people I have to family, my friend Kali Grant who is also a student at OSU. I'm so happy she was able to come and have a  great time!

The most 'cooking' Kali and I have ever done together was make guacamole so working in the kitchen with not just her but also Ben, his dad, Jenny, and Paul was such an exciting and exhilarating experience. I think within the first five minutes of the competition and after acknowledging Kali is a vegetarian, the group dynamics were established as to the varying levels of how comfortable people felt around the kitchen. I think we effectively utilized everyone's strengths, and we were all able to contribute accordingly to our ability. Ben and his dad took up the preparation of the food ie chopping and cutting and dicing. (There might've even been a tear or two shed over the the father-son bonding...or the onions.) Jenny's name is written all over that fabulous pho and Paul definitely steered our direction with the sweet potatoes. My cooking skills are embarrassingly abysmal, so I did what I could, running around getting things that were needed and coming up with the ideas, not so much the execution.

I remembered when we were discussing how to cook the sweet potatoes, I was a little hesitant when they wanted to add caramelized onions and make it spicy. Now, I'm an adventurous eater, but I've only had sweet potato in its steamed form with cinnamon butter or when it's cooked into fries. So I wasn't exactly confident but since I knew literally next to nothing about cooking, I willingly put my faith and trust in my teammates, and I was blown away by the result! After it was over, Kali and I were saying how we were going to make that for dinner later...

One of the judges talked about being unconventional, and that really resonated with me. I think that term also reflects our pho and sweet potatoes. This concept of how some of the best things in life can be a result of not-so-obvious combinations of different flavors and mediums taught me to think and live (and eat) unconventionally.

My Cognitive $.02

Just a disclaimer that I have a tendency to overanalyze, psychoanalyze, and even meta-analyze. Plainly, I think too much. Sure, it's one of my guiding principles to approach life with this infinite curiosity,  to never stop wondering. But sometimes, its needlessly excessive. Like it's more probable that I vehemently detest cherries in any and all forms or flavors simply because I think it taste bad, not due to some deep traumatic experience I had with cherry-flavored medicine four score and seven years ago. But I digress.

It is with this behavioral tendency that I began to (over)analyze what seems to me is this sudden emphasis on creative and innovative thinking. [N.B: These musings are based off insubstantial research. In fact, my musings are based on observations I've had, my opinions, and maybe some reading I've sparknoted, so if there is something obviously wrong with what I'm thinking, well.... I'm still in school, so I'm still, you know, learning..] Of course, creativity and critical thinking has always been encouraged, but it seems like now companies and recruiters are switching gears and focusing not so much on students' majors and specializations; it's less about what students learn (well, except for all those architecture and engineering kids out there, bless them) but more of how they learn as that is indicative of their ability and potential to learn other skills. I think this is a result of our (by 'our' I mean people out in the labor workforce, researchers, the people behind the curtain, et al. just to cover all my bases) acknowledgement that curriculum has become so narrowly focused depending on the major study chosen that it has hindered students' way of thinking. 

This narrow focus limits perspectives and diverse directions. Education should not be just about how to take tests (I did a paper on No Child Left Behind, so don't even get me started on that) or knowing which particular answer a certain professor will be biased towards. With this evolving and volatile environment, academia should be about providing the framework for adaptable thinking. 

This relatively new direction in academia is evident in programs such like Buckeye Leadership Fellows. One of the reasons why majoring in Information Systems has been great for me (and not so great for my gpa) is that programming is predominately not a step-by-step process. There's a framework and foundation for where to start, but the result can be built and configured so many different ways. The ambiguous nature of programming and technology forces and challenges me to solve problems with a multiple perspectives approach instead of a formulaic one. This formulaic approach is what I'm comfortable with and good at, in my not-so-humble opinion. Surprise, surprise, I'm above average at math. What my IS classes has taught me and continues to teach me has helped me with BLF challenges and vice versa. BLF not only strengthens and fosters my adaptability in thinking and problem solve by providing opportunities outside the classroom and computer to do so, but it also provides different perspectives via interactions with my brilliant and inspiring peers.

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To start with another disclaimer: in the best light, I am an amateur art appreciator. I love art, love looking at it, listening to it, reading it, and feeling it in my heart. I can always appreciate the Deep Meaning of a piece, but by no means, am I an art connoisseur. I would say a healthy estimate of 80% of the time, I'm off the mark and have to angle my head and stand 10 paces back and then, "Oh, I see it now!". The Deep Meaning I get out of a piece more often than not does not align with the Deeper Meaning all the Chagall's, Rothko's, Warhol's, Chopin's, Mendelssohn's, Hugo's, Smart's, Vermeer's, Dickens', and O'Brien's of the world and all of time were trying to change history with. But I can be moved by it, and for the sake of art, that is enough.

So with my two disclaimers that I tend to overanalyze and misinterpret even the best intentions, I will apply my Observe, Describe, Interpret, and Prove technique to this snapshot:

Some context for my Observation: I mentioned in a previous post that I have taken up playing piano as a stress reliever. So when time, along with my motivation, allows, I trek up to the practice rooms on campus and this wonderful conversational graffiti by the piano proves to be wonderful light reading. When done well, I love the concept of graffiti art and am a huge fan of Banksy. Obviously this is not the same caliber, but given my resources, this will suffice. 

Describe: Numerous slurs of non-sequiturs, conversations, and drawings decorate the two walls. Most conversations begin with some inspirational/motivational/depressing/cry-for-help statement and a debate ensues. If someone writes something inspirational like one of my favorites: Music is the true immortal universal language that is blind to human differences and deaf to hatred. It is followed by a confirmation of which someone else writes: Even the deaf and blind can play music!   (I'm assuming they mean Ray Charles and Beethoven.) Then there are the smart alec comments like, What about the paralyzed people out there? And so on.. A similar pattern happens to drawings where it begins with an amazing pencil drawing of a tree or something, and then other people make their increasingly inappropriate contributions.

Interpret: There is the seemingly obvious parallel where people with good intentions say what they feel is to be honest a true, and then the world corrupts it. But for those who appreciate the effort, it is worthwhile. For me, when someone writes something that sounds like it came from an annoying teenage angst journal like about how they feel all alone, I roll my eyes. But on the rare occasion, some messages do resonate with me, like how art and music might just be the truest things we'll ever know to endure the grievances of time and humanity. Deep, I know.

Prove: Graffiti is ubiquitous, and it falls into various patterns of innocent/motivational/revolutionizing/teenage-angsty ramblings that start a slew of comments that are either combinations of affirming, hateful, sarcastic, or funny. They can always be painted over because in some circles, graffiti is considered vandalism, but words will be written again on those walls. Besides, there is something satisfying in knowing that between all those layers of paint, those words live on.