Innovations Roadmap #4

Mentor [men-tawr, -ter] 
Noun
1. A wise and trusted counselor or teacher
2. An influential senior sponsor or supporter
Verb (without object)
 3. to act as a mentor 
Verb (with object) 
4. to act as a mentor to

TOPIC: What makes a mentor helpful? How have you served as a mentor?

I can lie and say I have had no mentors. That’s not true, obviously. Everyone has a mentor, whether they know it or not. The main mentor is my dad. As aggravating and pushy as he can get, he means well. He’s helped me through preparing for college (while being pushy), with applying to scholarships (still pushy), and moving to college (not pushy). It’s the parts where he isn’t being pushy that usually makes me realize that he means well and wants to help me in any way he can. That is one of the key qualities of a mentor. They must mean well and want to help. It doesn’t have to be in any way, because I know there are limitations. The desire to help, however, is important as a mentor.

Several other key qualities I can think of are being supportive when they are unable to help, be the person you bounce ideas off of, and remaining a correspondent throughout your life. The bond forged between a mentor and the mentee is an important one, and I don’t see it being easily broken. In this way, parents can frequently be mentors. I consider both of my parents to be mentors. They support and teach me in two completely different ways, and I couldn’t be more grateful to them.

Mentors are helpful because they encourage growth. They make sure that the mentee grows mentally and emotionally. They’re there if an idea doesn’t work to make sure that the mentee can get right back on their feet and come up with a different approach. However, they should be able to leave the mentee to their own devices and not coddle them. They can perform a check-in every once in a while, but should not be hovering over a shoulder, making comments all the time. My mentor in my volunteer work does what I just described. He has been amazingly helpful when I need help teaching.

I have been a mentor plenty of times, but I usually don’t view myself as one. Nor does anyone ever call me a ‘mentor.’ I’ve helped students learning Japanese in two ways. One was more involved than the other because I was a volunteer that often graded papers. I would explain corrections when asked and help with any questions on homework. The long-term goal for these students was usually to pass a kanji test at the end of the year. The other time I helped students learn Japanese was when I was a Japanese student in high school. Being a ‘native’ speaker, I knew significantly more words, sentence patterns, and kanji than everyone else. People often turned to me for help, and I often checked in on people in my class (and those in lower classes, if I knew them well enough). In this case, the goal was to help them learn Japanese. I’d like to think I did a pretty good job with it.

I’m also a teacher for the English Skills Learning Center. A teacher can be a mentor. I’m not incredibly wise, like the above definition defines a mentor to be, but I am proficient enough in English and I am helping someone towards a goal and helping an organization solve a problem. The problem of the organization? Refuges in Salt Lake City need to learn English in order to be able to interact. The problem of my student? She needs to study for the citizenship test to become a U.S. citizen. The problem the organization tackles is the reason why I joined. Besides the fact that this volunteer work is helping me gain experience in a field I wish to join, helping refuges who are likely experiencing culture shock adapt to their surroundings is extremely important to me. With my student, I feel like I’m helping someone do something more. I check in on her twice a week, teach her, encourage her. I want to make sure she’s prepared for the test. Seeing her as an American citizen will be a huge reward. That’s a benefit to being a mentor. Knowing that when your mentee succeeds, they will be so proud of themselves, and that you’ll be proud of them to.

Time

Recently, I updated my facebook photos to include all the photos of food I've made. I tend to bake a lot, but as you all know, I can cook as well. I've got a few comments saying, "You should make a business with food!" or "I wish my daughter will learn to cook like you one day!" (That last one came from a friend's mother who's known me since I was a kid. It made me giggle.)

And it got me thinking. I'm not too spectacular with food. Everyone who reads my blogs knows that all my recipes (save two) are from other blogs or books. I don't have the time to experiment. Maybe I will, with this new vegetarian diet. Finding ways to adapt meat recipes so that there's vegetables instead of meat. Generally, I don't stray too far from a given recipe. I'm afraid of screwing up and there goes some money that I used to get those ingredients. I can't make a business with food. I'm a very 'by-the-book' cook. I can't stray unless it's for frosting or cake flavor, or something very easy and superficial. I can't make things from scratch!

But no one ever tells me, "You should open a business with crochet/knit." Okay, maybe a few. But they're unicorns, trust me. Like cooking, I'm afraid of straying far from a pattern. My first attempt was an amigurumi of a character from an anime called Umineko no Naku Koro Ni. That turned out a little lopsided.

 Sakutaro. Look at all the beautiful mistakes.

Then, it was a keyhole scarf for charity. I messed up a little on the keyhole, but it worked. I didn't try any free-handing for another year before deciding to mimic a blanket a relative of my dad's made. It doesn't look exact, but looks nice in its own way. Now I'm free-handing amigurumi and blankets and such.

I thought about what makes these two passions of mine so different. Why couldn't I make up a recipe from scratch, but I can make up my own amigurumi pattern and accept it? I attribute it to time. I haven't been cooking long. I really only started in August 2012, when I had two choices: make the long trek up to the cafeteria every single day or cook for myself. Cooking suddenly seemed really appealing, and it eventually developed into something I like doing. But I can't come up with my own recipe because I haven't been doing it long enough to feel comfortable with the foundation. On the other hand, I've been knitting since I was 12 and crocheting since about 14. I got my foundation and I'm ready to build up.

Persevere. Whenever something seems difficult, keep at it. You will become comfortable with it soon, then own it and do whatever you want with it. That's how life works. Build your foundation, then build up. Be content in your own abilities, but work to improve on your base. That's what artists do. That's what musicians do. That's what writers do. Everyone builds up their hobbies that'll eventually become passions. Encouragement from close friends and family helps, but ultimately, it's on what you decide to do over time. Do you continue or stop? Learn, learn, learn. Life is a learning experience.

Steadily crafting away

I've been way busy with homework recently, but in the midst of things, I've found time to start on some new projects. I think it's more interesting to work on several projects at once than to do one project and finish, then do another and finish, and so on. It keeps me entertained. Admittedly, I haven't been working on the projects much... It's just a stitch here or there, in between screen pages loading and copying down notes. But I've got four very nice projects going on. 

One is for myself, called the Penny Arcade jacket from Vickie Howell. I am in love with the stitches and I'm making it in a dark green color. It'll look great when it's finished! 

The second is a Donald Duck blanket for my mother. I adapted a sweater chart and turned it into a blanket. My mom will love it, I have no doubt. Her love for Donald Duck knows no bounds.

I am making the Chromium Star Blanket and the Striped Blanket for my two dogs, Chester and Joey. Chester's star blanket is being made from two yarns, a bulky brown and a bulky blue-brown-white striped. Joey's is dark blue with dark blue camo additions. It's for the dogs when they're chilling on the couch at home (or in Joey's case, in his cage). The last two are more stash busters than anything, but the colors work perfectly. My dogs get nothing but the best. 

In addition to all of those, I'm making a nice scarf. It's going to be a project I bring with me on the bus when I go do my volunteering. It's small enough for me to bring without bothering anyone and interesting enough to keep my attention. I got about six inches done on the bus today. It looks pretty. I really love the yarn I used for it. I've made another scarf like it in a light blue, and that came out gorgeous. 

That's my crafting update! Have a good weekend, dear readers.

Innovations Roadmap #3

Hope [hohp]

Noun

1. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best

2. a particular instance of this feeling

3. grounds for this feeling in a particular instance

4. a person or thing in which expectations are centered

5. something that is hoped for

TOPIC: What are your hopes and dreams for your community/society?

Being new to Utah, I would think I wouldn’t have any hopes or dreams for the community around me. But I do! Hopes that stem from my daily life and dreams that come from living on campus, right up in the college life. Before this, I never seriously thought about what I wished for my community. In retrospect, I did have some ideas, most of which branched out of complaints I had with the community. There were fewer ideas that came from positive things. After all, if something works, why fix it?

I had a lot of problems with the public transportation system in Las Vegas. It wasn’t as extensive as I would’ve liked. It gained a reputation for being unsafe, unclean, and slow. Everyone who took the bus knew otherwise, although they acknowledged the occasional mad person came on. The stops never went in residential areas that were better off, even though the people in those neighborhoods may have wanted to ride the bus. In Salt Lake, the buses and TRAX go into neighborhoods, regardless of economic status, and it’s easily accessible everywhere. My complaint with the bus system is how it changes. If it’s not broken, why fix it? I’m sure there was a good reason for the bus system changing; I just didn’t appreciate the change without knowing the reason. My hope is that UTA will tell us why they’re changing so many routes at once. Or maybe they have and it was hard to find. In that case, I wish the information were easily accessible for riders. I had difficulties finding my way to places after the bus scheduling changed. At the least, they should make the reason why known.

When I think about society, I think about the country. Rarely, I’ll think about the international community. Because I am not a resident of other countries, I don’t know what their problems are and how to help. There are a few problems- such as the recent rape victims in India- that are relevant globally. For the United States- and although less frequent, for the international community- there are many hopes and wishes from me. Most of them can be heard all across the nation in one way or another. These issues are relevant to current news, and must be addressed at some point or another.

I hope for gun control. We don’t have to take away all guns, but to make it more difficult for mentally-ill people to access guns is a step in the right direction. In the same vein, there should be better access and treatments for mental health, because that is a cause for most gun violence in America today. The media needs to stop reporting every single shooting. I saw a headline the other day saying that the recent Texas college campus shooting was the 5^th major shooting in America for 2013. The fifth. The year is only three weeks old and there have been five major shootings.  That’s not to mention any accidental deaths that may have occurred. The media sensationalizes these tragic shootings. The only thing that gets ratings for news is sensational news, and shootings provide it. The problem is, suicidal or mentally ill people see it, and they think, “No one will know my name if I kill myself normally. I can go out this way and be known.” It’s a deadly and frighteningly intelligent thought. How many more innocents die because America can’t make up its mind? I dream and wish for the day when America’s gun-related deaths go down.

Another major important topic that is relevant all over the planet is women’s rights. In the most recent election cycle, women’s rights were being debated. By men. Why should men decide what women can do with their bodies? Women are perfectly capable of making decisions for themselves. I am going to keep my political ideology out of this as well as I can, because this is something I feel rather strongly about. Mature adult women can make their own decisions. They are human beings, just like every other person in the country. Abortions, birth control, family planning, everything should be available to women. Women should not be taught to ‘not be raped,’ because that is not only forcing women to take on responsibility for their rape, but also portrays men as being unable to control their desires (which is untrue). In rape trials, women have to take on the burden of proving they were raped. Rapists don’t have to prove they didn’t rape the woman. Women are paid less than men for doing the same job. Women make up the majority of the population but are underrepresented. I hope that one day women will be able to make their own choices without having men regulate as much of a woman’s body as they can. I wish that men would get out of women’s bodies. Women can make their own decisions. We are intelligent humans, just like men, and we can be just as strong as men, too.

In the very long list of things I wish for from society are gay rights. Not just gay rights, but transgender rights. Once again, they are human beings. I had the greatest fortune of going to an accepting high school that had a large openly gay and bisexual population. Many of my friends are gay or bisexual. They laugh, cry, smile, and live, just like a normal human. The only difference is who they love. And who’s to say they can’t love who they want? It’s not society’s business who marries who. It’s up to the two individuals in the relationship. For transgenders, how come they can’t feel comfortable in their own body? It is up to the individual, once again. One of my wishes is to see gay rights stop being a topic of debate, because quite frankly, we can’t govern love. That’s utterly ridiculous. I hope that one day, everyone can feel comfortable in their own body and will be free to love who they love.

Ultimately, I want others to be happy. That is the biggest dream for me. Harmony and acceptance for every human being. 

30 Day Food Challenges

I've decided to try out some different 'diets,' for lack of a better term, over the next few months. Or possibly year. There are a lot of diets I want to try out. For 30 days (or the duration of the month), I've got to stick to that diet. I'll be blogging about my experiences and doing some research into each. At the end of my month, I'll reflect back on how this diet affected me. This will be a very fun thing for me to try! I'm excited to do it.

The diets I've come up with so far are (not in this particular order):

• Pescetarian- vegetarian with the exception of seafood
• Vegetarian
• Vegan
• Gluten-free
• Paleo diet
• Sugar diet (no sugar in the first three ingredients of food-sugar in recipes confined to a maximum of a cup)
• Sugar diet (no sugar whatsoever)

I'm almost positive that the second variation of the sugar diet will kick my butt. Still! It will be fun to try. If I fail, I fail and I'll let readers know. But let's see how this goes, shall we? 

First up, for the month of February: Vegetarian.

Innovations Roadmap #2

Success [suh k-ses]

Noun

1. The favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.

2. The attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.

3. A successful performance or achievement.

4. A person or thing that is successful.

5. (Obsolete)Outcome

Topic: How will you know when you are successful?

From the time we are born to the time we die, society places an emphasis on the first two dictionary-given definitions of success. Be prosperous. Get wealth, position, honors, the whole nine yards. Even number three implies that one must do something right. The average American is successful when they’ve got money and the white picket fence house with their dog and two kids. But why does this have to constitute success for the average American? Why does society place such a huge importance on putting yourself out there to succeed? “Ignore your passions and do the thing that’ll get you money.”

Maybe your way to define success is being wealthy. To each their own. But that’s not my view of success. Being wealthy will never equal success for me. Maybe I did something right- I was successful in something- and wealth comes with that specific success. This is going to be something rare in my life, I think. Wealth accompanying success. Personally, I know I’m successful when I get a good feeling and I can see it on other people’s faces. I’ve accepted that I’m not going to be filthy rich in my career. I want to be a teacher. A language teacher. Languages are fascinating. My success will be seeing the appreciation on students’ faces when something clicks in their mind regarding language. I don’t need physical reward. My success comes from making in the lives of others.

My success comes from knowing I did my best, even if I failed. I learned something regarding the experience, regardless succeed or fail. I have to be happy with myself to be successful. By this point in my life, I’ve realized that trying to please other people means next to nothing if you’re not happy yourself. You can be successful to other people, but what does it to you? I learned this the hard way. I was successful in school. Almost straight A’s, honors and AP classes, scholarships for college, president of a club, secretary in another, leader in my major. Others looked up to me. But I wasn’t happy with myself. The only time I was really happy was that one club where I was president, because it was a club that I was passionate about, and when I helped change it, I felt successful. My major was another example of when I was successful. My grades showed I was successful, but I knew I was because I was learning Japanese. I knew I was going to be successful because I learned a language. That was one of my goals.

Knowing I did my best with the circumstances given to me is success. Right now, in a high school in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, the language majors are being cut from that school and placed in another. The reason? Languages are not an art. This liberal arts school, Las Vegas Academy of International Studies and Performing Arts, doesn’t think language is an art. That’s shame. I think language is an art. When my friends who are a language major told the world about what they’re doing to the language program at this school, I am going to admit I initially thought, “Okay, who cares. It’s the school board, the principal, and the language teachers who came to this decision. Not unanimous, but it must’ve been a majority. We can’t do anything. Their minds are made up.”

But the more I thought about it and the longer I remained on facebook, seeing my friends become passionate, I gave myself a well-deserved mental slap in the face. That program made me into who I am. It pointed me in the direction I wanted to go, and it was doing that to my friends. If I didn’t fight for this, I was putting down what made me think is my success. The language majors inspired and continue to inspire students- the very thing I want to do. So I decided to fight for my major.

My honest opinion on the above matter is this: There is very little chance of changing the school district’s mind. They seem absolutely sure. However, this isn’t the first time the language majors have come under attack. There is a possibility the decision can be reversed if we ask parents to express how important language is, ask alumni to write about how important the major has been to them, and to ask current language students to speak about how language is life for them. The school’s line is “It’s not just a major, it’s a way of life!” What right do they have to say our way of life isn’t legitimate? So long as that possibility exists, I’m going to fight for that major, so it can continue to do what I want to one day do. Whether or not this effort succeeds matters, but I know that I tried and I was successful in fighting for something that was important.

Success isn’t about money or physical property. Personally, success is feeling happy with myself and knowing I made a difference in the lives of others. It doesn’t have to be in a big way. It can be small. I know that I’m successful when I am content with myself. I did something right, and that’s all that matters. 

School is killing me!

Seventeen credit hours is something that's considered suicidal among college students. Guess who's got seventeen credit hours? This girl! I have a ton of reading to do (one night included 50+ pages of reading. On a computer.), a ton of big projects (three are looming on the horizon!), and lots of knowledge to consume (Japanese and linguistics). Add volunteer work, and you've got the recipe for a very, very busy and stressed out college student just trying to keep up the good grades.

I apologize if I don't post recipes or meaningful knitting/crochet posts in the next few weeks. I'm waiting until my current ESL student takes her citizenship test to halt volunteer work, and that's going to take up some time. My posts can only be quips on some days because of the sheer amount of work I've got.

Thank you for bearing with me!