Innovations Roadmap #9

Résumé [rez-oo-mey, rez-oo-mey]

Noun

1. a summing up; summary

2. A brief written account of personal, educational, and professional qualifications and experience, as that prepared by an applicant for a job

TOPIC: Where will you be in 10 years? Complete a 10-year resume in detail.

EDUCATION

Honors Bachelors of Art                                                                                                 May 2016

Major: Japanese

University of Utah

Thesis: “The Language Shift as a Result of World War II”

Honors Bachelors of Art                                                                                                 May 2016

Major: Linguistics

University of Utah

Thesis: “Grammar and Language Online”

ACHEIVEMENTS

·         Designation of Innovation Scholar. Obtained through making an impact in a chosen area.

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

Student Orientation Coordinator, Campus Cursive Love Letters                    Mar. 2013-present

·         Recruited new students.

·         Organized events for recruitment directed towards incoming freshman.

·         Provided opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to become involved.

·         Founded Campus Cursive University of Utah and set the foundation for the Student Orientation Coordinator position.

President, Yarntopia                                                                                      Aug. 2013-May 2016

·         Founded Yarntopia and set the foundation for the President position.

·         Coordinated with various departments on campus to promote alternative methods of mental health and stress management.

·         Coordinated with various national and state charities and created objects for these charities.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Second Language Acquisition Research Lab                                             Aug. 2013-May 2015

·         Researched how adults gain a second language.

·         Developed language stimuli for experience.

·         Provided judgments on recordings from experiments.

·         Managed subjects in experiments in the lab.

JOBS

Resident Advisor, University of Utah                                                           Aug. 2013-May 2014

·         Supported first year residents by developing a community for all to be involved.

·         Initiated and implemented several programs to promote social justice and awareness.

·         Promoted leadership and acted as a role model to encourage first year residents to pursue their honors degree.

Owner, Wonderworld Crafts (self-employed)                                                     Aug. 2013-present

·         Provided timely service and great care to customers.

·         Managed finances and profits.

·         Promoted shop through sales and discounts. Also created banners and icons to increase awareness of shop.

English Teacher, Internship                                                                          May 2014-Aug. 2014

·         Taught English to Japanese students.

English Teacher, JET program                                                                       May 2016-May 2018

·         Taught English to Japanese students.

·         Helped implement several programs to promote ESL learning.

Japanese Teacher, -random school district here-                                             July 2018-July 2020

·         Taught Japanese to new speakers.

·         Spearheaded event ideas and implemented new traditions. Supported students and led them into leadership roles.

Author                                                                                                                        2014-present

SKILLS

·         TESOL certified

·         Proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Photoshop.

·         Proficient in Japanese, Chinese, and American Sign Language

·         Proven leadership skills from official club positions and jobs.

My Vegetarian Diet

So I promised to talk about this while I was doing it, but I'm not anymore. Oops. However! I will talk about it now. I decided to do various diets on a whim, and I started on vegetarian because it was the least radical leap into the diets. Actually, pescetarian would've been, but I never buy fish and I want to go meat free first. I've learned a few things about myself over the course of this month.

1. I used eggs A LOT. 
2. Somehow the majority of my meals had spaghetti sauce. I apologize to my roommates for turning the tupperware and plastic bowls orange. 
3. I love eggplant. However, I am sick of it right now because I've got nothing but eggplant parmigiana in my fridge. That was not eight servings. It's more like ten. This segways into #4.
4. I need to start halving recipes because I get really tired of leftovers after a few days. 
5. I really like almond milk.

Although I could still drink milk, I decided to buy a half gallon of regular milk and a half gallon of a substitute for the sake of finding a substitute I liked when I go vegan for a month. At first it was soymilk. Soy milk tastes really odd, so after I finished that, I vowed never to get it again. I bought almond milk at Nate's suggestion and found I really loved that. So I'll be drinking almond milk more! 

Being vegetarian actually got me to read Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. If you would much rather not know what your meat goes through, I would not recommend this book. However, I would recommend this book to everyone. It's not a case for becoming vegetarian. Foer simply puts forward what goes on in the meat industry and leaves it up to the reader to decide. It is a personal journey. 

Time for a recipe I made towards the tail end of the month! It's spaghetti. I noticed I ended up eating a lot of spaghetti or macaroni and some recipes called for half of the box. I had half a box of spaghetti, half a box of macaroni, and a lot of random vegetables. That weekend, I got the urge to go exploring. I went into Trader Joe's and bought some tofurky sausage links and a jar of spaghetti sauce. 

What resulted was some pretty delicious spaghetti. You can throw in whatever vegetables you want! It's pretty good for leftovers.

Leftover Spaghetti

Ingredients

• One broccoli crowns
• 1/2 portobello mushrooms
• 1/2 red peppers
• 1/2 medium onion
• Handful of spinach
• Favorite spaghetti sauce 
• One box of spaghetti (I think mine was approximately 12oz or 16 oz, I'm not too sure)
• Cinnamon
• Two tofurkey sausages
• 1 tablespoon of oil

Directions

1. Cook noodles according to directions on box. When there are five minutes left of cooking time, put chopped broccoli in. Drain and put back into pot.

2. Cut up all the vegetables. Dice mushrooms, pepper, and onion. Cut tofurkey into 1/2 inch balls. 

3. Cook tofurkey through. Put the tofurkey into a bowl. Put oil into pan and saute peppers and onions until onions are slightly translucent. Add mushrooms and cook for another two minutes.

4. Put all the vegetables into the pot. Empty jar of spaghetti sauce and put a dash of cinnamon into the pot, then stir it until it's just about evenly distributed. Put on cover and cook for ten minutes, or until heated through.

5. Take pot off of stove and serve!

You may want to put in more spaghetti sauce, depending on your tastes. I found it tasted just fine with the amount of spaghetti sauce I used. Experiment! That's what everything is about. 

Innovations Roadmap #8

Extracurricular [ek-struh-kuh-rik-yuh-ler]

Adjective

1. outside the regular curriculum or program of courses

2. outside one’s regular work, responsibilities, or routine

TOPIC: What is the value of extracurricular activities?

Extracurricular activities teach a person what they do and don’t like to do. I think that people naturally gravitate toward activities they would like to do, but they learn in that experience. For example, they may develop frustration towards a certain concept. From what I’ve seen, this frequently is directed towards society. They note there’s a problem with society, and it frustrates them that this problem may even exist. In a really good situation, there may not be any. I used to and eventually intend to go back to a program called Knitting Necessities, where students can knit or crochet hats for newborns up at the hospital. I did originally think that there wasn’t a problem with this. Then, while looking around for what I could do as my ‘big problem,’ I saw there wasn’t a program for kids or adults. They deserve love too! Aside from that, I had no reason to be frustrated at any sort of societal problem.

It’s something that helps a person focus on how to develop the skills they need for whatever they want to do in life. For example, I want to be able to teach English, so my main volunteer effort currently involves teaching English to refugees. I can develop techniques, see what works, what doesn’t, and educate myself more on bridging cultural gaps and being sensitive to a culture way different from my own. In the end, extracurricular activities can give people new experiences.

The English Skills Learning Center, the place I volunteer at.

There are other extracurricular activities besides volunteer work. Sports, the fine arts, Model UNs (which my friends loved), student governments, clubs, competitions, sororities, fraternities… There are so many things that someone can get involved in. Another value that extracurricular activities have is teaching students new skills they may not already possess. It can awake a passion that the person may not even have known existed and opens up new areas to explore. It helps develops certain personality traits, certain skills, and certain behaviors that make people better human beings.

In addition to all of these wonderful things that extracurricular activities can do, it can also stave off boredom. I know some of the things I used to do that could be considered “extracurricular” were things that helped me keep myself entertained. Choir was like that. So was my creative writing club and ASL club. It also helps an individual meet new people. I’m 100% positive that if I had not joined my creative writing club, I would not have met the upperclassmen and underclassmen as I did. In some cases, maybe I had good reason for not wanting to meet them outside of a club setting. But in many of those cases, I never would have talked to them, because I was simply too shy. Having extracurricular activities encouraged me to meet new people and to swallow some of my shyness. I am still shy, but participating in these kinds of things taught me to be bold, because I will not get far if I can’t speak up. In many ways, extracurricular activities can give people a way to sample what they think is interesting, what they do and don’t like, and teach them some life lessons, without throwing them into the real world and making them suffer. They’re very useful and wonderful things to get into.

Innovations Roadmap #7

Major [mey-jer]

Noun

1. A subject or field of study chosen by a student to represent his or her principal interest and upon which a large share of his or her efforts are concentrated.

2. A student engaged in such study

TOPIC: What is your major and why did you pick it?

I am a double major in Japanese and linguistics, TESOL track. I usually do not specify which track of linguistics I’m taking, because most people I’ve met either 1) don’t care or 2) don’t know what TESOL is and kind of nod and say, “Oh, that’s nice!” There are a few who are thinking, “Hey, that’s awesome! And interesting! Why did you pick those two majors?”

I picked Japanese because I’m very passionate about the culture, history, and language of Japan, and I always take care to stress this. I’ve had negative experiences before when I said my major was Japanese in high school. For some reason, everyone immediately thought I was into Japanese because of the anime. I have a much stronger reason for studying Japanese. I want to be able to talk to the Japanese side of my family. One of the things on my bucket list is to live in Japan, and I don’t want to seem like I’m a Westerner whose only knowledge of Japan comes from anime. I have a huge respect for Japan. By being a Japanese major, I can study more about the culture, language, and history and find a greater appreciation for it. I’ve been to Japan a few times, usually to visit family, and each time I go, I find something else beautiful about this country. I’ve been to Kanazawa several times and there’s always a trip to the Kenrokuen, one of the three great gardens of Japan. I found a statue I hadn’t seen before.

Kenrokuen Gardens. One of my better pictures.

My last trip to Japan was two years ago. I organized where I wanted to go based on the history of certain cities. Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Nara were the three new cities I went to for the history and the temples. Seeing these beautiful places and how they’re preserved inspired awe. I also went to visit my family and friends in Toyama, Osaka, Tokyo, and Kanazawa. I became painfully aware that I could not let my mom translate everything for me. I wanted to be able to talk to my family and friends myself. There was this sense of connection I wanted with them. It was during this last trip when I decided I wanted to be a Japanese major in college, so I could study Japan and find new things to enjoy whenever I go back. I wanted to be able to pursue my knowledge of the language so I could talk to my family, but also to study Japan’s rich history and culture.

Genbaku Dome in Hiroshima

Kinkakuji in Kyoto

Suzaku-mon in Nara

Kaminari-mon in Asakusa (Tokyo)

I think I forgot to mention the food is delicious. I love the food, too.

My interest in linguistics likely starts with my first Japanese teacher. We called her Q-sensei. She left my school because she got a new teaching position that had to do with teaching special needs children speech. She’d tell us about this sometimes, when we asked why she looked so tired. Her talking about it planted the seeds. As time passed, I began to think more and more about language acquisition, particularly in adults. I already knew babies were capable of all sounds up until a little less than a year old, but I wanted to know how to teach adults a second language. My interested in ESL education must be from my mother and a group of family friends in Florida. The mothers of my close group of friends were all Japanese. They learned English as a second language. They used to joke about how I should learn Japanese, because they would inevitably revert back to Japanese when they became grandmas. This got me thinking. How did adults learn a second language? What does their brain do?

I never, ever would have picked the linguistics major at the University of Utah if it did not offer the TESOL track. If it were just linguistics and the study of, I would have stuck with Japanese and found myself another major to pair it with. But the U did have TESOL- Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages- and I thought, “That’s it, I’m a linguistics major.” I want to teach English. I’m doing volunteer work teaching English to refugees, but I want to be able to do it in a classroom setting, with late teens to early adults, and possibly even adults. I would never have been a linguistics major if that separate track did not exist. I probably would’ve been a Chinese or psychology major. That’s going to be an entirely different story, though. For now, I’m proud of being a Japanese and linguistics double major because it’s something that I’m curious and connected to. 

Progress!

I promise that Wednesday I will talk about my vegetarian diet. Promise. I may have a new (vegetarian!) recipe to share! Your waiting will not be in vain. I think Wednesday I'll talk about a cupcake pattern I tried out today, share the frosting I used for that (I had to adapt the one given to me), and possibly share a recipe using tofurky. I went to Trader Joe's and bought myself some to make spaghetti, you see. While I was at Trader Joe's, I had a bit of an epiphany. I don't miss meat. Not as much as I thought I would. I do, however, miss seafood. I wanted to pick up some salmon while at TJ, but I didn't because that fish would just sit in my freezer for a few weeks. Oh, well.

"But what's this progress you mention in your title?" you ask. I'm getting there! Just went on a bit of a tangent, that's all. My progress is actually related to my crochet/knit projects! Did you expect differently? I've got a few finished projects. One has been finished since the beginning of January, the others finished only recently. Here we are:

The Triumph Cable Scarf from Smariek Knits

I churned this one out in about nine days. I started on January 9th, finished January 14th. I honestly thought it would take longer because of the cables... But it didn't! This is a beautiful pattern for the scarf. It's a part of Smariek's series of cable scarves. I recommend checking out the rest of the series. The scarves are absolutely gorgeous.

Dog Blanket

One of the two blankets I made for my dogs. The blankets were stashbusting projects, in truth. It works, though! Acrylic yarn is best for my dogs, because Joey occasionally throws up while in his cage. It needs to be something that is easy to wash, yet look attractive at the same time. I have to figure out which blanket to give to which dog... The star blanket didn't turn out quite as large as I'd hoped and this blanket can work for either dog. We'll see!

Same as Seven by Caitlin ffrench

This took a little while to make because it was initially only worked on while I was riding the bus to volunteer work and during periods where it would be impossible for me to bring a larger project. Towards the end, I powered through this. I used Caron Simply Soft, and I'm extremely fond of the colors. It was very simple and enjoyable to make.

Penny Arcade Jacket by Vickie Howell

I need to get more yarn for this project, but I got all of this from three balls of Red Heart Simply Soft. My gauge isn't quite right, so I found, much to my shock, I'm making a size large using the size medium instructions. Note to self: If using the same hooks, work the pattern smaller to get the correct size. 

Seven and Zero by Caitlin ffrench

Another cute triangle scarf pattern by Caitlin ffrench! According to her, 'Same as Seven' is the same as 'Seven and Zero', minus the holes. I wanted to make this one because it looks a little more feminine, and I needed another stashbusting project. I'm a huge fan of the blue/white of this scarf. 

Donald Duck Blanket

This is my mom's birthday blanket! I alluded to this before, remember? Well, I'm almost done with the second 'oh boy'. I'm hoping this will be finished by my mom's birthday. You can see the slight differences in color at the top... this is because I thought all the light blue I had would be similar. Dye lots are extremely important. I don't particular;y care because it gives this blanket a little quirk. I ended up using the baggies to hold tiny balls of yarn because that got tangled, fast. I had a huge pile of yarn while trying to do the color work at first. I became frustrated and started using the baggies instead. It works like a charm. 

There is my progress for the week!

Innovations Roadmap #6

Self

(Noun, plural selves, adjective, pronoun, plural selves, verb)

noun

1. a person or thing referred to with respect to complete individuality

2. a person’s nature, character, etc.

3. personal interests.

4. Philosophy

     a. the ego; that which knows, remembers, desires, suffers, etc., as contrasted with      that known, remembered, etc.

     b. the uniting principle, as a soul, underlying all subjective experience

Topic: Know thyself!

This topic is a little broad, I think, but how hard can it be to talk about myself? The simple answer to that: it’s hard. I hold a different view of myself than other people, and I know what I think of myself most of the time is a result of my low self-esteem. But recently, I’ve had so many experiences recently where people are telling how great or nice or funny I am. There’s that concept of because the majority saying it, it must be true. Not to say that I let my mind be easily influenced! However, with people who don’t talk to me all that often and people who live with me, it has weight.

This is about what I think of myself, though. Not what others think of me. My low self-esteem results in calling myself a horrible person, that I’m lazy, uninspired, unintelligent (the word ‘smart’ actually makes me cringe a little, which I’ll explain later), uncreative, and bland. My opinion of myself is vastly different than what others think of me. During my good days- there are plenty of good days- I know I am the person everyone says I am. I am sweet and caring. I value others’ opinions. I try to help as best as I can to those I know, then those I don’t. I am a hard worker. Some of my roommates tell me they wish they were like me because of how diligent I am with homework. I don’t put things off, and they find it admirable. When I am given responsibility, I’ll see it through, and it I can’t, I find ways to make it up.

For a class, I took a Strengths Finder 2.0 quiz. It’s from Tom Rath, and the point of the quiz is to find what makes someone a good leader and help them develop those traits into a force, instead of focusing solely on lacking traits. I think this is a very good strategy, because in areas you are lacking, someone else can fill in. My ‘Top 5’ were Intellection, Learner, Context, Empathy, and Responsibility. With Context, I use past actions (‘blueprints,’ if you will) to make my decisions. The past gives something to build off of, and it’s a nice way to see what may have gone wrong and how to fix it. Empathy is easy to understand. Intellection is thinking. I must be able to think, contemplate, and solve a problem in solitude a majority of the time. Learner means I have a thirst for knowledge. I will always be willing learn more about a subject. Responsibility is something I explained earlier. I will commit to a project and will find a way to make it up to the person. The Strengths Finder quiz is accurate in many cases about me. Those five traits together sound like a ‘passive leader,’ which I’m perfectly okay being. I haven’t yet developed the confidence to stand in front, but I am learning. I will always be learning.

Probably for some more superficial things: I love to knit and crochet. It’s extremely soothing for me. The fact I can look at something and think I created thathas helped boost my self-esteem a few times. I like to bake and cook. I find it really hard to be angry while baking, because I’m of the belief that my mindset will affect how the food tastes. Food isn’t an exact science. There’s the freedom to experiment with it, and emotional state can affect the way you experiment. I love to write. I’m a writer and I like to plan my stories. I don’t put any strict boundaries on my stories until it’s well into the middle. The reason why may be because I like to let my mind amok for a little bit before I rein it in and start setting important details to stone. There’s nothing wrong with a little trial and error. If something doesn’t come out right the first time, find a way to adjust. Reading is a passion of mine from which writing extends. There’s a certain trait in books that makes getting lost in a new world, sympathizing with new characters, and becoming emotionally involved enchanting. It’s something I’ve experienced since childhood.

If I know anything, it is this: that I will always treasure reading as what makes me, me. From books, my whole self grows. Cook books, how-to-knit/crochet books, dictionaries, thesauruses, fantasy stories, fiction stories. Those are some of the few books I like to delve into and get lost in. I want to be like a character, I want to make those delicious food items I see in cookbooks, I want to make those beautiful yarn items, I want to write my own book. Everything about me is related in some way to the written word. Books are the most important foundation of my life.

A Confession of Sorts

I'm sure you'd much rather hear me talk about my vegetarian 30 day challenge, but this is actually something I want to talk about.

Today, for my Innovations Roadmap class, I had to give a presentation about a problem and how it's connected to me. My problem statement (after my teacher amended it) is "Knitting/crocheting is an undervalued tool in helping with mental disorders." I then had to explain why this was important to me. My teacher stresses that the personal connection is important because you need the connection if you kind of lose track. This was the hardest thing for me to do. I've got the mindset that I need to deal with problems on my own and that no one else cares about it. Telling people why knitting/crocheting and mental health is connected made me extremely nervous.

It didn't help that for the past few weeks, I haven't been feeling very confident in my problem statement and coming up with a 'valid' connection. Today, I got up there and explained why this problem is important to me. I picked up knitting when I was 12 because I was bored. In high school, it morphed into a coping mechanism for stress. I had an on and off relationship with high school. In college, it became the coping mechanism for extreme stress, anxiety, and depression. I am prone to anxiety and stress, so that was nothing new. But there's a unique thing in Utah that I didn't have to experience before.

Snow storms that block out the sky and the sun. Sickening fog that does the same thing. It is entirely possible to not be able to see the sun for a while. I've lived in sunny places for my entire life, with little cloud coverage. There was one week in particular where I didn't see the sun. One whole week without the sun and blue sky. My mood plummeted. That one week, I was seriously depressed, and refused to tell anyone but Nate about it because of the aforementioned reason. I thought I needed to remain strong because society didn't want a weak individual. My self-esteem suffered, my attention span shrunk miserably, and I found it hard to get up in the morning. I starved myself as best as I could without my roommates noticing. I self-harmed a little. I contemplated suicide once or twice because I would've have to deal with all the stress anymore. The thing that kept me from doing anything too distract was knitting. I got lost in it and kept away the 'cycle of rumination.'

I admitted to my Innovations Roadmap class I may have a form of depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder. As the name says, it's seasonal. Mine may occur during winter because of the cloud coverage in Utah. I can't say for a fact that I have this disorder for sure because in order to be diagnosed with it, I need to experience symptoms for two consecutive years. That's the thing with depression. So this disorder, my stress, my anxiety, is my connection to my problem. I admitted this in a wavering voice to the people that lives in the same wing as me. I admitted this after saying last week I was afraid of talking in class because I didn't want to be judged (and be considered weak, hypocrite, that sort of thing).

The response? My teacher said I was brave for admitting this sort of thing.

When I got back to my room, I found nothing but support. Kristan and Olivia who live next door said they liked my presentation, and Kristan offered a solution with Vitamin D pills, which is what the pituitary gland needs and gets from sun exposure. I bought some of those pills while I was at the store earlier and laughed when I saw them called the 'sunshine pill.' They also said I could come over to their room any time and chill with them and bake. It was such a nice offer, because I love baking (and they make good cookies).

Olivia who lives in the same room as me (I'll call her Liv from now on) said I had a good presentation and said her room was a source of free hugs. I'm really glad I met Liv. I value the friendship I have with her. She understands what I'm going through, and told me her coping mechanism is music. And this girl is a wonderful musician. Her songs are great and she's funny and awesome.

Ysa, Lynette, Madeline, and a few others also said "good presentation. That was brave of you."

The positive reception I got made me happy for the rest of the day. It told me I was not alone. It reaffirmed that the people I live with are the best, considerate people I can live with. It took a while for me to find that sense of 'community,' but now that I've found it, I love it. I won't be too nervous speaking to them. I don't feel that insecure. To know I have people I can hang out with... That is important to me. More than most people know. I've been feeling like I didn't have any people I could hang out with easily. This, though, encourages me to be more outgoing with those on my floor, talk, and connect with them more.

To the people on my floor, I am nothing but grateful. Thank you, everyone.